David and Goliath
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The church in this country faces big challenges. They’re illustrated by the recently published census results from 2011, and the fall in the percentage of the population that identified their religion as ‘Christian’. In ten years that percentage fell by 12 points. The people of God have always faced big challenges. The question is whether we’ll face up to them.
Well this evening we can learn from one person who faced a very big challenge with courage and faith. That person was the young David. And that challenge was Goliath. So my title is simply ‘David and Goliath’, and we’re looking at 1 Samuel 17. Have that open in front of you.
Now here’s a spoiler – like one of those film reviews that gives away the end of the story before you’ve seen it: David defeats Goliath.
And it’s a great story, but the question then is, how does it apply to us? The answer is, through Jesus. And we need to have a clear framework in our minds for how that works. So
First, DAVID, JESUS AND THE FOLLOWER OF JESUS
You can see there the four points we need to be clear on as we read 1 Samuel.
First, David is the messiah.
That’s small ‘m’ messiah. Messiah is the Hebrew word for anointed one. The Greek equivalent is ‘Christ’. This anointing marks the one chosen by God to be the king of his people, empowered by God’s Spirit for that role. Back in the previous chapter, that’s exactly what’s happened to David. How then does David relate to Jesus? Well:
Secondly, Jesus is the Messiah
That’s capital ‘M’ Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah – the one chosen by God to reign over his people and all things for ever. So messiah David points to the Messiah Jesus. Jesus is a descendant of David, in his royal line. But Jesus makes very clear that in another sense he cannot be merely in David’s line. Jesus is the son of David but he is also David’s Lord. Jesus the Messiah is both the root from which David sprang, and the branch in his line. He is both God and man – the Spirit-empowered eternal King.
Thirdly, as David won this victory over Goliath, so Jesus wins the victory for us. And great as David’s victory was, the victory of Jesus is in a different league. By his cross and resurrection he breaks the power of sin, Satan and death, and sets his people free from their grip for ever. So David’s victory over Goliath points us to the unique once-for-all victory of Jesus for us. We depend on the victory of Jesus. We look to Jesus to be our Champion. But there is a fourth point as well.
Through faith in Jesus we overcome. So the apostle John says, in 1 John 3:
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1 John 3)
Even as David points us to Jesus, he’s also a model for us as we follow Jesus. Through faith in Christ we share in Christ’s victory. But the Christian life remains a fight. And it needs to be fought with the courage and faith in God that we see in David.
On, then, to my second heading, and to the chapter itself:
Secondly, THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN DAVID AND GOLIATH
I want us to go through 1 Samuel 17, edited for the sake of time, learning as we go and letting it mould our thinking and shape our imagination, so that we’ll react to the tough situations we face in a David-like and Christ-like way.
So we begin with that first bullet point: the battle lines are drawn up. Verses 1-3:
Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war … Saul and the Israelites assembled … and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. (17:1-3)
So there they are, facing one another across the valley. God’s people are always being faced with enemies in one form or another: all the powers of evil; the Godless world; our own sinful natures; the approaching monster of death with its advance guard of disease and sickness. Our enemies can appear formidable, as the Philistines did to the Israelites. Which brings us to:
The intimidating champion of the enemy. This is verses 4-10:
A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall … His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels [that’s over a stone just in the iron tip of the spear] … Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” (17:4-10)
The stakes could hardly be higher. The outcome of this conflict will be death or slavery for one side or the other. And Goliath is right about one thing. “Give me a man,” he calls out. Give me a man. If he were saying that now it would be “Man up!” That’s what the church needs in the face of todays enemies. Men who will stand and fight to protect God’s people. What’s the reaction?
The terror and despair of God’s people. Verse 11:
On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. (17:11)
Our response to fear is either fight or flight. Which is it here? Verse 24, later on, is clear:
When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. (17:24)
But that’s not the whole picture. Two weighty words come next:
Now David… (v 12-25)
And then follows the account of how the boy from Bethlehem ends up on the front line. Verses 12-25:
Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse … Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war … David was the youngest … David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. (17:12-25)
Those of you who are young, note that David was considered to be too young to fight. Don’t let your age limit your courage or your devotion to Christ.
For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this [food] … See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel … fighting against the Philistines.” (17:16-19)
Actually, fighting is precisely what they’re not doing. They’re doing anything to avoid fighting. But do you see the workings of providence in the normal business of life – providing food for the family? God wanted David on the battle field. Packed lunches for the boys is how he got him there.
… David … reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. (17:20)
That’s a telling detail too. All that noise. But only from a safe distance. There’s no engaging with the enemy. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the noisy ones are the warriors. The spiritual warriors are those who are too busy fighting for the Kingdom to be wasting time drawing attention to themselves.
Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David … ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father’s family from taxes in Israel.” (17:21-25)
So there’s a stand off. A log jam. They’re stuck. But here is David. And now we hear him speak in fact for the very first time in the whole Bible. So these are weighty words. What about?
David’s motivation for the fight. Verses 26-27:
David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” They repeated to him what they had been saying … (17:26-27)
You can see three sides here to why David wants to fight. Consideration of reward. Confidence of victory. And concern for the glory of God. He is utterly God-centred. But that doesn’t make him shy of wanting to know what the reward will be. Nor should we be. The New Testament and Jesus himself repeatedly speak of the rewards that will be heaped on those who overcome by the grace of God. The vanquisher of Goliath was promised riches, status and privilege as gifts from the king. King Jesus promises unimaginable spiritual riches, status and privilege to his own. We should let the anticipation of one day sharing in Christ’s glory stiffen our sinews for the fight today.
But those who fight are not always looked on favourably by their fellows. So note next:
The anger of some of those who won’t fight towards the one who will. Verses 28-29.
When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him … (17:28)
Where’s that come from? David was simply following his father’s instructions. Can we detect the guilty anger of one who’s been caught out in his cowardice – and, even worse, by his own little brother.
“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” (17:29)
If that isn’t exasperation born of long family experience of being on the sharp end of his older brother’s tongue, I don’t know what is. That has the authentic touch of a real family dynamic, does it not?
But this exchange leads next to:
A providential opportunity. Verses 30-32:
… What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” (17:30-32)
“Never mind them. I’ll do it,” says David. How can this young man talk like that to the king? It comes from:
David’s confidence from past God-given victories. Verses 33-37:
Saul replied, “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.”But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 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.”Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.” (17:33-37)
Saul thought David was too young, too small, too weak, too lacking in skill and experience. But actually God prepares us through a long series of smaller battles for the bigger battles that he’s got us lined up to fight in the future. So we must make sure that we start fighting now – fighting the spiritual battles that God puts in front of us today.
But for all the surprisingly relevant experience that David brought from the farm and the fields, don’t miss seeing where David’s confidence really lies. It’s not in his own prowess or his tally of lions and bears, impressive though that is. It’s in the living God. “The Lord will deliver me,” he says.
But that doesn’t make him passive. He doesn’t just sit on the sidelines and wait for God. No:
David chooses the right weapons. Verses 38-40:
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around … “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. (17:38-40)
What could easily look like foolhardy naivety on David’s part is in fact a stroke of tactical military genius, as we’ll see. He knew the right weapon for this fight, and wouldn’t be gainsaid even by the king. We too must understand what are the right weapons for a different battle – the good fight of the faith. Paul spells them out in Ephesians 6:
… the shield of faith … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions… (Ephesians 6)
But Goliath couldn’t see what David was up to. Little does he realise it, but he’s all tied up in his own arrogance. So what we see next is:
The hubris of the enemies of God’s people in the face of their apparent weakness. Verses 41-44:
Meanwhile, the Philistine … kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” (17:41-44)
The proverb “pride comes before a fall” could hardly have a more apt application. And I must admit I couldn’t help thinking of the reaction of the atheist propagandist Richard Dawkins to the news from that 2011 Census of the reduction in the numbers identifying themselves as Christian. He writes:
Christianity is on the way out in this country. [Daily Telegraph, 11 Dec 2012]
I wonder what the living God has to say about that? Because when it comes to the Kingdom of God, appearances can be deceptive. David understood that very well. And his response to Goliath reminds me of:
Zechariah 4.6: “‘Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Look on to verses 45-47:
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, 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.” (17:45-47)
What an amazing foretaste of Jesus’s Great Commission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth that is in verse 46. Through this victory:
the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
Think of the way this victory points to the victory of the cross. The whole world will know that Jesus is Saviour and Lord. The battle is the Lord’s – but he fights it now through us. We can’t just stand on the sidelines and watch, any more than David did. And then, before we know it:
The battle is quickly over. Verses 48-49:
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. (17:48-49)
So this is where David’s surprising choice of weapon comes into its own. Some people say this chapter stresses David’s weakness in the face of the overwhelming strength of Goliath. But surely that misses the point. It’s not that David was weak. He wasn’t. Nor was there anything inferior about his weaponry.
If you’ve seen Speilberg’s Indiana Jones films you’ll remember the scene in which Indiana is caught in a fight to the death with a deadly enemy. They circle around one another with knives in their hands, wary of the other’s flashing blade. But then Indiana steps back, reaches into his jacket, takes out a pistol and shoots his enemy dead from a distance. Fight over.
David does a similar thing to Goliath. There’s a fascinating note back in Judges 20.16, which says this:
Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed [that’s not the relevant bit- listen to this], each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. (Judges 20:16)
A sling in the right hands was a deadly weapon. No, it’s not that David was weak. He might have lost an arm-wrestling bout with Goliath, but that wasn’t the nature of the fight. It’s that other people saw him as weak. As Dale Ralph Davis puts it:
All the important people regard David as weak… Eliab tells him, “You’re a pain”, Saul warns, “You’re green”, and Goliath sneers, “You’re puny.” But he is the one Yahweh uses to deliver. [Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel]
So it was when Jesus went to his death on the cross. It looked to all the world as if the power of Jesus was broken and he was being destroyed. In fact, he was winning the greatest victory of all time. At the cross he was the one who was the destroyer – of sin, Satan and death.
David was the destroyer of Goliath. He said he would be. And he delivered:
The promised victory. Verse 50:
So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. (17:50)
We must never forget, as we look at the towering, giant enemies of Christ, that seemingly invulnerable giants have feet of clay. Or, we should say, exposed foreheads.
Then finally there is:
The aftermath of victory. That’s in verses 51-58. You can read that for yourselves. Suffice it to say that hard on the heels of David’s victory come: the flight of the enemy army; the encouragement of God’s people and their eventual engagement in the fight; more resources for God’s people as they plunder the abandoned enemy camp; and royal recognition for David.
What David had done pleased the king. In this case, that was only Saul. When we fight faithfully the good fight of the faith, we please King Jesus. What more could we want?
So – and this is especially to you if you’re a young man – will you fight? You have your life before you. Will you find a way of staying behind the lines, out of the heat of battle? Or will you lay your life on the line for the Kingdom of God and for those Christ bought with his blood?
For the young David there were many harder struggles and fights ahead. But through the furnace of battle his strong faith in the living God had been confirmed, vindicated, and strengthened.
As we face up to the enemies of Christ, what’s it to be for you and me? Verse 24?
When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. (17:24)
Or verse 32?
David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” (17:32)
What about us? Will it be flight? Or fight?