1Samuel 17:40, “And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling [was] in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.”
This morning was a perfect fall day so God and I took a drive through the Catskill mountains. I knew God wanted to show me something but in viewing the mountains, the lush trees with its many colors, I was not getting any real sense of this is it. That was until we stopped along a little stream. I got out of the car and began walking by this stream strewn with rocks and stones. I suddenly felt the presence of God to be especially close and I knew this was want He wanted to show me. I thought how in ancient times, wars were fought over the boundary rights to streams such as this one as water was so precious and scarce. In fact I thought of David’s battle with Goliath and how the war with the Philistines might have erupted over claiming the rights to such a stream. David went to this stream to pick out his five smooth stones in which he would do battle with the enemy.
I noticed how smooth the stones in the stream were. For all I know those stones could have been there for hundreds of years, the colonials may have even used them as stepping stones to cross this stream. I noticed the gentle flow of the stream over the waters and reflected that year after year of water running over these stones sometimes rough water from storms and sometimes calm waters as now have made theses stones very smooth, wearing off any of its rough edges.
As the presence of God grew stronger while I meditated on these smooth stones, I realized that God brought me to this little stream to explain something to me. When I got back to my cabin I begin to examine I Samuel 17:40 where David picked up the five smooth stones. You get the impression from this passage that the stream was close by where the battle was taking place. This could have been the very water source that they were fighting over. David went to this stream and chose five smooth stones.
People often wonder why five stones. Some say Goliath had four brothers and that the stones were for them. I think that is really reading into the story as there is no indication of four brothers taking on David. I believe this is simply a play on words. All eyes were on David at this time when he went to the stream and picked up five stones. He probably held them up and declared to everyone “chamesh” which in the Hebrew means five but in the Canaanite language means an army. David was declaring that he was going against the Philistine army with an army of stones. But maybe it was more than that. He might have declared “Chaeshah chalaqi ‘avanim.” Which in the Hebrew means five smooth stones but could also be a play on the Semitic roots of these words which would also mean “An army of harden hearts mocking.” In other words David was going to destroy an army which dared to mock the living God with just a stone.
I once played around with this story and translated it straight from the original text without the vowel pointings put in by the Masoretes in 700 AD. I was also able to render this as David walking up to Goliath and not slinging a stone to his forehead, but clapping his hands and shouting the name of God and when he did old Goliath went down like a stone.
But then my mind went back to those smooth stones I saw in the stream here in the Catskills. Many years of water flowing over these stones, sometimes calm waters, sometimes rough water due to storms but they all continually flowed to smooth its rough edges. As David picked up those smooth stones pondering what he was about to do, although just a young man, he had the faith to go against a giant. Maybe he considered that all those days as a shepherd boy as he walked with God through the calm and the storms all that time God was smoothing all those rough edges off of him to reveal the faith that he would need to go against a giant.
We all have many years of storms and waters running over us and smoothing our rough edges. Yet all that time it was rising up a Chamesh, an army of faith to fight against the giants that would be coming into our lives.
As I returned to my cabin I fell into the arms of God and received a big devekut or hug. I clung (devekut) to Him, never wanting to let Him go. With each stroke of his hand over my rough edges, He smooth me out and uncovered that faith that was buried beneath all my rough edges. As He soothed each rough edge off my life I wept remembering the years of pain and heartbreak that put those rough edges on me. As I wept in His arms He quietly whispered to me, “It’s alright, I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.” I thought of those stones in the streams which just stayed where they were year after year, through storms and calm becoming smoother and smoother. The years of storms that have battered this old ship but the rock that I was and am anchored to still holds. In all that time He was removing all those rough edges leaving a faith, a faith so strong and yet so vulnerable that it could feel the gentle flow of the Spirit of God as it passed over wave after wave. I hugged and hugged the God I learned to love and wept until the tears could no longer flow and He wept with me saying over and over, “It’s been a long time.”
I then just rested in His arms as he began to reveal to me the secrets of His heart. As He shared the secrets of His heart I began to weep again and I realized the pain and suffering His heart feels for this world and its suffering. “Dear Father God of my heart, let me not leave this world until I left it with just a small token of how great your love is. A love that is more beautiful than the valleys in the Catskills and more powerful that Catskill mountain.
Recent Comments