"The Stories We Tell, Tell a Lot About Us": a few thoughts on I Samuel 17:32-37

           I would like to take you to the cross-roads where God’s story of faithfulness interests with your story, my story, and the story of David, the young shepherd who took down a giant named goliath.

            Take a look at the book of first Samuel chapter 17. Here we will find ourselves in a story that is well known to many of us. However, by the end of this post I hope to challenge your ideas of what it means to be courageous, to be a shepherd, and to trust in God.

I want you to see how God has used you in the past to accomplish his will! You have been the instrument of God’s power in the world and his agent of grace to others. In our weariness, it is easy to forget how God has used you to fight his battles; to accomplish his purpose. You have many victories in your past and these past victories must affect how we fight today’s battles.

            We will look most closely at I Samuel 17:32-37 and learn from David’s response when he was questioned by King Saul regarding is ability to go up against the Giant. But before we do that allow me to set these verses in context by telling you the story of how David came to stand before Saul.

Now at this time the Philistines came out to fight against Saul and the men of Israel.  They took up positions on the top of a mountain. The men of Israel took up positions on top of another mountain and there was a valley between them.

From the Philistine camp, came their champion a giant called Goliath of Gath. He was a man of enormous size, almost 10 feet in height. He wore armor of bronze and fought with a spear, sword, and javelin. For 40 days the giant came out and shouted to the army of Israel “Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he can fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. This day I defy the army of Israel. Give me a man, that we may fight against one another.”

When Saul and all of Israel heard the giant’s words they were greatly afraid.

But back in Bethlehem, there was an old man named Jesse who had 8 sons. His 3 oldest sons had followed Saul off to war. His youngest son was named David. He was the Shepheard of his father’s flocks. Sometime after the older sons had gone to war, Jesse told David to go and take this bread and cheese to your brothers and see if they are well.

So, David rose early, left the sheep with a keeper, took the food, and went off to find his brothers. When he came to the camp the men were just heading out to the battle lines. David found his brothers, and as he was talking with them, behold from the ranks of the enemy came the giant challenging the armies of the living God and all the men of Israel were afraid.

When David heard the words of the giant he said “What shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and removes this shame from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, who thinks that he can defy the army of the living God.” But David’s older brother became angry with David and said “Why have you come here? And who is watching is watching your few sheep? I know the evil that you have in your heart. You have only come to see the fighting.” But David said “What have I done. I was only talking.” When Saul heard what David had said, he had David brought to him. Now David stood before Saul and said “Do not fear this giant. I will go out and fight him.” But Saul said to David. “You cannot fight this Philistine, you are too young and this man has been a warrior from his youth.”  But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when a lion, or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it, attacked the beast, and delivered the lamb out of its mouth. And if the animal arose against me, I caught it by his beard and killed it.  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.”  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!” Then Saul gave David with his armor.

Thoughts

How in the world do you go from the king refusing to let you fight to having the king’s blessing and personal armor? Let’s take a closer look at what David said in verse 32. 

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

First, David was courageous when everyone else was afraid.

          Everyone one was afraid of Goliath, everyone except the Shepheard. David was the only one willing to God against the giant. David stood alone when he stood against the Goliath. The regular troops were unwilling to take the risk of losing and condemning the nation of Israel to slavery. I am not even sure if that factored into David’s thinking. David understood that work of God in his life. When David talked to Saul he makes no mention of risk. It is possible that David saw no risk. David had seen the power of God in his life and he know that with God the giant did not stand a chance.   

David knew that he was the man to fight the giant. He had been prepared by God to win this fight. The action that David took was the response that God had built into David. David could not stand there and listen to his God endure insults. You can hear the confusion in his voice. Why is no one else acting? David knew that the giant must be confront and he had no problem being the one to do it. It was the only thing that made sense to David. He did not tell his brothers you should really be out there fighting. He did not say to Saul, “What is your deal? You’re the one with all this nice armor. Why aren’t you out there trying to kill the giant?” You see shepherds don’t do that.

While living in the Africa I learned something about shepherds. Shepheard are the most hellacious fighters on the planet. And I have often been within earshot of their battles. In northern Uganda, I lived with a warrior people named the Karamojong. The Karamojong fought with anyone over cattle. I knew a soldier once that had been in many battles against the Karamojong. I asked him what it was like to fight these Shepherds. He said “shepherds are deadly because they do not fight like soldiers. We soldiers set undercover while the shepherds attack at night. We were many they were few but they would run through the darkness at a dead sprint holding only a spear and a rifle. As they ran they would throw the spear into the ground then quickly settle the rifle on the butt of spear and fire one round, barely breaking their stride. We would see the shepherd’s muzzle flash, but by the time we had turned our guns on him he was shooting us from behind.”

Shepherds fight to protect their livestock and shepherds fight to remove shame from their tribe or village. David’s reaction to Goliath makes since to a shepherd. But David was not your average shepherd. If you remember the story before this story, in I Samuel 16 verse 13 when Samuel anoints David the Scripture says that “…the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.” David was a shepherd with the power of God upon his life.      

 The New Testaments teaches that every Christians has the Spirit of God upon there their life (I Corinthians 2:11-14). The prophet Joel’s words were fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. The power of God in our lives is activated as we do what we are called to do. David, as a young man, was called to protect his father’s sheep. He protected his father’s sheep in the power of the Spirit of God. You may be called to parent, lead a business, work a job, minister full-time, or any other role that God in his sovereignty has placed you in. If you are in Christ you have his Spirit in your life. With the Spirit of God in our lives we are not like we were before we came to Christ. We are different. Sadly, many believers are far to simpler to non-Christians. Few things differentiate us from the culture. David was not like the other shepherds. David was not even like his brothers.

There will be times in our lives when we will have to stand up for God and we may be the only ones willing to take that stand. Throughout the history of the church there are many stories of one person standing down an army of opposition. When those who should have already been in the fight are too afraid to make a move you are impressed by the Spirit to take action. Please don’t doubt the power of God in your life when these times come. You may find yourself standing against your friends or family, but with God, you are always the greater force.

You may find yourself standing alone but know that you are not truly alone. You have the Spirit in you and likely you will find that there are others ready to charge once strike the first blow. Sadly, even the King was frightened by the giant. I am sure that he felt like he had the most to lose. As King he and his family would lose everything is he made a wrong move. Remember this was not a single event. Goliath did not come out to defy the army of Israel once. By the time David had arrived, Goliath was on day 40. The men of Israel were paralyzed with fear and Saul was no better. They had the means, the men, and the weapons, but what they did not have was courage. The men of Israel had lost heart. For some of you, you may find that you are not the strongest, wealthiest, or the best educated, but you have not lost your heart. I have often been encouraged by a younger brother or sister who did not overthink the situation but were ready to act on the truth of the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Often the person God uses is not considered by others to be the best equipped for the job. The soldiers in Saul’s ranks were armed for battle with only commons weapons. I imagine that to the soldiers David seems extremely underdressed for the occasion. Saul, too, considered David to be unarmed for battle.       

But David was armed for battle when entered Saul’s tent and he was armed with far more than a stick and sling. He had much more, he had stories!    

Let’s look again at verse 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.” 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, I went after him and struck him and delivered the lamb out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

Second, David’s courage was based on experience.

            David accepts the challenge to fight Goliath because he knows that he will win. David was not driven by blind rage; he was driven by what he had already done. His past experiences had thoroughly prepared him to fight and kill the giant. He had seen the power of God in his own life. When challenged by Saul David told Saul his story.

            When I first arrived in Chad I knew that it was going to be difficult. But I also knew that we would make it, not because I hoped that God would do something in the future, but because I had seen God work in my life in the past. In those dark days, I was both Saul and David. I questioned myself and I responded to these questions with stories from my own journey in service to Christ. I told myself stories of my life during South Sudan’s Civil war and being trapped by conflict and how God used our presence to proclaim his Gospel to the Dinka of Bar El-Gezal. I told stories of being dropped in the jungle for months at a time with one strategy, win people to Jesus. I told myself stories of challenging years of marriages, of sickness, of difficult pregnancies, and of souls saved out of absolute hopelessness.

Goliath was not David’s first fight. David had been in many fights. And so have you. Many of you fought battles as kids through difficult childhoods and God sustained you. Some of you have been through serious illnesses, personally or in your family and God brought you through it. A few of you have lived under threats of death and suffered attacks for following Christ and God has protected you. I want you to open your eyes to see how God has kept you for himself in big and small ways. God has lifted you up time and time again. It doesn’t always feel like it, but the Christian lives with constant access to the greatest power in the universe. We can trust God to show his power and even trust him for the results. God does not always work in the ways I would like him too. But I trust him to work in his ways, which are much higher than mine.

The amazing thing about David’s story is that he struck down the lion, but knew it was God who kept him from being struck down by the lion. Some of us, if we were David, would be telling this story in a much different way. We would be questioning why God even let lions and bears near our sheep. We might even blame God for the attack and attempted theft of the lamb. But David saw himself as God’s agent of protection. He did not wait for God to strike the lion with lighting. David stuck the lion himself knowing the power of God in his life.      

Verse 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!”

Lastly, David’s courage was based on faith in God not faith in himself.

            David knew that the Lord had delivered him from the lion and the bear and that he would be delivered from the giant. His confidence was not blind faith but faith based on lived experience of God’s presence in his life. David was not so impressed with his own abilities to fight and win as with who he knew God to be. David’s courage was based on this theology. He knew God. Not only did he know God and believe God but he took him at his word and lived a life as a shepherd that proved the power of God in David’s life with every encounter with every lion or bear. David was living in God’s power and had survived to his young age only because of the work of God in his life. David knew God, he knew how God had used him in the past, and he knew how God wanted to use him that day in combat against the giant.

David did not offer Saul empty promises or an easy way out, if his idea didn’t work as planned. He offered action. He knew what needed to be done and he knew that he was the one to do it. I do not see David’s killing of Goliath as a miracle in itself; as if David was this weakling little boy and God performed a miracle in guiding the stone that killed Goliath. This is not a story of what God did not spite of David’s weaknesses, it is a story of what God did through David’s strengths. This is a story about what happens when some big slow giant messes with the wrong delivery boy empowered by the Spirit God, who also happens to kill lions and bears on the side. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Now let me summarize the rest of the chapter.

David put on Saul’s armor but it was useless to a shepherd. He could not fight in a way that was consistent with who he was. So, David took up his staff and 5 smooth stones and his sling and went out to fight the giant. The giant moved towards David and saw that he was only a boy. Goliath said to David “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?” The giant then cursed David by the Philistine gods and said: “Come here and I will feed your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild beast.” David then said to the giant “You come at me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come at you in the name of the Yahweh, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have insulted. Today the Lord will give you unto my hands and I will strike you down and cut off your head. I will feed the flesh of your army to the birds of the air and to the wild beast and all will know that there is a God in Israel and all here will know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. This battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into my hands.

The giant arose and moved toward David and David rushed towards the giant. David took out a stone and with his sling struck the giant. The stone sank into the forehead of the giant and Goliath fell to the ground. David killed Goliath with a stone, he had no sword. He ran up to the body of Goliath, took the giant’s own sword, and cut off his head. When the Philistine army saw that their champion was dead, they tried to escape but the men of Israel and Judah chased them up to Gath and the bodies of the Philistines fell along the way.         

Closing Application

       I am not sure if this fight was even close to fair. David was quick. Goliath was likely slow. Goliath’s heavy spear was a thrusting spear designed to break through armor and crush bone. David was a projectile fighter. He wasn’t going to get anywhere near Goliath’s close-range weapons. David fought in God’s power and God gave the result. But David was well prepared for this fight. He did not know it but God had been preparing David to kill this giant and secure victory for the armies of the Lord.            

                How has God worked in your life? You have the Spirit of God in your life but are you willing to go to battle and let God show his power in you. Are you like the older brothers, content to stand in the battle lines day after day living in fear? David was not perfect. He had many flaws and made many mistakes, but he knew where his power came from and what he needed to do when God called him to act.