David’s Faith is Revealed As Ready

Transcript

GRS 2-69
5/20/2007
David’s Faith is Revealed As Ready
1 Samuel 17
Gil Rugh

We are making our way through the Old Testament, looking through the Books that moved the history along. In other, we skipped the Books that unfold events that happened in Israel’s history. But they don’t move the history forward, a Book like Leviticus elaborates on the details of the law on the sacrificial system in Israel. But it doesn’t move us forward in history and we are in First Samuel, in a very crucial Book in Israel’s history, for among other things it records the establishing of the monarchy. We have Saul as the first king of Israel and then David, God’s choice and the one sovereignly appointed as king.

Back up if you would, we are going to be in First Samuel, 17, and we come to one of the most familiar sections in Israel’s history, with David and Goliath. And since that account is taught from youngest age in our Sunday school in churches, it becomes one of the most familiar points in Israel’s history and most, even the kids could talk about David and Goliath. Before we look into Chapter 17, back up to Chapter 10 of First Samuel and in First Samuel, Chapter 10, the Chapter opened up with Saul being anointed as king. Samuel took the flask of oil and poured it on his head, kissed him and said, has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance.

Then down in verses 17 and following, the people are gathered together at Mizpah and here you have the public announcement of Saul as king. He is formally established before the Nation as their king. Then, you know, Chapter 11 begins with Saul leading the armies of Israel to defeat their enemies, the Ammonites. Nahash, the Ammonite came up, besieged Jabesh-gilead and down, verse six, the spirit of the Lord came on Saul and Saul comes and brings deliverance and demonstrates his fitness to be the leader, the king of Israel and to lead the armies of Israel. We come over to Chapter 16 of Samuel and it was here that David was anointed as king. Verse 13, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

So now you have David anointed as king, Saul’s replacement. Now he will not assume the role and responsibilities of king until the death of Saul. That won't occur until Chapter 31 of Samuel. So we have the rest of Samuel to go. But now David becomes the key figure and we know he is God’s anointed one, but he does not act as king of Israel until Saul dies. But with the anointing of David in Chapter 16, what follows is Chapter 17 and here you have the account of David and Goliath. And just as Saul’s anointing was followed by an event where he demonstrated his position as leader by defeating the Ammonites. So following David’s anointing in the next chapter, in our history records his account in defeating Goliath, the leader of the Philistines, the enemies of Israel and demonstrating now, the one who has been anointed indeed is the one qualified and fit to lead Israel and its armies.

Chapter 17 is a very familiar account, yet a very important account and revealed some great things about David. We see something of David’s character, trials, and troubles and difficulties develop our character, but they also reveal our character and David will demonstrate his character and his Godly character and his faith in the God of Israel. Under the tremendous pressure of the conflict, that’s unfolded in Chapter 17. You know, as is often the case, those who face great difficulties are often those who are used in great ways of God. We want to be used greatly of God, but I don’t want to have great trouble in my life. And God uses a variety of ways, trouble isn’t the only thing. But trouble has a way of refining us.

Remember James starts his letter in the New Testament by saying, count it all joy my brethren when you fall into various trials because the testing of your faith produces endurance, patience. It develops our character and we see that, we see it as David reflects on what God has done in his past and how David handles the pressure of his present situation. He is a man that God has prepared, not in the normal way we think of preparing a person. England has a monarchy and so they have a rather formal and rigid pattern that is supposedly going to prepare the next monarch. God doesn’t do it, the way man does it. His preparation for David has taken place in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. Out away from the formal events, he has been out shepherding sheep in the fields and who may have thought that that would be the great preparation that the God would used to train him and prepare him to be Israel’s leader?

The chapter opens up, Chapter 17. The Philistines gathered their armies for battle and you have the geographical location. We are about 17 miles south-west of Jerusalem. So we have moved to the west and a little bit south. If you look at a map, it’s to the left and a little down, the way I always did it when we were on the east coast, turn left, turn right. But if you move towards the Mediterranean, you will get a good, almost halfway between Jerusalem roughly and you find these cities that are noted here. Now the philistines have already manifested themselves and they were defeated by Saul and Jonathan in Chapter 14. God gave a great victory under Jonathan, Saul’s son, over the Philistines. But the Philistines haven’t gone away, there by means; they retreated out of Israel’s immediate territory for a time.

Remember the five major cities of the Philistines are over towards the coast of the Mediterranean, the western portion of Israel. Now they have regrouped and they come back into the land and they are challenging Israel again. They are gathered, verse two, Saul and the men of Israel and the Philistines, battle array and you have two mountains, not rocky mountain kind of things, but the mountains of the Middle East there and down the armies are aligned on opposing mountain sides and you have this Lord’s valley in between. The idea is, the armies would descend from the mountain to do battle in the intervening valley.

Verse four; a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines, named Goliath from Gath, one of the Philistine cities. His height was six cubits and a span. And that total is nine feet, nine inches tall. A cubit is about 18 inches. Most of you would have a note in your bible on that. Nine feet, nine inches tall, that's tall. I was reading this afternoon about a man, I don’t remember his name, but I believe he died in 1940. He was just an inch under nine foot tall. So there have been men in even more modern times that have reached great height, almost this tall. But nine feet, nine inches tall, this is quiet a giant of a man. He had a bronze helmet, verse five, on his head; he is clothed with scale armor which weighed 5000 shekels of bronze. That's 125 pounds.

That is a big man, if I put a 125 pounds on me, you know, I don’t know if I could stand or walk, you know, that's a lot of weight, it tells you something of his size. He is just not tall and skinny. He is a massive man. He has armament on his legs, the lower leg, that is what they call greaves or that's the shin guard kind of things below the knees to protect the lower legs. He has got a javelin slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear is like a weavers beam in size and the head of the spear, in verse seven, weighed 600 shekels of iron, that's 15 pounds. So you get the idea, he is carrying this huge spear and he has got this iron spear head on it, that alone weighed 15 pounds and then he has a shield bearer that goes before him, that helps to protect carrying the large shield. So here is a man whose defenses are awesome. I mean his own strength and power are significant. Then the armament he has is like an ancient tank coming at you, somewhat invulnerable. It’s totally shielded and protected with his own armament. Then he has a shield bearer going before him carrying the shield so that he is free for his own throwing his spear, wielding his sword and so on, awesome person.

Verse eight, he stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine, and you servants of Saul? Choose the man for yourselves and come down to fight me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants. If I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us” in other words the challenge is what? Our armies don’t have to engage and have a lot of needless bloodshed. Just select one man to represent Israel and I represent the Philistines and we will descend to the battlefield here and fight it out. If I win you become our slaves. If you win and I am killed, then we will become your slaves. This happens at other times in Israel’s history as well.

As you might expect, there are no takers in Israel and we are all familiar with the outcome of the story. So I liked to read it and think oh, if I was there, I would have accepted the challenge, but I am not so sure. But at least in Israel nobody does, you know, we are all heroes when we read a historical event and put ourselves in it, after it’s all done and we know the outcome. It’s sort of like, you know, our kids, you know, they watch an adventure movie, then they come out with their plays, swords and that and they are ready to take on the world. It’s a different thing in the real world and all Israel is frightened.

Verse 11, when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Why do you think that? Who is going to come out and challenge this man? I mean, you know, he would be like a Samson, don’t misunderstand. He didn’t have the supernatural strength like Samson. But, you know, you have a man that’s viewed in that light who can come down and take on a 1000 soldiers if he wants. So what you have here is this, somewhat of a stalemate. Nobody is anxious on either side to launch an attack. So you have this going on and it will go on for some time as we will see in a moment.

Now verse 12 introduces David and his family. They have already been introduced to us in the history we have been studying, but now into this account, they are brought. David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse. He had eight sons and now we are told Jesse was very old in the days of Saul, advanced in age. He has got eight sons; David is one of the sons, his youngest son. The three older sons, verse 13, are part of Saul’s army and their names are given.

Verse 14 tells us David was the youngest. We are then told again, the three elders are following Saul. They are part of the army. Now keep in mind, this army is assembled 17 miles from Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is at Jebusite city still at this time. But it’s not like as a long way off. I want to mention that they are not too far from the Philistine cities either. So these armies camped on the hill, but they are parked here for some time. And what we are setting up is, David is going to come and visit his brothers and people can come and go visiting the armies, while they are arrayed here. There is no actual fighting going on at this point. We are told that, verse 15, David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s flock at Bethlehem. So David still has the responsibility as shepherding the sheep. But he also comes to check on the battle.

The Philistine, verse 16, Goliath came-forth morning and evening for 40 days and took his stand. Now you have to say, your army is here 40 days, you know, over a month and morning and evening Goliath comes out, issues the challenge and then goes back, nothing happens. This is going on now for 40 days, over a month. You realize neither army sees itself as in a position to have a decisive advantage and just charge and they are not ready to do that, no reason. We just got our army here and the challenge is issued and the Philistines are intimidating the Israelites with the view eventually they are going to say, come and willingly submit themselves to us because no one will take on Goliath.

Well, that is the background. Verse 17, Jesse said to David, his son, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain, these 10 loafs and run to camp to your brothers. Also bring these 10 cuts of cheese to the commander of their 1000, look into the welfare of your brothers, bring back the news of them.” For they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. So you see what happens, just like we send care packages, you have a family member overseas where you can't go visit them. But you like to send something to them. Well here it wasn’t that far. So David could take some special gifts to his brothers, some special food for them and also while you go take this special gift of cheese to the commander and then I want you to bring me back a report, how are things going because those things don’t change when you have a son in the military and you want to know how is he doing, that was the case here. So that's how David’s going to get involved here, so all of this is setting the scene for what is to happen.

David arose early in the morning, left the flock with the keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. So he has someone else take responsibility for the flocks of his father while he makes this trip to the frontline so to speak. And he came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up in battle array, army against army. But they are not really fighting each other here and, you know, it’s just this getting ready, going through the motions, everybody is ready. So David leads his baggage and care of, this is the military area of the camp. You leave your possessions, provisions and so on here and you go up to the battle line and he wants to greet his brothers. So he has to go right to the frontline and visit his brothers here.

He is talking with them and while he is talking with them, here comes Goliath out to issue his challenge again. The champion, the Philistine from Gath, named Goliath was coming up from the army of the Philistines and he spoke the same words and David heard them. So while David is there, here comes Goliath out and he walks to the front of the Philistine armies and the challenge is shouted out again. When all the men of Israel saw the man they fled from him, they were greatly afraid. The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up, surely he his coming up to defy Israel. It will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with the great riches, will give his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.”

Saul has promised three rewards, to any soldier in his army who takes on Goliath and is victorious. Number one; I will give him great riches. Number two; I will give him my daughter in marriage. Number three; I will have his family free from taxes and public responsibility. I mean this great, you know, offer you can make wealthy, your family will be tax free and free from responsibility that would fall to other citizens and you also you get to marry into the king’s family. I mean this puts you in a totally unique realm. The problem is you have to survive. You don’t get this for just going and fighting against Goliath and getting killed, you have to win. So there are no takers, I mean it’s like somebody saying to me, “I am going to give you a million dollars if you lie down in front of that semi truck and let it run you over, if you survive.” Well, there is no hope of survival, just like Goliath is. Who can survey a nine feet, nine inches tall. He is like a tank and, you know, about tanks. I mean, but it’s a great reward.

Verse 26, you see something now of David’s spiritual perception. Then David spoke to the men who were standing by and saying, “What will be done for the man who killed this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?” Now note this last statement, “for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” I don’t know who this uncircumcised Philistine. Circumcision is the sign of the God’s covenant with the nation Israel. This is a Godless man outside the covenant framework, God’s covenant people and he is taunting the armies of the living God. I mean this is the challenge to the God of Israel. This is sacrilege, who is he? The people answered him in accord with his word saying, "This is what will be done”. They repeat to him, you know, what is been offered in verse 25 by Saul to a man who brings victory and kills Goliath.

Now, you know, sometimes you just can’t run out and fight with Goliath, you have problems closer to home and that's what is David’s situation here. 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? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your influence and the wickedness of your heart. You have come down in order to see the battle.” You know, family’s quibbles aren’t new and, older brother-younger brother kind of conflicts, they are not new. So here is David’s oldest brother, remember there is eight sons here and Eliab is the oldest and David is the youngest and here you have the youngest out here mewling off. Maybe you know, the oldest son takes that, David’s older brother takes that personally.

In case, you know, there he is, you know the way he is talking makes his oldest brother look like a coward and here you are running out with the mouth, who is Goliath, to be challenging Israel? He is not part of the covenant nation. He doesn’t have a covenant relationship with God. He is an uncircumcised Philistine. He is taunting the armies of Israel. I mean, who is he? You know, that gets under the skin of David’s brother, so he rebukes him and says, “What you are doing here? You should be back there with that handful of sheep. I know why you are here, you just were hoping to see some fighting.” In other words you are just an observer anyway. You didn’t even come down here to be the part of the army. I mean you just keep the sheep. But you are hoping to get to see a fight, to get to see a battle. And so he tries to put him down and somewhat humiliate him.

To David’s credit, he responds to his brother and he almost sounds like brothers other than today. “What have I done now? Why is it not just a question?” I mean what’s your problem. All I did was ask a question and something like your kids. But David’s not distracted, he doesn’t go socking away, go back home, tell Jesse, well yeah I saw our brothers, you know, Eliab, he just can't get along with him. And now David has something on his mind. He turns away from him to another person and said the same thing and gets the same answer. I mean this is on David’s heart and mind now, you know I am not distracted the fact that my older brother things I ought to just go back to the sheep. I mean this is something serious. The God of Israel has been challenged here by a Godless Philistine. So David’s speaking, all of a sudden this find its way back to Saul, the words which David spoke.

They told then to Saul and he send for him. I mean now you have got somebody in the army here, you are not part of the army officially. But he is out here on the frontline with the army and he is saying, you know, somebody ought to take this offer, how to deal with this Philistine. Here is somebody who sounds like he has got the courage to take on the challenge. Well, Saul is already looking for a person, we know because everybody knows the three rewards that Saul has offered for anyone who will go forward, come forward and meet Goliath’s challenge. So Saul sends for David and what’s David say to Saul? I mean here is the man of tremendous faith.

David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” You know, this could be bravado. But in the context it’s said that here is great faith, going to faith we know how the story unfolds. So the king, here he is before the king. Don’t let anybody be afraid and terrified of this man. I will go take care of him. Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine and fight with him.” I think Saul was probably a little disappointed when David showed up. I mean word have been brought to Saul, there is a man out here saying that Goliath can be taken care off and I will claim the reward. But then he comes into see Saul and what you have got is a young man here, one who will be referred to as a boy, he may not a six year old obviously. But you are not a season soldier, he didn’t even come dressed like one of Saul’s soldiers.

So Saul says, “You are not able to go fight against this Philistine. You are but a youth, while he is been a warrior from his youth.” You are just a young man, no battle training, no battle experience. This man is not only the giant of a man, he is a man who has been a warrior from the time he was young. And you can be sure with his size and strength that he took on the responsibility of a soldier very early. David is not put off, here he couldn’t be deterred by his oldest brother trying to humiliate him and put him in his place, neither is he deterred when the king of Israel tells him he doesn’t have a chance. David’s response is very simple.

Your servant, verse 34, your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion and a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him. I rescued it from his mouth. When he arose up against me, I seized him by his beard, 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. You see the basic issue for David is this is not acceptable. These armies of Israel are the armies of the living God. To taunt these armies is to taunt the God of Israel, that's unacceptable.

Who he is? When I attend the sheep, a lion came and took away one of sheep. I went after the lion. The bear came and took one of the sheep, I went after the bear. So I will just go after the Philistine. David has full confidence in his God, he is not battle tested as a soldier in the army of Israel. But he has experience in fighting, overwhelming opponents, a lion, a bear. Again that uncircumcised Philistine, this is just something that David cannot tolerate and here you see, here is a man who is jealous for the honor of the God of Israel and has the courage to step forward. It will demonstrate his character as one qualified to be the king of Israel.

Verse 37, David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion, from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And now you see something here of David’s confidence. I have seen what God has done in the past. The way he has worked in my life in the past and that gives me confidence to go forward here. David has been a man in training and growing. Isn’t that enough that I dealt with the lion and dealt with the bear that has prepared me for dealing with Goliath. So Saul says, “Well go, may the Lord be with you.” Saul has nothing to lose here, David gets killed out there. David gets killed, soldiers get killed all the time and nobody else has come forward, what does Saul has to lose? So Saul wants to get David ready, so he close him with armor and then gives him a sword.

David haven’t had a chance to use any of these stuff. When he was out guarding the sheep and fought with the lion and the bear, he didn’t put on his armor and go after the lion, didn’t get his sword and go after the bear. That's not the way equipped as a shepherd. So David said to Saul, “I can't go out with this armor, I mean I don’t even know what to do with it. I mean I will be clumsy, you know, I am not trained in these things, so David takes them off. He took his stick, shepherd staff in his hand and he selects five smooth stones from the brook, puts them in the little bag, shepherds bag he carries and he has his sling in his hand. Now he is just the way, he went after the lion and the bear. I got my staff, the stick that I carry and have I got my sling. That's, I have seen them as two strings like pairs with a little pouch and you swing it around and then you like go with one of the strings and rock comes flying out, this is his weapons and he is ready to go.

So he takes that and he approached the Philistine, more confident. What was David going on, what God has done for him in the past? Don’t forget, back in verse 37, the Lord who delivered me from the lion and the bear will deliver me from the philistine, so full confidence in God. I don’t have to boast, he can tell about what he has done so that he, Saul will give him, give permission to go and fight Goliath, but David has no question here. It was God who delivered me from the lion, it was God who delivered me from the bear and on that basis I remember what God’s done in the past. I believe he will deliver the Philistine into my hands as well.

Verse 45 and following, well, you should read verse 42. The Philistine looked and sees David and Goliath is insulted. I mean one thing, if you sent out a soldier and we are going to do battle, even though Goliath is sure he will crush him, it’s an insult. You sent out a boy, I mean not even a soldier. You sent out somebody here with a stick, no armor, I mean what kind of joke is this? Verse 43, the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?” I mean Goliath is insulted. 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 sky and the beast of the fields. By that time I would be on my way in the other direction over the hill, I am sure.

You know, David, what courage, what confidence in God. David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with the sword and a spear and a javelin.” And David is well aware of what his armament is. 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 into my hands, I will strike you down. Remove your head from you, I will give the dead bodies of the armies of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beast of the earth that the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 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.

I mean this is not a man that is timidly going forward, mumbling under his breathe, “Oh Lord, just deliver me this one for all Lord, we could only get make through this or don’t let him crush me”. I mean, you know, this is like, as far as David is concerned this is a done deal. Now David doesn’t even have the appearance of the Saul who stood head and shoulders above the others in Israel. He is not near the height and stature of Goliath. But Saul stood out as the tallest among the men of Israel when they got together. David doesn’t give that kind of appearance when he comes and stand before Saul, he is just a boy, just a youth and now as Goliath looks at him, he looks that way. So there is nothing in David’s appearance that you would expect to be able to take on a man like Saul. But he doesn’t come in his own strength. The Lord will deliver you into my hands.

So what, you know, why the Lord doesn't need a man equipped with a sword. The Lord doesn’t need a man equipped with a spear. The battle is the Lord’s, that’s why I am going to defeat you, I am going to cut off your head. With what? The stick in your hand? I mean, you know, what we know, you are going to use Goliath’s sword. But, you know, what you have to do to get Goliath’s sword to cut off his head. You have to bring Goliath down. So it’s difficult, what you have to remind yourself is, as David is going through this, he hasn’t read the end of the story like we have. You know, it’s easy to have bravado when you are reading the story of someone else. I have told you, “I like to read the last chapter first and I know how it ends. If there is a movie that comes on TV, I often say to Merlin, oh I saw the end of this, but I say well what happens along the way, I don’t know I never watched the middle. But when you know the end it’s easy, when you do watch the other pieces eventually they fit together, you know, who lives and who dies and what happens and David is living it out.

He is running down the side of this hill, this mountain to meet Goliath on the plain below. He hasn’t had a chance to read the last chapter yet because he has got to give us the last chapter. So what happened, the Philistine arose, in verse 48, came and drew near to meet David and David timidly makes his way down. Now what’s David doing? He is in a forerun. David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. It’s like David can't wait for God to give him the victory. I just can't wait to cut off his head. He put his hand into his bag, takes a stone, whirls it around his head and lets it fly, hits the Philistine in the head and down he goes. It’s almost undiplomatic. I mean not even a battle here, I mean David comes running down and with his sling, lets the stone fly and obviously done a lot of practice out there while he is watching the sheep because, you know, you are whirling this around and then you let the stone fly and hits right on target.

It hits Goliath in the forehead and that stone is traveling, sinks into his forehead and Goliath as he is coming forward, just keeps on going and falls down on his face to the ground. David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and the stone. He struck the Philistine, he killed him. There is no sword in David’s hand, but he said he is going to cut off his head, so David runs, stands over the Philistine, took the sword out of his sheath, killed him. They have run in through again, cut off his head. This is brutal warfare. This is not evangelism, Old Testament style. This is brutal warfare with the enemies of Israel. He cuts off Goliath’s head and you get an idea hear, David is a fearless guy because he is going to turn up in Saul’s stand and, you know, what he is carrying? Goliath’s head by the hair. I mean then David is a fearless guy and he is not squeamish. He takes Goliath’s sword out and chops the head off.

Well, you know, what happened to the Philistine armies, they are panicked and so they turned to run and the men of Israel and Judah, they start chasing them and they chased the Philistines. Verse 53, they plundered their camp. David took the Philistines head and brought it to Jerusalem and he keeps Goliath’s weapons. They now belong to him in his tent. Now Jerusalem is still a Jebusite city. We don’t know what he did when he brought the head ultimately to Jerusalem. We got a summary here; we are going to some intervening events in a moment. Some commentators believed, he brought that head and set it at Jerusalem to be a decoration to the Jebusites that they will someday be defeated by him and they would be. There are others who believed that in talking about here a portion of that area of Jerusalem that would have been under Jewish control, even these days even though the main city was under Jebusite control. We are not told what there was involved in bringing Goliath’s head to Jerusalem.

Verse 55, now we come back to the battle here, when Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner whose son is this young man.” Abner said, “By your life O King, I don’t know.” The king said, “You enquire whose son this youth is.” So now he is questioned here. Remember, back in Chapter 16, David has become a musician for Saul. Now he is saying go find out about the family. Well probably in this context, David came and Saul had an affection for him, first place that you are king now. You have got a lot of servants now working around you, now you have got a man who is the potential, who is going to become your potential son-in-law. Now you need to research a little bit more about this person and more of the details on him and so on, that's probably what’s in view here.

Abner couldn’t tell much about him. Abner is the commander of the army. David has not been part of the army. I can't tell you anything about him really. Well you go and get the details on him. So when David returned from killing the Philistine, verse 57, Abner took him and brought him before Saul and this is the part I related to with the Philistines head in his hand. Here David walking around. You got to go and come see Saul, okay, here he comes with his dripping head, carrying it along, what a gruesome thing. Here he is coming to see the king and, you know, you have got the weapons that you have captured and you are carrying the head. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you young man?” David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. A glorious victory, can you demonstrate it here?

David has been anointed king and he is well qualified and he is a man with full confidence, having been prepared by the Lord and learnt to trust the Lord and he is fearless. You think the armies of Israel will follow David? I mean he didn’t take the armies out and didn’t say look, “If some of you will go with, I think we can defeat Goliath. Nobody has to go with me. I will go get it done because God can give him into my hand. I don’t even need a sword or a spear because the Lord doesn’t need those kinds of weapons to give me a victory over Goliath.” And so he goes and brings the victory, let me read you a few summary statements about this and then we are done.

An obvious one, Satan can present some awesome and frightening opponents to God’s people. I mean Goliath becomes almost proverbial for that overwhelming enemy and here Satan presents him to lead the armies opposing God’s armies, even family and friends can become a problem. David couldn’t even count on his brothers. I mean his oldest brother rather than encouraging him in his faith and confidence, saying, “Yes, you are right. God can give victory.” But he is saying, “What are you doing? You know, you are nothing but a person who cares for a little sheep, what you are up here for. Hoping to get to see some real men fight?” You know, he can't be looking around and depend. David couldn’t be looking around depending O boy, my own family doesn’t have confidence in me. Maybe I shouldn’t be out here, I mean his confidence has to be in the Lord, not partially in the Lord and partially in what his brothers think of him.

A third observation, sometimes even the advice of the older and experienced isn’t good advice. You know, in verse 33, all Saul could see was the physical disparity. Goliath the giant, seasoned soldier and David an inexperienced youth. Doesn’t matter that Saul is the king, Saul has some battle experience. You can't always even depend on the more seasoned and experienced people to give you the right direction. You know, a good lesson that I think David brings this to before here is we have to remember what God has done in the past, you know, we ought to be building.

In verses 34 to 37 David reiterates what God has done in the past. You know, this is not a new, totally unique situation. In one sense it is totally new and unique, in other sense it’s not. It’s just another overwhelming enemy, like a lion, like the bear. This is just another one of those time of challenges. And the way the Lord gave me victory with the lion, the way the Lord gave me victory with the bear, here I am out in the middle of nowhere. No one to see David could - see that David killed the lion, see David killing the bear. But God is preparing him and David is learning how God can use him and bring victory, deliverance. So he builds on that, you know, every situation we can find is not a new one because we have a history of walking with the Lord, have seen the Lord working our lives and I have to deal with every situation as though I have no past history with my God. I may not have faced this exact situation in this exact way. But I can look back and see how God has worked. How God has used me, how God has worked in my life and I have seen the hand of the Lord at work and that prepares me for what the next situation is.

Another observation, the fifth in my list is conflict, difficulty and obstacles are part of God’s plan for developing his servants. You know, God’s man David is not here keeping the sheep and God is just presented a hedge around there. The lion coming to attack the sheep is part of God’s plan in preparing David. The bear coming and attacking the sheep is part of God’s plan in preparing David. Goliath coming and challenging the armies of Israel is part of God's plan, there is no easy way. I mean if David hadn’t taken on the lion and hadn’t taken on the bear, he wouldn’t have been prepared and we sometimes think, well I get prepared for this thing. Well the way God prepares us is dealing with the situations that he puts us in that brings into our lives day by day.

David’s out there fighting with the bear and there is no one to observe, what good can come with this? Lord, why would you let a bear come and attack the sheep; I am responsible for the sheep. Now I go kill the bear, but what good comes with it. So I killed the bear, nobody even is there to see it and that's not the way David does it. He deals with it as part of the responsibility God's given him and see the hand of God at work and he is prepared for the next. Little did he know that when he fought that lion with nobody around and fought the bear with nobody around, someday he would be fighting Goliath with the armies of the Philistines and the armies of Israel watching. So, you know, these difficulty, these conflict, these obstacles, we sometimes say, Lord, why do you bring this into my life? And you just say, “Lord, you brought this into my life for your purpose.” And I want to learn to deal with it in the way you would have me and a follow up on that in number six in my list is victory and battle always comes from the Lord.

You know, we want to be wise in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom. But in the multitude of counselors there can also be problems if you don’t have the right counselor. Eliab the oldest brother couldn’t give Godly advice here. Saul didn’t have a Godly perspective, you know, sometimes we spend too much time evaluating, well I got to see how tall is Goliath. Now go over, read it again, what kind of armament he has. What his sword, how far can he throw that spear do you figure? What are the probabilities that, you know, we evaluated the death? But what we are really doing is looking for a way to avoid the battle. Why is Israel’s armies been parked here for 40 days, trying to come up with a good battle plan? Well any planning going on is just been excused not to do what needed to be done. They don’t need any more planning, needed a man who would trust God and go forward. David comes and says, “I will do it. I will do it in the strength of the Lord,” and it gets done.

All that matters according to verse 47 is the battle is the Lords, that's it. I have another one here and I don’t know where I drew this from. It ties to the previous point, but we must pursue the battle with aggressiveness. Today we would inform the committee on doing battle with the giant. Everybody’s opinion would have counted and we just get nothing done. And there are certain characteristic here, you serve the Lord with a certain abandon. David had to be willing to put his life on the line. I mean he is charging down the mountain, he is going to take a stone out to throw. But what if he missed? What if the shield bearer got the shield out? What if Goliath ducks? And heave that weaver’s beam sized spear with precision accuracy. What if, you know, you can't take the risk out of faith. If I don’t have any risk, I don’t need any faith. David is charging down the mountain here. He is putting his life at risk and that's what the life of faith is. That’s why there is a David here dealing with Goliath and no one else had that kind of faith in the armies of Israel. No one there was willing to put their life at risk. Go all out with abandon, with nothing but God to give him victory and deliverance.

And one more point as I mentioned earlier, be prepared every day. David didn’t know when he is taking food out to the armies of Israel that this would be one of the most momentous days in his life, think about it. This is 3000 years later. There is probably not a kid in our Sunday school who doesn’t know the story of David and Goliath. David didn’t know when he was taking supplies and gifts to his brothers and the commander of army at Israel that this would be one of the momentous days in his life. But God would use him to bring a victory for the armies of Israel, you know, it is a reminder. You don’t know what any day holds, you know, what David was prepared for, to trust the Lord and to be used to him. To build on what God has done in his life up to this point and go forward.

Everyday God ought to be that way with us right? Why don’t we cut our guard and say oh boy I just wasn’t ready, why not? If I trust the Lord every day and I go forward with him, then there are no surprises right? Because all of a sudden here David sees Goliath, he hadn’t seen him here before and doing this, boy if I had known this, I could have planned better, you know, I am ready. I walk with the Lord, I trust him. You know, I didn’t need ten days preparation for the bear. I didn’t know the bear was coming, when it came I dealt with it, if Goliath comes, I will deal with him. So we walk with the living God. You know, we just get so intimidated here and living our little planned realm and we read these stories and say, “Oh boy, could we have a life like that, what a life of faith.” We can serve that same God with the same power and be used of him in mighty ways as well. Let’s pray together.

Thank you Lord for David, thank you for your work in David’s life. Those endless hours out caring for the sheep, being a faithful man, learning to trust you, dealing with the trials and the problems, the dangers, learning that you were sufficient, you could bring the victory, you could bring deliverance, preparing him for what he knew not, but what you knew. Lord, may we be men and women of faith. Lord, I really missed to put everything at risk, to trust you. Lord, may we be willing to do that in the seeming little things of our lives, our day by day experiences. So we go about our tasks and our jobs, may we see it in light of who you are and that we are there as your servants doing your work, drawing on your strength, use our testimony in great ways, even in the little periods of our lives. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.