Transcript

I'm Thankful!

Sunday, November 30, 2014
1 Samuel 17:1-58
Pastor Randy Smith

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Coaches have used this story to motivate their team when facing an overwhelming opponent. Parents have used this story to encourage their kids to stand up to the bully on the playground. The Christian media has also cashed in on this story, teaching children that they can contribute in big situations. We learned in Veggie Tales from Dave and the Giant Pickle that "little guys can do big things too." The subtitle of the movie: "A lesson in Self-Esteem." Adult Bible teachers tell us this story is about mustering up the fortitude of David when facing our "Goliath-sized trials" and the need to "slay them with our spiritual stones."

I am not denying the good intentions of these individuals nor some secondary applications that may be gleaned from this text. But what is the primary reason God included 1 Samuel 17 in our Bibles? Should we be fixated on Goliath's might or David's courage or is there a deeper meaning? There is - and as we approach this popular passage we must discern what God desires to teach us about Himself. Don't lose that thought!

The biblical book of 1 Samuel is filled with conflicts: Samuel and Eli, Eli and his sons, Saul and Jonathan, Saul and Samuel, Saul and David. There can be no doubt that chapter 17 is also loaded with conflict. Therefore I plan to structure this message around the four conflicts I see in this chapter alone that are listed in your sermon outline. First we will see the conflict between Goliath and Israel (verses 1-11), then Eliab and David (verses 12-30), then the conflict between Saul and David (verses 31-39) and then David and Goliath (verses 40-58).

Before we start let me say that 1 Samuel, commonly called an historical book, is ultimately a book about God! God is the ultimate hero of the story. He must also be the ultimate hero of our lives. So as we experience conflict in life we must rely upon the promises of the One (like David did) who can provide true victory.

1. Goliath Frightens Israel

Let's begin with the first conflict, "Goliath Frightens Israel."

The Philistines and the Israelites faced off in a major showdown at the "valley of Elah" (1 Sam. 17:2, 19). Since neither was willing to make the first move, the Philistines had an idea of how to end the stalemate. They send out one from their army known as a "champion" (17:4). His name was Goliath and he was so big he'd look down upon Shaquille O'Neal.

Decorated in heavy armor from head to toe. In his hands he held a javelin and a large spear. An impressive sight indeed! Out of his mouth spewed insults directed toward Israel and her God. In verse 10 he said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together."

Trash talking in athletics obviously has deeper roots than our present generation!

Well, how did the nation respond? Verse 11, "When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid."

Despite the fact that God had promised to deliver them from the Philistines, despite the fact that God had given them miraculous victories in the past and despite the fact that King Saul was chosen for moments like these, Israel cowered in a corner frightened and overwhelmed by a big guy with mean words and scary looks.

Since Israel didn't see the Lord in the conflict they knew they were no match for Goliath. They didn't see God bigger than the giant. And by ignoring God they therefore saw the giant bigger than themselves.

In the previous chapter of 1 Samuel, when selecting the new king our Lord said, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). As you know, to the surprise of all who were in attendance that famous day, the youngest, the one tending the sheep was selected. David found favor in the eyes of the Lord because he was a man after God's own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).

God's solution to this conflict with Goliath was David. God's answer was not a bigger man than Goliath, but a humble shepherd boy with a bigger heart.

Halfway through verse 23, "The champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them."

Unlike the worldly-minded Israelites, David took notice of Goliath's words and said, verse 26, "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" While others were shaking in their boots, David took offense at Goliath's remarks.

Saul offered tremendous gifts (riches, freedom from taxation, daughter in marriage) to the soldier who would defeat Goliath. Yet after analyzing the risks, all the Israelites valued their lives more than the greatest treasures the king could conceive. Yet David moved solely out of love for God's honor would rather face death than see His Lord's name dragged through the mud. Saul could keep his rewards; God's honor was the only motivation he needed.

Only a boy named David
Only a little sling
Only a boy named David
But he could pray and sing
Only a boy named David
Only a rippling brook
Only a boy named David
But five little stones he took.

And one little stone went in the sling
And the sling went round and round
And one little stone went in the sling
And the sling went round and round
And round and round
And round and round
And round and round and round
And one little stone went up in the air
And the giant came tumbling down.

Good or bad synopsis of the story? It's horrible! This song should bring us to tears - in the sad way! Why? Because it's just like the Israelites - all about people, and nothing about God.

So in his first words recorded in the entire Bible, David breaks the spiritual silence. Verse 26, "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" Hey, let's inject God into the equation! What a novel idea! Like us, based on the way most Christians solve their problems today, very few would guess we have a living God on our side!

2. Eliab Chides David

But just as David is prepared to fight the blasphemous giant, he must stand against the verbal attacks from his older brother, one from within his own ranks - even one from within his own family. That takes us to our second point, "Eliab Chides David."

Verse 28, "Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, 'Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle.'"

Eliab attacks David's actions and questions his motives. All David could say was, "What have I done now? Was it not just a question" (1 Sam. 17:29). The typical response of a younger brother!

Still, it is gut-wrenching! Verse 22 says, "David … ran to the battle line." His enthusiasm to fight for the Lord only to be squashed from the one who should have been cheering him on!

The times haven't changed. Infighting, friendly fire within the church has become a great hindrance to the Gospel work and has resulted in many discouraged, disappointed, depressed and defeated, once-motivated servants of Christ. Satan will muster all of his forces to oppose God's work. Quite often he will use Spiritless people from within to hinder the work of Spirit-filled people. Tragically, sometimes our greatest opponents can be those within the household of faith simply because they are critical, bitter or jealous.

That prepares us for our third conflict.

3. Saul Questions David

After David overcame the jealousy of brother Eliab, he must now overcome the doubt of King Saul.

Word was brought to the king that David accepted Goliath's challenge. While David was filled with the Spirit of God (16:13), King Saul, now without the Spirit (16:14), responded in a way we would expect. He spoke with a voice of reason and sensibility that was all man-centered.

Verse 33, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth." In other words, "He's bigger, he's older, he's more experienced - you may have good intentions, but you are living a fantasy, my son. And I don't feel comfortable just throwing away your life!"

But David counters Saul's objections by showing his decision is not rash or foolish or even a testimony to his own toughness. Beginning in verse 34, "'Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.' And David said, 'The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.'"

David's portfolio of God's faithfulness both sustained and motivated him for this present situation. David knew it was not about him. He knew it was all about God and God's faithfulness to deliver in the present just as He did in the past!

"And Saul said to David, 'Go, and may the LORD be with you.'" (17:37b).

Please notice how David, faithful with the small things such as watching sheep (16:11; 17:15) and obeying his father's directives in bringing supplies to the front lines (17:17) is now prepared for and considered faithful for a larger work. Also notice how David needed to overcome battles with smaller giants like a lion and a bear and his brother and his king before he would battle the greater giant, Goliath himself. I hope we all aspire to see the Lord use us to accomplish great things, but great things will never happen until we are faithful with the smaller responsibilities and able to overcome the smaller Goliath's that attack us on a daily basis.

4. David Defeats Goliath

Now that David has proved victorious over a series of spiritual tests, he is prepared to fight Goliath, our fourth conflict.

The one thing that marks all of God's champions is the ability to overcome obstacles. Defeat cannot be the final word. They refuse to allow people, Satan, circumstances or emotions to have the final say.

David, as God's servant dealt with his share of opposition. From being uninvited to his own inauguration as king to being mistreated by his jealous brother to being distrusted by his faithless king, Goliath will now join the ranks of David's rejecters. What a great illustration teaching us that God's servants must expect and persevere through opposition.

Beginning in verse 40, "[David] took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine. Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. 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 also said to David, 'Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.'"

What a contrast is established in our minds! It was a spear verses a sling, big verses small, wrong verses right, defiance verses purity, know-how verses inexperience, and maturity verses youth.

All these contrasts are there to teach us that God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and the weak things to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:20, 27). For His ways and the world's ways are rarely in agreement (Isa. 55:8-9). Everybody in this account saw things from a man-centered perspective except one little shepherd boy from Bethlehem with a heart after God who dared to see things from God's point of view.

You see, when we use this story to teach our little ones that they need to emulate the courage and strength of David we miss the primary point. I believe it would be better to teach about confidence in God's adequacy through David's weakness (17:37, 45, 47). Someone once said, "It is not so much our littleness that hinders Christ as our bigness. It is not so much our weakness that hinders Christ as our strength. It is not our darkness, but our supposed light that holds back His power." We must remember that God's sufficiency is best demonstrated through our insufficiency (2 Cor. 12:9-10). And recognizing our inadequacies may be the greatest quality in serving Him faithfully.

Goliath's gods were dead. On the contrary, David came in the name of the living God. David was appalled that the worshipper of dead idols had the audacity to reproach the armies of the living God.

His reply to the Philistine begins in verse 45, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and 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 taunted. This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and 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 does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD'S and He will give you into our hands."

David was not motivated by his own ego or the rewards that Saul had to offer. His ultimate purpose was not even to save Israel by defeating Goliath. His heart was right and therefore he was moved by his great love for the Lord. Goliath wanted his own glory (like many Christians do today) and his god was a tool to help him achieve it (like many Christians do today as well). Yet David wanted to be used by the Lord to further the Lord's glory.

In verses 46-47, David's motives could not be any clearer. "That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD'S."

When Israel picked-up their newspapers the following morning and read the box score of this account, David wanted everyone to know Yahweh is the true God. And defiance toward His name is the height of folly. Yet those who rely upon Him will be delivered.

Verses 48 and following, "Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David's hand."

All the hype and drama to reach the fight scene, and it ends almost before the ring attendant can sound the opening bell. I mean we are hardly in our seats before this battle comes to a close. We might even demand a refund if we paid good money for the price of admission!

Three points of application directed toward our present generation:

One, God uses us to accomplish His purposes.

Just as it is wrong like we observed in Goliath to rely upon our own resources, it is also wrong to ignore our resources and adopt a passive role in regard to serving the Lord. The common expression today, "Let go and let God," stands in stark opposition to the way we saw God work through David.

In this account we saw God use David's gifts and past experiences. And although God providentially directed that stone to Goliath's forehead, historians tell us that contemporaries in David's time were able to sling 2-3 inch stones 100-150 miles per hour with great accuracy (cf. Ju. 20:16).

This is a reminder to us that we don't sit on our hands, check our brains at the door and become passive observers. We must pray fervently, learn the Scriptures, develop our gifts and labor earnestly while fully trusting the Lord and giving Him all the glory. We see this example from all the heroes in the Bible. Take the apostle Paul: "I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). It is walking the fine line between energetic zeal and childlike faith.

Two, this account specifically applied to Old Covenant Israel.

If we use this story to encourage our nephew to defeat the monster on the playground he will probably learn to distrust God as he wonders where God was after he got the tar kicked out of him! Like the confused boxer who observed his opponent kneeling before their fight. His trainer relieved his perplexity by informing the boxer that he was praying. "Will it help?" asked the boxer. "Not if he can't fight," replied the trainer.

Israel was God's chosen nation. He promised to defend her against her enemies. David had faith in those promises of God. God has given new and different promises to His church. We too must understand those promises and have the faith that God will remain true to His Word. Some Christians claim promises God never gave (the so-called "name it and claim it") while other Christians fail to claim the promises God has already provided.

Three, contending with the living God is a losing proposition.

This story in 1 Samuel 17 is ultimately designed to teach us that the greatest forces that the world can muster up are turned to mere dust when they seek to oppose the living God. And while it seems that God is passive and oftentimes defeated, God is only demonstrating His patience because the day will come when every knee will bow before His throne. The one we should fear is not the Goliaths of this world, but the living God who one day will judge this world (Mt. 10:28).

We must see through the shepherd David the foreshadowing of the ultimate Shepherd through David's line, Christ Jesus. For as David defeated God's enemy, Goliath, Jesus will be champion over all of God's enemies.

As a matter of fact, His victorious ending has already been determined. In the book of Revelation we read: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS'" (Rev. 19:11-16).

For after His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has ascended to the "right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). He is "declared the Son of God with power" (Rom. 1:4) and given "the name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:9). He will return and He will be victorious over all. And the fate of Goliath awaits those who persist in their insurrection and rebellion.

Yet just as the Bible describes His coming triumph, the Bible also describes His present pardon given to all who forsake their rebelliousness and surrender to His lordship. For the coming King was also the sacrificial lamb that died so that humanity might receive forgiveness. Through Christ and His death on the cross, God promises to pardon all who lay down their arms and surrender now to His mighty name, to all who forsake their self-reliance, recognize their personal inadequacies and repent of their sin.

Have you trusted Jesus Christ for salvation? Are you like Goliath trusting in yourself and your false gods or have you acknowledged Jesus as the true champion over sin, Satan and death? If so, His life will manifest itself in yours. Like David and like Jesus, you too will live for the glory of God's name. Like David and like Jesus, you too will run to the battle lines of spiritual warfare. And like David and like Jesus, you too as you wait on God's deliverance, will be victorious.