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David
and Goliath
Having
discussed David's anointing, let's now move ahead to his first public
appearance. This is given in I Samuel 17, where starting from verse 1 we
read:
I Samuel 17:1-10
"Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and
were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped
between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. And Saul and the men of
Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah,
and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines
stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the
other side, with a valley between them. And a champion went out from the
camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was
six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he
was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was
five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his
legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his
spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spearhead weighted
six hundred shekels; and a shield - bearer went before him. Then he
stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, "Why
have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine,
and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him
come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we
will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then
you shall 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"
Though Israel
had many times in the past been in a war with the Philistines, this
seemed to be a different case. The reason is because instead of an
ordinary fight, the Philistines brought forth Goliath, a heavy armed man
with unusual physical abilities, who was threatening Israel, asking for
a man to fight with him. The reaction of Israel to his proposal is given
in verse 11:
I Samuel 17:11
"When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they
were dismayed and greatly afraid"
To see how far
was this reaction from what God promised in His Word for similar cases,
let's compare it with Leviticus 26:3, 7-8 and Joshua 23:9-11. So there
we read:
Leviticus 26:3, 7-8
"If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform
them, then........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"
Also
Joshua 23:9-11 tells us:
"For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong
nations; but as for you no one has been able to stand against you
to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your
God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore take
careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God."
God's promise
was that if they walked with Him, just one of them would be enough to
chase a thousand, and "a hundred shall put ten thousand to
flight". Nevertheless, what we see here is the exact opposite: one
Philistine put all Israel to flight! Fortunately, the story does not
stop here:
I Samuel 17:12, 16-23
"Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem
Judah, whose name was Jesse and who had eight sons. ....... And the
Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and
evening. Then Jesse said to his son David, "Take now for your
brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and
run to your brothers at the camp. And carry these ten cheeses to the
captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare and
bring back news of them." Now Saul and they and all the men of
Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and
took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came
to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the
battle. For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array,
army against army. And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply
keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. Then as he
talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath,
Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of Philistines; and he spoke
according to the same words. SO DAVID HEARD THEM."
David had just
arrived at the battlefield, to see his brothers. There, as he talked
with them, he saw Goliath threatening Israel for one more time. Both he
and the people of Israel heard what Goliath said. Nevertheless, they
didn't respond the same way. Verse 24 tells us:
I Samuel 17:24
"And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled
from him and were dreadfully afraid."
As it can be
seen, the people continued to react the same way as forty days earlier
i.e. fearfully. Nonetheless this was not true for David. In verses 25-26
we read:
I Samuel 17:25-26
"So the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has
come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that
the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give
him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel." Then
David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, "What shall be
done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach
from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised
Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
And the people answered him in this manner, saying, "So shall it be
done for the man who kills him."
Both David and
the people heard and saw the same things. However, their response to
them was entirely different. Thus, while the people were looking at
the problem and evaluated it according to what they saw and heard, David
was looking at the Word of God and evaluated the problem ACCORDING
TO THIS WORD. Hence, while the people wondered "who are we in
comparison to Goliath?", David's wonder was "who is Goliath in
comparison to God?". It is not therefore what we see but how we
evaluate what we see. Do we evaluate it as Israel, i.e. using our
five senses, the seeming reality, or we evaluate it as David i.e. using
the Word of God, the truth, as the standard?
The words that
David spoke made so much impression to the people that reported them to
Saul, who then sent for David:
I Samuel 17:31-37
"Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them
to Saul; and he sent for him. Then David said to Saul, "Let no
man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with
this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "You are not able to
go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a
youth, and he a man of war from his youth". But David said to Saul,
"Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion and
a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and
struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arouse
against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your
servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine
will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the
living God." Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered
me out of the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, HE WILL
DELIVERED ME FROM THE HAND OF THIS PHILISTINE." And Saul said
to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you!"
As it can be
seen, between David and Saul there was the same divergence of views that
there was between David and the people. Thus for Saul, David was unable
to fight with Goliath. The reason? The physical facts: David was only a
boy, a shepherd. How then could he have any chance against such an
experienced and heavy armed warrior as Goliath?
On the other hand, David not only believed that
he could fight against Goliath, but he was also sure that he would win
him. The reason? The power of God and the promises of His Word. How
could really Goliath have any chance against the power of God?
Therefore both David and Saul had reasons to
believe what they believed. The former had physical reasons while the
latter had spiritual reasons. The former was looking at the physical
facts (weapons, height, experience), while the latter at the spiritual
facts (promises of the Word of God). The former was trembling from fear,
while the latter was full of courage. Who of these two chose to believe
the right source of information becomes evident from the verses that
follow.
I Samuel A 17:40-51
"Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five
smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a
pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to
the Philistine. So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David,
and the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the
Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only
a youth, ruddy and good-looking. So the Philistine said to David, "Am
I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine
cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, "Come
to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts
of the field!" Then David said to the Philistine, "you come
to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a 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 into my hand, and I
will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give
the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and
the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is
a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does
not save with sword and spear; for the battle is
the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands." So it was,
when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that
David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Then David
put his hand in his 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 slink and a stone, and struck the Philistine and
killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.
Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and
drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with
it."
Goliath, the
Philistine that had made all Israel trembling for forty days, was
defeated by a young boy whose only physical weapon was ..... a sling and
five smooth stones. Nevertheless, David didn't go to this fight based on
his physical weapons. As he said to his opponent in verse 45: "YOU
come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin [physical
weapons]. BUT I come to you IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS".
Yes, Goliath was heavy armed. Yes, he was very strong. But so what? Was
he stronger than THE LORD OF HOSTS? Was he mightier than
HIM? I don't think so. The question therefore is not whether we have the
physical means to face a situation, but whether we trust THE Power, THE
Weapon, that is called THE LORD OF HOSTS. The Weapon is there
waiting for us. It was there for Israel all the days that they were
trembling from fear. However, they, instead of trusting it, were looking
for salvation through "sword and spear", and when they
couldn’t find it they were terrified. As Proverbs 18:10 tells us:
Proverbs 18:10
"The name of the Lord IS A STRONG TOWER; The righteous run to it
and are safe"
Our strong
fortress is the Lord. Only in Him there is true security. Either
therefore we go to him as David did, or we are looking somewhere else
for security, as Israel did. As Jeremiah 9:23-24 says:
Jeremiah 9:23-24
"Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the
rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in
this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these
I delight," says the Lord"
Tassos Kioulachoglou
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