In this private conversation we see that David is presented as someone who is
willing to risk ... Malcolm Gladwell's recent best selling book “David and Goliath;.
David and Saul in conversation: 38-40 In this private conversation we see that David is presented as someone who is willing to risk his life against giant beasts for the safety of his sheep and Saul is shown as someone unwilling to risk his life against a beastly giant for the sake of his sheep, the people of Israel.
David first has to convince Saul that he is able to fight Goliath. Once he does Saul thinks that he needs to do it on his terms. David is trusting in God and Saul is trusting in armour. Once again man is looking on the outward appearances and God is looking at the heart. Nothing against using safety equipment though. Most of the time it is good to wear helmets etc. But David knows that God has specifically and particularly been preparing David for this very moment. He has trained him in the school of providence to know exactly how to use a sling and stone for such a time as this. We believe that God has an invisible, hidden way of working in the world, so that circumstances and events transpire in seemingly random and unconnected ways, but are in fact a part of God’s gradually unfolding sovereign and wonderful plan. This is called the doctrine of providence.
“The almighty everywhere present power of God whereby as it were by his hand He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, all things come to us not by chance but by His Fatherly hand.” Heidelberg Catechism 27 Or as the apostle Paul famously put it in romans 8:28 God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. God had specifically prepared David for this moment. He ordained that he would spend the formative years of his young life, not in a royal palace, but in the lonely pasture.
His training would not be with the sword and spear of a warrior, but the sling and stone of a shepherd. I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to say that each lion and each bear that wandered into his father Jesse’s field looking for a snack, was sent there, in part for the training of David for this day. Don’t give in to the pressure to conform to someone else’s personality or calling. God has made you to be you. ! ! ! (certainly He calls us along to the path of sanctification and growth in ! ! ! holiness ! ! ! But it is never to be an identical twin of someone else)
Saul was willing to let David fight Goliath, but he wanted him to wear his armour while he did it. Perhaps hoping to share the glory of the victory (if it was to come) or to be absolved of the guilt of defeat (hey, I tried my best).
David walks out to the battle ground - The army watched as David stepped into the valley of the shadow of death. They knew that if he defeated goliath, they all had victory, if he lost, they all lost.
David walks out to the battle ground (which is probably the very act of war that Goliath has
been waiting for) to go to the brook and select 5 stones. Speculate as to why he chose those five stones. Rabbinic tradition tells us that as David approached the stream these stones cried out to him and said “by us you shall overcome the giant, sink us into his forehead”, another theory is that each of the stones represented one of the five principle cities of the Philistines, and another theory is that since Goliath had 4 giant brothers this was one for each of them. (2 Samuel 21:22) Having renounced the armour and the sword of Saul, we see that David is using his sling as the weapon in this battle. (talk about slings and their power) ancient hand slings generally consisted of a single long strip of leather or woven wool, with a central "pocket" for the stone. The longer the sling, the greater its range. As for accuracy, one ancient writer noted that the best slingers "would wound not merely the heads of their enemies, but any part of the face at which they might have aimed." An ancient medical book included instructions for removing lead and stone sling missiles from the bodies of wounded soldiers.
(its interesting to see what a mighty weapon that this little sling is, and some have made big points out of this. Malcolm Gladwell’s recent best selling book “David and Goliath; Underdogs, Misfits, and the art of battling giants” spends its opening chapter focusing on how mighty the sling was, and what a tremendous advantage the young small agile David had against the slow, heavy, handicapped Goliath. His theory is interesting and perhaps holds weight, but David is certainly not putting his trust in the power of his sling. In fact, he doesn’t even mention his weapon. V 45 he contrasts Goliath’s weapon with the name of his God.” ) They get into a bit of a shouting match in v42-47 The shouted conversation 43-47 would certainly be a lesson in contrasts, the deep voice of the giant and the perhaps cracking voice of the teenager. Anyone listening to the sounds of their voices would know that this is not a fair fight. Anyone listening to the words of their speeches would know that this is not a fair fight. Goliath is offended that this teenage boy is the challenger that they have sent out to meet him in battle. A man of his stature deserves a worthy opponent, and he doesn’t see one before him. He threatens him and assures him that he is going to kill him and leave his corpse out to be consumed by birds and jackals. He also invokes the names of the Philistine gods - surely mentioning Dagon amongst the others. David shouts back, all you have is your sword, your spear and your javelin, "I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts" - David knows that he is coming as a representative of the God of heaven, the commander of all of heaven’s armies. God has limitless resources and power, and David is coming in His name.
Remember Goliath had threatened to feed David’s flesh to the birds, David, in retort tells him that he’s going to kill Goliath, I will strike you down and take your head from you (NKJ) and feed him and all of his friends to the birds! Guzik: Everyone else thought, "Goliath is so big, I can't beat him." David thought, "Goliath is so big, I can't miss him." David is concerned here not about his own safety, nor his own ego, and not even the protection of the army or the land, but the reputation of God. He wants “all the earth to know that there is a God in Israel” And not only the foreign nations, v47 shows that he also wants “this assembly” to know the power of God. They had evidently forgotten. They were looking to the power of swords and spears rather than the strength of the Lord of heaven. The battle is the Lord’s, not Goliaths. “The Lord saves” is the motto of the whole Bible (Yashua)
V48-51 David runs towards Goliath , fearlessly racing towards the giant. He grabs one of his stones and swings it and it launches right into his forehead! It cracks the skull and goes into his frontal lobe. This isn’t what kills him,( v50 is a summary statement of the whole battle. ) He falls to his knees and then falls facedown. Remember the Philistine idol Dagon that had the misfortune of being in the same room as the ark of the covenant? It fell facedown before the ark of the covenant. And now the giant worshipper of Dagon lies facedown, with a cracked skull, before the faith filled worshipper of YHWH.
The theology of skull crushing
In the garden of Eden the champion of humanity (Adam) stands off in representative combat against the enemy, Satan himself. They go to battle and Adam loses. Satan triumphs and he enslaves Adam and all of his people to sin and to death. But God doesn’t sit by as a spectator He steps down and speaks to Satan. He says that the time will come when someone will come into humanity’s line who is one of them, but is different. He will stand up to him and do battle. Satan will strike His heel, but He will crush Satan’s head. The David and Goliath story fits in nicely with that overarching promise: a rescuer would come, would stand with God’s people to His back and their enemies in His face and would bravely do battle against him, and bring freedom from slavery and death to them. We see him square off against the champion of the Philistines and crush his skull and then finish him off with his own weapon, and the people have victory. We see some vital ingredients to that story here in David’s battle, but we will see in later chapters that David is a sinner just like all of us, and that he needs a Saviour himself, so we need to look beyond him, to “the Son of David.” When Jesus came it was just as the ancient prophesy foretold. He was born of the seed of a woman, only a woman in fact, no human father was involved. He did do battle against the devil, in the wilderness on his own, and also through His freedom giving ministry. Jesus Himself said that His mission was to come and to bind the strong man and plunder his goods, which is a parabolic way of saying that he’s coming to limit Satan’s power and to start setting his prisoners free. But, that isn’t all that He came to do, He came to face off with him again, this time at the cross. The events that took place are multifaceted and there is no way to describe everything that took place in a few short minutes, but something that the Bible makes clear is that Satan was very much involved in the activities of that dark Friday. And how he must have delighted to find a willing traitor within Jesus’ disciples, and how he must have been so glad to hear the crowds demand that Pilate crucify Him, and how he felt the triumph as he saw his hated opponent writhe in pain and bleed, suspended between heaven and earth on mount Calvary. But at some point on that day, maybe as Jesus shouted out with a loud voice “it is finished” he realised that this is not working out the way that he hoped it would. He would have seen that this was in fact the plan all along, and that when Jesus died, it wasn’t just a textbook example of mob violence and weak government, but that something cosmic was taking place. Colossians tells us that sins were being paid for and that devils were being mocked as Jesus was dying upon that cross. Our sins were being cancelled and the law was being upheld.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He
disarmed the rulers and authorities[a] and put them to open shame, by
over them in him. b
[ ]
triumphing
And Satan’s head received a crushing blow from the nail pierced foot of Jesus Christ.
There is more crushing yet to come, and it involves us. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16:20 As the church expands we are pressing into the gates of hell. As we March “onward Christian soldiers” we March into spiritual battle, and we are guaranteed eventual victory. So - with every person saved in 2014, with every believer baptised, with every disciple made, with every sin confessed and forsaken, we are (under God’s authority) expanding the kingdom of heaven and expelling the kingdom of light, and the God of peace is crushing satanic forces under our feet. Our feet are “shod with the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15) and through the gospel we are equipped to play our part in the “skull crushing work of God.”
Goliath is killed by his own sword, he was planning on using that to kill David, but David used it to kill Goliath. The cross was devised and used by Satan to snuff out Jesus, but the cross is the very tool that destroyed Satan’s power.
Our response: We are like the soldiers, Our response ought to echo the Israelite soldiers, we shout and rush to extend the victory. we realise that we are victors. We step forward in confidence knowing that our great champion, the man in between, has defeated the colossal enemy and given us inevitable, eventual victory.
Our response ought to also echo the response of Jonathan, who knit his soul to David’s, he made a covenant of friendship with him. We, like Jonathan, want to join ourselves to Him: Jonathan’s soul was knit to David’s. If we saw Christ as the conqueror / champion the same would happen to us. Surely our response would be “My Jesus I love Thee! I know Thou art mine!” As our lives are linked to Jesus they are linked to his victory. We have been seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. Our lives are joined to Him and all that He is and has. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Romans 8:37-39 we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
We, like Saul, want to know more about this champion: Surely Saul already knew David, but he wants to know more about him. Christian - don’t you just want to know more about your Saviour?
