Faithfulness: Goliath
David Has Faith
1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. June 20th, 2021
The people demanded a King who would fight their battles for them. God gave them Saul. In today’s readings we see what Saul has become. While his early battles were wildly successful, Saul now hides himself in the center of his camp while Goliath, the champion of Gath, hurls insults and blasphemies at Israel’s armies. Goliath offers a deal. Why should we fight and spill all this blood? Send out your champion to fight me. If I win, you will be our servants. If your champion wins, we will be your servants. But Goliath seriously doubts anyone can beat him.
And who can blame him? Goliath is six cubits and a span tall, which is nine feet six inches. That makes him over two feet taller than Wilt Chamberlain or André the Giant. On his head was a helmet of bronze, coated in mail. The mail coat weighed five thousand shekels, or 91 pounds. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels or 15 pounds. This man was a monster. No one in Israel’s camp could compare to his size or strength. Who would so foolishly risk their lives?
David happened to be in the field that day delivering food to his brothers. When he heard the philistine’s boasts and the prize Saul was offering to fight him, he marched into the King’s tent and offered his services. “Let no one's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Imagine how incredulous Saul must have been. Of all the ranks of Israel, the only one willing to go and fight Goliath is this child? "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him,” Saul said, “for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
But David reminded the King he was not inexperienced in combat. For David was a shepherd, which meant he fought lions and bears. And he won. And David was convinced this philistine would be no different. Goliath would be no different because it was not David alone who fought the lions and the bears, but the Lord who was with him. And the Lord will be with him when he fights this philistine who blasphemes the Lord and insults the army of God.
Who knows why, but Saul was convinced. Maybe Saul was desperate, maybe Saul thought a little bit of crazy is what was needed to do the job. Either way, he relented. He summoned his armor and had it put on David, but Saul’s armor was far too big for him. David insisted that he use only the weapons of a shepherd: his sling and five stones he found in the creek.
Last week we talked about how God does not look on what is outward but instead he looks on what is inward. Saul looks on what is outward. He sees a monster of a man who could crush his bones. The fear of the Lord has left Saul. He does not put his trust in God to fight his battles. He is left to cower in fear and despair.
But David does not care about the outward appearance. This is what makes David a man after God’s own heart. What did God see when he chose David from the sons of Jesse to be King over Israel? He saw his faith and zeal that is on display as he steps forward to fight Goliath. This is what human eyes cannot see, what makes the boy David far stronger than the giant Goliath. It is his faith in the living God that wins for him the victory.
When David stands before Goliath, wearing no armor and armed only with a sling and a few rocks, Goliath is insulted. “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" He asks. “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.”
But David is unmoved, “You come to me with sword and spear and 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 very 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 Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so 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 save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.”
That’s some trash talk. David has no fear.
Goliath approached David to fight, and before he could wield his spear David takes out his sling and strikes Goliath with his rock. The rock hits him with such force that it sank into his forehead, and the giant was struck dead.
In all the troubles and adversities we face, there is no greater support than faith. How is David able to stand up to the giant? But because he has faith in the living God, and by that faith he knows how to act. He knows he does not fight the battle alone. None of us, are left in the arena alone. But the Lord fights his battle alongside him. By faith he knows he will be delivered. And by faith he looses his sling.
Saul lacks faith, which is why he stays huddled alone. Goliath lacks faith, which is why he is so boastful and arrogant. Only David has faith, and by that faith God wins for him the victory. David is not foolish, he is not brash, he simply knows who God is, and knows that God is with him.
What David knows is that God is faithful. And that is why God makes him King.
God remains faithful. God is faithful enough to send us his Son that we might have life. God is faithful enough to provide for us this Church in which to grow and serve. God is faithful enough to pour out on us his Spirit that gives us life. God is faithful enough that in all the trials of this life he will not leave us or abandon us. That when when we may feel that we have had enough and cannot go on any more, God does not abandon us in that time. God is faithful enough to have won for us the victory, the victory that matters, over sin and death.
Let us be like David, confident that the victory is won before we enter the arena. Confident that God is with us. Confidence that comes from our faithfulness in God’s faithfulness.