David and Goliath
Transcript
So my name is Chet, I'm one of the pastors with Mill City Church, and what we're doing, we're in our fourth week of our Bible story series, and what we're doing is we're walking through Old Testament Bible stories, stories that we've heard, stories maybe we've grown up hearing, or at least in our culture we're familiar with, and we're just looking at them in light of the rest of Scripture. We're looking at them in light of God's full story. So what we know about God is that He declares in the Old Testament, He says, I'm the God who declares the end from the beginning. And so when we think about history, we usually look at what came before an event to find out what caused it.
So like when you study World War II, you're going to look at World War I, you're going to look at the aftermath of World War I, and you're going to see how did this lead up to World War II. But when we look at the story as God unfolds it to us in Scripture, what we understand is that He in some ways is like an architect or like a city planner who is working everything out towards His given end, His desire for how things ultimately are going to work out. So when we look at an event in history, in biblical history, we not only look at what led up to it, but we also look at where God was going to take it eventually, because He's in charge of how everything plays out. And so one of the things we've said as we've gone through this series is that in some ways as Christians who have the New Testament, who know that God becomes a human, that Jesus comes to earth and lives on our behalf and dies and then rises again, that we have the end of the story, and so we can't ever read the Old Testament the same way again.
And so what we've said is it's kind of like the movie The Sixth Sense. Have you seen that movie? It came out in like 1999. If you haven't seen it, it's got a really intense twist on the end, and I'm about to ruin that for you. But the main character, Bruce Willis, is dead the entire time, and the kid can see dead people.
And so you don't know he's dead, though, until the end. And so if you watch The Sixth Sense the first time, it blows your mind. And then when you can never watch it the same way again. And so that's the same way we approach the Bible. We go through the Old Testament, and we're looking at its unfolding, and then we see how God's going to bring everything together. We see the twist on the end of the story.
And we can never read the Old Testament the same way twice. My wife and I, she had not seen The Sixth Sense, but she had seen a movie that talked about the end of The Sixth Sense, much like I just did here, where it says that the guy's dead the whole time. But she didn't realize it was Bruce Willis. She thought it was the kid. So we watched the entire movie, and I told her it was really good.
We watched the entire movie. We get to the end, and I was like, what did you think? She's just staring at the credits like, she looks at me and goes, the kid was dead the whole time? And I was like, no. But it messed up her ability to even watch it.
So it's helpful for us to know what the end of the story is, so that as we go through the text, as we go through these Bible stories, we get an understanding of what God's doing and how we're actually supposed to understand what the story means, what we're supposed to do with it, how we're supposed to understand it. So today we're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 17. We're going to be talking about the story of David and Goliath. I'm very excited that we get to talk about David and Goliath together today. It's a story I think most of us are familiar with. It shows up all the time, even just in the way people talk about stuff.
They'll say, it's a really David and Goliath story, that kind of thing. And we just really just did the video just for fun. So if Christians can't get together and have a good time, I honestly don't know who can, because we've been rescued and redeemed by Jesus and we're set free. And so we want to have fun together as a church family. I'm going to pray. If you have one of these Bibles that are in the rows with you, it'll be on page 154.
And that's not a typo. We'll go through 1 through 54 on page 154. So, okay, I'm going to pray and then we're going to hop in and look at this. God, we thank you that we get to gather today to study your word. And we ask that you would speak to us. That as we read through the text, as we see this story, we pray that you'd give us the ability to understand more clearly.
That you would help us see vividly how you work in history. And ultimately what you were doing on our behalf. And so, God, we praise you. We thank you. And we love you. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Okay, so chapter 17, verse 1. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Soca, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Soca and Azekah in Ephes-Demim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them.
Okay, we're going to stop there for a second. Let's paint this picture up a little bit and get a clear understanding of what's going on. And the Philistines were a coastal people, so they were kind of near the Mediterranean Sea, and they were kind of where the Gaza Strip is. And they had consistently given Israel fits. And so where we left off last week, we went through the book. But we were in Genesis last week talking about Joseph.
And so we had spent three weeks. We had talked about Adam and Eve. We had talked about Noah. And we talked about Joseph. And so if you were kind of keeping track, we had only been in Genesis as we're talking about. We're going to go through the Old Testament and talk about Bible stories.
So maybe if you were doing math, you're thinking, it's going to be a 92-week series. No, it's only going to be like 73 weeks. I'm just kidding. This is the fourth of five. And so we've jumped ahead in history. And so where we went was Joseph settled his family in Egypt.
They multiplied. The Egyptians enslaved them. And then Moses shows up, and he sings this song about letting his people go. And God moves through ten plagues and sets them free. And then they wander in the desert for 40 years. This is all outlined on those sheets.
If you want to grab one on your way out that we've got that Raz made of the biblical timeline. But they wander in the desert for 40 years, and then Joshua leads them into the promised land. And they do a decent Job of taking over the promised land, but did not completely have autonomy over it. And throughout the course of the book of Judges, they just have people who are Judges who kind of lead over them, rise up at different points to set them free from enemies that have taken over. And you see them fighting with the Philistines throughout the book of Judges. And where we are now, they came and said, we want a king.
We want to have a king. We want to be like the nations around us. And they were really just some tribes that kind of lived together. And God was supposed to be ruling over them as a king. And he says, okay, you can have a king. And so they choose King Saul through a process where a prophet leads them through that.
And what we know about King Saul was he's just kind of a big farm boy. He was about a head taller than everybody else. So they liked that about him. But it wasn't a real, they like rolled dice to see who was going to be king. So it's an interesting process, but God kind of oversaw it.
And so Saul's king. And he's done a decent Job up until this point. But he's not a king the way we think about kings with like a castle and stuff. Because they were just figuring this stuff out. So they were basically like, okay, Saul, you're our king.
Sweet. All right, everybody go home. That's pretty much what they did. And so he wasn't set up with like. And so at this point, all he's done is try to fight a few times, lead a couple of battles. And what we know about the Philistines is that they outman the Israelite army.
They can overpower them. The Israelites didn't want to fight them in open country because the Philistines had chariots. And the Israelites were mostly on foot. But the Philistines had horses and chariots. And so when you got in open country in a battle, chariots would just ride through your ranks and tear them up. So one of the reasons they're up in the mountains in a hill country is because Israel is trying to fight a defensive battle.
We also know that in 1 Samuel 13, we're told that the Philistines would not allow Israelites to have blacksmiths. So they had some authority over this territory. And the reason they wouldn't let them have blacksmiths is because they said that they were afraid that they would make spears and swords for themselves. And it would be easier for them to rise up against the Philistines. And so when the fighting with the Philistines begins, we're told that Saul has a sword and his son has a sword. And everyone else is using farm equipment.
They're outmatched, outmanned, and easily overpowered by the Philistines. And they had won some victories. And so we can assume at this point that they've grown some as an army. More men have joined. They've been able to start getting some weapons together, but not much. And so what we see is the Philistines on one side.
And they're in Israel's territory. It says that they're in Soca, which belongs to Judah. And Judah was one of the tribes of Israel. So the Philistines have marched in on Israel. And Israel is trying to defend themselves. I think sometimes when we picture biblical stories, especially ones that have some fantastic things to them, we always picture them a little bit cartoony.
So it's like there's like happy little cartoon things going on. And so like even when you picture David and Goliath, Goliath walks out and he's like he's mean, but he's kind of cute, like cartoony looking. He's got a big head, you know, and so it makes it easier to hit with rocks. But this is real. This is real events that happen to real people. This was a tense situation.
There's an army on one side of a mountain. There's a valley in between them and there's an army on another side. So picture more along the lines of what you would view when you think about Braveheart, where the English were coming and they were more powerful, had more to them, and there was a ragtag bunch of people trying to defend themselves. That's kind of the situation we find ourselves in. And so there would have been camps set up, campfires, tense conversations, grown men ready to do battle. And that's where we are.
Verse 4. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath. So a champion kind of is one of their greatest warriors and at times would do what we're about to see that he does, which is he says, I'll fight on behalf of my army. You send someone out to fight me on behalf of your army and I'll fight on behalf of mine. So a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
So a cubit, they didn't have rulers and stuff. Cubits, fingertips to elbows, that's about 18 inches. Span is the width of your hand there. And so six cubits and a span, the guy was nine foot, nine inches tall, roughly, depending on how big the arm of the person who measured him. And you're wondering, how did they measure him? Well, it doesn't go well for him.
So he was just kind of laid out for a while and they were able to walk up and be like, how tall is this cat? How tall was this cat? Somebody put his head back on. Let's see. Let's see how tall that was.
Okay. So anyways, nine foot, nine inches tall. He had a helmet of bronze on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.
And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. And his shield bearer went before him. This is an impressive, scary man. He was a champion of the Philistines who were good at fighting, had a good sized army, which means that he was good at killing people. And he was a giant. Nine foot, nine inches tall.
So Shaquille O'Neal is 7 foot 1 and at playing weight. So not his Icy Hot commercials, but back when he was playing, he was 325. Andre the Giant was billed at 7 foot 4 and 540 pounds. So assuming that Goliath of Gath had a little bit of weight to him, nine foot nine, he was probably somewhere between 600 to 750 pounds. And he's a massive, scary man who walks out and declares that he'll fight on behalf of his army. It says that he has a shield bearer, which couldn't, I mean, I don't know how tall that guy would have been compared to him carrying his shield for him.
So we don't know if he was like had weak knees or something. Historians have postulated that he had really effeminate legs that he wanted to hide. That's not true. But so he has a shield bearer, comes before him, carries his shield for him. So here's what we see.
This is the situation for the Israelites. They're outmanned. They're in a bad spot because they're fighting against the Philistines who have more armor, more people, more equipment. And now there's a giant on the other team. Verse 8. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel.
So he walks kind of out into the valley, walks down the hill a little bit, looking up to the army of Israel. Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants.
But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. One of the questions I've always had as I've read this story is, why didn't the Israelites just say, no, not going to do that. We'll just have our army fight yours.
And as I was studying this and reading about this, what I realized is the Israelites didn't want to fight, period. They were in a defensive posture. They're up in the hills. They're trying to defend their territory. They're outmanned by the Philistines. And so the Philistines have the position of power in this whole situation.
And they're basically saying, well, let Goliath fight on our behalf. And then less people will die. We're going to win regardless. But we might as well just let our champion fight and we'll get this over quickly. Less of our people will die and we'll have more servants and slaves on the back end of it. And so that's why they kind of sit in this stalemate for a while.
Because the Philistines are in the position of power and Israel really doesn't have the ability to just fight them and win. At least it doesn't seem that way. Wouldn't it be a real good tactical move? And so what it says is that when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. They knew this was not going to go well for them. They did not have anybody who could go out and fight.
They didn't have anybody that was immediately like, oh, we'll send our champion, Greg Akiah out there. Like that didn't happen. Called him Greg for short. Verse 12. Now David was the son of Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons in the days of Saul.
The man was already old and advanced in years. The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn and next to him Abinadab and the third Shammah. David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
For 40 days the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening. So when the Bible says for 40 days, that's an idiom. It can mean this happened for 40 days. Like exactly 40 days. But it's also just kind of a phrase they use that means a long time.
So like if I saw a friend and I said, man, I hadn't seen you in a hot minute. It actually hadn't been a hot minute. That's just a term I would use that means it's been a long time. Or like when you're talking to a really old country guy and he goes, boy, I've been chewing tobacco since I was knee-hide to a grasshopper. Which just means he started chewing tobacco when he was like six or something. He was never actually that short.
But we need to talk to him about his tobacco issue. That's really early. So it says for 40 days, it just means a long period of time. And so what we see though in this story is that we've now introduced a new character. We're talking about David now in this story. And so we already know about David if we've been reading through Samuel.
David already knows Saul. He comes and plays music for him. And David was musically gifted and wrote a lot of the Psalms that we have in the Bible. At this point though, David had already been anointed king. And so we don't know much about anointing. What had happened was Saul had led well for a time.
And then had kind of turned away from God and done some stuff like directly disobeyed some of the stuff God had told him to do. And so God basically said, well, I'm sorry I made you king. You're not going to be king anymore. And he says, I'm going to pick someone else. And so he chooses David. And David is anointed king.
It wasn't a big ceremony. It was something that a prophet went to his house. He was the runt of the family. They didn't even think he would be one of the ones. Like the prophet shows up and says, one of your sons is going to be king. And Jesse says, cool.
And takes his oldest, biggest boy and goes all the way down the line. He gets to the end. And they're basically just standing around like, you said one of my sons. And so Samuel said, do you have any other sons? And they're like, oh, yeah, David. Totally forgot he existed.
But he's watching sheep. And that probably he's not the king, though. And so they go get David. And he's anointed king. And so he's kind of like a president who's been elected but isn't president yet. But I don't even know if Saul knows that.
So that's who David is. He shows up. He's sent by his dad. So verse 17. And Jesse said to David, his son, take your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these ten choice cheeses to the commander of their thousand.
See if your brothers are well and bring some token from them. So he says, take this to your brothers and give their commander some cheese. I don't know if they're trying to get in with their commander. Be like, hey, man, remember when my dad gave you that cheese? Think I could have a day off? So I don't know.
I don't know what that was. He's just being nice, maybe. So 19. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. It means encamped, lined up for battle. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him.
And he came to the encampment as the host was going to the battle, to the battle line, shouting the war cry. OK, so they've apparently been lining up in formation every day for a long period of time. And every day the same thing happens. Goliath comes out and challenges them and they all get scared again. So at some point you think their war cry is going to get slowly more lame over time.
Like the first day they genuinely were like, let's go do this. And then now they're like, ah. Did Goliath die in his sleep last night? He twists his ankle like waiting to see if this is going to work out differently. And it never does. And so they go to the line shouting the war cry, though, getting all hyped up and talking smack, but they don't have any ability to cash that check.
So let me see where I lost my place here. Where are we at? 21. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with him, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before.
And David heard him. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. That means every single man who was in the military, including Saul, who was supposed to be defending Israel, did not want to fight Goliath. They each and every one of them fled from him. And the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel.
And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. That means you don't have to pay taxes anymore. And David said to the men who stood by him, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in the same way. So shall it be done to the man who kills him.
Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger was kindled 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 presumption and the evil of your heart. For you have come down to see the battle. And David said, what have I done now?
Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way. And the people answered him again as before. So David shows up and he hears Goliath and immediately is like, who's this cat? Who's this guy that's coming out and defying the armies of Israel, the armies of the living God? So David has an understanding of God's on our team and God's not afraid of nine foot nine guys.
He really isn't. God doesn't even need a shield bearer. He's the guy who helps this dude breathe. So God's not afraid of him. Who is this guy? And he begins to ask, wait, what's going to happen for the person who defeats him?
So David immediately is like, I know how God works. What happens for the guy that steps in? And his older brother hears him. And we don't know much about the story between the relationship with him and his older brother. But I always just thought that was interesting.
His older brother hears him and immediately is like, hey, David, shut up. And David's like, what? I just asked a question. It just seems like brothers to me. It was just like, oh, that's cool. Like I remember when I hang out with my older brother in high school and he would tell me, hey, you can come hang out with my friends.
But here's the deal. You don't talk. And I was like, sweet. I can do that. And he actually helped me develop a sense of humor because I would mumble jokes. And if they were stupid, he would go, huh, like that.
And if they were good, he'd go, hey, say that out loud. And so he helped me practice. And since then, so that happened throughout high school. Since then, I've consistently wished that he was still around for me to run some jokes by. Because every once in a while I'll just pop off with something and be like, dang it, I wish Logan was here. He would have told me not to say that.
Anyway, so anyway, so you get to see this interaction between him and his brother. But verse 31 says this. When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul and he sent for him. So Saul, the king knows David, sends for him. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
David doesn't even bat an eye. He says, I'll go fight. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. For you are but a youth. And he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father.
And when there was a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he rose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them. For he has defied 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 will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. It was a convincing conversation. So David shows up and says, I'll fight him. And Saul says, no, you can't. And David says, I killed lions and bears, which is a really intense story. When a lion would come take a lamb from me, I would go hit him and get the lamb back.
And if that ticked him off, I would murder him. That's what David said. Like, if he wanted to leave, cool. Like, I hit him, get the lamb, we cool, we cool, all right. But if he came at me, I'd grab his beard and kill him.
And he's like, Goliath has a beard. He will die. Like, it's just a very intense conversation that he has. And so Saul says, okay. And David basically is saying that I know that God, I'm immortal as long as God is with me. As long as God's fighting on my behalf.
As long as God's working. He saved me from lions and bears. He can save me from a Philistine. Then it says this, and we're going to take a second here because I think this is often at least depicted incorrectly. So it says, then Saul clothed David with his armor.
He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. So David put them off.
Okay. Every time I've ever watched a David and Goliath, like story, video, cartoon, every time I've ever watched it, I feel like they get this wrong. I feel like this scenario is played out in a dumb way. And so if you've never watched one, then this won't help you. But for the two people who've watched that and been annoyed by it, this is for you.
So when I watch movies and shows and stuff, I get really annoyed with stuff that doesn't make sense. So any of y'all watch The Walking Dead? Anybody see that show? Okay, just me, some nods. Okay. So in The Walking Dead, there's a guy who uses a crossbow to kill walkers, which is zombies.
Crossbows take forever to reload. And he just runs around being like, pating, pating, pating. And the other thing that annoys me the most, though, about that show is not like the never-ending ammo guns that they have, is how often zombies sneak up on people. It's obnoxious. Because every time they show a zombie in the show, they're dragging their feet and going like this. Unless you're in the woods and not looking at them.
Because they'll be standing in the woods, and I guess the zombies behind them are going like this. And as soon as they turn around, like, I don't know. So I watch shows and stuff, and I get annoyed. And every time I've ever seen this, this is what happens. They have this little runt David guy come in, and Saul's like, here, wear my armor. And puts it on him, and he looks like a dad, like a kid, and his dad's close.
Like, Saul puts this ridiculous armor on him. The helmet slides over his face, and Saul's like, go fight. If Saul wouldn't have done that, that doesn't make any sense. Like, Saul wouldn't have outfitted him with ridiculously oversized armor, and been like, best of luck to you, kid, where the sword's dragging on the ground. Like, it annoys me every time I've ever seen that. Saul was actually trying to help him out.
And he gave him armor. Now, if it was Saul's personal armor, they would have tightened it up and gotten it to where it fit. David doesn't say this doesn't fit me. What he says is, I haven't tested them. I'm not used to this. I feel clunky and uncomfortable.
I'd rather go the way I'm used to going. I'd rather go just the way I've always gone as a shepherd when I fought a bigger lion. So that's all he says. So don't picture that in your head. Like, Saul put this ridiculous armor on him, and he, like, fell over. And Saul was like, good luck.
That's not what happened. He actually tried to outfit him, but David just says, no, this isn't going to help me. So David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hands. So he took his shepherd's tool, and he chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch.
His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. Okay, now this just got crazy because they've got these two armies lined up, and the Philistines every day are lining up, walking out with some swagger as they send Goliath out in front of them to defy the armies of Israel. But this day, something different happens. This day, an unarmed-looking shepherd boy walks out. So the ranks of the Israelites separate, and they're like, something's happening.
Men begin to move out of the way, and then a shepherd boy walks out holding a staff and begins to head down into the valley. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. So he's mad that he's young, and David was good-looking, which also ticked Goliath off. He's like, you're young and pretty, and I am mad. And the Philistine said to him, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?
He can't even see how, like, you're not even worthy to fight me. This is ridiculous. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the fields. So he said, you want to fight me?
I'll feed you to animals. 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. When the Philistine arose, the Philistine says, I'm going to feed you to the birds of the field. And David says, I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to feed all your friends to the birds. It's going to go worse. Like, just so you know, as you die, all your friends are going to die too. That's step two.
When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, so he got angry. He's like, all right, we're going to fight. He starts charging forward. David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine, and David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him.
There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran over and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah arose with a shout. This one sounded good. And pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shuram as far as Gath and Ekron.
And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. That took a quick turn for the worst for the Philistines. So just imagine that you're in the Philistines' army. You're in a pretty nice spot. You're really just waiting for the Israelites to make a move.
If they want all of you to join in in killing them, cool. If they'll let just one person die by the hands of Goliath, cool. At the end of the day, though, we're going to take over some territory, and we're going to gain some slaves. Goliath every day, you just line up. Goliath every day walks out and defies them. And we're here if something fishy happens.
And on this day, a shepherd boy comes out. At least something's happening, and this is not going to go well for the Israelites. Your champion Goliath charges forward and falls on his face, dead, before they've even met each other. They hadn't even gotten into a fight. Goliath is dead. David walks over, cuts off his head, holds it up, and everybody on the Philistines scatters, because they were not ready for that to happen.
And the Israelites pour down the valley and up the hill. Thousands of men charge forward with farm tools and begin to destroy the Philistines. Now, here's the way we're told this story. Here's the way, when you hear this story, when you read this story, here's what happens. Here's what we read, see, think about, and the way we seek to understand this story. We're told this.
You're David. And your problems, your struggles are Goliath. That you're David. And the issues that you're facing, that's Goliath. That's the giant that stands and defies you. You're debt.
You're rebellious children. Your relationship and your marriage that's not going well. Your need to be loved and accepted. Your need to have success in the workplace. That's Goliath. And if you'll trust God, if you'll be like David and have courage and faith and know that God is capable of all things, then you can go be victorious over all the Goliaths.
Whatever your Goliath is, whatever your struggle is, whatever your pain is, you get to be David. And as long as you trust God, the giant will fall and you will raise his head victoriously. The problem with that, when we look at this story, what if that's not what happens? What if your first stone misses? What if your second stone misses? What if your giant of debt doesn't fall and they foreclose?
What if your spouse doesn't repent and they pack their stuff and leave? What if you walk out on the battlefield with courage and faith and your kids don't stop rebelling and you don't even know where they are anymore and they won't answer your phone calls? What if you have courage and faith and it doesn't work out? You don't get your grades up. Your abuser doesn't stop. Did we not have enough faith?
I walked out into the battlefield. I said the stuff that David said. Did I not believe it well enough? I knew that God could fix this situation. I've seen him do it other places. Was my faith not good enough?
Did I not muster up enough courage? Because I stepped into the situation. Does God just not listen? Is he just not there? Is this a made up children's story? See the problem with trying to understand the story that way is that that's not how God's story plays out.
That's not the story of the Bible. Jesus doesn't show up and say come to me all you who are courageous and brave. All you who can be victorious. All of you who are willing to step in to the battle to be great. Now Jesus shows up and says come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
You see in this story we see the Israelites terrified. Outmatched. Outmanned. and unable to fix the situation. And then we see that there's a champion for the Israelites. That a shepherd shows up doesn't look like he'd be able to fix this situation and he marches into the valley on their behalf as their representative and he defeats the giant for them. You see when you line that up with the story of the Bible I have very good news for you.
We're not David. Jesus is our David. Jesus is the one who showed up and slayed the giant on our behalf. He's our champion that goes before us as our representative to face the enemy that we couldn't defeat. You see sin stands in defiance against us. Death laughs in our face and our enemy our accuser Satan mocks us because we have problems we can't fix and we're weak and we're heavy burdened and we're afraid.
And Jesus shows up and says those of you who are weak and those of you who are afraid all you need to do is stand aside as I walk out before you as your champion. See the Israelites moved out of the way David walked down into the valley and he defeated the enemy of Goliath and the victory that he won was applied to them. They got to run behind him victorious and they got to loot the camp. That's us. We get to move out of the way as Jesus doesn't walk into a valley but walks up a hill. David took a staff and a sling Jesus carried a cross.
And Jesus died in our place as our champion to pay for our sin our shortcomings our weakness our failings our fear and then he rose again from the dead victorious. And the victory gets to be applied to us. We just get to run behind him victorious. Do you know what qualified the Israelites to have a champion? Do you know what allowed David to show up and win on their behalf? Weakness frailty fear It's the same for us.
When we see our sin when we see things that we can't overcome when we're faced with obstacles that look like giants to us when we have sin and death staring us in the face it's not muster up the courage to weigh into the battle. It's not go face everything and you automatically win. It's be weak and move out of the way as Jesus steps in who is strong and is a champion on our behalf. Matt, Megan and Raz are going to come back up and we're going to sing together and here's what I know some of us in this room feel like and maybe have even been told this by the church you feel like you're in a room with a bunch of people who are here because we're courageous because we get it right because we're moral because we have it together.
That's not what the church is. That's not the call that Jesus makes. See, we have a champion in Jesus because we're weak and we fall short and we fail because we haven't kept it together we weren't brave enough and we couldn't defeat the giant. That's why we're here. So I have very good news for every person in this room this morning.
Some of you are tired. Some of you are worn out. And the call from Jesus is not keep it together be brave enough. The call from Jesus isn't plan ahead be prepared make good decisions show up and you'll win. The call from Jesus is I already stepped in in one for you. The greatest battle you'll ever face has already been handed to you as a victory.
That's what we have in Jesus. Some of you are tired. Some of you are afraid. Some of you feel absolutely weak to face all that you're facing. You're qualified for a champion. that's all that makes it capable for us to move out of the way and let Jesus show up. And here's what we know.
Stuff doesn't always work out in our favor. Sometimes the quote unquote giants in life beat us. But what we do know is that we do have a champion who has already rescued and redeemed us and made us right with the God of the universe. by paying for our sin. And that nothing and no one can take that away. And that we are right where God wants us as he holds us in his hand as he's rescued us through Jesus. So everyone today gets to come to Jesus who are weak and heavy laden.
Who are burdened and afraid. We get to come to Jesus who's our champion who's gone before us and we get to rest. You get to charge out in a victory that's already been won. So we're going to stand up and we're going to make much of Jesus as we sing. And I invite you if you've never talked to Jesus about following him and allowing him to be your champion and your victor in your place. Do that.
I'm going to pray. God, I thank you that I don't have to be David. I thank you that I don't that the call of the Bible isn't be courageous be bold and you'll win. But that you've called us to step aside and to trust the champion that goes before us. That we like the Israelites don't put our faith in ourselves but we put our faith in the champion the shepherd who's already gone out. God, I pray through your Holy Spirit you'd help us to see that and to feel that today.
We love you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Y'all stay and listen.