He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. – 2 Samuel 22:18

Today's Scripture Reading (November 13, 2025): 2 Samuel 22

In April 1961, the United States made plans to attempt to overthrow the Fidel Castro government in Cuba. It was a David and Goliath story that turned into a Goliath and David story, and this time, David lost. The genesis of the plan began in the office of the President of the United States. Part of the problem was that the person of the President changed midway during the planning of the invasion. The planning began with Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. However, by April 1961, it was Democratic President John F. Kennedy who would carry out the last planning stages, as well as be at the helm of the actual invasion.

The Cuba attack of 1961 is known as the Bay of Pigs invasion because the Bay of Pigs on the island nation of Cuba was where the invasion was to begin. Maybe what we have to understand is that the Bay of Pigs invasion was never intended to overthrow the government or take control of the island. The purpose of the invasion was to give the Castro opposition in Cuba a path to overthrow the dictator. One of the invasion's negative factors was that the size of the invasion force and air support was continually downsized right up to the time of the assault. And air support was downsized to almost zero; the only air support was a bombing raid on a Cuban military airport, which was underwhelming in its effectiveness, which took place a few days before the actual invasion began. There was intended to be a second raid, but President Kennedy canceled that raid.

The result was that when the land force went in on April 17, 1961, the soldiers believed that they had more American military support than had, in reality, been approved. Throughout the fight, the officers on the ground in Cuba continually sent messages requesting help from the United States military. These messages were consistently met with silence. The truth was that the pleas were reaching the right people, and those people were pleading with the Kennedy government for permission to send help, but John F. Kennedy continued to say no. The soldiers on the beach were incredulous. The largest and most significant military in the world refused to come to the aid of its soldiers fighting a battle less than a hundred miles from the Florida coast. It was a moment of intense failure for the Kennedy presidency that occurred just a few months into his time as President of the United States.

This situation also fueled the conspiracy theories that the CIA was involved in the Kennedy assassination. After all, President Kennedy had proven himself to be an unreliable partner in times of need. Another conspiracy theory was that Castro was involved in having the President assassinated. And again, Kennedy had tried to kill Castro, so why shouldn't Fidel Castro attempt to assassinate Kennedy?

President Kennedy didn't come through for the Cuban exiles he had put in harm's way in Cuba. However, David did not doubt that his God would come through when he needed him. The enemy was powerful, but no one was as powerful as David's God, and he heard David's cry and rescued him from the situations that threatened to overwhelm him.    

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 23