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.
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,
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
verse 14
Hebrews 2
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
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.