[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: The first two weeks of this class were focused on the two like first, I guess, characters of the Book of Samuel. We started with just talking about Samuel and so the background of this book last week was all about Saul.
I told a lot of you that I felt like I was talking at light speed and it was because I was because I wanted these two classes to really be like two classes each. But with all of these holiday based classes and stuff like that coming, I wanted to talk light speed. So I had like 20 or 30 slides for each one of these. Was trying to work through it. I promised so many of you guys that we were going to go a lot slower this week and then I made like 30 slides for this class today.
So we're working through two chapters, 1st Samuel 6 to and 17.
It comes in section three of the book of Samuel. So if you remember us talking about the original scroll of Samuel, it wasn't a first and second Samuel to start. Instead it was a five part type of thing at the beginning. The first part really was all about Samuel and we covered that the first week. The second part was all about Saul. We covered that last week. And then the last three sections of the Book of Samuel, which constitutes one and two Samuel, we're going to take much, much slower and break them into eight separate classes.
So section three is 1st Samuel 15 through 2 Samuel 8. But tonight we're only going to be talking about 1st Samuel 16 and 17.
In 17 especially is when we have one of the most well known stories not only in the Bible, but preach probably in like thousands of years of human history. People know about David and Goliath, people talk about David and Goliath and we're going to be talking about him tonight.
Before we get started, I always before walking into a section like to go over the meaning of Some names, because especially in the Old Testament, they normally have significance.
Samuel, God has heard Saul means asked for. Jonathan meant literally, gift of God.
Jesse, we're not totally.
We don't totally know what that name originally meant. A lot of people think that it was related to Jonathan actually, and meaning gift. I actually read one interesting article. I don't know if I agree with it to a T, but the idea was that Jonathan was a gift from God in Saul's lineage. And if Saul had, like, been holy, then he would have been this gift, but at the same time, he wasn't.
And then Jesse, through Ruth's lineage is a separate gift. Where then David comes from.
Eliab means my father is God. Abinadab, my father is willing. Shema actually means desolate, but depending. And this was one of the brothers of David, depending on the chapter of the Bible that you're in and a lot of other chapters, he's called Shimea. And going along with Eliab and Abinadab, I think that's probably more than likely what his name actually was, Shemaiah instead of Shema, even though the chapter we read tonight, we'll call him Shema. That meant he who obeys. And then David literally means beloved.
So just keep that in mind while we're reading. But we're going to start just by digging straight into scripture tonight in 1st Samuel 16.
If you guys will just find, follow along with me.
So the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel?
Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.
But Saul said, how can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.
The Lord said, take a heifer with you and, and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.
Samuel did what the Lord said when he arrived in Bethlehem.
The elders of the town trembled when they met him. I looked this up. I like trying to narrate in the red a little bit. The elders of the town trembled. We actually don't know why they trembled.
The end of 1st Samuel 15 actually ends with.
I think the Hebrew text literally reads him hacking agag to pieces.
So a few verses later, it makes sense that you tremble before a dude who does that.
But they asked him, they said, do you come in peace?
Samuel replied, yes, in peace. I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come sacrifice with me.
Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and he invited them to the sacrifice.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord.
But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height.
Who is that a reference to that came in 1st Samuel 8:15 Saul or his height, for I have rejected him.
The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Jesse called Abinadab.
Same thing happened. Shema or Shemaiah. Same thing happened. He asked Jesse, verse 11 are these all the sons you have? They're still the youngest, he said, he's tending the sheep.
Samuel said, send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives.
So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance, with handsome features. Then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. This is the one.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.
Samuel then went to Ramah.
Now the spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
Saul's attendants said to him, see, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our Lord command his servants to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you and you will feel better. So Saul said, find someone.
And then Saul mentions that they know a guy who's the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, who's fine, looking brave, he's a warrior, and the Lord is with him.
Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me your son David, who's with the sheep.
So Jesse took the donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, a young goat, and sent David to Saul.
David came to Saul, entered his service, and ultimately we find out that Saul really, really liked David. And when he would play the lyre, the Spirit of the Lord would come on him.
I'm going to ask for volunteer readers after doing that section for the remaining few, but few different points I want to set out to discuss based upon this text from the very beginning, we find out that the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon David.
From your guys knowledge of David's life after this fact, does his life become more or less peaceful after this moment?
I would say less peaceful. So the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon David and all of a sudden his life is less peaceful.
What does that message or what does that idea tell us?
Interestingly enough, the same thing happened with Saul a few chapters earlier. Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him and then he's met with some chaotic situations.
What does this tell us? I think maybe Satan sees us as a threat.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: Now we are connected with God and.
[00:08:54] Speaker D: So he's going to try to do something.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: He still exercises free will even after that occurs. And his troubles are often self created.
[00:09:08] Speaker D: It's through those moments of chaos that we can learn to rely on God more and have deeper faith.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I think all of those are very, very true. I just think it's fascinating. We're going to dig a little bit more into. Wow, that cough drop is helping a lot. We're going to dig a little bit more into this as we go along, but keep that in mind.
As we discussed, 1st Samuel 16, 1st Samuel 17, God's Spirit, while it results in an inward peace, does not result in a peaceful life at large necessarily.
One of the verses, a couple of the verses I included here at the bottom, 2nd Timothy 3:12 John 15:20, are all about being persecuted as Christians. But specifically a powerful lesson that I heard years and years ago came from Luke 17:5.
In Luke 17:5 the apostles come to Jesus and they say, Lord, increase our faith.
And from that moment on, the guy who was given, I don't even remember who it was or where it was, but I remember him going throughout the lesson and looking at each of the apostles who was in that situation, who asked Christ to increase their faith, what each of their lives ended up becoming soon after this. It was almost immediately after that Jesus ascend to the cross and suddenly they're out going, traveling the world and all of them are martyred.
Increase our faith, Lord.
Alright. And it results in that.
I want us to be aware as Christians that while we can have an inward peace, while the Spirit of the Lord is able to help us in a ton of moments, I think the text is pretty explicit that when the Spirit of the Lord is living inside of us, while that can result in inward peace outside, I think it puts a target on our back. I think it creates a situation where we're going to have to learn as followers of God to lean upon him rather than ourselves in a variety of different places.
Alright, so continuing on, layer down. 1st Samuel 16, it says Saul loved David.
What is the significance of that? Why do you think the author of this passage included that in the text?
Saul was loving everything that David was providing him in his.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Well, I think for me, part of it speaks about David's character, right? I mean, David had been anointed. David knew what was coming up. But yet he must have had a spirit that was humble enough where he truly helped Saul. And Saul looked at him and didn't see where David was going. No reason necessarily for Saul to be jealous or at that point to be jealous or angry with David that David's personality and his attitude was one of servitude and taking care of Saul, right?
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. It shows the genuineness of David. And then looking at some Jewish texts and stuff like that, they claim that David was doubly approved here.
He's got the rubber stamp from God. He's got the rubber stamp even from the fake king at the time. Who can question that? David is the king, the rightful king. In the midst of all this, the spirit of God is living inside him. And that can create that type of attitude that becomes something that can endear people to you. But also later on we can see that can cause other people to become your enemy for the same exact reason.
And then we have this very interesting part at the very end that I'm not going to talk too much about right now because I want to utilize the group me a little bit, but I'm going to include an article on.
But the text literally says God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul.
That's pretty hard for us to hear, right? In fact, when I first read like really looked at this verse, I tried to dig down into it and I tried to read into the Hebrew and everything else and I found out that the people who translated this, who are really smart people from like all these super smart places are smart. And they did a good job translating it. That's literally what it says.
The Lord sent an evil spirit to torment and harass Saul.
I included an article below.
But there's a few different ways that people can take this passage that still allows God to be the God that we know. He is a good God.
In other classes that I've done, I've sometimes spent a lot of time on periods like this. But honestly, I just want to challenge you guys to study it.
Leaving here and we might talk about thoughts on the group meeting and see where we go from there.
Alright, 1st Samuel 17. Moving on.
Anybody want to volunteer to read? I'll do it in sections to make it easier.
[00:14:29] Speaker D: Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Soca Judah. They pitched camp at Ephas and Ammon between Socah and Azekah, Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another. The valley. With the valley between them, a champion named Goliath, who is from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.
He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of Bronze weighing 5,000 shekels on his legs. He wore bronze greaves and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels.
His shield bearer went ahead of him. 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. 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.
Then the Philistines said, this day I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other.
On hearing the Philistines words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
Now, David was the son of an Ephrathite.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: I included this afterwards, but. And I'll give you a break for a sec, but Ephrathite was an ancient name from people from Bethlehem. Bethlehem. And this will apply later on throughout all of Samuel. Bethlehem literally means house of bread.
And Ephrath. Ephrath. I forget, I can't say it right. We'll see it later on in the text. It's a measurement of grain that was used in that time. So. All right, keep going.
[00:16:44] Speaker D: Named Jesse, who is from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons. And in Saul's time he was very old.
Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war.
The firstborn was Eliab, the second Abinadab, and the third, Shema.
David was the youngest.
The three oldest followed Saul.
But David went back and forth from Saul to tend to his father's sheep at Bethel.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Alright, thank you so much. I feel like I can read the rest.
So for 40 days and be thinking what other events in scripture were 40 days. The Philistine came forward every morning and evening and he took his stand.
Now Jesse said to his son David, take this Ephah of roasted. So that's Ephrathah, Ephrathite take this Ephah of roasted grain and these 10 loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.
Take along the 10 cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them.
There was Saul and all the men of Israel in the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.
Early in the morning, David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed.
He reached the camp as the army was going to its bow positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other.
David left his things with the keeper's supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brother how they were.
As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and he shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.
Alright, couple questions about this passage before getting into the meat of 1 Samuel 17, which is the last half of this chapter.
So, height. Have you guys kept the markers throughout Samuel so far? Height, which the Hebrew word for height is the exact same word for arrogance, has been now used of Saul, it's been used of Eliab, it's been used of Goliath.
This was obviously something where height was respected. But also the text is trying to imply by using that specific word that there's an arrogance to these people as well. So I just have a question at large for you guys to discuss with me.
What do we look for in our leaders and what do we prioritize as leaders?
Because one of the obvious points I think this text is trying to make by constantly bringing up height, arrogance, height, arrogance, height, arrogance with Saul, with Eliab, with Goliath, in fact, not the point that necessarily this text is just trying to make, but the point that God is trying to make by including these three men and their height. Specifically using the word that also means arrogant.
They're trying to pit that against the idea that God looks at the heart of man.
But it's God looking at the heart of man versus the way that we as human beings attempt to look at people and then make them our leaders and set them above us. So here's my question for you all. What are the aspects that we sometimes, you can answer either side of this, that we sometimes are at fault of looking at that really aren't qualities that Christians should be looking at as leaders?
And what are aspects that we need to put a lot More weight in. When it comes to choosing our leaders.
[00:20:24] Speaker E: A lot of times we look for people who just fit a picture of.
They look like the figurehead that you're looking for. So, like, I think I heard a stat recently on a podcast that said that a lot of times people who are taller than average are put into leadership positions and make more money just based off of, like, statistically, that's one thing that they were pointing out. And I thought that was interesting, especially when you think about the aspect of. You can look at that and back in this passage.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: No, I agree completely. What. Anything off of that. Adam.
[00:21:07] Speaker C: I was going to say that kind of follow up will.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: I think a lot of times you.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: See people kind of confuse being a great communicator, a great learner, with being a great leader. Can you communicate a message? Well, did that impact the leadership?
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah, like, thinking about all this, I just thought of it. But I was reading this was like, one of the simpler commentaries I brought up about Samuel at the beginning, but he was actually talking about this, and he said, when it comes to, like, businesses, churches, a lot of people, what we seem to want are movers and shakers, aggressive extroverts, pushers who meet people well and sell the business, sell the church, sell whatever in the community.
Who are smooth speakers. Do we ever ask, how does this person pray? Does he enjoy being with his wife? And can he weep?
There's a lot to that right there.
There's one way that we look at people that immediately draws us in.
But ultimately we're called to, like, value the heart in the same way that God does. More so than that. But here's the problem.
If you guys are into enneagrams or anything like that, I'm an enneagram3, like, to a T. You can look if you don't want to get into that. Like, don't even look it up at all. If you're confused by what I'm saying, don't look it up at all. This is just for those people who know what I'm talking about right now. But I'm an enneagram3, like, to a T.
And that really makes me question how I view this second part.
Because I look at my own life and then I start asking, like, ooh, okay, so that's how I need to prioritize choosing leaders and prioritizing who I follow.
But if I'm trying to be a leader, what am I focusing on?
I realized something a while back that really kind of worried me, I guess, like, this is sort of what I do, like, for a living.
And I started evaluating, like, my faith in high school and in college. And while I've grown in a ton of different ways, I started thinking back to my faith walk early on.
And, like, when I'm sitting in my room thinking about, like, how to be a better Christian, a lot of times my thought process is, oh, how can I get rid of this aspect of my pride? How can I become a kinder person? How can I make sure as I go about my day tomorrow that I focus on making every single conversation I have with other people meaningful?
And then I've gotten to today to where it's like, busy, busy, busy, busy life.
And it's like, all right, got to make sure the finances are straight. Got to make sure that the house is clean. Got to make sure that this is getting done, and this is getting done, and this is getting done. I'm prioritizing all these things that in some ways, help me to look good or help me to be successful. But am I prioritizing the things that really matter?
Am I thinking through the things that I'm called to think of, which is the heart issue?
Is that what I'm spending my time on, or is that what I'm prioritizing? A lot of times that's not the case in my own life. And at least reading this text like that kind of got me thinking about that again, something I want to be passionate about.
But then going on, this is just so interesting to me.
I know it's super tiny, but for 40 days, the philistine is coming forward, and he's challenging the Israelites. All right, let's see. We'll do a quick quiz real quick. What events can you guys think of that were 40 days in scripture?
Okay, so Jesus, temptation, Matthew 4. That's good. What else?
The flood. Yes. Anything else?
Wilderness. Yeah. 40 years.
But then Mount Sinai in the wilderness. Moses gives up for 40 days.
40 days almost everywhere in scripture is always a number that's used for a period of temptation or a period of trial.
Anytime that 40 is brought up, it seems to be that. And all the other 40s that we know of are these huge, monumental moments that we talk about, but we don't talk about this one very much.
The philistine Goliath challenged the Israelites for 40 days.
I think this text is trying to tell us two different things right here.
Number one, I think it's trying to tell us that this is a period of trial or testing for the Israelites themselves, for the whole army. Just like, are you guys followers of God or not? And do they pass the test?
No. They're standing there still shaking in their boots. However, in the midst of this whole period of time, there's one man, David, who's received the Spirit of God, who's had the Spirit of God rush upon him. That shows up at the end of the 40 days. And as we'll see in a little bit, he seems to pass the test.
And this, I feel like, relates perfectly to Matthew chapter three and four.
You have Jesus getting baptized, the dove coming down, Spirit of God there.
And then all of a sudden, what happens In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus departs into the wilderness for a period of testing.
David and Goliath in a big way can almost be described as the testing moment for David himself.
This is the thing where the Spirit of God has rushed upon him. Is he going to pass the test or not? It's been 40 days that the people have been dealing with this.
So we're about to see. But before we see, I like to have. Oh, I forgot this was such a good quote that I found based upon this.
The wilderness is not the sign of the Spirit's absence, but the scene of his presence that has to deal with what we've already been talking about both in 1st Samuel 16, where the spirit of God rushes upon David and what happens in his life from there becomes a little bit more difficult. You get to the very next chapter period of testing, and he is Goliath at the very beginning of this battle.
Recognize for some of you out there, I guess I'll say to you all what I say to my teens when we go on retreats as well.
Oftentimes the retreats that we go on with these teenagers are like some of the most spiritually impactful moments of their lives, and they'll tell you that themselves.
And I've gotten to the place where I warn them the morning that we're leaving, like, all right, you guys are at a high right now. You know what your lowest of low could possibly be? What? You're exhausted and you're going to go home and your mom's going to tell you to clean your room or something. You know what's going to happen? You're going to say no. You're going to get in a fight, and all of a sudden this spiritual high that you've been on for days is ruined and crushed. You're exhausted, and then you're going on throughout the rest of your week at that point.
Oftentimes, though, I feel like in the Real world, in the real life. It's the same thing for us as well. We get to these places of spiritual highs where we're feeling really, really good about where we are.
And I think we have to be ready in those moments just to recognize like not in an anxiety striking like sweat producing way, but we need to be thinking in those moments. Like, all right, I have to remember that it's not about living at this high. It's about making sure that these moments are preparing me for when I go down into those valleys. It's for making sure that this faith that I'm building up right now is going to help me as I walk into the wilderness. That I'm understanding that God is my strength, not myself. I'm working out right now, but I'm working out so that I can move all the old lady's furniture. And you know what happens when you move all the old lady's furniture? You get worn out and frustrated and you hit her doorway and then she gets upset in a variety of different ways. Not saying that's ever happened to me, but it has a few times.
Like the reason you work out spiritually is to prepare for those moments. It's not just to work out spiritually.
So we have to recognize that and recognize that when the spirit's presence, when the spirit is in our lives, his presence oftentimes results in us moving into a wilderness.
In case you're wondering about David's walk, I like throwing nerdy stuff in there. This was just Google maps, but Bethlehem to the location of the Valley of Elah with roads today was a six hour walk. And I was trying to think like, I wonder what that would have been without roads. But then also I was thinking to myself, David was probably in a lot better shape than most of us today. So we're just going to say six hours. So he rose early in the morning, about six hour walk. He had been going to and from.
I like including some nerdy stuff in my presentations.
If you have not learned about this place, this is a really cool archaeological site. Khirbat Qeiyafa the story of David. I'll mention a few things in this class, but the story of David has constantly been criticized by tons of people because it lacks historic evidence. Well, over the years a lot of historic evidence has been discovered and this is actually one of the most important pieces of historical evidence discovered.
This site dates exactly to David's time period. Late Bronze Age, early Iron age, somewhere between 1100 and 900 BC.
But what's really crazy is People thought that people who don't believe in scripture believed that the Hebrews at this point in time didn't have enough resources or anything else to build sites. They didn't believe that they had a religion that was very well developed at this point. They believe it all came later on. Well, they found this huge site.
And you can find all these articles online of people like wrecking this site, saying, like, all these Jews are saying this is some ancient site site or whatever. Like, this is obviously a Philistine site. They were taking over this land. This is obviously a whatever site. They were taking over this land.
They found an area of like, it was probably a dump or something like that in the middle of this area where all of these animal bones that people had been eating had just been tossed to the side. And what's fascinating is in any other site like this, in the Philistine region, which is in current, modern day, like Gaza and a little up the coast, any of that area, like, bones of all sorts of animals would be found.
They have picked through about 3,000 something different bones at this site. Not a single pig bone was found.
Right. Why is that significant? Well, culturally, religiously, that was an unclean animal. And every other Philistine site, they have found it. So this is actually one of the earliest true Israelite sites that they have found.
And what's fascinating as well is it's actually right next to the Valley of Elah. This is actually the valley, and for thousands of years it's been the same valley, like, and in the text it says the Israelites found Philistines pitted themselves in fortresses on opposite hills.
So it's just fascinating. Like, we don't know if this is exactly the place that, like, the Israel army was in camp, but it was really close. It could probably see the other one. But when it comes to archeology and proving, David, most people think Israel as a nation, as the people of God, did not exist like before probably 800 BC or so. And this dates all the way back to 1000 BC.
And their religious structure is in order because there's no pig bones or anything like that found. So that's your nerdy stuff for the day. Okay, moving on though.
First Samuel 17, 25, 58, significant chapter.
Now, 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 family from taxes in Israel.
David asked the men Standing near him. What shall 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?
They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, this is what will be done.
When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the man, he burned with anger at him. And he asked, why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle. And then David, like the classic little brother, says, now what have I done?
Can't I even speak? He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter. And the man answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul. And Saul sent for him.
David said to Saul, let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him.
Saul replied, you are not able to go against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a young man. And he has been a warrior from his youth. 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, I went after it struck it, rescued the sheep. He describes doing the same thing to a lion. And he says, the Lord who rescued me from the paw, the lion of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistines.
Saul said, go, and the Lord be with you.
Then Saul dresses David in his own tunic. He puts everything on, and then he says, I cannot go in these because I'm not used to them. He takes them off, goes, staff in hand, five smooth stones from the stream. People have said, those are Goliath's brothers.
Like, that's why he chose five stones. I don't know if you guys have heard that before, that the text mentions four or five other brothers that Goliath has. We don't really know. Like, you can say that, but just don't say it in confidence, because nowhere in the Bible does he actually say that. He could have just been saying, like, I mean, regardless, he's fighting a huge dude.
Like, I don't care if it's one stone or like five stones in his pocket. It's. It's pretty, like, crazy that he's even going into this situation.
Puts them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag, is sling his hand. He approaches the philistine Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over, saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, come here and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.
David said to the Philistine, one of the most epic texts in all of Scripture.
You come against me with the sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied this day the Lord will deliver you into my hands. I'll strike you down, I'll cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know there's a God in Israel.
All those gathered here will know that it is not by a sword or spear that the Lord saves from the battle is the Lord's and he will give you all into our hands. As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David epic moment, shows his trust in God, runs quickly towards the battle line, and it is a first round knockout. After David made that huge speech that was, I think 63 words in Hebrew, I think these were 18 words in Hebrew. He reaches into his bag, takes out a stone, slings it, strikes the Philistine in the forehead, he dies.
David walks over, cuts off the Philistine's head.
And then an interesting scene occurs at the end that I'll include a link to in our group me where Saul asks whose son that young man is. Because doesn't Saul already know who David is?
Answer that quickly. But in scripture, I think almost everything has a very specific purpose. And David has already been on the scene for a while now. He's been a shepherd, he's been around his brothers, he's met with Samuel, he's been anointed. But I think scripture, for a very specific reason with regards to the literature, doesn't have David speak until this moment. In this moment, David has not said a word yet. And his very first words are, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?
Who is this circumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
The best thing I can say about that, because we don't have a ton of time, is that this, I think shows why David is the type of person that God has chosen to be his next king. It shows what I would describe as theocentric thinking. Theocentric, so God centered thinking.
Everything that David thinks is not through the lens of how does this first and foremost impact me? But first and foremost, how does this relate to God?
The whole army of Israel sees Goliath as this huge, giant, scary person.
David sees him as an uncircumcised Philistine enemy of God.
There's a big difference there of how he views it. And I think when it comes to theocentric thinking, that's something that we can all do a little bit better in.
This is something that this would be such good discussion. I know that you guys have lived a lot more life than me, but he describes to Saul fighting with God's power, fighting off a bear and a lion.
And when Saul here says, go and the Lord be with you, I don't think it's necessarily as much that David logically convinced Saul. This is me inserting my thoughts in the text, but I don't think it's necessarily him logically convincing Saul. I think this is such a powerful speech that David is giving him, that Saul's like, God is with this dude. Like, go on, like, get it. Like, may the Lord be with you right now.
But my question I just want you guys to dwell on is how does remembering our past reliance on God help us in the future?
If you guys are going through anything right now, regardless of how old you are or how difficult the thing you're going through is, I challenge you to think about your past for a little bit. Just take a step away and remember the great things that God has done in your life.
Another point I wanted to make. What is the purpose of David and Goliath?
I can explain this in a lot of different ways, but I'll just tell you my pet peeve.
This text is not about David's bravery. And it's not meant to result in, in my opinion and I think in the text opinion in devotionals about how we just all need to go and fight our Goliaths and be brave.
Ultimately, ultimately, this text centers on David prioritizing God and his honor and trusting in God. But it's not David thinking about his own life here. It's David thinking about how God needs to be honored and God needs to be glorified. In the midst of all of this, how does Saul not recognize David? That's a good article I'll include.
And I know this is the end. In order to truly know David, we also have to read the Psalms.
Over Thanksgiving break, I'm going to include a few psalms and other things on the groupme as well. But for right now, think of Psalm 23 and specifically think of how this relates to David's beginning in 1st Samuel 16:17. You can get a lot out of that.
So we'll consider the Psalms. And then I challenge you guys, we won't meet for class next week. We'll all be out there. But I challenge you guys, if you haven't done this before, try to memorize a Psalm and try to use that as you walk throughout this next week to continue to be thankful for God and the good God that He is in your life. Thank you for the cough drop. Made it through.
Have a good night.
