The Bigger The Giant The Greater The Victory

15-17 War broke out again between the Philistines and Israel. David and his men went down to fight. David became exhausted. Ishbi-Benob, a warrior descended from Rapha, with a spear weighing nearly eight pounds and outfitted in brand-new armor, announced that he’d kill David. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to the rescue, struck the Philistine, and killed him.

Then David’s men swore to him, “No more fighting on the front-lines for you! Don’t snuff out the lamp of Israel!”

18 Later there was another skirmish with the Philistines at Gob. That time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, another of the warriors descended from Rapha.

19 At yet another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaar, the weaver of Bethlehem, killed Goliath the Gittite whose spear was as big as a flagpole.

20-21 Still another fight broke out in Gath. There was a giant there with six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet—twenty-four fingers and toes! He was another of those descended from Rapha. He insulted Israel, and Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him.

22 These four were descended from Rapha in Gath. And they all were killed by David and his soldiers. The Message (MSG)

The Israelites had a constant rivalry against the Philistines, it seems that they were always at war with them. In fact, they battled against each other a total of 13 times. The 6th battle was the most famous battle because that’s when the Philistines used their number one champion by the name of Goliath. Everybody knows about Goliath, because he was a giant. We all know that he’s the one that came forward and said to the Israelites he would fight anybody one-on-one and if he lost the Philistines would become their slaves. A small, young shepherd boy named David came forth and defeated Goliath using only a sling and a stone. However, after this great battle between the Israelites and the Philistines there were 7 more battles between them. The Israelites won a few, and the Philistines also won a few.

But in our text, we are dealing the 13th and final battle. And this is the battle where the giants came back with a vengeance. What a frustration it is to have gone through a trial, and just when you think the trial is over here comes yet another trial. I know of people who suffered unemployment for a year or so, and later on a company hired them for a little while only to be laid off and pushed back into ranks of the unemployed. And for a while rather than apply for something else they decided that it would easier to just give up looking because when the giants of life make a reappearance it just looks like it is always with a vengeance trying to get you to give up.

When it comes to fighting the giants of life, we really can’t give up, because the fact is no matter what we do those ol’ giants are gonna keep coming our way until the day we die. The truth is this morning; no one will ever go through life with only one giant to fight. I don’t care how old we get; there will never be a time when we can let our guard down. Look around you this morning, and I guarantee you—you will find somebody who has been saved for many years now. But they’re still fighting giants. They may know the Word of God and they have served Him faithfully—but giants don’t care about that because they keep on coming. What I’m trying to say is that none of us are untouchable! And we will be fighting giants from here on out. We’ve all been to the place where we’ve had to deal with giants, not physical but spiritual and emotional giants; giants like worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, depression, poor health, and insecurity. A giant is anything in your life that stands between you and where God wants you to be. The truth is, the real battle is between God and Satan, because the devil has taken it up on himself to be God’s rival, and because we God’s children we have inherited this rivalry. Giants are one of the weapons in Satan’s arsenal to keep us down. And I pause to ask a question this morning: What are the giants in your life? What are the obstacles that leave you dismayed and discourage? Just take your pick, unemployment, debt, disease, depression, bills, broken relationship, and addiction? Whatever it is, you’ve been struggling with it for years & years. You’ve done everything in your power to fight it (mortgage payments and car bills and doctor bills) you’ve tried to fight it. People mistreating you, lying on you, criticizing you—you know sometimes those two-legged snakes come with the giants in order to make sure that when you are down, you stay down. You know who they are.