This point we'd like to invite children in kindergarten in first grade to participate in primary church like and for the rest of you We'll be starting today a new series the second old series on first Samuel If you remember if you've been around for a while my the pattern that I tend to use when I preach is to do old testament in the fall the Gospels Right after Christmas through Easter and then after Easter in the summer I do something in the New Testament epistles and so I think it was three years ago that I started in the fall This series on first Samuel and the first time we looked at first Samuel chapters one through eight last year We looked at chapters eight through 16 and this year we'll be looking at chapters 17 through however far we get The reason I say that is because I was I plan on doing one sermon on David and Goliath and before Wednesday of this week I realized I need to do three on this passage so You'll have to deal with it. I guess if you don't have a Bible with you you can find the text on the back of your order of worship I'm just gonna read the first four verses. I said you hear the word of God Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle and they were gathered at Sukha which belongs to Judah and a camp between Sukha and Ezeka in F.S. Damim and Saul in the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of Elah and Drew up in line of battle against the Philistines and the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley Between them and there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath whose height was six cubits and a span What is pray Father, I pray that is a We look at this very familiar Story in the Bible that you would defamiliarize it that you would make it unfamiliar to the extent that we could see The truth of the gospel in it and so I pray that you give us fresh ears to hear I pray that you would give us eyes to see I pray that you'd be with me and be in my head and in my thinking and in my heart And in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking in Christ's name we pray these things a man and a man Well, we left off him I'm starting this part of the first Samuel series in with the story of David and Goliath and the sort of David and Goliath Undoubtedly is the most famous story in the whole Bible in fact at any time in whether it's in the church in the secular world or in sports or anything when when someone small or an underdog beats Someone big or a favorite it's referred to as a David and Goliath story, right just this morning I open I don't follow football, but I opened the paper and was on the front page Right University of Washington underdog David VTS USC Goliath Remember a few months ago when America's got talent started First night this chicken farmer from Kentucky Played and I said he's gonna win the whole thing And now I'm not saying that to be prideful But he won the whole thing David Goliath The story is is famous in fact if you ever read Tom Sawyer Remember Tom Sawyer was notorious for not going to school like another time I know and The only Bible story that he knew was the story of David and Goliath Before we jump into this story though since it's been a year since we've looked at it I feel like we've got to get a bit of background for the whole book and then we're going to basically look at three things this morning So what's the background to the book if you remember the book of Samuel actually includes first and second Samuel So if you hear me just mention say the word Samuel, I mean both books usually and also the Samuel was the last judge The book of Samuel actually picks up where the book of judges left off and that's important because in the book of judges That the author is making a case that Israel needs a king If you read the book of judges one thing you realize is that judges aren't good enough to lead Israel And by the last few chapters of the book of judges you hear one horrifying story after another and the moral of every story is just this Now remember Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in his own eyes So you get to the book of Samuel and Samuel the last judge He's going to be the judge that transitions from Israel being led by judges into Israel being led by kings and the purpose of the book of Samuel is like judges, but it has an interesting twist because the book of Samuel would make the case that in fact Israel does need a king But then need a very specific king. They need a king like David And so the whole book is going is building up to this person that we now know of is David And so Samuel becomes the last judge and Israel and by chapter eight of this book if you remember Israel came to Samuel and said we want you to tell God that we want a king like the other nations It's important to get that last little part there like the other nations because you remember also part of the back story is Israel's nemesis at this point the villain in the story at this point in Israel's history were the Philistines and the Philistines Were not the kind of people that would come in and just conquer and slaughter and leave the Philistines were the kind of people that would come in and Basically make you slaves or vassals and collect taxes from you for the rest of your lives And so Israel didn't want that they wanted somewhat a king like the other nations who could lead them and a king like the other nations It's important to know because a king like the other nations would have been big and strong and powerful and brave Not necessarily the kind of king that God would want them to have and Samuel warned them if you if you want a king like the other nations Here's what you're going to get you're going to get someone who's going to enslave your sons and daughters He's going to take a tenth of your crops. He's basically going to make your lives miserable and they said that's exactly what we want It's fact and he said you want it you got it and so he gives them a king named Saul and if you remember from a year ago There were three things that basically distinguished Saul in our eyes the first thing that was he was incredibly big He was tall. He's a head taller than anyone in Israel. That's important to keep in mind when we realize what the problem is here If you're going to fight some a tall enemy who should you send out to fight him? Maybe a tall king So he's incredibly big he's physically imposing on one hand on the other hand We know that he's a very poor shepherd the king of Israel was supposed to be the shepherd of Israel among other things He's a poor shepherd and we know that because remember his father lost two donkeys And he couldn't find even two donkeys let alone a her a flock of sheep She's a poor shepherd and then the last thing we know is that he was incredibly spiritually dull And he was so dull in fact he made unlawful sacrifices He made rash vows and eventually God rejected him in favor of someone who is exactly the opposite of him And you see he saw was physically imposing and big and a warrior and on the other hand the person who God would choose was a boy Saul was a horrible shepherd God would choose someone who that's all they had known was being a shepherd Saul was spiritually dull and the person that God would choose to be their king would be someone who is very spiritually aware Very faithful That person of course is David so God rejects Saul in chapter 15 and verse 16 God tells Samuel to go to the house of Jesse and to choose one of his God will show him who he will choose to be the next king of Israel and it's important to know as well that that in Israel and in the Semitic world that seven was the perfect number If you had seven sons you had a perfect family and anything anything after seven you just stopped counting and So Samuel goes to Jesse and he begins to say you know God says a king is gonna come from your house And so Jesse does what any father would do he gets his oldest son the one who to write to the job And he says here's the one he must be the one and God says that's not him Let me read to you what exactly what God says in Chapter 16 seven says the Lord said to Samuel do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature Because I have rejected him for the Lord sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart And so Jesse proceeds to parade the other the his other six sons before Samuel and God keeps saying nope Nope, nope nope and Samus says do you got given another son? And he said well, yeah, the youngest number number eight He's out hurting the sheep Samus is bring him in here then you know that God says he's the one and he anoints him all his brothers see him anointed and then the story shifts That's where it brings us to today because the story basically what happens is you sort of leap frog and stories So now all of a sudden we're gonna shift back to instead of looking at David being anointed We're gonna look at Saul dealing with Goliath Or maybe a better way to put that is Saul failing to deal with Goliath. So basically this morning We're gonna look at three things. We're gonna look at first Goliath's challenge What that would mean the second thing we're gonna look at is David's question and the third thing we're going to look at is David's first obstacle You see it's interesting because David has to fight is ultimately gonna fight Goliath But on the way to fighting Goliath he has to pass all these obstacles in order to do it You'd think it wouldn't be that way, but it is so let's look first at Goliath's challenge Let me read to you again picking up at verse Five this is after it says who's height was six cubits in a span It said he had a helmet of bronze on his head and armed with a coat of male And the way to the coat was five thousand checkles of bronze He had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders the shaft of his spear It was like a weaver's beam and the spear's head weighed 600 checkles of iron and his shield bearer went out before him Okay Goliaths The description of Goliath is incredible here really because you know first it starts out that says he was what is it six feet in a Six cubits in a span depending on how you translate that he was either nine feet six inches tall or six feet nine inches tall Either way in the ancient Near East right people we've we've grown over the years He would have been physically imposing Most scholars believe that he was probably nine feet six for one There's some documentation of other people being that big But also the the weight of the armor and things that he had to carry would have made would have presented a need for him to be that big So first of all Goliath is incredibly physically imposing The second thing is he's basically is a technological marvel. He is the ancient Near Eastern equivalent of a tank He is the weight of the armor that would would he would have been wearing would have been at least a hundred and twenty five pounds That's a lot Most I ever carry goes about 80 And it was killed me For him has nothing It says a shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam and that's not probably talking about its thickness a weaver's beam has loops of of rope around it And what they would use with javelins and spears back then is they would use that the loops of rope to be able to throw the spears Further and it had an iron head that weighed 15 pounds. That's pretty heavy if you're trying to throw something And in the ancient Near East the Philistines were at the top of the food chain if you will as far as technology technological advances they were the ones who who basically Mastered the art of iron working So not only is he built he's a huge and not only is he built like a tank and he's physically imposing He's basically impervious, but he has the most advanced weaponology He's the most advanced weapons available to him and then on top of that he has a shield bearer that is assigned just to him In other words that would have been a person I'm guessing a shorter person there were two kinds of shields the round shields that you see You know if you've ever watched 300 or something or the a shield that would have covered quite a bit of area Maybe the whole body of someone and he had a person whose only job was to walk in front of him with a shield The only part of Goliath that was exposed would have been his face What could you do to that In Israel's mind nothing So you could see how Israel would have been afraid of this person because in Israel the only person who would have had armor would have been the king And maybe a few of his underlings, but the average Joe wouldn't have had armor And so here you have this physically imposing tank who who what are they supposed to do that would have been frightening enough But what I think was even more frightening is how Goliath sort of stepped up the game or he stepped up the challenge You know, listen to how he challenges them It says he stood out to shout of the ranks of Israel In verse eight, why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine or you could even read that is saying am I not the Philistine and are not you not servants of Saul 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 should be our servants and serve us and the Philistine said I defy the ranks of Israel This day give me a man that we may fight together and when Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine They were dismayed and greatly afraid What would have also disturbed Israel probably it would have disturbed them, but it shouldn't have is this whole idea of representative combat And other to the Philistines would have been very familiar with with what Goliath proposed Have you ever asked yourself why does Goliath have to actually explain how it works if Israel knew what it was He could have just said let's do what we always do send down your champion But Goliath has to very in a very detailed fashion explain how this works I'm gonna come out for us and You send one person out for you and whoever wins gets everything And for the Philistines that apparently was very common and it makes sense if they're if their desire was to make people into Vassals and basically servants because if you want to vassals, you wouldn't do yourself much good by killing the whole army Every guy that you preserved was a potential taxpayer and so you didn't want to hurt them on The other hand from Israel's point of view they didn't fight like that They just sort of all ran out and fought or they all didn't Unless but if they would have asked themselves the question if they just thought about it Remember Saul is spiritually dull so he's I'm guarantee you he's not sitting around asking himself this question So Goliath says send one person out to fight me and the winner will take all Now imagine if you're Saul and you had a one-spiritual sense at all you'd sit back and say now Let me think is there any sense in which or is there any case or anything? I can think of there any place where God uses one person to represent all of us Huh and if I would have been there out of whispered Adam One person represents all of us How about Moses remember he was a prophet One person he went into the tent and knowing what else was allowed to go he represented you and he came out and told you what God said one person represented you How about Aaron his brother the priest who mediated before you you one person represents you a king Isn't that why you hired Saul in the first place? Didn't you hire him to represent you see the job of a king is to protect and defend his people from all his enemies and There's Saul the king should have been the one who didn't wasn't afraid But in fact said oh they want one representative combat. I'm the king. I'm the representative Israel I'll step out besides that. I'm almost as tall as him Give her take a foot or two In other words the pattern of of the the Bible from the very first day is one person representing everybody against their greatest enemy they have And in this case it should be the one person should be the king and the king should be the one to step up and face off with their greatest enemy and Defeat him on behalf of the people Now can you think of anywhere else there that happens? There's another king who would stand and be one person who represents his people and the answer of course is yes And his name is Jesus The one person Jesus represents all of us and he faces off against our greatest enemy of all and that is sin You see it's easy to read the story of David and Goliath and we're gonna we're gonna look at some angles You know, what does it mean to face your own giants and these kinds of things? But really what this text is about is not so much principles But it is pointing you to the one who would represent you before your greatest enemy And the one who represents you before your greatest enemy and wins is the Lord Jesus And like it likely or not he is also the least likely person who would do it and out of work Carpenter So Goliath challenges one person to represent them and would there be one who can come out? Goliath does some one other thing before we move on to David's question because it informs David's question Goliath says I defy you I defy the armies of Israel to have anyone come out here And the other aspect to this representative combat what would have been implicit is whoever won the combat that would also be making a statement about their God in other words if they Israel sends out a man and Philistines send out a man But Philistines win They gone as is the best and if Israel wins then Yahweh is the best and so there's an implicit God contest here as well and that leads to David's question one thing you ought to notice it from from this point on in the book You're going to see these very stark contrast between Saul and David you'll hear something very negative about Saul and then the very next breath You'll hear but David and That's where you're going to hear something good. So notice what it says in verse 11 it says when Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine they were dismayed and greatly afraid Now David or but David was the son of an effort. I had a Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse and I'm going to skip down it says that the three oldest sons of Jesse followed Saul to the battle and the names of the three sons who went for the battle Were a lie of a benedab and Shama David was the youngest the three eldest followed Saul but David went back and forth from Saul the fetus father Sheep at Bethlehem for 40 days the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening And Jesse said to David his son take for your brothers and if of this parched grain and these 10 loaves and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers Also take these 10 Jesus to the commander of their thousand and see if your brothers are well and bring some token from them So the first thing we're introduced in the context of Saul's fear and in the context of Saul who should be representing Israel Who should be just stepping out and saying I'll take him on I'm the king Saul is afraid and dismayed and then immediately here, but David and we're introduced to David again And we're introduced to David's job his job was to go back and forth between Saul and his father's sheep caring for the sheep And the important part to notice there is it says for 40 days Goliath continued to come morning and evening and make the challenge Now for one thing it seems like it really be a drag to be there every single day Here he comes again and Goliath every day just like clockwork comes out But what's also important is to notice how long this is dragging out Because there are about 14 miles west of Bethlehem at about eight miles east of Gath or in the land of the Philistines In other words, it would have been easier for the Philistines to supply their soldiers And so that's why David is sent by his father because in Israel what would have happened as families would have been responsible For supplying their own sons with food if they were close enough to do so Suggest he says the wars dragging out. They don't have supplies David take this food to your brothers And he sends some food for the commanders and it's interesting the last part is isn't bring some token from them Really what that is all about is he's probably saying I'm gonna get food also for the commanders And I want you to bring back basically a promissory note or token that I'm gonna get some percentage of the booty back when they defeat the Philistines if they do So in a sense, it's an act of faith But really what it serves to do is it serves to get David on to the scene and the providence of God So David is sent to to Take care of his brothers and let's look at what happens next it says in First 19 now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Eilah fighting with Philistines and David Rose early in the morning Left the sheep with a keeper took provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him He came out to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line shouting a war cry and As Israel and Philistines drove up for battle army against army David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks Greed at his brothers and as he talked to them behold the champion of the Philistines of The Philistines of gas go life by name came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before and now cue the music and David heard him so what
The writer wants us to know that's a pretty big thing That David has has come down and he's just coming down to see what's going on He's coming down to take care of his brothers to deliver these things in Israel and and the Philistines have run out to face off with each other And actually this is what Goliath complained about earlier on he's why do you keep coming out to the line in other words If you can imagine you know if you've ever seen a dog with an invisible fence around the yard You know where they're just sort of yapping and they come yapping pip pip pip And so they hit the invisible fence even though you can't see it. They just That's apparently what Israel would do Every day they would come and they would start yapping and they'd run down to the lines and as soon as they got to the edge of our They just stop And in the first few verses that's why Goliath says why do you even come out to face off against me? Just send the guy out here and let's get it over with Well, David sees them all running and he runs down to and he hears the challenge and the Texas and David heard it What's the big deal if David heard it? Because remember David is not afraid to ask questions and David asks one of the greatest questions that you'll see in the whole Bible Let's look at it Verse 24 says all the men of Israel when they saw the man they fled from him and were much afraid and the men of Israel said Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come off to defy Israel and the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter And make his father's house free in Israel and David said to the man who stood before him What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach for him is real? Or who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Now it's interesting the cotton David's first question is interesting just as interesting if not more than the first question Because the man are afraid and running around and you can imagine David just seeing guys running around and he over hears someone saying what the king will do for the man who kills Goliath He will enrich him greatly he'll give him his daughter and he'll make his family free of having to pay taxes to the king and Then David says now what shall we do for the guy who kills Goliath? Why does he ask that? I think it's because he's he's he's in sense because it solves responsibility What David has just found out is that Saul who is responsible for confronting Goliath himself is trying to find someone who will do it for hire Saul is trying to pay someone else to actually do his dirty work and Then in that context David says who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? It's a great question isn't it? It's a great question if you have faith The Horrible question if you don't you see when he says you you know who's this uncircumcised Philistine the point There is not that Goliath is just sort of some rogue and then he's just you know, you know, he's a hon or something He's just horrible person the point is to distinguish Goliath who is uncircumcised IE outside of covenant with God from those who are inside covenant with God and And what the question that David's getting at is those of us who are inside the covenant with God have his promises to us that he will Never fail us or forsake us. He will give us victory in the land He will give us victory over the Philistines and so who is this person outside who's even willing to question that? How could he? Isn't that a good question? It's a great question now that the question I have is how come we never ask it? How come you and I never ask it? Do you ever have trouble in your life? You ever have trials you ever have temptations you ever have things you know, you don't know how you were going to deal with it? The first thing I do generally when things come my way I don't say who is who or what is this thing to get in my way to given the fact that I'm a trial of God He's promised me I would never fail me for second the first thing I say is how am I going to deal with this? What am I going to do? You see if the gospel is true if you're a Christian what you believe is that Jesus has not only taken away all of your sin But he has also given you all of his righteousness. He's imputed it to your account He's credited it to you and if you are as righteous as Jesus right now. Let me ask you this question. What can touch you? Is there anything at the end of the day that ultimately can separate you from God the apostle Paul is absolutely not? In fact Paul asked the question if God is for us who can be against us? Did not he who gave his only son will he not freely give us all things? You see this text is it's bigger than just what what are the giants in my life? The question is do you really believe what God has said? Some of you might not be Christians. I ask you to consider would there be a God who would so deliver you from your sins that you wouldn't have to worry about the things that faced you anymore? If you are a Christian I ask you the same thing because supposedly you and I believe that and yet our lives is something totally different David asks the question and it challenges me. I don't know about you who is this uncircumcised philistine That he should defy the armies of the living God David is ready to go He's ready to take on Goliath and that's where he runs into his first obstacle and what is David's first obstacle in fighting Goliath? The answer is going to surprise you It shouldn't David's first obstacle in fighting Goliath is church people it's church people who is this uncircumcised philistine the person outside the covenant who would challenge those of us inside the covenant And right as David asked that question who challenges him, but someone from inside the covenant it would be our equivalent of church people David is saying God said he promised he'd never fail us or forsake us. Let us let's go do it and And those kinds of things happen all the time in church in other words We have a whole world. We're supposed to be serving a whole world in which we are supposed to be winning and the reason the church is so utterly ineffective I think it's because we can't get past the Goliath center and the narthex on our way out We just can't I mean people you know consider you know, I dread every year at least I have for the past three you know We're coming up on budget time and budget time faith is the last thing we think about Yeah, you know that the God stuff. That's all good to talk about and it's good to have faith But at the end of the day if you don't have X amount of dollars in your bank account for next year you have failed and You know what that is just wrong It's wrong Because the gospel God has given us a task to take the promised land that is the whole world and will he not give us what we need to do It and are we asking the question will he give it to us or are we saying you know Who do you think you are to to say you think you can even do this who you think you can fight this? David's older brother it completely tries to shut him down notice what he says Verse 28 says now Alayab has held this brother heard when he spoke to the men and Alayab's anger was kindle against David And he said why have you come down and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know the presumption of the evil of your heart for you have come down to see the battle and David said Like I can imagine any youngest of eight saying what have I done now? Was it not what was it not just a word? It was I'm not just asking a question And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way and the people answered him again as before So how do you know you from these what what Alayab says to David that he doesn't get it? That he doesn't understand the gospel as they would have understood He doesn't understand the promises of God because if Alayab really understood the promises of God to Israel when David asked that Question instead of a rebuke he would have had repentance In other words instead of instead of rebuking David and saying, you know, you're so selfish and presumptuous to come down here He would have said Guys, you know what? My little brother's right We've been here for 40 days I've seen my wife haven't seen my kids haven't eaten anything of a parts growing whatever that is and And this this thing this this fight could have been over 39 days ago if we to just ask the question that my little brother asked Thank you David But instead he doesn't instead he rebukes David And calls him presumptuous now the interesting thing about presumption here coming from Alayab's mouth Is Alayab knows that he was actually rejected his king and the fact the words that come out of his mouth make the decision that God made They affirm it that he shouldn't be the king He doesn't have what it takes because he also doesn't get it because the very thing of which he accuses David is the thing Which has prepared David to actually be the man? It's sort of you know if you're faithful and small things I'll make you faithful and great things He says what where were you out there taking care of those few little sheep? That's an accusation against David and Yet in the next week what we're going to look at is the very thing that he was accusing David of is the thing that prepared him To fight Goliath because next the obstacle he's going to fight another church person next week Saul It's also me saying you know you're not big enough. How do you think you can fight this guy? And what does David say? You know when I was a shepherd a bear attack Lord delivered me from the bear When I was a shepherd taking care of those few sheep a Lion attacked the Lord did live me from the lion. If he can deliver from the bear and he can deliver from the lion He can deliver from that goon Let's go in the interesting thing at the end of this is David David doesn't shut up His faith I think is evidence his older brother basically tries to shut him down in the last verse notice what it says And he turned away from him that's his brother toward another and spoke the same way and the people answer him again as before David's not going to rest until he has an answer from someone to this question. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine now what David doesn't know Is that his life is not going to be the same forever after this? You know when Judy and I started attending this church in I think it's 2002 It was one of the greatest times of our life and the reason for it was because no one knew who us no one knew who I was I Just came I was a member I think the only people that knew me were the pastoral staff They didn't know that I'd been a church planter that I'd written some I'd done all these kinds of things I was a sales rep for Eli Lilly and I sat on the front row with my family for about two years and just enjoyed life At some point they asked me to teach Sunday school class Andy Wilson did and I I guess I will and as I was leaving The house the first morning of teaching the first Sunday school class as a layperson Judy asked me if I was nervous and I said you know the only thing I'm nervous about is losing my anonymity As once you lose your anonymity who knows what will happen it could change everything. That's what's happening here with David As of this event David is going to lose his anonymity No longer is he going to be just the guy asking the questions of faith But it's only going to get harder for him because he's going to be attacked by Saul He's going to be attacked by people everything is going to get harder and harder and harder and harder for David I look forward to talking about it in the future think about these things today. Let me pray for us father I just pray that you would um You would help us to be asking the right Questions, you know who if you are forced who can be against us if you've not given your son Why wouldn't you not give us all things and enable us to be people of faith Let us be prudent as well, but prudent only in the context of great faith and we thank you for teaching us this morning Christ and we pray a man