Overcoming Giants Of Life Series

Introduction:

Some background setting for the time and history leading up to this event:

We learned from the book of Ruth that the period of Israel’s history before the time of the Kings was a very dark point. There was no law and order. Every man did that which was right in their own eyes. The nation lived and repeated a seemingly endless cycle of wandering from God, receiving God’s judgment, crying out to God, God sending a deliver, they would live for God as long as the deliver was alive; and once the deliverer died, the would repeat the cycle again. Before we get to critical and say things like “How dense were they?” or “How could they not see that one coming?”, we need to remember that often do the very same thing in our lives in dealing with sin.

If we look a bit closer, the history of this point in Israel’s life goes much further back than just the lives of Samuel, Saul, and David. Let’s take a brief trip back and see where many of these problems started. Boiling it down to the core issue, we see a very real illustration of the different between God’s perfect will and God’s permissible will. It all started back in Genesis 29:10-21;25-26;30-31;35. We can see in these passages that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Rachel was his choice for a wife; however, the more you study Scripture, it is Leah who God notices, blesses, leaves her father and his gods (Genesis 31:19), and eventually is the one that Jacob requests to be buried with. (Genesis 50:31) It is through Leah that we get the Messiah. It is through Leah that we get King David, God’s choice for Israel; however, it is through Rachel that we get King Saul, man’s choice for Israel!

After going through the cycle of lawlessness, judgment and deliverance, Israel had enough. Once again, they took their eyes off God and places them upon the other nations. Interesting fact is had they obeyed God in the first place and destroyed all the people of the promise land, there would have been no other nations to put their eyes on! Seeing these other nations operate relatively peacefully under a Kings rule, Israel decided that they know wanted a visible king to rule over them and no longer be under a complete Theocracy. God through Samuel warned them that having a king would come with a cost (1 Samuel 8:6-22). Despite the cost of having a King, Israel still wanted to be like the other nations and accepted the King and the consequences that came with having one.

At this point, Samuel anoints Saul to be King in Israel. The Bible records that he stood head and shoulders above the rest. He was a man’s man. He was the people’s choice to be King. God did use Saul in some great ways; however, Saul eventually went his own way and disobeyed God. Samuel then anointed David to be the next king because he was God’s choice. The Bible records this about David, “a man after mine own heart.” Acts 13:21-23

David did not immediately become King. He remained faithfully tending his father’s sheep. He served as a musician to the Kings. Now, in the story of our text, David was sent by his father to bring supplied to his brothers who were at war with the Philistines. At this stage, we will now enter into this account and see this morning how David overcame the Giant of Goliath. In the same way the he did, you and I can also overcome the many giants in our lives.

1. Realise the situation at hand.

Although Goliath was calling out the national of Israel, he was really standing against Israel’s God! David understood this principle.

All of the trained military men and even the King could only see the giant before them. They could not look past him. Each one had heard and seen the many miracles of their God. I am sure the accounts of life in Egypt, God’s deliverance from Pharaoh, God’s provision in the Wilderness, and all the ways he has gone before them since were known by the king and these men. Rather than looking to God for strength and help, the men were either looking to Saul for help or could not get their eyes off the giant that stood before them calling them out!

Now before we get to down on these men here, let’s take a look at what they were looking at:

Goliath’s height:

Hebrew Bible: 9’9” (6 cubits + 1 span)

Greek Old Testament: 6’9” (4c + 1s) [Not all Greek manuscripts however]

Dead Sea Scrolls (4QSam): 6’9” (4c+1s)

Josephus (Ant. 6.171): 6’9” (4c+1s)

Goliath’s armor weighed 125 (57 kg) pounds of armor and the head of his spear weighed 15 pound (6.8 kg).