The Lord Will Deliver You
1 Samuel 17:40–54
Samuel Lesson #067
October 11, 2016
www.deanbibleministries.org
Opening Prayer
“Father, we are so thankful that we can come together as a congregation to fellowship around your Word. We are thankful to be reminded of the eternal truths of Your Word, that we are to trust in You, not in ourselves. We are to put our trust in Your Word doing what we are to do as Your Word says to do it. For a right thing must be done in a right way.
“Father, we come to be reminded of what You have provided for us. We come to be strengthened and encouraged by the biblical examples. We come to be prodded by the Holy Spirit to apply these things in a consistent manner in our own lives.
“Father, we pray that as we study Your Word tonight that we will be able to focus, get our attention off of the details of life, and the problems, situations, and circumstances, and onto Your Word.
“Again, Father, we pray for this nation and this election season. We pray that we might continue to see godly men and women raised up to a position of leadership—men and women who will stand firm for the Constitution of this nation, who will enable this country to have an environment that allows for churches to go unmolested by those who have political and personal agendas expressing their hostility to the truth of Your Word.
“We pray that we might have peace that we can conduct our spiritual lives and fulfill Your plan for us in terms of both witnessing and spiritual growth without interference or distraction from the world around us. We pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.”
Open your Bibles with me to 1 Samuel 17. Tonight we get to the battle. The big battle that everyone knows about. The big fight that did not last probably more than 10 minutes!
You know they say that one of the ten most decisive battles in the history of military warfare took place about 30–40 miles from here at San Jacinto. The battle lasted 18 minutes. Some of the largest amounts of real estate in the world exchanged hands at that time as the Republic of Texas was given birth. That was the Battle of San Jacinto.
Slide 2
This biblical battle was probably even shorter than that. The lesson that we are to learn from this comes right out of the text. That is that whatever problem you are facing, whatever circumstance, whatever your worry, or your fear—whether it is health or finances or people or jobs—that “the Lord Will Deliver You.” That is the promise of Scripture stated again and again and again, because “The Battle is the Lord’s.”
Slide 3
As we have seen in the previous lessons, the Philistine army has come up. They are located on one side of the Valley of Elah at a place called Azekah or Ephes-dammin between those areas. Then across the valley you have the location of the Israelite army under Saul. The Philistines have a mighty warrior, Goliath. He is over 9’6” tall. He comes out beats his chest, boasts about all his victories.
Basically, Goliath is rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. He is blasphemous and reproachful of the God of Israel. Every day and night the Israelites have to listen to him mouth off that the gods of the Philistines are greater than the God of Israel. Yet no one on Israel’s side has what it takes to come out to do battle one-on-one with this giant. The location is in the Valley of Elah. There is an intermittent stream that runs east-west between Gath, the hometown of Goliath, and Bethlehem, the hometown of David.
Slide 4
This map is more of a topographical map. You see Saul’s camp, the Elah Valley, and Ephes-dammim. The Israelites and Philistines are meeting across this valley. I would locate Ephes-dammim further south than it is on this particular map. When the battle is over, the Philistines will be chased by the Israelites back towards Gath and Ekron, two of the five major cities of the Philistines.
Slide 5
Here is the overview with Ephes-dammim located in the south. The Israelite army is across the valley to the north. In between the two camps is where everything took place. Today there is a highway that runs north to south past the field. This is where the tour buses stop. Everyone gets out and goes to the dry streambed to find their five smooth stones. Everyone gets stones that are too small.
I often wonder if the Israeli Ministry of Tourism goes there in the winter with a couple of dump trucks of rocks. With as many tourists as go there every year wanting to take out their five stones, you would think they would have quite a canyon there by now. I am wondering if they seed that. This is one of the things I think about in the middle of the night.
Slide 6
1 Samuel 17:38–39, “So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, ‘I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.’ So David took them off.”
In 1 Samuel 17:38 we see David preparing to engage Goliath, who is the enemy of Israel, and historically represents the enemy of God as he stands for the face of Satan and Satan’s plan over against God’s plan.
Last time we ended up with Saul clothing David in his armor. Saul put a bonze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail (maille). Then David fastened his sword to his armor, Saul’s sword, and tried to walk, for he had not tested them.
I do not think David could get very far in Saul’s armor, since David was only about 5’6”. Saul was probably 8–10 inches taller. The armor would not have fit David. I think David rejected the armor for a couple of reasons. I mentioned these reasons last time. I have added to the reasons. I have added to them:
1. Saul wanted David to be mistaken for him. It is real subtle.
If he puts the king’s armor on David then everybody will think that it is the king that is going out to fight Goliath instead of David. I would not put it past Saul to try to cop all the recognition to still it from David.
2. David rejects what Saul is giving him. He does that for a couple of different reasons:
A. What we saw with Israel in 1 Samuel 8 is that they wanted to have a king like all the other nations. Saul has wanted to be a king like all the other kings.
Saul wants to be recognized as a great leader like all the other kings. He has adopted a certain arrogant rebellious self-centered tone to his administration. David is rejecting his armor as he is rejecting everything that has tainted Saul’s administration.
B. David is going to do it the Lord’s way and not man’s way. That is a fundamental issue that runs through this entire battle. It is that a right thing must be done in a right way.
We see that with Scripture all the time. An example of one of the problems we see in the Christian life is that we see a lot of Christians who think that the end justifies the means. If they go to some sort of psychotherapeutic practice in order to solve some problem in their life. If they solve that problem, then they think it must be the Holy Spirit, or they take medication.
Sometimes people have to have medication. But we are extremely over medicated in this country from many psychotherapists for many wrong reasons. I have actually heard Christians say that once they got on x-y-z drug I could really walk by the Spirit.
Hmmm, I do not think that they really heard what they were saying. We all have a sin nature. Drugs may just change the manifestation of your sin nature, but we all have to learn to deal with our nasty sin natures according to the Scripture, not according to the prescription. That almost had alliteration there. You might think I was going to preach.
David is rejecting the human viewpoint approach to problem-solving. Every Christian needs to do that. We do not solve the problems in our lives, relational problems, personal problems, family problems, work problems, by focusing on the techniques of human viewpoint.
Do human-viewpoint techniques work?
Sure, they do for a while. Sometimes they are easier right off the bat, than doing what the Scripture says to do. That is always Satan’s ploy. It is easier. It works better.
Has God really said He is sufficient?
Where do you find a verse on that in the Scripture?
Christians always get sucked into this kind of thing, looking for some other way to do it. But this also happens in the world. You can point to both conservative as well as liberal causes. They might have a cause. They might have a legitimate complaint about some injustice in the world. But they adopt a human viewpoint system, a non-biblical system, to get results, to get attention, and to change policy in the government.
There is a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. When you adopt the wrong way to do things then it is the work of the flesh. As Christians we can never legitimize any movement, any person, anything that is a function of the work of the flesh.
One of the ways that you know that it is a work of the flesh is if it is divisive. If it is causing great chaos, especially among Christians. This is a problem. We have to do a right thing a right way, a biblical way. Otherwise, it will never have the blessing of God.
David recognizes this principle. He rejects Saul’s approach to kingship. Jesus taught later that the Gentiles lorded over one another, but we as Christians are to serve one another. David is identifying with the shepherd-leaders of Israel’s history, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and especially Moses and Joshua. David is going to live by faith in the promises of God.
3. David chose to trust in the Lord and His power and His provision and His promises, rather than in the technology of man.
We should note that the technology of the “sword of Saul” was a technology that was distinct. Saul and Jonathan, 1 Samuel 13, were the only military men in Israel that had iron swords. Everyone else had bronze.
Saul was offering David the latest-greatest technology. The latest-greatest whiz-bang tools in order to build his kingdom and to conquer the enemy. David is going to trust in the “stone age” technology of the God who formed the stones that were in the creek bed. He does not need to have the latest-greatest AR-15 or M-16 or M-4 or whatever, because he has the Lord who is more powerful than any human technology.
4. We are going to see that David focuses on using the training and the skills that God gave him, rather than trying to be someone he was not.
This is important for every person to learn. Every child, every adolescent, every young adult, needs to learn that. God has made each of us. The Psalmist says in Psalm 139 that we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God designed each of us with our blend of talents and spiritual gifts to be distinct, to be unique.
Yet we find so many believers who want to be like someone else. You see this happen a lot with pastors. It is amazing how many pastors are taking what someone else has dug out on their on, by means of the Holy Spirit, and regurgitate it. That is not using their spiritual gift. That is using somebody else’s spiritual gift. They have not learned to be the person that God made them to be. They want to be like somebody else made that God made.
David recognizes that he needs to use his own abilities, his own skills based on his own background and his own training, rather than trying to be someone that he is not.
Slide 7
David prepares.
1 Samuel 17:40, “Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.”
“Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones …” David has two weapons. He has his sling and his staff. His staff would be his shepherd’s staff that he is taking with him. With that David can do tremendous damage. But he also chose for himself the five smooth stones. The picture in the slide is a picture of the first group that went to Israel with me. They are looking around for five smooth stones.
David takes the five smooth stones that he found in the wadi. This is an intermittent stream in the American language, but in the Middle East it is a wadi. David had a bag/pouch that a shepherd carried to put various odds and ends in. He puts the five stones in the pouch. He has his sling in his hand. He then draws near. He walks toward the Philistine battle line.
Slide 8
This is a picture found on the walls of Nineveh in Assyria. These are Assyrian slingers who wore copper helmets and coats of mail. These were depicted on Sennacherib’s palace.
Slide 9
We have misconceptions about this battle. A sling in the ancient world looked something like the image in the lower left of the slide. It was about 18 inches to 2 feet long. It was two cords of leather straps that had a large pouch tied between them. The pouch would have to be large enough to hold the stones.
There have been piles of stones that slingers used found in Lachish, which is a city in Israel not too far from the Valley of Elah, where the Assyrians held siege. They defeated the city of Lachish. When Sennacherib went back home he memorialized that battle on the wall.
These stones are somewhere between the size of a billiard ball and a baseball. These stones weighed somewhere around a pound each. I have read different accounts of the slingers. Some people will say that they would wind the sling up two or three times to build the centrifugal force before they would let it go. Others would say that a good slinger would only need to wind it up once before letting it go.
The stone, once let go, could be clocked at up to over 60 miles per hour leaving the sling. The stone’s effective range was up to 200–300 yards, depending on the slinger. That is powerful! When you get hit with a one-pound rock, right between the eyes, it is going to hurt.
We get this idea with what we grew up with that slingshots are a sort of little y-shaped piece of wood that has some rubber bands or some sort of rubber strap tied to it. We take something the size of a marble or a little smaller and shoot that.
I remember once when I was a kid pruning a tree to get a really nice large y-shaped branch. I found an inner tube and cut a couple of really long straps of rubber off of it. I had some large marbles. I was having great fun until my mother discovered that I was probably going to kill some kids in the neighborhood if I got out of the yard with that slingshot.
I also tried a sling like this one in the slide. You have to be exceptionally coordinated with a lot of practice to use this sling. They would usually take a loop, as you can see in the slide, that would loop around one finger. You would hold the other end of the other strap between your thumb and your forefinger. You would whirl it and release one of the straps. It would go off. They had tremendous accuracy, as we will see.
Slide 10
1 Samuel 13:19, “Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, ‘Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.’ ”
As we look at this particular text, we are reminded that in Israel at this time the Israelites were prohibited [from having arms]. You had an early form of arms control.
By the way, if one particular party gets into control they are going to be coming after the Constitution’s Second Amendment. They are going to do everything they can by Executive Order. For that reason and that reason alone they should be kept out of power, because when the citizenry cannot protect itself against the government, all of the other laws, all of the other Constitutional Amendments are basically useless. That is the most important Constitutional Amendment that we have. It is the right of self-defense. That was originally formulated to protect against the government.
This was a problem in Israel. Nobody has swords. What we are going to see here is that David is going to use the basic tools that God gave him. He is showing that it is not necessary to have the latest-greatest technology if God is on your side. David takes his five smooth stones from the wadi. He has his staff. He starts to walk toward the Philistine battle line. He has his shepherd’s staff with him. In Exodus 12:11 this is the same generic word for any kind of walking staff or shepherd’s staff.
In Exodus 12:11 when God is giving them instructions about the first Passover, the first Seder. God says, “And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff (same word) in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.”
You are standing there eating one-handed, ready to go at a moment’s notice, as soon as the Pharaoh says, “Get them out of here.”
Slide 11
1 Samuel 17:41–42, “So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking.”
The Philistines come. We go back and forth. We talk about the Philistine, and then we talk about David. As we look at this we see a certain dynamic. The story is intense. It is dramatic. It is one of the most dramatic stories in Scripture. It is interesting how the writer frames it. So many people get the idea that they were old back then. They did not know how to write. They knew very well how to write. They were excellent storytellers.
The language that is used in the text slows you down. This lumbering giant is not moving real quick. He is not nimble. He cannot move quickly. You are slowed down as this lumbering giant comes. It says in the Hebrew that he is walking. The Philistine walks up near to David. He has his shieldbearer that is going before him.
We were told earlier in 1 Samuel 17:7 that Goliath had a shieldbearer. This would have been the very large rectangular body shield that would have been quite heavy. The shieldbearer would stand up in front of Goliath. Goliath had this makeshift wall in front of him that he could dodge behind whenever arrows or slings were being thrown at him.
1 Samuel 17:42, “… and the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him.”
For the first time Goliath gets close enough to where he really has to look at this lad, this young man, probably 18–19 years old. Someone pointed out that if you look at Michelangelo’s David that his hands and his feet are a too large. David is growing into them. He is still not fully grown or fully developed. He is still pictured as a very strong young man.
Slide 12
David is there and Goliath “distains him.” The Hebrew word is בָּזָה bāzā[h], which means to despise, to treat with contempt, not to have any respect. In fact, Goliath looks at this kid and is literally looking down on him, but mentally he is looking down at him. He says, “What can this untried youth do against me?” He sees that he is only a youth, only a young man. He is ruddy.
We often think of this. David is ruddy. It is a picture of health, or he has red hair. It might be something more like he is still looks pink like a baby. He is not tanned. He has not been out fighting like the men. He looks like he is still a young kid. David is ruddy. He is good-looking, but he is not yet a tested warrior.
Slide 13
1 Samuel 17:43, “So the Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”
The Philistine then says to him with the expression of his contempt and his distain, “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?” Remember, Goliath is expressing his arrogance. Proverbs 16:18 says that “Pride goes before destruction.” That is what we see pictured in Goliath. He is proud. He is disdainful. What Goliath is going to say has great theological resonance against God. It is a blasphemy against God.
As Goliath looks at David he insults his most prominent weapon. Notice, he does not say anything about the sling. David probably has it folded up in one hand. He has the stones in his pouch that is not visible. All Goliath sees is David’s staff. Goliath says that David is coming out to him like he is an animal. David is going to spank him with a stick. Then Goliath begins to curse David by his gods.
Slide 14
1 Samuel 17:43, “So the Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”
“Cursed” is a real important word. I pointed out earlier that when David hears the challenge from the giant he immediately asks who this uncircumcised Philistine is. He immediately goes to the real heart of the issue that there is not a covenant with Goliath for the land, but there is a covenant with Israel. That is signified by the fact that Goliath is uncircumcised, and Israel is circumcised.
Of course, Michelangelo got that wrong. He missed the whole point of the whole story because he did not get that right in his statute of David.
This is another subtle point here. The Philistine curses David. The word “cursed” is the Hebrew word קָלַל qālal. There are about five different words that can be used cursing in the Hebrew. This word is one that has great significance because it is used in Genesis 12:3 when God summarizes. This is a foreshadowing of what will be in the Abrahamic Covenant.
Slide 15
Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God says to Abram, Genesis 12:3, “I will curse him who curses you …” He does not say, “I will bless those who bless you when you are doing right, when you are in obedience to the Lord, when you are obeying the Law.” He does not say that. The reality in history is that even when Israel was apostate God still cursed those who cursed Israel. He would bless those who blessed Israel, even if Israel was apostate.
“I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
What would be a good example of this? The Book of Esther.
The Book of Esther does not even mention the name of God. What you have are a people who are presented as godless in Persia in the fifth cycle of discipline. God is not relevant to their life apparently, yet God is protecting them. He blesses those who blessed Israel and protected them from Haman. He brought tremendous judgment upon Haman, who wanted to destroy all of the Jews in Persia.
What is interesting in this phrase is that we translate both of these words in English with the same English word “curse.” But the two Hebrew words that are used are very different and imply different things. God says: “I will curse him who curses you.”
- The first word “curse” is the Hebrew word אָרַר ’ārar, which has to do with a very strong harsh judgment.
- The second word is a softer word. It is קָלַל qālal, the same word we have back with Goliath. The Philistine curses David. It means to treat someone lightly, to treat them with contempt. The Philistine is treating David with the same kind of contempt that God talks about in the Abrahamic Covenant.
“I will deal harshly and judge harshly the one who treats you with contempt.” God is going to demonstrate that this is still in effect with Goliath. Goliath is going to קָלַל qālal David. God has said that anyone who קָלַל qālal Israel, I will harshly judge אָרַר ’ārar. This is a fulfillment of that. Here we have studied Israel. We have studied Saul. It is a great example.
Is Saul walking with the Lord? No.
Is the nation apostate at this time? Yes.
God is still true to His promise. That is important, because you will hear people today, Christians and Libertarians, who come along and say there is nothing special about Israel. We do not help them, support them, and protect them because they are apostate. They are in the land, but they are not regenerate, so it does not matter. We should not be allies with Israel.
That is treating Israel with contempt. God does not qualify Israel by saying that this only applies when they are walking with the Lord. Throughout history, in the Old Testament and in the Church Age, those who have treated Israel with contempt have been judged harshly by God. This is depicted with Goliath. He is treating David with contempt. God is going to judge Goliath.
Slide 16
Going back to 1 Samuel 2, when God is announcing judgment through Samuel on the house of Eli. The Lord God of Israel said:
1 Samuel 2:30, “Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house [the house of Eli] and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed [קָלַל qālal].’ ”
This language continues. God is going to bring judgment against those who treat Him and His people lightly.
Slide 17
1 Samuel 17:44, “And the Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!’ ”
Goliath is threatening to kill David and to dishonor his courts and deny him an honorable burial. His body would be picked apart by the scavengers of the sky and the scavengers of the field.
Slide 18
David gives his response in 1 Samuel 17:45. I want you to notice that there is a significant difference in the tone. The tone of Goliath is a tone of arrogance. It is a tone that he and his gods, who are nothing, are just vanity. That the Philistines are going to destroy Israel. He is full of braggadocio, full of bombast, because he thinks that because he is bigger and has larger, more powerful weapons that he is going to easily destroy David.
But David responds in a very solid tone. He is firm, but not arrogant. He is like a lawyer. He is going to lay out a case before the Philistine. There is something we should learn from this. What we see in this battle scene is that the Philistine has been challenging Israel. When the time comes for someone to take up the challenge, David is going to take the initiative. He is going to be aggressive.
I want you to understand that often when we hear the word “aggressive” we also hear other ideas, like obnoxious, nasty, and mean. Those are not part of the word “aggressive.” Aggressive has the idea of taking the initiative and going forward, seizing the moment, taking the opportunity. But not with arrogance, not in a way that is putting other people down, not as a way that is destructive.
David pictures that. He is going to take the initiative. He is going to be the aggressor against Goliath. David begins to set this out. Read these two verses. It is a profound statement of trust in God:
1 Samuel 17:45–46, “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, 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 and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.’ ”
This statement is all theocentric. It is all about the glory of God. It is not about David. It is not about David’s power or might as a warrior. It is not about his skill. It is all about the fact that David is demonstrating that Goliath may have great weapons, but the weapon that he has is the Lord of hosts, the omnipotent Almighty God of the universe, Who is going to give him the victory. Not because of his skill with weapons. Not because of his greater technology or great size, but simply because He is defending His own honor, His own promise.
Slide 19
As David starts this he shows he is not ignorant. He is not underestimating the weapons of his opponent. He is not ignorant of his opponent. He recognized that Goliath had a sword. The word for sword is somewhat debated.
It is probably the large broad sword, but the word that is used here is a word that is a general sword. That could mean a large broad sword that would be wielded with two hands, or it could be a mid-length sword, much like the machaira in front of the pulpit down here. It could be a dagger. The word is used for a broad range of stabbing and cutting weapons.
1. The one tool that Goliath has is the sword.
The swords in this time period were worn in a sheath that was hung over the girdle by the left side. Typically, because if the person was right-handed he would use a cross draw to pull out his sword.
2. Goliath had a spear.
Slide 20
We have already seen this mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:7. It was described there that he had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s beam. The iron head of the spear weighed 600 shekels, which is about 15 pounds. In order to balance the spear, the length of the spear would have to weigh at least that, if not more, in order to give it enough balance that when he threw it would fly straight to its target. We are looking at a weapon that was about 30–35 pounds total. Goliath has the might, power, and strength to hurl it some distance in combat.
3. The third weapon that is mentioned here is a javelin.
The word is only used a couple of times in Hebrew. We are not sure what it means. A lot of commentators and linguists think that it is a curved sword that was slung on Goliath’s back. Others think that it was a shorter spear for close-in work. Nobody is absolutely positive as to what the weapon is.
What David is doing here is saying this is what you have. You have got the latest-greatest technology. It is powerful. You excel with this, but I have the Lord of hosts. The Hebrew here is important to understand. David says that he comes to Goliath in “the name”. I am a representative of everything that this God is.
It is like we pray in the “name of Jesus.” He represents us. It is that idea. We believe in the “name of Jesus.” That phrase talks about His character.
David says, “I come to you in the name …” on the basis of all the character of our God, Yahweh of the armies. The word there is צְבָא֔וֹת tsevā’ôth, Sabaoth. We sing that when we sing A Mighty Fortress is Our God. It is not sabbath. It is Sabaoth. Shabat in Hebrew starts with sh. This starts with a tsāde (tsādhê), which is a tz (ts) sound. It is a totally different word. It means “armies.” It is usually translated “hosts”, which is an antiquated English term.
“He is Yahweh of the armies.” This pictures not only the angelic armies, but also the armies of Israel. David expands on that in this phrase. He says, Yahweh is “the God of the armies.” That is not the best translation. The best translation is that Yahweh is the God of the battle line. He is the God of the battle ranks. He is the God who is in control of the battle of Israel “whom you have defied.”
Slide 21
This brings up the concept of blasphemy toward God. It is the Hebrew word חָרַף chāraf/chāraph, which means to reproach or show contempt, scorn, or dishonor. Goliath is blaspheming God. At the heart of this battle David is saying it is all about the character of God.
We should think about that in the spiritual battles in our own lives. Ultimately, we have to bring it back, not to me. As soon as we do that, we are talking about the sin nature, me-me-me. It is not this self-absorbed issue. It is what is best that honors the character of God, what glorifies God. That is how I should respond to these circumstances in life.
What Goliath is doing is blaspheming the character of God as he is saying that their gods, which are nothing, can defeat the God of Israel.
There is something else that is going on here as Goliath is ridiculing David’s weapons. David has this unseen weapon, his sling and stones. We see that may be part of David’s thinking in this whole thing has to do with the Torah. That David, as the type of the Messianic King, is one who is going to execute obedience to the Torah.
Slide 22
In Leviticus 24:16 we read, “And whoever blasphemes the name Yahweh shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger …” (the foreigner, the alien in the King James Version). This giant would have been an illegal alien, an undocumented alien.
“… the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.”
The law was applied equally to those who were Israelites, as well as any who was a foreigner in the land. Anyone who blasphemed the name of the Lord was to be stoned. David is going to stone Goliath. He is going to execute him in fulfillment of the Mosaic Law.
Slide 23
David says that the reason for this in 1 Samuel 17:47, “Then all the assembly shall know …”
This is a testimony. This battle is to be a testimony to the greatness of God to all the armies of Israel, all the people of Israel, and ultimately to all the world.
“Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear …”
It does not matter that you have executed arms control against us, and prevented us from getting the latest technology, because the one who fights for us is God. The reason David can say that is because Israel is the only people in the world who have a contract with God Who has promised them a certain piece of real estate.
God has guaranteed that Israel is going to live there. The land is theirs. He has given them the title deed for that land. He and He alone is going to eject them when they are disobedient. Then in His good time He will bring them back. That is what we see in the Old Testament.
The point here is that when you are doing God’s will, God is going to provide for you. You cannot take this and apply that too closely to the United States. God did not give us this land. There is no contract. There is no covenant that God has made with the American people. He did not make one with the British people, with the French or the Germans. He certainly has not made one with any of the Arabs or with the Russians or Chinese.
Only Israel has a contract with God. Only Israel has a right to that land. That is why God is going to defend Israel at this time. It is not because they are great, because as Deuteronomy points out, they are a rebellious and stiff necked people. He did not choose them because of whom and what they were. He chose them because of His own purposes.
Slide 24
1 Samuel 13:22, “So it came about, on the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and Jonathan his son.”
A reminder: Only Saul and Jonathan had a spear. Only Saul and Jonathan had a sword and a spear. Nobody else has them. What God is showing is that it does not matter what your weapons are. I can take a stone and I can win the battle.
Slide 25
There are several things that we should look at here as a backdrop to this. One is to go back to Hannah’s psalm. Remember how much time we spent going through Hannah’s psalm. Hannah’s thanks to God in 1 Samuel 2, after God gave her Samuel. We saw how remarkable it was that when we get to the end of that psalm that her insight was so tremendous that she attaches messianic significance to the birth of Samuel.
Hannah recognizes that it is through the birth of this son that somehow he is going to bring about a king in Israel, and ultimately the Anointed One, the Messiah. At the end and at the close of her hymn, Hannah says that:
1 Samuel 2:9–10, “He (God) will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength (human effort) no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king (that is what He is doing with David), and exalt the horn (metaphor for the power) of His anointed.”
Slide 26
We need to be reminded of this in these days that are dark for Christians in the United States.
Jeremiah 9:23–24, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me …”
It’s not “knows about Me,” but “knows Me.” This believer has a deeper and richer personal relationship because of his study of the Word of God.
“… ‘that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness (chesed), judgment, and righteousness in the earth, For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”
That has not changed. God is still in control. It does not matter who wins the election. It does not matter how nasty the people are who are running for office. God is still on His throne. He is still in control. That does not absolve any of us of the responsibility to go vote.
Just because we pray for something to happen does not give us the right to say, “O Lord, I am praying that You will put food on my table.” The Lord says, I gave you two feet. You can walk to the store. You have money in your pocket. You can buy the food and bring it home. You do not sit there and wait for it to magically appear.
“But Lord, I want a job. Give me a job.” You do not just sit at home. You do whatever it takes to go look for a job, to talk to people, to go through want ads or various tools on the Internet. Whatever you need to do to network to get a job. God says I gave you friends. I gave you contacts. I am providing for you.
This idea that I am not going to vote, the Lord is in control, it will come out the way He wants it to. That is silly mysticism. It is paganism that has nothing to do with the first divine institution, personal responsibility. We have to make a decision. We have to vote.
The Lord says, “I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness (chesed), judgment, and righteousness in the earth, For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”
The Lord overrides. He is the One who is in control, but that does not absolve us of our responsibility.
Slide 27
We have another great promise. Many of these are great promises to memorize.
Zechariah 4:6, “So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.’”
Remember, this is in the Old Testament, when the Spirit of God did not enable the believer in the way He does today. This is even truer at our time. Always remember, no matter how dark it gets. Whether it is personal, due to circumstances beyond your control, or whether it is national or international.
Slide 28
Luke 1:37, Gabriel said to Mary when she expressed doubts that a virgin could conceive and give birth, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Then later in Matthew 19:26, “But Jesus looked at them (His disciples) and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’ ”
God is omnipotent. He is able to do everything necessary to accomplish His plan.
Slide 29
David says this battle will be victorious. 1 Samuel 17:47, “Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
It is not human viewpoint techniques. It is not gimmicks. There are so many churches today that are building their ministries on human-viewpoint techniques. They are using marketing techniques of Madison Avenue to go after people. They are using all kinds of tools and techniques.
As I was told when I was ordained by Pastor Harry Leafe, he said, “Always remember this, any human being with a lot of talent and a lot of energy and a lot of effort can build a big organization, but that does not mean the Holy Spirit had anything to do with it.”
I do believe that there are many enormous churches that have a lot of ministries. People are attracted to these things. They want something for their kids. They want something for the teenagers. I tell you. It is a loser parent who uses their kids as an excuse to go to an apostate church.
I have heard this my whole life, “Well, I can come here and I can get the Bible, but I know enough.” No one ever knows enough. “But my kids need other kids.” That is the devil’s own lie. You need to get your kids somewhere where you are teaching them that the priority is the truth of God’s Word, not social activities, not other kids or other people.
We have to learn that the battle is the Lord’s. We fight the battle God’s way. We do not fight it according to these human-viewpoint techniques. We trust the Lord. That is what we emphasize here at West Houston Bible Church.
Slide 30
Then we see the climax occur. It is so dynamic. 1 Samuel 17:48, “So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.”
“He arose.” He is moving slow. He probably weighed about 500 pounds. He has got to lift all that off the ground. He comes and walks and draws near. He is walking slowly. Imagine how this would be put to music in an opera. He is moving slowing. You hear the bass. You hear the low slow kettle drums. And then David, you hear a snare drum. He is moving fast. He hurries and runs to meet the Philistine.
David is aggressive. He wants to engage the enemy, but he does the right thing the right way. There are too many Christians that get the idea that they want to be aggressive. What they hear is “I am going to be obnoxious.” You have to be grace oriented and humble. Think about how Jesus was aggressive. He was aggressive in the way He showed His love and His grace to the tax collectors and the prostitutes.
Jesus is not aggressive. He is not beating up on them for their sins or past failures. It is nothing obnoxious about it at all.
The only time that Jesus got what some people might say is obnoxious is when He ran into the religious crowd and was deceiving the people. He threw the moneychangers out of the Temple. Then He is going to come up with these curses, these judgments, the woes against the Philistines in Matthew 23. But He is only that way with those who are rebellious, hostile to the Word of God.
But to those who will humble themselves, Jesus is the One who takes the children on His lap. He is the One who deals in grace and humility with the sinners. It is not aggression in a negative sense. It is aggression in a positive sense of taking the initiative to do the right thing.
Slide 31
David runs to meet the Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:49, “Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead …”
Can you imagine? This thing is like a rock. It is probably going 50 miles per hour. It strikes Goliath in the forehead, “so that the stone sank into his forehead.” It collapsed the entire frontal bone of Goliath’s cranium. It knocks him out, “… and he fell on his face to the earth.” Goliath is facedown in the dirt.
Samuel 17:50, “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.” Again, we are reminded. David is not using human tools. It is done in the power of God.
Some people may think “Wow! What a miracle that must have been! I am sure there is a miraculous divine element there.”
Slide 32
Judges 20:16, “Among all this people were seven hundred select men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair’s breadth and not miss.”
Here we have a testimony in Judges 20:16 about this battalion of warriors in Benjamin. They are all left-handed. They are select men, choice men, who were left-handed. Every man could sling a stone at the hair’s breadth and not miss. In other words, they can hit dead center. They can hit a fly sitting on a bull’s-eye at two hundred yards with a one-pound stone. Every time! They trained and they trained and they trained. They could excel.
David was the same way. It was not using a sling the way I would use a sling. He was dead on. He demonstrated that. David does not stop just because the giant goes down.
Slide 33
1 Samuel 17:51, “Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it.”
That seems gory to modern sensibilities, but it was standard operating procedure in the ancient world. At the end of Samuel, we are going to see that when the Philistines kill Saul they chop his head off. They are going to hang his body up on the walls of Bashan. This was standard operating procedure in the ancient world. It was brutal at that time.
“And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.”
Panic sets in and the Philistines run away.
Slide 34
1 Samuel 17:51, “Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.”
Slide 35
We see this picture of David taking the head of Goliath. What we are going to see is David is going to take that head to Jerusalem. We will see this at the end of the story. David takes the head of Goliath to Jerusalem. Remember, Jerusalem is still under the control of the Jebusites. David does not conquer it for quite a few more years.
Why does he take it to Jerusalem? That is an interesting question. I do not know the answer. The text does not tell us.
Slide 36
1 Samuel 17:52–53, “Now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, even as far as Gath and Ekron. Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.”
Slide 37
Looking at this on the map. Gath is to the south. Ekron is to the north of Gath. The Elah Valley does a dog leg through here. We do not know where Shaaraim is. It has never been discovered, but it is somewhere in this area. The Israelites are pursuing the Philistines back to Gath, then to Ekron, two of the major cities of the Philistines.
This is a major defeat of the Philistine army. They are not going to be a problem again for a few years. David is going to be a little bit older, maybe five to eight years go by. It is not a knockout blow, but it certainly sets them back for a little while.
Slide 38
The last verse in the section before we start talking about Saul’s response next week.
1 Samuel 17:54, “And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.”
Maybe David went to Jerusalem. Did he take Goliath’s spear and put Goliath’s head on top of it and stuck it in the ground as a warning to the Jebusites? I have no idea. It is pure guesswork and pure supposition. The text does not tell us. Jerusalem at this point is not where the tabernacle is. Nothing is going on there. It is a pagan Jebusite city. Why he does this we do not know. The text does not indicate it at all.
Basic principles that we learn from this:
1. We have to do God’s work God’s way.
We do not do it on our own terms. We have to identify human viewpoint, Mickey Mouse techniques and gimmicks, and recognize that that is not from the Lord. It might work. It might build a big church. It might get a lot of people somewhere, but that does not mean that the Holy Spirit has anything to do with it.
2. We have to remember that God plus one is a majority [God + 1 = Majority].
It does not matter that we are in a minority. What matters is that God is on our side.
3. We will take our stand on the Word of God.
But be careful. We are going to learn more about this when we get into Matthew 23. Do not take your stand on what you think the Word of God says, or on what some pastor tells you the Word of God says, because he might be wrong. Take your stand on what the Word of God actually says.
There are many times Scripture has been misinterpreted and people have claimed these promises, but it is going to be a failure because you have misinterpreted the Word of God. We have to make sure that we stand our ground on the Word of God and not on some commentary or interpretation of the Scripture.
4. We need to take the initiative and be aggressive in a kind, gentle, humble, obedient way. Not in an obnoxious, nasty, self-absorbed manner. We need to note the difference in Jesus’ life. He is aggressive. He goes for what He is supposed to go for, but He does not do it in an obnoxious way.
Paul is the same way. He does what he is supposed to do. He is not shy. He is not bashful. He does not wait and say, “Oh, Lord, somehow make it happen.” No. He goes and does what the Lord has directed him to do. We have to take the initiative and be aggressive in trusting the Lord. Remember, the battle is not ours. “The battle is the Lord’s.”
Closing Prayer
“Father, thank You for the opportunity to study this great passage, to be reminded that You are still on Your throne. You are still in control. And that no matter how circumstances might appear in our lives, no matter whether it is personal or national, we know that You are in control. We are to trust You and walk by the Spirit and be engaged in the battle against our three great enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. But we are only aggressive against our sin nature. You take care of Satan. You take care of the world. We are to be transformed by renewing our mind. We pray that You would through Your Spirit do that in Christ’s Name. Amen.”
