1 Samuel 17:32-49
Today, I would like to focus my sermon on just four verses from the Old Testament reading, these verses are: 37-40. This is a part of this story a lot of us may just pass over, maybe because the rest is so exciting, and these four verses are a little weird and maybe even humorous.
David has accepted the challenge to face the Philistine champion, the giant Goliath, in a one-on-one fight. The fate of Israel pends on David, if he wins, they will rule over the philistines; if he loss, the Israelites will be their servants, and David a dead man. If one is going to fight an army’s champion, a professional soldier like Goliath, one should look like a champion, a professional soldier too. At least that is what everyone expects. After all, that is how Goliath looked like and all the Israelites soldiers were afraid, “were dismayed and terrified,” 1 Samuel says.
His very impressive armor is described in detail in verses 5-7. It weighed about 150 pounds. Whoever fights him must be prepared; must be protected with a sword, a bronze helmet, and a coat of mail. Because that’s what champion warriors wear. That’s how they dress. That’s how they go to battle. Therefore, Saul offered his armor to David, but there was a little problem, do you remember when Samuel introduced Saul to Israel… he was the tallest man in Israel. Therefore, Saul’s battle gear did not fit David, at all. It was way too big, and way, way too heavy. David could not even walk in it. He tried it, but it was impossible. Can you imagine the whole army laughing when they saw David with the armor, especially his brothers?
But in verses 39 and 40, we find what I believe it’s maybe the most important thing that happens in the whole story: David took off the armor Saul placed on him… and then he got the stuff he knew how to use– a shepherd’s staff, his bag, some smooth stones from the stream, and his sling. And we know the rest of the story: the little one, the week, the one everyone expected to loss, became more than a national hero; he became a symbol of trust, an icon of obedience and confidence on God; he became “a man with God’s heart.” All because he took off the armor someone else put on him, and instead used the gifts, the tools, and the God’s given skills he knew how to use best.
While David tried to be someone he was not -a professional soldier- he felt uncomfortable, and he could not do what the Spirit was leading him and asking him to do. But then, “he took them off” and “took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.” In other word he faced the Philistine as he was: a shepherd; he faced Goliath with what he had, with his God giving gifts and abilities and God gave him the victory.
As we read the Bible, we will see that that is God’s Modus Operandi, God takes us and uses as we are. When Moses and Israel were trapped between the Pharaoh’s army and the waters, he asked Moses, “what do you have in your hands?” Moses responded a staff, and that is what God used to open the waters to free Israel from slavery. When Jesus called the first four disciples who were fishermen, He told them I will make you “fishers of men.” In other words, I will continue using your knowledge and abilities to fulfill my plan.
The story of David and Goliath is one of the most beloved stories in the whole Bible. I am sure that everyone of us have identified with it at some point in our lives, and as many other stories in the Bible, we have romanticized it. What I mean by this is that when we go deep into it, we will see that what David did even when the story makes it looks and sound easy, it was not. It took not only courage but also trust in God; the difference between David and the rest of the Israelite army was trust, trust that the Lord who rescued David from the lion and the bear will rescue him from the hand of the Philistine.
The victory of David over the Giant began when he was shepherding his father’s flock. This victory was not a personal victory only, it was a victory for the whole community of Israel. David got his trust in God from his own personal experience, he knew that when he was keeping his father’s sheep God was with him; he knew that when he defeated the lion and the bear was not with his own strength and ability, it was God who was with him who gave him the victory.
David knew that if God gave him the ability to protect and defend a sheep, He was going to help him protecting and defending Israel. David’s trust in the Lord opened his eyes to see what others could not. “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth,” Saul told David. What Saul saw was a giant soldier and a young shepherd. But David saw something different, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I took it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the lion and the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” David did not see a Giant he saw a dead lion and dead bear; David saw himself rescued once again by the hand of God.
We have a lot to learn from this young man called David, but today I just want to share three important aspects that I see in this story: 1) God can used you as who you are and with what you have. 2) Trust in God. As He was with you in the pass, He will be with you today and tomorrow and 3) Your victory should also be God’s people victory.
Every follower of Jesus without any exception has the command to “Go and make disciples” to do that God has given us different gifts or talents. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” Same Spirit, same Lord and same God. Therefore, remember, it is not about your talent is about the one who gave you, your talent. If David had stopped to see what he had and what Goliath had, he would not have fought.
David did not face Goliath with his sling and stones, he faced him “in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel.” David faced Goliath knowing that “All those gathered there will know that it is not by sword or spear -the ones he rejected- that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s,”
What do you have to fulfill the commandment of Jesus? Whatever it is, bring it to the Lord and as He did with Moses and David, and the disciples, He will use it for His honor and glory. And remember “Little is much when God is in it” as the old hymn says.
Trust in God, trust in every promise made by Jesus. Remember, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will never pass away.” I have heard many times that prayer is the key to our spiritual victory. But I believe that it is trust. Trust that our prayers are being listened; trust to believe that what God did in the pass with others, He can do it with us today; trust to believe that our enemy, whatever, or whoever it is, is not bigger or stronger that our God, or as 1 John 4:4 says, “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Do you want to work for the Lord, but you are afraid to do it ? do not see what you have, see who is inviting you to go, or as Hebrews 12:1 and 2 says, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
And last, remember all the victories that God gives are not personal they are also God’s people, His Church. 1 Corinthians 12:7 say, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” If what Paul says is true, and I believe it is, every church reflects its members; what we do or not do is reflected in the church, in the common good, Paul says. Today I would like to invite you to bring your God given gifts and consecrate them to the Lord; today I would like to invite you in the name of the Lord, trust in God, what He did with David, he can do it with you; what He did for Israel with David, He can do it for our church with you.