Understanding The Real Battle

This morning we’re going to be in 1 Samuel 17. The Lord has really been ministering to me about some things in 1 Samuel 12, 16 and 17. 1 Samuel 17 is the story of David and Goliath. But it’s really a story about how the enemy of the soul attacks the Body of Christ. We’re going to look at that record this morning and it has 58 verses. We’re going to read 50 of them.

[I am not going to include the 50 verses in this message; only those that I comment on.]

When we get to 1 Samuel 17, two things have already happened.

Number 1: King Saul has disobeyed himself out of a kingdom. And notice the words that I used. God didn’t take the kingdom away from Saul. He threw his kingdom away by how he responded to God’s will for his life and for the kingdom. You can read about it in chapter 15.

The second thing that has happened: David has been anointed king over Israel. Even though he has been anointed king, it will be another 10 or 12 years before he sits on the throne.

Now I want you to think about something. Saul knows that because of the decisions he has made, because of his blatant disobedience, none of his son will ever sit on the throne. Let that sink in ladies and gentlemen. If you think the decisions that you make only affect you – think again.

First Samuel 17 is a heart-breaking chapter. We’re going to see a group of men – soldiers – who are fearful. We’re going to see a group of men who have forgotten their covenant relationship with God. And in that covenant, God has promised to be with them in every battle.

Now I’m going to be upfront with you. As we read these verses, I am going to mispronounce some words. (Laughter)

Read verses 1 and 2 and focused on verse 3.

(3) 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.

The valley is the place where the fighting takes place. It is the lowest point between the two mountains. Think about where your battles occur, typically when you’re at your lowest point emotionally. A soldier fighting in the valley knew he may never leave it.

The enemy of the soul wants to get you in a valley, ladies and gentlemen. And he wants to keep you there to the point you that you give up. He wants you there because then you are no longer fighting for the God that you serve.

No Israelite wanted to get into the valley. Goliath was already in the valley. You can see that by their reactions to Goliath’s taunting.

Read verses 4-7.

It says Goliath was six cubits and a span tall. A cubit is about 15 inches and a span is about 9 inches. That would put him somewhere between 9 feet 9 inches tall and 11 feet 3 inches tall. And he was a warrior that weighed a solid 450 to 600 pounds. He was enormous. He was intimidating.

The coat of mail was like a metal shirt and it weighed 5000 shekels of brass or about 157 pounds. Can you imagine a person walking around with that kind of weight on his body? That was probably more than the weight of some of the soldiers in both camps.

The target, in verse 6, is a javelin and the greaves of brass covered Goliath’s thighs and legs down to the heel of his feet. And verse 7 says the head of his spear weighed 600 shekels, or 19 pounds.

Now why did I go into this type of detail? The enemy wants you to focus on what you see. The enemy of the soul wants us, the Body of Christ, to get so focused on what we see that we forget about WHO WE ARE. And that’s always going to be the battle.

In verses 5 through 7, in the natural, when Israel heard and saw Goliath they thought he was unbeatable because they knew he had prepared himself in the natural to do battle his whole life. Now listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, Goliath was oblivious to the spiritual nature of this battle.

The battles that we face as Christians, so many of us are oblivious to its underlying spiritual source. David knew this was a spiritual battle. We need to understand this too!

Let’s read verse 8. “And he (Goliath) 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.”