Monday meditation: Which giant? Whose battle? What victory?
Seething with ugly threats and wearing the armor to back them up. Hurling insults and curses and inspiring fear at the very mention of his name. This was the giant David faced. He reminds us a bit of the giant we’ve met, too.
Ugly. Everyone who’s encountered Alzheimer’s knows it’s dreadful.
Strong. It can’t be beaten; there is no cure.
Inspiring fear. What we know about the disease makes us tremble. What we imagine keeps us awake at night.
Those who seek encouragement from the David and Goliath story tell us we can confront our giants with confidence. With God on our side, victory is assured, they say.
“I’m calling on the God of David,” proclaims a popular worship song, “Who made a shepherd boy courageous. I may not face Goliath/But I’ve got my own giants.”
Victory?
The song touches us because we all face some threat to our well-being or equilibrium: if not a disease, then perhaps a disability or an impossible workplace culture or a broken relationship. All of us are coping with some situation out of our control.
But perhaps Alzheimer’s caregivers are a special category: Cleaning up bathroom messes again and again; searching in a panic for a wandering spouse; struggling to word instructions simple enough for their sufferer to understand. Most caregivers have given up thoughts of victory. They’re happy simply to survive.
What help can such caregivers find in this much-loved Bible story?
Battle?
Maybe the key is to notice that David’s rage and courage were for God’s sake, not his own. He wanted to remove Goliath because the foul giant was an “ugly blot on Israel’s honor.” He heard Goliath’s rants and said, “Who does he think he is, taunting the armies of God-Alive?” He wanted “all the earth [to] know that there is a God in Israel [who] saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s.”
David was not protecting himself or his reputation or his plans or his income. He was fighting for God. More accurate: He was joining God in the battle God was fighting.
We might ask, “What battle am I fighting? Is it the Lord’s battle or only mine? What will a watching world notice about what I do with my fear or setbacks or anger or loss? How will God bring victory others will see in the way I’m coping?”
God’s reputation is on the line every day, in the life of every believer, and in the response of every caregiver. The attack we endure is from Satan, as surely as it was when the blasphemous Goliath paced and snorted and accused.
“The battle is the Lord’s.” Do we have the courage to let him win it?
Read: 1 Samuel 17:1-25, 32-49 ESV
Pray: “Oh God, my God, I need you! Oh God, my God, I need you now! How I need you now!”
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