Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, church.
[00:00:03] What a joy to be together today. Amen.
[00:00:06] We are continuing our Hard Mode series. We've been talking about this period in Israel's history where David has already been anointed king, but Saul is still the king, right? Like this weird in between. And we've been using kind of these texts to consider this idea that it is oftentimes in the hardship of life, in the moments when we're experiencing trial and difficulty and maybe even just like toiling away in obscurity, that God is sharpening us and sanctifying us and preparing us for the call that he's put on our lives.
[00:00:45] And I think the thing in this, that's important for us to remember as we go through these texts, especially some of these more familiar stories, is just this. Beloved God has called you specifically to a part to play in his kingdom. You.
[00:01:00] And I mean that, every single one of you. It doesn't matter if you're in the room and you feel awesome in your faith, if you feel like your faith is barely holding on, if you feel bold, if you feel not so bold. Every single one of us has been called by the Lord to participate with him in his kingdom. God put you on this earth. God put you in your context, in your relationships, in your circles, so that you might join him in his work of seeking and saving the lost. That's an exciting thing. It's a thing worth allowing God to prepare you, to sharpen you, to make you better at. Today we're going to look at one of the most famous verses in our scriptures in all of the Bible, one of the most famous stories in all of Western society. So we're going to be in First Samuel, Chapter 17.
[00:01:46] If you want to go ahead and turn there.
[00:01:48] We. We have Bibles around the room, if you don't have access to one. This is an extremely long passage, and so we're going to do our best to. To get through it quickly. But I think what we're going to see in this really familiar story, as we look at David fighting the giant Goliath, we're just going to see really clearly, I think, that all of us are a lot more like David than we think. And what I mean by that is that we are weak and unable to face the challenges of life in this cursed and broken world. I think that's what we're actually going to see in this story.
[00:02:19] And by the way, that's precisely why the Gospel is so powerful, because as we'll see again in this text, it's not about David, just like it's not about us, which really is my main point today. This is something David says in the text, something we're going to see clearly, something that's so true in our life of faith as we seek obedience to the Lord. It's just this, the battle is the Lord's.
[00:02:44] That's the point today. That's a quote from David's own speech to Goliath before he fights him. But, but I think it is so pointed for our lives following Christ today, as, as we are following the call of God on our lives in faith, we will find continually that it is his strength, not ours.
[00:03:07] It is the Lord's ability, not ours, that empowers us to endure, to walk forward in faith, to do the things God has called us to do. And beloved, there is so much life and freedom in that. I think, I think the problem in this text for us today, for many of us, is simply going to be the fact that we subtly face this, this, this cultural pressure when we read this text. I don't think it's going to be a textual issue we'll struggle with. I think it's going to be a cultural issue. David versus Goliath is such a popular story in our culture and in bad preaching that it's just, we just understand it as an American underdog story. It's so easy for us to do that.
[00:03:51] We slip it into this narrative of man. If we only believe in ourselves and pursue our dreams with strength and confidence, we can rise up and slay all the giants in our lives. Right?
[00:04:01] Because that idea is just as home in prosperity gospel churches as it is in Disney movies. And it's not actually what this text is about.
[00:04:09] And we're going to have to allow ourselves to feel that slight pressure to Disney eyes and westernize this story. We're going to feel that a little bit, and that's okay. But just shove it aside because it's garbage and let's let the text actually inform us itself. So why don't we, why don't we pray over this and then we'll jump into this story.
[00:04:30] Jesus, we need you today.
[00:04:33] We need you, Holy Spirit, to be our discipler. As we look at a text that for most of us is gonna be incredibly familiar, I ask, Holy Spirit, that you would just be the one who cuts through our familiarity, who cuts through the cultural pressures and the larger meta narrative of our society and actually speaks to us the truth of your gospel, the truth of your encouragement, the truth that you have in this text for us to Engage. Let each and every one of us hear from you today, Lord, not. Not our own desires and our own hearts. Let us leave here today challenged, refreshed, encouraged in a way that only you can do, Father. So we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:05:13] Okay, Matthew, chapter Matthew, 1st Samuel, chapter 17. We spent a long time in Matthew. You have to give me a little bit of grace on that. First Samuel, chapter 17. Again, an incredibly long text. So I want to get going quickly. The only setup I'll give it is this. Remember that Saul has shown he's really bad at being a king. He's dramatically failed his charge. He's turned his heart from the Lord. God has rejected Saul as king. He's removed his spirit from him. He's anointed David in secret as Saul's successor and placed his spiritual anointing on David. Saul doesn't know any of this and has actually brought David into a minor role in his court.
[00:05:57] And so David, we see in this text and in the coming text, is increasingly operating in the power of the Spirit of God at the same time that Saul is increasingly operated in his own strength and in his flesh. And that's kind of the, just kind of the direction, the momentum of these coming texts. Okay, let's jump into this. First Samuel, not Matthew, first Samuel 17. Starting in the first verse, read this.
[00:06:20] The Philistines gathered their forces for war at Succo in Judah and camped between Succo and and Azakah in Ephes. Damon, Saul and the men of Israel gathered encamped in the Valley of Law. When they lined up in battle formation to face the Philistines, the Philistines were standing on one hill. The Israelites were standing on another hill with a ravine between them. Then a champion named Goliath from Gath came out from the Philistine camp. He was 9ft 9 inches tall and wore a bronze helmet and bronze scale armor that weighed with 125 pounds. There was a bronze armor on his shins and a bronze javelin was slung between his shoulders. His spear shaft was like a weaver's beam and the iron point of his spear weighed 15 pounds.
[00:07:09] In addition, a shield bearer was walking in front of him. He stood and shouted to the Israelite, battle formations. Why do you come out to line up in battle formation? He asked them. Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose one of your men. Have him come down against me. If he wins in a fight against me and kills me, we will be your servants. But if I win, against him and kill him. Then you will be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel today. Send me a man so we can fight each other.
[00:07:42] When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified.
[00:07:49] Now, David was the son of an apaphrite from Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse. Jesse had eight sons, and during Saul's reign, was already an old man. Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to war, and their names were Eliab the firstborn, Abimedab the next, and Shema the third. And David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul, but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father's flock in Bethlehem. Every morning and evening for 4, 40 days, the philistine came forward and took his stand.
[00:08:21] Okay, so again, we're stepping into one of these stories in the Bible that is so famous that we almost feel like we don't need to read it. Right? Like, does anyone not know where this story is going? Spoiler alert. David kills Goliath. I'm really sorry if you made it 4,000 years and didn't hear the ending of that story. That is where it's in fact going.
[00:08:43] I know this story is familiar for most of us, but that's actually why I think I want to encourage you. I think it's important for us to try and engage this story with fresh eyes, to try and let ourselves read it today together in this space and let the Holy Spirit just tell us what he has for us in it to give us a little bit of a setup. I'm going to throw up this map we've looked at several times over this course of the chunk of First Samuel, and really, this is just to give you a scale of the state of Israel during the time of Saul. That that purple blob in the middle of the map, that's the territory that Israel generally controls during Saul's reign. And here's what's important about that little blob. You notice it's surrounded by blobs of various color. That's all of Israel's enemies.
[00:09:29] Israel is surrounded on every side by foreign peoples that actively want to see them dead.
[00:09:36] And so Saul's reign was a brutal one. A brutal reign. Every time he went to defend one area, people attacked in another area. That was pretty much the history of Israel for the first long time. They existed as a country. This kind of salmon, the salmon one, the one right there by the Mediterranean Sea. That's the Philistines territory. And they're the ones who are the really big dangers because they have all the coastal cities, all the big trade cities, which means they're in control of how quickly trade and technology works its way into the inland, landlocked nations like Israel. Now, we've looked at the Philistines back and forth several times over the course of this story, but what's important for today is to know that the Philistines are attacking Israel again. And this time they've been incredibly successful. They're working their way down a river valley. They're essentially following the course of a river. And you don't need to know all the names of these cities we just read, but what you need to know is this. They have now captured and conquered several key, important Israelite cities and are only about 15 miles away from Bethlehem and Gibeah, Bethlehem is a little bit of an important city. We know that biblically, a couple of important people came from there. But Gibeah is Saul's. That's. That's. That's like his actual capital. That's. That's where his palace is. They are deep inland to Israel. This is an existential threat. What the Philistines are essentially doing is saying, look, we got to stop with these border skirmishes. Let's charge in there, conquer their capital, kill their king, and then the whole thing will fall apart. That's what they're attempting to do. And so far, it has worked.
[00:11:18] And so the text tells us that this is kind of getting close to, like, a last stand, is Saul musters the army, he gets them in this valley. This valley is still there. You can go look at it. You can look up pictures of it. There's these two small mountain kind of things, kind of like Ozark type mountains. Right. Not really mountains. Right. But this long, flat ravine in between them. And so they're each able to set up a really defensible camp at the base of their hill and then have this large killing field in between them. And that's kind of the setup we have here. Now, what's interesting we know about ancient warfare is that oftentimes when the army set up, they would do their very best to delay actually fighting. They would set up camp, and then they would just sit there for a long time. And there's a lot of strategic reason for this. The longer they sit there, the more time they have to strategize, the more time they have to scout, the more time they have to recruit. And in the middle of this boring time when the armies are sitting staring at each other, it was common for captains and generals and champions to march out into the killing field and challenged the other army to honor duels. It's a normal thing. And they almost always had some version of, look how tough I am. Send your best one out, and if I kill him, we win the war. And if you kill me, you win the war. And what's interesting is we have literally hear this, literally zero historical confirmation in the ancient Near Eastern world of any society ever, once, a single time, actually surrendering after one of their people lost an honor duel. And so you ask, why would they keep doing them if everyone knew? No one's actually going to surrender after the honor duel because they're really strategic. They delay the battle, they let you take more time. And also, if you have good champions, you can kill off some of their best soldiers before the actual battle starts. So it's a normal strategy. As we read this, we should assume both sides were doing this the whole 40 days.
[00:13:13] But what the author wants us to point out is the Philistines had one specific champion that no one was willing to go up against.
[00:13:21] And this is where we're introduced to Goliath.
[00:13:25] And guys, I want you to see this. The author here, like, this is another one of those things where he's just so familiar, he's just so worked into our cultural understanding of villains that we can like, breeze past this. But the author is really concerned with you understanding just how much of a monster Goliath is. The text describes him as nine foot nine.
[00:13:50] Can you sit with that for just a second? I am. I am six foot five.
[00:13:57] So put. Put a yardstick on top of my head and then go an extra four inches above that. Right?
[00:14:04] That's. That's a big guy, right? That's a really big guy. The tallest man ever in recorded history is a St. Louis guy. He's from Alton, and he was 8 foot 11 and he weighed over 400 pounds.
[00:14:16] Goliath is a monster. Now, it's actually interesting. There's a little bit of good faith historical debate between theologians about whether or not Goliath was 9 foot 9 or 6 foot 9. And this all has to do with. This all has to do with the way textual history works. Some of the oldest copies of First Samuel, we have actually say that he's 6 foot 9, but the majority of the texts we have say that he's nine foot nine. So there's an interesting debate there. And we don't actually know, I would argue by the way, it's much more likely that the author means the taller number because none of his armor would make sense if he was 6 foot 9. And we'll talk about that for a second. But the real thing is, even if you go with the shorter number, you have to remember this is the ancient Near East. The average Jewish warrior was like 5 foot 4 legitimately. That's not an exaggeration. Right. And so Saul was a head taller than all of them. So he's a good, you know, 5 foot 10, 5 foot 11. And then put him the strongest warrior in all Israel next to a guy who's 6 foot 9. Right. Like that's, that's, that's a monster, no matter how you slice it. And that's going with the smaller, more realistic number. I wanted to give us a little bit of just kind of a look of what this might look like, what the Israelite soldiers might have seen. So I went to the Michaels house this week and I had my son Moses pose with Eric.
[00:15:35] This is, this is, I think, pretty close to what we're supposed to imagine. If you guys don't know eric, Michael is 6 foot 8 and Moses is 7. So that's, that's, that's how you set up that comparison.
[00:15:48] The description of Goliath's armor, again, it's all set up to make you terrified of this guy. Ancient Greek scale armor, it was brass scale scales that was stitched onto leather. And most of the historical examples we have saved from archeology weigh about 40, 50 pounds. His weighed 125 pounds, right? It says his javelin had a 15 pound spearhead.
[00:16:12] Imagine a 15 pound free weight, right?
[00:16:16] Now put that on the end of a spear and try and chuck it. Right?
[00:16:20] That's what's being described here. This, this guy is an absolute monster. Who wouldn't be scared of this guy, right? In one on one combat. And so no one is willing to engage him for 40 days. This goes on. And in the story now, it brings us back as it sets this up, it brings us back to David.
[00:16:46] And the contrast here is incredibly intentional.
[00:16:49] David the shepherd, David the youngest, David the court bard. The text now even lets us know if you were here. Last week we talked about David being drawn into Saul's service. The text lets us know that even though David has grown up some since his anointing, his appointment as Saul's armor bearer was incredibly just for show. It was just to get him close to Saul. Right. Because when Saul actually goes to combat, David is not seen as old enough or Ready to go. So he goes to combat with his other actual soldiers and sends David back home to watch the sheep. Right? Like that's, that's part of what we're supposed to see here. Because in the last text it was like, oh, David's growing up some. He works in Saul's court. He's, he's his armor bearer. So obviously he's getting training. But when an actual battle came up, Saul goes, go home. Yeah, you go home. We'll take the actual soldiers. Right? And David has been referring to, relegated to this kind of courier role where he's going back and forth, this 15 mile run back and forth to tend his father's sheep out in the wilderness, to care for home, and also to bring supplies to the military. Guys, this could not be a more perfect setup, right? An existential threat to Israel, a monster for an enemy, mocking the Lord's armies, mocking the Lord, the mighty King Saul, a head taller than all the other warriors, cowering in the corner and hiding, and David the runt running back and forth with supplies.
[00:18:17] It's a setup, right? Let's read on and see where this goes. Verse 17.
[00:18:22] One day, Jesse told his son David, take this half bushel of roasted grain along with these 10 loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry them to the camp. Oh, also take these 10 portions of cheese to the field commander. Let's just stop and thank Jesse for being the kind of man who knew the leaders in his life needed cheese, right?
[00:18:42] Just think about that. If you have no other application from the text today, think about the authorities God has put in your life and whether or not he's calling you to send them cheese.
[00:18:51] Just show up to work tomorrow and be like, look, Lord spoke to me at church today, here's some Gouda. Anyway, check on their well being. This is why I should just read the text and I'll give my commentary. Check on the well being of your brothers and bring a confirmation from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Allah fighting with the Philistines. So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with someone else, loaded it up and set out as Jesse had charged him. He arrived at the perimeter of the camp as the army was marching out to its battle formation, shouting their battle cry. Israel and the Philistines light up in battle formation facing each other. David left his supplies in the care of the quartermaster and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were while he was speaking with them. Suddenly the Champion named Goliath. The Philistine from Gath came forward from the Philistine battle line and shouted his usual words, which David heard.
[00:19:44] When all the Israelite men saw Goliath, they retreated from him, terrified. Previously, an Israelite man had declared, do you see this man who keeps coming out? He comes to defy Israel. The king will make the man who kills him very rich and and will give him his daughter. The king will also make the family of that man's father exempt from paying taxes in Israel. David spoke to the men who were standing with him. What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Well, the troops told him about the offer, concluding, that is what will be done for the man who kills him. Now David's oldest brother, Eliab, listened as he spoke to the men, and he became angry with him. Why did you come down here? He asked. Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and your evil heart. You came down here to see the battle. What have I done now? Protested David. It was just a question.
[00:20:35] Then he turned from those beside him to others in front of him and asked about the author. The people gave the same answer as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul. So he had David brought to him. David said to Saul, don't let anyone be discouraged by him. He, your servant, will go and fight this Philistine. But Saul replied, you can't go fight this Philistine. You're just a youth. And he's been a warrior since he was young. David answered, saul, your servant has been tending his father's sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, I went after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its first strike it down and kill it. Your servant has killed lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. Then David said, 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.
[00:21:29] Saul said to David, go, and may the Lord be with you. Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David's head and had him put on armor. David strapped his sword on over the military clothes and tried to walk, but he was not used to them. I can't go in these, david said to Saul. I'm not used to them. So David took them off.
[00:21:47] Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in a pouch in his shepherd's bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.
[00:22:01] What a scene. All right. Like, it's. It's incredibly cinematic, right?
[00:22:06] David has been sent by his father to check on his brothers, to offer supply to the army to make sure the cheese gets where it's supposed to go. He knows what's going up, right? He knows what's going on in this battle. But the story is such that David gets there early enough that he actually gets there right when the army is lining up. Like, he gets there early in the morning. They're coming out, they're setting up. And right when he gets to his brothers to chat with them, he witnesses this thing that's been happening for more than a month.
[00:22:36] And so I think what's interesting is the first off, this battle has been delayed so long, David finds. Finding. Finds it safe enough to just run up to the battle lines and talk to his brothers, right? I think that part's already interesting in and of itself. But when he gets up here and he hears Goliath giving these ludicrous threats, the way the soldiers are running now, we get kind of the first inkling of what's actually going to happen in this story. Goliath is a monster. He's terrifying. No one will go up against him in single combat when the real battle starts. Saul probably already has plans to send, like, 10 of his best junior dudes to surround the giant and try and take him out, right? But single combat, that's just. That's just the waste of good soldiers.
[00:23:14] But David, who, again, right, probably in his late teens, like, think of, like a senior in high school, he looks at the situation and basically just goes, so wait, why hasn't anyone killed this guy? Like, what's the deal? Why are we running away from him? Which is. Which is nuts, right? Like, we think of, oh, David versus Goliath. This is nuts.
[00:23:34] The random shepherd guy who came here with the cheese delivery walks up to the trained soldiers and goes, how come no one's killing that nine foot nine guy with all the swords and everything? What's going on? What are you guys doing? Why are you hiding? That's crazy. Verse 26 is the first time, by the way, that we Hear David speak in all of scripture, and his words are a clue to what's in his heart. Because he frames this monster theologically.
[00:23:58] Do you notice this? He frames the issue theologically. What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
[00:24:12] You see this?
[00:24:14] David doesn't allow Goliath to define the terms of this challenge.
[00:24:19] He puts Goliath in the context of Israel's state as Yahweh's chosen people. Yahweh who? The holy and living God. And by the way, this really is the key to the entire text, because David doesn't see a monster. David sees someone defying God.
[00:24:36] David sees someone defying the promises of God. And because of that, David doesn't see a problem.
[00:24:44] I think that's nuts about this whole story. You can see it in how he phrases this. So what's the boon? The king has promised whoever kills this giant? Something good, probably, right? Like, you just see him kind of being like this. Why has no one done this? Is like, is the prize just not good or what? Like, he doesn't have a context necessarily for why this has stretched out so long. And here's the thing. Saul is taking Goliath incredibly seriously. He's offering an insane boon to whoever does this. Wealth, his daughter's hand in marriage, a connection to the royal line, an exemption from taxes. That's a fancy way of saying you become royalty, you become part of the royal line.
[00:25:24] But nobody has bit on this. And by the way, do you notice how David's brother immediately antagonizes him when he starts asking this? I think anyone in the room who just has older siblings, you immediately know what just happened in that room, right? Like, you just. You feel it in your soul on some level. And his brother goes, I know why you're here, you little brat. Where'd you leave the sheep? Why are you doing here? You just came here to watch the battle. And David's response where he goes, just ask you a question.
[00:25:51] Jeez, that's very much big brother, little brother, right? Like, just very, very in line with what's going on here. But I think what's interesting about this is that this all leads to David being brought to Saul. And I think you can even imagine Saul's disappointment where he hears the rumor, like, oh, someone's willing to challenge Saul. Go ahead, bring him here. Bring him here. And then brings him here. And he goes, oh, it's just you, right? Like, I think I recognize you. I think you're one of my interns. Why do you want to. You know what I mean? Just this moment of. Oh, man.
[00:26:21] But David is almost casual in his challenge to Saul. Hey, Saul, listen, don't let this thing stress you out. I'll go out there, do a little something something, take care of this guy. We'll be good.
[00:26:34] And you can see Saul's back and forth with him going, no, no, you're a kid.
[00:26:40] He's a monster. He's been trained as a warrior from his entire. Like, from his childhood. There's no way.
[00:26:46] And even by the way, I want you to hear this. David's response sounds to us like this beautiful thing. Listen, I grew up tending my father's sheep. I've been hunting bear and lion my entire life. Cool.
[00:26:58] That's not what this is.
[00:27:00] That's not. I've been hunting. It's way different. It's way different. It's way different to hunt a wild animal versus going up against an elite trained warrior three times your size. That's very different things. And that's exactly what Saul would have been thinking. Oh, sure, yeah, shepherd boy, you killed animals. Cool. This guy's a monster. Right?
[00:27:21] And yet.
[00:27:22] And yet, for whatever reason, as David is giving this, just like, oh, no, no, I feel fine about this.
[00:27:32] Saul is convinced. He's persuaded. And I think there's something good for us to note here, because for everyone looking at David, his time as a shepherd, in all honesty, was wasted time. That's a dead end job. That's a filler job. That's what you do to spend up your time until you're able to do something meaningful with your life.
[00:27:54] But we've actually seen now, two weeks in a row how God used this, how he used it to prepare him. It gave him time to learn to play his harp, which equipped him to enter into Saul's service in the royal court. And now we find it trained him in how to defend himself and how to engage in battle and violence when he needed. God was preparing David in the midst of his obscurity, and he's still doing so.
[00:28:18] And again, I want to point you to this. Look how David frames this. He doesn't say how tough he is. He doesn't go, I killed a whole bunch of lions so I could definitely do this. No, no, no. He puts his work into a theological framework. Again, 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.
[00:28:40] David is putting this combat in a theological context. He didn't kill those animals because he's so great, but because God empowered him. And he's saying, God will do that again.
[00:28:53] Likely Saul just realizes he's running out of time, and we don't know that. The text doesn't say, but likely Saul just kind of goes, okay, we got to do something or another, so let's send this guy out there. Maybe that'll be a good distraction. Either way, to his credit, he does try and gear out David, but it's incredibly unhelpful because we've already been told David is a runt and Saul is a head taller. He's the largest warrior in Israel, right? So he puts on his gear and just goes, this isn't gonna work. This isn't gonna work. And so he takes it off. And what I think is so beautiful about this is they don't run to the camp looking for a soldier the size of David. David just says, no, I'm a shepherd. I'm gonna go as a shepherd.
[00:29:32] And so he walks out past the battle line in his shepherd's gear, with his staff, with his belt, with his little shepherd's bag with his little doodads in it, right? His rocks and his fidget toys and all the stuff he uses to keep himself from being bored out in the field.
[00:29:47] And his sling.
[00:29:49] No armor, no sword, no shield bearer, a shepherd, and he wanders out into the killing field.
[00:29:58] Read on with me. Verse 41.
[00:30:00] The Philistine came closer and closer to David with shield bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a youth having healthy and handsome third text in a row that the author of First Samuel wants us to know how good looking David is.
[00:30:17] He said to David, am I a dog that you come against me with sticks? Then he cursed David by his gods. Come here. The Philistine called to David, and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts. And David said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the ranks of Israel. You have defied him, and today the Lord will hand you over to me. Today I will strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses to the Philistine camps and the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Blah, blah, blah. Right, Audrey.
[00:30:57] Sorry.
[00:31:02] Then all the world will know that Israel has a God.
[00:31:05] And this whole assembly will know that it is not by the sword or by the spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's. He will hand you over to us.
[00:31:15] When the Philistines started forward to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistines. David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone and slung it and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down to the ground. And David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. David overpowered the Philistine and killed him without having a sword. David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistines own sword, pulled it from its sheath and used it to kill him. Then he cut off his head. When the Philistines saw their hero was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and Judah rallied, shouting their battle cry, and chased the Philistines to the entrance of the valley into the gates of Ekron. Philistine bodies were struck all along the Sherm Road to Gath and Ekron.
[00:32:05] And now we get to the point of the story.
[00:32:09] David steps past the battle lines. He goes into the killing ground. Goliath is waiting. Goliath in full armor, Goliath with a servant standing in front of him whose only job is to hold up a massive shield and hand him more spears so he can throw more spears faster, right?
[00:32:26] This absolute monster of a warrior.
[00:32:29] When he realizes David's not a real warrior, he's offended. He mocks David, he mocks God. He spits out threats. He actually overextends himself. The text says that he doesn't see David as a threat, and he wanders closer over to David into the killing field. Instead of taking advantage of his actual advantage as a javelin thrower and waiting for David to approach him, he runs toward David.
[00:32:54] Look what David says here. This is, by the way, the center of the entire story.
[00:32:58] Why is David so calm? Why is he so brave? Why is he so confident? Because David understands what's actually going on here.
[00:33:07] David understands that this isn't about Goliath and David.
[00:33:13] This is about Goliath and Yahweh.
[00:33:16] And while Goliath might be a monster compared to David or compared to Saul, he is nothing in comparison to the king of reality.
[00:33:26] That's who is going to battle here.
[00:33:29] So David sprints in and he takes a shot with his sling. If you don't know what a sling is, this is not like Dennis the Menace. This is A shepherd sling. It's two ropes with a little bag at the end. And you hold both the ropes in your fingers and you spin it, and then you'll let go one of the ends and it shoots out. You should actually. I'm not. I'm not joking when I say this. You should look this up on YouTube later today. It's really interesting. A lot of people do this as a hobby. These things are incredibly accurate, incredibly dangerous. They crack like a whip when you let them go. They can shoot a rock the size of a golf ball at about 125 miles an hour, which, by the way, is plenty of speed to kill someone. Plenty of speed. In fact, if you use the small modern metal bullets, they wouldn't have had this back then. But the small modern metal bullets they use in slingshot can punch holes through body armor, just like certain pistol calibers. Right? These things are incredibly powerful, but they're also incredibly unwieldy.
[00:34:27] Armies would use these if they couldn't afford longbowmen because they're significantly less efficient. They take up way more room. They take way more training. They're way slower to shoot.
[00:34:37] These are the kind of thing that shepherds make.
[00:34:40] Shepherds who are going to sit by themselves out in the wilderness for days and days on end, who have lots of string and rope and boredom. It's the kind of weapon shepherds make. It's not actually the kind of weapon that most armies would consistently use if they had any other choice. Why do I set all that up for you? I settle that up because I think this is the most important piece of this story.
[00:35:01] As we look at this. Theologically, this is a deadly weapon. It's an incredibly deadly weapon. You can look up videos of people simulating this battle, and they'll buy like the ballistic gel head and they'll shoot it. And it's crazy.
[00:35:14] It's very obvious that a skilled slinger could kill someone with a single stone if they knew what they were doing. But that's not really what's going on here.
[00:35:24] I think the important thing to remember here is that this isn't a shepherd sitting bored in the field shooting targets. This isn't a friend, like friends sitting out plinking in the country.
[00:35:36] This is active one on one combat with a monster who's been trained his entire life to kill.
[00:35:44] He's not here today, but you guys know the Montaignes. Lucas has some family property, and one time me and him were out clearing out the property so we could have a camping trip. And so we're out there mowing grass and moving log piles and stuff. And there was this moment where we're looking at this pile of scrap as we're picking it up. And he goes, man, that's the exact kind of pile of scrap that a snake would hide in. And he goes, yeah, definitely. And then I picked up a piece of scrap, and there was a copperhead underneath it. And it was matt that we were picking up its house. And so it was sitting there ready to bite, you know, And I just put my hand right by it. And Lucas, if, you know, Lucas always has firearms with him, and he just drew his pistol and shot, and he dropped a dime through that snake's skull.
[00:36:25] Just put a perfect hole right through its forehead. Killed it instantly. And that was the first time I had ever hung out with Lucas, the first time we had ever done anything meaningful together. And do you know what my conclusion was?
[00:36:39] Lucas is a deadeye. That guy. That guy knows how to shoot. Oh, my gosh. He was just like. Like, it's like John Wick.
[00:36:47] I don't know if you've hung out with Lucas. That's not, in fact, true. Actually. That was just a really good first impression.
[00:36:54] We've hung out plenty of times since then. And the dimes were not dropped. There were.
[00:37:00] They were flung, maybe, but not dropped.
[00:37:02] And here's why I say that. To put this together.
[00:37:06] Yes, it is technically possible.
[00:37:10] A trained slinger could run out and get a perfect bullseye shot and kill the giant and save the day. It is technically possible.
[00:37:19] Can you imagine how probable it is?
[00:37:22] Goliath is covered in armor.
[00:37:26] He's wearing a brass helmet that would have covered almost every soft spot on his entire head. He's actively running, ducking, throwing.
[00:37:36] David is sprinting. The text goes out of its way to tell us he's running at full speed.
[00:37:41] This is not a weapon designed to be used while you're mobile.
[00:37:44] He's running full speed. And a target who's running full speed, he slings, he shoots. And if he was off by an inch, he was off by an inch. Do you know what would have happened? It would have bounced off brass, and he would have gotten skewered to the ground, and no one would have written down the story right.
[00:38:04] The probability of this happening is so incredibly low.
[00:38:11] But I think we need to sit with it for a second because we're so culturally used to this story. We think of this moment as this moment of triumph. Like, look, he did it. He did it. Like, all. You know, it all came together. But the important thing that the author here wants us to realize, that anyone who had read this story before it became this famous would realize is that David didn't kill Goliath.
[00:38:35] That's not what happened here.
[00:38:37] God slew Goliath through David.
[00:38:40] God intervened and that makes all the difference.
[00:38:45] Because God is actually the one who's the hero of this story.
[00:38:49] Because God is the one who shows up and keeps his promises when all hope seems lost.
[00:38:56] The cultural pressure here is for us to make this story about following your dreams, about believing in yourself, about seeing the training and discipline you put into yourself, bearing fruit and you getting what you want out of this life. If you're brave like David, you can conquer the giants in your life. That sickness, that terrible job, that debt, that life goal. You, you can do it. But here's the thing, and I say this in love, you probably actually can't.
[00:39:22] You're actually probably not good enough to chase and achieve your dreams.
[00:39:28] Our stones miss.
[00:39:31] Cause it doesn't take much for em to be off by an inch.
[00:39:37] And that inch is the difference between David and Goliath. And this story not getting written down.
[00:39:42] When we shoot our shot, we miss a heck of a lot more than we hit.
[00:39:48] Because our best is flawed, our best is sinful, our best is human.
[00:39:55] Think about how this story would go if David was just believing in himself and doing his best.
[00:40:02] Because this is what happens when untrained shepherds run into battle with lifelong giant warrior champions.
[00:40:10] They lose.
[00:40:12] But in this story, God intervened at just the right moment when it had to be perfect. When someone needed to step in, God stepped in. Because that's who he is and that's what he does.
[00:40:28] The extraordinary thing that David did in this story was not to slay Goliath, but to actually take God at his word and to believe that God would slay Goliath.
[00:40:41] The same God who parted the Red Sea. The same God who slew Pharaoh. The same God who tore down the walls of Jericho. The same God who whittled down Gideon's army to 300. The same God that routed these same Philistines before Jonathan. Beloved. The wonder of David in this story is simply that he believed God keeps his promises.
[00:41:03] That God had said he would defeat the Philistines. That God had said he would protect Israel. That God had said Israel was his chosen people. David believed that to the level that he put his very life on the line for God's honor and faithfulness.
[00:41:19] And that's the truth of this text, that that is what our God does He does slay the giants of this broken and cursed world.
[00:41:30] Because what greater giant is there in all of life than sin and death itself, right?
[00:41:37] What greater obstacle do you face than the reality of your own mortality, the reality of your own weakness, the reality of the curse in this world? And God did the work of slaying that giant when all your hope seemed lost. Amen.
[00:41:50] Paul said it to the Ephesians like this. This is a familiar text. When you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler, the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts. We were by nature children under wrath, as all others were also.
[00:42:17] So we all were like that. We were all doomed. We were all stuck. We all were unable to fix it ourselves. Verse 4 is Ephesians 2. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace.
[00:42:38] He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavens, in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display his immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
[00:42:50] Verse 8. For you were saved by grace through faith.
[00:42:55] And hear this church, it is not of yourselves.
[00:42:59] It's God's gift. It's not from works no one can boast.
[00:43:05] Beloved Jesus. Is David on steroids, a better David? David stepped up Jesus believed the Father's promise to him. And for the joy set before him, he endured the scorn of the cross. That you and I might have freedom from the giant death and the giant sin and the giant hell.
[00:43:22] Amen.
[00:43:24] Jesus did that because that's the kind of God Jesus is.
[00:43:28] He steps in, he aims the rock, he slays the giant. And I'm here to tell you, that changes things.
[00:43:39] Let's look at the very end of this text today. We'll land this out today. Verse 53.
[00:43:44] When the Israelites returned from the pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps. David took Goliath's head and brought it to Jerusalem. But he put Goliath's weapons in his own tent.
[00:43:53] When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner, the commander of the army, whose son is this youth? Abner. Your Majesty, as surely as you live. I don't Know, Abner replied, oh, I love that moment. The king said, find out whose son this young man is. When David returned from killing the Philistines, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. And the Philistines, head still in his hand, Saul said to him, whose son are you, young man? The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem, David answered. When David had finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan was bound to Saul and close or to David in close friendship, and loved him as much as he loved himself. Saul kept David with him from that day on and not let him return to his father's house. Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as much as himself. Then Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his military tunic, his sword, his bow and his belt. And David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the fighting men, which pleased all the people, and Saul's servants as well.
[00:44:54] This text ends with an almost storybook ending, right the way everything comes together for the Israelites. They defeat their enemies, they win back their territory. Saul suddenly realizes that this young, unknown member of his corps court is about to become the second most powerful man in the country. And so he goes, huh, I wonder. I wonder who I just made Royalty. Anyone know who that guy's family is? Anyone? Which I think, again, is hilarious to think of the fact that David has been working with Saul for literal months at this point. And Saul goes, who? Who's that guy again? What's his family? Where does he come from? But regardless, a picture of a where Saul is at at this point in the story.
[00:45:37] And while this is happening, the prince Jonathan latches on to David in this covenantal friendship, which will come up a lot in the coming chapters. But for today, it's important to note that what really happens here is Jonathan makes sure that David, he may have stepped onto the battlefield as a shepherd, but he will step off as a warrior. He outfits David as a soldier in his own equipment, a huge honor, putting on armor and weapons and bestowing them on him. And Saul immediately makes David a captain in his army, makes his royal service permanent. No more running back home to help with the sheep. I mean, it really does. Like, it just all comes together and it even kind of looks like, oh, okay, this is it. Like, David's rise has finally happened. He's been faithful in the fields, he's done this obscure work that God called him to, and now look how God has elevated him. He's made him a Captain and a prince amongst Israel. He's finally been brought out of obscurity. And in response to his faithful obedience to Yahweh, like, how cool.
[00:46:33] But the problem is the reality of this story is not that, see, the call on David's life is to not be a captain in the army or a prince of Saul.
[00:46:45] David has been called to be king.
[00:46:48] And his hard mode trials really haven't even begun.
[00:46:52] Facing Goliath was a huge deal. It was big, it was scary. It took integrity, it took faith. But David has no clue that the hardest stuff is still in front of him. He has no clue what the pressures that are going to face him in the coming months, in the coming years. This is the beginning of his hard mode.
[00:47:11] But it's actually incredibly instructive for us today.
[00:47:14] This story, I think, is.
[00:47:16] It's vitally important.
[00:47:18] And I think it's vitally important in large part literally, just because of how poorly it's interpreted in our culture. Right?
[00:47:25] I think it's important for us to stop and say this. This story does not mean that if you have enough faith, God will slay all the giants in your life.
[00:47:33] If you have enough faith, God will kill your credit card debt and get rid of your job you don't like.
[00:47:38] That's prosperity gospel dressed up as self help, and it's not true, and it's not helpful. When we look at this text, we have to start by seeing how David's bravery and faith point us to the cross.
[00:47:51] We have to start with that to see how the reality of God intervening is really encapsulated in the truth of the gospel. And in doing so, we can actually begin to see ourselves in this text, rightly not as superheroes who vanquish life's challenges with our own strength and ability, but as David, as David actually is in this story, as shepherds unprepared for real men's battles, right?
[00:48:17] As. As those who are too young, too scrawny, too unprepared, too unequal to the job, and yet confident in the strength and faithfulness of our God.
[00:48:28] Like that's what David actually models to us in the story.
[00:48:32] In that way, having confidence in God in spite of our inability.
[00:48:37] We should be like David in this text because what this text actually means for us is that we can trust God and be bold in our faith when we know we are pursuing his call in our lives.
[00:48:51] I'm going to repeat that bit.
[00:48:53] What this text actually says to us is that we can trust God, we can be bold in our faith. When we know we are pursuing his call in our lives.
[00:49:04] Two reasons for this band, if you want to come back up.
[00:49:07] The first is that we can have great confidence that God keeps his promises and advances his will.
[00:49:13] I think one of the important things to note in this text is that David is not pursuing his own desires, but rather pursuing God's call on his life.
[00:49:22] He didn't wake up that morning going, okay, here's what I want.
[00:49:26] No, no, no.
[00:49:28] He didn't look at God and say, rubber stamp this thing I want.
[00:49:32] God had anointed David as king. God had promised he would deliver Israel from the Philistines. God had promised he was making David the leader of his covenant people. So David said, seeing the need, knowing the promise, stepped forward in obedience to the call.
[00:49:45] That's what we see in this text. Not him trying to slap God's name onto his desires, but him walking forward in faithful obedience.
[00:49:55] And so we really ought to ask ourselves, what is the call God has put on your life?
[00:50:00] That's a worthy question.
[00:50:02] What has God called you to?
[00:50:06] And if you want to use the scriptural definitions, there's really two things you can look at for sure and for certain.
[00:50:12] God has called you to trust him for salvation and repentance and faith. And he's called you to join him in his work of seeking and saving the lost.
[00:50:19] And when you're stepping forward toward those calls in your life, the call to acknowledge your sin, to confess, to repent, to trust God for salvation, the call on God to join him in making disciples and disciple, making and living in holiness and seeking his kingdom. When you're walking toward those things, you. You can walk with faith and boldness, the same faith and boldness of David, who knew the battle belonged to the Lord. You can trust God for your redemption. You can trust God for your sanctification. You can trust God to use you to advance his kingdom, to seek and save the lost. You can be bold in your prayers for the lost. You can be bold in your invitations to the children, the family, the friends, the coworkers that you know, who need to know Jesus. You can, can walk forward with bold assurance that God will create the conversations and God will give you the words. Because God has promised this and God has called you to it.
[00:51:12] You can't just name some goal and stamp God's name on it.
[00:51:16] I think God has called me to this job or this relationship or this purchase because I want them.
[00:51:22] That's not how it works. You gotta be careful when you do that, to be totally honest.
[00:51:27] Those sorts of things, even when they're good, they're usually just matters of personal preference.
[00:51:33] Do I want this job? Do I want this relationship? Do I want this thing?
[00:51:36] We can approach them with wisdom. We can approach them with a desire to honor God. But to have the kind of confident life risking faith of David, we should know we're stepping into his promises.
[00:51:47] So do you know what God has actually promised you? Do you know the word of God well enough to know the promises he has placed on you as his child, as his follower?
[00:51:57] It's worth knowing.
[00:51:59] And second, this is our last thing.
[00:52:02] We can have great faith and confidence in our call because of Jesus.
[00:52:06] Because Jesus already slayed our real giants.
[00:52:10] Because that puts our life in a different context. Think about that for a moment. If Jesus actually slayed the giant of death on your behalf, if he killed sin and wrath and the curse for you, that kind of puts the rest of your life in a different context, doesn't it?
[00:52:28] Kind of creates some perspective, man. If I'm bold in obedience to share the gospel with this friend or this sibling, it might blow up my face.
[00:52:37] I'm going to lose that friendship. Yeah, but Jesus killed death for you.
[00:52:42] Like, put those next to each other for a moment.
[00:52:45] It kind of makes your step of faith seem a little more manageable. Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:53] When we face the hardship of life on hard mode. I hate this job.
[00:52:57] I'm just stuck in this stage of life. I feel like I just keep spinning my wheels and repeating this and I'm not making any forward progress. I'm. I'm struggling in this area in my life. Yeah, that's real. That's hard. I'm not, I'm not downplaying that.
[00:53:09] But you do remember that Jesus took the curse of sin and destroyed it and bought for you eternal life in heaven with him forever.
[00:53:21] That is the forever promise on your life. Not the next 40 years, the next eternity.
[00:53:28] I promise you you can endure a monotonous job for a while because of what Christ has done for you. I promise you, you can.
[00:53:37] So here's how we're going to land. I'm going to.
