Still a Milk-Drinker?

 1 Samuel 17:46b-47

“This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head… and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 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.”

There are many angles to a story and different take-homes depending on our proximity to the incident and the relationship we have to those involved. Yesterday, I was browsing through the Facebook wall and I stopped the scroll when I saw an album post of my former roommate in Febias with the title ‘My Son’s Journey’. The first picture was a collage of what she called ‘tips to becoming a victorious batang pogi’. But it wasn’t fashion related or the like. They were his little boy’s preparation for a major surgery. By the time I hit 5th click, I was already crying. The camera captured how she fought back tears, trying to appear calm and strong, while they were being transferred to the O.R. via wheelchair. She’s been a dear friend and being a young mom myself, I knew it was heartbreaking. As if orchestrated with her name ‘Ten’, the tenth picture displayed her once again bubbly, refreshing countenance and her family’s all-out smiles while cuddling their brave boy in the recovery room. As third level recipient of the story, I rejoiced with them, generally for God’s healing to Akuo, and specifically for strengthening his parent’s hearts. I’m sure their relatives and closer friends can better shout out more praise items. How much more Ten!

David took three long verses to declare God’s sole credit to this battle. I felt it unusual for a guy to talk much in the heat of a fight, but my husband reasoned it might be because he was a natural poet. He was made one for the glory of One. God’s victory here made His Name known to the nations, generally. But for the feeble-hearted Saul and his fearful army, it was a specified lesson. He wanted them to get past His Name and have a gaze upon His Nature. His gentleness allowed them to first ‘watch and learn’ and His grace gave them the second chance to ‘go and do likewise’. For sure from David’s angle, God’s deliverance was far different and much deeper than anyone else. His personal relationship with God allowed him to experience this victory before his very eyes, with all its intricacies. He was ready for the meat, while the rest were still fed with milk.

Considering the time which had passed since we first heard God’s Name, have we grown much, moved a little, or are we still self-stucked in the ground? The author of Hebrews said, ‘You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word’. It has been a long-standing invitation to grow in the knowledge of our Lord but how come we’re still collecting hearsays when we can be His firsthand witnesses? Why settle to be one of the following crowd when we can have Him dine with us? Are we still Sunday eaters, heavily dependent on our Pastor’s prepared message, but malnourished all week long? We are not called to be spectators, we are to run the race. The next praise item we can all rejoice with can be yours for the posting. Let's fill FB wall with His praises!