Talking Trash

I was happy to note recently during my travels through the book of I Samuel that "trash-talking" has been around for quite awhile.

I further learned that talking trash is not only okay for Christians to do - but also that some of the saints of old were masters at the art.

This ageless practice is found often in the world of sports - do you remember Muhammad Ali and how he used to psych out his opponent with trash-talk?

"..Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee ..."

I remember trash-talk in the circle of world events back in the early nineties. The late Sadaam Husseun said something about the "mother of all wars" if we didn't watch out. That mother of all wars - that was a good one.

I think it was Kruschev that slapped his shoe on the table and proclaimed that they (former Soviet Union) would "bury" the United States.

In I Samuel 17, the Israelites found themselves pitted against a "trash-talker" of Biblical proportion! But he met his match in a youth of a boy - who proved that his trash-talk wasn't just talk.

Goliath. His name would forever be engraved in the hearts and minds of people when they think of "large and imposing".

King Saul was having a problem. This Goliath fellow was ruining the morale of his troops. A couple of times a day, this giant would come out and talk trash.

You know the story ... well if you don't, then go find it cause it can really shape your thinking about big enemies and how they threaten.
David, the guy not quite big enough to leave the family farm yet, took on this giant with only a shepherd's sling, some stones and the power of God Almighty!

The last bit of trash talking was quite a thing to see:

"Am I a dog?! that you send little boys to me with sticks?!"
and the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

"Come, boy, and I will feed your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

David, in a matter-of-fact manner, put the event in proper perspective ... "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Host! - the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied!"

Then ole' David - laid down some trash....

"Today."
"This day... the Lord will deliver you into my hands...

...and I will smite thee (you gotta' love that King James!!)...

...and I will remove your head...

...and then I will feed the carcases of the entire Philistine host to the birds and the wild beasts...

That all may know that there is a God in Israel."

It was not empty words as the rest of the story will prove. God backed him up.

Trash-Talking is fun when you can back it up.