Read the transcript
1 Samuel 17:20-24, 32-37, 40-51
Good morning, Church. Today's reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 17. We've got verse 20 to 24, then 32 to 37, and then 40 to 51.
Early in the morning, David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines, and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.
Verse 32 to 37, David said to Saul, let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him. Saul replied, you are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it, and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, go, and the Lord be with you.
Verses 40 to 51. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield-bearer in front of him kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Come here, he said, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.
David said to the Philistine, you come against me with a sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands.
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
This is the word of the Lord.
God's People in Trouble
Thank you, Rebecca. Well, I told you it was great stuff. We're only two chapters into the series. There are about 60 chapters in your Bible about the life of King David, and they're all as exciting as that, right? So we need to get into this.
Before we pray, I'm going to borrow Phil Swann. Can you pop down the front? You might notice there's a new door. Oh! We'll try that again. There's a new door. Okay, then. Isn't it big? Ooh, okay. Come on. Is it as big as Phil Swann? What do you think? Yeah, no, yeah, no.
Phil's going to go up to the door. Here we go. Someone's moved. Someone moved. Who moved my tape? Come here. This is a very naughty boy. Come here. Good. I want three metres. Thank you. Vic? Go on. I'll hold one end. Here we are. Good, good. Mark it up. Could you put it back where you found it? Thank you.
It's not easy to do. That's why I had a Blu-Tack up there. Oh, that's what the Blu-Tack was for. Okay, so the point is Phil Swann is going to stand next to the door, and he is not as tall as who? Goliath. Goliath. Because Goliath was. That'll do. Yeah, okay. Before we get a health and safety scenario happening here.
Okay, so this is, I mean, I thought Phil Swann was big, right? But this is as big as Goliath. Thank you, Vicky. Let's give Vicky a round of applause. None of that was prepared beforehand. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, so Goliath would make, what's his name, Phil Swann look small. All right, let's pray.
Thank you, Father, that we can have fun when we're together, and that life takes surprising turns. It's amazing to hear the words Rebecca read about this encounter with a shepherd boy and a giant.
What a wonderful picture of rescue, deliverance, salvation, that is. Thank you for the way that our champion, our Lord Jesus, took on death. He seemed so weak, yet he was so strong.
As the Israelites rejoiced in the victory of David over the Philistines' champion, and chased them all the way back to where they'd come from. We rejoice in the victory the Lord Jesus has won for us, that we can stand on his victory, and the enemy has to flee at our command.
Bring us into this story. Help us find our place in your purposes, because we've met today. For Christ's sake, amen.
So God's people are in trouble. God's people are in trouble. God's people are in trouble. They're more interested in being like the people around them than they are in following God.
If you look on page 442 in the Bible, in the seats near you, flip back a few pages to 1 Samuel chapter 8 and you'll hear these words. And the Lord told Samuel, listen to all that the people are saying to you. It's not you they have rejected, they have rejected me as their king.
As they've done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods. This is what they're doing to you.
And verse 19, but the people refused to listen to Samuel. No, they said, we want a king over us, then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles.
The saddest words in that sentence are like all the other nations. From the calling of Abraham, the whole story of Israel is that they should be a people set apart, a kingdom of priests, that they might be like an emblem for the nations of the world to see what it means to love and live as God's people and so draw the world to a heavenly father.
That's the point of Israel. They are set apart for his purposes. And what do they want to be? Like the other nations. Can you see the tragedy?
And can you see how God's justice works its way out when they want to be like the other nations? Okay then, here's a king. See how you go with that. See how that works for you.
And the ultimate kind of end of their drift from God is when they are absorbed into the other nations and they disappear.
The Battle on God's Terms
Okay, so they're slaves in Egypt for 400 years. He pulls them back out. Then what happens at the other end? Oh, into Babylon. They're gone. I mean, read the stories of Daniel and so on. There they are mixed in amongst all the, their distinctiveness is gone.
God is gracious, brings them back to the promised land. This is the history of God's people. This is our history. Not only are the people adrift, the king that they bothered God for has come off the rails. God has withdrawn his spirit from him.
He is, Samuel tells him that the kingdom has been torn out of his grasp and Samuel has gone ahead of the demise of the king and anointed another. So there are actually two kings. One in the wings and one on the throne who has lost his role, power, position, support.
So the people are adrift. The king is off the rails and now, as Rebecca rightly read, we have two armies in a valley, one on either hillside, Philistines and Israelites and here is the threat.
1 Samuel 17 and verse 8, Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not the servants of Saul?
Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects but if I overcome him and kill him, you'll become our slaves and serve us.
Can you hear it? We will take you away out of your land. You will be our slaves.
Here is the existential threat to the life of Israel.
To their call to be God's distinctive people in the world, this bloke's gonna end it. He's gonna end it today. Anybody want to fight me?
And so they're caught in here with a standoff with the Philistines and their giant, their king who is the only one in Israel really qualified to take him on. Remember Saul has a head and shoulders higher than all the other Israelites. He's the one who's got a suit of armor. He's the one with the sword and a shield bearer. He's the with the crown.
Actually he's probably the only one that has the gear. He's hiding in his tent. Hiding in his tent.
And David, the one anointed in his place, the shepherd boy, has not yet taken up his office.
So at the eight o'clock service we did this thing with Psalm 23 and it works like this. Just think about that. The Lord's my shepherd. King David is writing but he says the Lord is my shepherd.
So he's about 13, we did this last week, when he's anointed by the prophet. Okay? And about another 13 years, so that makes him 26, before he actually comes to the throne. Those intervening years are very messy.
I mean Saul tries to hunt him down and kill him. There's all sorts of stuff going on in David's life. Most of it not good. But when David is king and he's actually on the throne and he's doing his king thing, he writes a song.
And it's the Lord's my king, I shall not want. He makes... No, no, it's the Lord's my shepherd. So David looks back to those days in the wilderness with those few sheep. His brother Eliab points out, the little flock.
He looks back to those days and he says, that's where God formed me. So if I'm anyone, if I come from anywhere, I'm a shepherd. Because that's where I met God.
Facing Giants with God's Strength
And I wonder how it is with you. When you met God, when he came to you, it's such a formative moment in your Christian development. It shapes you forever. It's like that's who God is for you.
Like Hagar in the wilderness. The only thing sure about God was that he saw her. So the name she uses for him is the God who sees me. That's all she knew. It's enough.
So the Lord's my shepherd is this kind of crucible thing for David. This is where I met the Lord. This is who I am. And so, you know, next time you read Psalm 23 or hear it sung, just think about that.
Here's a king writing a song, but he's writing it from his perspective as a shepherd. He's been anointed but he's not yet taken his office. He's in this invidious grey space. God's people are in trouble.
Goliath is the threat to their continued existence, personified. Look at him. He's dressed like a tank. And for 40 days, for 40 days, he's been taunting the armies of Israel morning and night. Give me a man to fight.
And I would have thought any kind of aspiration that Israel might have had for victory had well and truly evaporated under that kind of hammering.
But we need to notice that the battle will not be fought on Goliath's terms. Verse 10, then the Philistines said, this day I defy the ranks of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other. That's Goliath's terms. This is how this thing rolls.
Saul is Israel's king and leader. He is pleased when David offers to do the fighting for him. But the battle will not be fought on Saul's terms either.
Verse 38, then Saul dressed David in his own tunic and he put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he wasn't used to them. Saul's not David's size. David's still a boy. It's probably all dragging on the ground.
I can't go in these, he said to Saul, because I'm not used to them. And he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd bag, and with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
So this is where we have our Italian art lesson. Michelangelo's statue used to be in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It's now an establishment of its own. Cost you a lot of money to go and see this statue. Check it out online.
What did Michelangelo create? A naked David with a sling over his shoulder and a stone in his hand. What story in David's life is he depicting? He's right here. He's been to the stream, he's got his five stones. I don't know if the statue has room for a shepherd's bag. There's not much other clothing.
Okay, so the battle will not be fought on Goliath's terms. The battle will not be fought on Saul's terms. Oh good, the battle will be fought on David's terms. Is that right?
The thing that makes this whole story so amazing is that people still today talk about David and Goliath contests, right? It's proverbial. It's kind of the way we think about an unequal contest.
But the amazing thing about this story is not that David the shepherd boy overcame the giant. That is not the main point of the story. The main point of the story is that the battle is fought on God's terms. That's the main thing.
Trusting God in the Battle
David said to the Philistine, you've come against me with sword and spear and javelin but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel who you have defied.
This day the Lord will hand you over to me and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves for the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands.
Friends, the battle is always fought on God's terms. Always. What battle do you have before you? The battle is the Lord's. It is always fought on God's terms.
It may be a battle with your finances. Your budget this week might look just scary.
It might be a battle with a relationship, perhaps someone you live with or a neighbour, colleague, friend. You may have battle with your children or with your parents. Someone's being naughty.
You might be having a battle with your health. You might be having a battle with your sexuality. You might be having a battle with your identity. You might be having a battle with your future or your past.
Friends, the battle is the Lord's and it is always fought on God's terms. The giant laughed when he saw David approaching for battle. He laughed because he did not know the power of the one who dwelt in David's heart.
Do you remember when he was anointed just last week? What happened? Let's find out. 16 and 13. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in? Someone's gonna say it. Power. What's the word? Power. Power.
You see this is Goliath's big mistake. He's not up against a shepherd boy, is he? Who's he up against? God. Goliath is about to find out what happens when you rise up against the Lord and his anointed.
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly forward to the battle line to meet him. David ran towards the battle. Gosh, so often we're running in the other direction.
Reaching into his bag, taking out a stone. He slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground.
You know at the end of this contest when the king, you know, asks the captain of his army, who is that young man? You know, bring him over here. David's still holding the head. Oh gosh, there's an image for you.
How did David do it? Wasn't he scared? Yes, he was scared, but he knew the Lord who was stronger than his fears and who had prevailed for him before.
Do you know the Lord who is stronger than your fears? Do you know him or have you yet to meet him?
Victory Through Faith
David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
David still has to fight. He still has to deal with the scorn of his older brother Eliab. That's earlier on in the story, you should read it when you get home. The doubts of the king, the ridicule of Goliath, his own fears and emotions, they're all still there.
This is not some kind of magic carpet ride, you know when God's just gonna fix everything and I could sit back. No, no, you've got to engage and it's tough!
But you're not on your own. This Philistine has been taunting the armies of the living God for 40 days. Someone's got to do something about it.
David's the one who's been anointed king. He knows his way around a bear and a lion. Let me at him.
Please don't think that David imagines for a moment that he can do anything about the situation. No, we're not talking about the same David if that's what you think. He doesn't think he can do anything. That would be very presumptuous of him.
But David knows that God wants something done about the situation, and if Saul won't do it, then he will. It's God who wants this situation resolved. It's God who does not want his people enslaved. It's God who does not want his people just to disappear and become like the nations.
God has got a project happening here, and if the king won't help him, I will. Can you see what God is doing here? There's so much going on. There is so much going on.
Yes, he's delivering his people from the threat of slavery by his servant David. Well done, David. But he's also setting David up as the next king.
So this mushy interim period where he's neither fish nor fowl, nobody really knows what to make of him, and the other king's trying to kill him, God is actually preparing the ground, because it's not just David's heart that has to change. He's got to take the nation with him. Tough.
David comes to enjoy God's favour when he was anointed, 16 and 12. It says this. So he went and sent for him and brought him in. David was ruddy with fine appearance and handsome features, and the Lord said, Rise and anoint him. He is the one. So that little boy David has God's favour.
Saul, afflicted by an evil spirit, is looking for someone to calm him. David plays the harp. Here's what it says in verse 21 of the previous chapter. David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armour bearers. So he has God's favour and he has the king's favour.
When he's standing there holding the Philistine's head, being interviewed by the king, who is looking on but the king's son, Jonathan, chapter 18 and verse 1. After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. So we've got God on side, we've got the king on side, we've got the heir apparent on side, and as the army returns victorious from the battlefield, the people are singing, Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands. So he's got the people on side.
The promise of God spoken through his prophet Samuel is coming to pass, as God's promises always will. It wasn't easy, he still had to fight, there was much to overcome, but it's moving. As somebody once very wisely said, a believer and the Holy Spirit are always a majority. It doesn't matter what situation you find yourself in, work, community, something in your family, a believer and the Holy Spirit are always a majority. You are always enabled to respond.
And before our eyes this morning, God works out the salvation of his people in a most emphatic manner, their victory is absolute. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of their cities, Gath, and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. Absolute wipe out.
But this great victory, this great deliverance was only temporary. And before long, David and his army would have to fight again. David's complete trust in God and his victory prefigures his son's battle with death on the cross.
David is a type of another, our Lord Jesus. Jesus does what even David could not do, rescues God's people forever as he is raised up from death on the third day. Jesus' victory is a once and for all victory. There is no more battle after that. It is done.
And we stand on that victory. And we are his people filled by his spirit.
So here's the question. Can the God who delivered David from the paw of the bear and the lion and the hand of the Philistine, Goliath, deliver you from the hand of your enemies? Can he do that?
And it's a yes or no answer. Jesus is either our champion or we're still fighting for ourselves. So whenever you next face a giant, whatever that problem may be, you have to choose who's going to do the fighting.
Are you going to sort it out yourself or are you going to let the Lord do it? You still have to have the fear. You've still got to step forward. You've got to put your hand up, take the risk, grab the moment, make yourself present, run in the right direction.
You still have to do all those things. But are you the one winning this thing or is it God? Because if you're still fighting your battles, all I can say is, God help you. Because it's the way we're made, right?
So please don't hear me coming down hard on you. I'm just telling you how it is. Our instinct is to sort it out ourselves, right? It's the fall. It sets us up. We are self-sufficient in all things.
I did it my way. What a great funeral that was, okay? And that's how we live. You just wake up and you think that way. You don't have to do anything to do that. I'll sort it out. I'll show them.
But the walk of faith is saying no to self and yes to Jesus in the battle.
So if you're used to managing your own affairs and you're pretty good at that, I can tell. I can tell from here you're pretty good at that.
And you think that when the heat is turned up, you can turn to God and he'll fix it for you, kind of like the first aid kit, right? Normally we're good. But when there's a really big problem, then Jesus can help me with that. It won't work.
And it's not because God is unable or God is unwilling. It's that you are not used to trusting him and you won't be able to pull it off. All the time you're going to grab it back and you'll die. You will not live. And the battle will be lost.
So here's the thing. When you're a kid and you get your first supermarket job, okay? I can still remember my second son doing that. As far as he was concerned, it was money for free, right?
You tithe that money. What is it going to be, $100? You put $10 in the plate, kid, because it's going to be easier to put $10 in the plate than it is to put $100, $200, $300, $400 in the plate, whatever your pay packet is going to be when you're a big boy, okay? That's going to be easier. Learn that lesson now.
You have trouble in the playground. You've got some kid picking on you. Well, let's work that through with Jesus because you better learn to work out your relationship difficulties when they're small than when, like it's a divorce or something, okay?
You think, well, I'm going to save Jesus up for the big stuff. You are not going to be practiced in trusting him. You are going to fail, not him.
The Lord's my shepherd. He's a king and he's still writing about it. It's so significant.
Those moments where he shapes you, treasure them, treasure them. It's where you meet him face to face and once you've met him, he never goes from you. You've got him and he's got you. Now we can do some business.
Please don't blame Jesus for the church. What a mess. What a mess. It's we're not practiced in walking by faith and not by sight, okay? That's your New Testament version of today's passage. Not by spear, not by javelin, right? By my spirit, says the Lord.
Start today. Start today. I don't know what it is for you. I don't know what it is that keeps you up at night or that you're trying not to notice is happening in your world. Start today and when you get up in the morning, before you put your underpants on, I want you to say, Jesus, I trust you with my giant. Can you do that for me? Jesus, I trust you with my giant.
You just keep saying that and it's going to get in there and you're going to start to do it and you're going to learn again about the faithfulness of God and you'll be ready when the trial comes, when the giant comes. You'll be ready and Jesus will get glory and you'll have a happy preacher. Amen? Amen.
