David and the Sitting Duck, Part 1

The soldiers said that Goliath has come down to defy Israel in verse 25. David says in verse 26, he's defying the armies of the living God.

You see the difference? The soldiers saw a giant. David sees a blasphemer. The soldiers look at this as, well, Goliath is insulting our country. David sees him as insulting the living God. One of the most beloved accounts in all of scripture is the battle between David and Goliath. By all reasonable accounts, David was no match for Goliath, especially if you looked at their size difference. For David to be victorious, a miracle was necessary. But King Saul kept thinking about it all wrong. He wanted to make David into a soldier by putting him in armor and battle attire. What Saul didn't understand is that it wasn't David who was going into battle.

It was God. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen takes us to this account in a lesson called David and the Sitting Duck. Ask the average person on the street about David and Goliath and you'll probably get a fairly decent retelling of the outcome of the story, but ask the average person why David fought Goliath and you'll get a number of different answers and more than likely all of them will be wrong. In fact, to the world out there, David and Goliath has just become a metaphor for the underdog winning the day, and certainly part of that's true. This is a little shepherd boy who's defeating the great Goliath. In fact, the name Goliath will simply become a title, and it has today, for tackling some gigantic problem or obstacle. If you act just like David and have enough faith in yourself, you'll win against all your giants too. Even the church has sort of turned David and Goliath into some sort of therapeutic manual, whether it's fighting the giant of low self-esteem or bankruptcy or bad boss or a bully down the street. This passage actually will expose a national slide toward apostasy.

This has nothing to do with low self-esteem. A nation has forgotten God and really doesn't care about his name anymore. That's the context. A nation is one and all, a king like all the other nations, and they have one now, and guess what? They're fighting all the other nations like those nations fight. The accent of this passage actually begs the question, what's really worth fighting for?

What's worth risking your life to do? And if somehow, in some way, it isn't connected, and any mundane thing can be connected or anything you do with your hand, but if you forget the fact that it's all connected to advancing the reputation of God and the glory and honor of God and the application of the word of God, then we could really just be fighting or struggling or risking for nothing more than temporary junk and self-promoting, self-congratulating, self-serving objectives. If you place David and Goliath into its proper context, 1 Samuel chapter 17, which is where I need you to make your way, is really an amazing illustration of the truth of 1 Samuel 16. Mankind is all impressed with the external.

Mankind is all worked up over the biggest, the most experienced, the greatest, the strongest. God is impressed with the internal, the heart. So while most of us understand what happened in 1 Samuel 17, it's easy to forget why. Now this chapter, and we're going to cover it all, is among the most familiar passages in the Old Testament. And I'm not going to read the entire chapter, but what I want to do is divide it into four sections and then expound some on each section and kind of drop in here and there and make some observations as we go through this text.

And for those of you that like to outline, the first point would simply be the front lines. Now before we dive in, if you were with us in our last study, remember that Samuel the prophet has told Saul that Saul has been rejected by God. Because of his disobedience and his rebellion, the house of Saul will not create the dynasty that he had hoped would be created. And Saul is devastated, he's hostile, he reaches out and rips Samuel's robe, he's infuriated. In fact, for the next 15 years, Saul is going to remain in that kind of condition, where repentance and fellowship with God will be the furthest things from his heart's desire. So now you find him, in chapter 17, immobilized by fear, terrified, without any evidence of faith. That's because of his rebellion and disobedience with God, and he's leading a rebellious and disobedient nation. That's why you find him here in chapter 17, cowering. He can't, listen, he can't fight Goliath because he's like him.

He's going to try to dress David up like Goliath. Now in chapter 17, it opens with a stalemate, effectively. Let me mention briefly, the Philistines are this fierce people, people from the sea, literally translated, they've settled along the coastal regions of the land of Canaan, they're going to become one of Israel's most, or fiercest enemies during the early days of the kings. Now what we're told, if you put the clues together here in chapter 17 of the first few verses, is you have two armies and they're stationed on either side of a valley, on the slope of a mountain, one on one side, one on the slope of another mountain, and below is the valley where David and Goliath will meet. Now verse 3 tells us that there's a stalemate. There's no advantage to either army. In fact, verse 3 tells us that both armies put on a daily show of strength. They muster, they gather in battle formation, they yell at each other, but they have no intention of rushing down their side of the mountain through the valley, appropriately named, the valley of blood, and up the other side toward the enemy.

To do that, one author said, would be suicidal. Neither side has an advantage. That is, as long as the Israelites think like Philistines, which they are. So the Philistines offer up something that isn't all that uncommon.

Look at verse 4. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath. The word champion can be literally translated the man between two, T-W-O, in this case two armies. We get our word middleman from this.

In the context of an army, this term would refer to an infantryman. One of my commentators, who lived more than 100 years ago, wrote that under these circumstances there seemed no way of deciding to contest apart or except by what they called single combat. It's possible that Israel would have agreed.

They didn't seem to disagree with the concept of it all. The trouble is, the Philistine soldier they put forward just so happens to be gigantic. Now Samuel, the author of these accounts, part of the challenge, by the way, as you go through these books, is they're not all chronologically in order. He's dropping in to give us a narrative, and then another narrative, and you'll find some things happen before the others. But according to this particular account, and he'll flow along chronologically until the end of the chapter, and I'll make mention of that later, but he wants us as readers to feel the terror of this giant. In fact, Samuel's going to spend more time describing him than the actual battle between David and Goliath. Notice verse four, his height was six cubits and a span.

I had enough time this week to look that up. That means he's nine feet, nine inches tall. Pretty tall guy. The Lakers would sign him in a heartbeat.

He could dunk the ball standing still. He's one huge fighting machine. Verse five, Samuel describes his helmet of bronze. He's armed with a coat of mail. The weight of the coat was about 5,000 shekels of bronze, about 125 pounds. This was a shirt.

It would have come down to his knees. It was made of small bronze plates that resembled fish scales. It allowed for protection, and it allowed for freedom of movement, assuming you could move wearing a shirt weighing 125 pounds, which evidently Goliath could do. Verse six, he's wearing bronze sheaves. These are shin guards.

They would have begun just below the kneecap where the coat of mail ended and go all the way down to his ankles. He's got a javelin slung between his shoulder blades. He's got a spear with an iron spike at the end of it that weighed about 25 pounds, just the head of it.

That would hurt. He's got a sword that's not mentioned until a little later, and the Hebrew word indicates the sword is a small curved sword like a sickle, perfect for cutting off heads. All of his weapons are designed for hand-to-hand combat. He's effectively covered from head to toe with bronze.

So get the picture. The sun shining on him would have reflected off Goliath like a mirror. It would have made him all the more terrifyingly intimidating and fierce. For 40 days, when everybody musters and they yell their war chants in their college songs, he comes out and he offers this single combat. Look, verse eight, I'm a Philistine. You are the servants of Saul. Choose a man for yourselves.

Let him come down to me. Let's settle this. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we'll be your servants. He's also a big liar because when he dies, the Philistines run. They don't surrender. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants.

Now all of Israel then is standing on their slope, their side of the mountain toward this valley of blood, and they're dismayed and they're terrified. And you think, oh, come on. What a bunch of sissies.

Get with it. I mean, isn't it easy to be brave when you know the rest of the story or when you're not involved? Reminds me of Bill Walton who once said, I learned a long time ago that minor surgery is what they do on the other person. When they do it on me, it's major.

Hey, look, the cavity is major for me. I don't know about you. But at this point in the narrative, the scene kind of shifts a little bit just to let us know how David showed up at the front lines in the first place. Again, for the sake of time, let me kind of summarize the next three paragraphs. We're told that three of David's oldest brothers were in the army. It's been more than a month since they drew up in battle lines and Jesse, the dad, wants a report. So he sends David off with some cheese and stuff for the commander to see what's happening.

The word you could use for this scene that begins to unfold is the word fear. Notice the middle part of verse 20. And he, David, came to the encampment as the host was going out to battle the battle line, shouting the war cry. Verse 22, David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, 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, and they saw the man, fled from him.

That is, they literally drew back in haste. By the way, keep in mind, David doesn't know if this is the first time Goliath has said these things or the 41st time. He's in the dark, which makes it all the more remarkable that he responds like he does after hearing of the first time. The men in the ranks, next few verses sort of fill in the blanks, they tell him what's going on and then they tell him that the king has promised three things to any man who takes Goliath on and wins. Verse 25 tells us there are three prizes. The riches, it's one, not a bad start. The king's daughter's hand in marriage, and the family estate of the father, the text says, will be free.

The word free is the Hebrew word hapsi, which is more than likely a reference to the family and the family estate being free from any kind of taxation. That's worth dying over, isn't it? Right there. Now for David, this is really the ultimate quick path to fame and glory. In fact, this is what his brother's going to say he's all about anyway. He can, this is better than a lottery ticket. He gets rich, he didn't have to pay taxes, and he marries the king's daughter and he's now in the royal family.

This is great. David evidently isn't really all that interested because his response is a totally different perspective. In fact, if you look at verse 25 and compare it to verse 26, you realize the soldiers refer to Goliath as this man.

Notice that? Have you seen this man? David refers to him in verse 26 as this uncircumcised Philistine. Long way of saying he's an unbeliever. The soldiers said that Goliath has come down to defy Israel in verse 25. David says in verse 26, no, no, no, he's defying the armies of the living God.

You see the difference? The soldiers saw a giant. David sees a blasphemer. The soldiers, look at this as, well, Goliath is insulting our country. David sees him as insulting the living God. So David is effectively asking, hey, doesn't the glory of God matter?

Does this bother anybody? Doesn't following the true and living God make any difference out here for any of us? See, none of them were willing to fight Goliath because they didn't really want to risk anything for the honor of their country. David is about to risk everything because he's willing to fight for the honor of his God. See, the problem out here, ladies and gentlemen, is not a military problem.

It's a spiritual problem. Their eyes at this point are on Goliath. David's eyes are on God.

Now about this time, verse 28, Eliab effectively dresses his little brother down. And he says, why, anger was kindled against him, he said, why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? A reminder, you're just a shepherd. Who do you think you are is effectively what he's saying. And let me tell you who you are, in case you're wondering. Notice, he says, I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle, you could actually translate that Hebrew phrase, you have come down to be seen in the battle. You just want to be in the picture.

You're talking tough, but you just want to be seen with us. David basically ignores Eliab and refuses an invitation to verbally fight his brother. He basically responds by saying, what have I done? Was it not a word?

In other words, all I did was ask a question. And I agree, by the way, with one commentator who wrote that Eliab was David's Goliath before David ever got to Goliath. Goliath will express ridicule and contempt for David, but Eliab does effectively the same thing here. Maybe for you, one of the greater challenges in living for the glory of God is the people closest to you think you've lost your marbles. One commentator said, David actually contended with three Goliaths.

Kind of an interesting thought. Eliab, who says, you're just an arrogant, backwards shepherd. King Saul, who will later say, you're just a child. And Goliath, who will say, you're dead meat. It's in the Hebrew language.

David ignores them all. And he repeats this theologically rich statement that Goliath out there in the valley of blood is doing nothing less than taunting the living God. David's words eventually make it up the chain of command.

I don't know how long it takes. It gets up to the top brass. The first scene that would be the front lines. The second scene, fear.

This third scene, I just want to title folly. Look at verse 31. When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul and he sent for him.

I love this. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, you're not able to go up against this Philistine to fight with him.

You're but a youth that is your inexperienced. He's been a man of war from his youth. Again, Saul is measuring size with size. He'll measure armor with armor.

He's thinking like a Philistine. And he effectively says, look, back up to the tent wall there. Let me get up my ruler. Saul is nine feet, nine inches and you're coming in at about 5'3". You can't even see over his belt buckle. I don't think he wants to embarrass him but he effectively says, you got spunk but you're way over your head.

He's been fighting as long as you've been alive. David, instead of saying, well, I didn't know he was that tall. I didn't know he had that kind of experience. Basically he says, well, let me tell you what God's done for me in the past. That becomes a foundation for what I believe God can do in the future. And so he then tells him the stories that we won't read for the sake of time. He recounts the experiences that he had as a shepherd delivering a sheep from the lion and the bear with nothing more than his rod.

That was an interesting weapon but just his rod, maybe his sling. Now here's the point, verse 37. 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 the Philistine. In other words, if God can use a shepherd to rescue a lamb from the jaws of a bear, he can just as easily use a shepherd to rescue the nation from the jaws of a giant. See, to David, Goliath is just a big bear.

I can do this. And by the way, did you notice the humility here? He isn't going on and on about how he did it and how he maneuvered and the bear and how big the bear was and the lion and he should have seen it and I did all this and that and all the details and think of it. What shepherd has a bear rug? David did. And you'd think you'd get around David like you'd get around some fisherman and that fish was this big. Those antlers on the wall, whatever.

Let me tell you about my exploits. Now the point of it is David says, this is what God did. He delivered me. See, David is effectively taking Saul to Sunday school.

Listen, Saul, the issue isn't how big Goliath is, the issue is how big God is. You remember him? Saul, do you remember him?

I can imagine in that tent it was quiet. You remember him? He has defeated armies with a word. He's pushed over walls with an invisible finger.

He's backed up walls of sea water with his breath. You remember him? Saul does remember.

Sort of. In fact, with some element of conviction, he says to David in verse 37, the latter part, okay, go, and the Lord be with you. If you put a period there in Saul's biography, you'd have thought, oh, maybe he's going to come around.

That's great. But he doesn't. Why? Because of the next verse. Then Saul clothed David with his armor.

He doesn't get it. He's trying to fight Goliath like Goliath fights. Goliath has a helmet of bronze.

Guess what? Look, he puts a helmet of bronze on David's head. Goliath has a coat of mail, so he clothes him with a coat of mail. Goliath has a sword? Remember David?

Here's my sword. This is absolute folly. Saul is trying to make David like Goliath. David responds in verse 39, I cannot go with ease, for I have not tested them.

The Hebrew verb for tested means to try. I haven't tried these out with the nuance of I'm not used to these. I don't have experience with these. I haven't spent my time practicing with swords and coats of mail and wearing bronze helmets.

This isn't going to work. See, the truth is it should have been Saul going down there to fight Goliath. It's his armor. It's his nation. His leadership. In fact, 1 Samuel 9 says he was taller than any of his people. And he knows it. He's the biggest soldier Israel has.

There's something more going on here. In the ancient days, wearing the clothing of another was to not only be imbued with their essence, but to share in their being. The unwilling kinsman redeemer gives Boaz his sandal, effectively saying, you wear my sandal, you live the life I could live. This is an emotional covenant, so to speak, and it was significant, in fact. One Old Testament scholar brings up the point that Saul is more than likely binding David to himself so that he will then be able to take credit for David's victory should David defeat Goliath. I tried to think of a way to illustrate it, and I think we would do the same thing, sort of, in a different way.

Maybe it would be like this. Well, you know, that guy won that race, but he was driving my car. She won that baking contest, but she used my recipe. He hit a hole in one, but I let him use my club, as if that would help.

So you're sort of accepting a little bit of the prize. Yeah, he killed Goliath, but he's wearing my armor. It was my sword. He's facing humiliation, and he knows it, and he attempts to connect David with his own essence so that through his armor, he can claim a portion of the victory. Now, whether or not David discerned that or not, we don't know.

If he did, he was just gracious because he effectively says, look, I got to take this stuff off. I'm not any good at it. I'm not used to this.

Let me stick with what I know. So David strips down to his normal clothing, which means he's absolutely unprotected, except by the providence of God, which will be enough. And he heads down toward Goliath, who's sitting down there in the valley of blood, waiting for him. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. We're currently in a series on the life of David called The Singer.

Today's message was part one of a lesson called David and the Sitting Duck. When we return tomorrow at this time, Stephen will conclude this message. So join us then. In the meantime, let's interact on social media. That's a great way to stay informed and interact with us. Be sure and like our Facebook page so that you'll get updates. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram. We watch for comments and messages that come from social media, so feel free to communicate with us that way. Before we end our time for today, I want to remind you about our app.

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