Facing the Giant
Today I want to take the time to cover a small piece of history. As I read this it became clear to me that this battle is still being fought today by many, and lost as well. I am not talking about a physical fight, but rather a spiritual one. Today we are going to be reading from 1 Samuel 17. I will not read the entire chapter for you today, but I encourage you to do so at your leisure. We are going to jump around a little, but I am sure that all of us here have heard this piece of history, I am talking about David and Goliath. Lets turn to the word of God to begin.
1 Samuel 17:1-3 - Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
I want us to examine this particular section here. There is something here that is very evident and that is that the Philistines were a powerful invading force. They had placed their armies in the land of Judah. They had absolutely no right to be there, this was the land of Israel, this was the land that belonged to the people of God. The same occurs to us today. We need to realize that this is true of all these invaders in our life. I am talking about all these things that prevent us from living in peace, prevents us from loving our brothers, prevents us from walking in a true Christian manner. These things have no right to be there, they have no power to be there. I am talking to you about illnesses, jealousy, anger, resentment, envy, poverty, depression, in fact the armies of the enemy are so vast that it would be impossible to name them all. They may camp there for a short period of time, but the land does not belong to them. We do not belong to them, we belong to God and it's God's intention that they be driven out.
1 Samuel 17:4-7 - And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
Here comes the bad guy. We see here that the champion came out to taunt and intimidate the people of God. We see here that the description of this guy is six cubits and a span, but what does that mean? Well, a cubit is approximately 18 inches, so that means that when we convert it, this guy was over nine feet tall. Not only that, but he must have been very strong because he was carrying quite a bit of armor. His armor alone weighed about 125 pounds. His spear about 15 pounds. He really frightened the army of Israel. I do not know about all of you here, but I would be very impressed to see someone like that also. Does this sound familiar? Often times we face these giants in our life and they appear to be absolutely unconquerable. They taunt us, challenge us, assail us. We go out to fight them and we are defeated over and over again, until finally we lose the heart to fight.
1 Samuel 17:8-11 - And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
Can you imagine what this must have sounded like to the army of Israel? This guy flat out told them that they meant nothing, that he alone would defeat who ever they sent out. They were shaking in their boots. There was not a single man among them that would take this challenge. You see this is exactly what these giants to to us. They take away our drive, they take away our purpose, they take away the victory that Jesus gave to us on the cross. We know that we are not meant to live in poverty, we are not meant to live sad or depressed, we are not meant to live sick, we are not meant to live envious. We are meant to live in victory, we are meant t live with the peace that Jesus has given us. But in most instances we allow them to strip us of our happiness, allow them to take away our sense of manhood and womanhood. That is what had happened to Israel, and it is what happens to us. Something here that is also of the up most importance, I am talking about the issue of: master, or be mastered. You see there is no middle ground. You can't make peace with a giant, you can't make peace with the devil, it's either serve or be served; there can be no truce. What must we do? We must fight. We must defeat the giants. When we read verses 12-37 we see that finally someone had the courage to stand up to this tyrant. David, the youngest of all the brothers took the step forward.
1 Samuel 17:38-39 - And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
The king was first of all surprised to see this young man taking this on, we read that they attempted to talk him out of it. But, David had something that they lacked. David had an absolute trust and faith in God. They dressed him up with the best armor that they had. Does that sound familiar? We do the same today. When we encounter these giants we try to fight the battles by our own strength. We cover ourselves with our own armor. I am talking about willpower, stubbornness, determination. We put on this armor that does not fit. It does not fit because without God's help we can't accomplish anything. Without God's assistance we can't defeat our giants. We have to follow in David's footsteps, it is time to take off this armor that does not let us move. It is time to trust in God and his power. We know that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or of the flesh All the human ways we have of solving problems simply don't work. They don't bring the giant to his knees. God has another way, a way described in:
1 Samuel 17:40 - And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
When we started we saw that the giant had demoralized the army of Israel. He intimidated them and caused great fear in their hearts, but now things were changing. When we read verses 41-44 we see that now it was the giant who had been demoralized. We see that now it was the giant who was insulted. After all, how could they send just a boy to do a man's' job. They not only sent a boy, but they had sent him out with just a pastor's staff and a sling. He had no armor, no sword, no shield. But you see the giant did not realize that David had no need for any of these things. David had the most powerful weapon in all the world, David had the anointing from God. The giant attempted to insult David, attempted to intimidate him, but David replied:
1 Samuel 17:45-47 - Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands.
But the time for talking was over. There would be no negotiation, no surrender, no retreat.
1 Samuel 17:48-49 - And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
What happened is is absolutely magnificent. David did not walk or make a tactical approach to the giant, he ran toward him. He did not attempt to encircle him, he went straight forward. David had put his trust in God, his faith didn't slack. You see faith is aggressive, it is active, it is acting on the basis of confidence and trust in God to carry you through the any situation.
To conclude, I am sure some of you may be wondering why David took five stones. You might be saying: "If he had so much faith, then why not only one stone?" But you see Goliath did have four brothers and if need be, David was going to take them all. That is exactly what we must be ready to do. We may be facing a giant; problems which overwhelm us, illnesses, persons, circumstances, habits, or any others. We have to be ready to fight, we have been guaranteed the victory, all we have to do is take it. We can't allow anything or anyone to intimidate us. We must move out in opposition to the giant, whatever it is. Having confidence that God is going to bring it down, and that we are going to move right through the situation into a place of victory.
Preached February 13, 2000
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