I guess this would be one of the best known, if not THE best known story in the Bible. In fact it’s so well known that David has become a metaphor for the victorious underdog. He’s the archetypal cutter down of tall poppies. The one who can overcome the greatest odds to win through to victory. But of course the trouble with such an archetype is that it actually misses the essential facts of the story. As we’ll see as we go through the story it isn’t anything to do with David that brings about this victory. He’s simply a man of faith who believes intrinsically in the God he worships and trusts him to act.
Although it seems that David is now moving to centre stage to replace Saul as the focus of God’s plans for his people, the reality is that it’s actually God who holds the central place in the drama that’s been and continues to unfold before us.
In fact we need to go back to ch16:13 to discover the source of David’s success: "the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward." As we saw with Saul, the motivating and enabling power for everything that David accomplishes is the Spirit of God. Provided that David remains faithful in following the Lord, God will bring him success as king. God is at work as David comes to prominence as the one who will lead his people to finish the conquest of the land.
Now before we think about David and Goliath we should first look at the end of ch 16 because here we’re introduced a little more to David. First though, we discover something that’s both surprising and a little disturbing. The section begins with the statement that the Spirit of God has departed from Saul. The effect of God’s anointing moving to David from Saul, is that God no longer empowers Saul for the kingship. In fact the opposite is the case. Saul is now afflicted by an evil spirit, sent, you’ll notice, not by Satan, but by the Lord. Here’s a surprising thing. You may have thought that evil spirits were the sign of Satan at work but here we discover that God is in control of everything that happens in his world. Saul has rebelled against the Lord and so the Lord sends an evil spirit to torment him. But this evil spirit, whatever it is, is also the means by which David is introduced to Saul’s court.
How do you soothe someone who’s afflicted by an evil spirit? Well it seems you provide someone to play music to help them relax, to soothe them. And so we discover that David is a gifted musician as well as being handsome. And he’s a man of valour. What a combination! He’s both a man of culture and a man of action. And he’s someone who has a good presence. When he walks into the room, people look up, take notice. He’s the sort of man that others follow. When he speaks to you, you feel good, you’re glad that he’s noticed you. So much so that when Saul meets him and gets to know him he’s pleased with him. In fact we’re told that he loved him greatly, and David became his armor-bearer.
But there’s something else that strikes you about this small episode in the life of Saul and David. The passage both starts and finishes with the reference to the evil spirit. And so we need to think a bit more about what’s going on here. You know, some people say, well, Saul’s suffering from depression and David comes along and sings to him and that lifts the depression. But that isn’t what the passage says. What it says is that when David played, the evil spirit would depart from him.
It’s almost as if the evil spirit is driven away by the Spirit of God, within David, who inspires, not just his military success, but also his musical gifts. Saul has lost contact with God’s Spirit until David comes and brings the Spirit close again.
There’s an incident recorded early in Mark’s gospel where a man with an unclean spirit encounters Jesus. Listen to what happens: "23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. (Mark 1:22-26 NRSV) The unclean spirit within the man recognised the presence of God in the person of Jesus and was afraid. And perhaps the same thing was happening when David sat down to play for Saul. The evil spirit within Saul couldn’t stand the presence of God in David and so it departed.
But now we come to the encounter with Goliath. Now I have to say that these two accounts don’t seem to run together as a sequential record. It’s as though the account of the evil spirit has been added in to fill out the full relationship between Saul and David at some later date and they weren’t quite sure where to put it.
But now we come to one of the greatest challenges of Saul’s reign. The Philistines have found themselves a champion. He’s nine foot tall and six foot across. He’s Arny Schwarzenegger and a half. His armour alone weighs nearly 60kg. Now I can tell you. I’ve lifted that sort of weight at the gym, doing shoulder squats but there’s no way I’d be walking around with it on my shoulders! But this guy wears it like a jacket. What’s more he’s tough. He’s a hardened warrior. He’s been fighting battles since he was a teenager.
So when he challenges the Israelites to send out their best fighter to a one-on-one fight to see who’s the strongest, the whole army moves back a step in unison. No-one’s mad enough to take up this challenge. But at the same time they can’t just ignore it. Their honour as a nation is at stake.
And so the stalemate begins. Each day for a month and a half Goliath comes and delivers his challenge. And each day the Israelites become more and more dismayed and afraid.
Then into this scene comes the young and naive youngest son of Jesse. He’s sent there on an errand by his father, to take provisions to his older brothers. They’ve followed Saul, but David is left behind to tend the sheep and to go back and forth bringing supplies and possibly playing his harp for Saul.
This time, though, when he gets to the Israelite camp the army has just gone out to face the Philistines in their morning ritual of defiance. Now you can imagine David, can’t you? He’s been left behind with the sheep, but like most young boys, he really wants to be with the men fighting in the army. So what does he do? He goes to find his brothers, knowing that they’ll be somewhere near the action. And so he’s standing there talking to his brothers when Goliath appears for his daily challenge.
The men near him fill him in on what’s going on. They tell him how desperate Saul is for someone to fight Goliath and save him some face. Mind you, you may remember that Saul is the one who’s head and shoulders above the rest, so he’s probably the logical one to fight Goliath, but he has no more wish to volunteer than any of his men. Besides which, he’s the king isn’t he?
Well, David listens to the men in disbelief. He says, what’s Saul offering? All that, just to kills this uncircumcised Philistine? Doesn’t anyone understand what’s going on here?
David understands. On this side we have a Philistine. Uncircumcised is a shorthand for someone who has no relationship with the living God. Someone who relies on dumb idols. On the other side we have the armies of the living God.
A mere mortal. The living God. A bit unbalanced wouldn’t you say, if it came to a fight? Forget the fact that he’s nine foot tall and weighs 150 kg. That’s chicken feed compared to the living God who made the world and everything in it; who formed the heavens with his fingers (Ps 8:3). But why can’t anyone else see it? Is it just that David’s naive? That he hasn’t experienced enough of this world to see that there’s more to the situation than that. Or is it that the army and Saul, in particular, have forgotten, or perhaps never really realised, the power of the God they supposedly worship.
Well, David hasn’t. He’s lived with the living God all his life. He’s sat out on the hills, watching the sheep, looking up at the sky reflecting on the wonder of God’s creation. He’s sought God’s help time and time again when he’s been faced with wild animals, lions and bears, who have threatened his sheep. And he’s seen the way God has protected him and given him victory over those wild animals. So he looks across the valley at this giant of a Philistine and he sees just another man who opposes God and who’ll die at God’s hand in the end.
And so he’s brought to Saul, who decks him out in his own armour. Well, you can imagine how that looks. Saul’s 7 foot tall remember. And no doubt his armour feels as heavy to David as Goliath’s would have. So David takes it off and sets out with just his ordinary clothes and a staff and a sling.
Goliath is understandably amused when he sees this young boy approaching. In fact he laughs at David coming at him with a stick as though he were a dog. But he’s miscalculated. David isn’t coming against him armed with just a stick; not even with a sling. He’s coming armed with the power of God. He says: 45"You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." You can almost feel sorry for Goliath can’t you? He doesn’t stand a chance. Do you remember that scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when Indiana Jones meets this huge Arab wielding an even huger sword. He takes a step back at first, then he pulls out a gun and shoots him. Well, it’s a bit like that isn’t it? Goliath is outgunned and outclassed. And to make it clear what’s going on here he adds: "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s and he will give you into our hand." And of course we know how the story ends.
But it’s amazing how hard we find it to learn from history. You know the saying: "This is the one thing we learn from history: that we never learn from history." Sadly it’s as true for God’s people as it is for the general populace. What’s the point of this story of David and Goliath? It isn’t that little people can do great things if only they’ll try. It isn’t that strong people can be overcome by weaker people who put their mind to it or who give it their all.
No it’s this: "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." That the God of Israel is the true and living God. And it’s this: "47and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and it’s he who gives the victory."
Here is the hardest lesson for us to learn still. It’s God who gives the victory, not their skill with sword and spear, not our skill with word and media presentation. Who is it who will help us achieve our aims as a church? How are we going to win hearts for Christ? How are we going to convince people who are quite happy, thank you very much, that their lifestyle has a use-by date; that there will come a day when God will ask them to answer for the way they’ve responded to his Son, let alone the way they’ve obeyed his commandments? How are we going to grow a church through conversions? How are we going to help people grow in their faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Only by this means: by relying on the God of Israel, on the true and living God. He’s the one who brings victory. He’s the one who saves, not by sword or spear, but by his word proclaimed in the gospel, by his Spirit who fills each one of us just as he filled David. So that when we come near to tell people about Jesus their spirits are touched by his presence. Our God is a great and mighty God. We fight the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of this age, but we do it in his strength, knowing that he will bring the victory and that his word will not return to him empty.
Let’s then be confident in fighting the battles we have to face as Christians in proclaiming the gospel wherever we are, knowing that God is with us fighting alongside us, bringing people to salvation through the words we proclaim.
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