Sermon Tone Analysis

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.