Written by: Bishop Lindsay Urwin

1 Samuel 17 v 38-39
Saul put his own clothes on David. He put a bronze helmet on his head and dressed him in armor. David put on Saul’s sword and tried to walk around, but he was not used to all the armor Saul had put on him.
He said to Saul, “I can’t go in this, because I’m not used to it.” Then David took it all off. 

Notes
‘There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul’ so Israel’s king was always on the lookout for ‘strong and valiant’ warriors. Though he had been anointed King, by the time of this encounter with David, his failure to remember that he was under God’s authority, meant that the Lord ‘was sorry that he had made him King’. Saul could have lived life well but he didn’t. He made wrong choices. Maybe he didn’t notice he made God sorry.

To understand this couple of verses it’s important to have in mind God’s plot! The Lord had chosen David to be successor to Saul as King of Israel and had revealed this to the prophet Samuel. But David was to rule in a very different way to Saul. Just as the armour didn’t fit, neither would the way Saul exercised his Kingship be fit for David.

David, youngest son of Jesse and fit for looking after the sheep, found himself at the battlefront delivering supplies to his brothers. He was known to Saul as the harpist who calmed his nerves when he was stressed out. Outraged by the cheek of Goliath, the Philistine gladiator, who challenged Israel to put up a warrior against him, David presented himself to the King. He was hesitant for the victor took all, including the nation into slavery. Saul couldn’t see past the outward appearance of the boy to the inner strength of David’s heart. But it’s not the way God sees things. Check out Chapter 16 v.6-7 to see how God looks at people.

What worked for Saul wouldn’t work for David. The heavy armour held him back. Old ways are not always the best. David did well not to allow the King to impose his methods upon him.

1 Samuel 17 v 40-41
He took his stick in his hand and chose five smooth stones from a stream. He put them in his shepherd’s bag and grabbed his sling. Then he went to meet the Philistine.
At the same time, the Philistine was coming closer to David. The man who held his shield walked in front of him. 

Notes
David and Goliath is one of the best epics of the Old Testament. Might against the right. But there is more to this confrontation. David is fighting on behalf of God’s chosen people, and has been earmarked by the Lord to replace Saul as King of Israel in a new era of faithfulness and loyalty. God wants the nation, every nation, to be holy.

David has rejected Saul’s armour (see the previous verses) as inhibiting and restricting, preferring instead to go into battle against the Philistine gladiator with the weapons he used each day to protect his father’s sheep over the rugged terrain of Israel. David is wise beyond his years and despite the questioning of his wisdom by those more experienced in battle he trusts to his own judgement. It’s a risky strategy, but sometimes the right one. 

David walks out alone armed only with his sling and five stones. Goliath has his armour bearer in front carrying his shield. David has faced wild animals, but here is an ‘animal’ of a different kind. But the solid principle remains. When the enemy looms large on the horizon, go out to meet the challenge taking all your experience with you.

I’m reminded of St Paul’s words to his young sidekick Timothy, when he faced the task of evangelising in a hostile world : “Hold fast to what you have been taught and know to be true.”

1 Samuel 17 v 42-44
When Goliath looked at David and saw that he was only a boy, tanned and handsome, he looked down on David with disgust. He said, “Do you think I am a dog, that you come at me with a stick?” He used his gods’ names to curse David. He said to David, “Come here. I’ll feed your body to the birds of the air and the wild animals!”

Notes
Goliath was neither the first nor the last person to enter a battle with an arrogant overconfidence! To be fair, the odds were in his favour. David was “ruddy and handsome” so the bible says, and was well used to facing wild animals as he protected his father’s sheep, but he had no armour, no sword, just a few stones and a sling. Goliath, over eight feet tall and the gladiator of the Philistines, who had dogged the people of Israel all through King Saul’s reign, spits out insults at David through his visor. It says he ‘looked down on David’ and it was not simply from a great height, but in his mind and heart.

Again, he was not the first to overlook the strength and wisdom of young people, and assume that there was nothing to learn from a teenager. So Goliath uses his gods’ name to curse David. But his curses have no power over the boy. Ultimately his gods have no power over the God of Israel. 

On a hill in Nazareth, and easily missed on the pilgrim trail, is a chapel with a statue of Jesus who is ‘of David’s line’. It’s not a usual statue of the infant Jesus with Mary or of Jesus on the cross. It’s of Jesus the teenager. We don’t often think of the son of God with spots or the ‘Word made flesh’ with his voice breaking! Who says there’s nothing to learn from a teenager…..? 

1 Samuel 17 v 45-47
But David said to him, “You come to me using a sword and two spears. But I come to you in the name of the LORD All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel! You have spoken against him. Today the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll kill you and cut off your head. Today I’ll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals. Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel! Everyone gathered here will know the LORD does not need swords or spears to save people. The battle belongs to him, and he will hand you over to us.”

Notes
Goliath, the six cubit (very tall!) champion of the Philistines, has been spitting curses from his gods through his armour plating at the shepherd boy David (see the previous verses) who he sees as a weedy offering from their arch enemy the people of Israel. It’s a head to head encounter to decide which nation should be enslaved to the other.

David offers no curse in return. He’s not personally affronted. He has no desire to bring glory to himself, but only to the God of Israel. His anger is on behalf of his God.
If Goliath needs all his armour, and sword and spears, David comes into battle with all he needs, the ‘armour’ of faith. In the Bible, to speak or act ‘in the name’ of the Lord, is to do so with his power. There are more than two involved in this unequal clash. David says, “The battle belongs to the Lord”. 

So David entrusts the challenge to the Father. He is David’s shepherd, who guides him with ‘rod and staff’ (Psalm 23) This is what people of faith do – entrust themselves to the Lord. The Christian goes nowhere alone. The Lord is present, invisible, yet more real than anything we could see or touch or feel. David believes it. His conviction is evident. 

Perhaps David’s real strength lies in his humility, a gift worth praying for.

The gates of hell shake with fear whenever they encounter humility; when a person echoes the cry of Jesus: “I seek not my own glory!” (John 8:50)

1 Samuel 17 v 48-51
As Goliath came near to attack him, David ran quickly to meet him. He took a stone from his bag, put it into his sling, and slung it. The stone hit the Philistine and went deep into his forehead, and Goliath fell facedown on the ground.
So David defeated the Philistine with only a sling and a stone. He hit him and killed him. He did not even have a sword in his hand. Then David ran and stood beside him. He took Goliath’s sword out of its holder and killed him by cutting off his head.
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran. 

Notes
If you imagine yourself as an observer of this particular battlefield the mismatch would surely be the first thing to strike you. A young lad with a stick, a sling and a few stones pitted against a giant of a man enfolded in armour and bearing sword and shield. Try to hear the roar of the arrogant Philistines, long term enemies of the people of Israel as they cheer on their gladiator. Watch the wondering of King Saul and his army, and this brave young man, known more for his musical talents, than his prowess in battle.

There is almost an eagerness in the youth, perhaps in the main because he knows he is about the Lord’s work. That in itself always bring a sense of urgency. It matters! If you have a strong sense that God wants you for some purpose, it’s not appropriate to check if it fits in with your own plans. David is wholly available. But he is also aware that strong as Goliath may be, he cannot move quickly because of his cumbersome protection. 

David looks for Goliath’s vulnerability, and goes for it. He does not allow the odds against him to dishearten him. He slays him with a sling and just one of his five stones.

God often chooses the unexpected way to fulfil his will. David’s big heart and his availability are enough, mixed in with his wisdom and skill as a shepherd. And he trusts the Lord who has called him. Young Christians, and not just young Christians, (and bishops!) can often feel up against it, marginalized, on the losing side. 

Despite the ambiguity of the evidence, the ‘champions’ of this world will not win through. Stay cool. Don’t lose your head…like Goliath!

1 Samuel 17 v 52-54
The men of Israel and Judah shouted and chased the Philistines all the way to the entrance of the city of Gath and to the gates of Ekron.
The Philistines’ bodies lay on the Shaaraim road as far as Gath and Ekron. The Israelites returned after chasing the Philistines and robbed their camp. David took Goliath’s head to Jerusalem and put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.

Notes
David had won his victory over Goliath (see earlier verses – it’s a good read!) “in the name of the Lord of hosts.”(verse 45) It was the Lord working through David, but it needed the right attitude in the young man. God invited his co-operation. David’s hand was not forced by God. God calls us by name, and invites, even longs for our answer our willingness.

David can authentically speak and act “in the name of the Lord”. Why? Because his motives were pure; he put God in the first place, not himself; he was not distracted by other peoples’ opinions nor by the overwhelming odds. He did not spare himself. David was willing to stand alone, deliberate and resolute, and fearless. There was no hesitation in his heart.

Because David put himself at God’s disposal, all the might of God was as his disposal. The more a person is at God’s disposal, the more his Spirit can find room in his or her heart, the same Spirit that brought the World to be, inspired the prophets, overshadowed Mary and raised Jesus. 

The armies of Israel and Judah had been unable to defeat the Philistines. Saul, their leader and King, though anointed by the Lord, had lost favour with God because of his double-mindedness. He and they were not at God’s disposal. But through one young man, the victory has been won and the armies of the Philistines flee. They lose everything. 

A mighty victory, but there was to come another young man, through whom the most profound victory over evil would be won. His name was Jesus.

1 Samuel 17 v 55-58
When Saul saw David go out to meet Goliath, Saul asked Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, who is that young man’s father?”
Abner answered, “As surely as you live, my king, I don’t know.”
The king said, “Find out whose son he is.”
When David came back from killing Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul. David was still holding Goliath’s head.
Saul asked him, “Young man, who is your father?”
David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

Notes
David came from relative obscurity into great prominence. Earlier in the book of Samuel it’s made clear that he is God’s chosen man to replace the double-minded Saul as King over his people. Saul did not even know who David’s father was. It was a natural question for the King to ask of him, although perhaps a bit strange given what David held in his hand at the time! People were often described as ‘X son of…’ in the ancient near east.

Jesse was just another father with a number of sons, the youngest David. 

It’s a habit of God’s to bring people out of the shadows to serve him. Why did he choose Abraham, or Moses, or Amos? None were necessarily obvious candidates for the great tasks he called them to share. So too, perhaps supremely is the case of Mary, and Joseph the carpenter.

But Joseph was ‘of David’s line’, from the stock of Jesse and he came from Bethlehem, ‘royal David’s city’. In the last days of the Old Testament period, there was a growing expectation among the Jews, living under the shackles of Rome, that God would raise up a liberator, a new David, who would establish afresh a Kingdom for his people Israel.

God did indeed do so, but this King was more than another David. Chosen as he was, his victories were short lived. David too was unfaithful. 


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes