Read 1 Samuel Chapter 17
Photo by Katja Anokhina on Unsplash.
We saw in the last Day Share that Goliath's challenge had produced fear in the heart of Saul and there was no warrior able to take up the challenge. We identified that the problem was not due to the lack of weaponry or the inadequacy of their armour. The problem was spiritual. The nation of Israel had turned its back on God and its king had disobeyed God. It is against such a background that David makes his mark on the history of the nation of Israel. He is God's man for this crisis.
David had experienced God's hand while looking after his sheep and he had learned to trust God in every situation. The key verse on chapter 17 of 1st Samuel is
That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand. [1 Samuel 17: 46c- 47 ESV]
David was only a young lad but he appreciated that Yahweh was powerful and that the only way Goliath could be defeated was through God's miraculous intervention.
The battle is the LORD's. This is the key to this whole chapter. It is the key to all our situations and problems today. We struggle to fight against the devil in our own strength and suffer defeat and humiliation. We try to serve the Lord using our gifts of worldly wisdom instead of relying entirely on the Jehovah - the Lord God. David seems to have been the only one who appreciated this truth.
Saul totally misunderstood the situation. He could not see how David would be able to fight against the Philistine. "You are not able to go against this Philistine and defeat him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth." Humanly speaking, Saul was right. It was humanly impossible for a young inexperienced warrior to take on such a man of war. Saul did not mention the disparity in size but he tried to deal with the other obvious difference - David was unarmed and unprotected while Goliath was showing off his superior armour. Saul offered David his own armour and his own sword but David correctly refused. He had never tested them out. He had, however, experience of using God's invisible armour. He had used a sling before too in God's service and he knew that he could trust God to direct the stone to its target. He had been able to slaughter a lion which was attacking his flock and he was talking from experience. He had been able to kill a bear who was about to steal his lambs from the ewes.
Saul reluctantly agrees to allow David to fight the Philistine giant. And David descends into the valley to encounter a new challenge. In the last Day Share we referred to Goliath's stature and his armour and weapons. He had a shield bearer because his shield is too large for him to use on his own. And yet Goliath thinks it necessary to intimidate David further by resorting to verbal abuse and threats. He cursed David by his gods - probably the Philistine god, Dagon. He suggested that David was imagining that he was trying to fight a dog with a stick. This was probably referring to the fact that David had a shepherd's staff in his hand. In fact, David was not going to use the staff as a weapon but Goliath did not realise that. He is mocking David's lack of weapons. He might not have noticed the sling. This is typical of such a bully. He cannot imagine how David could possibly be any match for him. He is invincible - even by the most experienced of Israel's soldiers. This young inexperienced shepherd boy is just an insult. In his arrogance, Goliath threatens David with a horrible death. "I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field." You will not even be given a proper burial - your dismembered body will become carrion for the birds and food for the wild animals.
I love David's speech to Goliath - I think it deserves to be quoted in full.
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” [1 Samuel 17: 45-47 ESV]
I am not sure why David took 5 stones when he only needed one. I have heard many suggestions and explanations. Someone suggested that Goliath was one of a family of five giants and that David was expecting to take on the other four. What I do know is that it was the Lord who directed the stone to hit its target. Slings were known as weapons in Egypt from as far back as 2,000 BC. There are carvings from Nineveh showing this form of fighting. In Judges 20 we read of some of the tribe of Benjamin who were skilled in using a sling and a stone - every one of the 700 could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. [Judges 20:16] It is not David's skill with a sling that is the key ingredient in this unequal battle - although God used his skill. The lesson is that the battle is the Lord's. He will always win the battle. We are on the victory side.
I have just selected a book from my shelves above my desk. The book is by Max Lucado and he is a much better writer than I am. The title of this book is Facing Your Giants. Here is the blurb from the back cover of this book.
You know your Goliath. You recognise his walk, the thunder of his voice.
He taunts you with bills you can't pay, people you can't please, habits you can't break, failures you can't forget, and a future you can't face. But just like David, you can face your giant, even if you aren't the strongest, the smartest, the best equipped, or the holiest.
David. You could read his story and wonder what God saw in him. His life has little to offer the unstained, straight-A saint. He fell as often as he stood, stumbled as often as he conquered. But for those who know the sound of a Goliath, David gives this reminder
FOCUS ON GIANTS - YOU STUMBLE
FOCUS ON GOD - YOUR GIANTS TUMBLE
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