1 Samuel 17
Goliath Felled
Show clip from “The Bear” during break
Read 1 Samuel 17:1-54
Describe Goliath
9.5 ft tall
126 lbs of armor alone
spear like a fence post – the head alone weighed 15 lbs
modern terms – Tiananmen Square standoff
Who is your Goliath? What is it in your life that looks like it is impossible to defeat, what intimidates you morning and night? 40 mornings and 40 evenings he has come out to taunt. He mocked Israel, and he mocked God
Personal issues – addictions, behaviors, habits that you can’t get rid of?
Work related issues? – bad boss, impossible quotas, unreachable goals?
Social issues – poverty, disease, global climate change…?
Faith/church related – renewal that you would like to come. Use of your gifts – healing “big” diseases… - Cancer is a Goliath
Your Goliath is not likely a human being
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
What can we learn from David & Goliath that will help us fight our impossible battles?
Seeing with new eyes
The Men had been listening to this giant for 40 mornings and 40 evenings – and quaking in their boots. David comes along on morning 41 carrying cheese, bread and grain for his brothers. He hears the battle cry, leaves the supplies with the quarter-master and runs to the battle lines to see his brothers – “Hi, how are ya?”
That’s when Goliath shows up. The Israelite Army is terrified, but David is horrified – “how can you let this guy defy God’s people and God himself! What’s the king offering to the man who rids the world of this disgrace?”
The army saw the problem – this guy is too huge to defeat
David saw a different problem – this guy is evil and insulting
David saw the solution – take this guy out!
Often times we think that the biggest problem surrounding our Goliaths is that there is no solution. We need to ask God to help us see with new eyes and to see the problem for what it is. If your Goliath is a system that seems unchangeable, we need to take our eyes off the unchangeableness and remind ourselves of the evil of the system that God has called us to change.
We need to stop thinking about how hard it is to break an addiction and think about how the addiction is ruining our lives, and the lives of the people around us, how it ruins our relationships with people and with God!
Seeing with God’s eyes
David was able to be offended more by Goliath’s insults and blasphemy than he was terrified by his size because he saw Goliath not compared to another man, but compared to God. Compared with God, Goliath was not a giant, he was a speck of dust!
Compared with God cancer is not “the big “C”: Jesus is the big “C”!
There is no system bigger than God
There is no addiction bigger than God
There is no (insert your Goliath) bigger than God!
Nay-sayers
David wants to take Goliath out, but first he has to get past his own brothers.
Any time you try to take up an epic battle, you will have to put up with nay-sayers, and they will likely be people who are supposed to be on your side
28 Eliab, his older brother, heard David fraternizing with the men and lost his temper: "What are you doing here! Why aren’t you minding your own business, tending that scrawny flock of sheep? I know what you’re up to. You’ve come down here to see the sights, hoping for a ringside seat at a bloody battle!"
“Who do you think you are?”
There must have been some jealousy to start with – David’s big brothers were looked over to be anointed as the future king. Eliab reminds David that he is a lousy shepherd, and even questions his abilities to do that well. And then he tells him that he has impure motives for even being there.
What out – when you go up against your Goliath, you may be attacked first from where you least expect it!
All said, “who do you think you are?” is a good question to have to answer. There are times that we rush into battle with Goliaths that we were never meant to fight. David knew that this was his battle, because of his close relationship with God. If you are going to battle a Goliath, make sure that God is going with you – if he’s not, you’ll lose. David was sure that God was with him. Earlier Jonathan had entered a battle just to see if God was with him – It was a wager he was willing to take. If you’re not sure, you may want to ask yourself if you want to take the wager.
There is a problem with seeing things with fresh eyes – there will be people who will ask “who do you think you are” “you haven’t paid your dues like we have! You need to fail as much as we have before you even think of succeeding!”
Liberals choosing someone who has “paid his dues” rather than a stronger leader.
“We ain’t never done it that way before!”
David’s big talk makes it back to Saul, and Saul calls for him – Saul still sees with human eyes and says, David, you’re little, Goliath is big, you’ve never been in battle, that is all Goliath has ever done – you’ll lose.”
David proclaims how God has given him victory in the past, and how he will again.
Saul gives in – maybe he was convinced, maybe he wanted to end this stand off, and if someone was going to die, it might as well be this kid instead of one of his best warriors.
So Saul puts his own armor on David – “If you are going to do this, this is how you should do it.” “These are the methods that we have used to lose up to this point, you should use them.”
David recognizes really quickly that this is not going to work – and he respectfully gives the armor back.
If God is going to use you to defeat a Goliath – he is going to use you and your gifts, not who you or others think you should be, not someone else’s gifts. David needed a sling, not a sword.
The Enemy
So we’ve got past the friends and family, here comes Goliath
41-42 As the Philistine paced back and forth, his shield bearer in front of him, he noticed David. He took one look down on him and sneered—a mere youngster, apple-cheeked and peach-fuzzed.
43 The Philistine ridiculed David. "Am I a dog that you come after me with a stick?" And he cursed him by his gods.
44 "Come on," said the Philistine. "I’ll make roadkill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice."
Whatever our Goliath is, fear is often his greatest weapon – he asks the same questions that David’s brothers did, “who do you think you are”
It is the question that the Devil asks Jesus in his temptation – “If you really are the Son of God…”
Goliath wants to remove our confidence. Most of the time, the Devil would rather that we just walk away from the fight, defeated because we gave up, or gave in before the battle even started.
This Goliath is actually offended that they would send a boy to fight him.
45-47 David answered, "You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I’m about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!"
Goliath has vision problems as well – he only sees this boy coming out to fight him – he doesn’t see who’s behind the boy – if he did he would run screaming from the scene. This is why I showed the clip from “The Bear” at the break – I love how the little bear roars as best he can at the cougar, and it appears that his little roar drives the cat away until you pan back and see the big bear roaring behind.
This is how it is with David – he has his shepherd’s staff, five little stones and a sling. But he has the God of the universe behind him – God takes what He has given David, and puts all of his power behind that sling and stone, the sling is aimed well, the stone flies fast and straight and brings down the giant.
The great reformer, Martin Luther had his Goliath battles to fight – both against the corunpt church of the day, and against the demonic. In the midst of his great struggle he wrote “ A Mighty Fortress is Our God” The third verse especially reminds me of Goliath
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.
Victory trophies – reminders during rough times
So David runs, grabs Goliath’s own sword and cuts of his head, the Israelites chase after their enemies and rout them. David takes Goliath’s sword spear and armor home as trophies. They served as reminders to him of the victory that God gave that day.
If God has called you to battle a Goliath, and you follow his ways in the battle, you will be victorious. So find something to remind you of the victory – if you are like me, you remember your defeats just fine – you need to remind yourself of the day that particular Goliath fell. Write it in your journal – today so and so was healed when I prayed – today I stayed sober, today there was a crack in the Wall of the evil system, today so and so prayed to receive Jesus…
All through the old testament, God tells the people to put up stone to commemorate victories – we need to do the same, so that we will remember God’s victories in our lives.
And when the next Goliath comes around, we can say, “you’re pretty big, but have you seen my God?”
