Today we are introducing a new series entitled “Lessons for Life from the Shepherd King.” In other words, for the next 4 weeks, we’re going to be looking into a few scenes from the life of David. Poet, shepherd, musician, singer, statesman, warrior - King David is more than just one of those “stand out” OT characters. David wrote many of the Psalms – at least 73 that we know of – and much of the OT is about his life. In the NT, there’s more said about David than any other OT character.
He shines brilliantly early on in his life, and that glimmer fades too. In other words, he’s a lot like many of us. He has his admirable qualities and his dismal failures – and we get to learn about many of them beginning with I Samuel 16, (turn there) running all the way through II Samuel, and on into I Kings.
God gave us these stories for some reason. They become, for us not just interesting stories, but lessons for life. We all tend to learn and remember a lot more from stories. So, we’re going to look at 4 stories from the life of David and attempt to bridge the 3,000 yr. gap to see how they fit in our lives. This first story is one that most people have heard ever since they were children. (in ch 17)
(I. Big Problem)
Israel had a problem. 1st, it was that the Philistines were still around to trouble them. 2nd, it was that King Saul had started out as a leader who ended up not leading well. Put those together and now, more directly, Israel had a big problem in the person of Goliath of Gath.
As this ch opens up, Israel and the Philistines have set up their camps.
1 Samuel 17:1-2 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
The valley of Elah is actually a large gorge about 1 mile wide, comprised of ½ mile slopes on each side, meeting in the middle at a brook.
There are actually 2 whole armies there all set to go at it, but the Philistines make an offer that would be less work for everyone. It wasn’t too unusual to send a representative from each side to face off and settle who was the winner. Their head thug, Goliath announced: “We’ll each send one man. Whichever man wins, that’s who wins the war. Send someone to fight me.”
The HS must want us to picture Goliath, because the writer describes him in great detail. The picture he paints with words takes a wide angle lens! This guy is about 9’ 9’’. But he’s not just big. He has all the latest in fashion that a murderous giant would wear, including armor that weighed over 200 lbs! Uh Oh. Big problem. Really big problem!
How big? For 40 days straight, every day, after breakfast, Goliath steps forward and shames the entire army of Israel. And for 40 days straight, every day, after supper, Goliath does it all over again. 40 days! Every day it’s the same. (v16)
Unless something changed, who knows how long this would go on? Maybe they were hoping Goliath would eventually die of old age or something! Israel had a big problem – a 10’ problem.
We aren’t fighting Philistines, so we need to ask: What’s your 10’ problem this morning? All of us have them. We might call them challenges, problems, frustrations, or, more optimistically, opportunities for development! Everyone has some at least, and among those there’s one that each of us can say this morning, right now, is my life’s greatest challenge. What is it? What is the thing that defies you, scares you, pushes you around, steals your joy, hinders you from moving ahead, discourages you, makes you feel out of control? Maybe it has been around most of your life. Maybe it just showed itself in the last 40 days. Maybe it’s a person. Maybe it’s some physical challenge. Maybe it’s a harmful habit like smoking. Maybe it’s a temptation that keeps ruling you like overeating, pride, laziness, bitterness, or lust. You have one – at least one - and I want you to dwell on it a little today. In fact, I want you to look at it in detail just like the shaking Israelites could probably detail how Goliath looked to them. Let’s call it your 10’ challenge.
What’s it doing to you? How has it or is it affecting your life? What’s it doing to your family? What’s it doing to your relationship with God? Where is it keeping you from going? What does it or has it cost you? Now, if any of that makes you uncomfortable, you can relate to the armies of Israel. What we’re doing by asking questions like that is called “dealing with it.”
The Israelites kept putting off dealing with their big problem. We all have a tendency to do that. That’s why management experts tell us that it’s best to put our most challenging, most undesirable task first, and get it done. In other words Deal With It!
-For 40 days, the soldiers of Israel were getting all dressed for war, as if they were going to fight.
(v20) [David] reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.
For 40 days they were doing this, acting like they expected something to be different each day. 40 days, 2X a day, same thing. I wonder, what did they do all day between times? Polish armor? Do pushups? Have seminars? Whatever it was, they were putting off dealing with the problem, and it wasn’t going away. Someone needed to show up with fresh perspective and say, “Hello? Has anyone noticed what’s going on here?”
It’s time to stop putting off confronting your 10’ challenge. You work on other stuff; you deal with day-to-day life, and every morning, when you get up, there it is, just like it was before: your 10’ challenge. How come? I’m going to guess that just like the Israelites you’re afraid to confront it.
Have you ever thought through how much the tone of our lives is shaped by our fears?
Ill – I remember when Fear Factor was introduced. I only saw that it involved 3 people and causing them to confront their worst fears. One obviously was of snakes, and another was of water. And these people, in the course of the show, are draped with a boa constrictor and another is submerged in a tank of water. I guess the point is for them to successfully face their greatest fears. Hmmmmmmmmm.
I wonder – what in your life today would change if you get past your fear of confronting your 10’ challenge? What could happen? What would you do today if you weren’t intimidated by your greatest challenge?
(II. Little Guy)
Along with the story of a big challenge there’s a little guy. Even if it weren’t a true story, it would still be great. The fact that this all really happened makes it even more exciting.
Enter David. You already know the story. He’s just a visitor bringing some cheese and bread from home for his brothers. He’s looking at the same Goliath everyone else has been seeing for 40 days now. But what is it that makes David different?
1. David stepped in to face a challenge where no one else was brave enough to do it.
While every soldier in the army of Israel was standing around waiting to see who else would do it, David saw an opportunity.
v26 David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" The answer is in the verse just before it…
v25 Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel
Not a bad deal – great wealth, lifetime exemption from income tax. The daughter part of the deal turns out to be kind of a gyp, but all in all, it’s pretty enticing.
David saw the opportunity. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Several people have said it different ways, but I’m going to repeat it anyway: The armies of Israel saw a target that was too big to shoot at. David saw a target that was too big to miss!
Do you think the Lord could use people like that today?
Someone to lead the charge up the hill? Someone willing to sign his name at the bottom of the paper? Someone with the nerve to step up and say, “Hey, the emperor has no clothes on!” Someone who will “Make It Happen!” Could God use someone like that today? Sure He could! Sure He will. And maybe that’s you after you take this close look at David this morning.
David saw the 10’ challenge and faced it even though no one else was brave enough.
2. David chose his battles wisely
v28 When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."
Eliab is the oldest of 8 sons. Maybe he doesn’t like little brother seeing what a chicken he’s being. Imagine, along with Eliab, the report that David is going to take back to their father Jesse: “Well son, how are your brothers doing? How many of the enemy have they killed? Have they won any medals for distinguished service? Have they received any promotions?” “Well, Dad, actually no. No one has even shot an arrow. The whole army’s being held at bay by one man.”
So, Eliab, who’s already a pretty frustrated man, takes out his frustration on his little brother.
But I want you to notice David’s response:
v29 "Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?" He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
David refuses to get caught up in a squabble with his disgruntled brother. He doesn’t give his energy to a lesser cause.
Satan is good at trapping us in this. He does it to me. Does he do it to you? Out there in front is the big challenge – the one that needs to be dealt with in life – the real battle of consequence. And on the way to it, some little skirmish takes over our attention: car trouble; a virus; a computer virus; a person with a bad attitude; an interest rate increase; you name it. We can choose to let those take away our attention from what matters, or we can do what David did: just go on.
One reason David was able to handle the 10’ challenge was because he chose his battles wisely.
3. David didn’t focus on externals
When it comes to 10’ challenges, this is crucial.
Paul said,
2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.
Where had David learned such a thing, when everyone else around him hadn’t?
a. He remembered how God had helped him in the past:
1 Samuel 17:34-37 David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
In other words, David had taken on some pretty hairy situations in the past. God had helped him then. He wouldn’t be too surprised if God would help him again.
b. Perhaps he remembered God’s way of looking at situations
Not too long before, God had helped Samuel the prophet realize that externals weren’t as important as a person’s heart. The result was David being chosen to be Israel’s next king over all 7 of his more likely-looking older brothers.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
God doesn’t get caught up on the externals, like a person’s appearance or the fact that he’s 9’ 9” and weighs as much as a Sumo wrestler. God sees deeper into people and into situations.
King Saul focused on the externals. That just proves his failure as a leader all the more, because Saul was probably one of the better qualified men to face Goliath. Instead, he’s hanging out in his tent. So, when David says he’ll go and take on Goliath, Saul gears him up with a soldier’s armor.
(vv38-39). This scene is almost humorous. It reminds me of the days when my kids were 2-3 years old – Jenni would go get some of her mothers shoes out of her closet and try to walk around in them. Andy did the same thing with my shoes – still does! It must have looked just as awkward as David tried to walk around wearing armor. No way would it have worked.
Maybe one reason you haven’t faced your 10’ challenge is because you’ve wanted to use someone else’s armor. “Maybe if I get my hair done like Dennis Rodman I’ll have game!” “Maybe if I eat Mexican food I’ll sing like Ricky Martin.”
Churches fall into this trap all the time. “What are the other churches doing?” or “We went to a seminar and here’s what that really big church is doing. Let’s do that!”
Too often we get heroes and try to make their armor be the thing that does it for us instead of focusing on what we really need. We need the Lord to be our strength.
Being all alone and having to take on a bear and a lion has done something to David: he has learned that his ability to overcome big challenges didn’t come from armor and big weapons. It came from God taking care of him. His lack of personal ability was only going to make God look even better.
When he hollered out across the Valley of Elah to Goliath, he said,
1 Samuel 17:47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands.
Listen, little person, your challenge is bigger than you are. That doesn’t matter. More than once, God has used a little person to drop a pretty big challenge to the ground.
(III. Big Victory)
Israel needed this victory.
Something was wrong, that they would allow one man to stupefy the whole army.
Actually, Saul was the most likely candidate for the job, but his leadership had failed by this time in his life. Not only did he not lead out, he instead substituted some extrinsic motivation to try to help. Even though he didn’t have much confidence in David, he sent armor in place of himself.
The whole army was held back. If nothing else, this story should serve as a wake-up call to leaders of all kinds: the army will never rise above its leaders.
So, David is a leader. His courage encouraged those who needed it. Imagine how sheepish (pun intended) these soldiers felt as a shepherd boy went on to whip Goliath with his sling! Where are Eliab and his other brothers Abinadab and Shammah?
I can just picture them, holding back with everyone else and saying, “We’re right behind you, David!” Right.
For 40 days, Goliath had been coming out and making his threat. He didn’t now that, as he got up on day 41 it would be his last. As you know, David dropped him with one well-placed sling stone. The Philistine soldiers are still picking their jaws up off the ground when v52 happens:
v52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.
The victory wasn’t just David’s. It has a way of spreading. Suddenly, everyone else was realizing, “Hey, we can do this! They are just regular guys!”
So, the last thing we need to take out of this story is a
IV. Big Lesson
Whatever your big challenge, there’s a big lesson in this story about a big Philistine and a little shepherd: God’s help will enable us to conquer our greatest challenge in the way God wants us to.
Israel had to have learned it that day. The news of what the little shepherd did with God’s help spread as fast as a virus at preschool. Maybe this big lesson spread with it.
Conclusion:
Actually, our first and greatest challenge is the problem of sin in our lives. Many don’t even realize it. It’s big enough that it will keep you out of heaven; big enough that all other concerns shrink in comparison when you see what it will cost you.
It’s the biggest giant you need to take down today. There are probably a lot of people in your world just standing around convinced it can’t be beaten. And just like David, you have to have the Lord’s help to even think of pulling it off. That battle belongs to the Lord.
Just like David, God will help you to conquer your biggest problem. You need Him.
