September 27

1 Samuel 17:1-11

David and Goliath

17 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. ² Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. ³ The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.

⁴ A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.^{[a] 5} He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels^[b]; ⁶ on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. ⁷ His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.^[c] His shield bearer went ahead of him.

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. ⁹ If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” ¹⁰ Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” ¹¹ On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

You thought I was leaving the building? Not that lucky. You still have to deal with me for a little while before Elvis leaves the building. Thank you for the flowers.

I don't know who put them in. They're just beautiful. I will pull my car up to the door and take them home after the service.

They really are beautiful. Thank you for whoever put them in. They just look fun, especially this time of the year when everything starts falling.

You see little beautiful flowers. It's just beautiful. Lord, what a beautiful word you have given us this morning.

We know it so well. Help us in this moment to focus on you so that all we will see and all that we will know is you. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

So number two in our series on ghost, no, no, no, giant busters, the forgiveness to ghost busters, busting the giant, slaying them and taking them down in our lives. Steve and Marie, darling, my goodness, what a wonderful sight to see you visiting all the way from where you live now. Good to see you.

You know, Steve's last name is darling, so I would always walk up to him and say, good morning, Steve. So as we bust these giants, we really are going to look at one of the giants today. We call him Goliath and you know the story really well, but can I ask you, keep an open mind when we walk through the story.

Don't say, well, I know the story. I know exactly what he's going to say. Just keep an open mind for a moment.

So we're going to first Samuel chapter 17. You're going to read verse one to 11 and then verse 16. You'll have to try and keep up today because I'm going to jump all over the place.

So forgive me for that. Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Soko in Judah. They pitched a camp at Ephes Damim between Soko and Azekah.

I'm saying them the Hebrew way. I can't do the English way. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the valley of Elah and draw up their battle line to meet the Philistines.

The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another with a valley between them. A champion or a giant named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits in a span.

He was really big. That's all I'd say. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armour of bronze weighing 5,000 shekels.

On his legs he wore bronze greaves and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels. The shield bearer went ahead of him.

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's able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects.

But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us. Then the Philistine said, This day I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other.

On hearing the Philistines' words, Saul and the Israelites were dismayed. Terrified. Then verse 16.

For 40 days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening until he stayed. Let's stop there for a second. For 40 days he did this twice a day.

When they woke up in the morning, he was in their face taunting them. When they went to bed in the evening, he was in their face taunting them over and over and over. So it's not hard to imagine that at some stage all these poor Israelites could see and think about was Goliath.

Though I don't know if anyone like me has ever struggled with a problem or a challenge. And it became so big that it kind of just took over everything and that's all that you could see. I'm kind of good for that.

Problem with that is usually it causes anxiety and it causes fear. And when this anxiety and fear comes into your life, it becomes all-consuming. Not necessarily because the problem is so big, but because this thing gives you tunnel vision.

Let me give you an example. If I look at my hand, I can see my hand, but I can also see all of you. I can see the whole world.

If I make a little tunnel like this and I put my hand there, I see half of my finger and I have to move it to see the others and all of a sudden this hand looks like a giant hand. Because I do not have the whole picture. I only see this little picture and it overwhelms and it becomes this huge thing and I don't know what to do with it.

Anyone else in here? Just me. No wonder we read in verse 11, it says, Saul and the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. The Hebrew word for dismayed is the word chatat.

And Amir was not here this morning to check my Hebrew on this one. Chatat means to be taken away all of your courage, to be confused, to completely be paralysed. They didn't move.

Saul didn't move. Jonathan didn't move. David's big brothers didn't move because that's what Goliath does.

Paralyses you. And it puts you in this place of being discontent and scared and you just can't do a thing. That's what David walks in.

We're going see that in a second. David's dad's going to send him to just do the skip the dishes thing. Just drop off food, get a note and scoot back home.

That's all. He's not getting ready to go into battle. He's taking care of sheep.

So we read. Let's go to verse 17. Now Jesse said to his son David, take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.

Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit and see how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah fighting against the Philistines. So when David sets out with the bread and the cheese, all David's got in his mind, I'll get there, drop it off, get the note from my brothers, check that they're okay.

I'm going back and I'm going to hang out with the sheep and I'm going to play my harp and we'll have fun sitting around there, catch new little lambs going out. Little did David know that in that day David would face one of the biggest giants of his life. This one even had flesh and blood and was armed to the teeth.

See, here's the thing about that and don't miss this. Sometimes God will use simple, ordinary, everyday things to put us in a position to slay the giants in our lives. We're going to get back to that.

Sometimes God will put us in a position where we never expected it, where the giant will be there, but this is the moment in which God says, I'm going to show you, you can slay the giant. Back to David. So David sees this Philistine.

He hears all the stuff that he's saying. He hears them taunting. Then verse 26, David asked the men standing near him, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And they repeated to him what they had been saying and told him this is what will be done for the man who kills him.

And I'm taking you back to verse 25 because this is what was said. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and he will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.

I love this question. It's a little audacious, isn't it? Even a little greedy in a sense. What will this man get that kills this giant? But what I want you to notice is two things in there.

I kind of made two little arrows going like this. When David looks at the giant, he does not only see arrow number one, the risk. David also sees the reward.

See, sometimes that's where we get stuck. The giant shows up and it's like, oh my goodness, I am dismayed. I am terrified.

I am so scared. And it overwhelms me. There's the risk.

What is this going to do? Where is this going? But if we step out against that giant in faith, there is a reward. It might be really risky and difficult to confront that person with that difficult conversation that you have to have because it might just backfire. Or you might sit down and have that conversation and be reconciled and there is that peace and the reward.

It's hard to admit that you struggle and you have failed. But in the moment that I can take that and own that, that risk, the reward is that I become free and I can move on. It might be risky to stand before God and ask for what I want because he might not answer the way I want, but he might answer the way I need.

I don't know what the giants in your life are. I don't know which giant right now you are facing that stands there and taunts you every moment. But can I ask you something? Can you step up to that giant in faith and look it in the eyes and say, here we go.

Let's see what you can do because I know it's a risk and I know in who I stand. David verse 32 said to Saul, let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him.

Now remember this guy, anything between 18 and 20, 22 years old, he's a young pup. Sorry for those who are that young. Your servant will go fight him.

Saul replied, you're not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a young man. And he's been a warrior from his youth.

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 and underlined this of the living God. Underline the next one.

The Lord, 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. Can I say this in other words, translate this a little differently? David says, Saul, Saul, be near. Circumstances might differ a little bit.

It might have been a lion and a bear before and now it's a Goliath, but here's the thing. The Lord who delivered me, rescued me then is the Lord who will deliver me and rescue me now. Whether it's a bear or a lion or Goliath or whatever it might be, the Lord of then is the Lord of now.

We sang it this morning. Terry had a different song for the first one. I wrote and said, no, I want firm foundation, please.

And she said, no problem. Because isn't that what we sang? Christ is my firm foundation. The rock on which I stand has been faithful through generations then.

So why would he fail now? The Lord who delivered me then and was faithful is the Lord who will deliver me now. But the big word, the Lord. In my own strength, I can't face that child.

But with the Lord, you can face the child. Because he's going to be there again, again, again. Can we stop there? You got all you need.

End of verse 37, Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. Then verse 40. 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 slinging hand approached the Philistine.

Meanwhile, the Philistine with the shield bearing 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 was, and he despised him. Oh, you giants, that's exactly what you do.

Said to David, am I a dog that you come with me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 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 you your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

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 Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, who 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 get all of you into our hands. Can we stop there for a second? That's confidence, right? It's not self-confidence. It's not worldly confidence.

It's confidence in what David says in the Lord of the armies of heaven. So bring it on, beloved. Bring it on.

You're not gonna make it because I'm not standing before you giant in my own strength. I stand on that firm foundation, the one who will not. You bring it on.

My friends, when that moment comes, will you remember that? When those giants come, you look them in the eye and say, I'm not afraid of you because I stand in the name, as David called it, the Lord Almighty. In the Hebrew, it is one of the difficult ones to translate. When we translated the Bible, when I did Malachi, I translated these two words in every different verse differently.

We always usually translate it as the Lord Almighty, but it's way more than that. It's the Lord who has all the armies of heaven in his hands. It's the Lord who says, I will be there for you in every moment.

It's the Lord who says, I will provide. It's the Lord who says, there's no one who can stand against me. It's the Lord who says, I'm the one who will sit and hold you and comfort you.

It's the Lord. And when you face these giants, you do not face them in your own name. You face them in the name of Yahweh, the civil one.

That's why, that's why when David walks out to meet this Philistine, David, David knew the most important thing. David knew that he was not the underdog in this fight because the real giant that day was not Goliath. The real giant is God.

When you face the giants, you will not be underdog because the real giant, Yahweh, the civil one, is right here with you and next to you. Do small things before we end. Verse 48.

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. What is our first thing that we do when we see the giant? We kind of get out of dodge, going to get away. Have you ever been able to run out on them? Do what David did because David knew who was with him.

And in the name of the Lord, when this giant came at him, David said, I've got you. And David ran right at him. Not because this young boy was so strong, because this young boy knew who the one was, because who is the battle? Who does it belong to? The battle belongs to the Lord.

The battle belongs to the Lord. Don't run away from them. Don't let them try and overwhelm you because that's all they can do.

They can try and scare you, but they can't for the battle. There on Calvary, Satan thought, I am the giant and I will slay the Son of God. And he danced on the grave of the Lord Jesus.

And on that third day, that grave opened up and Satan had to run like nobody's business because the real giant walked out of that grave. And when I faced the battles against my giants, and they are real, and I'm not saying they are not real. I know because I faced them myself, but I can't do it on my own.

But I know who the one is who says, the battle belongs to me. Trust me, that maybe sometimes is the difficulty. Now I need my glasses because I got tears in my eyes.

49, 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. And 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. It took 50 verses. Talk about the giant.

It took one verse to slay him. Do I need to say more? Because the battle belongs to me. Whatever you face, he's there to represent you.

Whatever you need to face, he's fighting for you. Whatever you need to thank him, he's standing right there. So get your little pouch, pick up your stones, and let's go slay some giants.

Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Oh Lord, who is the firm foundation of my life, the rock Lord Jesus on which we may stand.

I come and lay my giants before you. Am I in my own strength, Lord? I can't do it. I fail, but you have never failed, and you won't fail now.

I hope every day as we walk in this world filled with many of those giants, you know that we are giant busters. Not because of who we are and how strong we are, but because of who you are and how amazing you are. Lord God, thank you for reminding us so early in this series that the battle belongs to me.

And as we walk past these giants for the next four weeks, one by one, thank you that you've already taken care of me. I pray for each one of us as we sit here today, because I saw many heads nod with mine. As I said, I struggled with my giants and I saw them and I know, because of some of them I know, Lord, because they are my people.

Thank you for encouraging each one today. We love you. The battle belongs to the Lord.

Lord God Almighty. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.