1 Samuel 17:19-23, 32-49

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Cecilia Hubbard
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1 Samuel 17:19-23, Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. 32 David said to Saul, Let no one s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. 33 Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth. 34 But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 David said, The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine. 1

2 So Saul said to David, Go, and may the Lord be with you! 38 Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David strapped Saul s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them. So David removed them. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. 41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 The Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field. 45 But David said to the Philistine, You come to me with sword and 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. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord s and he will give you into our hand. 48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. 2

3 Do You Believe in Miracles? Do you believe in miracles? For many Americans old enough to remember 1980, the answer to that question is a resounding Yes! The question itself punctuated a miracle that occurred on February 22, 1980, at an Olympic ice rink in a small town in upstate New York. The rink was the scene of an ice hockey game played between the United States and the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Soviets had won the gold medal at the last four Olympics, dating back to They were the best hockey team in the world. They had even defeated a team of all-stars from the NHL, the combined American and Canadian professional league, by a score of 6-0. Speaking of professional athletes, at a time when Olympic ice hockey was for amateurs only professionals were barred from playing the Soviets were amateurs in name only. Most members of the team served in the Soviet army, where their duties consisted primarily of playing hockey. The Americans, by contrast, were truly an amateur team. They were made up of college students and recent college graduates. They were the youngest team in the tournament. Before their Olympic match-up, the Americans and Soviets had played an exhibition game two weeks earlier at Madison Square Garden in New York City [SLIDE]. The Americans were humiliated, losing by a score of 10-3! Hockey scores are usually something like 3-1 or 4-2. For a team to score ten goals was extraordinary. The Americans tried to put that nightmare behind them when the Olympics started. They played surprisingly well, defeating some teams that were ranked ahead of them, while the Soviets trampled their competition, even defeating Japan 16-0! The Americans and Soviets each emerged from the group stage to play each other in the medal round. 3

4 Anticipation was high. Ice hockey may be Canada s national sport, not America s, but every American became a hockey fan that night. America needed a victory. The country had fallen on hard times. The economy suffered under high inflation [SLIDE]. A fuel shortage created long lines at gas stations and led to gas rationing. Things were also bleak on the international front [SLIDE]. Just three months earlier, Islamic militants in Iran had broken into the American embassy and taken dozens of Americans hostage [SLIDE]. And just two months prior to the game, in December 1979, the Soviet army had invaded Afghanistan, further worsening America s already tense relationship with the Soviet Union. As the game began, it didn t take long for the Soviets to score. Many people watching felt like...uh oh...here it comes. The Soviets are about to score ten goals again. But the American team tied the game on a goal by my favorite player, Buzz Schneider (no relation). The teams then kept trading goals. The Soviets would take the lead, and the Americans would tie it. With the score tied 3-3 [SLIDE], the captain of the American team slapped the puck past the Soviet goalie to give the Americans the lead for the first time. But ten minutes still remained in the game. The Americans would have to prevent the Soviets, the highest-scoring team in the tournament, from scoring even one goal. Ten minutes seemed like an eternity, but the minutes slowly wound down. Eventually ten minutes became five, then two, and then one. Here is a clip of the final minute of the game [VIDEO]. Do you believe in miracles? Yes! That famous call by the announcer gave the game its nickname [SLIDE]: The Miracle on Ice. American college students beating a team of Russian professionals the best team in the world was a miracle. For comparison s sake, imagine a soccer team made up of Korean college students defeating the Brazilian national team. That s how miraculous this was. 4

5 The funny thing is, many people forget that this was not the gold-medal game. It was a semifinal. To win the gold, America still had one more game to play against Finland, which they won. But the gold-medal game was almost anticlimactic compared to beating the Soviets. The Soviet game was David versus Goliath, and America, who is usually Goliath, was able to play the role of David, the giant-slayer. The story of David and Goliath is often told in children s worship services and vacation Bible schools [SLIDE], but it s not heard so often among the grown-ups. Maybe we feel embarrassed by what seems like a fairy tale. We re too mature for children s stories about giants and slingshots. We re about serious theology here in the adult worship! Give us some total depravity or predestination! We want some weighty theology that we can sink our teeth into. Or maybe we re intimidated by the length of the story. As long as today s reading was, we skipped a lot of verses. But as we ve done each of the previous five Sundays of Lent, today we ll engage with another foundational Old Testament story to experience how it addresses us today. We ve already looked at the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, the Exodus, and Samson and Delilah, and now we turn to David and Goliath. As we heard in last week s reading about Samson, the Philistines were the great rivals of the Israelites during the time of the judges. As we move now into 1 Samuel [SLIDE], Israel is transitioning from an association of twelve semi-independent tribes into a unified nation ruled by one king. Saul was Israel s first king, but it will be David who unites the twelve tribes into a single monarchy. But in today s reading, we re not quite there yet. Where we are is that God has rejected Saul as king and instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the next king. This was a surprising choice given that David was the youngest of his brothers. Also, David at this point was not a warrior, not a soldier; he was a shepherd. 5

6 We see the difference between David and his brothers in part of chapter 17 that we did not read. While David s three oldest brothers prepare for battle against the Philistines, David, the youngest, tends to the sheep and brings food to his brothers. This actually angers his oldest brother Eliab, who accuses David of just wanting to watch a battle rather than take part in one [SLIDE]. He says to David, I know your presumption and the evil of your heart; for you have come down just to see the battle (1 Sam. 17:28b). David s brother most likely is not really angry with David but scared of Goliath, as were all of the Israelites. For forty days the Philistine giant has stood in front of his camp challenging the Israelites to choose a man to do battle with him, but for forty days no one has risen to the challenge. They re too scared: When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid (17:11). But David rallies the people like a coach giving a pre-game pep talk. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? (17:26b). Word gets around to Saul about the brave, young shepherd, and he sends for him. It should be noted that Saul does not yet know that David has been anointed king by Samuel. David is, as Saul notes, just a boy, but a boy who is young enough, and perhaps foolish enough, to believe that he of all people, a shepherd, can take on the fearsome Philistine warrior. Saul tries to dissuade David, but David is persistent. He tells Saul that as a shepherd, he has killed lions and bears when they threatened his flock. This Philistine shall meet the same fate that they did. The God who saved him from the claws of lions and bears will save him from the hand of the giant Philistine. You have to admire David s courage. In fact, that s often the message that we hear when this passage is preached. David was courageous; be like David. Don t be afraid of the giants in your life; face them with the same courage with which David faced 6

7 Goliath. We hear a similar message with the other Old Testament stories that we read during Lent. Samson was strong; be strong in the Lord like Samson. Moses trusted God; trust God like Moses. Adam and Eve well, never mind don t be like Adam and Eve; they rebelled against God. But you see what I mean. We often treat the people of the Bible, in particular those in the Old Testament, as models for us to emulate. I m not suggesting there aren t qualities for us to admire in David or these other well known figures of the Old Testament, but they are much more than just examples for us to follow. The Old Testament isn t only about what happened in the past a long time ago. These people, places, and events also point beyond themselves toward the one who is to come. They point toward Jesus Christ, the redeemer of Israel and the savior of the world. We get a hint of that in the way that Saul equips David with Saul s own armor and weaponry. Saul presumes that David will fight in the manner in which Saul fights, with armor, sword, and shield. And so Saul puts a bronze helmet on David s head, clothes him with a coat of mail, and straps his own sword around David s waist [SLIDE]. The image is comical and has been a favorite of children s Bible illustrators who make David look like a young boy trying on his father s clothes. I can t walk in these, David says (17:39). He removes Saul s armor, which is both too big as well as utterly foreign to him. In place of a soldier s sword, he chooses his shepherd s staff. He picks up five smooth stones from a stream and places them in his shepherd s bag, along with his sling. David is different than Saul. He is his own man, and he will fight Goliath in his own way, not as a soldier but as a shepherd. David goes off to fight Goliath on his own. He doesn t lead an army. He alone stands in for all the people. Their fate is in his hand. If he does the impossible, if he is able to defeat the Philistine giant, he will be the people s savior. 7

8 Spoiler alert: David wins. He may bring with him five stones, but he needs just one. With one well-aimed shot of his sling, he fells the great giant. Afterwards, David is greeted by the people like a hero [SLIDE]: As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they made merry, Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands (18:6-7) [SLIDE]. Today is the last Sunday of Lent. Next week we will celebrate Easter. Traditionally the Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday. It gets its name from the palm branches that the crowd wave to greet Jesus as he enters Jerusalem to cheers and shouts of Hosanna, which means Save us! The crowd, remembering the story of how David had saved the people from the Philistine terror Goliath, wanted a savior, someone to fight for them and save them from the sword of Rome. But Jesus didn t ride into Jerusalem like a conquering king, in a chariot pulled by a war horse. He rode on a donkey, a beast of burden not a weapon of war [SLIDE]. Jesus would not be a king like David or like Caesar. As David was different than Saul, so Jesus would be different than David. He was not David but the Son of David, the one who was spoken of in the Psalms and the prophets. He was not just a shepherd but the Good Shepherd, a shepherd not only willing to fight for his sheep but to lay down his life for them. The enemy he faced was not a Philistine giant but something much more terrifying...sin and death...sin that enslaves us all and death that devours all. He did not carry five smooth stones to hurl at his enemy; he himself was the stone that the builders rejected and which has become the cornerstone of God s salvation of the world. His was the stone that did not cause death but rather the stone that was rolled away from the tomb to herald new life. 8

9 All of this is miraculous. You could not make it up. It was not improbable but impossible. Unbelievable. A God who so identifies with human beings that he becomes one of us. A God who suffers as a servant of sinners. A God who doesn t demand sacrifice but sacrifices himself. A God who is glorified on a cross. A crucified king. What an unlikely story! What an impossible outcome! What a miraculous love! To borrow a famous line from a sports broadcast of nearly forty years ago: Do you believe in miracles? Yes! 9

Secrets of a Giant Killer 1 Samuel 17:23-51

Secrets of a Giant Killer 1 Samuel 17:23-51 What giants are in your life? How can you eliminate them? 1. Faith Seeks God's Glory 1 Samuel 17:21-22 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines