Facing the Giant
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Many of us have heard the David and Goliath story before. It is one of the most famous stories in the bible. It is one of those stories we just really love—the underdog who no one believes in stepping up and surmounting all odds and overcoming some immense challenge and pressure. He goes from zero to hero and our hearts melt. It feels good to consider what that means for us; perhaps we will be victorious when facing giants of any size, even the really big stuff, like asking that girl on a date, winning the big game, or passing that test we never studied for.
Whatever the giant in our life might be, we find hope and comfort in the story of David and Goliath.
Or maybe you feel really small and insignificant. Sometimes we get burdened with feeling like our lives don’t matter or we aren’t important to anyone around us and just maybe we will hit the jackpot like David and be found significant in our insignificance. If we’re lucky we will find ourselves standing next to a king. I mean, the bible does say, “All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me.” Right? (For those that don’t know this is a joke about that verse being taken waaaaay out of context!)
Let’s take a look at the story and read about what is going on here in scripture, and then I want to present this story to you in a way that most of you have probably never heard it presented.
The Story
The Story
We’re just going to go straight into it and start reading through the chapter of 1 Samuel 17. If you brought your bible or have one on your phone I encourage you to open it up and turn there now.
This is a pretty intense story in scripture and for those that watched the movie, there’s a big, graphic detail at the end that was missing in David but exists in the bible. Some of you already realized it, but if you haven’t we will get there.
1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.
2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines.
3 And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
Note that six cubits and a span would be approximately 9 1/2 feet tall. This is debated as some manuscripts say 4 cubits and a span would be 6’ 9” tall. Either way, this is a large man, especially compared to David who was small of stature and just a boy.
5 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.
6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders.
7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him.
They keep mentioning the bronze here, because if you remember, earlier in 1 Samuel they talked about the Philistines controlling the manufacture of weapons. Well, here they are reiterating that and the technological advancements of the Philistines. They were one of the first people groups recorded to work with bronze.
8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.
9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”
10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.”
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Giant guy comes out and taunts you and is from the people’s with the advanced weaponry, no wonder why they were afraid!
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years.
13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
14 David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul,
15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
So David was anointed as the next king of Israel and brought into the house of Saul as a servant, but his dad still thought so little of him that he kept him tending the sheep between his stints with Saul. He didn’t go off to fight, he stayed home as the lowly shepherd.
16 For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.
17 And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers.
18 Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.”
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.”
David is almost shocked when he arrives that the army of Israel is letting Goliath get away with talking about God that way. I mean, he, like the rest of them, were raised to understand the Torah and Exodus 33:1–2 reads “1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” The land had been given to them already! They didn’t have to defeat the Philistines, they were already defeated.
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?”
Anybody here have an older sibling? Shocking that David’s brother would still be a little salty about younger brother showing up. I mean he was anointed king, brought into Saul’s court, etc. Eliab is probably feeling just a tad bit jealous.
30 And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.
31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him.
32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.”
Again, David is being put down as not capable, but listen to how David responds because it is fire.
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock,
35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.
36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”
37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
I’ve killed more than this before with the Lord with me, I’m not afraid of no stinking giant!
38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail,
39 and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.
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.
Cut his head off! And those scaredy cat Israelites all of a sudden decided that they could share in the victory too and chased the Philistines back home with their tails tucked between their legs.
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.”
This seems funny at first because shouldn’t Saul know who David is at this point? He was in his court as a musician, he spoke to him before he fought Goliath, surely he knows who he is. Well, remember that David went back and forth. Just because he played music for Saul doesn’t mean he was there all that often, that Saul paid him any mind, or anything like that. He probably paid little attention to David. And now David saved Israel, was promised to be made royalty by marrying Saul’s daughter, and was set for his family to live tax free for the rest of his life. All of a sudden, David was very important in the eyes of Saul.
You’re Not David
You’re Not David
Awww, what a beautiful underdog story. Just be brave like David and face your giants with faith. You can win. Don’t get me wrong, this is such a true aspect and worthy teaching, but I agree with some author’s I’ve read that say we’re missing the bigger picture here.
David is often viewed as a precursor to Christ. It is from David’s lineage that we will meet Jesus. He is from Bethlehem, the same place that Joseph takes them back to when Jesus is born to fulfill the prophecy.
David is representative of the work of Jesus, and in this story, you and me...well, we’re the scaredy-cat Israelites. Before we are saved we are staring at the biggest of giants: sin. We are faced with a giant that we need something more for. David knew that it wasn’t him who beat Goliath, but it was the faith and promise of God. Just like David couldn’t defeat Goliath alone, we can’t defeat sin alone. We need a savior who will step out before us and take on that giant.
Everything in this story is pointing towards someone greater and that someone greater is Jesus. We are broken and sinful. Romans 3:23 says, “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” We are all in a broken state, staring across the battlefield without faith at an unsurmountable enemy. We face certain death. Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 10:9–10 “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
The same way that David stepped in to save Israel, Jesus stepped in to save man. See, David isn’t you, David is Jesus. When we humble ourselves to the realization that we need God to stand in the gap in order to face our giants, accept that we are failures to meet his standard, but also recognize that God loves us and desires communion with us so badly that he chose to bear the pain and suffering we deserved and stand up to the giants in our life.
Have you given your life to Christ? Have you surrendered your life to him? If not, what are you waiting for? Why are you scared and standing back trembling? Jesus has done the hard part, you just have to accept the gift that is freely given.
[Altar Call]
