Answers in Genesis--Spring 2017--Lesson 1, David and Goliath

Well, I hope you guys had a good week in the Lord. we're actually starting a new quarter. Of Sunday school. We've been studying the, the title of it was Obedience and Disobedience as we were finishing up Joshua, Judges in the first part of Samuel, and now we're in the middle of 1 Samuel and, and we're the theme over the next 13 weeks is the wisdom of God as we move into the period of the Davidic kingship.

We're gonna be talking about Solomon, the Proverbs. And then we're gonna be into the United Kingdom and the divided Kingdom. One of the questions that we will be seeking to answer this morning is who killed Goliath? Who killed Goliath and, so we'll, obviously, probably the, the first answer that comes to mind is who?

David, right? So, everybody would say David killed Goliath. What do you think the underlying answer might be? God, there you go.

So now we can just close in prayer and we'll all go home. No, so, basically, let's just do a little bit of review. It's been a while. the big purpose of our Sunday, adult Sunday school, is this.

It's a pair offamily ministry designed to come alongside of our families in their journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, the reason that we've, we're offering a Sunday school program while there's things that your kids are doing that coordinate with what we're doing in here and then we've got things like the finance classes, breakout classes. is really to come alongside of mom and dad. This is never, not intended to be a replacement of what what mom and dad are doing at home in their own discipleship.

But to really come alongside of you and support you. I personally am very appreciative of the fact that, there's things that my students, my kids are learning from their teachers that support what I'm trying to teach them at home. in fact, it's not uncommon at all for my kids to come home and to say, we learned in Sunday school today, and they'll tell me something that I've been trying to teach them for quite a while, but now they hear it, whereas with me, it's like Charlie Brown's teacher, wa wa wa wa wa wa.

And so it's just nice to have that, that reinforcement from brothers and sisters in the body who also have gifts are filled with the spirit.

And. And so it's just a, a great blessing to, to help each other. Again, so this quarter is called The Wisdom of God. We're gonna start off with David and Goliath.

from there, we'll be moving in to, God's promise to David and so on. You can see the, the chapter, division there. We'll actually end on Elijah and Elisha. And actually that'll, that'll round out our year of Sunday school.

By the time we get done with this quarter, we'll be end of May and we'll be finishing at the end of May. Let's do a little bit of review. we are situated, we're going chronologically through the scriptures. We're in 1 Samuel right now and, the first section there, the first C of biblical history we covered, what was that called?

Creation, and then after creation, we spent quite a bit of time on the 2 C. What is that called? Close, but no cigar. Corruption, yeah.

So we spent time on corruption. Then the third C. Catastrophe, good. So we talked about the flood.

And then the 4th C. Confusion. So that'll be the Tower of Babel and afterwards. Yeah, I don't know that that's the best representative seat of the whole period of the rest of Israel's history.

maybe sometime I'll teach you my nine periods of Israel's history. Have I ever done that for you guys? I haven't done that yet. I'll have to bring in some of those little cartoons that my wife drew up to help us understand the nine periods of Israel's history.

Basically, it starts with one bun. You imagine a bun with a, with a bunch of moons and stars in it that's creation to shoe. You imagine Abraham sticking his head outside of this, he's inside of a large shoe. That's the Abraham or the patriarchal period.

33, you imagine, let me see, how does this work? 33 is the, the conquest period. Let me see, am I getting mixed up? No, yeah, 33 is the conquest period.

I can't remember why. What the association with the tree for is the period of the judges. No, 5 is the period of the judges. I'm getting this mixed up.

So 1 is creation, 2 is patriarchal. 03 is the captivity in Egypt. 4 is the exile. Out of Egypt, 5 is the judges, 6 is the United Kingdom, 7 is the divided kingdom.

So we, we're divided up, 8 is carrying away into Babylon, and 9 is the return, the post-exilic period. I'll bring in those pictures next week to help you guys understand the breakdown in the Old Testament history. let's ask a couple of questions from last week. anything stand out to you guys about last week's lesson, God anoints David as King?

Yeah, Joe, Brothers David had to bring it up. Right. Right. Yeah, so all these brothers, Joe is saying are paraded before Samuel.

Nobody in the family even thinks to invite David to this party. And Samuel has to be the one that brings it up. In fact, this is going to come up again today as we look at David and Goliath. So yeah, there's this.

an aha moment of God identifying the weak one or the one that nobody else would think about. we also, ultimately, why was David chosen to be the next king of Israel? What, what's God's purposes or what is he to describe? Yeah, God's looking at the heart.

He's a man after God's own heart. Does this mean David was a sinless, perfect specimen? No, in fact, we've got just a few, we're gonna see in just a few lessons how David has his own issues. But God is, he's looking at this generic or this general willingness to obey.

There's this willingness to hear what God says and a willingness to do it, that actually had been implanted there by God Himself. in what ways do you tend to judge others by their outward appearances? How can you adjust those attitudes? Say it again.

Say it again. I didn't quite catch it. Did you get it, Joe? We need to rest.

Hm. 00, the way I'm sorry, Brian, the way they dress. Oh, there you go. OK, yeah, yeah, so the way a person dresses, you can judge outward appearances that way.

Yeah, it's true, right? Yeah, we should be looking at the fruit of a person. So, yeah, there's ways in which when we look at the Bible, God uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise. It's not that God is never using anybody that has wisdom or good speech or he's using all ugly people or what have you.

But God, God's not looking at things the way we look at them. God's looking for people who are willing to humble themselves, they want to obey Him, they wanna see Him glorified. And And so it doesn't, it just seems like it's a, it's a pretty consistent theme throughout the scriptures, isn't it, that God is, is using the unusual to accomplish his purposes. And so, it behooves us to try to look beyond just our initial impressions to, to try to figure out what the Lord's doing.

Yeah, Dan. With with David. There there's like this. And yet David Maybe Yeah, Yeah.

you Right. God is Right. Yeah, God, that's great. Dan says, God, God knows what's coming.

He's seeing the seed in David. He becomes the most, probably the most significant figure in the Old Testament. And yet that wasn't always necessarily apparent when he was, when he was younger. And it seems like so many believers that I talked to in their testimonies, there's a lot of times there is that similar type of thing, where the Lord will just take somebody, scoop them up, and then begin to use them in ways that they weren't always expecting.

So this, this can be, this is a, a very important principle. On, on the one hand, we need to be careful about not judging just by outward appearances. and then at the same time, tell me your first name again. It's Justin.

Justice, that's right. So just like justice was saying, there is, we are called to judge by the, by their fruits, right? And. It's one of the things I appreciate about the polity here at Cornerstone, and we're not unique in this, is the, the unity, the, of the elder board, like this, the sense of unanimity in making major decisions for the church.

I don't feel like I'm hanging out there on a limb by myself, where I'm just stuck like, oh, I've, I've got to make this decision. I have nobody to counsel with, it's all on me or any of the other elders. There's this openness to bring the ideas and thoughts and then try to figure out what, discern what the Lord's will is in a group. And it, it's, it's uncanny how many times maybe, maybe we're considering somebody for missions or leadership or whatever.

And there's somebody that maybe not not the other elders aren't really thinking of and somebody brings them up to the table, we start praying and we start, like first in Timothy and And Titus talked about we start testing, and then before it, it's like, wow, yeah, we didn't see it, but this other elder saw it and now we're all agreed. other times, I, I can remember we've, years and years ago, we had somebody who had been From the time they were young, their parents told them they were gonna be a missionary and, and they had this idea that they were just gonna be a missionary.

And they had a great heart, but we brought them through this time of testing. And there was just some things that weren't happening.

We wanted to see it happen, but it wasn't happening. And then we even brought in the leadership of another church to help us evaluate and sent them on a mission trip with this other church and the church. was also seeing the same thing and so. You don't judge by the outward appearance, but at the same time, there's got to be fruit eventually.

And if you're not seeing the fruit, if suddenly David just wasn't producing any of the fruit that, people would have thought, would expected to see, to have seen this story probably would have turned out quite differently. let's go ahead and get to the text now. This is, Let's open up to First Samuel, oops, I thought I changed all that. OK, I didn't, we're going to 1 Samuel 17, so this is, all these chapter markings are incorrect.

so let's, but let's, let's go ahead and go to chapter 17. And we're going to read and make some running. Commentary is raise your hand if you had any opportunity to read chapter 17 this week. OK, a couple of you guys, great.

OK. Raise your hand if you've read chapter 17 at some point in your life. You're pretty sure you read it in your life at some point. All right, cool.

Raise your hand if you took the pretest that we sent. All right, we got 2 people who took the pretest. Awesome. The pretest basically was trying to get you to gauge, ask some basic questions of what's your pre-understanding of the story of David and Goliath versus what does the text really say.

So, without looking at the text real quick, let me see if I can give you some of the pretest questions right now as a group. How many of you would say that That David I Probably maybe 15 or younger in your thought process. Without looking at the text, he's probably 15 or younger. Raise your hand.

OK, raise your hand if you would say he's 16 or older. OK. raise your hand if you think that David was too little in order to wear Saul's armor. Like he's just too little.

That's why he couldn't wear the armor. OK. Raise your hand if he couldn't wear the armor because he had never practiced with it in actual battle. OK.

Let's see, what else could I ask you guys? raise your hand if, the stone that David threw, just plunked Goliath in the head and then flew off. Raise your hand if it hit him in the head and sunk into his head. OK, cool.

Raise your hand if you think Goliath was dead on contact. Like when the, when the stones sunk into his head, he was dead. Raise your hand if he only died after his head was cut off with the sword. OK, that's one of the issues.

OK. OK, cool, cool, cool. So what we're going to do is we're gonna read through the text and And then make some comments. And let me just say one thing real quick as we, before we begin to read, and that is, This is real history.

this is not just a fable to teach us about courage. this is not just a parable so that we can identify all the fears in our life and learn how to face our own Goliaths in life. This is not just an allegory where the five stones that David picked up out of the river represent like prayer, scripture reading, fellowship, so on and so forth. This is a real historical story that fits within the context of First Samuel.

And so, in order to identify what, why is this narrative in the Bible, we wanna try to look for things using what we've talked about in the past, a historical, grammatical, literal approach to the text. In other words, we want to figure out what was the Holy Spirit giving to the author to the original audience first, and then we can start talking about applications. But we want to be careful about not front loading the applications as if that's the main reason this text or this history is in the Bible.

Does that make sense?

It's not good. It's not Gshika. Good, Brian. This is not just Gshika.

This is history, right? It's not just a story, a parable. This is real material that happened, in history. So, excellent, excellent.

there's this cartoon that came out in the Christianity Today years and years and years ago. the cartoon series was called What If, and it shows this one particular cartoon shows Goliath, that's real big and he's got mother tattooed on his shoulder, and there's this little tiny David down at the bottom, and he just looks up at Goliath and he says, we forgive you. And that's the what if. And it begs the question, would this story have gone better if David would have just walked up and said, hey, Goliath, we forgive you.

is there, the way this whole thing developed, is this something that actually would have not been God's best plan? Is God's plan for David and for the Philistines is for everybody just to get along. Is that the ultimate plan? Well, let's, let's read through the text and we'll make, we'll determine some of these questions starting at verse one.

I'm gonna say Philistines. I know that many of your Bible readers say Philistines. It seems like it goes both ways, but I'm reading from a new King James. Now, the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered at Soca, which belongs to Judah, and they encamped between Soca and Azekah in Effiz Dame.

And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and then encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side and the Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them. And actually, some of the movies out there, movie representations do a fairly good job of trying to develop this is, it does seem like you've got two armies on hills on each side with a valley between.

if you look at some of the, the various commentaries that deal with the geography, they'll tell you exactly where all this is, in the area.

This, by the way, is between 13 and 15 miles away from, Bethlehem, the city of David. Verse 4, and a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath whose height was 6 cubits in a span. So we're talking about 9 ft something, 9'6 I think is what some people say. The idea of a champion, by the way, we have examples of this, even in extrabiblical literature, from this time period of, of armies coming out to battle and then sending out their, I, I think the literal rendering is the one who stands, the one who stands between, yeah, justice.

Well, Nephilim might take us a little too far back. There's another term, I think it's called Annaheme or what is it? Yeah, it's like Anick, yeah. And I think a lot of commentators, they point back to the conquest period.

Remember when God had commanded them, in Leviticus to go in and take the land, and they, several of the spies came back and said there's giants in the land, there's no, we're like grasshoppers in there's, so he is likely a descendant of some of those Canaanites. So obviously there's 40 years of, wandering in the land and then finally they go into Jericho and they start defeating all these people. It seems like Joshua and the The armies would have faced many of those quote unquote giants at that time.

And so Goliath is a holdover, probably on the large end, I forget.

I think it's in some of the annals, it's one of the Egyptian pharaohs talks about the giants in Canaan during this time period. I've got this commentary, it's called Bible Background Commentary, and it just does all this, it just compiles all this research from archaeology and so on and so forth. And, so, While we use the Bible as our final source of authority, just to let, there are other narratives outside of scripture that also speak of very, very large individuals coming from this area during around the same time period.

In Judges, it does talk about the six-fingered man.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if there's a group or if it was just deformity of that one guy. Yeah, I don't remember.

we ended up skipping that Judges. We should go back and hit the story of the six-fingered Man. That'd be fun. By the way, has anybody seen the, the picture of Goliath that's sent all around the, the internet, the bones that have been uncovered?

Of Goliath. You've seen it Yeah, don't believe it, it's all, it's all nonsense. It's a, a snopes type of thing. but I, I've had, I have people, not on, not on a regular basis, but at least once or twice a year, somebody sends me one, that picture of Goliath being, his bones being uncovered and they're all excited and, and I have to burst their bubble and tell them it's a hoax and, and this is just made up to try to make Christians look foolish.

so we don't have any archaeological evidence of the bones of Goliath, but that shouldn't surprise us at all. If you guys remember our little speech on archaeology, there's less than 1%, like it's infinitesimal how much stuff that we've uncovered in archaeology anyway. And bones, you only really get, you get fossils when things are covered up by mud, right? If things don't get covered up by mud, they don't fossilize.

They Decay and turn to dust. So, Anyway, so you've got this champion named Goliath, who's a huge guy. Verse 5, he had a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5000 shekels of bronze, the conversion table, say 125 pounds. And he had a bronze armor on his, bronze armor on his legs, bronze javelin between his shoulders.

Now, the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels and shield bear went before him. So you've got a 15 pound just head of his spear, plus he's got a, a, an, a shield bear coming, standing in front of him. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of the Lord and said to them, Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine?

And you, the servant of Saul, choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then he will be, we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. So this is the deal.

in all likelihood, there are skirmishes going on throughout these 40 days. It's not like nothing's happening and they're all just sitting on hills. There's probably skirmishes that are happening, but either at the beginning or the end of the day, Goliath is coming out and making these pronouncements. Goliath, no doubt, would have been whipping up on people on a pretty daily, daily basis, in all likelihood.

I, I, I've heard a lot of, dramatic renditions of Goliath, and some of them are pretty good, some of them are pretty poor. but I'll tell you, to hear him saying this, we're not really sure. You've got the Israelites who are speaking ancient form of Hebrew. The Philistines obviously are speaking the Philistine language.

And so, there's probably some combo, maybe, maybe Goliath knew a little bit of Hebrew or vice versa, or maybe Ugaritic is more of the trade language, we're not really sure. But hearing him yell these things in ancient Semitic speech, I think would be a little more impressive to me than just hearing the English. So you just have to imagine a foreign language, a foreign gruff language. as this big dude is shouting this stuff out.

And the Philistines said, verse 10, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. OK, so that's sets the scene here.

That's the opening scene of our history. a lot of space given to Goliath. What is the, in this first periccope, What's the problem other than the fact that Goliath is out here shouting his insults and challenging somebody to fight? What do you think the big problem is that we're supposed to walk away with as readers?

Say it again. OK, he is, he is challenging God. True. I think there's another big problem that the reader is meant to pick up on in these 1st 12 verses.

He Yes. Yeah, so, verse 12 ends with Israel being greatly afraid but also Saul being greatly afraid. What do we know about Saul from a physical standpoint by this point? This is a big dude, and he is the king of Israel and he has battle experience.

By this time, he's got about 40 years of battle experience. Now, it's not uncommon, if you read the various commentaries, it's not uncommon for a king to send forward a champion. In fact, when you look at the extrabiblical sources, The way this would play out, it's almost, it's almost like a kung fu movie, like in the kung fu movies, you fight the lower level dude first and then you defeat him and then you go to the next level and then you get the next guy. And so what would often happen is Kings, a guy like King in King Saul's position would send out a champion and if he got beat, he'd send out his next guy and then he would come out as the ultimate champion to then finally defeat the person, the challenger.

So it's not, it wouldn't be uncommon for Saul to, to look for champions on his behalf early in the, in the battle, but eventually it would be expected that the king himself would come out and take care of these, these threats. As we're gonna find out, the king never shows up. He never comes out. and so this is a problem, this sets up a problem.

So now there's a fade. And we moved to a different part of the movie. It's like almost a rehearsal. We've, the, the author's given us so much ink on Goliath.

Now we're gonna go back and be reminded of David, verse 12. Now, David was the son of that Ephrithite. I want to point out the word that. then using the word, the demonstrative pronoun here, the author is, is seems to be telling us, remember that Bethhemaheite or that Ephrathiteite that we talked about previously.

Now, David was the son of that Ephrithite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse and who had 8 sons, and the man was old, advanced in years and, in the days of Saul. the 3 oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to battle. The names of these, his 3 sons who went to battle were Iliab. The first born next to him Abinadab, and the 3rd Shama.

David was the youngest and the 3 oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his sheep at Bethlehem. Some people, there's, some people read this section of the text and they're just like, why are we getting all this information? We just heard about that in the previous chapter.

In fact, the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Old Testament, actually gets rid of some of these verses and cleans up the text for us. which demonstrates that from ancient times, people saw a problem with this material. but I want to suggest to you that there really is no problem if you understand Hebrew literature, and it's not surprising that the Greek Septuagint misunderstood what was going on here. It, it's not uncommon at all for Hebrew literature to tell us a part of the story and then to return back to that story and just retell it again and you feel like you're moving in a circle, but in the Hebrew mindset, there's a reason for the circle talk.

just read through the read through the book of First John in one sitting. Has anybody ever just read through all of First John in one sitting? And do you feel like you're reading nice forward Greek thinking literature? Like, here's my first point.

Here's my second point. No, you feel like you're walking in a big circle, right? And that's the way the Hebrew mindset is, is we're gonna like talk about this topic, then we're gonna circle around, we're gonna talk about it again, maybe add one little flavor. Now, I'm gonna say the same thing again, but I'm gonna add a little bit of flavor.

Now, I'm gonna say this and you're like, whoa, what's going on? And so it's not uncommon for the Hebrew writer to go back. He has just spent all this time on Goliath. Now he wants to remind us of who the, who one of the heroes is going to be, not the ultimate hero, but one of the key point players is gonna be David.

Let's remind you of that, his, his father, that, I'm sorry, Ephrathite. let's remind you of the sons. Remember, nobody brought David up into the scene. Samuel had to bring him up.

And so there's this reset. Of David Now, when I say that the Septuagin is is getting rid of some of the text, does that threaten our understanding of the original writing of scripture? Is that somehow threaten inerrancy? No, because we believe that the original manuscripts are the ones that are inspired and that God has promised to protect his text, over the years, and yet we have a responsibility and those that put the Septuagint together did not fulfill that responsibility when it came to this part of the text.

So let's pick it up there at Verse 16, and the Philistine drew near and presented himself 40 days, morning and evening. Then Jesse said to his son, David, so we've got, so we've got this David thing, there's a reminder of, of Goliath. Now let's go back to David. take now for your brothers an Ifah that is dried grain, and then 10 loaves and run to your brothers at the camp and carry these 10 cheeses to the captain of their thousands and see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them.

Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Ela fighting with the Philistines. So again, it's, he's telling us in verse 19 something he's already told us. The extra piece of information in verse 19 is, is they're actually fighting. So it, it seems like from the text, it's not just they're standing on two hills, the champion comes out and yells and nobody comes down and then they all just stay in their tents.

Now, it seems like there's skirmishes going on on a daily basis, but Goliath is still bringing out his threats on a daily basis. David's job in this case, Dad's saying, I want you to basically go on a cheese run, cheese and bread, right? Go bring some lunch to your brothers. Actually, it's a little more than that.

At this time in history, it would not be uncommon for soldiers to be supplied if they were within a day's travel from families, as families would travel out to bring them their supplies, bring them their food, bring them things that they might be in need of. And so that was, if you weren't able to go into battle, you were expected to provide some of the provisions for the troops. And so David was There to bring provisions, also there to bring something to the To those in leadership and so on.

so, 20, verse 20, so David rose early in the morning.

This is gonna take, remember, this is about a 15 mile hike. I don't know if any of you guys have hiked 12 to 15 miles in a day. I have in the mountains. It takes all day to do something like that.

so David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper, took the things, went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to fight and shouting for the battle. So they're doing their Semitic language, shout. if you guys have ever seen, what's the Mel Gibson movie or Braveheart, or when people would give these big shouts, or before a football game, people are shouting.

Anybody here into the New Zealand or Australian rugby? You guys, any, anybody ever seen any of the rugby shouts or things they do? The big tongue thing where they're like, doing that. So this is trying to freak out your opponent.

They're shouting, about ready to go, and, and get busy. So, for verse 21, for Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. and again, this is, these are the days when it's, there's not a ton of, guerrilla warfare. It's kinda like you line up, you shout, and then you go at it, right?

David left his supplies in the hands of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines, and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them, and all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. So the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who comes up?

Surely he has come up to defy Israel, and it shall be that the man who kills him, the king, will enrich with great riches, will give his daughter and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel. Now my, my version says taxes, they're, they're supplying a word. the literal translation is shall give him in Israel. We're not really sure what he's gonna give them, but I think taxes is probably a good idea or maybe special provisions, special connections to the court.

We're not really sure. But what's definitely gonna happen he'll be enriched, he'll be able to marry into the king's line. This is, this is a really big deal. this isn't just, Saul offering saying, hey, I've got a really great looking gal here.

Whoever defeats Goliath will be able to marry this great looking gal. No, this is, you get to marry my daughter and now you're connected with me. And you have connections with the throne. That's the idea.

Whether she was good looking or not, we have no idea. Whether she was a great homemaker, whether she cooked good meals, that's immaterial. Yeah, yeah, it's, yeah, it's like a key, keys to the city, so to speak. Verse 26, then David spoke to the man who stood by him saying, 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, verse 26 is interesting for a number of different reasons. One is, this is the first time in scripture that David speaks. We've heard about David up to this point, but this is the first time that his actual words are recorded for us on the text of scripture.

And what does he say? What shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? He's seeing a reproach that has come upon Israel, the people of God. So he's jealous for the people of God.

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Who is this Gentile, that he should defy the armies of the living God. Our God is living. he is defying the living, the real God.

And so David, in his, in his, in the first speech or the first words that he's uttering on the pages of scripture, he's the first one that even brings God up, in the text. he's the first one that brings theology into, into this battle, that there's, there's something going on more than just people lining up for battle array. It's more than just Goliath out there shouting. There's something theological happening here, and David is the one that brings it up.

Verse 27, and the people answered him in this manner saying, so shall it be done for the man who kills him. So they tell him, you're gonna get rich, you're gonna marry his daughter, and your family will be free of taxation or something else, some other keys. so Iliab, his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men and Iliab's anger was aroused aroused against David, and he said, why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

I know your pride and the insolence of your heart. You have come down to see the battle. David said, What have I done now? Is there not cause?

What are some other translations that you guys have there? Is there not cause? Was it so what does he say? Was it not just a question?

Was it not just a word? Same thing? OK. So, you, you get the idea here, right?

This is big brother, little brother, typical type of stuff. What are you doing? Where have you left those few sheep ears? What, what, what is your problem, right?

I've just come out here. I'm just asking some questions. Why are you getting on me? Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing and these people answered him as the first ones did.

Now, when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul and he sent for him. Then David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

Saul said to David, you're not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth and he is a man of war from his youth. Now, when he says you are a youth, this can be understood and translated a couple of different ways. You are inexperienced, you are a young man, a young man, this term could be used. Of anyone that's basically like 30 years and younger.

You could, I could no longer be called this Hebrew word, right? Robert Anthony could be called a youth in the Hebrew sense. Is there anybody here? Let me see, Joshua back there.

Joshua, how old are you? You're 20, so we could call Joshua this Hebrew word. He could be called a youth. Brian, you don't qualify.

Many of us in this room don't qualify. Justice, you would qualify probably. How old are you? 22.

All right, so we could call you a youth, this Hebrew word. But it could go down into the teens as well. But the big idea here is, is the contrast between David and Goliath. You are a youth.

He is a man of war from his youth. So, and remember at this point, I'm gonna, I'm gonna press the idea that While Saul, we're gonna try to answer the question, a certain question later. I think Saul does recall that this is my harp player. I don't know that Saul necessarily remembers what name, what his name is or his family connections, but you're just, you're the dude that plays the harp for me when I'm having a bad time.

I know you're a musician and that's cute and all, but this guy has been fighting from his youth. You haven't And so how could you possibly, young heart player, go out there and defeat this guy? To which David responds, but David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep. when a lion and a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it.

And delivered the lamb from its mouth, and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, struck it, and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear in this uncircumcised Philistine, that is a religious, put down. There's no other way to say this. This is not like a polite term.

This is not like, this poor unbeliever. This is This uncircumcised Gentile will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God, and I think that's the point. This guy has defied Israel. He has defied the living God.

In fact, the word defied happens 6 or 7 times in this context, I can't remember if it's 6 or 7. It's one of the key terms of this whole chapter is defied, defied, defied, mocked. God is being mocked. And, and David's not happy with that.

Remember, David's already been filled with the Spirit at this point. Remember he was anointed in the previous chapter. The Spirit of the Lord had already come upon him, and he is not happy that God is being mocked. So verse 37, moreover, David said, the Lord who has delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.

The other key term in this text is the Lord, Yahweh. Yahweh, Jehovah comes up over and over and over again in this context, especially in the, in the verbiage of David. And so David is making this theological. David is not happy that God is being mocked.

yes, Saul says you're, you're inexperienced, you're, you don't have the training that Goliath has. David comes back and says two things basically. Well, just so, I have killed bears and lions, so he has that experience and not just with a slingshot, but I've grabbed them by the head and whacked them., you have that instrument. In Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want, so, and, and his rod and his staff will comfort me. the reason a rod comforts the sheep is because the shepherd can take it and whack a bear over the head. Because the shepherd is, is willing to to, to go after the enemies of the sheep. and so this seems to be, part of what's going on here is David is, he's reciting his, both his experience, but secondly, the fact that the Lord is the one who delivered me.

I was involved in, in these, in these bear lion exchanges, but it was the Lord that had delivered me. He's recalling his past experience. No past experience you have is without value for the present. Has the Lord delivered you from sin in your past?

Have there been times where you've been able to confess sin in your past? Are there experiences that you look back upon and you're thankful for? Those experiences can have impact on your present, and David takes those past experiences and says, the Lord will deliver me, from the hand of the Philistine. This convinces Saul, So, Saul said to David, go and Yahweh be with you.

Now, now Saul brings in Yahweh to the question. David's brought in Yahweh. Now Saul says, go and may the Lord be with you. But hold on, David, 11 quick little matter here.

We need to get you situated. I know you don't have battle experience, but let's at least get you the right equipment. So in verse 38, Saul clothed David. with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head and he also clothed David with a coat of mail.

David fastened his sword to the armor and tried to walk, for he had not yet tested them. And David said to Saul, I can't walk with these, for I have not tested them, so David took them off. So from the text itself, would you get any impression that the armor is too big for David, that he's just too little of a guy? Would you?

OK, he took them off, but why does he say he took them off? Yeah, Justice. Yeah, it seems like there's just a discomfort. He puts them on, he tries, he's testing them.

I don't know if you've ever, if you play sports, if you, you put on just like a new set of football pads back in the day when you're playing in high school, you're not used to those football pads. Maybe they fit you, but it's just kinda like, man, I like my old pads. You have a certain baseball glove and then maybe, you Misplaced it or whatever and you have to grab somebody else's baseball glove, you're not used to it. It fits you, it's the same size, but it just doesn't fit your hand the way your, your other glove.

That seems to be the idea here. Let me give you 11 reason why I think that. And other commentators point this out as well, is Saul is a, Saul is a big guy, right? And would Saul look at a little boy and say, hey, let's try to put my armor on you.

Would he suggest that? No, probably not. he probably wouldn't suggest putting his large armor on this little kid. And so the implication from the text seems to be, Saul is a pretty large individual.

David's inexperienced compared to Saul. But I would have to think that Saul would look at David and think this guy might, my armor might fit this guy. And so, let's try this stuff on. David puts it on, says, this is not working.

I'm just gonna take it off and we'll just have at it. And so, my, my, my impression, and this, I don't stand alone in this, is that David's probably a pretty large fellow actually. and it contradicts like the nursery room pictures that we have of this little boy that's going out against Goliath. but while he would, Goliath would definitely tower over David at 9'6, David is not a small dude in my thinking.

He has experience, maybe not in battle with humans, but this is a guy that's been able to take on lions and bears and defeat them. and so, you get the impression that he's probably pretty yoked. the Bible does say that he is, he was well formed. It, it says he's ruddy and both he was handsome both in form and appearance.

So the idea is, he, he's, he's a good looking guy and he's also got a good body. And so, you get the idea that this guy could handle himself pretty well. Yeah, ruddy is an interesting, literally, it's the idea of redness, but it's the idea of like, just a, a good looking, that there's, you're not gossed or you, you, you're not like so lacking of color, so ruddy would be that you've got nice color in your face, you look healthy. Yeah.

Not necessarily, it's, the literal meaning is red, but the idea is, is that you're just, if somebody's sickly, they might look pale. So it's, it's comparing someone who's sickly and pale versus someone who's got nice color in their face and they just look healthy. Yeah, good circulation. Exactly.

Yeah, Allison. Yeah, Yeah Totally. Totally. Right.

Yeah. that Yeah, totally. Yeah, so Alison's just saying that word youth, the way we tend to think of it in English at our time, it, it can throw us off, thinking that we're dealing with a teenager versus 40 year old armor. So, yeah, yeah, definitely.

There's something else I was gonna say on that. I can't remember what it was now. Anyway, it seems like there's, I was looking around like crazy for some different movies and spots that just do it right. And to be honest with you, I couldn't find one.

like Joe was telling me last week, he's like some of the movies you've seen, that you've got David jockin and, he throws one and misses, and then he spins and dives out of the way of a spear, and then he throws another stone and Everybody's gotta, kinda amp up the drama. It's just not enough drama to have David just come up there and, game over. But even just David's size, there is some interpretive elements here, but, It seems like most of the solid commentators I read would, would agree that he's probably a pretty well-formed individual.

So let's go at verse 40.

We've got a few minutes here. see how far we can get and we can pick it up next week. so in verse 40, he took his staff in his hand and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook. And put them in a shepherd's bag in a pouch which he had in his sling with his hand, and he drew near the Philistine and the Philistine came and began drawing near to David and the man who bore the shield went before him.

So David's going against two people, 9'6 and then a shield bearer. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ready and good looking. I just love that. Looks like you're just a little good looking kid.

what, what is this? Now, the idea, there's one guy, I forget, it's a commentator from the late 1800s. He did comment on the fact that the Arabic or the, the Semitic people, and people from this area. he commented on how much of a, a, a drastic change.

young men to like a mature man looks and he's talking about that range from like 20 to 25 versus 25 to 30 or so. he was a teacher in the late 1800s amongst some of the Jews and Arabic people and stuff, and he says there, you'd have a student like in their twenties that you wouldn't see for a few years and then they would come back and you just wouldn't even recognize them at all. They just, they come back, they're 28, 29, and now they're just really filled out. They've got this big beard, they just look like a man and it can happen overnight.

And he was just commenting on the fact that you could have somebody who is technically a man and yet look like in their face, just like almost a GQ just just this model kid. He hasn't quite got his man look yet and And so that could be part of what's going on. I, I just think it's hilarious that That, that part of what Goliath is disdaining is his good looks. The Philistines said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, the Philistine gods. And the Philistines said to David, come to me. And I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts.

Host meaning the Lord of hosts as he is the leader of armies, right? When we, the word host sounds very religious, but the idea is it's a host is a host of, of, of armies. The God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied, there's our word again. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.

And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the field, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's. And he will give you into our hands. So, what you have going on between David and Goliath here, like we said in our email is theological trash talking.

He's coming, he's cursing David with his gods. David is coming and basically pronouncing what's gonna happen to him in the name of Yahweh. This is not a friendly debate, a respectful debate. This is a recognition that we are enemies.

And we are leaders of our respective troops, and it's about ready to go down. So it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David did some jostling and running and moving around. No, he hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag and took out the stone and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead.

So that the stone sank in his forehead and he fell on his face to the earth. A lot of the movies do get that right, that he falls on his face to the earth, but they all have the stone hitting his head and flying off for some reason, maybe because they can't do that with the graphics, computer graphics on them. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it.

This is classic. Hebrew, description that drives us crazy that come from a Western Greek mindset, that the Hebrew language gets things like talks about things in mixed up order and will tell you the end before the end. So let's read that again. So David prevailed over the Philistine verse 50 with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him.

When it says and killed him, the idea is by the end he killed him. He's not necessarily saying that he was killed with the stone. It's he did all these things and by the end he killed him. Then it repeats in nice Hebrew fashion that drives us nuts, but there was no sword in the hand.

Of David. Therefore, David ran over the Philistine, took the sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him and cut off his head with it. So the stone would have knocked him down. perhaps the, he was still breathing.

David comes over, picks up the sword, cuts off his head, and that is the end. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead. They took off. Like we're out of here because what was the deal?

What was the deal that Goliath had said? Right. They're, they're, in a million years, they're not thinking that they're gonna have to pay their end of the bargain, right? They're sure that Goliath is gonna win, and then they're hoping all of the Israelites will just lay down their arms and come be servants.

Once they realize their champion's dead, We don't wanna be slaves of the Israelites. We're running out of here. So they take off. Now, The men of Israel and Judah rose and shouted, pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley of the gates of Ekron.

The wounded of the Philistines, fell along the road of Shammarim. And, or, I'm sorry, Ryan, even as far as Gath and Ekron, then the children of Israel returned chasing the Philistines and they plundered their tents. David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor, that is Goliath's armor in his tent. We're at the end, we're gonna have to pick up the last section here that I really want to get to, but we're out of time, with his interaction with Saul.

so I'll encourage you guys to, we'll pick that up, probably fast forward into the next lesson. but let's just end with a couple. Ideas here. What, what do you think are back to our original question.

who killed Goliath? Justice. Yeah, in one sense, you can say David did it. Yep.

The Lord. So again, this is this. This thing that we see all throughout the Bible, this creator-creature distinction, but this This idea Of, of complementarianism, this idea that God is accomplishing his purpose through human beings. David killed Goliath, but David himself acknowledges that it was, that it was God ultimately that killed Goliath.

And he killed Goliath as an instrument of God. As an instrument of God, that this was an enemy of the Lord that was defying the people of Israel and defying the living God, and God filled David with the Holy Spirit, not to come out to Goliath and say, we forgive you, but to come out to Goliath and say, God is going to judge you. throughout the throughout human history, there are really two camps in the world. There are those that will defy God to the end and as it were, shake their fist against God, irrationally set themselves against God, suppressing the truth and righteousness.

And those will get the rod, they will get God's judgment. And then there are those that will submit themselves to God and, and come underneath his forgiveness and grace. And those are the ones that will get His mercy. God is a God of justice and God is a God of mercy.

We also need to remember that David is not just playing out his role in this part of Israel's history, but as we're gonna find, David is a type of Christ. That David actually prefigures the coming of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ being the ultimate victor that will look out over the mass of humanity that has shut, has, has shaken its fist at God, and, and God and, and Jesus Christ will rise up to put the enemies of God down. his rod, the, the justice of Christ will be a comfort to us sheep because he will use the rod against those that have defied the people of God and defied his Christ.

I know we're over time, but let me turn to just one quick thing as we, and then we'll pray. First Thessalonians chapter one. A lot of times we tend to think of Exits Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, we, we think of Christ as coming in his first advent as the one who lays his life down for his sheep and shows his mercy and his gentleness and healing everybody. And that's one aspect of God's character, but Jesus is also coming in his second coming in his Second Advent in flaming fire, as it says, look at verse 4.

verse, yeah, verse 4. So we ourselves, Paul says, boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith and persecutions. The Thessalonians were being defied by their persecutors. But in verse 5, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may become worthy of the kingdom of God for which you suffer.

They're suffering because of persecution. Verse 6, since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, taking vengeance upon those who do not know God, and those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, these will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of His power when he comes in the day to be glorified among his saints, to be admired among those.

What do you have is you have Jesus really coming and doing the same thing that David did.

Jesus comes Against our enemies that seem just in this life just that many times seem terrible. The world, the flesh, the devil, it seems overwhelming at times. Sometimes you look at the paper and you're just like, Lord, what can we do? What can we do?

Evil seems to prevail. We look out and we see just like Israel's, the, the armies of Israel look out at Goliath and they're like, what can we do? What can we do? And, and the answer to that question in our text is not that the armies of Israel can always fight for themselves, but we need a champion.

We need a savior, and God raises up David and the So the ultimate hero of the story is David as a type of Christ who rises up against the enemies of Israel, those that are defying Almighty God, and he comes and he defeats Goliath, which gives heart to the people of Israel. And we look at our Savior and we can, while we can get disheartened with the world, the flesh, and the devil, we look at our Savior who has defeated sin, who has defeated the devil, who will one day throw the devil into the lake of fire, who will one day defeat his enemies coming in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon them, who persecute his people, and we gain heart.

We gain heart as we look at our champion. And I think that's the ultimate message in 1 Samuel 17 is not just Some little, allegory for us to learn how to face our fears and how to go out there and win the basketball game and the other team's Goliath and we're David and so we're gonna go win the basketball game for the Lord.

No, it's, we're looking out at this big cosmic battle where Demons and minions are mocking God on a daily basis, and sometimes we feel overwhelmed and Jesus rises up and says, don't feel overwhelmed. I am not gonna let the devil defy you and defy God, and we will defeat him. So take heart, take heart. we'll, we'll pick this up next week.

in the same chapter, and so I'll send you out both lessons. Go ahead and start studying the next lesson, but we'll spend some time finishing up here first, for Samuel 17. I'll be up here for questions. Lord, we thank you so much that you are our champion.

We thank you for how, Lord Jesus, you are, typified in David. We thank you, Lord, that we can look to you for hope. Well, many times we fear. our enemies, just as Israel feared Goliath, we fear at times the world, we, we look at our own sin, our flesh, we look at the devil, it can seem overwhelming, but when we look to you, we gain heart.

And so we pray, Father, that you would, give us boldness to follow after you. Not that we're gonna stand alone, but just as Israel stood with David, we stand with you, Christ. We thank you in, in your name. Amen.