3.166 The Lord Shifts Perspective

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

When it comes to chapters in scripture that you can just rattle off, which ones come to mind? Perhaps those of you former missionaries or those that have done ward missionary work, 3 Nephi 11 comes to mind. Maybe 1 Nephi 8 or Alma 32.

I bet for many of you, 1 Samuel 17 doesn't just pop up on the list, and yet we all seem to know this story. We are reading this week 1 Samuel 17 and 18:24 through 26, as well as 2 Samuel chapters 5 through 7. I know that's quite an interesting collection there, so fill in the gaps of the story as you go.

But 1 Samuel 17 is the epic story of David and Goliath. It's one that we've been told from Primary ages all through our lives. It's the epic little guy beating the big guy story.

It's the underdog story. It's the story where we see ourselves in this little guy position, being able to handle the big challenges in our life. I'm excited to dive into it this week, yes, for some of those perspectives, but also for a few different perspectives as well.

And, fair note, I may or may not get out of 1 Samuel 17 over the next couple of days here as we look at it. To get started today, I want to go into David's perspective here of the whole situation. And I know that's kind of leaping into the story quite a bit, but we see this front end of chapter 17 focusing on, one, the physical characteristics of Goliath.

The important aspect to remember in the Old Testament is whenever we focus on these physical characteristics of these characters, it means something in the scripture. So we certainly see this massive character, this bigger-than-life moment here, and everybody's terrified of it. But then we have David coming into camp after these 40 days of yelling and screaming from Goliath, challenging someone from the camp of Israel to go forward.

And our verse for today comes in 1 Samuel 17, verse 32. It says, "And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine." This is David proposing that he be the one to step forward and battle Goliath.

Now we know the initial reaction. We know the interaction here. They're going to say, "Hey, you're too small." The Lord is certainly capable of doing great things in our lives.

And so, as we look at the challenges that we're facing and we go, "Oh man, this is the biggest challenge I've ever faced!" if we see it through the lens of the Lord's eyes, would we even see it as a big challenge? I think David's introduction here is a great lesson for us to consider the way that the Lord can shift perspectives. David didn't see a giant of a man.

David saw someone who was speaking out against his God and his Lord and said, "I will step forward and close that man's mouth." My friends, what is size to the Lord? Yes, you and I face challenges, but whether they're big challenges or small challenges lies entirely through our own perspective and the way that we choose to see those challenges. Perhaps David's lesson here when we say the little guy versus the big guy has nothing to do with the little guy or the big guy at all.

Perhaps it has everything to do with the guy that chose to do it with the Lord versus the guy that chose to do it without. That's worth digging into. That's all for today, my friends.

You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be Savory Salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.