The Heart-For-God Series: 1 Samuel 17:1-58

LESSONS FROM A GIANT STORY

 

A Bible teacher I like to read wrote, “When I come to the story of David and Goliath, I feel like a comedian who has been asked to speak at a convention for comedians. As I step up to the podium, a list of the ten most well-known, over-used jokes known to man is handed to me – with instructions to tell the jokes in a way that makes the audience laugh,” (Bob Deffinbaugh).

            Indeed, to preach about Jonah and the Fish or Daniel in the Lion’s Den has the same feel. We all come to these familiar stories with the perception that we know the story and we know the lessons. It’s tempting to zone out when the preacher rehearses the details of Goliath’s size and armor, “Here we go again!” 

            The David and Goliath episode has been called the quintessential underdog story. Everybody knows it; popular culture uses it to refer to the little guy beating the bully, to the mom-and-pop store taking on the big corporation, and so on. It’s a classic story that captures the imagination, that when the odds are against you, you just might win anyways. All you have to do is believe in yourself. Right? Well…no!

            I don’t want to unpack all the details of the story and press applications into things like the weight of Goliath’s armor. In my biblical studies, I have discovered that when a biblical writer spends this much time on a story (58 verses), the reader must know the implications of the story are greater than the story’s simple telling. From this pivotal event moving forward, David is the central figure of Israel’s story. His rise to the throne of Israel is more than a story. 

            What I do want to do with this epic tale is ask this question: What is God saying to us? What are the lessons we may have missed in the forest of familiar details? I will not pretend to have them exactly right, but perhaps my observations will help you to consider looking at David and Goliath with fresh eyes and perceive what the Lord is saying to you.

David vs. Goliath: It Only Looked Hopeless

 

What we see with our eyes informs our brains. “Seeing is believing,” it is often said. Yet our brains must interpret what we see. The Bible teaches that even seeing eyes can be blinded to the truth before them.

            If we saw what the army of Israel saw, we would interpret the situation much the same as they did. Look at the Philistine champion (1 Sam. 17:4-7). 

 

“And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron…” 

 

Goliath was over 9 feet tall. My thinking would be, “Are all Philistines this big?” The same thought may have gone through the 5’ 3” Canadian who captured Jakob Nacken, a German soldier standing 7’ 3” tall. One might think that the Germans were a superior race. 

            It is no wonder that Israel shuddered at the sight of Goliath. He challenged Israel to send out a man who could fight him. I imagine a deep, booming Schwarzenegger voice. When Saul and his men heard this challenge, “they were dismayed and greatly afraid,” (11b). Israel was paralyzed with fear at what they saw and heard. For forty days this “giant” peppered them with taunts. 

            We know that David steps into this situation and expressed no fear at what he saw. Why not? In the previous episode (ch.16), God informs Samuel that he does not see the way that men see, he looks at the heart (7). Then when Samuel anoints David as the next king of Israel, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward…”(13). The implication is that with the indwelling Spirit of God, David saw things the way God did. David did not see an unbeatable giant; he saw an opportunity for God to be glorified. 

            What do we see in our own lives? A hopeless situation? When Elisha and his servant were cornered in a city by the king of Syria’s soldiers, the servant was afraid at what he saw. Elisha prayed for the servant’s eyes to be opened. “So, the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw…the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha,” (2 Kgs. 6:17). Like David, the follower of Jesus is filled with the Spirit who gives us eyes to see, not problems or obstacles, but opportunities. 

            The Message has an interesting take on Matthew 6:22-23. It reads, “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” 

The lesson: do not let your eyes deceive you, but let the Holy Spirit fill you with hope and wonder at what God can do.

 

Courage From an Unlikely Source

 

But here’s a giant – let’s call him an influencer – spouting all kinds of vile and ungodly things at you. Two results may occur. One: you may feel cowed by the negativity and blasphemy. God is being maligned, but what do you say? How do you defend your faith? Your God? Jesus? So, you are silenced.

            Two: You have had enough of this anti-Christian message, and you speak out. You get angry! You debate or scold the person who wants to stifle your faith. It’s time someone spoke up. Maybe!

            What does David do? When David hears Goliath’s challenge, he too is incensed by the Philistine’s defiance of Israel’s God and offers to fight the giant. Goliath defied the armies of Israel (17:10), but David heard this as nothing less than defying the armies of the living God (26). 

            Yes, David was going to fight Goliath. That’s not the lesson though. David gains courage from the knowledge that God will not tolerate humans mocking him. Galatians 6:7 warns that God is not mocked. The battle is over before it begins because Goliath has poked the wrong bear. God’s plans will not be thwarted by the irreverent words and actions of a self-important blowhard. And David knows that God will dismantle this arrogant man. 

The lesson: God is not mocked. And even though our world seems anti-God, God keeps working out his plans. They can’t stop him. 

            As believers, we don’t need to be offended by people who mock God. The Olympic opening ceremonies stirred outrage among Christians for its seeming mockery of the Last Supper (it was actually the Feast of Dionysus). But we don’t need to defend God’s honor. We can take courage and move ahead with our work for God knowing that he will act for his own honor.

 

The Faith that Saves Us

 

David did have a plan as he went to face Goliath. It sounds ridiculous going up against a heavily armed professional soldier with nothing but a sling. In truth, it wasn’t as mismatched as our modern minds think it was. 

            Ancient historians wrote about the deadly accuracy of slingers. A Greek historian names Thucydides described how an Athenian army was decimated by slingers in the mountains. Even in the Bible, slingers are mentioned in Judges 20:16 as capable of slinging a stone at a hair and not missing. 

            What if David did miss? Whether David was the best slinger in Israel or not misses the point of the story. What David SAID to Goliath matters more, (see 17:45-47 emphasizing “the LORD” and “the battle is the LORD’s”).

 

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.”

 

            The narrator emphasized David’s faith in God and that the victory over Goliath is God’s victory. Thus, the lesson: our victories are not of ourselves but are due to the one in whom we put our faith. Israel’s story is filled with attempts to succeed by relying on their own efforts. But in the battles of life, we will fail if we depend on our own devices. David’s battle with Goliath reminds us of the key to victory in every realm of life: “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty,” (Zech. 4:6). This too is a reminder of Jesus’ teaching in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” 

            You may take what Stanley said last week as hyperbole or literally about praying before building a shed. I think he made a good point that we need to include the Lord in all that we do. Pray before building a shed? Pray before fixing your car? Why not? 

            The gospel of Jesus Christ reminds us that we cannot make it on our own, but that Jesus has provided all we need. Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains (Mt. 17:20). This is the kind of faith that saves, the kind that trusts in the mighty Spirit of the Lord for victory.

 

How David Points Us to Jesus

 

Did you know that David was a messiah? David was a type of Christ. Both “messiah” and “Christ” mean the same thing, a person anointed by God for a special task. In this story of “David and Goliath,” David functions as a type of the future anointed one, Jesus, who will also save Israel in an unexpected way. 

            David was a flawed character and if I wanted to, I could pick apart his sins in this narrative alone. But what an encouragement that God works through flawed people. We are all flawed. We are all complex in our thinking and in our actions. Our best attempts at serving God are mixed with selfish motives and not-so-godly intentions. None of us has arrived, or as Paul put it, “not that I have already attained this or am already perfect…” Yet, in Jesus’ death and resurrection, our sin is not counted against us and God works through us to establish his kingdom. 

            David points us to Jesus then. For my own closer walk with God, I see these three lessons as important reminders…

I need to see life’s challenges through the eyes of the Spirit. When I am faced with problems or challenges, I tend to see them with human eyes, like Israel, and make giants out of them. 

            Paul’s prayer is my prayer in this respect. He prayed “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” (Eph. 1:17-18).  With the help of the Holy Spirit, I want to see giants as mere opportunities to witness the work of God before me. 

Secondly, I need to take courage from the moments and events in life that seem to oppose my God. David knew that Goliath was on thin ice by attacking God’s purposes. He didn’t react with fear or anger, but with confidence that God would honor his own name. There are definitely times to stand up for Jesus and proclaim his love. Politics and social figures who oppose the truth of Jesus Christ will not stand long. We don’t need to fear, but like Paul, “We destroy arguments, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take captive every thought to obey Christ…” (2 Cor. 10:5). 

Finally, I need to believe in the God who saves his people. Can you believe in a God who saves by slings against swords? Even more, can you believe in a God who saves by the cross of Christ against the power of Satan and sin? Jesus saves by the weakest and most foolish means possible…glory to God!

            “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them by the cross,” (Col. 2:13-15).        

                                                            AMEN