Week 4 of Trust God For The Victory
David & Goliath: Trust God For The Victory • Sermon • Submitted
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When you trust God for the victory...
When you trust God for the victory...
INTRO:
Sermon Series: Trust God For The Victory
Sermon Title: Act 4
Passage: 1 Samuel 17:41-58
we’ve made it to ACT 4 in our story of David & Goliath. we’re finally going to see how it ends… i know you’ve been anxiously awaiting this day!
you know, after spending more than 13 months walking through the book of Romans, I’m glad we’ve been able to go into such detail with this story in the Old Testament.
i don’t ever want you to think that the Old Testament is somehow less important than the New Testament… or that the Old Testament is over here on it’s own and not connected to the New...
in case you’ve forgotten already, listen to what the apostle paul says in romans 15 verse 4...
4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
of course, the hope that we have is in Jesus. that’s right! even the things “written in former days” meaning the Old Testament are there to point us to Jesus.
my mom & dad are here visiting from TX today, my dad has been a pastor for more than 40 years, but if you had time to talk to him about his story, he’d tell you that he came to know Jesus in his 20’s while reading the book of Leviticus!
The entire Bible is about Christ. Every time you open your bible, no matter what page you’re on, you should ask yourself the question, “where can i find Jesus on this page?”
i love how Alistair Begg is always saying,
“The Bible is a book about Jesus,
in the Old Testament he is predicted,
in the Gospels he is revealed,
in the Acts he is preached,
in the epistles he is explained,
in the book of Revelation he is expected.”
RECAP
israel vs the Philistines
Goliath (the man of the between) makes a challenge
king Saul (not living up to expectations)
40 days go by like this
David, full of the Spirit of God, arrives after recently being anointed the new king chosen by God, unbeknownst to anyone else really
David hears Goliath’s challenge and is not impressed because he is seeing as God sees instead of as man sees
although no one really wants to take David seriously, including his own brothers, he convinces Saul to let him go out and fight Goliath
READ THE PASSAGE (picking up where we were last time in vs. 40…)
40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.
41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 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. 46 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, 47 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.”
48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
55 As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56 And the king said, “Inquire whose son the boy is.” 57 And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
PRAY
BODY:
41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.
it’s been 40 days and finally from the other side of the valley, Goliath sees some movement… it’s far off so maybe he can’t see exactly who it is… so he tells his shield bearer, “let’s go” and they make their way out to the battle line
so both guys have made it to the battle line… it’s kind of like a pre-fight weigh in where both fighters come face to face
[ so here’s the Tale of the Tape ]
Goliath - 9’9” :: 425 lbs (without armor)
David - (athletic and can handle himself) 5’5” :: 135 lbs
not real impressive… and Goliath is not impressed either.... he disdained him because he was a youth, ruddy and handsome
little bit interesting that Goliath saw in David pretty much exactly what we were told about him in chapter 16 when he was anointed by Samuel
1 Samuel 16:12 (ESV)
12 ... Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome....
no doubt however, Goliath saw his young, good looks as a weakness and was not impressed… probably thought, “is this a joke?”
43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.”
The trash talk begins! there they are, face to face)
[goliath starts the trash talk, tells David what he’s going to do to him, feed him to the local wildlife]
Goliath curses David by the Philistine gods (not that they were a very impressive bunch of gods)
We only have to look back to chapter 5 of 1 Samuel to learn about one of the Philistine gods, named Dagon
The philistines had won a battle against the Israelites and had captured the Ark of the Covenant… the place where God’s presence dwelt amongst his people… The philistines took the ARK to a place called Ashdod.. they put the ark in the temple of their god, Dagon, in fact set the ark down right beside Dagon.... a statue, that they had also carried into this place and setup
when they woke up the next morning, Dagon the statue god had fallen over facedown before the ark
so… they set Dagon back up in his place
the next morning.... Dagon had fallen again on his face and this time his head had been cut off!
which is some pretty good foreshadowing for our story…
in fact, when the prophets like Isaiah talk about the false gods of other nations, i think of Dagon… who had to be put in place.... standing in a corner…
listen to Isaiah 46,
1 Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;
their idols are on beasts and livestock;
these things you carry are borne
as burdens on weary beasts.
3 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
4 even to your old age I am he,
and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save.
Isaiah 46:7 (ESV)
7 They lift it (the gods they make out of gold and silver) to their shoulders, they carry it,
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
or save him from his trouble.
vs. 9 - “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me!
but here we are, even though God is the only God, and He is the God of the Israelites.... Goliath represents certain death for God’s army and their king Saul.
and it’s their own fault that they’re in this situation… it’s because of their disobedience… it’s because of Saul’s refusal to follow God’s commands...
The prophet Samuel warned them about this when Saul began his reign as king....
look with me at chapter 12 verses 14 & 15
samuel told the people...
14 If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
this has been the case throughout Israel’s history… whenever they forgot God.. and turned their back on Him and His ways, God would give them over to their enemies.
and on this day, they deserved this… this certain death facing them in the person of Goliath...
however, it wasn’t going to go down like that on this day
not because Goliath wasn’t really that strong
not because the Israelites would finally gather up the courage to overcome him
and certainly not because Israel didn’t deserve it.... they did deserve it!
So what hope did they have? The only hope is that a champion would come… a man of the between.... and fight the giant on their behalf,
that God would provide a deliverer for the people who have rebelled against Him.... an anointed, appointed, empowered king.
if you’ve got your gospel antennas up, they’re probably buzzing right now right????
45 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.
“the God of the Armies of Israel” - Goliath was probably thinking, “oh yeah, the armies of Israel, they’ve been over there for 6 weeks now doing nothing! I’m supposed to take them seriously?”
the Lord of the armies of Israel.... problem wasn’t the Lord, the problem was with the army! They WERE the army of the living God, and though he was big to look at, Goliath was representing a nation that worshipped dead gods that were actually no gods at all
the army of Israel should have been thinking like David,
the king of Israel, Saul, should have been thinking and seeing like little David, but they were not
not much different from the church today… why should the world take us seriously???? we serve the one, true living God! what are we waiting for??? why are we standing around hoping someone else will do the work of the Kingdom. we have nothing to fear… if God is for us… who can be against us?
if we’re following God’s ways, and seeing as He sees, the world will see Jesus and know he is God
But that’s what’s going on here.... David.. coming in the name of the Lord going against Goliath… who comes in the name of a bunch of dead, do nothing gods....
i want you to notice this was the first time anyone in history had said this.... that an individual had come in the name of the Lord. God had a people he had chosen, the Israelites, but now he had a KING He had chosen… and this king was coming, with power, in the Name of the Lord!
so it wasn’t really David vs. Goliath and it wasn’t even the Israelites vs. the Philistines....
by mocking the God of the Israel Army and by inciting his own philistine gods when cursing David, Goliath may not have known, but we can see that this is a battle between the God of Israel and the not really gods of the Philistines
David knew and David trusted in the one, true, living God.... and he is not worried about the false gods of Goliath and the Philistines. David was seeing NOT as man sees
so now it’s David’s turn to trash talk a little bit...
DAVID TELLS GOLIATH WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN
1 Samuel 17:46–47 (ESV)
46 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,
- i don’t know what David’s voice was like.... but there’s a chance he hadn’t finished puberty yet at this point.... i doubt he sounded like Joe Weeks… so not only was Goliath not scared when he saw David but probably even less so when David spoke… “i’m going to cut your head off…i’m going to feed YOU to the local wildlife!”
THEN DAVID TELLS GOLIATH WHY
that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 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.”
And there it is… that very important biblical theme shows up here in our story of David & Goliath.
God’s desire is and always has been to be known by those He has created. people of every tribe, tongue and nation. and when he sets out to accomplish things in his name, it’s almost always SO THAT the world will KNOW that He is God.
and this day would be no different… even though David was the appointed and anointed King in waiting, this victory would not be for his sake, but so that “all the earth” would know that there is a God in Israel.
David’s message to Goliath is very similar to his message to king Saul from last week. so to summarize David’s “gospel” if you will to Goliath
I come in the name of the Lord
you have mocked the Lord
I will kill you
all the earth will know who God is
and finally… we get to the action.... the lead up to the action has taken 47 verses… the fight takes 2.... i mean, this is like people who paid a $150 to watch a fight on pay per view that ends in the first 10 seconds
1 Samuel 17:48–51 (ESV)
48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
Goliath fell.. just as his god Dagon had fallen before the ARK
then.. before continuing with the narrative, we’re told how this victory did NOT happen.... look at vs. 50
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David.
there was no sword in the hand of David
there was never going to be a battle between the little shepherd boy david and the great giant champion goliath....
this battle was won exclusively by God ...
51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
you notice, the Philistines didn’t hang around to become the Israelites slaves… that was supposed to be the deal.... but they fled
oh , and after 40 days, now that the Philistines are on the run, the army of Israel gets real courageous and finally does something
52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.
our story ends with David taking the head of Goliath to Jerusalem… which is actually happens much later.... David doesn’t make it to Jerusalem until 2 Samuel cahpter 5! but our narrator is helping us to see that this is where David’s journey to Jerusalem as king began
CONCLUSION:
where is Jesus in our story?
you know, david’s unique expression, “i come in the name of the Lord” is used one more time in the old testament in Psalm 118
Psalm 118:26 (ESV)
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord...
psalm 118 is quoted often in the new testament… and this verse 26 we can find when Jesus, the anointed, appointed king made his way into jerusalem.... it might sound familiar to you because we will often read this each year on palm sunday
Mark 11:9 (ESV)
9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
The World Series started on Friday night. Like many of you I loved baseball as a kid and spent many nights in bed… or at my desk in school.... day dreaming about one day playing in the world series.
of course, like the dream goes, i’d be at bat in the bottom of the ninth, and would hit the game winning, walk-off home run to win the world series!
i’d trot the bases and meet the entire team at home plate… i was the hero
just curious.... did any of you, when having this day dream, dream about being the pitcher who gave up the home run to lose the world series? i didn’t think so..
and often when we read the great stories of the bible, we like to sit back and try to find ourselves in the story....
and i know you’d love to see yourself as David in this story… but you’re not… in fact, this morning… I’d like you to see yourself as part of the Israelite army.
frozen in fear in the face of the great enemy… facing certain death… and having no rescue in sight
your only hope is that there would come a champion, a man of the between, who would fight for you and deliver a victory
and that’s where we find Jesus in our story
Jesus comes… not in strength, NOT with sword and shield
but in weakness, carrying his own cross
fighting and conquering death on our behalf
because that is exactly the situation facing every human being who has ever been born. The great enemy is death.
the apostle Paul writes in....
1 Corinthians 15:54–57 (ESV)
54 ...“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, (you see, the reason death is the great enemy is that death isn’t just the end of life, but because of sin, death brings eternal judgment. Sin is the sting of death.)
Paul continues...
and the power of sin is the law. (so sin has power… you ask what do you mean by that?.... sin isn’t just bad behavior… the power of sin is the law…
sin is rebellion against God’s law… against his ways… against his standard of holy living)
because everyone of us have broken God’s law by our own sin, we face a certain eternal death when we die
however… we can say with Paul in vs 57
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our CHAMPION AND OUR Lord, Jesus Christ.
PRAY