Will you play a little game with me? I call it “Declare the Pair.” If I say, “bacon” I want you to declare its pair or partner. So in the case of bacon you might say “eggs.” Bacon and eggs are a recognized pair on any breakfast table. What about these? “Ketchup and _________ (mustard).” “Peaches and _______ (cream).” “Salt and ______ (pepper).” “Adam and _______ (Eve).” “David and ________ (Goliath).”
I want you to consider more closely that last pair: David and Goliath. How is that pair different from the other pairs we listed? All the other pairs are complementary. David and Goliath, however, were adversaries, so why do we list them as a pair? As we continue our sermon series entitled “Agents of Grace” we’ll learn how God used an enemy like Goliath to sculpt David into the person he wanted him to be. We’ll also see how God uses the Goliaths in your life to sculpt you.
Consider David’s life before he met Goliath. He had already been anointed to be the next king of Israel, but David was still an apple-cheeked, peach-fuzzed teenager living at home with Mom and Dad. Even Eddie, Jordan, Michael, Chris, Shannon, and Trace are probably all older than David was. Can you imagine one of our congregation’s young men serving as future Prime Minister? I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, it just seems…well hard to picture at this point in their lives.
Likewise it must have been hard for people to imagine the teenager David being king one day. Then again, I wonder how many people even knew that he had been anointed king. Even when David stepped up to fight Goliath, King Saul asked his general Abner where David was from. Abner had no idea.
Even those who knew about David’s anointing, like his own brothers, seemed to find it hard to believe that David would be king. When David came to check on his brothers serving in the army, Eliab, the oldest brother, chastised David for hanging around and asking questions about Goliath. Eliab told David to go back to tending the sheep – implying that’s all he was good for anyway.
But David wouldn’t remain unknown for long. God would use the showdown with Goliath to make David a household name overnight. Yes, God would use Goliath as an agent of grace to make David famous! That’s not to suggest that Goliath was some fall guy—a pawn doomed to destruction. Although Goliath was a Philistine, this didn’t mean he was predestined to remain an enemy of God. No, there would be Philistine believers, but Goliath was not among them. He rejected anything he learned about the God of Israel and continued to worship and promote the false gods of the Philistines. In fact he taunted the Israelites in the name of his Philistine gods, and in so doing was making the point that he thought little of the God of Israel.
That’s what makes King Saul’s cowardliness so disappointing. Whenever Goliath came out to challenge the Israelites, Saul was just as afraid as his soldiers. But if anyone should have been willing to fight Goliath it should have been Saul. After all, we’re told that he was a head taller than any of his fellow Israelites.
But it doesn’t seem that Saul thought the true God would help him defend his honor. Contrast that to David’s reaction when he heard Goliath’s taunting. He said, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 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” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
From those words it’s clear that David wasn’t a naïve little boy who thought that a fight with Goliath would be like a playground scrum with the boys back home. David knew what he was getting into. When King Saul tried to dissuade him, pointing out not only Goliath’s size but also his experience as a soldier, David recounted how he had killed lion and bear that had attacked his father’s flock. David knew that it had been God who had given him the victory then, and David was convinced that the living God would continue to be with him as he faced down Goliath the blasphemer.
You know the outcome of the showdown. David defeated Goliath with a well-aimed stone to the giant’s forehead. The result was that the Philistines fled as the emboldened Israelites pursued them. David became an instant celebrity and he would become one of Saul’s regular commanders through whom God continued to win victories. When then time would come for David to take over as king, the people would know that their future was in good hands, after all, God’s chosen replacement for Saul was none other than the Goliath-slayer.
But what does David’s experience with Goliath have to do with us? First let me make it clear that God has never promised to make any of us famous like he did David. David had a special role to play in salvation history. He would not only be an important king, he was also going to be a prophet. Therefore God wanted David to be someone that others would look up to and be eager to listen to—just as people today are more apt to listen to what a celebrity has to say than some average Joe.
So am I saying that only famous people are “useful” to God? No. We are each “useful” in our own way, famous or not. The Apostle Paul put that truth like this. He said that we’re all members of one body, but we’re not all the same body part. Many of us might be ankle-bones. We’re hidden from sight most of the time and don’t draw a lot of attention, but the work we do as father and mother, as brother and sister, as aunt and uncle, or as grandpa and grandma is indispensable to others.
But yes, God can and does put us in situations through which we can for a time influence more people than we could before. Think of David again. How many of his psalms would people have paid attention to if he hadn’t been a famous Israelite king? Likewise God may use your talent as a musician, an athlete, an artist, or a writer to reach many people one day. But take a cue from David. He didn’t go looking for fame. He didn’t rub his hands together when he heard Goliath’s taunts and thought that this was his big break. He simply saw a need: someone had to stand up to that blasphemer! David was just being a faithful believer, and God chose to use that occasion to catapult David into fame.
So yes, go ahead and work hard to develop whatever talent God has given to you, but not so that you would become rich and famous. Develop and use that talent to God’s glory. If God wants to give you fame and riches as a result, he’ll take care of that. And if he does, don’t forget the awesome responsibility you will have been given. If people know that you’re a Christian, and I hope they would, they’re going to be watching closely the way that you live and what you do with your fame and your wealth.
But God could also use a Goliath-type encounter to catapult you to fame. It might be an accident or sickness that you survive and now have a unique perspective from which to encourage others who are undergoing the same challenge. Or God may put you in a situation where you boldly defend the faith—perhaps as it pertains to what God says about same-sex relationships or creation. He may use something like that to put you in the public eye. And if he does, it’s always for his glory, not yours. Remember that!
Then again, God may let you face a hundred Goliaths and none of those experiences make you famous. Instead they only make you feel as if God has forgotten about you. What then? The Old Testament believer Job experienced such a period in his life didn’t he? He lost his possessions, his children, and finally his health. Yet he confessed about God: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15a). Was Job just a little deranged? I mean why would you trust in someone who seemed to enjoy making your life miserable?
Well for starters, it wasn’t God making Job’s life miserable; it was Satan. And sure, God had allowed it, but he had done so that good would come out of it—like giving us modern-day believers the insight to see that even when Satan hounds us, God always sets the limits of what he can do. Anyway, Jesus is God’s own guarantee that he will never abandon us. When Jesus gave up his life on the cross, he did that to forgive sins and rescue every sinner from a certain and eternal future in hell. If he fought for us to the point of giving up his own life, will there be anything else we need that he won’t also give to us? Will he suddenly abandon us when we’re facing chemo, or another lonely night without family, or when we wrestle with thoughts of hurting ourselves? Friends, as far as God is concerned, you’re not like a free t-shirt you get at an Eskimo’s game. Should you ruin such a t-shirt it’s not a big deal. It was a freebie anyway. But that isn’t the way God thinks about you. You’re not a “freebie” that he acquired by accident. No, God intentionally purchased you at great cost when he shed his Son’s blood on the cross. So do not lose heart when you’re facing a giant. Your Lord will fight for you, even as he fought for David when he faced Goliath.
Yes, David and Goliath. The two names go together like bacon and eggs. That’s strange when you consider how the two were enemies. But they go together because of what God did to Goliath through David. You may never wish for words like “cancer,” or “financial ruin” to be linked to your name, but if they should be, trust that God will use those giants as agents of his grace. He may even use them to catapult you to fame! Whatever he does, trust that it will always be to his glory, and therefore to your benefit, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Why was it hard for many to imagine David as king one day?
Agree or disagree and explain. The paralyzing fear that King Saul and the Israelites felt when faced by the nine-foot giant Goliath was only normal.
God used Goliath to make David famous. Should God choose to make you famous one day, what truths will you want to keep in mind as a Christian?
The sermon stated that God doesn’t think of us as freebies, like a t-shirt you get at an Eskimo’s game. So how does God think of us? How do you know?
