How The Anointed Shepherd Saw The War

[0:00] Samuel chapter 17. Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered at Socah, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socah and Azekah in Ephes-Daman.

[0:19] And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them.

[0:38] And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of his coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze.

[0:57] And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels, and a shield bearer went before him.

[1:13] Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul?

[1:28] Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

[1:46] And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

[2:05] Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons.

[2:15] And the man was old, advanced in years in the days of Saul. And the three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of these three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn next to him, Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

[2:32] David was the youngest, and the three oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

[2:44] And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening. Then Jesse said to his son David, Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp.

[3:05] And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare, and bring back news of them. So Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

[3:20] So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper, and took the things as he went and as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to fight and shouting for battle.

[3:36] For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.

[3:50] Then, as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines. And he spoke according to the same words.

[4:02] So David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were dreadfully afraid. So the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up?

[4:16] Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who kills him, the king, will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel.

[4:31] Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

[4:43] For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in this manner, saying, So shall it be done for the man who kills him.

[4:57] The word of God for the people of God. Please be seated. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.

[5:10] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that your Holy Spirit has been active through every generation, through every step of redemptive history.

[5:26] We thank you for how your Holy Spirit is poured out now in your church. And that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your word comes alive. And you shine the light of the gospel accomplished by Jesus Christ on every part of your word to your people.

[5:42] We ask that you will please do that now, Lord. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, following the fall of France in 1940, Great Britain was left to stand alone against Nazi Germany.

[6:00] In a moment of national crisis, can you imagine being in London like the little children in the Chronicles of Narnia, about to hear these airplanes fly over and drop bombs on your neighborhood?

[6:13] The prime minister got on the radio and had opportunities to speak to the people. In the face of the imminent battle of Britain, in some of his words I remember this day, he told them, We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

[6:32] We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

[6:44] How one man sees the war changes everything. You and I as Christians, we're in a war also.

[6:56] We fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. But how do we see this war? You and I are either in the kingdom of Christ, or we are an enemy of God still under bondage to sin, Satan, and the world.

[7:11] But the war is real. Last week, our encouragement was that nothing can stop God from advancing his kingdom.

[7:22] And this week, the nature of the kingdom of God is put to the test. And it's defined for us by the words of the anointed king.

[7:34] David goes to see the war. And David viewed the war differently. So that's my message for us today as we walk through this wonderful passage. How the anointed shepherd saw the war.

[7:47] How the anointed shepherd saw the war. First out of five observations is the setting of this battle.

[7:58] Please look at 1 Samuel 17, verse 1. We read, Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle. It's a verb in the active voice.

[8:13] The Philistines gathered their armies together to battle. Organized, powerful, confident, commanding, advancing. We're given a detail of the location at Sokoth.

[8:27] What are the words that come next after that city in verse 1? Which belongs to Judah. This description reminds us that the Philistines had invaded the land that God secured for his people.

[8:43] They had encroached on Judean soil. Saul had failed to keep the enemy out of the kingdom of God. And so now the two sides mount for war.

[8:56] Along this ridgeline at the top of the hill was a major road which the Philistines now controlled. Giving them control over whatever would enter or leave Israel. We read in verse 2 that Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together.

[9:12] Here that same verb is given in the passive voice. It's something being done to them. They encamped at the valley of Elah. They drew up in battle array against the Philistines.

[9:27] We're told that each part of the army, each side had a mountain. And in between them was this valley. And this valley is where the border will be redefined.

[9:39] If the Philistines win this battle, they have now free reign to invade the whole kingdom of God's people. The Philistines also owned the metal industry.

[9:51] They had a complete monopoly on the blacksmith trade. They secured through metal and weapons that they brought a military dominance. You can flip back to see that and remember for yourself.

[10:04] Look at 1 Samuel chapter 13. Just a page or two back. Verses 19 and 20. We read, The only two men in all of Israel that had weapons, you'll remember, were Saul the king and Jonathan the crowned prince.

[10:34] They had the most advanced military weapon of the day, which were ironclad chariots. And with chariots covered in metal, no one could stop the advance of the Philistines.

[10:48] We read that they were gathered for an attack with the Philistines coming up from the south, the Israelites on the northern side in the land of Judah. As someone pointed out, the future of their nation, all is going to be determined by this one battle.

[11:05] And if ever a lion from the tribe of Judah was needed, it was now at this moment. On verse 3, we read that the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other with a valley in between them.

[11:21] In between them was a ravine, an east-west wadi is the name in Israel.

[11:34] And it's like a dry creek. It's a tear in the soil that makes it impossible for chariots to roll across. And so this was most likely one of the reasons we now have a cold war, a standoff.

[11:47] Both sides are in battle array, waiting for the moment now when the first arrow will be shot across this valley. Israel had been given this land by God, been drawn out of slavery to possess it, to live in it, and to be ruled in this land by God as a gift of his grace to them, his people.

[12:11] But as we can see in the mindset of the Israelites, most still lived as slaves to the world. We're told that this valley is called the Valley of Elah, literally oak.

[12:25] So it's a big tree down in the middle of this valley with a ravine cutting through it. The oak tree is a long-living tree. Most likely this one grew very tall so that it could be a landmark, a point of reference for everyone traveling through.

[12:40] So here, on the standoff between two armies, with one big central tree in the middle, heaven and hell will have a standoff.

[12:53] This long-lasting tree will be what this battle is remembered by. Here is where the battle will be fought, and here the war will be decided.

[13:06] Well, we too were born into slavery to sin. We're born into this world in bondage. But our Lord Jesus Christ entered the domain of darkness.

[13:17] Jesus Christ secured our citizenship in the kingdom of heaven. In Colossians 1.13, we read that God rescued us who are in Christ from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

[13:36] And like Israel preparing for this great battle, our fate also was determined. That one moment in time, that long-standing tree, the cross of our Savior Jesus.

[13:47] Though we're still in this world, we are not of this world. We are in God's kingdom of grace. And by his power, by his strength, these borders of his kingdom are to be protected.

[14:02] The enemy is not to creep in, not to invade the borders of the kingdom of God in our hearts, in our families, and in our church. That's the setting of the battle.

[14:14] Number two, what about the enemy's champion? The enemy's champion. Goliath stands as the tormentor, the accuser of God's people.

[14:28] Goliath is the figurehead of the domain of hell and darkness in the world. He's the one who is the weaponizer of sin and death.

[14:40] And we're given a very detailed description that's meant to strike fear in us, beginning in verse 4. We read that a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath.

[14:55] Gath was the city of the Philistines, one of the five powerful cities just on the other side of the border from Israel. So this battle was taking place in Goliath's backyard.

[15:07] We're told that his height was six cubits and a span. Most estimate that Goliath would have stood at nine feet, nine inches tall.

[15:18] So children, that's three inches, just that much shorter than a 10-foot basketball hoop. So it works really well for us to have our service today in a gym because we can see that.

[15:30] And I was trying to visualize somewhere toward the bottom of the net is where the nose of this great warrior would be if he's nine foot nine. Can you imagine the body of a giant filling in from that point of height all the way down?

[15:47] That's how tall he was. Gath was a strategic border city and it's meeting the world, meeting Judah.

[15:58] This would have been David's backyard as well. And this is the tribe of Judah that had not sent as many soldiers to go fight in Saul's war in the previous chapter. Now, their own fields, their own livelihood is directly under attack.

[16:14] Archaeological excavations of Gath near this same valley, the Valley of the Tree today, found extensive fortifications. And they found an iron production facility in this same land.

[16:28] And so here comes the champion from the Philistine side.

[16:42] By his words, we can tell that the Philistines, through him their mouthpiece, despise God the creator. These are rebellious people that are mocking God's people.

[16:55] And yet we see the reaction of the Israelites is that they are impressed. They are stunned. You could even say they're attracted to that worldly way of war. The word champion that's given in verse four, it literally means a man between or a man in the middle of two sides.

[17:15] A warrior who's going to go between the two armies and represent his entire nation. One soldier who's going to go fight a single combat as a stand-in for the entire army.

[17:30] This is how nations of the world showcase their power. And it goes back well before what we're familiar with. You think of how the Philistines were called the Sea People.

[17:42] And historians' best conclusion is that the Philistines were originally from the islands of Greece until they got on their ships, these seafaring people, and they left to go to Egypt and then to Judea or to the land of Israel.

[17:57] So I looked up what century was it that the Philistines began sending, you know, their own men off of these Greek islands to other parts of the world. And it was the 12th century before Christ.

[18:08] So then I looked it up. When was, you know, Homer's setting, the Iliad and the Odyssey, what were the setting of that? And it was the 12th century before Christ.

[18:20] In other words, if you're familiar with this Greek legends and stories of how these great warriors would be sent out, like Achilles, to represent an entire nation, an entire kingdom, this would be like an early gladiatorial game.

[18:35] You get to watch the best of the best from each side go head to head. And then from then the battle continues, like the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans. So the Philistines brought with them most likely this tradition of sending out a champion as a federal representative.

[18:53] Rather than the vast multitude dying right away, and then we see who wins, let's send out a token representation. Because most likely, however that goes, is how the rest of the battle is going to go.

[19:08] And as Goliath taunts Israel, the losing nation has much at stake. The whole nation will now become slaves of the winning nation. The victorious champion will secure the freedom of his people and establish dominance over the enemies that he defeated.

[19:28] You see how now the fate of each nation is placed in the hands of one champion, one warrior who will go between to fight. Now we get a description from his head all the way down of how he was dressed as their champion.

[19:45] We need to know that ordinary foot soldiers would have worn helmets, but most likely because they're poor and don't have a lot of access to resources, their helmets were often made of leather.

[19:56] So a little bit of protection, but nothing compared to verse 5. Goliath had a bronze helmet on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail. In Hebrew, he was clothed with scales.

[20:12] Like the Philistine idol Dagon, remember? Goliath, whose lower half was fish-like or serpent-like, clothed in scales. Now Goliath's body is covered in scales.

[20:24] He's a warrior showcasing the most advanced technology of his people who have a monopoly on metalworking. And his people learned how to suit themselves for war by studying scale-covered creatures, studying the way of the serpent, you could say.

[20:47] Scales facilitate movement while shielding the body. Most likely, Goliath's coat of scales was made of overlapping plates of bronze sewn onto leather, then put onto his body.

[21:01] So a strike of a weapon would disperse the shock, and even if one piece was damaged, the rest of the armor would remain intact and still able to continue fighting.

[21:11] We're told the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. To our English American pounds, it's 125 pounds.

[21:23] Now you think of David, we'll get a few insights in him here in a moment. David likely did not weigh more than 125 pounds at this point in his life as a teenager.

[21:36] We know David would have been a teenager because Numbers 26, 2 says that all those 20 years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel shall serve.

[21:47] We read in verse 6 that Goliath had bronze armor on his legs, bronze shin guards, and bronze thigh plates. And think about the color bronze.

[22:00] The Philistines had more sturdy weapons. You know, they had iron-clad chariots and other weapons, but they want their champion to be in shiny bronze. And as we get the picture of Goliath being presented forth, we can only imagine what other sounds and sights would have accompanied that.

[22:20] But as he comes, as the sun is rising and those rays of sun are bouncing off of the bronze, it would have been a stunning sight. Bronze, stealing light from the sun, like their little replica of a Greek god, a lowercase g.

[22:41] You could almost imagine Goliath like an angel-type blasphemer, glowing with light. And we read that even his bronze javelin was between his shoulders, strapped to his back.

[22:58] This javelin was designed for hurling. You'd pull it off of the back and throw it. The spear was designed for hand-to-hand combat like a long sword.

[23:08] We read in verse 7, now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, most likely about five feet long. David might have been about five feet tall at this stage of his life.

[23:21] His iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels. That's 16 pounds. I looked up, what is 16 pounds? It's a common object and it's a bowling ball. You think how much you can hurl a bowling ball.

[23:34] Goliath is a walking arsenal. Someone called him a weapon of mass destruction. We're told then that his shield-bearer went before him. This is like his defensive line if he's the quarterback, positioned to block him, probably a shield covering almost the entire body with this champion right behind it.

[23:58] I wondered also, how is it that Israel came to have all of these details and these measurements? If you look down at verse 53, we read that the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines and they plundered their camp.

[24:14] So I wondered, as they're plundering the camp, we've got to save all of this and while we have it, let's weigh it and let's find out, I mean, what was Goliath wearing? So that's just my guess, but this description that we're given is so detailed, again, using up precious words on a scroll for a reason.

[24:30] It paints a picture. It's an evaluation, you could say, from the perspective of an offensive coordinator, why the enemy's mightiest weapon seems impossible to beat.

[24:46] From the eyes of the world, the eyes of Israel, we have no shot. If that's the best showcase of what this entire empire is bringing, who are we to go up against them?

[24:57] We read today from Matthew how our Lord Jesus faced the enemy one-on-one, tempted in the desert. He faced off against Satan, the devil, Lucifer, the ancient serpent called a dragon.

[25:16] And where Saul was passive and Adam, the first federal head, was passive, our Lord Jesus Christ was not passive. He went on the offensive. He invaded the domain of what he called in John 12, 31, the prince of this world.

[25:35] And Jesus Christ withstood and overcame the enemy alone. We too, in the words of Martin Luther, are amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

[25:48] For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal.

[26:03] But we look to Jesus Christ, the promised, anointed, shepherd king. So our third observation is now the reaction of Israel to seeing this champion, Goliath.

[26:18] It's the cowardly army. The cowardly army. Verse 8 says, Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, Why have you come out to line up for battle?

[26:32] Am I not a Philistine? Literally, he says, Am I not the Philistine? And you, these servants or slaves of Saul?

[26:46] Goliath is speaking truth, isn't he? Israel had made themselves slaves to Saul, a king after their own hearts. God said Israel had rejected the Lord of hosts as their king.

[27:01] And now Goliath says, Choose a man for yourselves. Let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our slaves and serve us.

[27:20] In verse 10, the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Experts in the Hebrew language say that the word defy is unusually harsh.

[27:37] It means to put under reproach, to charge you with severe contempt. It's to shame you, to deride you, to accuse you, to put extreme disgrace on God's people.

[27:55] Notice how Goliath says, Give me a man that we may fight together. earlier when the Israelites confronted the Philistines, this was the language of the Philistines.

[28:06] Maybe again from that Greek tradition. Give me a man. Who will be a man to go fight? Goliath says, Do you have any man among you? In other words, if you don't produce a champion, you have no men in your entire nation.

[28:22] He is shaming them. He's saying, You can't match me on our terms. The Israelites, as they assess the situation, if they were a little bit relieved at first that this wadi, this ravine that cut through the valley had disarmed or neutralized their chariots for now, all the hope that they had of delaying any longer is now gone.

[28:53] You can almost imagine them as Marsha pointed out, you know, sitting around the campfire each evening as soldiers talking and assessing their future. Maybe we ought to accept this offer and send a champion representing our side.

[29:07] If one man can save thousands of lives, it's worth doing it. But now the Philistines are really just playing with Israel. They know they can easily wipe this poor people out that have no weapons.

[29:20] It's just a game. That's why it's so humiliating. And if their champion goes out on the side of Israel and fails, now we've all agreed to be their slaves. In verse 11, when Saul, remember, Saul was a head taller than any other man in Israel.

[29:38] He was the man after Israel's heart and the only one with weapons. In verse 11, when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

[29:52] dismayed. Dismayed means yielding to fear, a terror felt by them, spirits that are sunken down.

[30:05] That's how Israel and Saul viewed the war. God's I'm afraid that many of us have taken away the wrong application from this story of David fighting Goliath.

[30:18] We like to imagine ourselves as David, but here's the application. That's us. We're the cowardly army. We're dismayed, sunken in spirit.

[30:30] Martin Luther confessed that was his weakness apart from Christ as well in that great hymn. Did we in our own strength confide? Our striving would be losing.

[30:42] We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. You ask who that might be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts is his name from age to age the same and he must win the battle.

[31:02] The prince of darkness grim, but in the name of Christ Jesus, we tremble not for him. The cowardly army. Fourth observation is a section that might even seem surprising and maybe unusually lengthy, so it has to mean something.

[31:22] It begins at verse 12. We'll call this section the father sends his son with provisions for the army. The father sends his son with provisions for the army.

[31:37] In verse 12 we get what I believe is a second introduction. I don't think it's a flashback because it does say that David went back and forth from Saul to take care of the sheep and then back to the court of Saul to play the music.

[31:51] But now I think most likely because David has been anointed, he has the spirit of God, what we get is the first evidence in public that the private anointing that God put on David was in effect.

[32:04] The power of God is at work in this anointed king. In verse 14 we're reminded David was the youngest. Remember there were four more brothers and only the, well there were eight brothers total.

[32:20] The three oldest went to war, therefore there's four others that weren't even old enough to go to war. So we can conclude that David was most likely pretty young, most likely a teenager. So we read in verse 15, David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

[32:38] Verse 16, and the Philistines drew near and presented himself forty days morning and evening. In the Bible the number forty generally signifies a completed period of testing, a probation, a trial.

[32:56] It's often leading then to a transformation or a big transition. In Genesis 6, it rained for forty days and forty nights. Remember, Israel was tested in the wilderness for forty years after being delivered out of slavery.

[33:13] We're told in verse 16 that Goliath mocked God's people, accused them, derided them twice at the start of each day and then again at the end of each day.

[33:24] So, children, forty days, twice a day, how many times? Eighty times God's people had to sit there and be mocked and ridiculed.

[33:36] In verse 17 now is the key for this passage, I believe. Then the father, Jesse, said to his son, David, take now for your brother, brothers, these provisions.

[33:50] See, when the forty days of mocking had come to an end. These forty days were completed. The father says to his anointed, his Messiah marked son, David, the name David means beloved, the shepherd king, go to the battlefield for your brothers and me.

[34:15] In verse 20 we read that David arose early in the morning. He left the sheep with the keeper. Notice how David as the anointed king is always concerned about the sheep.

[34:27] When he's mentioned, the sheep are mentioned with him. He makes sure that his sheep are always cared for. And he took the things and went as his father had commanded him.

[34:38] He paid attention to those details and he carried it all out. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to fight and shouting for battle.

[34:50] I believe the Israelites while they were in dismay, 40 days are now up. They're pumping themselves up for action. They're shouting for battle. They're making a lot of noise.

[35:02] But when David gets there he's also surprised and confused because they're taking no action. Here's an army that's all hype, all emotion, and no faith.

[35:13] They're focused on their own strength and they're cowering back. The army needs a better warrior, one anointed by the power of God, one that will stand in their place, who is not focused on worldly power and what the eye can see, a man of faith.

[35:37] I was interested in the word Jesse. You know, he's the old father now and he's got sons in the battle and he loves those sons. He wants to send provisions for them and he wants to hear back from them.

[35:49] And how the Lord Jesus came to reveal the loveliness of the father. And his mission is to tell the brothers, the father wants to know you're well.

[36:00] Just as David's taking care of the sheep, the father wants to provide and out of the abundance of his generosity, give to his army, give them all they need. Of course, with the enemy accusing and deriding God's people, they're going to wonder and worry and think the worst.

[36:18] And we can too when we're under attack. That's why I think we love that song so much where we ask, does the father truly love us? And we respond as a church, he does.

[36:30] Does the father truly love us? He does. The father so loves us that he sent his beloved son, Jesus Christ, the anointed Messiah, to be our representative, our champion, the one who would stand in our place.

[36:50] And through him, we receive all the provisions that our loving father has provided. The fifth and final observation for today, I know it's a longer passage, I had to get to this point so we hear someone speak truth, and it finally comes from the lips of David.

[37:07] And it's this, how the first anointed shepherd views the war. How David as the first anointed shepherd viewed the war.

[37:19] As David talked with his brothers in verse 23, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming down from the armies of the Philistines, and he spoke according to the same words.

[37:33] It's almost like the narrator by verse 23 can't even repeat these words again. They're so humiliating. And so David heard them. There's Israel's army making noise, but what's their theology?

[37:47] Verse 24, all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, the Philistine Goliath, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. Verse 25, so the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up?

[38:03] Surely he has come up to defy Israel. See, their theology is what you can see, and they're focused on this man. So the men of Israel are making noise with their mouths, but they're still slaves to what they can see with their eyes.

[38:25] And it shall be done, what shall be done to the man who kills him? The king will enrich the great riches and will give him his daughter and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel.

[38:39] Notice how even with this worldly enticement, it doesn't even come from Saul. That's how passive Saul is. It just comes from the soldiers talking about it. The army has learned the theology of their king.

[38:54] Saul offers what the world offers. They got what they wanted, a king like all the other nations. If you can match the best that the world has, you will get the best of what the world can offer.

[39:07] Because as Goliath said, this is Saul's army. They are slaves of Saul. And now the shepherd psalmist spoke for the first time.

[39:19] He bore witness for the first time in verse 26. David spoke. And his audience was very small. Notice that in verse 26.

[39:30] Not on a big platform, but it was just to the men who stood by him. And he said, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine? He saw the real problem.

[39:41] This man takes away the reproach. Or who is it that will defeat the Philistine, will take away the reproach from Israel? See, this Goliath has reproached.

[39:52] He's disgraced the people of God. Who's going to stand up and put grace back into the people of God? The people saw Goliath through the same lens that saw.

[40:09] They saw two men that are tall and attractive and by the standards of the world very powerful. But David saw Goliath through covenantal terms.

[40:21] David says, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Who is this man who's outside of God's covenant? The prince of darkness grim.

[40:33] We tremble not for him. His rage we can't endure. For lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him. He remembered to whom the army belongs.

[40:45] Look at what David says. He is defying the armies of the living God. Men, you are not slaves of Saul. God secured you for himself.

[40:58] And God is alive. You are the army of the Lord of hosts. He fights for his own glory. He knew the army did not belong to Saul.

[41:11] It belongs to God, Yahweh, the great deliverer. These men are looking only at their own weakness and they forgot that the Lord is the Lord Sabaoth.

[41:22] The Lord of hosts and his armies include not just these men of Israel but the armies of angels in heaven. When God created the heavens, he created the invisible spiritual realm and while there is a standoff between two men on earth, there is certainly a spiritual warfare going on.

[41:42] The kingdom of heaven intruding onto this fallen world. We forget, we often just focus on what our eyes can see in this world. Remember the army of angels at God's command.

[41:55] J.I. Packer said, heaven is the headquarters of these angels where they constantly worship God and from there they are sent to render services to God through the ministry he is carrying out.

[42:08] The angels serve the church. The angels serve God's people at God's bidding. That's the end of Packer's quote. Andrea pointed out to me as we were listening to the McShane Bible reading that when God then had King David's son Solomon build the temple according to the instructions given in 1 Kings 7 the cherubim that stand and guard the ark of the holy of holies the symbolic throne of the lord of hosts each angel was 15 feet tall.

[42:42] Remember the basketball hoop is 10 feet. That distance between the floor and the basketball hoop that's 5 feet right in the middle. So you take that and put it on top of the basketball hoop. Now of course angels are spiritual beings they don't have bodies but the ministry of this to God's people is when you approach the temple of God you need to be reminded he is the lord of hosts towering above Goliath is the army of God.

[43:07] According to Zechariah 1 10 angels are mighty warriors of light whom the lord sends to patrol planet earth. What's the number of the angels? Well God has a vast army of angels.

[43:21] A legion is 5 to 6 thousand so we're taking what the scripture has revealed 70,000 angels. This would be like taking ball arena where the nuggets play for their basketball games and it's four times what you could pack into the ball arena would be a legion of these angels warriors of light.

[43:42] revelation 5 11 says the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. With the eyes of faith we can remember the lord of hosts does not tremble before any man or anything of this world or of the principalities of darkness.

[44:03] God by faith reassures his followers of his might far above that of the enemies. brothers and sisters outside of Christ we are a cowardly army but because God is good and loving and gracious God the father sent provisions from his home through his beloved son the anointed the Messiah marked shepherd king for us who he calls brothers and sisters.

[44:35] Jesus Christ overcame the evil one first in the wilderness then on the cross. He has disarmed Satan.

[44:47] The powers of darkness no longer have power over God's people and his kingdom according to Colossians 2 15. While we failed while we are weak Jesus Christ obedience his stands in the place of our disobedience and his courage covers our cowardice.

[45:08] I want to remind you how Jesus Christ the Messiah the anointed shepherd king views the war that we're in now. In John 18 36 Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world.

[45:22] If my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight but now my kingdom is not from here. In John 17 16 our Lord Jesus said my disciples are not of this world even as I am not of this world.

[45:39] From that hymn by Martin Luther taking the cue from our Lord Jesus we can say as well though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us we will not fear for God has willed his truth to triumph through us.

[45:58] The body they may kill God's truth abideth still his kingdom is forever. The outlook of our Lord Jesus Christ changes the way his army views this life and this world.

[46:16] By his strength I have been praying this week for myself and for us as a church that the perspective the view what our Lord Jesus Christ sees for his church will slowly fill us and become our outlook our view of this battle as well depending on his strength and let's pray that he will do that.

[46:38] Lord we thank you for how you are mighty in battle how you are victorious how you have secured the freedom of your people how we are no longer slaves to fear you have ransomed your people you are our great anointed king we praise you that you've not left us orphans you are near your people you care for your sheep we trust ourselves to you again today Lord please work in us the view that you have for your church we ask this for your glory in your powerful name amen