March 3, 2017
I Samuel 17:10, 42-46
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
Goliath was a big man. According to I Samuel 17:4 his “…height was six cubit and a span…” – about 9 feet, eight inches tall! Some scholars think he was the last of the giants of Genesis 6:4 – the offspring of angels and human women, called in Hebrew, “nephilim”. But Goliath was a dwarf compared to David! And our featured Scripture of I Samuel 17:10, 42, 43, 45, and 46 shows us why he was a dwarf! (The Scripture here is condensed to save space):
…[Goliath] said, ‘I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that
we may fight together’….when the Philistine…saw David, he disdained
him….And…cursed David by his gods….And…said… ‘Come to me, and I
will give your flesh to the bird…and beasts….Then David said to the Phil-
istine, ‘You come to me with a sword…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. This day the LORD will deliver you…and the camp
of the Philistines…into my hand….’
Goliath, the giant versus David, the small teenager! But something reversed that lop-sided comparison! What was it? It was David’s trust in the LORD God of Israel! That there is only one true God is affirmed morning and evening by Orthodox Jews when they recite the Shema, from Deuteronomy 6:4 through 6:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your might. And these words which I command you today shall be in
your heart….
According to the Bible, while “…there are many gods and many lords…” (I Corinthians 8:5), “…there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” (I Timothy 2:5). So while the Philistine cursed David by his gods, David was trusting in LORD God of Israel – the true God!
You know the rest of the familiar story – I Samuel 17:49-51:
…David put his hand in his [shepherd’s] bag and took out a stone; and he
slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank
into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and…ran and stood over the
Philistine, took…[the Philistine’s] sword and cut off his head….And when
the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
What can I take away from this great incident that will affect and change my life? I believe it is this: We must have confidence in our God, and verbalize that confidence and the resultant victory over what we are facing! Both of these go before the actual thing to be accomplished:
• Our confidence must be in God! David certainly voiced this confidence: “This day the LORD will deliver you…and the camp of the Philistines…into my hand…” (verse 46). But two things bolstered his belief:
✞ He was familiar with the promises of God! Although David did not have the finished canon of Scripture we have today, he had at least the first five – perhaps up to eight – books of the Bible. For instance, it says this in Leviticus 26:7 and 8:
You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before
you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall
put ten thousand to flight: your enemies shall fall by the sword before
you.
And David was also familiar with the heros of the past who also trusted in such promises. Gideon was one of them – and in Judges chapter 8 is the record of how Gideon defeated a vast army of Midianites and Amalekites with an army of just 300 men! How did he do that? He put his faith in the promises and power of God!
✞ David also had successfully put these promises of God to the test before! Yes, he was only a shepherd guarding his father’s sheep. But this was the testimony of this young shepherd to King Saul in I Samuel 17:34 through 36:
Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a
bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and
stuck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it rose
against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your
servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Phil-
istine will be like one of them….
• We are to verbalize our confidence in God! David certainly did! I am thinking of three Scriptures that are certainly worth memorizing and verbalizing as we confront what we are to battle:
✞ I John 4:4 – “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them [false prophets, evil spirits, even antichrists], because He who is in you [the Holy Spirit] is greater than he who is in the world [Satan].”
✞ Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
✞ I Corinthians 15:57 – “…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So go out and be a David! Anything you then confront will be a dwarf in comparison to God!