Saul & Goliath Sermon

INTRO

“You’re not David”

a pretty popular phrase in 2010 - response to the over analogous interpretation of OT stories - “Slay the Goliaths of YOUR LIFE” - What is the Goliath keeping you from your breaththrough? - The Five Smooth Stones of Success -etc.

And it is true that in a lot of ways, you aren’t David. You don’t have the same promises he had - he was gonna be king of Israel

and ultimately the Story of David and Goliath is a story of Jesus and his ultimate defeat of Satan and sin and death. In a typological sense.

BUT...If there are mice in the barn - don’t burn down the barn.

If someone comes along and screws up the interpretation of a passage, we don’t respond by just jumping in the other ditch forever.

What I’m trying to get at here - is that in some ways we are David.

The first time a little child watches a super hero movie or reads a story about the kings and queens of Narnia or the destruction of the one ring...

Give them about 20 minutes - and they’ll suddenly be Iron Man saving the world, or High King Peter fighting the white witch, or Aragorn slaying an Orc.

Why is that? Because God has wired us to look for heroes. To look for others to emulate. And we do the same thing with the Bible.

We should look to the heroes of the faith, to their stories, and be inspired/motivated to serve God more. With more zeal, with more fervor.

We should learn from their mistakes too - David had them… believe me… - and we should learn and be inspired by their heart for the Lord, and what they did.

We are in a very similar situation - like David was - facing impossible odds against the enemies of God.

and so I want to take the next several weeks looking over this story closely and drawing out exactly what we should take from it, what applies to us now, and what doesn’t.

My hope is that we can see how David ultimately points us to Jesus, but also to inspire us to emulate his passion and devotion in our own lives.

And I hope, sincerely, that at the end of this series we know what our giants are, and are inspired to take the fight to them.

1 SAM 17:1 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[a] cubits[b] and a span. 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[c] 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.

BACKGROUND

The last judge of Israel - Samuel - was a good judge but a terrible father.

He did not pass his faith, his morals, his values, to his children.

as a result - Israel noticed - and demanded a king

I Sam 8:5 - “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

“like all the nations”

a strong king - that can fight battles - lead armies - conquer nations - amass treasure.

but who will also conscript soldiers and servants at will, take your lands from you, and impose new taxes to reward his best servants - which used to be your best servants - but he took those too. (laid out in 1 Sam 8)

In other words - Samuel failed to train up his kids to take the mantle - and Israel threw the baby out with the bath water.

Israel opted for pragmatism.

this is a perpetual fight in the Christian world.

“Look we agree that we should hold tightly to the principles taught in scripture… but shouldn’t we also have a youth group led by a cool 22 year old and walls lined with playstations so that the kids will actually want to go to church??”

“We need more big exciting events to attract the people to our church!”

Look around. Churches are shuttering after COVID. And by and large the ones who have taken the largest hit? Are the pragmatic ones. The ones that started to build their foundation on something other than Jesus and his Word. May we never be like Israel in this way.

So Israel chooses pragmatism - they choose to give away their liberties in exchange for comfort and safety (sound familiar??)

but in the end, they get neither.

Saul is the perfect secular king.

He’s big, tall, handsome, strong AND successful.

he provides for the kingdom the comfort and success they’ve wanted all along - so much so that Israel refuses to see his character flaws.

“I mean he gets the job done so who cares about anything else” - he’s a covenant breaker - he’s a liar - and it catches up with him - the Spirit of God leaves him and everything starts to fall apart in his kingdom.

Sam annoints another king - David - only 12 at the time, but part of the point of this is to contrast the two.

David is faithful - Saul is insecure. David is humble - Saul is proud. Saul can’t admit his wrongs - David immediately repents. Saul is a pragmatist, depending onf human might and power - David depends on God.

By the time we get to Chapter 17 - where we’re picking up - Saul has been abandoned by God and is being tortured by demons

in fact any success they’ve had has been voided. The Phillistines are now deep in Israel, and in a sense, this is Israel’s last stand.

The only thing preventing the Phil from making the final push is that they don’t want to lose so many soldiers unnecessarily. It’s a checkmate - and so - Goliath enters the scene.

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.

Who’s he really after here? The champion of Israel - Saul.

and where is Saul? … not gonna fight.

For forty days Goliath taunts Saul, Israel, and God himself. Saul is tested fr 40 days - will he stand up and fight?

no. He won’t. He cowers. He fails the test.

He is not like Joshua or Caleb - giant slayers - he is like Adam. Failing to fight.

The CHARACTERS in this story

PHILLISTINES

think vikings - professional pillagers - oppressed israel, no blacksmiths - and continually hit them again and again. Raiding them, weakening them over time.

They already did this to the Hitites - eventually wiping them out.

Instilling fear and submission and weakness into Israel by their gradual and perpetual assaults. Taking a little bit of ground over time against them and keeping them weakened and on the defensive.

This is an easy metaphor for us.

When christians sit back, only operate on the defense, only try to conserve our lifestyle and values - we lose. The enemy raids, gains ground, pushes us back further and further into submission.

this is why conserving - conservatism - isn’t enough. We don’t just sit back, we don’t just hold the ground, we don’t just raise the alarm when our lifestyle is threatened. We take the ground. We should progress.

after all we’ve got the only real principles of progress. The blueprints of the Bible written by the creator of all things. - duh...

But where? Where is my field of battle? Where should I advance? Wherever God has placed you. Whatever field you are in is your battlefield.

Have faith - take it for Jesus

Goliath

The Champion. over 9 feet tall. And not a lanky nine feet tall.

we can tell by the description of his armor that he’s not awkward or lanky or unsure about himself. His armor and weapons were heavy, very heavy. It would have been too much for a clumsy, lumbering, lanky person.

No, Goliath was athletic. Fast. Formidable. He was a descendant of the Anakim. A warrior race of rulers and evil kings. The “giants in the land” that made Israel afraid to go in.

The giants that Joshua and Caleb slayed vefore they moved in.

But if we pay attention to his armor, we realize that he’s descended from more than just giant.

His armor was made of scales - and if you’re familiar with the rest of the Bible that should ring some bells for you.

He represented the serpent. The dragon in the garden.

He is a “seed of the serpent” referenced in Gen 3 - his description is made clear.

And just like the Phil champions of old - there are still those champions today. They seem untouchable. And so we cower.

we love our comfort. We don’t want to risk it. We know that if we mess with someone that formiddable they might win and we could lose everything as a result. Our business, our hope for the future.

Whether we are discussing national goliaths such as secular scholarship or evolutionary science or the abortion industry, or communism, or whether we are talking about the giants that don't seem to ever leave churches like suspicion, or addiction, or selfishness or pride.

Or your very own besetting sins that you don't think you could ever defeat

we cower. why? well look at Saul.

SAUL

Strong, powerful, but only possessed earthly power. Humanistic power.

But here’s the thing about when you only trust in the strength of man - there inevitably will be a stronger man to come on the scene.

and he was afriad. He wouldn’t step to the mark.

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.”

Saul does nothing spiritual. He doesn’t turn to the Lord. He’s completely pragmatic in his approach. Completely humanistic.

no prayer. no fasting. no assembly. no national call to repent. He was just gonna write a check.

but no man came forward - unntil...

ENTER DAVID

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.” 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!”

The distinct difference - DAVID understood where all his victories came from. And as a result he knew where this one would come from as well.

v37.

But Israel wasn’t ready to trust him. They don’t believe him. Why? Because they don’t trust the Lord.

They trust in their humanistic strategy. They don’t believe in the promises of God. They don’t believe victory is possible. They’ve lost their way.

we have similar promises that we can stand on. We need not cower from fights that seem to big for us.

We just need the faith of a child. Fiath of a mustard seed. To move in the ways that the Lord has called, despite the giants.

next week we’ll pick up.