Am I a dog? Weakness is strength

We are familiar with the story of David and the Philistine (Goliath). David is chosen to be the king of Israel and he had responsibility to protect the people from the mighty Philistines. Philistines were stronger in terms of army and power but people Israel were weak but depended mostly on God’s assistance. David has an important task to overpower the mighty and liberate the people of Israel from the clutches of sword and spear. The story begins when David prepares for the battle. He took his staff in his hands, a sling and five smooth stones. It was a shepherd’s staff unlike the warrior staff that Philistine had. It was not a sword, javelin or spear but mere sling and stones. Using slings in war was quite common. The slings were made up of leather patches held together with two strings coming out either side about three feet long. From this we know that sling is probably poor people’s armour to defend from the mighty armour of sword, spear and javelin. Story continues further, Philistine is ridiculed before even David could strike the stone. “Am I a dog that you come with sticks?” I would have been a greatest insult for a mighty warrior like Philistine when David presupposes that he can strike him. Thus the confidence of David is tremendous in the story. That is why David responds to Philistine, “you come with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, this day God has delivered into my hands and I will strike you down and cut off your head.” This he does, first of all he strikes him with his sling and cuts the head off.

I would like to point out the dynamics of the story. First of all, there is a symbolism of power driven by human arrogance, which will eventually be defeated, and other hand symbolism of weakness but strengthened by God, which will eventually be triumphed. Philistine was a powerful arrogant champion and depended on sword, spear and javelin. His power was vested in the worldly weapons. It is quite natural to think that when we have weapons we can overpower the weak. In our world today, we see, hear or experience modern Philistines who think that they can win by oppressing the weak, voiceless and marginalized. They might win but that triumph will not last very long. However mighty it may look, but it would tumble like the mighty Philistine.

On the other hand, the weak will triumph because God is on their side. David’s sling was able to defeat the mighty sword of the Philistine because God was with David. Even though David was weak, God made him strong. In fact, we are strong when we are weak. St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “My grace is enough for you: my power is at its best in weakness. So I shall be very happy to make my weakness my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me, and that is why I am quite content with my weakness and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and the agonies I go through for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.”

Do we feel weak? When do we feel weak? Do we dwell on our weakness to influence our lives? Weakness is not a permanent state of human person; in fact it is not even a situation. Weakness is just the absence of strength. We become strong whilst we are weak because weakness is the stepping-stone to strength. We progress learning from our weakness. In all this, Christ is our stronghold and refuge. There is a tendency to think that mighty rules the manger but in truth it is the weak rules the world. God is at side of the weak, Jesus said, “It is the sick who needs the physician.” Let us hold on to our Lord and Saviour when we are weak and He will make us strong.