God doing God Things (David and Goliath) 1 Samuel 17

Introduction

Goliath defies the army of Israel. (1-11)

By now you are familiar with the Philistines’ societal structure with the 5 lords over the five major cities.

Some time has passed since the ordeal with the ark.

Israel is no longer governed by judges, they have a king.

Saul was chosen as the first king of Israel.

After a really strong start to his reign, Saul had sinned against God without repentance.

As a result, God had removed His spirit from Saul.

Saul had quickly descended into depression.

Perhaps the lords of the Philistines had heard of Saul’s instability and that is what motivated their attack.

You never attack your enemy when he is strong, you wait until he is weak before you strike.

The armies of Philistia make the first move by marching into Israelite territory.

Saul’s spies immediately notify him and he calls out his army.

The two forces meet at the Valley of Elah less than 15 miles east of Bethlehem.

The opposing armies line up on either side of the valley and prepare for what comes next.

This was the common battle practice of the day.

Kind of like the start of a football game, there were benefits and advantages to either making the first move or letting your opponent make the first move.

If you were going to attack first, then you needed to make a quick decision and attack with boldness before your enemy was ready.

Saul’s condition of faithlessness and fear ruled out any possibility of swift and decisive action.

He was content to sit still and let the Philistines make the first move.

This is not out of strategy, as we will see in a moment, this is born out of fear.

All of us need to remember that unbelief makes us cowards.

The fear of Israel was multiplied when a Philistine soldier stepped forward with a challenge.

The lord of Gath had brought the pride of his city to the battle, a giant man named Goliath.

He was a champion among the Philistines.

The biblical author spends more words describing Goliath’s appearance than they do describing the impending battle.

Goliath was certainly an imposing figure.

He stood about 9’9”

He had a brass helmet on his head, not that anyone could reach it...

His body armor weighed as much as 159 lbs.

It was also made of brass.

It would have featured overlapping scales like a fish.

His legs were covered in brass.

He had a brass sword slung behind his back.

The head of his spear weighed 17 pounds.

He had a shield that was carried before him.

Goliath made his way down into the valley and began to speak.

He asks the Israelites a question.

Why are we all lined up against each other?

Should we all fight and risk the lives of so many?

Goliath claims to represent the people of Philistia.

The Israelite armies are the slaves of Saul.

If one of them, any of them, the best of them, will come down and fight against him, the outcome of the fight can replace the chaos of battle.

One v. One for all the marbles.

This was not an uncommon situation in that day.

Such challenges were often made in antiquity.

What is uncommon, of course, is the presence of a literal giant in the fight.

Saul and all the people are dismayed and afraid of the giant’s offer.

It sure looks like Goliath’s offer is met with silence.

So he speaks again.

This time he hurls insults at the Israelites.

He defies the armies of Israel to fight him.

When no one answers, he goes back to the Philistine camp.

For 40 days, morning and evening, he comes out to challenge Israel.

Each day he gets more and more bold in his challenge.

Each day his profanity and degradation of the people of God grows more obscene.

For 40 days, Saul does nothing.

The Spirit of God had departed from Him.

His depression became the people’s depression.

Israel was afraid because their king was afraid.

The response (or lack thereof) from Saul and the people indicates a terrible state of things, when a challenge like this could be thrown down and there is no one to take it up.

David learns of the giant’s insults. (12-30)

David’s three oldest brothers had followed Saul to the battle.

The valley of Elah was not far from Bethlehem.

But Jesse, their father, was an old man and could not go to check on them.

So, he commissions David to go to Elah to deliver supplies to his brothers.

Soldiers of the time were responsible for providing their own rations.

It was also customary to send gifts to the commanding officers to insure favorable treatment.

Jesse is also interested in knowing how the battle is going.

He asks David to bring back a report.

He is also to bring back verification that his brothers are alive.

It’s kind of funny that verse 19 says that they were in the valley fighting the Philistines.

We know that when David shows up, he won’t see any fighting going on.

He’s going to find the Israelites paralyzed with fear over one man.

When David gets there, it sure sounds like a battle is about to take place.

The army is moving towards the valley.

There is the noise of shouting.

Everything looks like it is about to get really exciting.

David leaves the cart of supplies with the quartermaster and enters the army to find his brothers.

Can’t you just imagine the naive energy of David?

He knows nothing about the realities of war.

All he knows is the glory and romance of war stories.

He finds his brothers just as the army stops dead in it’s tracks.

He salutes his brothers but he notices that they are distracted.

He follows their gaze to the Philistine lines just as Goliath steps out into the valley.

What was David’s face like when he saw the nearly 10ft tall giant?

Goliath delivers the same challenge he had offered for the last 40 days.

The shouting and adrenaline of the Israelites moving to the battle immediately evaporated.

The Bible says in verse 25 that Goliath had gotten more bold in his taunts.

Notice that the men talk about Goliath coming up.

Because of the valley, we are to understand that Goliath had gone down from his side and come up on Israel’s side.

Can you picture Goliath hulking over the Israelite soldiers getting right up close to their line and in their faces mocking them.

All anyone had to do was take a shot at him and it would have been over, but they were all so afraid.

As he lurked up and down their lines, the Israelite soldiers fled from him whenever he got close.

David is appalled at the fear of his countrymen.

He begins to question what is going on.

Is there not a reward to be given to the man that removes this reproach from Israel.

Goliath is an uncircumcised Philistine who has no right to defy the armies of the living God.

David has a different perspective on what is going on in this valley.

Goliath wasn’t just challenging the armies of Israel.

He was challenging the God of Israel.

Everyone else seemed to view this as a military problem.

David, however, viewed it as a theology problem.

One of the soldiers, standing nearby, tells David of the reward that had been offered.

They would get to marry one of the king’s daughters.

They would receive great riches.

They would also get their father’s house taken off of the tax rolls.

When David’s oldest brother heard his conversation with the other soldier, he couldn’t help but interject.

The Bible says that Eliab was angry with David.

He insults him as the youngest and as a shepherd.

He accuses him of pride and naughtiness.

David’s brother almost certainly considered himself to be a realist while David was hopelessly naive.

David was learning though, that whenever you step out by faith to fight the enemy, there is always somebody around to discourage.

David protests that he has done nothing wrong.

Is he not allowed to ask questions?

Is he not allowed to make observations about what is really happening?

No one else seems to care that they are being embarrassed, but that doesn’t mean he has to be afraid and dismayed with them.

David turns to another man and continues with his questioning.

It seems like David is trying to get someone to be bold enough to act.

Eliab thinks he just wants to see a fight.

Eventually news of David’s activities gets to Saul, and he calls him to the kings tent.

Saul interviews David. (31-39)

By the time David gets to his meeting with Saul, he is convinced of what he has to do.

No man in the camp is brave enough to face the giant.

David will face Goliath, himself.

If anyone should have faced the giant, it should have been Saul.

Remember, Saul was head and shoulders taller than all the rest of the Israelite men.

As one man said, “There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who don’t realize there is anything happening.”

David was in the camp and he was unwilling to watch things happen.

Saul protests that David not go up.

Saul does some internal calculations and determines that David is unable to defeat the giant.

Saul is not in a good place spiritually.

We should always be careful about taking advice from a person that is not walking by faith.

This is why it is absolutely vital for our officers to men of faith.

When you are faithless, when you are living as though God is not there, then the contest appears to be a matter of strength versus strength.

When we walk by sight, we calculate everything from the human perspective.

Look at the reasoning that Saul uses to try and deter David.

You are a youth.

He is a man of war from his youth.

Nothing about size differences, Goliath just has more experience than you?

David respectfully responds.

David tells Saul a little bit about himself.

As a shepherd, it was his job to protect his flock.

When a bear and a lion came and took one of his sheep, he went after them and slew them to recover his sheep and prevent further harm to the flock.

He intends to do the same to this Philistine for continually insulting God.

This sounds like David is saying, “if I could handle a lion and a bear, I can handle Goliath.”

David’s confidence, though, doesn’t come from his ability or his past experiences.

Verse 37 reveals the true source of David’s confidence.

David had been delivered from the lion and bear by God.

He had faith that God could deliver him from the Philistine as well.

This was enough for Saul.

He gives David the go ahead.

It sure seems like Saul was easily persuaded.

Imagine if things hadn’t worked out and Jesse had to go confront Saul for sending a teenager to fight a giant...

You did what?

He’s a teenager!

Before David leaves, Saul tries to give him his own personal armor to wear.

Saul and Jonathan were probably the only two men in the Israelite army that had a full suit of armor.

David tries the armor on, but, in the end, decides against it as he has not proved it.

This brings up a good point.

The first demand that is put on us is to be spiritual, the next is to be genuine and true without seeking to clothe ourselves in the armor of another.

Many well meaning people will tell you that have to do things they way they do them or you won’t be successful.

This is not always true.

David leaves Saul’s armor behind.

David heads out to face Goliath(40-51)

As he heads down the embankment into the valley, he has a staff in one hand and his sling in the other.

He garners little attention from either side.

As he gets to the creek bed at the bottom of the valley, he stoops to pick out 5 smooth stones.

Archeological excavations around Jerusalem have revealed that these slingshot stones ranged from the size of a billiard ball to a tennis ball in size.

An expert slinger could send a stone flying as far as 440 yards.

Someone in the Philistine camp must have seen David and rushed to tell Goliath that a challenger had finally appeared.

Finally! Goliath must’ve roared.

He dons his armor and heads to the front lines.

When Goliath enters the valley, his battle-trained eyes are looking back and forth for the familiar glint of the sun off a soldier’s armor.

He sees nothing.

Then he notices this teenager standing in the valley with a staff in his hand.

When Goliath sees David, he despised him.

This would not be the fight that he had been looking forward to.

David’s presence in the valley was an insult to Goliath.

What was he, a dog?

Don’t these ignorant Israelites know that he is the champion of Philistia.

Had they not heard of his victories and his prowess?

Who is this boy that they have sent out to him.

No matter, he would make quick work of this child.

Goliath cursed David by his gods.

What kind of vulgarities did this entail?

We are graciously spared from it.

The giant then invites David to come closer and meet his fate.

Goliath promises to kill him and use his flesh to feed the birds and beasts.

A death with no burial was a dreadful thing.

To be eaten and scattered was humiliating thought.

Goliath probably half-thought that David would run away when he heard this.

But, he didn’t.

Instead, David spits heat back at Goliath.

He tells the giant that he has no respect for his weapons, because he comes in a greater power.

He is backed by name and character of the God that he had defied.

Today, David tells him, God will deliver the giant into the shepherds hands.

David tells Goliath that it will not be his body that will be fed to the animals.

They better come hungry, because it is Goliath that will lie dead at the end of their encounter.

These are big words.

How could David be so bold?

He tells us.

David believed that God’s honor was at stake.

The Philistine had insulted God.

David was jealous for the Lord.

He does what he does, not for Saul’s reward, but for the glory of the Lord.

All the earth needed to know that there is a God in Israel.

Since God delights in using His people to magnify His own name, David was certain that the giant would be delivered into his hands.

Goliath has heard enough.

Perhaps he had leaned upon one of the acacia trees that are everywhere in the Valley of Elah.

He stands up and begins to move toward David.

He still has no respect for the boy, as David runs toward him.

As he is running, David puts his hand in his bag and pulls out one of the stones.

A good slinger could send a stone flying at upwards of 60 mph.

Roman doctors were trained in removing stone missiles that regularly punctured soldiers bodies.

Even soldiers wearing leather armor were known to die from the injuries of a sling shot even if it didn’t penetrate the skin.

David was a skilled slinger.

As he ran, he began to swing his sling around and around.

Goliath’s lack of respect for the boy probably caused a few things to happen.

He didn’t grab his shield from his armor bearer, because he wouldn’t need it.

He also didn’t draw his sword, David didn’t have one, so why would he need it.

He had his spear and one strike of its 17 pound head would leave David a crumpled bleeding corpse on the ground.

Finally, it is likely that Goliath’s confidence meant that he did not lower the visor on his helmet, leaving his face exposed.

When David slung his stone, he hit the giant in the forehead.

The stone broke the giants skull and embedded in the front part of his brain.

The giant fell face down on the earth, dead.

I’ve heard people say that he should have fallen backwards, but god slapped him in the back of the head and caused him to fall forward.

This is ridiculous.

Goliath fell forward because he had been moving forward and downhill towards David.

He wan’t standing still.

Of course he fell forward.

And, he wasn’t stunned.

The Bible clearly says, “David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him.

Then, just to make sure, he takes Goliath’s sword and uses it to cut off the giants head.

You know the rest.

The Philistines saw their champion dead.

They fled.

This passage is not about defeating the giants in our life.

Unfortunately, this is one of the most mis-applied passages in the Bible.

The focus of the story of David and Goliath is not on what this means for us, but rather what does this mean for God?

God’s name had been insulted, God’s honor had been challenged.

God delivered the giant into David’s hands because David went after him for the right reason.

David didn’t go out to face Goliath because he wanted the reward.

He didn’t face Goliath so that he would become a Bible hero.

David was empowered by God because he was primarily interested in magnifying God’s reputation.

David’s actions were motivated by a desire to show people that God was real and that He was powerful.

This is the lesson that we are supposed to apply to our lives.

We will face giants in our lives.

God is under no obligation to give us victory over those giants.

Especially if we desire victory over a giant for our own purposes.

Our own comfort.

Our own advancement.

Our own reputation.

But, when we are trying to magnify God or