We Need a Hero: David (1 Samuel 17:41-50)

Killing the giants

One of the best-sellers on the New York Times list nine years ago was this book: David and Goliath: Underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling Giants. In this book, Gladwell outlines how David took what looked like disadvantages in his situation with Goliath and turned them into a big victory. David is the underdog, and underdogs are expected to lose. David didn’t lose because he had the determination and the grit to go face the giant, and he had the ingenuity to turn the negatives into positives.

16 years ago there was a movie called, Facing the Giants. And the by-line was “Never give up. Never back down. Never lose faith.” It’s a feel-good story. But the theme is much in line with Gladwell. The football team wins because it improves its determination and effort. When faced with giants in life, whether it’s bad cars or financial issues, simply don’t give up. God can do the impossible, if you just put in a lot of effort.

We love the underdog stories. Yesterday, one of the top college football story was that of Kamryn Babb. He defeated adversity by scoring his first touchdown for Ohio State. Babb at one time was a shoe in to play in the NFL, one of the best wide receivers coming out of high school. But in the past few years, he suffered 4 major injuries to his knees. He finally got back on the field this week and he scored a touchdown after four years of hard work. Babb confronted his giants and didn’t give up.

Is that the story of David and Goliath? The underdog who wins even though there are insurmountable odds? Taking down the giants we find in our life? In fact, slaying or killing the giants is as much of this story as the underdog. Gladwell isn’t the only book using this story for a theme. This week I found at least a half dozen Christian books on Amazon that had “five smooth stones” in the title. Some of them were the five smooth stones of success, or the five smooth stones of leadership. Whatever the topic, the smooth stones are a metaphor for taking out those giants in our lives that would do us harm.

Is that the story of David and Goliath? All of these examples are why this Bible story just may be the most popular of our Bible stories in our culture. There are universals in the story, especially the story of the underdog. The little guy who seemingly has no chance to win, shocking the world by winning decisively. We love those stories, we want to tell those stories, and David and Goliath checks all the marks, including a love story… which isn’t in our text today, but in the end, David gets the girl, he gets the King’s daughter as he had been promised. This story has it all.

We want hope

We want to tell this story because often, in our own lives, we are looking for hope. David’s story seemingly offers hope. Things happen in our lives, difficulties that we face, sometimes impossible odds, and in those moments we want to believe that God is on our side in the crises, and we need help in killing the giants in our lives, whether it’s finances, relationships, health issues. You plug any negative you can think of and we gravitate to David’s story because it’s there we find courage and hope to go out there and face down our giants no matter the odds. And we read these books on Amazon, books that provide a way out using five smooth stones. And we face the giants believing God will be with us, just like he was with David. We’ve got to be the hero just like David.

Giant-Killing temptations and sin

As great as that sounds… as hopeful as that sounds… as helpful as those books and stories promise to be… all of this, represents a misunderstanding of the story and a misuse of the text. And that includes any of the spiritual ways we could plug into the underdog paradigm. One way we then try to spiritualize this is that the five smooth stones are ways for us to combat evil in the world or sin in our lives. We at least recognize that Goliath here in the story represents anything or any idea that would oppose God. Giant-killing in this instance involves beating down sin, trying to get victory in our personal lives over evil things that come our way or temptations that may arise. Again, I want to ask.. is this the way we’re suppose to think of this story? Is that what David is really doing when he takes down Goliath, providing us with a fantastic metaphor for dealing with temptation and sin? And the answer is “no”. This also falls into a misunderstanding of the story and a misuse of the text.

The Promise of Victory

What is it that we’re after when we tell this story like this? We want to win. We want victory. There’s a huge victory in this story. This represents an unbelievable victory. And if you know anything about the story of Israel and the constant threat that the Philistines were to Israel in that day in that part of the world, this story has a nationalist vibe. There is something to see here regarding that aspect. David takes out the champion of the bad people. The enemy. The constant source of grief and suffering. That’s some kind of victory when their Big Bad goes down. And that kind of story appeals to us. The negatives in our lives are real. It’s real temptation. It’s real sin. It’s real health issues. It’s real relationship issues. We live in a broken world. And we want victory. We want a win. How many times do you find yourself muttering under your breath, “I need a win today”?

We’re always looking for the win. We’re built to win. Our culture reinforces this over and over and over… and the books we’ve talked about are part of this. We have to win. Nike’s “Just do it” isn’t simply about self-fulfillment. It’s self-fulfillment aimed at getting the win. They aren’t going to spend billions on advertising shoes for losers. For coming in second. Success is determined by the winning. So we come to a story like this, and we say, “A-ha, David won.” How’d he do it? Let’s do that. We need five smooth stones in order to win. What are the five smooth stones I need in order to win the day and get where I need to go in life?

Who is David in this story?

You know where this is going, right? What is it that all of these ways of thinking about the story of David have in common? I’m David. I need to win, I have giants, I need five smooth stones. I’m David. David is a classic life story we tell to pump up our courage in facing the giants. Because we are David. We’re the little guy badly in need of a win. When we read this story like that, we are doing what we always tend to do with these Bible stories and Bible heroes.. we shape the text around the narrative of our lives. We believe that our lives run better when we are motivated by and informed by grand ideals to push us forward. And while there is some truth to that, the problem is that we end up making the text fit whatever is happening to me, whatever I need to happen.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve highlighted some of the big heroes of the Old Testament. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses. Every single one of these stories, in our culture, has this problem… us shaping those stories to fit some sort of ideal for us to aspire to. We see ourselves as the potential hero of the story, if only we follow whatever principles those heroes were following in the story. There’s a verse we have to come back to when we begin doing this to the Old Testament stories.

In the New Testament, one of the authors is one of Jesus’ best friends. And he gives us an account of Jesus’ story. At the end of his story, he says this:

John 20:31 “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Everything in John’s biography of Jesus was written so that we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah… the One who was Promised in the Old Testament, the Son of God. And by believing find the life, the eternal life that Jesus was talking about. It’s a remarkable statement about the biography of Jesus. But it’s even more remarkable when you consider that this statement isn’t simply talking about John’s biography of Jesus, but about the whole Bible. The entire Bible was written so that we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah and by believing have life in his name.

That means, then, that the story of David and all of the other stories that we find in the Old Testament are written so that we would believe that Jesus is the Promised One of the Old Testament and by believing find life in his name. These were not written for us to find moral ideals to aspire to. These were not written for us to find some sort of positive example for living life. These were not written so that I would get a better grip on how I need to obey God, as important as that is. That’s not the point of David and Goliath or any other story in the Old Testament.

What it means is that Jesus is the point of all of these stories. And he can be found in the story of David and Goliath, but when we see where Jesus is at in the story, we get really uncomfortable. David’s story is filled with action. In fact, this story has more details written about it than just about any other single event in the Old Testament. Only the Exodus we looked at last week has more written about the details. We’re all about action, but what we tend to miss is the conversation between David and Goliath. Usually when we highlight the conversation, we’re looking at it through our lens for the need to win.

But here’s what David says, beginning with verse 45:

You come against me

with a sword, spear, and javelin

I come against you

in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel

Goliath has been cursing the God of Israel. David takes that as the framework for the story. We get that part. This is good versus evil. The true God versus the false god. David even says, when this is over, everyone will know that Israel has a God. But that’s not all David is saying. “I come to you in the name of the LORD of Armies”. Well now. That is something different. We’ve seen this before. The Angel of the Lord who showed up to Abraham. The Angel of the Lord that showed up to Moses… the LORD of Armies, the captain of God’s great angelic military. We’re not told that the Angel of the Lord is visible in this story, but David certainly is referencing him here. David isn’t simply referencing some nebulous God in the sky. He’s being very specific. Our God is present among us. Our God dwells among us. Our God fights for his people.

David has already referenced God’s rescue. This very same LORD of Armies rescued David from a lion and a bear. It is this Lord who fights for his people. And David says as much. Look at what he says twice:

Today

The LORD will hand you over to me.

He will hand you over to us.

In our rush to see ourselves as David, we turn this into more of a “God helps those who help themselves” idea. But that’s not what is happening here. It’s not.. the LORD of Armies is here to help me. No, the LORD will hand you over. This is a divine action. This is divine judgment. This is God’s doing. this is all God’s doing. David does say “I will strike”, but that is simply an explanation of exactly how the LORD of Armies is going to win the day. David is the divine agent bringing divine judgment. The captain of the LORD’s Armies is going to accomplish all of this through David as His stand in.

And that’s what the author wants us to see. This is God fighting for His people. God is the champion here, not David. This is a picture of bigger things, no doubt, but this is a picture of God himself being the conqueror.

We are not David in the story

David did have a tremendous amount of faith and courage, but that’s not what we are primarily supposed to see. We are supposed to see what God looks like when he comes to the aid and the rescue of his people when they are helpless against giants who would do them harm.

And yes… that’s the uncomfortableness of the story. We’re not David in this story. We’re Saul, the king, and the men who are cowering in fear and unbelief in their tents. That’s who we are in this story. We’re all the places in this story where we find lack of faith, and neediness, and helplessness. We need a champion and the champion won’t be us, can’t be us. We don’t have what is necessary to take on the giant. We are in need of a Savior.

Jesus is the David who fights Goliath on our behalf

This is where this is leading, right? The LORD of Armies is none other than the Son of God. He took on flesh. His name is Jesus. Jesus is our champion. Jesus goes to the cross and defeats Goliath. In fact, Goliath’s head becomes a big deal in this story. We’re not going to read all the way through, but David cuts off the head and takes it to Saul. That’s also a tipoff that this isn’t about us being David. At the very beginning of time, right after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that there would be an offspring who would crush the head of the evil one. David is doing it in the story. Jesus does it at the cross. The head of the serpent has been crushed and cut off.

That’s the story of David and Goliath. A picture of who Jesus is and what He does for us. David the future king shows us what it is like for our King to come and kill anything that would harm our soul. That would steal our soul away. That would kill us and send us to hell. Jesus has defeated that enemy because we couldn’t and can’t do it.

Jesus wins; we rest

There is victory here, but it’s not a victory that we do. It’s not for us to go win the day. In fact, it’s not really about winning. You know how Jesus ultimately defeated the enemy. The five smooth stones of how to be crucified. That’s Jesus. Jesus dies to win. In fact, Jesus goes out to the middle of the field that day… and in order to beat Goliath at the cross… Jesus meets the giant and he lays down his sling, he lays down his five smooth stones, and Jesus dies. Say what? The picture being painted in the story of David and Goliath is what ultimately happens, but what we don’t see in this story is Jesus willingly losing in order to win.

We would never tell that story in a million years. This is why Christianity is mocked as a religion for the weak. Christianity is mocked as a religion for those who need a crutch. Because our champions would never lose. We’re all about winning! But we have to stop and ask ourselves: why are we always trying to win? Why is it that I’m always trying to one up the next guy. What is it that motivates me to always insert myself into the conversation and try to win whatever the conversation is about?

Our idea of fighting Goliath is just like Saul’s. Saul gives David his armor. David doesn’t want it. Saul believes that you beat Goliath by fighting just like Goliath. We do this all of the time, but we don’t realize the hopeless of that position. We’re all about winning. We’re all about winning the game by being better at the game. We don't learn. We know better. We head into battle against sin, death, the devil, and our narcissistic self-sufficiency using the exact same weapons as the enemy. Just a little more knowledge, a little better communication, a better argument, a little more moral fortitude, a stronger will, a better skillset, a better position of influence, a more virtuous use of power, a little more faith.

None of this is to say that we don’t have some very big awful giants in our lives. We do. Goliath in the story really does represent the evil that would harm us. He is the embodiment of evil. Our champion, Jesus fights for us against anything, sin, death, the devil, our narcissism, that would keep us from faith in Jesus. But that evil does show up in our lives in personal ways. Sickness, job stress, broken relationships, money problems. I get it. These are formidable enemies. Our own struggles with sin and stress are very real giants. And those principles in those books.. some of them are very good at helpful us navigate all sorts of issues.

But please know this. This isn’t your fight. And we want it to be. That’s the ironic temptation. In fighting temptations of all sorts, we are tempted to try and win. To “getter done”. It’s not our fight. Jesus wants us, just like David to rest in him in those moments. Jesus came and he lived all of these moments already, for us. He’s been there done that. It’s his fight. And we rest in Him.

When we are tempted to do it our own way, to fight the giant using the giant’s tactics… especially with power and influence, we rest in Jesus. David and Jesus come along and they say, this isn’t how you win. You win by dying. You don’t play the game Goliath is playing. You don’t figure out how to be stronger. You win in weakness. You win with a cross.

The Name

David doesn't lean on any of the common ways to fight. David won with a name. The Name of the One who doesn’t just win the battle but owns the battle. All David has is a Name to go on. The same Name that rescues us, day in and day out, 24/7/365. David’s Savior that day is the very same Savior who defeats Goliath on our behalf.

Let’s pray.

Our champion lost to the giant, so we would have forgiveness, life, and salvation. Right here, right now. Thank God he lost or we’re lost. There would be no hope in anything at this table if Jesus doesn’t lay down his sling and die. For us. And that sacrifice is here right now. The LORD of Armies dies with a broken body for us. The LORD of Armies dies with shed blood for the forgiveness of sins. Right here. Right now for you and for me.