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1 Samuel 17
17:1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six1 cubits2 and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels3 of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. 8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years.4 13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.
17 And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah5 of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. 18 Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.”
19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, behold, 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.
24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. 25 And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” 26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”
28 Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” 30 And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.
31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. 32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”
38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39 and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.
41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And 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 beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a 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 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 host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath6 and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
55 As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56 And the king said, “Inquire whose son the boy is.” 57 And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
[1] 17:4
[2] 17:4
[3] 17:5
[4] 17:12
[5] 17:17
[6] 17:52
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to first Samuel chapter 17. And you will need your bible this morning instead of just looking in the worship guide. We we couldn't put all the text in there. First Samuel 17. We're gonna look at one of the most famous stories, if not the most famous story in the entire bible, the story of David and Goliath.
Jeffrey Heine:It is likely that if you have never once darkened the doors of a church, you never cracked open a Bible, you at least are somewhat vaguely familiar with this story, if for no other reason, it's referred to every single week on ESPN. There's always a David taking on a Goliath. There's always a Sanford taking on Georgia. And and you know, you hear when that's said, it's the true David and Goliath story, but with David getting pummeled. So there's some differences there, but at least you're familiar of hearing that language even if you never grew up in church.
Jeffrey Heine:And there's a couple of unwritten rules about this story. 1st, it has to be on the cover of every children's Bible. So if there's a children's Bible out there, it's gotta have, well, either Jonah and the whale or it's gotta have David and Goliath, normally with Goliath being about 20 feet tall. So that's the first unwritten rule. The second is this, you're prohibited to make any sports movie without a reference to this.
Jeffrey Heine:Because I feel like all sports movies talk about David versus Goliath. Who can forget the scene in Hoosiers, you know, when the small Indiana high school basketball team is going on to to play this huge school in the state championship. And of course, the preacher comes in, and he has to tell them the story of David slaying Goliath. Or from what I see as the best sports movie of all time, Rocky 4. It's it's a movie where, you know, Rocky takes on the giant Russian.
Jeffrey Heine:I've made my daughters watch that movie so many times. And when Rocky is facing off against the Goliath, of course, the reference is made. This is a true David versus Goliath story. So it's a story we're familiar with, maybe too familiar with, that we've kind of actually forgotten what the story is really all about. And, and so what I want us to do is try to look at this with fresh eyes and to remember what is this story actually talking about.
Jeffrey Heine:And so before we read the story, let me just go ahead and tell you. 1st, this story is about God and how God saves us. 2nd, this story is about how God gives us courage to face any and every fear. So with that in mind, let's read 1st Samuel 17. We'll begin in verse 1.
Jeffrey Heine:Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered to Socah, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socah and Azekah, and Ephesdameen. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of Elah and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was 6 cubits in a span.
Jeffrey Heine:He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. And a shield bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why have you come out to draw up for battle?
Jeffrey Heine:Am I not a Philistine? And are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourself and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all of Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. This is the word of the lord. Thanks, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:You would pray with me. Father, I do pray that this morning, you would allow us to see for who you are, a mighty and powerful living god who saves his people. And I pray that you would show us our desperate need for such a savior. And, lord, I pray that you would give courage to your people that we might face any and all the fears that lay ahead. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So this story, begins, at a place of battle or really at the place where there should be a battle, but there's not. It's just 2 armies staring at one another.
Jeffrey Heine:You have the Israelites, they're on a side of a mountain over here, and then there's a valley in between, and then you have the Philistines on that side of the mountain over there, but there hasn't been any fighting at all. They're just staring at one another day after day. The Philistines are the superior army. They are stronger in number, and they have superior technology than the Israelites. They were about as high-tech as you could get, which at that day meant having lots of bronze.
Jeffrey Heine:They were the metal workers working with bronze and working with with iron, and the Israelites could not match that. So the Philistines had the clear advantage, but they didn't want to, to risk losing any of their men in battle, and so they came up with an idea. Why don't instead of both armies fighting with each other, why don't we just send a champion, and that champion will go fight for each side. We pick a representative to fight for us. And and the rules were simple.
Jeffrey Heine:If the representative for the Philistines won, well, then the Philistines would win and all of Israel would submit to them as slaves. If the representative for the Israelites won, well then, well, actually, you don't even have to worry about it because there's no way that Israelites are gonna win because the Philistines have Goliath. You see, there's a reason that the Philistines came up with this idea and didn't say, well, why don't we just get you to 2 of our smartest people to play chess or checkers and see who wins? They wanted a battle because they had a behemoth of a man. They had Goliath.
Jeffrey Heine:Goliath was absolutely huge. Now translations about his height vary. If you are reading the Greek old testament, the Septuagint, any of y'all bring your Septuagint this morning? It's your time to shine. Don't be shy.
Jeffrey Heine:If you brought your Greek old testament with you, then your manuscript would say that he was 6 foot 9. If you have other translations with other manuscripts, it would say that he is over 8 feet. We're not entirely sure other than this. He was enormous, especially when the average height of a male at that time is around 5 foot 2. This was a guy who towered over anyone around them.
Jeffrey Heine:He was a mountain of a man. And notice here, as the narrator is describing all of these things, he doesn't go just to great lengths to describe Goliath's size. He takes his time to describe every piece of armor that Goliath is wearing. Alright. This is really unusual in Hebrew literature, which typically paints a really big picture using as few brushstrokes as possible, rarely gives all of these details, but here the author, I mean, slows down, and he is painting a picture describing every helmet, you know, every, coat of mail, the leg armor, the javelin, the shaft of the spear, how much each one of these things weighed, what each one of these instruments of war was made from.
Jeffrey Heine:He really takes his time. If you compare this with the actual fight, it's it's really kind of, you know, just screams out at you that there's something different in the way he's telling this story. Because the actual fight scene is one sentence. That's all you read is, you know, just one sentence about David slinging the rock and hitting Goliath. There is no how we would describe a fight scene, and David faced Goliath and they began circling around one another.
Jeffrey Heine:And David got out his sling, and he looked at the stone for a while. You know, and then he slung over faster and faster. You get none of that. It's actually not a very good campfire story. It's just very brief.
Jeffrey Heine:David slings the stone, hits Goliath. He's dead. Alright? The Hebrew scholar, Robert Alter, who I've referred to in the past, he says that the reason the author tells this story in such an unusual way, giving all of those details about the armor, is because he's actually telling a story within the story. This isn't just a story about 2 people fighting, we are to see this about as a story about 2 very different ways to go about fighting.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a story about 2 different ways of conquering one's fears. One way is to try and face your fears by making yourself as strong as possible and coming with the latest technologies. A second way to conquer your fear is to come in weakness with only the name of the lord. 2 very different ways to approach your fears. So that's the story within the story.
Jeffrey Heine:But there's actually a story within the story within the story. It's like an onion. You just keep peeling back these layers. So here's the story within the story of the story. The way Goliath's armor is described, especially his coat of mail there, is a very, very unusual word.
Jeffrey Heine:In Hebrew, it literally says this, Goliath was covered with scales. It's a rare word. It's one that would be used to describe a serpent. Goliath comes dressed like a giant serpent ready to wage war against God's people. Does that sound familiar to you?
Jeffrey Heine:If you remember, a little over a month ago, we went through the entire bible in an hour. And one of the things we we did was we landed at Genesis 3 for a while. In Genesis 3, in the Garden of Eden, we see a serpent. We see a serpent who hates God and hates God's people and wages war against Adam and Eve. And God, at that moment, He declared what would happen to that serpent.
Jeffrey Heine:He said, a day will come. I will send someone. I will send a rescuer to come and will cut off your head. And so we're to have that in mind as we are reading this story because now once again, there's a giant serpent who hates God's people, and he wants to put an end to them. And so we're left wondering, will the rescuer come?
Jeffrey Heine:Will someone come and cut off the serpent's head? So this is the story within the story within the story. Now every day, Goliath, he would come, he would come into this valley and for 3 times every day, he'd make his challenge. He'd look around and say, hey, I defy the ranks of Israel this day just like I did yesterday, just like I did the day before, just like I did the day before that. And if any of you have a problem with that, why don't you send someone to come and shut me up?
Jeffrey Heine:Just like I thought. Just like I thought, cowards. And then he'd walk off. I mean, the Israelites were just paralyzed with fear. What are they supposed to do with someone like that?
Jeffrey Heine:There's no way they could fight Goliath. They had zero chance of beating this guy. Alright. Now let me ask you this question, who was supposed to go out and fight Goliath for them? King Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:Remember when we looked back earlier when, the Israelites requested for a king? They said, we want a king, we want a king. Do you remember why they wanted a king? We want a king who will go out and fight our battles for us. It's literally the reason they wanted a king.
Jeffrey Heine:Saul was supposed to be out there fighting for them. And if you remember, Saul was described as being head and shoulders above anyone else. He was a tall big man, So at least he would have had a puncher's chance against Goliath. Saul is nowhere to be found. Perhaps he's hiding in the luggage again.
Jeffrey Heine:We we we don't know. He just he's not there on the battlefield. And so now it looks like Israel doesn't have any champion to come and to rescue them. So who will fight? Enter David.
Jeffrey Heine:David is not here on the battlefront because he's too young. He's not old enough to even be in the army. And so David's back at home. He's watching sheep while his brothers are off on the battlefront. His dad sends him to go check up on his older brothers and says, here, give him some food, get the commander some cheese, and would you bring back news for me?
Jeffrey Heine:I wanna I wanna hear how things are going. And so he sends David to go to the battlefront. And so David arrives here at the scene, and he gets to see and he gets to hear Goliath for the very first time. He hears the taunting, but David has a much different reaction than everyone else. We read about that in verse 26.
Jeffrey Heine:And David said to the men who stood by him, what shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Now when David sees the Philistine for the first time, he doesn't cower, he instead gets angry. Who does this man think he is saying those things about the armies of the living God? These are his very first David's first recorded words in scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the first things he ever says. It's also the very first time in this narrative that God is introduced. No one ever speaks about God until this point. And David doesn't just mention God, notice what he calls God. He's the living God.
Jeffrey Heine:Of course, all of his Hebrew brothers and sisters, of course, they believed in God, but they acted like their God was dead. David here though, he worships and he serves a living God, and this changes absolutely everything because a living God will act on behalf of his people. The Israelites looked at Goliath and they saw a reason to fear. David looks at a Goliath and he sees a reason to act. The Israelites hear Goliath's taunts, and they cower.
Jeffrey Heine:David hears Goliath's taunts, and he thinks blasphemy. I will shut that mouth. What is incredible about this entire situation is the Israelites and David are both looking at the same person. It's not like David couldn't see that Goliath was huge, that he couldn't see his, you know, rippling muscles there, that he he couldn't see all of the latest technological armor that's there. It's not like David couldn't see those things.
Jeffrey Heine:He saw those things clearly, but he didn't see himself as having to face those things alone. He saw them through eyes of faith. I serve a living God and the living God will be with me. Seeing those Goliaths through the lens of a living God changes everything. So let me ask you, as as one of the points of this story is that we would have the courage to face every fear, I want you to think of the things that you fear in this life.
Jeffrey Heine:Think of your enemies, the enemies that look in invincible to you. Do you have any anxieties, or do you have any fears that just keep you awake late at night? Once you just keep mulling over and over and over in your mind, you go over every detail of their armor. In your mind, you're just you see them as huge. You're like, oh my gosh, they could do this.
Jeffrey Heine:They could do this. Yeah. They could do this. All these things could go wrong. Perhaps in your mind as you're mulling all these things over, you begin mulling over all the different strategies you could take to conquer this fear.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, what if I said this to this person? What if I strategically did this? And 1 by 1, all those things you realize they're not gonna work. Because my enemy is just superior. And so you just keep mulling it over and mulling it over, going more and more into despair.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me ask you. As you are thinking about how to conquer your fears or if it's even possible, does God even come into the equation? I'm not asking if you believe in God or believe in God as a doctrine or believe in God as a principle. I'm asking if in that moment, when you hear the booming voice of that enemy and fear hits your body, it's echoing in the valley of your heart, is God part of the equation? Is he alive to you in that moment?
Jeffrey Heine:Or does your God only exist on the black ink of the white pages of your bible? And he's as good as dead. Hear me, if you cannot trust God for your day to day salvation, what makes you think you could trust him for your eternal salvation? If you cannot trust God in these small everyday matters of your life, what makes you think you should then trust Him with the huge eternal things about your life? God here, he's alive and he gives us courage to face our fears.
Jeffrey Heine:David would later write Psalms about this. One of the most famous Psalms we know, Psalm 23 easily could be about this story right here. In which David is looking down at this valley, which is a valley of death. He says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. He's not denying that when he looks at that valley, for every person entering it, it's a valley of death.
Jeffrey Heine:Yet, the living god, the lord is with me, and I will fear no evil. Do you see the lord as being with you when you walk in the valley? Yay, though I walk through the valley of anxiety and depression, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Yay. They all walk through the valleys of high school halls and have flooded with all the gossiping, self absorbed, backbiting teenagers, yet you are with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Yea, though I walk through the valley of singleness in the city, surrounded by everyone who seemingly is has family and is married. Yet you are with me, and I will fear no evil. Yay, though I walk through the valley of a difficult marriage, and it's not the taunts of Goliath, it's the taunts of my spouse that I hear daily. Yay, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Do you believe that? Or does your god only exist on black ink on white pages in your bible? The words that David spoke quickly spread, and they reached Saul's ears. So David is brought before Saul and really because Saul has no other options at this point, and there is no other options, his best strategy is to send a boy in to go fight Goliath.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says, fine. Go and fight, But at least take my armor as you're going to do it. And so, just just picture the scene. The armor that should have been on Saul, that was meant to fit Saul, is now trying to be put on little David. Of course, he can't wear this armor.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he puts it off. He says, I I can't I can't wear this. It also shows by Saul offering this to him that Saul still does not get how to fight this battle. He tries he's trying to fight the enemy by becoming like the enemy. He's trying to fight strength with strength.
Jeffrey Heine:But that's not how you fight a Goliath. You fight in weakness, trusting in the name of the Lord. David refuses to wear the armor and instead he just goes and he gets some stones. It's 5 of them for all various reasons for why he gets 5 stones, don't know. I will say Goliath had 4 brothers.
Jeffrey Heine:We find that out later, but he gets 5 stones, and he gets his sling, and he goes out to face the giant serpent. Verse 41, we finally get to the battle scene. And so let me take time to read this. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David and his shield bearer in front of him, which I think is cheating, by the way. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him.
Jeffrey Heine:For he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog? That you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beast of the field.
Jeffrey Heine:Then David said to the Philistine, I love this. Never mock a teenager. They they come armed. David said to the Philistine, you, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a 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. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head.
Jeffrey Heine:And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know. He's pointing to the Israelites. All of this assembly here, that they may know that the Lord saves, not with sword and spear. For the battle is the lord's, and he will give you into our hand.
Jeffrey Heine:When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into the forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. Now let me ask you this. When you hear that story and the times that you've read that story in the past, where do you where do you see yourself in this story?
Jeffrey Heine:What character are you in this story? Almost everyone immediately identifies with David. I'm David in this story. I mean, I I the number of times I would read through the story as a kid in my children's bible, like, I'm always David. That's that's that's who I'm going to be because everybody wants to be the hero.
Jeffrey Heine:Everybody wants to be the warrior, the one who fights. You know, one of the things, I noticed after the Lord of the Rings movies came out, I have to do my Lord of the Rings reference every month, after that movie first came out, you know, and that Halloween following the the when when the movies came out, kids are all dressing up like Lord of the Rings characters. Who do they dress up as? They're dressing up like Gandalf because he's all powerful. You know, you've got Aragorn.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm gonna totally geek out for those of you who don't know. Aragorn, you know, he's he's got his big sword. You got Legolas the elf, who's just an assassin. You you've got, you've got Gimli the dwarf with this huge ax. Everybody's dressing up like them.
Jeffrey Heine:You know who I never saw any kid dress up like? Frodo. Who wants to be the guy who doesn't kill anyone? And that's actually Tolkien's entire point. The enemy is conquered through weakness.
Jeffrey Heine:But nobody wants to be the weak person. So anytime we project ourselves in a story, we always see ourselves as we're the strong ones. We're the warriors. And so we read this story and we think, yeah, that's who I am. I'm supposed to be like David.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm the hero. Isn't that the point of this story? Well, sort of. Absolutely. One of the points of this story is that you were supposed to have faith like David.
Jeffrey Heine:He's obviously given to us as an example of faith that we need to trust God in order to face our fears. That's why he's mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 as being example of faith. But Hebrews does not end by saying fix your eyes on David. Hebrews ends by telling us to fix our eyes on another person, the founder and author of our faith. That founders the word archagos, hero of our faith.
Jeffrey Heine:There's a different hero we are to look at. You see, we're not David in this story. We're the people on the sidelines scared out of our minds. We're the ones who are paralyzed with fear. The ones who hear the voice of Goliath coming and speaking doom over us.
Jeffrey Heine:And we know that what lay ahead of us is just a life of slavery or death unless someone comes to take on that serpent. That's who we are. We're not David in this story. We're the people paralyzed by fear. And then this story comes and introduces for the first time this idea of a savior coming to rescue his people.
Jeffrey Heine:First time we see this in scripture this way, a savior coming in this light. And and by that, I mean this, a savior who's coming to fight for his people and as one of his people. A savior coming to fight as a representative. David comes here in the name of the Lord. The phrase, I come in the name of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:I know like today that's become somewhat of a popular phrase. It's in a lot of our songs, to come in the name of the Lord, but it's actually a really unusual phrase in scripture. It's only seen twice in the old testament to come in the name of the lord. Right here and in Psalm 118. That's it.
Jeffrey Heine:You happen to mention a few times in the new testament, but only when quoting Psalm 118. To come in the name of the Lord is is a rare phrase. It means to come as the Lord's representative, to come as his ambassador, to come as a representative, not only representing God, what an ambassador does, it represents both God and represents the people. Does that sound familiar to you? When David enters in that valley, he's not just fighting as one of them, he's fighting for them.
Jeffrey Heine:And so his defeat would be their defeat. His victory would be their victory. Whatever happens to him is then imputed to all the people. This is where that idea is introduced to us in scripture. And so instead of saying David here as just a mere example for us to follow, we really need to see David as someone, a giant sign who is pointing to our savior.
Jeffrey Heine:The greater David. The one who would take on someone much bigger than Goliath. We don't have time to get in this. Man, I wish we did. It's amazing.
Jeffrey Heine:So I'm just gonna tease it. After David defeats Goliath, he cuts off his head. Once again, this is a flashback to when Yahweh took on the idol of Dagan, remember, chopped off his head. David does the same thing now to this another Philistine symbol. But read if you read ahead, you'll notice what he does with his head.
Jeffrey Heine:He takes the head to Jerusalem. It's a weird detail. You read through any of the commentators, and they they literally just kinda scratch their head. They're like, that's strange, because Jerusalem is not even the capital city of Israel at this point. David's gonna make that the capital city way down the road.
Jeffrey Heine:Jerusalem is a is a is a nobody city. Why in the world does David chop off Goliath's head and then have it sent to Jerusalem? I think what you're getting here is a prophetic seed, if you will. Saying at that place in Jerusalem, a day will come in which a serpent's head will be cut off. And it won't just be Goliath, but it will be the serpent that we have known since the dawn of time.
Jeffrey Heine:In which someone's gonna come and take on sin and death itself. 5 days before Jesus was to be crucified, what we know as Palm Sunday. Jesus enters into Jerusalem. You remember that scene, people are lining the streets, they're waving their palm branches, they're all shouting. Do you remember what they shouted?
Jeffrey Heine:Hosanna. Hosanna. Which means save us. Save us. Blessed is he who what?
Jeffrey Heine:Comes in the name of the Lord. There's that phrase. Save us, save us. The one who like David is gonna come in the name of the Lord. The one who's gonna come and take on our enemies.
Jeffrey Heine:They were waiting for the savior David to enter to Jerusalem. The problem was they had the wrong enemy in mind. They think that Jesus was going to come and take on a earthly figure like a Goliath, like Rome. Rome was not the enemy. Jesus was gonna take on a much greater enemy.
Jeffrey Heine:The serpent that's been there since the dawn of time. He was gonna take on the ultimate enemy of sin and death. And Jesus did not just go to the valley of the shadow of death. He went to the valley of death. He went to death itself to take on that enemy, and he won victorious.
Jeffrey Heine:And now that righteousness, that life is imputed to us. Because Jesus won, we won. We no longer have to fear any death. We don't have to fear any enemy. When your greatest enemies have been vanquished, there's nothing left to fear.
Jeffrey Heine:All those little fears that hit you in life, you need not fear them. When sin and death have been taken care of. We serve a living God who walks with us in the valley of the shadow of death, and you know what? He came out the other side. What this means is we can now sing with Paul in 1st Corinthians 15.
Jeffrey Heine:Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who has given us victory through our lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we do thank you for not just going into the valley of the shadow of death, but for going into death itself. And, Lord, you conquered death. You have slain our greatest enemy of all. We thank you and we praise you for that.
Jeffrey Heine:Because you have conquered that greatest of all fears, we need not fear anything else in this life. So, Lord, I pray that we would trust in the living God. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, our savior. Amen.