The Morrisons

One of my favourite stories as a young boy was The Value of Believing in Yourself, which told the story of Louis Pasteur.

According to the story, one day a friendly bee appeared to Louis and told him that he was here to help Louis believe in himself.

Thanks to the bee’s prompting, Louis decided that he believed he could find the invisible enemy called rabies germs, that hide inside sick people and make them so sick they die.  Louis determined to find the invisible enemy and then think of a way to get rid of it.

Other people thought Louis was crazy.  They told him “You’ll never do it! No one can find an invisible enemy.” In the face of this pessimism, Bee Lieve encouraged Louis to “remember, when you believe in yourself, you know it is possible for you to do what you hope do to.”  Louis did feel encouraged, and redoubled his efforts.

If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll know that ultimately Louis Pasteur did develop a vaccine for rabies.  According to the story, Louis had found the value of believing in himself, and because of that he was able to achieve this great victory over rabies.

One of the most well known Bible stories is the story of David and Goliath.  In our culture, David and Goliath has come to be considered perhaps the ultimate underdog story.  David, the little guy, knew the value of believing in himself, and used that knowledge to defeat the mighty giant Goliath.

In this series of posts, I hope to study the story of David and Goliath as the Bible tells it.  As we do so, we will see that what enabled David to defeat Goliath was not that David knew the value of believing in himself.  Rather, David knew the value of God in whom he believed, and David believed the promises that God had made.  That faith gave David courage to act, knowing that God would act through him to preserve God’s people.

In the next post, we will look at Goliath, and consider the nature of the enemy that confronted Israel.