When God Fights for Us

1 Samuel 17:12-58

[Today’s reading is quite lengthy. So you will have to go and look it up for yourself! I felt like the story needed to be kept as one unit, mainly because once you start reading it’s just so good you have to keep going. Here is a link to read it online if you would rather do that. http://www.esvbible.org/search/1+Samuel+17%3A12/]

Great things often happen when we are simply responding to our circumstances with faith and without a great deal of analysis. Sometimes (and I do mean sometimes) over analyzing will cause us problems as we can psych ourselves out of moving in the direction God is leading us. We begin to weigh the circumstances against our own resources and realize that we are on a fool’s mission. Had David spent 2 minutes looking at this situation rather than following the leading of the Holy Spirit (Who, if you will remember came upon him at his anointing as king) he would have agreed with Saul and his soldiers and gone back home. But instead, he moves forward as only a teenager is able to do without a thought for the consequences. It was an action of pure faith and serves to inspire us.

A few specific notes on the text of things I find intriguing while reading this story.

·         Vs. 12 – When it says that Saul was “advanced in years” that doesn’t necessarily mean that he was ancient, as we would assume today. It means that he had been king for several years and was a well-established monarch.

·         Vs. 19 – There probably had not really been any serious fighting between the Philistines and Israel. For 40 days, the two sides would look at one another across the valley, Goliath would make his appearance out in the valley to hurl insults and then go back to his side of the camp.

·         Vs. 25 – The promises to the man who would actually attempt to meet Goliath out on the battlefield were the hand of Saul’s daughter in marriage and no more taxes for him and his family.

·         David seems to be the only person who is insulted for God. No one else mentions that their God is being defiled every day that Goliath is allowed to come out and shout his taunts.

·         Vs. 37 – Saul is so desperate to have someone, anyone, brave enough to go against Goliath, he allows a teenager to do the job. Instead of trusting in God to grant David victory, Saul arms him with his own armor. Remember, Saul was a head taller than the rest of the Hebrews and David is just a kid. David must have looked quite a sight wearing armor that was waaaay too big.

·         Vs. 40 – David choses 5 smooth stones out of the brook to arm his slingshot. Did he think he might miss with the first shot? No. He knew that Goliath had 4 brothers and if he killed Goliath, he would probably have to kill them too, as they would seek to avenge Goliath’s death.

·         Vs. 46 – “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 the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beast of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all the assembly may know that the Lord save, not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” This is just so cool I had to have you read it again!

·         Vs. 49 – If you hit someone in the forehead (the only exposed part of Goliath because of his armor) with a stone, they are going to fall backward. Physics at work. But Goliath falls face down, prostrate before the Lord and His people.

·         Vs. 51 – David has no sword, so he uses Goliath’s to cut off the head of the enemy and parade it around the camp. He then presents this head to Saul.

Such an amazing story. David, of course, becomes the immediate hero in the nation of Israel and that will cause problems with Saul. But for now, a young man has restored to Israel a sense of the power of God and proof that God will champion our cause if only allowed to do so. My favorite part of the story is David’s indignation with Goliath (and I believe with his own people) over the apparent lack of respect and awe for the living God. A teenager leads an entire nation of people to remember that God alone has the power to save us and God alone will defeat our enemies – in fact, he loves to do so. Read the story again. It’s just as good the second time!