The Morrisons

In our last post, David had reacted to Goliath’s challenge in disbelief that anyone could be so foolish as to challenge God.  He asked King Saul to let him go out and fight for God.

In 1 Samuel 17:37, perhaps against his better judgment, Saul agreed to let David fight Goliath:

Go, and the LORD be with you.

It seems ironic that Saul called on the LORD.  Perhaps Saul did have some small faith in God. Perhaps David’s words awoke a flicker of hope in Saul. Whatever the reason for his choice of words, it is clear that Saul had no other source of hope. The security of Saul’s kingdom now rested with David.

Verse 38 heightens the irony, by having Saul dress David in Saul’s own armour. David was a boy shepherd, not a soldier. He did not know how to use Saul’s armour. Saul was a seasoned warrior.  If anyone should have been fighting Goliath, it was Saul.

Abandoning the armour, David took up his staff and sling, and readied himself for battle.

Verse 42 gives us the human perspective again, because as David and Goliath came closer to each other Goliath was actually insulted by the pathetic spectacle that confronted him:

42 He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”

For the first time, Goliath called on his Gods, cursing David in their names and promising to show him no mercy.  David, though, trusted the LORD, and so as he confronted Goliath he confidently called on the name of the LORD:

“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

David saw not a battle between a giant and boy. Nor did he see a battle between Philistine gods and the LORD, for the Philistine gods were man made fictions. David saw a battle between a man and his maker. Goliath was a fool to think that he could defeat his maker.

The battle itself was over in short order. Goliath moved in to attack, but David ran at him with a stone in his sling and struck the Philistine on the forehead. Two verses was all it took. Perhaps, we might have hoped for a longer fight. If Peter Jackson had been writing this story, the fight would have taken up the greater part of the chapter. No doubt we would have seen the flow of the battle move from one side to the other, and back again. To be sure, David would have won in the end, but only by the skin of his teeth, bleeding from cuts all over his body.

That’s what we expect to see in a human battle between two worthy opponents, but this was not a human battle. Goliath was not fighting David, although David did stand before him. Goliath was fighting God. There are no heroic encounters when we battle God. He is our maker. Isaiah 40 tells us that God “sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.”

The giant Goliath was less than a grasshopper before the living God. God didn’t need a mighty warrior to defeat Goliath. He just needed a boy with a sling and a stone, who understood that those who trust in God will never be shaken. David believed that if he fought, God would fight for him. David acted, but God acted more.

Through his faith in God, David was used by God to win a great battle for Israel that day. For all his physique, and armour and great weapons, Goliath was defeated. David used Goliath’s own sword to end Goliath’s life.

The story of David and Goliath demonstrates that the LORD is sovereign indeed, and that he is the God of his people. The story also vindicates God’s choice of David to be king. God wanted Israel to have a king under God, who trusted God, and would lead God’s people to likewise trust in God.

In our next post we will briefly consider some implications for ourselves of the story of David and Goliath.