Weapon Of Choice

GOLIATH

1 SAMUEL 17:8-11

(8)Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle?  Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul?  Choose a man and have him come down to me.  (9)If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”  (10)Then the Philistine said, “this day I defy the ranks of Israel!  Give me a man and let us fight each other.”  (11)On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Goliath as most of you know was a giant.  A mountain of a man and just hearing his challenge to the men of Israel made them shiver with fear.  Nobody wanted to fight him.  It even says that Saul was terrified and he was their king.  It is hard for me to imagine a man that was so frightening that an entire nation would fear him.  His challenge to them was also a threat…..He is sure that there isn’t any possible person who could defeat him and so this challenge is really more like mockery and taunts.  There is only one man that was not afraid!

DAVID

David was much different from Goliath.  He was just a shepherd boy who worked on his father’s farm and tended to his father’s sheep!

1 SAMUEL 17:12-15

(12)Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah.  Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was old and well advanced in years.  (13)Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war:  The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah.  (14)David was the youngest.  The three oldest followed Saul, (15)but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

DAVID HEARS GOLIATH’S CHALLENGE

David was just a boy.  While his three oldest brothers were off to War with Saul he kept tending to his fathers sheep.  For 40 days Goliath would stand in front of the Israelite army and shout his threats and taunts to them.  Nobody ever took him up on that challenge.  That is until one day David went to see his brothers to bring them supplies from their father and also to report back to his father how they were doing.  While David was there he heard Goliath’s challenge.  The Israelites ran in fear from Goliath’s taunting challenge and David asked what the King would offer the man that killed the giant.

1 SAMUEL 17:25-26

(25Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out?  He comes out to defy Israel.  The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him.  He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father’s family from taxes in Israel.”  (26)David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?  Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

DAVID’S FAITH

David is absolutely disgusted with the words coming out of Goliath’s mouth.  He is defying God and the people of Israel.  David is trying to encourage the men by referring to them as God’s Armies and referring to God as the Living God.  The people are hearing what David is saying and it eventually makes it’s way to King Saul and King Saul calls for David.

1 SAMUEL 17:32

(32)David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”  (33)Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”  (34)But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep.  When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, (35)I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.  When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.  (36)Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.  (37)The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”  Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”

Wow.  What amazing faith.  David has so much faith that even just a boy with no military training or anything like that he knows with out a doubt that the God will destroy Goliath and if that means that he has to go fight him himself then that is what David is willing to do.  Not only that but being so certain and so convicted to it that he was able to convince King Saul that he was the man for the job.

THE BATTLE

Before going out to fight Goliath Saul dressed David in his own tunic and gave him a shield and a sword.  David had never worn a sword before or armor or a helmet.  He never needed those things as a shepherd boy and didn’t like them and decided not to use them.  He took off all of the armor and the shield and helmet and went and picked out a few smooth stones from a stream.  With his staff in hand he went out to fight Goliath.

1 SAMUEL 17:41-50

(41)Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.  (42)He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.  (43)He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?”  And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.  (44)”Come here” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”  (45)David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  (46)This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head.  Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.  (47)All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.  (48)As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran Quickly toward the battle line to meet him.  (49)Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.  The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.  (50)So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

CONCLUSION

Did you notice that the whole time David was declaring the name of the Lord.  He was continually boasting about his God and telling everyone, including Goliath, that he wasn’t afraid.  He had so much faith that even as young and inexperienced as he was he was extremely confident in his God.  He trusted God to defeat his enemy.  He didn’t need physical armor or a shield because he was wearing the armor of the Lord Almighty and holding up his God shield.

We need to learn from David’s example.  If there is a Goliath in your life then stay strong and declare the faith you have in God every day.  Say it out loud.  Lift up your God shield and be a soldier for God.  The more you declare your faith in God the more confident you will become in that faith.  If you believe it you will see it.  Believe that God will conquer your enemies and he will.  Believe that God will fight your battles “for the battle is the LORD’s.” Find the David within yourself and try to block out your fear.  God Loves you and He is your God and nobody can stand against that.  I pray that God will help you find that soldier spirit within yourself and help you to trust Him, declare Him, and fight for Him.

This is one of my all time favorite stories in the Bible and I hope you can learn from it.  Thank you for visiting Faith4God.com.  I hope you will join us here again.  Have a great week…..God Bless You!