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Episode 505: In this episode, we delved into 1 Samuel 17, focusing on the iconic showdown between David and Goliath. We highlighted Goliath's intimidating stature and armor, as well as his psychological warfare tactics to instill fear in the Israelites. We discussed the importance of maintaining faith and perspective in the face of challenges, drawing parallels to the concept of running towards the roar.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode. Of The Bible Guy. The Bible Guy. You got to see it like that The Bible Guy. That's right, because it's an epic We are an epic podcast. Hey, I'm Chris. This is Wesley. Jeff's out of town and so we have enjoyed Wesley all. Week and day. This is the last day. It has come to an end, my friend, until next time, because I'm sure you'll be back before too long. Yeah, in the blink of an eye. So, hey, today, Desiree has given us a draft list she wants us to draft. Get this. She says, if you could choose any character from the Bible to be, who would it be? Play Rock paper scissors? Who goes first? And do it until you draft three each sow what crazy thing? Yeah, this is gonna be in state. Yeah, I like, we can't say Jesus because that feels sacrilegious. Let's just let's just let's just determine Jesus is off the table. Okay, so Bible characters, let's just pick humans. All right, so we got rock paper scissors. Right, we'll say one, two, three shoots. Okay, okay, ready, one shoot, all right, I'm rock. I get to go first. Okay, all right, I'm gonna say that I want to be the apostle Paul. That was one I was thinking to. Yeah. So Number one, he travels a lot. Number two he plants churches, which is fun. Yeah right, because you know I love planting churches, you know, being a part of a church plant anyway, and then and then I would also say Paul definitely lived in interesting times. Yea. His life was, you know, riddled with danger, so that part wasn't fun. But I think I would have liked to have seen and lived the life Paul lived. To get to the end of your life and say I fought the good fight. Yeah, that's a pretty That's not a bad day right there. Yeah, So anyway, that's my choice. Okay, So if I had to pick, I might say Peter, and I'll explain why Peter was. Peter is like that one friend you don't dare to do anything, you know, the one that hey, jump over that rock, he'll jump. So that's the part I liked about Peter. The fact that I feel like Jesus could have told him to do anything and Peter would have just been like. Hey, let's do it, you know. So that's the aspect. Yes, he was rough around the edges and some other stuff, but I like that aspect of Peter. Yeah, yeah, for sure, that's great. All right, I'm gonna choose Solomon, Okay. For wisdom, Yeah, he was. The wisest man who ever lived and one of the richest men who ever lived. Right. Of course, his downfall was you know, wives and concubines, right, so that that part wasn't good. But in terms of the experience, think about all the wisdom you have and all the things you get to experience and a life like really none other rights. That's crazy. So yeah, Solomon would be fun. My second one would probably be I don't want to say Moses. And the reason I say. Moses is because Moses felt that he wasn't qualified for the job, right, And I know there have been times in my life in ministry and my corporate background that I had where I didn't feel qualified for the job, Like God, what call somebody else? Why are you calling me to do this? Right? So that aspect I would say Moses. Okay, that's good, And then I would say my third choice is Elijah, because that's good. Yeah, because honestly, he definitely had his share of troubles. Yeah, he was in trouble. He had depression. I believe he probably struggled with mental health, you know, going from you know, one chapter to the next. You know, he goes from the mountain high to the record low, you know, wanting to die and all these different things. But even in spite of all that, I think that to be a part of the most epic challenge that this world probably has ever seen. On Mault Carmel with bail. In the in the in the pillar of fire, it just seems like to me he was this rough, rugged man's man, kind of a man who experienced things that were just unbelievable. Right. Plus I want to be able to run as fast as he was. Yeah right, that's a cool bonus. Yeah right, Yeah. The last one that's going to be tough. There are a lot of Bible characters, new and Old Testament. I would probably say Abraham in terms of his faith, Okay, that one section of the Bible where it talks about how God told him to sacrifice his son. Yeah, and his reply was that me and the lad will come back, right. You know, God had just said that you're going to sacrifice your son, but he had enough faith in belief that some kind of way this was going to work out for my goods. So the faith of Abraham. That's great. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And God will provide a ram, right, Yeah, yeah, that's great. As my grandmother would say, God's got a ram in the bush and all the time. That's awesome God for her. That's great. Well, hey, that was that was fun. Yeah? Right, So so mine were Paul, what was it, Paul, Solomon, Elijah. And Elijah. Those are pretty three pretty good ones. Yeah, what are yours? Yeah? I had Moses, Abraham and who's the other person, Peter Peter. Yes, yeah, yeah, those are I mean, they can't get wrong. Yeah, although I like that's better. Yeah. Well when you said Elijah, I was going to say, okay, I will raise you Elisha, I'll see your Elijah successor. That's great. So all right, well any thanks, that's ray. That was really fun. Yeah all right, so we're going first Samuel again. Yeah, and we're getting back to first Samuel and uh, we're actually going to be talking about Goliath challenging the Israelites, and this is going to be a a heck of a thing. So first, Samuel seventeen versus one through thirty one, is that, Yeah. That's correct, that's where we're at. Yeah, And this is new living translation, okay. And it says the Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camp between Soko and Judah and Azeka at e f s demein jobb. Saul countered by gathering his Israelite troops near the valley of Ela. So the Philistines and the Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them. Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet and a bronze coat of mail. Weighed weighed one hundred and twenty five pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor and carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver's beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield. Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. Why are you all coming out to fight? He called, I am a Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me. If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves. I would defy the armies of Israel today. Send me a man who will fight me. When Saul and the Israelites hurt this, they were terrified and deeply shaken. Now, David was the son of a man named Jesse and Ephrathite from Bethlehem in the Land of Judah. Jesse was an old man at the time, and he had eight sons. Jesse's three ODIs sons, Elie, app A, Benadad, and Shamiah, had already joined Saul's army to fight the Philistines. David was the youngest son. David's three ODIs brothers stayed with Saul's army, but David went back and forth so he could help his father with sheep in Bethlehem for forty days. Every morning and evening the Philistine champion strutted in front of the Israelite army. One day, Jesse said to David, take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers, and give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring back a report on how they are doing. David's brothers were with Saul in the Israelite army at the Valley of Ela, fighting against the Philistines. So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts. As as Jesse had directed him. He arrived in the camp just as the Israelite army was leaving for the battlefield, with shouts in battle cries. Soon the Israelite and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army. David left his things with the keeper of supplies and hurried out to the ranks to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out from the Philistine ranks. Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel. As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they begin to run away in fright. Have you seen the giant? The man asked? He comes out each day to defy Israel. The king is offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters for a wife, and the man's entire family will be exempted from paying taxes. David asked the soldier standing nearby, what will a man get for killing this philistine and ending his defiance of Israel? Who is this pagan philistine anyway? That he is allowed to defy the armies of living God? And these men gave David the same reply. They said, yes, that is the reward for killing him. But when David's oldest brother, Ellie, app heard David talking to the men, he was angry. What are you doing around here anyway? He demanded, what about those few sheep you're supposed to be taken care of. I knew about your pride and deceit. You just want to see the battle. What have I done now? David replied, I was only asking a question. He walked over to some others and asked them the same thing and received the same answer. Then David's question was reported to King Saul, and the king sent for him. Yes, we're not going to get to the battle today. We're still from there. But there's a lot here though, even leading up to this. Right, so, Goliath challenges the Israelites. You know, one of the first things that stands out to me is that many people don't realize is that it's not as if Goliath stood in front of everybody and said, hey, send champion, I'll be the champion, we'll fight, the battle will end, and then nothing happened. In fact, when when the Israelites refused to end the battle that way, there was an actual army against army every day, which is why it says that that Elliott was in there battling the Philistines because or Aliab or whatever his name is, Because you know, Goliath would get out every morning and say, hey, we get in this battle right now, send me a champion. They didn't have a champion. They go up against Goliath, taunt them, mocked them, killed them. But then when nobody, you know, took the challenge to end the battle, then they would battle every day and it was in a valley, which means they were up on one end, they were up on the other end. You know, Goliath was down in the middle. And then when nobody took the challenge, they would all meet down there, they would fight, they would go back up. So this went on day after day after day. There was fighting, there was killing, but nobody wanted to, you know, take the challenge and say, okay, let's consider you know, the victory to be determined by you know, these two champions, because everybody's like, there's no way, yeah, because you know, we can't defeat their champion, right, isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah, that's that's crazy. But it talks about well, let's back up a little bit and just deal with Goliath. He was well armored for this. Battle, well, goodness gracious, nine foot tall. Yeah, nine feet tall, and bronze. So this isn't bronze like some kind of a thin, cheap bronze. This is battle armor bronze, right, which is very different. It said that his chest of armor was one hundred and twenty five pounds. Yeah, and the tip of the spear was what twenty. Fifteen fifteen pounds yeah, So yeah, and then and then and his shield was so big he had to have a shield bearer. Yeah, right, And so think about this if you're nine, and it depends on how much you think a cubit is and so cube it is the distance between your fingers and your elbow, right, yeah, so everybody's everybody's that distance is, you know, it varies a little bit. Yeah, but when it measures cubits, that's basically it was. You know, it was a it was a cubit. So some translations actually, you know, sort of guess on the average cubit and they say that he was nine feet nine inches tall, and then other translations just say he was over nine feet tall. But either way that's tall. That's a big yeah either way, right, yeah, And so yeah, we know that his suit of armor was just one hundred and twenty five pounds just for his chest plate, his spirits fifteen pounds. I mean, this was a very strong man who is a soldier from birth, which means which means he was so confident that he actually taunted the entire army. You know, you know how confident you have to be to entire army. That's pretty bad. And then the fact where did it say it that he struted in front of him verse sixteen. The philistine champion strut it in front of the So it's one thing to just taunt them and you know whatever, whatever, But now you're strutting like a peacock in front of them, basically because you feel like you can destroy all of them at any time. Yeah, you know what, there's a sermon in here somewhere. Did you notice how he said, I am I am a champion of Warrison's birth, and you are just merely the servants of Saul. And what he did was he got them to believe. That all they were was just these these guys who served this tall king that was mildly popular. So he's getting in their heads. And then and then David comes along and says, who is this uncircumcised philistine who's allowed to defy the army of the Living God. So he puts the perspective back in the right place. Yes, at least at least to the people he's having a conversation to. But the point is is David has the right perspective. Hey, we're not just the servants of Saul. We're the army of the Living God who has promised us victory. Who has promised us fail, who has you know, who goes you know, into every battle with God's strength and might and favor and spirit and battle because remember it's war, which is ugly, but but remember that God is wiping out the people who are defying Him. Who are who are you know, defying the belief in Him, who are living for false gods and false idols. The Philistines were famous for worshiping Diagon as we saw back with Samson, right, and so there's all these false gods. And and and it's, uh, you know. God has declared that war is what Israel would do to wipe out God's enemies and at the same time declare victory and build God's kingdom that way. So so so yeah, they were shaking in their boots. And and by the way, as we're about to see, is that Saul is fearful himself. Saul is the tallest among all the at least you know, recorded wise anyway, he's the tallest among all the soldiers. And yet he himself is you know, shaking in his armor in his tent. Yeah right, So, so hey. If your leader is doing that, you're really going to be scared. Chances are nobody's gonna challenge Goliath. Yeah right, Yeah. Verse eleven sticks out to me when it says when Saul and the Israelites hurt this, they were terrified and deeply shaken. So when they. Hurt the taunts from Goliath, they were terrified and deeply shaken. There's another verse in the Bible that talks about how the devil is like a. Roaring lion, seeking whom he may destroy. Right, And if you ever watch a lion like on nat Geo National Geographic, the lion will sometimes roar to stun or disorient its prey, right, you know, it's kind of like a battle tactic. The lion is like trying to get into the head of the people. So I think that's exactly what Goliath was doing here, that that he's trying to disorient them, strike fear in their hearts so they can be kind of paralyzed, stuck in the exact spot that they are in. But I think it's very important to remember that during those times when there's that roaring lion, God's got our back, right, So, yeah, that lion might be roaring, but I'm not living my life. We talked about this on another day I'm not living my life based on what I hear and what I see. I'm living my life based on my faith. I know God's going to come through for me. So let the lion roar, let Goliath strutt and taunt. I know that God's got my back, right. Yeah. Well, there's a Christian author I don't remember who it was, but he just wrote a book on this recently in the last several years. It was called Run Toward the Roar. Yeah, are you fami with this? Yeah, I've heard that book before. I've never read it, but I so. The idea was is that the lion, the male lion, roars to scare the prey to run backwards. Yeah, to run away from the roar, because they have surrounded the prey and little does the prey no that behind him are all of the hunting lionesses who are basically weighing to pounce. And so when he roars in front of them, he's trying to get them to run away from the roar so that they can run into a trap. Right, And so the book is saying run to the roar because the lion's job isn't The lion's job is just to scare you. That's the only job of the lion, and chances there's only one lion to deal with right ahead of you. But if you run away as a coward, and you run in fear, not believing that God's going to give you the victory, then you're going to run backwards into more trouble. So run towards the roar. Isn't it a great concept? That's awesome? Yeah, the book is built on that. Battles are one. You can talk to sports athletes and they will tell you that battles are one. In the mind. You can have two pro athletes, same skill level. One believes that they're a world champion, the other one believes that, yeah, maybe being a world champion is possible, and the one who truly believes that they're the world champion will I'll play the other one even if they're at an equal skill level. Right, It's all in your belief in what you believe that you can do. Right. Yeah, isn't that crazy the way that that happens, But that is absolutely true for sure. So so anyway, as we look at this setup for you know, the battle of David Goliath, we know that you know, first of all, we know that David is only sent there just to bring loaves and cheese. And I love how the cheese was for the captain. Yes, I love how so he's giving the cheese to the captain. That's over the brothers or the sons in that case. And I kind of look like, you know, hey, just this is for the captain. Make sure he takes care of my son's kind of a thing. So I thought that little subtle thing was interesting. That's really interesting. And who knows, maybe it was intentional. Maybe maybe Jesse said, let's give you an excuse to go talk to the captain so that he can you know, you know, recognize how I see you, David, which is which is impressive. Right, So he didn't know how I was going to play out. But but either way, David gets there and what does his brothers do, same thing they always did. What are they doing here? And notice how they minimize his worth? Who's watching those few sheep, right? I mean it's not even just you know, you're the lowest. The shepherds were the lowest of all the jobs, right, So it wasn't enough just to give him calling the shepherd and demean him. It's you're the lowly shepherd of the couple of sheep. Yeah, and he says, I know your pride coming to see the battle, and and maybe that's their pride, because what they're doing is they're deflecting because here's David. Uh. It's basically announcing and saying, like, hey, how come nobody's standing up to this? This uh, this philistine And basically that's an embarrassment to every mighty warrior who's listening. To David, which is why he's deflecting. And he's saying, he's like, what are you doing here? Anyway? Golden watched those few sheep, but let the men do their work, right, you don't know anything about it. Why are you making fun of us? And he's really embarrassing his brothers. But you know, hey, he's not trying to embarrass his brothers. He's trying to, you know, inspire. He's trying to proclaim what is true. He's trying to demonstrate faith. He's trying to announce that he has enough faith to kill the giant. And so David isn't trying to be rooted in pride. It's actually Elieb's pride that is actually deflecting his embarrassment, and so think about that. You know, when people make fun of you, when they put you down, it's probably a whole lot less about you. It's probably a whole lot more about them. Because people hurt people, because people really act out in their brokenness. And if you're at a situation at your workplace and your boss lashes out at you, just know the chances are that person is probably acting out in a dysfunctional way because of a hurt or some kind of of unprocessed wound that they had when they were a child. And it's hard for us to have that perspective. Sometimes there's a term called misplaced anger. That's right where you will see people who I lash out at you, but it really has nothing to do with you. It's about something that happened earlier in the day with me. Yeah, so I'm giving you this response based on that. Yeah, it's totally displaced. It has nothing to do with you. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and so and so all of these things are are present, so we see that. You know, there's a song by remember that old band they were really popular back in the nineties. What are they called Casting Crowns. You remember a Voice of Truth so the chorus says, in the voice of Truth will say a different story. Basically, it says there's a voice it talks about Peter, and it says the voice of the waves say you're going to crash, But I'm gonna listen to the voice of Truth, which is Jesus in front of me. And then the second verse says, I'm standing in front of a giant, and I could choose to listen to the voice of the giant telling me I'm just a servant of soul. Or I could listen to the voice of Truth. Right, it says that you'll be for my glory. You know. I want to sing it, but basically it's which voice are you going to listen to? That's the challenge of the horse right And and it really is a great song because it reminds us that you know, even though the world says that this is who you are, just remember really who you are right, who you are in Christ, who you are with God at your side, what you can do what God has promised for you, believing in the promises of God and recognizing you know just who it is that God says you are, because really the one who designed you is the only one who has the power to define you. Right, Yeah, that's really good. You need to repeat that one again. The one who does design you. The one who designed you, is the only one who has the power and the right to define you. It's it is, it is right there. So hey, well, looks like that is our time together. And so we will pick up on Monday, of course, with the Battle of David and Goliath, and I think Jeff will be back then. Who knows whether I'll be here or not, Probably. Jeff will be here, So hopefully we'll see you next time on the Bible. Guys,