Noice Speech Series

THE VERY RELATABLE LIFE OF KING DAVID

NOICE SPEECH

1 Samuel 17:45-47

#kingdavid

INTRODUCTION… Video of Fictional Pre-Battle Speeches (custom video) (4:56)

It is one of the most cinematic forms of storytelling in war and action movies… the ‘pre-battle speech.’ It could be that morale is down and all of the dejected troops look up to their great leader to deliver some sage words of wisdom and inspire them onto the pathway to glory. It could be that the soldiers are on the verge of winning freedom or making history and the leader wants to fuel their resolve.

We, the audience, know that the hero is more than likely going to win the battle and the good guys are going to win. When we see the hero stand in front of their troops and deliver a rousing speech, it gets our blood pumping and we root for them to win. That is fiction. In real life, there’s no speech powerful enough to miraculously change troops’ minds or make them fight harder or bring about some magic on the battlefield. Maybe. Real life speeches can be quite powerful and moving and motivating. There is power in public speaking and rhetoric and leadership charisma.

The passage that we are going to focus on today is such a rousing blood-pumping speech. It is not a fictional speech, but an actual exchange between the hero of the story and the enemy of the story. It is a speech said loud and proud that others would overhear and be encouraged.

CONTEXT OF THE SPEECH (VERSES 1-44)

The speech happens in 1 Samuel 17. If we were watching these chapters in David’s life as a video, we might notice the time stamp a little off. Some of the details in the chapter, to me, put the events of chapter 17 in the middle of chapter 16 somewhere between verses 13 and 14. It is a fleshing out of David which might have a note on screen, ‘a little bit of time before this.’ 1 Samuel 17 is a whole complete event in David’s life and I can imagine not wanting to chop up chapter 16 to make it fit.

Anyway, 1 Samuel 17 opens with Israel at war. They are at war with the Philistines. The Philistines were non-God believing people that lived on the coast in fortified cities and would come inland and harass Israel. The passage describes the armies lining up for battle and exchanging curses and taunts as part of the pre-fighting and bloodshed. During one of the days of insults, the best warrior of the Philistines, named Goliath, presented himself and issued a challenge. The challenge was that he would fight a warrior from Israel and the winner would win the whole battle and the victor would be decided.

The Bible describes Goliath, the Philistine champion, in terms that we think are fiction.

READ 1 SAMUEL 17:4-7 (ESV)

And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him.

There are several things to note about Goliath based on the passage. The measurements and such are different, so I did some conversions for us. Goliath was 9 feet tall. The bronze mail armor he wore weighed 125 pounds. The size of his spear was about 2 inches in diameter and probably about 10 feet long. The spear head weighed 16 pounds. Goliath was a giant of a man. Super tall people are possible… Sun Mingming from China born in 1983 is 7 feet 9 inches tall.

What I would also like to point out to you is that Goliath is not an anomaly. He comes from a family and an area with tall giant men. 2 Samuel 21 describes Ishbi-benob (21:16) who had a giant sword and spear. We have a different giant ‘Goliath’ mentioned in 2 Samuel 21:19. Verse 20 tells us about a giant man with “six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.” The area of Gath where Goliath was from was known for producing giant warriors good with spears. In a different passage in Deuteronomy 3:11, Og King of Bashan had a bed that was 13 feet long so he was probably about the same size as Goliath. The Goliath facing David was one of many.