We’ve been looking at the Biblical account of the battle between David and Goliath. In the last post we saw that the Philistines had brought their armies together and invaded Israelite lands. As the Philistine and Israelite forces lined up before each other in the valley of Elah, the Philistine champion Goliath came out to challenge the King Saul as his men.
The writer tells us that when Saul and all Israel heard Goliath’s challenge they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Goliath’s challenge must have been particular frightening for Saul because Israel would naturally have looked to him to rebuff the challenge.
If you are familiar with the Old Testament history, you’ll know that Saul had come to power after the Israelites asked the prophet Samuel to give them a king like the other nations “that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 8:19)
Saul was chosen for the role because he was a physically impressive man. According to 1 Samuel 9, Saul was handsome and tall: “There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.” Indeed, in 1 Samuel 11, Saul had won a great victory over an Ammonite army which had besieged the Israelite town of Jabesh-Gilead, and it is clear from 1 Samuel 18:7 that Saul was a successful fighter.
Nevertheless, there was a problem. Simply put, Goliath was bigger than Saul. If this was to be a man on man battle, the odds were overwhelmingly in Goliath’s favour. So for all Saul physical prowess, he was afraid of Goliath.
Saul’s fear of Goliath pointed to a deeper problem, which was that Saul did not really know or believe his God. If he had, he would have known that God had promised to help his people when they faced enemy attack. In Deuteronomy 20, God had told the Israelites not to fear when they faced battle against enemy armies. He had promised to fight for his people when they faced their enemies.
In Deuteronomy 28, God had promised Israel that if they followed him faithfully he would grant that their enemies who rose up against them would be defeated before them. Though they came at Israel from one direction, they would flee from Israel in seven directions.
These promises had been repeated to Saul personally at the time he was chosen to be king. Saul had been anointed by God and told by the prophet, Samuel, that he would reign over the people of the Lord and save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. (Samuel 10:1).
Despite these promises, Saul had already shown a lack of trust in God, and an unwillingness to obey God’s commands as to how he should lead God’s people. On at least two previous occasions Saul had, through cowardice or unbelief ignored God’s specific directions for battle. Israel had asked for a king like the other nations, but just like the kings of the other nations Saul neither knew God nor trusted him.
1 Samuel 17:16 tells us that for forty days, morning and evening, Goliath came forward to issue his challenge to the Israelite forces. For forty days Saul’s fear must have grown. As the eyes of Israel and the Philistines fell on Saul, he felt inadequate to meet the challenge.
Humanly speaking, who could blame him? For what reason did Saul have to believe that he could defeat a man mountain like Goliath. Perhaps, as Saul saw Goliath approach each morning, he imagined his own body lying on the field of battle and his kingdom collapsing around him. Saul was no match for Goliath.
Do you know what it is like to face your own inadequacy? Maybe you’ve lived a life free from serious challenge. Maybe you’ve faced obstacles and overcome them. One day your Goliath will come. Maybe it won’t be in a human enemy. Maybe it will be a terminal illness. Cancer, or early onset dementia. The simple inevitability of your own death, or the loss of a dearly loved spouse or child. One day you will face an enemy you cannot defeat. Who will you look to on that day?
If Saul had known and trusted God, he would have had reason to feel confident even when facing such an opponent as Goliath. But he didn’t, and so as he heard Goliath’s challenge he was dismayed and greatly afraid.
Saul needed a saviour, but he didn’t believe in saviours. What was to be done?
This then was the setting for David’s entry into the battle. While Goliath had been bringing his challenge twice a day for forty days, David had been serving as a shepherd on his father’s farm in Bethlehem, some twenty kilometres away, unaware of Goliath’s challenge.
Like Saul, David had been chosen by God to be king over Israel. Unlike Saul, David knew God and believed his promises. In our next post, we will look at David, and see what a difference his faith in God made when he heard Goliath’s challenge.
