God Leads (1 Sam 17.1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49)

On January 12, 1969 two football teams met at the Orange Bowl in Miami to play what is now known as Super Bowl III. The two teams were the Baltimore Colts and the New York Jets. It was a match up between the old, established NFL and the upstart new league, the AFL. The Colts were a heavy favorite to win the game, by 18 points. And why not? They were 13-1 on the season, had the league MVP at quarterback and had blown out the two teams that played them in the post season. Besides, the NFL had won the past two championship games by at least 22 points. This would be a piece of cake for the Colts.

But on the other side of the ball the pundits and the Colts were neglecting the Jets and their team. This was a team that had a record of 11-3 and had pulled a comeback victory in the AFL championship game. They were no slouches.

As most everyone knows, the Jets’ quarterback, Joe Namath, guaranteed a Jets victory. He was scoffed and mocked especially by the Colts. But when game day came, the Jets shocked the sports world by winning 16-7. It was what has now become known as a David and Goliath moment.

We love rooting for the underdog. If you look at sports movies there are more underdog stories there than there are movies about winners: Rudy, Hoosiers, Cinderella Man, Rocky and the list could go on and on. Sports teams are often the most likely to be referred to as David and Goliath moments. But there are others as well. Politicians like to refer to this kind of moment when facing an incumbent or when looking at a bill that has little support. There are others: small businesses facing off with giant corporations, small armies facing off much larger and better equipped ones and again, the list could go on. But where did this phrase “David and Goliath” come from? Why is it so ingrained in our language and in our culture?

The quick answer is from our text today. If any child is in Sunday School for long then they know this story. It is one that is told and retold in both Sunday School and in VBS. It is a story that people like to hear because they want to root for the underdog. But is this the story of an underdog? Is this the story of one who is thought to be one who will lose?

Israel and the Philistines are at war again. The Philistines are trying to move from the coastal plain to the hill country where the domain of Saul is. As the two armies face one another, a giant of a man strides into the ravine separating them. His name is Goliath. He is tall, at the smallest he would have been about six feet nine inches and at the tallest about nine feet nine inches, clearly a man who would inspire awe whenever he had lived. Not only is he tall, he is a big man, capable of carrying 125 pounds of armor on his frame. He carries a javelin or scimitar for close fighting and, as we will find out later, he is carrying a sword. The most awesome piece of equipment is a spear with an iron head used for throwing at opponents. This is a man who is a force to be reckoned with. And what he does is issue a challenge: single combat, man to man, to the death and winner take all. For forty days he issues this challenge and for forty days there are no takers on from the Israelite camp.

While all this is going on a shepherd boy comes in from the country to bring provisions for his three older brothers. He hears the challenge and begins to ask questions about what is going on. His oldest brother, in older brother form, berates him and asks what he is doing. The younger brother, in younger brother form, asks what has he done now, and goes on talking about what he has seen and heard.

The talk reaches the ears of Saul and he calls for this boy to come and talk to him. And here is where the crux of the passages lies. David says that he will go out and fight the Philistine. Saul is incredulous. Here is a boy (about the age of 16 or so) wanting to fight a seasoned warrior. But David tells him that he has fought bears and lions in the course of his work tending the sheep. He has even killed a few of them to save the flock. But this is not just boasting of what he has done and can do (ala Joe Namath), it is a telling of who David gives the credit for all of this. David takes no credit of his own but gives the credit to God. He says: “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”[1] God is the source of David’s success and will continue to be.

Saul is impressed. But Saul is also still under the thinking of humans. If the Philistine is out there in armor, they had better put some on the boy as well. So, Saul offers the best that they have, his own personal armor. David tries it on, but it does not fit. If you have ever studied anything about armor, it is not one size fits most. Armor is usually fitted so that the person wearing it can move and fight without being encumbered by it. So, when David says he is not accustomed to it what he is saying is that it does not fit because it was not made for him but for someone else. With that he abandons the armor and takes what he has brought, a staff and a sling with five smooth stones taken from the wadi where the armies are gathered, the weapons of a shepherd.

As he goes into the valley to meet the giant of a man, the Philistine calls out in derision. He asks if they think him a dog to send out a boy. Dogs were not the beloved animals that they are today. In that time they were seen as scavengers and lowly. So, when asking if they thought him a dog he is asking if they think that lowly of him. He curses David by his gods and tells David to come to him so that he can kill him and feed him to the birds of the air. Sounds inviting, doesn’t it?

But David is not afraid. He states that the giant may come at him with sword and spear but he knows to whom the battle belongs: the Living God of Israel, the one who delivered him from the lion and the bear. He tells the Philistine what will happen to him and to all the army that has defied the living God of Israel. They will be the ones who are fed to the birds and wild beasts. In fact here is what David says to the Philistine: “This very 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 Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.” [2] This is not what we usually think of when we think of this story. There is a lot of talking going on here and little action. But the point is this: David is telling the Philistine that it is God who will give him the victory not himself or by strength of arms. Even Saul fell into this trap when he tried to fit the boy with his armor. But David tells them all who are hearing that it is the Lord who will give him the victory not sword or spear. David trusts that his weapons are sufficient because he trusts in the Lord.

And now we come to the part that everyone knows. David and Goliath move toward each other. The one, weighed down by his armor, was lumbering and slow. The other was nimble and quick. David took a stone and put it in the sling. Now just a little aside here. This is not a slingshot like we are accustomed to seeing. This is a leather or wool strap with a pocket in the middle to hold a stone that would weigh up to one pound. The stone would then be whirled around the head and let loose toward the enemy. A skilled slinger could hit a target 100 yards away throwing a stone at 70 mph or more. This could seriously injure or kill someone. So, when David goes out with a sling, it is not something that would be discounted. This was a serious weapon.

And David uses it well. He hits the one unprotected part of the Philistine’s body: the forehead. The blow knocks the man unconscious (remember just how big he was. It would take a lot to kill him.) David then goes and finishes him off, winning the battle not by might, by sword or spear as he says, but by trusting in the living God of Israel.

We still have the living God of Israel. God is still alive and well today just as in the time of David and Goliath. But all too often we trust in the what we believe that will get us through the battles that we will face: armor and weapons, whatever they may be. We trust in the fact that we want to be like “other nations”. And when the weapons are all played out, then we turn to God, throwing up a prayer and hoping that God will hear and answer.

But this story is telling us that God is there for the little person. That those who are the oppressed, the downtrodden, the marginalized have someone that they can turn to who will help them overcome. Bruce Birch says this about the story: “It embodies the hopes of all persons when they are faced with overwhelming and evil power that there is a way to overcome that power and win the future.” (Birch, NIB, 1 Samuel, pg. 434) Those who are oppressed are the ones who know that the world cannot be taken and beaten on its own terms. There has to be someone who can fight the battle for them, who saves not by sword or spear, and that is the Lord. Birch again says this: “Trust in God nurtures hope that there is a way into the future where there seems no way, that there may be a chink in the impregnable armor, that a well-placed stone of opposition can bring down seemingly impregnable systems of oppression that loom as armored giants.” (Birch, NIB, 1 Samuel 435)

When we go our own ways when we think that we can only go forward as the church with massive numbers, with large budgets and with corporate style ways then we have lost our way and need to come back to this story. For it is God who will save us and not the Philistines who have overwhelming strength. Birch once again says this: “God saves not without human agents (meaning we still have a part to play), but in ways that astonish us in our usual ways of measuring influence and power.” (Birch, ibid, 435)

This is a story that is often told as an underdog story. But really was David the underdog here? He had God on his side and he knew to whom the battel belonged. This story is about those who are the “least of these” who place their trust that God can and will bring them the victory. But it takes action. It takes faithful speech, confrontation, and a trust in God that will bring forth the victory over those who are the oppressors. Are we ready to see where God leads? Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.