I Samuel
Lesson 29 - Chapter 17
We’ll pick up our study today in 1
st
Samuel chapter 17, which is essentially the world’s most
famous story of the shepherd boy David fighting and defeating the giant Philistine warrior
Goliath. And while the story itself is so memorable, legendary, and universal (and even the
term “a battle of David and Goliath” has been borrowed and used to mean a confrontation
between a heavy underdog against a seemingly invincible opponent), we need to stay focused
and continue to examine this story in the proper spiritual context. And that context is that the
first king of Israel, Saul, has been deposed by God and a new king, David, has been anointed.
Saul no longer has the Holy Spirit available to him and in fact is now permanently infected with
a spirit that causes evil. David, however, has been given the Holy Spirit (that at one time fell
upon Saul) and so is now flush with God’s immutable power, wisdom, and enlightenment. The
question for the interested reader is: will David follow the spirit and submit to God’s authority;
or will he do as Saul and succumb to temptation and attempt to rule under a different
authority.
While David versus Goliath is a battle of God’s people against heathen gentiles it’s not the
only battle that this section of 1
st
Samuel is dealing with. David versus Saul is another pivotal
confrontation and it concerns the matter of God’s righteous king versus the Anti-King who (as
of now) is illegitimately occupying the throne and is attempting to hang on to it against God’s
will in order to rule over God’s Kingdom. And so we can make an important (and perhaps
surprising) observation from this scenario: King Sha’ul shows us that the person who displays
the spirit of the Anti-King is not necessarily limited to ethnic gentiles. And this is something we
need to keep in mind as we muse and speculate in our modern era about just who the Anti-
King (the Anti-Christ) that is soon to appear on the world stage will turn out to be. Let that sink
in a bit as we move on.
To set the stage for today’s lesson we need to recognize that from a historical and spiritual
perspective God has, all along, been preparing His people for a king. Man’s nature is such
that we cannot live righteous and moral lives without a king. Humans need a strong and
authoritative hand to guide us as individuals and as nations. The Bible shows us that we’ll still
need that strong hand, totally intolerant of rebellion, even into the 1000 year Reign of Messiah.
If we but lived in proper spiritual harmony with the Father, the Heavenly King, we wouldn’t
require an earthly one as His agent; but that is not nearly the case, is it?
As with all things, God’s will and timing MUST rein supreme otherwise something that on the
surface seems right and good to our minds becomes sin. It was God’s will for Israel to
eventually have a king; but it was not God’s timing for Israel to have a king at that moment
when the leaders of Israel demanded that the great Judge and Prophet Samuel step down and
turn his God-ordained leadership over to a monarch that they found suitable. The time for a
king was indeed coming (and with God’s blessing), but that time was not yet. It was not the
divine timing when Samuel was confronted with these rebels. But the people weren’t seeking
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the Lord’s timing, were they? They were impatient and wanted a king NOW! And they wanted
a king that fit their notion of an earthly king: tall, handsome, charismatic, physically strong, and
self-willed; the kind of king that generally ruled over all the gentile nations of the earth. The
Lord gave Israel’s leaders the desire of their hearts not as a blessing but a curse; God gave
them Saul of Benjamin as their premature king. It was because the people had the wrong
attitude that they would wind up with the wrong man at the wrong time; a man with the wrong
attributes and even from the wrong tribe.
But in 1
st
Samuel 17 a corner has been turned; in Bethlehem of Judah a new king was
anointed. David possessed the attributes that God demanded of a righteous king. This new
king was anointed in God’s timing; he was the right king, at the right time, with the right
character traits, possessing the right attitude towards the Lord and he was from the right tribe
(Judah). After Saul was used by the Lord to demonstrate what the wrong king for God’s
Kingdom looked like, He would now give them the right king so that they (and we) could see
the stark difference and learn from it.
There are so many lessons in this for us to heed. One is that history progresses and that this
progression is God’s will. Times, circumstances, and cultures change and evolve, adhering to
a never ending pattern; but God never goes backwards. God did not decide (with David) to
undo the administration of His Kingdom by means of a monarchy and go back to an
administration of His Kingdom by means of Judges. He did not try to role back time and
reinstitute older and more primitive ways of civilization (which is what Islam is forever trying to
do) because even as time moves forward and societies change and advance, God’s laws and
principles stand immutable and immovable. Our obligation, then, is as Solomon stated in the
Book of Ecclesiastes
:
V
Ecclesiastes 12:13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
It matters not what age we live in, or what particular spot on this earth we reside; as His
redeemed it is only for us to scrupulously follow the ancient written Word of God, as led by the
timeless Holy Spirit of God, in order to properly apply these God-principles to whatever
contemporary stage of history that we occupy.
From David’s day forward, as ordained by divine fiat, Israel was to be ruled by a king. Our own
eternal future is as members of a Kingdom where God is the ultimate Monarch. It will be a
spiritual kingdom, retaining some semblance of physical attributes, ruled over by the
resurrected and soon-to-return God/Man, King Yeshua (as a mysterious combination of God
and God’s agent). Yet this tangible and real Kingdom of Perfection and Wholeness will exist
on planet earth. David is the precursor of the type of righteous King who will rule over us (the
Lord’s Saved) forever.
Let’s continue with our story of David and Goliath.
RE-READ 1
ST
SAMUEL CHAPTER 17: 17 – end
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The giant Philistine warrior Goliath challenged the terrified Israelites to single combat, day after
day, for 40 days. But not one of Israel’s fighters had the courage to face his fears and take up
the cause of God’s Kingdom. The 40 days is not only a literal number, it is a consistent Biblical
pattern that speaks of a time of trial or testing that is invariably followed by either divine
chastisement or deliverance. This is our clue that what is transpiring here is not simply another
of the endless battles between the armies of men, but rather is a God-ordained, God-
orchestrated event with a Godly purpose.
The Philistines were attempting to control the natural superhighway of the Valley of Elah that
connected Philistia with the hill country of Judah. If they succeeded they would have an easy
flow of troops and supplies that would enable them to subdue the southern region of the
Promised Land. Sha’ul watched from a safe distance, his top general Avner directing the
Hebrew troops that were comprised of a militia of men contributed by each of the Israelite
tribes. Jesse of Bethlehem, father of David, had sent his 3 oldest sons to join the war effort as
representatives of his family. But after all this time had passed, he was now getting concerned
for his sons and so decided to send David to gather a report.
Verse 16 once again explains that David was the family shepherd (a vocation that apparently
suited him). So when David’s father decides to send him to inquire about his brothers, David
first has to put one of his helper’s in charge of the flock. In a hindsight that can only be
obtained after the coming of Messiah, we now can see this wonderful prophetic picture here of
a faithful son (who was the earthly king) watching over not his but his father’s sheep. But
because another battle has to be fought and won, the shepherd must leave for a time but not
without equipping and entrusting a faithful helper to care for the sheep.
David loads up with food to take with him. Because Israel had no standing professional army,
and thus no armory or military infrastructure, each soldier was charged with bringing his own
weapons and supplying his own food. Verse 20 says he “got up early in the morning” to set
out for the Valley of Elah. When this rather innocuous phrase “got up early in the morning” is
used in the Bible, it is not to add color to the story; rather it is a means to show that the person
was anxious to obey and get on with the assigned task.
David arrives just as the Israelite troops were again taking up their posts for another day of
what had become a stand-off between the opposing armies. After checking in with the soldiers
in charge of the equipment, David runs to check on his brothers’ welfare. And as he is talking
with them out comes Goliath to shout his insults and challenge to the Israeli army. David
watches with interest as the men of Israel don’t move a muscle to respond. But he also
overhears a discussion whereby the men are saying that King Saul will greatly reward the man
who kills Goliath by giving that man his daughter and by exempting that man’s entire family
from ever again having to pay taxes or supplying labor or materials to the Kingdom. David can
hardly believe his ears; all someone has to do is kill this ONE man and that man will marry into
the royal family AND his entire family will have no more burdensome financial or military
obligations to the monarchy. By now he’s wondering why men aren’t lining up to take
advantage of this incredible offer! In his youthful exuberance he asks, “Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine anyway….?” Uncircumcised is meant to be an insulting epithet. He is
essentially calling him a gentile. But the point is that this Philistine was NOT one of God’s
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people; Goliath was not of the chosen race and here he was challenging God’s army. This
was incomprehensible to David that such a man would be allowed to babble on like this in such
a blasphemous manner, and not one Israelite would lift a finger to stop it.
So when David keeps on asking questions about this situation it starts to annoy his oldest
brother, Eliav. David is a mere youth, a shepherd of all things, and has only just arrived with
supplies for the soldiers. He hasn’t been stuck out here for the past several weeks. He bears
no sword or spear; he hasn’t been assigned to do battle. Eliav responds to David’s bravado
the way most older brothers would; he more or less tells him to shut up because he has no
idea what he’s talking about. Eliav tells him that it’s one thing to come and be a spectator and
quite another to participate in the battle and put your life on the line. But this doesn’t deter
David; he merely goes on and asks someone else about what King Saul promised, obviously
trying to verify if this is just a soldier’s rumor or the offer is real.
When it was becoming clear that David was seriously contemplating going out to fight Goliath,
an unidentified person went to Sha’ul and told him about it. Sha’ul summoned David and
David told the king that it was making no sense for this thing to go on and on, day after day,
and that David intended to face this giant warrior himself and put an end to it. One can only
imagine King Saul’s impulsive amusement at such a thought. David was young and had spent
his short life as a shepherd. He was standing there before the King in his shepherd’s
garments. To go out and confront this enormous Philistine, who had been trained up as a
warrior since he was a child, was foolhardy to the extreme.
Saul wasn’t worried that some shepherd boy might get himself killed; Saul was concerned that
he would look foolish by sending out this fellow who obviously wasn’t a trained soldier.
Besides the way this thing worked was that it was the King that decided who he would send as
Israel’s representative warrior because the consequences of that decision were immense.
Recall that the deal Goliath proposed was that if the King of Israel agreed to settle this matter
by means of single combat, then the losing side would simply lay down their arms and submit
to the victor. If Goliath won (an outcome that seemed certain) then King Saul and all his men
would be agreeing to become voluntary vassals of the Philistines (which is what the Philistines
had wanted all along). The upside (however unlikely) was that if a man from Israel happened to
win, the Philistines would submit to Israel and Saul’s reputation as a great warrior/king would
spread all over the region. One battle between two men for all the marbles.
When Saul said that David had no experience in combat, David responded that he had fought
off lions and bears many times. That as a shepherd it was his job to put his life on the line for
his sheep and to protect them from whatever fierce creature might assume to come and prey
on the flock. By the way, lions and bears were common in that day in Canaan. This has been
validated in the region not only in written inscriptions but in hundreds of pictographs of men
hunting bears and killing lions.
One can almost see the gears turning in Saul’s mind and he and David conversed. Saul was
caught in a vise. Things were not going well. At his calling the militia had been mustered to this
spot to face the Philistines, yet not an arrow had been shot in anger in the month and a half or
more since the men had arrived. It was a deadlock. And while the professional and well-
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supplied Philistine army could be forced to remain there indefinitely, Saul’s militia could not.
Soon the men would grow weary of this and leave. The Hebrews had herds to maintain, fields
and crops to attend. They had trades to ply and grapevines to prune. To simply sit there (day
without end) in the hills above the valley plain and listen to Goliath yelling insults at them had
its limits. Saul knew this.
It was painfully obvious by now that none of the men who had come ostensibly to fight were
ever going to lay their life on the line for the sake of King and Kingdom by facing Goliath.
Those who had experience in battle determined that they had no chance and weren’t about to
waste their life for nothing. But there in the language of youthful naivety was a kind of reminder
of another time. A voice of strength was coming from that shepherd who stood before the King
of Israel; a voice that was based on simple faith and not the bitter pragmatism that has come
with the disappointments of life and from the sadness of a failed leadership and from being
abandoned by the God of Israel. Hope; it was hope that Saul was hearing (and feeling) and he
had not experienced that emotion in a very long time.
Besides, says David, this isn’t about the two biggest kids on the block having a disagreement.
This is about some pagan gentiles with their false gods daring to challenge God’s army and by
extension, God. This can’t be allowed to stand and if Saul will but respond this will be over in a
heartbeat. What David actually says is that Israel’s army is the hosts of Elohim Chayyim (the
hosts of the Living God). While we today hear the term “Living God” and think of it mostly as
but one of many poetic but properly pious titles for the Lord, in fact to the Hebrew it had a very
important meaning. It meant that (as compared to the other gods) Yehoveh was an active
participant in the lives of men. He directed the affairs of humans. The Lord determined
outcomes and personally balanced the scales of justice according to His will.
Saul, knowing that from a rational point of view there really is no other choice, agrees to allow
David to go forth as Israel’s Champion and battle Goliath. But of course, since Saul’s throne
and kingdom were on the line, Saul wanted David to have whatever advantage might be
available, so he offered to dress David in his personal armor (which, let’s face it, was just
gathering dust anyway!) At least David would go into combat wearing regal armor and thus
provide a more suitable (and less embarrassing) appearance that both sides expected to see.
David reluctantly puts on the king’s bronze paraphernalia but it doesn’t feel right; it’s so
cumbersome he can’t move in it. “I’m not used to them”, he says. David isn’t really speaking
in lofty or veiled spiritual terms; what he was saying was literally so. Saul, recall, was a very tall
man and David was but an average-sized Hebrew so it didn’t fit. And armor was heavy and
cumbersome and it only helped if the battle tactics one used were designed to be used with
armor. But unknown to David at the time he was demonstrating and speaking a God-principle
with a deeply rich lesson for God’s Church as a whole, and for individual Believers, to hear
and obey. And I think that Alfred Edersheim, that great Messianic Jew who lived and wrote one
and half centuries ago, said it so eloquently: “The first demand upon us is to be spiritual; the
next is to be genuine and true, without seeking to clothe ourselves in the armor of another”.
Let me paraphrase his marvelous statement: why would the Redeemed of God employ the
strength of the world in a spiritual battle? Why would a Believer, or the institution that purports
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to be the earthly authority and organization of the Kingdom of God, rely on the methods and
means that the world relies upon to conduct its business? Why would God’s righteous king
don the armor of the Anti-King? It’s not that David was about to enter battle unarmed; it’s just
that his weapon was to be what he knew how to use, that also reflected who he was. His was
the standard weapon of a shepherd (which he was), not of a warrior-king (which he wasn’t, at
least not yet). Messiah reflected this same God-principle when He came to us first as a
shepherd and so he used the means of a shepherd (self sacrifice) to accomplish the Father’s
redemptive will. He will come later as a warrior-king and at that time use the means of a warrior-
king (armed destruction with an army) to further accomplish the Father’s redemptive will.
The story moves quickly now. David takes off the armor, picks up his shepherd’s staff (here
called a stick), and in the river bed that runs through the Elah Valley floor picks up 5 smooth
stones to use with his sling. Note that this sling is no child’s toy; it was a respected weapon.
Armies of this era often employed entire divisions of stone-slingers as a deadly and effective
tactic. According to Judges 20:16 there was a division of 700 left-handed stone-slingers from
the tribe of Benjamin “each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.”
Goliath was out in the open when he spied David walking briskly towards him, shepherd’s
weapon in hand. Whereas King Saul was immediately amused at the sight of David, Goliath
was incredulous. What was this: a joke? Goliath looks David over and sees a youth (in Hebrew
na’ar) with fine youthful features. Goliath had expected a grizzled and scarred warrior to fight
him. It is said that David had ruddy cheeks, red hair, and good looks. Interestingly David had a
similar hair color and skin tone as Esau (which is why Esau was given the nickname of Edom,
which means red). This was not common; the average Hebrew typically bore olive skin and
dark brown or ink black hair. So even though he was not physically imposing, he was boyishly
handsome in a refined kind of way.
Goliath was insulted and infuriated; this boy did not represent an honorable challenge. He
cursed David, invoking his god, and promised to feed him to the birds. In other words he
wouldn’t allow David a proper burial (this was a great horror to the ancient world’s mindset).
Just as we have been given a sharp contrast between the old king, Saul, the Anti-King; and the
new king, David, the righteous king, so now we have another contrast between the means of
war between Goliath and David. David says YOU come at me with typical weapons, but I come
at you in the name of Yehoveh. Goliath came dressed for an earthly battle; he didn’t realize
that he wasn’t properly attired for a spiritual confrontation with God. And then David further
aggravates the great Philistine giant by saying that in a few moments David will attack him, cut
his head off, and give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to those same birds Goliath
threatened to feed David.
David shows that his main concern is for YHWH’s reputation. Thus when this youngish, small
Hebrew shepherd kills this giant enemy warrior, everyone present will know without doubt that
the God of Israel is present and powerful. Stop there for a moment. While we take this passage
to mean that there actually IS a God of Israel named Yehoveh, that is NOT what this meant to
David or to Goliath. In other words, while in a modern world where atheism and secular
humanism are sweeping the globe, it might appear to us that the issue in this passage is
whether or not there is such a thing as “God”. But here it has to do with the territoriality
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traditions concerning gods.
Throughout the Biblical era (and especially so the Old Testament) pagans and Hebrews alike
believed that there were many gods. The Hebrews were not really monotheistic; rather they
believed that while other nations had their gods and goddesses (usually, several gods and
goddesses), Israel had only one God, Yehoveh. In some ways this made Israel a
laughingstock; they were seen by the gentiles as such a poor and lowly people that only ONE
God would have them, when all the other nations had as many as a dozen or more gods.
Since each nation had their own gods, it was believed that the gods were bound by that
nation’s territory. If one god was more powerful than another, then perhaps that god’s people
could drive another people out of their own territory; and thus the victorious god would take
over some of another god’s territory. That is what was going on here.
Recall that this battle is taking place in Canaan, in Judah’s territory. One would expect the
God of Israel to be firmly entrenched in His territory, Judah. But since the Philistines were here,
and since they were definitely seen as the more powerful force, the Hebrew soldiers were not
at all sure that Yehoveh was still there, while the Philistines were quite sure that Dagan had
usurped Yehoveh, God of Israel. Thus we’re about to get a familiar demonstration that will set
the record straight, says David.
David loads a stone into in sling, gives it a couple of swings to gain acceleration and zips the
small projectile towards the only unprotected part of Goliath’s body: his face. It strikes him in
the forehead, knocking him unconscious, and Goliath falls with a mighty thud. For some reason
we’re given the information that Goliath fell “face down” (before David). Let me explain the
significance of that.
What we have is a pattern and this event corresponds to a much earlier one. Turn your bibles
to 1
st
Samuel 5:1 -4
READ 1
ST
SAMUEL CHAPTER 5:1 – 4
Note how the statue of Dagan, the Philistine god, falls face down before the presence of
Yehoveh (the Ark of the Covenant), and then its head falls off. Here in Chapter 17 we have
Dagan’s great Philistine warrior, Goliath, fall face down before the presence of Yehoveh (the
Holy Spirit upon David, and David as God’s earthly agent), and then Goliath’s head is
removed.
Falling face down is to fall prostrate; it is the position of submission. The idol of Dagan fell face
down in submission to the God of Israel and now the giant Goliath falls face down in
submission to the God of Israel. This meaning was not at all lost on either side. The Philistines
panicked because their god couldn’t save them, and the Hebrews now knew (as David told
Goliath they would learn in verses 46 and 47) that Israel’s God is still here and active and
fighting for His people.
Now I find it interesting that we’re told that the Philistines fled. Why is that so interesting?
Because that wasn’t the deal that their great Champion Goliath had proposed. The deal was
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that whichever side lost would throw down their weapons and submit to the winning side.
Instead the Philistines reneged and took off for home. They ran for Gath and Ekron, two cities
of the Philistine Pentapolis. Many Philistine soldiers were chased down and killed and when
the Israelites had ventured far enough into Philistine territory to accomplish the slaughter and
make their point, they returned and plundered the camping area of the Philistine army at the
Valley of Elah.
David took Goliath’s head and armor as a prize. We’re told that he put Goliath’s armor in his
tent. But we need to understand that the term “tent” didn’t mean an animal skin shelter there
at Elah. Rather “tent” is an often used Biblical euphemism that simply means the family
abode. Then we’re told that he took Goliath’s head and deposited it at Jerusalem. There are
all kinds of interesting issues with taking Goliath’s head there that we’ll examine next week.
But for now just let me end today by pointing out that modern Israel is in desperate need of a
modern David. As I put this lesson together my mind overflowed with mental pictures, and my
eyes filled with tears, as I thought about how Israel of today is behaving and thinking exactly as
Saul and his militia. And how the Palestinians (Greek for Philistines) is acting in concert with
their Arab and Muslim neighbors (and now Western Europe and to some degree the new
United States Government) as Goliath who stands arrogantly and fearlessly to threaten God’s
people.
Hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion people, are ready to dismantle Israel and
annihilate the Jewish people. Do as we say, give up land, or be wiped out. Together the
combined armies and treasuries of these gentile nations are overwhelming. And the Israeli
government, and much if not most of the Jewish population, looks upon those gentile
governments and forces and thinks what earthly possibility is there to stand up against them,
let alone to defeat them. And they are correct; there is none.
But what neither Israel nor these gentile nations understand is that this only appears to be a
human geo-political confrontation. Rather, like it was in the Valley of Elah, this is a spiritual
battle and Yehoveh is present. It is His war. It is His land. It is His people.
I don’t know if another human David will appear or not; I don’t believe so. Rather I think the
deliverer of Israel, the offspring of David, the Son of God, the Messiah, will be the next “David”
to slay this modern Goliath. When all the world’s armies gather in the Valley of Jezreel at the
battlefield called Armageddon; and when the nations boast that their advanced weapons and
overwhelming numbers will make short work of tiny intransigent Israel, Messiah will appear and
swiftly fell Goliath face down, in submission, to the Father. And in this way Israel, and all who
are joined to her by faith, will be saved. May it be today.
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