Devotion

Symbols of God: Rock

David and Goliath

Everyone who has heard the story of David and Goliath remembers the same detail of a small stone carried into the most unequal contest in the Bible. A shepherd boy, unarmoured, against a seasoned champion and a giant. On paper, it isn't a contest at all.

But look again at what David actually says before he runs to the battle. He doesn't say the stone will save him. He declares, "All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands" (1 Samuel 17:47). The stone is only ever the instrument. The Rock is God himself.

That title 'Rock' is one of the names we see used for God in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 32:4 we read "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he." David uses it again once he is king, a man who has had time to look back on his life and see how much of it depended on something steadier than his own courage: "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." (Psalm 18:2). 

When we reflect on it, it is at face value a strange image for God. It is not warm, not soft, not even alive in the way we usually picture life. But that is exactly its power. A rock does not move. It does not have moods. Weather wears at it for a thousand years and it is still there, still itself, still able to be stood on.

That is what David is trusting when he is faced with Goliath, and it's worth noticing what he is not trusting. Saul offers him armour and David tries it on and takes it off again. It isn't his. It isn't tested. He goes instead with what he actually knows: a sling he has used a thousand times, guarding sheep against lions and bears. 

Faith in the Rock doesn't mean pretending to be someone else, or waiting until we feel as big as the giant in front of us. It means bringing exactly what we have, however small or  unimpressive it may look, and trusting that God is the one who makes it enough.

We all face our own giants at times, and challenges that can feel too big. The story of David isn't really a story about being brave enough to win. It's a story about who you're standing on when you walk out to face what frightens you. Jesus put it plainly "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock". (Matthew 7: 24 - 25). 

For David, the stone was never going to be enough on its own. But it was enough because of whom is was carried for.

Prayer

Loving God, thank you that You were steady under David long before he was steady in himself. We pray that You can be that same ground beneath us today when the giants in front of us feel too big, and the stones in our hands feel too small. Teach us to trust not in armour that isn't ours, but in you, who make ordinary things enough. Keep our whole school community, our students, staff, and families, standing on what does not move, whatever the day brings.

We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Blessings!

Will Wallace

Principal