David’s Story: Facing Giants

1 Samuel 17

The Ten Signposts of the Bible
CAMDE—400—CALY
Creation. Abraham. Moses. DAVID. Elijah. 400. Christ. Apostles. Letters. Yet-to-Come.

David and Goliath. It’s a familiar phrase used to describe an underdog facing a much stronger opponent. In business, it may refer to a small finance company competing with a global firm like J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. In sports, it describes a clear underdog taking on a top-ranked team. In the legal world, it can refer to a citizen challenging a federal agency. This expression comes from today’s passage, in which a shepherd boy faced a formidable foe. It is a fascinating account.

Last time, we followed Samuel to Bethlehem, where he anointed David as Israel’s next king.

After Samuel left, life seemed to return to normal. While David’s oldest brothers—Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah—went to the battlefield, David returned to tending his father’s sheep.

He also played the lyre for the king whenever Saul needed to be appeased. 

One day, Jesse sent David to bring supplies to his three siblings who were fighting the Philistines. The Israelite army stood on one mountain, and the Philistines on the other, with the Valley of Elah between them.

The battle had reached a standstill when a Philistine champion challenged the Israelites to one-on-one combat, with the winner taking all. That champion was Goliath, a giant whose exact height remains debated. Depending on the length of a cubit at the time, he may have stood anywhere from seven to nearly ten feet tall.[1] To Israelite soldiers, whose average height was about five feet five inches, either estimate would have made him seem enormous.

Goliath’s armor weighed well over a hundred pounds, the head of his spear weighed fifteen pounds. To ensure his protection, he had a shield-bearer that walked in front of him. Each day Goliath stood on a high point and shouted across the valley, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together” (1 Sam. 17:10). Goliath had shouted his taunting invitation for forty days, day and night (1 Sam. 17:16). Saul and his soldiers were “dismayed and greatly afraid” (1 Sam. 17:11).

David arrived with the food and found his three brothers along the battle front just as Goliath issued his mocking challenge. Saul had promised any soldier who fought and defeated Goliath “great riches,” his daughter in marriage, and exemption from further taxation (1 Sam. 17:25). When David asked the soldiers about the king’s offer, his oldest brother Eliab overheard and became incensed, saying, “‘Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.’  And David said, ‘What have I done now? Was it not but a word?’” (1 Sam. 17:28–29).

Don’t you love that? Before one of the most famous incidents in the Old Testament, David and Eliab are having a family squabble, and Eliab is trying to put David in his place as the baby of the family. David, in essence, says, “Can’t I say anything without you jumping all over me?”

After responding to his older brother, David went to the king and assured Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of [Goliath]. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:32). Though Saul tried to dissuade him, David remained confident, saying that, “the LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear” while he tended sheep would also “deliver [him] from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:37).

Saul offered his armor to David, but David could not maneuver in it. Instead, “he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:40). 

A typical sling consisted of a small leather pouch with two attached cords, and the stone was about the size of a tennis ball. In the hands of someone trained to use it, the sling was an effective weapon.

Why did David take five stones? The Bible doesn’t say, but the most logical explanation is that he wanted to be prepared for an unpredictable confrontation. He may have missed with the first shot or needed to take out the armor-bearer before turning his attention to Goliath. David’s experience with lions and other wild animals had taught him that one shot might not be enough. Only God knew that it would take only one stone.

Offended that Israel had sent a young and seemingly inexperienced teenager to fight him, Goliath ridiculed David and vowed to leave his body to vultures and wild beasts. David, however, remained undeterred and boldly declared:

1 Samuel 17:45-47
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. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,  and that all this 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.

You know the rest of the story. David’s single shot sank deep into Goliath’s forehead, just below his bronze helmet–one of the only unprotected areas of his massive body. David then used the giant’s sword to cut off Goliath’s head and took it as a trophy.

The truth of this familiar story resonates just as powerfully today as it did when David struck down Goliath with a single stone. The battle belongs to the Lord.

So when you enter your next battle, remember: you don’t need five stones; you need the one and only true God.

PERSONAL TIME WITH GOD
Read and reflect on 1 Samuel 17. What “giant” in your life is currently shaping your thoughts more than God’s truth?

Talking to God: Tell God all about that “giant” and ask him to give you the courage to face it.

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