God of Victory

Well, our story is David and Goliath. At some level, that really needs no introduction. It's arguably and probably the most famous and well-known story in the Old Testament. We're going to be looking at this story and walking through it, and then kind of looking at different angles afterwards. We're going to look at it at three different angles, but I first want to walk through the story. It's a story about faith. It's a story meant to encourage us in faith. It's a story that's meant to be an example of faith. It's a story that's supposed to build us up so we would trust God. It is about a young boy and a giant. It's about a nation who falters in faith and a young man who has faith. Most of all, it is about the God who promises victory, keeps that promise, and gives his people victory. Faith. It's one of the more complicated but necessary and essential words we use as Christians. We sometimes talk about it as if it's something mystical and, and, and, and hard to understand. You know, faith is, is a thing that's seen. Let me be very clear. Faith is waiting for God in many ways. Faith is not knowing everything at all times and, and therefore kind of calculating when you obey or how you obey. Faith is hearing what God says, believing it is perfectly trustworthy, and acting upon it. We're really looking at what I'm going to call this morning courageous faith. And there's not different kinds of faith. Faith, by definition, in Christ, is courageous. If you're looking to take notes and kind of have an outline of the story and how I'm going to walk through it, the first thing we see is faith lacking. Faith lacking. Then faith sparked. Faith sparked. Then faith tested. Tested. Then faith courageous. and then celebrated. Faith lacking, faith sparked, faith tested, faith courageous, faith celebrated. The context is very clear. If you weren't here with us last week, we're in 1 Samuel. We're walking through the book chapter by chapter, section by section. It's important to remember the context. Israel needs a king. The problem is they wanted the wrong kind of king. They get Saul. God rejects Saul. And then last week, 1 Samuel 16, God has anointed David to be king because he has a heart after his own. He has a fear of God, a reverence for God. He will keep God's commandments, unlike Saul. Now we have the story that really falls on the heels of that. And we see how that plays out and why it's so important that David is not like Saul. The Philistines, a people who have been a problem before and will be a problem after, they've come out to battle. And it's a clear picture of a battle scene. You've got two mountains. On this side, you've got the Philistines. On this side, you've got the Israelites. And then you have this man named Goliath. In verse 4 he's called a champion. And this is a unique phrase in the Hebrew Bible. It's an idiom. It's not ever used anywhere else. It, it, it means the man between two camps. And it's, it's a picture of what he's doing. These two camps, these two nations are at war, and he's coming out and saying, I'm representing my people. Who's going to represent your people? We're going to fight mano y mano, winner take all. It's tough. He's intimidating. The weight of his breastplate alone would be the weight of a typical Israelite. He's a giant. He's up to nine feet, nine inches tall, if we follow what scripture says here. Armor would be rare. He's an armed soldier who is incredibly intimidating, and he keeps coming out for 40 days and says, who are you gonna send out? I'll destroy him. An important motif, especially if you've been new with us, if you've been with us, we should remember this. Appearances are deceiving. First Samuel has had that motif strung throughout, right? Israel wants a king like the nations. They want a king who's tall and powerful like the nations. Appearances are deceiving. Samuel even goes and sees Eliab, the oldest son, and says, surely this looks like a king. No, God does not look at man like a man. God looks on the heart. It is deceiving. This great giant appears indestructible. appearances are deceiving. Now it's also important, let's just remember, Saul was chosen as king because he was taller than everyone else, right? He's the king. He's still practicing as the king. And if you were to hear a giant come out, a great champion, says, I'm going to represent my people, you send out somebody who's great and mighty among your people, and let's go have at it, winner take all, who should Israel send out? Saul. the king, mighty in battle, taller than everybody else. And also he should be trusting God more than everyone else. What we see here is fear among the Israelites. Verse 11, when Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. It's the kind of fear that just paralyzes you. I have no idea what to do, because the task in front of me, the, the obstacle in front of me, it's, it's going to win. There's no way around it. I point you to the psalmist, who said, when I am afraid, I trust you, the Lord my God. That's Psalm 56.3. I title this faith lacking, but really it's specifically, they're lacking faith in God. Let's be very clear, they have faith. They believe Goliath. They have faith in Goliath. That he is who he says he is, and he can do what he says he will do. He will destroy anybody they send out there. It's not just lacking faith in general. It's where you place your faith. They have complete confidence in Goliath. They're lacking faith in God. I point that out because it's very important. It's not a matter of how strong your faith is. It's that it's in the right place. It isn't how strong your personal faith is. It's that you actually believe and trust the right one. that your faith is where strength can be found. Your faith is where salvation can be found. They lack faith in God, the only one who can actually help them. So if faith is lacking, they hear Goliath, they see Goliath, they believe Goliath, and that causes them to be afraid. Verse 12, we have our turn. Faith sparked. David, again, he's the son of Jesse. He's coming from Bethlehem at the very end. This kind of emphasis on who Jesse is and where he comes from, that's very important for all of Scripture and how Christ has come. But now, let's just say this, in this particular story, we see that faith is sparked. David is back home. He's been anointed king, but now he's back home with his father. He's taking care of the sheep. And we hear there, verse 16, for 40 days the Philistines kept doing this. But David and Jesse, they don't know about the Goliath, it appears. They just know the brothers, the three older brothers, and all of Israel are in battle with the Philistines. So notice verse 17. Jesse said to David, take your brothers and Ephah of the parched grain and these 10 loaves and carry them quickly to the camp of your brothers. Take these 10 cheeses to the commanders of the thousands, see if your brothers are well, bring me some token from them. David appears to be the equivalent of a water boy. He's providing goods, he's simply walking out with, he's the youngest of eight sons, he's watching sheep, he's just helping out the brothers who are in battle. David rises early in the morning, he hands over the sheep, he hands over the goods, he goes out, and this is where the story takes a turn, verse 23. Just like the other 40 days, Goliath comes out, he declares, send your best men out, I'll defeat him and you'll be my slaves. And just like the other 39 days, all of Israel feared, but this day is different because somebody new is there that hears it. Notice that last declaration. David. heard him. David hears him. Goliath just poked the bear. This little boy, who's the equivalent of the water boy, he hears him and that changes the trajectory of the story. All of Israel is talking about, wow, if somebody comes out, you know, there's a selfishness here. If all Israel comes out, they'll be rich, they'll be free, that means no more taxes. David says, 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 Lord? That declaration shows a lot of faith. The first thing that really shows faith is that he's declaring him an uncircumcised Philistine. In Genesis 17, when Abraham was floundering in faith. God gives him the sign of circumcision. It is the sign of the covenant of God. For all Israel received circumcision to show that they were a promised people, every male. David is making it clear he is not among us. He has no promise of God. We have the promise of God. Why are we scared? He is not one of us. God is with us. God is force. Who is this guy? And then he makes it clear he's defying the armies of the living God. Goliath, he believes in no gods. His gods are puny. Who is this man who taunts my God and my people? A former mentor of mine used to insist you measure a man by what it takes to discourage him. There's a lot of truth to that. You see Israel, you see Saul constantly running in fear when circumstances are too difficult. You see David seeking to look to God and trust him. He hears a problem, he seeks to be the solution by looking to God. So we see faith is sparked. The one symbol of faith here, the one, the one little instance of faith here is David, who finally hears and says, who is this guy? So we see faith lacking. We see faith sparked. And of course, faith always must be tested. Faith tested. And it's tested twice. First, Eliab, the oldest brother, when he heard David talking, he says, why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. Now, let's just walk through those questions. Why have you come down? Well, let's go to verse 17. Jesse, his father, told him to come down. David is being an obedient, honoring son. Whom have you left the sheep? Well, he handed them over to another servant. He's taking care of what he needs to take care of. This next declaration, I know your presumption in the evil of your heart. That's harsh. That's his older, oldest brother. Your oldest brother is supposed to be with you and for you? Here he's assuming the worst. Here he's assuming to see what he cannot see, David's own heart. Now I want to be careful of being kind of armchair psychologist, but We can look back to 1 Samuel 16 and see that Eliab probably, in the natural order of things, would be the guy God ordains king, and he was rejected, David anointed. Possible there's some jealousy here. Jealousy certainly brings out this kind of just harsh, unnecessary criticism. Sadly, it's those closest that might be willing to give this kind of unhelpful, harsh, criticism. He assumes he knows something he cannot know and David responds, what have I done now? It was just a word. He turns away and the conversation continues. It continues to be tested because now the word of this David who's asking about what happens to the man who overcomes Goliath, it gets to Saul. And Saul wants to know, somebody's actually willing to talk about what it means to kill Goliath? Send him here. Verse 32, David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with him this Philistine. Saul responds, you are not able. There's actually some truth to that, right? David is not able. He's observing, he's seeing things as they are. Here's a youth, here's someone who's younger than 20 years old, a young man, a small man, someone who looks like a twig. You're but a youth, and he's been a warrior, a man of war since your youth. Saul is only seeing what appears here. He's testing David. He's saying, you can't do this. Notice David's answer. Verse 34, it's very instructive. That's boss. I mean, you think you'd be working up to the bear or the lion, not that it's like your beginning point, right? No, the lesser to the greater. The lesser is the lion and the bear? Notice, it's the Lord delivered me from the paw of the lion. Verse 36. The Lord delivered me from the paw of the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine would be like one of them. David's not afraid. He knows that the lion and the bear and goliath should be something that brings fear, that's why he brings them up, but he's remembering. It is so important, Christian, to remember. We're so short-sighted, and we have such short memories sometimes. When we face difficulties, we forget how God has been faithful over and over and over again. What David is reciting here is his assurance. God has made promises. We are the circumcised people. He has been with me. He has fought for me. The same will come of this uncircumcised Philistine that has come of the lion and the bear. He's been tested in the school of beasts. He is not afraid of Goliath. Verse 37. The Lord who delivered me from the Paul, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Now it's been hard to figure out the character of Saul. He's anointed king. That's an office. It's not a declaration of salvation. We've seen very little evidence of faith in Saul until right here. Go. The Lord be with you. He seems to be agreeing with David's faith. This has to be at some level, some faith in the Lord, because remember Goliath said whoever wins this battle, the loser becomes servants of the winner. This isn't just David going out and fighting for him, and maybe he loses, maybe he loses. There's natural ramifications. There's, there's, there's, there's significant ramifications for the other people of Israel. Sending him out is an act of faith in David, or the Lord who would be with David. So faith is tested. David is heard. There's a problem. Goliath is coming out. He wants to be part of the solution. He will not take. The Lord being mocked. His own brother criticizes him. Saul challenges him. And he says, I will go out and I will fight him. The Lord will give me victory again. Now we see faith courageous. Faith courageous. We see there in verse 38, Saul wants to put his armor on David. And David makes it very clear, I haven't tested this. Saul wants him to come and fight like Goliath expects and like Saul expects. And David simply says, this is not the way I'm going to find him. The Lord will be with me. And it's very important. He takes five smooth stones, and he puts them in his pouch. Now, when we think about these stones, think about a tennis ball size. When we think of a stone, we usually think of like a pebble. This is probably a tennis ball size stone that he's picking up and carrying. Verse 41. The Philistine moved forward and came near to David. and a shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, because he was just a youth, ruddy and handsome. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his God. And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh of the birds and the air and the beasts of the field. So this is important. Goliath comes out as usual. Now there's a guy out there. And remember the motif, appearances can be deceiving. Goliath looks on David and says, who's this twig? What is this little stick you've sent out? Am I like a dog? You're gonna beat me with a little stick? You're gonna try to fight me with a stick? And notice verse 43. He cursed David by his gods. He says to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. He curses David. Genesis 12 is the beginning of the promised people to Abraham. And part of the promise that God gives to Abraham is, I will bless you, and those who bless you I will bless. Those who curse you, I will curse. Goliath just provoked God. That's an important promise for us to remember. God blesses us. He protects us. Here, this Philistine is cursing David by his own gods with complete assurance that he will be able to beat David. And David's response, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin? But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. The Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you down and cut off your head, and I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. And all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all the assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand. That's some serious trash talk. All right. Mono li mono, stakes are everything, not just the death of one versus the other, but the enslavement of the peoples. Goliath, I mean, you can picture this. in his armor that weighs more than David, confident in his mighty spear and javelin and sword and shield, confident in his complete ability that if this goes fist to fist, he's going to win. Because it appears that would have to be the case. And David says, your sword, your spear, your javelin, I've got the Lord. The Lord is with me. The Lord is for me. You've got nothing. You've defied the armies of the Lord, the living God. You will be struck down. Your armies will be fed to the birds. The Lord will be made known. David trusted. He took the battle. Verse 48. When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. That's a pretty quick kind of anticlimactic ending. If you're a movie, if Hollywood were to take care of this, they would want to make sure there's at least some kind of great battle scene. No, you've got mano y mano. You've got their allegiances declared to their gods and their people, and then you have David making a swift execution, a victory. He takes the stone, it goes into the forehead, and Goliath falls face down. We cannot miss this, verse 46. David trusts God and wants to make him known. all the earth may know there is a God in Israel. That the whole assembly may know the Lord saves not with sword and spear as it would appear, but he saves with his own mighty hand. It's interesting. That's the whole goal of Genesis 12, that all the earth would know that God is glorious. That's the whole purpose of the Exodus and all those plagues, that God would make His name great. That's the purpose of David, because he's a man after God's own heart. He would trust God and make Him known. I wonder if there's some imagery here. If we go back to 1 Samuel 4, the Ark of the Covenant was stolen. They put it in the Temple of Dagon, and what happened? Diagon fell face forward. Just like his warrior champion, Goliath. Then they propped the god back up. What happened next? His head comes off, just like Goliath. David stands over Goliath. He has a sword, takes his sword, cuts his head off. Remember Jesse wanted a token? How's that for a token? The victory has been secured. God has revealed himself as the one true God, not like the gods of Goliath, not like the gods of the Philistines. He is the one true God. What happens next is Israel sees this victory. They prevail. They rise in victory. Saul wants to know who this young man is. And we see he is the Bethlehemite. And I believe this is capturing back to Ruth, where we know Jesse's from Bethlehem. pointing all the way to Christ who was born in Bethlehem. That's the story. What do we make of it? I wanted to take an opportunity here to look at it now from three different angles. Three different angles. The first is I wanna consider Malcolm Gladstone's book in 2013, David and Goliath. He was an author. He wrote a book. There's a series of chapters on different stories that are based upon the paradigm of how he interprets David and Goliath. And the whole point is there's underdogs and there's misfits and they overcome significant odds. Right? When you look like you're in a difficult situation, you can look to David and Goliath and see how you can overcome the problems. His point from the story of David is that David changes the rules so that he has more strength than Goliath. His teaching from the story is that David is a paradigm for how to change the rules so that you use your opponent's weaknesses against them and you redo the rules so that you have the upper hand. So he points out, David didn't want to put on armor to go out and fight hand to hand, because that would be Goliath's strength. He chooses instead the sling, which is a different kind of fight. He changes the strategy of the battle, and that's why he won. He then goes so far as to point out that Goliath, he's a giant. And there's certain symptoms to those who have giantism. One is that you have bad eyesight. And so he's emphasizing that Goliath is his poor eyesight, and he talks about he has to be led out by his armor bearer. That seems to be actually just flat out ignoring what the text says. Verse 42, the Philistine, Goliath, he looked, he saw David, and he disdained him. He saw he was a youth. Goliath's eyesight is not a weakness. It is not about David changing the story or outwitting, but I point this out because that's just the American tell. That's how we want this story to play out. If I just figure out how to outwit my problems, I just figure out how to overcome. If I position myself in a way that I overcome my giants, that is a key word, my. If you want to hear the American gospel, it's what he's teaching here. It's about me facing my problems with my strength. All I've got to do is figure out how to be a better me. That denies David's very words. The Lord will deliver me. Now, if we're to see the true story of this, the true meaning of this story, we need to look at David in two different ways. The first is he is the model of the Messiah. He is the model of the promised anointed King who would come. This is what we're going to look at David's story in light of the entirety of Scripture. We've got to go all the way back to Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, God says to Satan, Your seed and the woman's seed, there's gonna be enmity between you. Your seed's going to strike his heel and he's going to crush your head. For to consider David and Goliath, Goliath is the seed of Satan, David is the seed of Eve. We see that paradigm, that true God-ordained and prescribed paradigm playing out. David represents the seed of Satan. I'm sorry, Goliath represents the seed of Satan, who hates God and hates his people. David represents the seed of Eve, God's promised one who will bring victory. David is the true king after God's own heart, after all. Most of all, David is the predecessor, the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Christ. What David does to Goliath isn't just a partial fulfillment of Genesis 3.15. It is a partial foreshadowing of what Christ would do. Christ came to be our champion. God himself came and took on flesh so that he could be among us and one of us and stand out from us and pay the penalty for death. He is the king who was promised. He destroys the enemies that stand over us and mock us that are greater than us. Namely, here's your enemies. This is something important. Write it down. Sin, Satan, and death. There are real enemies. Those are your three real enemies. And there is nothing we can do in our own power to overcome those three enemies. Thanks be to God who's delivered us. Jesus destroys those three enemies. His death defeated death. The sting of death is standing before God and then being in judgment by ourselves. Christ died as if a sinner so that he could forgive sinners, so that we believe in him. His righteous life is imputed to us as our sin is imputed to him. Death is defeated. Satan is disarmed because he crushes his head at death, at his own death. And then sin. He's loosened the power of sin. Sin continues to give orders to say obey me and bow down, but he's broken the power of sin. He's given us the Holy Spirit so that we can obey and believe. Christ died to defeat those enemies. He rose victorious over those enemies. He's at the right hand of the Father, seated victorious. He's gonna come back to bring final, absolute victory. In the meantime, we fight. We continue to fight those three enemies. Not fearing death, not submitting to sin, not succumbing to the Satan. This is hard. This is a hard, real battle, because just think about what Paul says in Romans 7. I do what I don't want to do, and I, I can't not do what I, I, I want to do, or should do. You, you feel the, the constant frustration of a battle, long fought in Paul's words when he, when he's trying to obey God in his own strength. So it says, blessed be the Lord God who has delivered me from this wretched body. Satan's powerful. There's God, there's angels, there's us. Satan's one of those powerful angels. We cannot resist him on our own, but praise be to God that he who is within us is greater than he who is in the world. Sin is an internal corrupting power. It's something we have, and too often we love. Jesus says when you choose sin, it enslaves us. Death is waiting for us all. Let's talk about Satan and sin more specifically here. Temptation just feels overwhelming at times. I have to satisfy this desire. I'm overwhelmed with that desire. And then I'm overwhelmed with that guilt. You feel powerless. There are certain sins that the Bible calls entangling. We oftentimes call them addictions. The heart is so easily entangled in loving that which makes us might feel good a little bit. But sin is trying to find a coping mechanism. It's trying to find peace apart from Christ. It's trying to find some kind of comfort or joy in life outside of what God has commanded. And there's entangling sins. Pornography. alcohol, greed. We all have some kind of constant coping mechanism we turn to that entangles. What the author of Hebrews tells us to do when we have entangling sin? Look up to Him who can untangle the heart. Look up to Him who sent the Holy Spirit, who illuminates truth in the heart. Look up to Him who has died to forgive you, who has risen to heal you. Look up to Him who can actually help. This is important as you're battling whatever that thing is that you constantly feel defeated by. When you're fighting, you're not fighting for victory. You're fighting from victory. It's very important. You're not trying to secure your own victory. You're looking to Jesus Christ who died, who rose, who was ascended, who sent you the Holy Spirit. He has provided the victory. It's done. You're not trying to fight for a victory. You're trying to participate in His victory by faith that requires action. Romans 6 gives us just a glimmer of instruction here that I think is very helpful. If you feel entangled, if you're entangled this morning, you want to look up to Christ, here's the three steps from Romans 6 that Paul gives us. The first is this, know that you have died in Christ and you are risen with him. Know. Know you're united with Christ in what He has provided by His death and victory. Know that you're not with Christ in His victory. He has defeated sin and death so that we can say no. That's new for the believer. K-N-O-W, know that in Christ's victory, you can have victory. It means you study God's Word, you seek to trust His truth, you believe. The second step of belief is found in verse 11 of Romans 6. Consider yourself dead. That's where you actually start applying those truths we know about the death and resurrection. When sin tempts you, you say no because you say, no, I have died to that sin. I can say no. I want to consider myself dead to that sin, alive in Christ. I want to see that sin for what it is, destructive and dangerous. I want to look to Christ and see myself alive in Him. And then the third step is yield. Verse 17. Change your practices. Know what Christ has done. Consider yourself alive in Christ because of what He's done, and then put in place real practices. This is what the Bible talks about, putting off sin, putting on Christ, because Christ has died and risen. Here's the real important step. And this is a hard one. I trust most believers, they wanna put on Christ, they wanna receive that life, but here's the real important step. You actually have to want to stop loving that sin. That seems to be the hardest step. You've got to stop wanting to enjoy that sin. And the only way to do that is to see it as destructive as God says it is. To see it as deadly as it is. To see things as they truly are according to God's Word. You will not put off sin until you see it for what it is. Christ is here to put on. You can't put on Christ on top of sin. You can't put the garments of the righteous one on top of the filthy garments. You have to want to put it off in order to put on. The encouraging thing today is Christ has given you the victory to do so. But you have to want to do it. The second thing we see here, and the last kind of angle we'll look at the story is, David's an example of faith.