David and Goliath

Intro

Good evening everyone and welcome to another Thursday Gathering. If you’re new around here, my name is Cody and I’m the college pastor…and if you have any questions or need anything at all you can find any of us that are wearing a nametag and we would be glad to help you.

Also, if there’s anything related to the message or anything else you’d like to talk to me about, I’ll be up here after the message…you can feel free to come up and connect.

Alright, with that said…let’s go ahead and get into our passage tonight.

I want to do something a little bit different tonight. As most of you know, we are in the middle of our new series on King David and tonight we are hitting one of the most famous passages of them all…David and Goliath. With that said…this story takes up an entire chapter…and I don’t want to read all of it to you …so here’s what I want to do.

Go ahead and get your bible out to 1 Samuel 17. I want you to read verses 1-18 on your own.

Go ahead and do that.

Alright, now you’ve sorta got the prelude to what’s about to happen. We will look at the rest of the text together..

So here’s what we are going to do…we are going to look at the rest of the story, and learn some things about David in the situation he finds himself in. After that, we are gonna have a conversation on how you fit into this story...

So let’s look at the passage together. Starting in verse 19.

1 Samuel 17:19–27 ESV

19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. 24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. 25 And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” 26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

Okay, we will stop there for a minute and see the first thing about David.

David saw the spiritual nature of the fight.

Here’s what I mean. If you were in this situation…what would be your main concern? I would dare say, that to most of you…your physical well being, or the physical well being of your friends or fellow Israelites would rank highest on the list.

But, did you notice what David said Goliath is doing? Look at it in verse 26 there…he says that Goliath is defying the armies of the Living God? He doesn’t say that he is threatening the prosperity of Israel…he doesn’t say he is threatening the life of his brothers or the future of his nation....all valid things. Instead, David’s main concern is that Goliath is defying the representation of the living God…HIS living God.

This wasn’t just a concern over physical well being....this was a concern of the spiritual nature of the fight. It wasn’t Israel that was in danger....it was God that was being defied…that was a problem for David…and it stirred him up. Let’s keep going.

1 Samuel 17:28–30 ESV

28 Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” 30 And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

David received criticism from those closest to him.

This is a simple one that we won’t spend too much time on right now…but we do need to acknowledge it and understand…that as David is beginning to process what is going on....and as he is beginning to stir is heart to fight the battle God has given him…he receives criticism from someone who is closest to him…namely, his eldest brother. The brother with the most authority and prominence in his life.

Now, we know that his brother is in the wrong here…because as we are about to see…David was doing the right thing and had the right heart. But that’s not how his brother saw it…his brother presumed evil in David’s heart…a desire for his own glory.

To put it simply…David received pushback…harsh pushback…but in this instance, he didn’t listen to it…he didn’t see it as “God telling him something”…rather he knew what he was called to do and pushed on. Let’s keep going.