By: Steve Wilmot
Buster Douglas faced “Iron” Mike Tyson in a heavyweight title boxing match in 1980. Tyson was the most-feared professional boxer of his day and had never been knocked out.
Douglas entered the ring against Tyson as a 42:1 underdog. HBO boxing analysts Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant expected to see “another 90-second annihilation” with Tyson making quick work of Douglas.
Once the opening round bell sounded, Douglas demonstrated he was not intimidated by the champ. In the tenth round, he knocked out Tyson to become the heavyweight titleholder. The underdog became the top dog.
An underdog is a person or group least likely to win. They are overmatched with little hope of victory. Yet sometimes, like Buster Douglas, they defy the odds and achieve unexpected success.
Underdogs are everywhere. The 1980 USA Olympic hockey team who beat the Russians in the Lake Placid Winter Games.
Russia had dominated amateur hockey for 15 years and were considered a lock for the gold medal, but the upstart USA team surprised the world. The underdogs became the top dogs.
Abraham Lincoln failed twice in business, was defeated eight times in elections for public office, and he suffered a nervous breakdown.
Years after all this drama, he pulled off an upset against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and became one of America’s greatest Presidents.
And let us not forget David verses Goliath. No one in Israel’s army thought it possible to kill Goliath. He stood an imposing nine feet tall.
His armor and weapons weighed between 150 to 200 pounds, and he lugged them around like they were toys. Goliath was a monster!
He was also a skilled warrior, who had “been a fighting man from his youth” (vs. 33). He carried three weapons: a spear that was so long a foe couldn’t get near him, a javelin he could throw when needed, and a sword. Plus, he had an armor-bearer who carried a shield to protect him from arrows.
Goliath challenged the Israelite army to a one-on-one, winner-take-all contest. “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other” (vs. 10). What was at stake: the army of the warrior killed must surrender to the victor’s army.
Forty days in a row Goliath marched into the clearing and issued the same challenge. Forty days in a row, no one from Saul’s army stepped forward to accept his dare because they “were dismayed and terrified” (vs. 11).
David had a different reaction when he heard Goliath ridicule Israel on Day 41. He was aghast no one had answered the call after 40 days. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (vs. 26).
If no one else would defend the honor of God against this heathen, David would. “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him” (vs. 32).
Saul sent for David, and his first reaction made perfect sense. “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” (vs. 33).
Saul stared at Goliath in the field, then sized up David, and concluded if he let David fight the giant, he would be sending a boy on a suicide mission. Goliath’s size, skill, and experience made it easy to predict the outcome. There would be no miracle underdog story here.
But none of that mattered to David. He ignored the doom’s day predictions of the Israelites and disregarded the obvious imbalance between Goliath and himself. When he sized-up Goliath, he saw the true underdog… and it wasn’t him.
The only difference between David and the men in Saul’s army (and maybe you against your Goliaths) boils down to one thing: Focus. Israel only saw Goliath’s size; David considered the size and power of his God. It’s what a man after God’s own heart does.
David relied on stories his mother told him as a little boy. Stories about God giving a son to Abraham and Sarah when they were too old to have children.
Stories of God’s mighty power to rescue Israel from Egypt — the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, water and manna miraculously supplied in the desert for 40 years.
Stories about the how the walls of Jericho fell, and how God drove out all the inhabitants of the Promised Land for them.
Multiple stories about what a Big God David had on his side boosted his faith into action. David had stories of his own too.
Those instances, coupled with the stories from Israel’s history, shaped such an unshakable faith in God, he knew “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (vs. 37).
You have your own Goliaths. What do you do about them? Run from them in fear like Israel, or attack them with the power of God at your side like David?
The God of David is your God too. He doesn’t change. What he did against Goliath, he’ll do for you. All you need is to remember God is the undefeated champion who fights for you.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.