David and Goliath

Well, good morning, everybody. Great to be back with you. Thank you for all your prayers over the past few weeks.

! Three Sundays ago, my family and myself had the flu, which a lot of you have had this year.

And the next weekend, we went to visit Ash and Janine Harris in D.C. for a few days.

Got to go to their church in D.C.

And this past Sunday, I had surgery and it kind of wiped me out.

And it still is kind of wiping me out, but I'm just really glad to be back today.

But before all that mayhem, we had started a series on the life of King David.

And you can go back online and follow that. If you go back maybe four weeks, you'll get back to that.

But David is one of my favorite Bible characters, one of the most intriguing men, I believe, in the Scripture.

And one of the most written about figures in the Scripture.

Sixty-six chapters of the Old Testament refer to David, and that's more than, I think, any other Old Testament character.

And he's referred to at least 59 times in the New Testament.

So whenever God does something like that, it demands our attention.

So the first message was basically about David's unique relationship with God and how we can look to that and emulate that by faith.

Being a man or woman after God's own heart and caring about what God sees on the inside, not just on the outward appearance.

David's heart.

This is a very familiar story, but I pray that the Lord uses the time today to show you some things that you might not have seen before and show it to you freshly.

But 3,000 years ago, in the valley of Elah, westward of Bethlehem in the hill country of Judah,

a massive man named Goliath of Gath stepped out to defy the armies of Israel and to defy Israel's God.

And for 40 days, he berated the Israelites, heaping shame on them because no one was trusting in God enough to actually go out and fight him to the death.

And it's one of the most well-known in the Bible.

I've already explained, like it's one of my girl's favorite stories now.

And David shows himself here better qualified to be the leader of the nation than even Saul does, who should be the example.

He steps out to be the nation's champion.

So, just really quickly, it's always just good to sort of define things, clarify things.

Most of you are good Bible readers and you know this, but many believe the story of David and Goliath just simply to be a story of personal courage,

self-confidence against overwhelming odds.

David is seen as the archetype of the ultimate underdog, like an Old Testament Rocky Balboa, so to speak,

and standing up against the arrogant and the powerful, self-confident, independent, brave young man

who will stand up and fight against things and defy the convention of the day, right?

Relying on his own strength and abilities rather than conform to what the norm is.

So, the popular story, as we all know, is get out there and face your giants, your fears, right?

Because the heroically courageous always come out on top.

Go out and face your giants.

Throw the stones of faith and take down your giants.

And a lot of well-meaning pastors and authors have written about this,

but ultimately, I don't really believe that's what this story is about.

It's true that David was courageous.

That's an essential thing.

But his courage was a derivative, a byproduct of something else.

It was being empowered by God's grace, faith in what God's power would do.

So, it's different.

It's not just like self-motivation.

It was driven by God himself.

So, and this story reads like an epic war movie.

So, one of my favorite genres of movies.

So, we're going to read it just like that.

Like, scene one, scene two.

We're going to walk through it in that way.

Eat this huge chapter, kind of piecemeal together.

So, scene one is the challenger of death.

The challenger of death.

We see this in verses 1 through 11.

First chapter 17, verse Samuel.

It says,

Verse 11 is important.

Verse 11.

Verse 11.

And the Philistines said,

I defy the ranks of Israel this day.

Give me a man that we may fight together.

Verse 11 is important.

And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

So, I'm going to stop there for a second.

I apologize.

It would be a little short of breath.

So, usually I can move through this a lot faster.

But I'm going to be kind of like catching my breath, I think, as we go.

More of a crawl than a run.

So, notice the precision of the battlefield location in the first three verses.

You can go there and see it today.

I'm sure some of you have.

But the Philistines have, like, taken up battle and they've invaded this area and they've drawn up against each other.

So, either of the Philistines or the Israelites chose their battlefield well.

If you notice, like, one side's on this mountain and the other one's on the other.

So, in warfare, what that means is whoever moves first has a disadvantage because they could risk envelopment and they're losing the high ground.

So, it's like, it's kind of a, it's a good place to kind of stage a battle.

But not if you are necessarily going to be the attacker.

So, whoever moves first risks a lot.

The Philistines were an ancient people living off the coast of Canaan during the Iron Age.

It's a confederation of city-states probably from across the Aegean, probably somewhere close to Greece or somewhere else.

But they took on the Canaanite gods like Dagon and Baal.

And they were very well-equipped military.

They were heavily armed, more like Greek, what you would call heavy infantry in ancient warfare.

Not as where Israel was more lightly armed soldiers.

They moved in, like, a phalanx formation, like a really close network of shields and bronze.

So, whenever you hit it, you just kind of bounced off of it.

They would just sort of plow you over.

Now, it was sort of like the Greek hoplites.

And they also were known to have chariots pulled by two horses with a javelin or a bow and arrow.

So, the giant comes out in verse 4.

A champion from the Philistine camp.

A champion.

This is the only passage, to my knowledge, in the Scripture where the word champion is used.

And it just means the man between the two.

Between the two armies.

This champion idea is seen in ancient literature, Homeric literature, like Achilles was a champion.

Also in medieval warfare.

Where armies would choose one champion to fight for their side.

Stepping out to do combat between the two lines.

And rather than having each side just go at it and just hack each other and stab each other to death.

Resulting in a massive loss of life.

Often, they would choose their best warrior.

The one that was renowned for fighting prowess.

The one that everyone feared.

And he would go out and he would do battle with the opponent's champion.

And it was a winner-take-all kind of thing.

It was a gamble of sorts.

And the terms could be the loser becomes slaves of the winning side.

Becomes vassals of the winning side.

Sending crops.

Tribute.

Slaves.

To the winning side.

So it was definitely a winner-take-all situation.

Or the losing army could be called upon to fight with the winning army against another enemy.

So this was a lot to risk.

So the Philistines had chosen their champion.

If you notice anything about Goliath, everything in the description is meant to inspire fear.

To humanize.

Okay?

We have to kind of like do our best to like go back and put ourselves in this situation.

And everything about him is scary.

So much so that Saul and all of Israel were dismayed and greatly afraid.

They were terrified when they saw this.

So he was from Gath in Philistia.

And there's actually a piece of pottery that was found in the 10th or 9th century B.C.

That says Goliath on it.

Maybe that was him.

But his name means splendor.

And in this case, like terrifying splendor.

Something that you would not really want to face.

And it says that his height was six cubits and a span.

Basically almost 10 feet tall.

That's huge.

I grew up watching wrestling in the late 80s and early 90s.

I remember WrestleMania 3, Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant.

Andre the Giant, by the way, is 7 feet 4 inches, 520 pounds.

He's a big boy.

And maybe in a wrestling match, Andre might have taken Goliath.

I don't know.

But like it was this guy would have several feet on Andre the Giant.

Massive, massive guy.

Terrifying.

And he challenged the Israelites, it says, for 40 days in a row and mocked them and mocked our God.

And everyone was too cowardly to come out and face him.

But his weapons and his ornament were the best all of the time.

So he had a shield that basically covered the whole body, more or less.

It was mostly made of bronze, his armor.

Except the spear's head was iron.

And it weighed roughly 15 pounds.

So just the spearhead.

Like pick up a 15-pound dumbbell and try to throw that.

And see, like, that's pretty difficult.

That's like how heavy it is.

Then he had a coat of mail weighing 5,000 shekels.

So just his armor coat of mail was 125 pounds.

So he could be carrying some of you around as his armor.

So very scary.

Saul, it says, was afraid.

So again, we go back to Saul from the last message.

He was cowering in fear.

Terrible to see, like, the man is supposed to be the leader,

supposed to be the one who inspires faith in his people.

He's standing there terrified and afraid.

That's why pastors and shepherds must be.

Scene 2, that's all scene 1.

So scene 2, number 2, scene 2.

Back on the home front.

All right, this is verses 12 through 18.

Now David was the son of the Ephraimite of Bethlehem and Judah,

named Jesse, who had eight sons.

In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years.

And the three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle.

And the names of these three sons who went to battle were Elah, the firstborn,

and the next to him, Abinadab, and the third was Shammah.

David was the youngest.

The three eldest followed Saul.

But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

For 40 days the Philistine came out and took his stand morning and evening.

And Jesse said to David his son,

Take for your brothers an ephah of these.

Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand.

See if your brothers are well and bring some token from them.

So, in short, you know, what we see here is that on the home front,

David is just being faithful, maybe being left out as the younger brother.

Already just being content at home, feeding his father's sheep.

But in this case, Jesse probably being, it says he's older in years,

can't really make the journey himself.

He tells David, Take some of this food, take some of the supplies,

and take it to your brothers on the front lines.

So food is essential to an army.

Napoleon once said, An army marches on its stomach,

meaning that you can't maintain an effective fighting force without good food.

So he sends David to take the supplies and deliver the food to his brothers on the front line.

And so that's what happens.

So then the next part of this, scene three, is the arrival of the shepherd boy.

All right?

This is David showing up to the battlefield.

This is scene three.

Excuse me.

Verse 19.

Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines.

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 of battle, army against army.

And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went to greet his brothers.

And he talked with them.

And 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 like, here's the key verse.

And David heard him.

David heard him.

So he got up early that morning at his father's command to go and deliver the supplies to his brothers.

And right when he shows up on the scene, the armies are just kind of shuffling out of their camps to come face each other.

So he got there right at a pretty, you know, critical moment.

And across the ravine, he hears a giant shouting insults to God's people and against God.

So try to imagine what David saw when he came over that last rise.

And he looked down in this valley and saw two Iron Age armies drawn up against each other, banging their shields and their swords, trying to intimidate the other side.

It must have been an alien sight to him because he lived his whole life mainly in solitude out in the wilderness areas.

It was really exhilarating probably for him and scary.

David transfers the supplies to the right person.

Then he rushes over and he hears Goliath.

And little as you know, Goliath has ticked off the wrong person and bullied the one guy who wouldn't tolerate it.

But much to his dismay, he's standing there and everybody else runs away.

And he's like, whoa, what's happening?

Why is everybody running right now?

He's kind of shocked and disgusted.

Think about it.

Like he might have, like, admired his older brothers.

He admired King Saul.

And now he's seeing them run.

Like what that must have actually done to his state of mind to see people that he might have looked up to run cowering before Goliath.

So we see, excuse me, in the next part of this, that verse 24, verse 24.

Verse 24,

For the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach of Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he may 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 Elab, his eldest brother, heard when he had spoken to the men.

And Elab'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 to see the battle.

Come down to see the battle.

And David said,

What have I done now?

What,

Was it not but a word?

And he turned away from them together and spoke in the same way.

And the people answered him as before.

So we see something kind of happen here.

We see David reacting to what he hears.

So Saul was so desperate to find somebody to like face Goliath that he kind of upped the ante.

Like,

Alright,

Alright guys.

Like,

Look,

You're going to get great riches.

You can marry my daughter.

You can be a part of the royal family.

Your family can be free in Israel.

Like,

What a deal,

Right?

But still,

No takers.

Everyone is still afraid.

So just picture the moment.

He's standing there and he hears Goliath cry out.

He sees everybody run.

And remember,

Like,

David had never seen a giant before.

And he had never,

He didn't come to this battlefield to fight.

Just,

I mean,

You ever gone throughout your day and no plan for what happened and it just did?

And you find yourself caught completely by surprise?

He just came to deliver supplies to his brothers.

That's it.

He didn't come to pick a fight with the Philistine champion.

And he is livid though.

He is angry.

He is ticked off.

And he goes,

Just,

He's shocked.

Whoa,

What just happened?

No one talks to our God like this.

Who does this,

You know,

Punk think he is?

Wait,

Why is everybody running away?

As soon as he's thinking that.

And,

He's finding himself,

This has been going for 40 days,

Right?

But this is the first time that David heard it.

And he wasn't intimidated.

And he wasn't impressed.

He hears Goliath's words.

And he thinks that they're ridiculous.

Considering that they are aimed at the armies of the living God.

Right?

And,

In verse 26,

Look at verse 26.

Basically saying,

So,

What's in it for the guy who kills this loser who's mocking us and our God?

But don't be fooled.

He's not looking out for his own interests.

Because it says in the next verse,

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

That he should defy the armies of the living God.

Now that verse nails it on the head.

Okay?

Basically,

If you go back,

If you remember,

Goliath trash talked the men and spat on not just their personal honor,

But God's honor.

He has defied the living God.

And David knows that God's reputation is tied to his people.

So when he mocks this hot,

Holy zeal,

A jealousy for God's glory and honor.

To give you a definition really quickly,

What biblical zeal is.

Zeal is an overpowering, strong, burning desire to honor God.

A fervor to do his will in advance and fiercely defend his glory.

Alright?

It's this burning passion that is not given by humans,

But it comes by the Holy Spirit.

A passion for God's glory.

Do not be slothful in zeal.

Be fervent in the Spirit.

Serve the Lord, Paul said.

So interesting,

David didn't come down to do battle,

But now he's about to actually get into something that he didn't intend originally.

But surprisingly,

Again,

He's the only one who's defended.

Like, that's kind of surprising to him.

That no one else thinks this is a big deal.

But he understands,

Like, don't be deceived.

God will not be mocked.

Like, he understands that.

So, listen to what Spurgeon says about this.

It makes an inference into this text really quickly.

He said,

He has holy rage is upon him.

Yes, it is true.

He hears that Jehovah has been blasphemed.

How can this be?

The youth's holy soul is undergoing a new experience.

I mean, he had never heard of somebody doing this to God before.

He is bringing his whole life to bear upon it.

He reaches the conclusion that just as bears and lions die when they meddle with the sheep,

So must Goliath fall now that he dares to attack the Lord and his people.

So this holy zeal, guys,

Like, we tend to just think that it's just unique to certain Christians.

But it's something that we're commanded to pursue with God's help in the Holy Spirit.

So do you have a burning zeal for God and his glory?

Does it bring fire to your obedience when God's name is defamed,

manipulated by false teachers or best-selling books?

Does it burn deep in your soul to fight for God's reputation and glory?

As Jude says,

Contend earnestly for the faith.

Fight for the truth like a soldier being entrusted with the task of guarding a holy treasure.

This is David.

But then we see something after David speaks up that just really can be discouraging.

His brother, his oldest brother, Elam, seems annoyed.

This is in verse 28.

Annoyed with the conduct of his little brother at this crucial time.

He thinks he's a show-off.

He thinks he's being arrogant.

And perhaps, maybe though, he's just being eaten up with jealousy since Samuel passed over him

and chose David over him.

And we don't really know, but another guess is that probably safe to assume,

now think about this,

David's genuine zeal and love for God

exposed his own insecurities in his relationship with God.

And he's risked of being exposed.

Fear of being shown up by his little brother.

And maybe deep down,

covets that relationship with God that his little brother has.

So, not sure, but regardless,

this is the time to get his shot in.

He's like,

you know,

why are you really here, little bro?

Like, don't you have some sheep to look after?

Like, why did you come today?

And David's response really is like,

man, look, geez,

I just came obeying our Father

and like bringing you the supplies.

And listen to what he says, Elam.

He's like,

the truth is,

he's exposing his own presumption and evil in his heart

as a result,

not David's.

And so David's like,

the real question is,

not what am I doing here,

but what are we going to do about this giant

who is defying God?

That's the real question.

So,

have you ever been there before,

ever had a clear direction from the Lord

given to you by his word

and zeal to follow and sacrifice him

and someone tries to squelch your zeal?

Even more discouraging

when it's one of God's own people

who tries to jump on your zeal?

And they should be encouraging you

and praying for you,

but instead they're being an instrument

of despair,

often a very lonely place to be

in following God.

On the other hand,

have you found yourself

in the place of Elam,

seeking to discourage

and tear down,

throwing cold water on another zeal

because it makes you feel insecure

about your own love for God?

There's some things to think about,

but this gets on to scene four.

All right?

Scene four is,

death meets its challenger.

All right?

Death meets its challenger.

This is in verse 31.

Verse 31.

When the words that David spoke were heard,

they repeated them before Saul,

and he sent for him.

And David said to Saul,

let no man's heart fail because of him.

Your servant will go out

and fight with this Philistine.

And Saul said to David,

you are not able to go up 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 came a lion or a bear

and took a lamb from the flock,

I went after him and I struck him

and delivered him 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.

That's the third time he's actually said that.

And David said,

the Lord who delivered me

from the paw of the lion

and 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.

Then Saul clothed David in 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 can't go with these,

for I have not tested them.

So David put them off,

and he took his staff in hand

and 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.

So notice in verse 31 and 32,

we learned that Saul heard what David was saying

and said, hey, bring this guy to me.

This guy sounds different than everybody else.

Bring him to me.

And we've had no takers on fighting Goliath,

so maybe this guy will.

But he basically tries to disparage him.

Like, look at yourself.

You're just a little guy.

This guy you're about to fight

has been a warrior his entire life.

He's killed hundreds of men.

And you don't know what you're getting into.

He's a champion.

You're not.

You're just a shepherd.

And David, though,

like just stands there

and like doesn't blink.

You know what that phrase means?

Like he doesn't blink.

He just goes like, so what?

Like, what's your point, sir?

I don't really see the big deal.

David says, I've killed lions and bears,

very dangerous predators,

and this Philistine will be no different.

He really believes that.

Like, he really believes that

this is not going to be any different.

And God delivered me

from the paw of the lion

and the paw of the bear.

Sounds like something out of a Daniel Boone movie.

And he's like,

David is confident

that God will defend his honor

against this person who mocks him.

He knows it.

And the Lord will deliver him, he says.

He has this unshakable confidence in God.

So he goes out to do battle

on behalf of God's people

and defend God's honor,

seemingly, you know,

without any other support

from the outside.

So David goes for it.

Saul agrees to let him fight.

He prepares for battle.

And as a lot of you know,

armor is personalized.

It's not a one-size-fits-all

like it's personally made.

And so Saul is a really big guy,

and obviously this did not fit David.

And he takes it all off.

And he's like,

man, I appreciate your gesture,

your majesty,

but I'm just going to stick

with the weapons that I know.

And he grabs the weapons

of the shepherd,

the staff and the sling.

Don't be fooled, though.

Like a sling could be

a pretty deadly weapon,

if not just a disorienting one.

Stones can be thrown

up to 100 miles an hour.

So go try it at home later.

And it could be

a very effective mid-range weapon.

And some historians believe,

maybe, this is just an inference,

we don't know this for sure,

but Goliath's size

might have actually

impaired his vision.

I don't know if you know that,

but if you're a giant,

you have impaired vision

a lot of the time.

And actually mentions

that his shield bearer

like led him out

into the battlefield.

Notice that.

So if that's true,

this is not the weapon

that Goliath really wants to face.

But that's not really the point.

The point is,

God is ready to defend

his honor here.

And he gets five stones.

Possibly,

because Goliath had four brothers.

We don't know.

But he might be thinking,

if they jump in,

I'm going to take them out too.

We don't know.

But this goes on

in the scene five.

Death is vanquished.

Verse 44,

41 through 44.

And the Philistine

moved forward

and came near 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.

And Philistine said to David,

am I a dog?

Do you come to me

with sticks?

Talking about the staff.

And the Philistine

cursed David

by his gods.

Uh-oh.

So,

this is becoming

more of a spiritual battle now.

Cursed David

by his gods.

The Philistine said to David,

come to me,

come to me,

and I will give your flesh

to the birds of the air

and to the beasts

of the field.

And 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 defiled.

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

your dead bodies

of the hosts

of the Philistines

this day

to the birds of the air

and the wild beasts

of the earth.

Here's the reason

that all the earth

may know

that there is a God

in Israel.

And all the 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.

And when the Philistine

arose and came out

and drew near

to meet David,

David ran quickly

toward the battle line

to meet the Philistine.

And David put his hand

in his bag

and took out a stone

and swung it

and struck the Philistine

on the forehead.

The stone sank

into his forehead

and he fell face

to the ground.

So,

wow.

You see,

when he first shows up,

Goliath only has

contempt for him.

Like,

whoa,

what is this?

Who is this little kid,

this little pretty boy

that y'all send out

to fight?

And he goes,

come here.

Come here,

little boy.

Like,

I'll show you

what's up.

And David goes,

okay,

I'm ready.

And so he runs

to meet Goliath.

And he goes,

all this is going

to happen

so that the world

may know

that there is a God

in Israel

and that it is he alone

who saves.

So he strikes him

in the head,

knocks him down,

knocks him down.

That holy,

holy trash talk,

if you want to call it that.

And he mentions

God's honor again,

again for the third time,

drawing your attention

to a bigger story.

And then he invokes

the names of,

Goliath invokes

the name of his God.

So this is not now

just a fight

between two men

or two nations.

This is more

of a spiritual battle

that's going on

about the true

and holy God

versus false,

pagan,

demonic gods.

And David drops him

like a bad habit.

God's honor

is upheld.

It's embarrassing.

Okay?

Like,

I used to do

a little bit of boxing

when I was in high school

and early college,

just for fun,

nothing serious.

But we used to go,

my friend Dustin's,

back porch,

and the guys

would go back

in the yard.

We'd hit a stopwatch

for five minutes

and guys would just,

for five minutes,

and we would choose

who won.

But,

there was this one guy

who showed up one day.

His name was,

excuse me,

his name was

Adrian.

And Adrian was actually

a trained

kickboxer.

Like,

he actually did

real kickboxing.

And he showed up

and he just started

talking trash.

Like,

man,

y'all don't know

what you're doing.

And like,

man,

you don't want me

to get in there.

And just sort of

ran his mouth

for a while.

And he just probably

thought no one

was like crazy enough

to take him up.

We had a friend

named Josh

who was like,

like,

really tough guy,

football player,

a little off,

you know what I mean.

But he was our friend.

And Josh was like,

dude,

I'll fight you.

And he was like,

no you won't.

You won't fight me.

He's like,

no,

I'm serious.

Let's do it.

And he goes,

whoa,

well,

you may need to sign

a waiver.

He said that.

You may need to sign

a waiver

because I could put you

in the hospital.

And Josh's like,

man,

shut up.

I don't care.

Like,

come on.

Let's do this.

So,

there's two pair of gloves.

One's like the big thick

boxing gloves.

And the other is like

thin bag gloves.

You know the difference?

Like the bag gloves

are like just for the little,

you don't want to get hit

with a bag glove.

It hurts.

So Adrian's like,

look,

man,

I'll give you the bag gloves

and I'll wear the thick ones.

Okay,

whatever.

He just talked a lot of trash.

And then like,

we're up there on the porch

and we're like,

come on,

get him,

Josh.

And he comes out there

and Adrian tries to swing at him

and Josh just goes,

bang,

best uppercut you ever saw.

And like,

Adrian was knocked out.

Like,

the whole thing lasted

maybe four seconds.

And it was like embarrassing.

You're at the,

oh,

like,

it was kind of like that.

But on steroids

in this story

that God took this guy out

and now all of Israel

is going,

oh,

like,

you are done.

And so,

scene six,

the aftermath,

the aftermath of the battle.

So,

verse 50,

so David

prevailed over the Philistine

with sling

and with stone

and struck the Philistine

and killed him.

There was no sword

in the hand of David.

Then David ran

and stood over the Philistine,

took out his sword

and drew it

out of its sheath

and killed him

and cut off his head with it.

When the Philistine

saw their champion was dead,

they fled.

And the men of Israel

and Judah

rose with a shout

and pursued the Philistines

as far as Gath

in the gates of Ekron.

So the wounded Philistines

fell on the way

from Shemaria

as far as Gath

and Ekron.

And the people of Israel

came 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.

And soon as Saul

saw David

go out against the Philistine,

he said to Abner,

the commander of the armor,

Abner,

whose son is this youth?

And Abner said,

as your soul lives,

O king,

I do not know.

And the king said,

inquire whose son

the boy is.

And as soon as David

returned

from striking down

the Philistine,

Abner took him

and brought him

before Saul

with the head

of the Philistine

in his hand.

And Saul said to him,

whose son are you,

young man?

And David answered,

I am the son

of your servant,

Jesse the Bethlehemite.

So there's our text.

So he sees the beheading.

We see the beheading here.

He cut off his head.

A great sign of like

dishonor

for a warrior.

He kept his vow.

Like I'm going to do this

to you

because you have

inspired shame

upon the God of Israel.

So this was common.

This was like

God's trophies of war.

Like he took it.

It inspired the men.

So they rushed into battle

and they finished the job.

And then later

there was a total rout.

Ran them off.

Killed many of them.

And Saul inquires,

like who is this guy?

Bring him to me

because I need to speak with him.

I want to call him

into my service.

He inquires about

David's family,

his social background.

He hadn't met David before

but probably just didn't know

a lot about him.

And he asked his father

to let him remain.

So in closing,

what an amazing story.

But we would fail,

we would fail

to miss what God

wants us to see

if we just see this

as an inspirational,

heroic story

of the underdog.

It points to a greater one

obviously to come.

We know that to be

the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as you read

the story of David,

we see many, many,

many connections

to Christ.

David's family

was from Bethlehem.

Jesus

was from Bethlehem.

Matthew 2.1

David was a shepherd.

Jesus is a shepherd.

He's the shepherd of souls,

the good shepherd,

John 10.11.

And we see that David's zeal

to fight for God's glory,

we see that mirrored

in Christ's zeal

when he drove out

the money changers

from the temple

in John 2.

So so many,

on and on,

we could go.

But this greater thing

is that we see

a deliverance

that is foreshadowed.

Just as God

works Israel's deliverance

through David,

so God works

international salvation

through Christ

who defeats sin,

death,

and Satan.

David,

by his confidence

in and relationship

with God,

functions as a

representative champion

on behalf

of his cowering people.

Christ,

similarly,

is a representative

champion

of his helpless people.

people.

So in our story today,

we see Goliath

as a type

of Satan

bringing death,

just as David

was a type

of Christ

bringing deliverance.

This goes back

to the age-old struggle

right after the fall

in Genesis 3.15

when God says

to Satan,

I will put

enmity between you

and the woman

between your offspring

and her offspring.

He shall bruise

your head

and you shall

bruise his heel.

This goes back

to that

ancient day.

And such an example

was seen today

in the story of David,

the righteous seed

of the woman

and Goliath,

the unrighteous,

!

the unrighteous,

!

evil seed

of the serpent.

And notice

all the connections.

How long

did Goliath

mock the man?

Forty days.

Jesus

faced Satan

in the wilderness

for forty days

and stood the test.

There's so many

connections here.

Notice that

when David

struck Goliath

in the head,

he fell

on his face

and he

beheaded him,

prefiguring

a greater victory

of Jesus

over Satan

and then

destroying him

on his belly,

disarming him

at the cross

and then destroying him

at the final judgment

of Revelation 20.

Jesus has defeated

the greatest enemy,

sin,

death,

and Satan

on our behalf

as our champion

and we live

in that victory

that he won

for us

received

by faith.

Hebrews 2

Hebrews 2:14

verse 14

Hebrews 2

Hebrews 2:14

verse 14

scripture says

Christ himself

likewise

partook

of the same

things

that through

death

he might

destroy

the one

who has

the power

of death

that is

the devil

and deliver

all those

who through

fear of death

were subject

to lifelong

slavery.

Hebrews 2

Hebrews 2:14–15

verse 14

through 15

Jesus' death

cleansed

his followers,

cleansed us

of sin

destroys the

grip of death

of the devil,

gives hope

and deliverance

to those

who are

previously

living in

slavery

and fear

of death.

Death is scary.

He delivers us

from that.

So Christians

today,

us,

here today,

we're not merely

meant to read

the story

of David

and Goliath

as a

just simply

to imitate

David,

but we're also

to look at

this image

of a people

who need

saving.

We must

reflect

and rescue

on the

one true

and final

champion

Jesus Christ

who won

on our

behalf

so that our

hearts are

moved to

worship him

and trust him

in a greater

way

and have

zeal

for his

glory.

So as

the song

that we

sing goes

and we'll

close with

this,

Christ the

true and

better

David,

lowly

shepherd,

mighty

king,

he the

champion

in the

battle,

where,

oh death,

is now

thy sting.

In our

place he

bled and

conquered,

crown him

now Lord

of majesty.

He shall

be the

throne

forever,

we shall

are his

people be.

Amen,

amen,

from beginning

to end.

Christ the

story,

his the

glory,

hallelujah,

amen.

Let's pray

together.