1 Samuel chapter 17 and verse 17. And particularly we are thinking
about the young people amongst us today, but you older folk
can listen in too. And Jesse, that is the father
of David, and Jesse said unto David his son, take now for thy
brethren an effa of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and
run to the camp of thy brethren. And carry these ten cheeses unto
the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare,
and take their pledge. Now Saul and they and all the
men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. And David rose up early in the
morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took and went as
Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench as
the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines
had put the battle in a ray, army against army. And David
left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage,
and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren. And
as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the
Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the
Philistines, and spake according to the same words. And David
heard them. And all the men of Israel, when
they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. And the
men of Israel said, have ye seen this man that is come up? Surely
to defy Israel is he come up. And it shall be that the man
who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches
and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free
in Israel. And David spake to the men that
stood by him, saying, Of what shall be done to the man that
killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from
Israel? For who is this uncircumcised
Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall
it be done to the man that killeth him. And Eliab his eldest brother
heard when he spake unto the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled
against David. And he said, Why camest thou
down hither? And with whom hast thou left
those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness
of thine heart. For thou hast come down, that
thou mightest see the battle. And David said, what have I now
done? Is there not a cause? And he
turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner,
and the people answered him again after the former manner. And
when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them
before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul,
Let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and
fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou
art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him,
for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy
servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear,
and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and
smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose
against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew
him. Thy servant slew also the lion
and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of
them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David
said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of
the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me
out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go,
and the Lord be with thee. And Saul armed David with his
armour, and he put on helmet of brass upon his head. Also
he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon
his armour, and he assayed to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot
go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them
off him. And he took his staff in his
hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and
put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a script.
and his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and
drew near unto David, and the man that bare his shield went
before him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I hope you don't mind me taking
another week to think about this account of David facing Goliath. The actual fight, when it comes,
is fast and quickly over. But I think that there are lessons
to be had from these prior verses too. These verses that we've
read today speak about David's reasons for going to the camp
of the army. They speak about his passion
for the honour of the Lord, and they tell us about the preparation
that he made to face Goliath. David was still young. He was
not a child. but he was perhaps still a teenager,
a late teenager, and three of his older brothers were in the
army and preparing to fight against the Philistines. I just want
us to be aware of that predicament because it is not unlikely that
one or more of his brothers could be killed when this battle commences. There seems to be some reference
in the passage that we read to the battle having already begun
but Also because Goliath continues to come out over this period,
I think it best to think that these are preparations for the
battle that are still taking place and perhaps defensive positions
that are being taken up by the various armies as they set themselves
in array. But we can't but think that once
this battle fully commenced, that there was every possibility
that one of David's brothers could be seriously injured or
even killed. Another interest that David might
have, of course, in this matter is that Bethlehem, where David
lived, was only a few miles from where this battle would be fought. And if Saul and his army were
to lose this fight, then David's own home, his family farm and
home, could have been vulnerable to attack and to the looting
by the enemy. So it must have been an anxious
time in the whole of Israel and it must have been an anxious
time for Jesse and his family. And we learn that it's now nearly
six weeks that the army had been gathered in this place. So it's
not surprising that Jesse wanted to know what was happening with
his three eldest boys and so he sends David with provisions
to their camp and he carries with him bread and cheese and
corn for his brothers and also a gift for their commander. And as I was reading this, I
thought that it was interesting to note how God appears to have
prevented Goliath from leading an assault on the children of
Israel. We're told that every time this
man appeared, this giant with his challenges and defying the
army of Israel and the God of Israel, but the men were frightened. The children of Israel were afraid. And yet, Goliath seems content
to simply shout at them for these 40 days. And I don't have an
explanation as to why this battle had not taken place already. except for this, that it was
in accordance with God's timing. And really, Goliath didn't know
it, but he was waiting all this time for David to arrive in the
camp. And I think that's worth noting,
that our times are in God's hands. The days of our lives, the events
of our lives, are numbered according to the will and purpose of God. And while we don't know what
the future holds, our God does. And our Lord Jesus Christ loves
and cares for our souls more dearly than we love our own lives. And all of the giants in this
world cannot lay a finger on the Lord's elect unless God allows
it. And sometimes he might for our
greater good to teach us lessons, and sometimes they never get
to lay a finger on us at all, though we often fear that they
might. And there's another lovely picture
here, I think, and I just want to mention it in passing, that
the armies of Israel were apparently quite paralysed at this time. They were fearful and they were
hopeless when they faced the Philistines and this giant Goliath. That is, until David came into
the camp. David, in a sense, came to their
rescue. It didn't seem like that. That's
not what the circumstances said. That's not what they certainly
thought. And yet it is a fine picture
of our need and condition as sinners before a holy God. Because God's law, like Goliath,
God's law is a fearsome thing. And it renders us guilty. And
it renders us without excuse for our sin. And we, as a people,
in our natural state, are helpless and hopeless until our great
David. the Lord Jesus Christ comes to
deliver us. It's as if we've got to wait
without having any ability to do anything ourselves for all
of this time, day after day, week after week. And then David
came to the camp. And when he came, no one recognised
him to be Israel's saviour. His brothers, in fact, rebuked
and mocked him. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world as the saviour, he came to his own and his own
received him not. And yet by his death, he has
become the saviour of his people, the deliverer of spiritual Israel,
the elect of God, and the redeemer of our souls from under the curse
of the law. When David arrived at the camp,
the soldiers seemed still to be taking defensive positions. And now David first encounters
Goliath. The fierce giant of a man came
out from amongst the ranks of the Philistines and he shouted
his challenge across the ground between the two armies one more
time. And as Saul's soldiers cowered,
David's reaction was quite different. He was offended that an idol
worshipper should mock the Lord's covenant people, the army of
the living God. You see, David believed that
God would protect his people, and his bold speech, his bold
attitude in the face of this giant's taunts soon reached the
ears of Saul. And David was brought to Saul,
who at first dismissed the idea that David could fight with Goliath. However, David insisted He had
fought and killed a bear and a lion that had attacked his
sheep, his flock. And he says, I will fight and
I will kill this giant as well. And this interview between Saul
and David is interesting because it reveals David's faith. And I want us to note this, don't
forget David had been anointed King of Israel by Samuel and
David believed this. David believed that he would
be king. He believed Samuel and he believed
God. When Samuel told him that he
would be king, when Samuel anointed him and told him that God had
chosen him to be king, David believed it. Now if God said
he would be king in Israel, it must be so. That was what David
believed. It must be so. And think about
that for a moment. When the bear came and took one
of David's sheep, David might have said, I better hide. I better run away. I could get
killed here. And then he thought, wait a moment. I can't get killed if God has
promised that someday I will be king. That promise means that
I can defeat this lion, and he did. That happened with the bear and
it happened with the lion. David slew the bear, saved the
lamb, and then when the lion came, David probably thought,
that lion will eat me. And then again, he recalled the
promise. So he remembered the lion, he
remembered the bear, he remembered the promises that he had been
given. And he spoke about these things
to Saul. He had been promised to be king,
and David saw that Goliath could not kill him because he must
be king. And that's an expression of David's
faith. His experience of the bear and
the lion gave him confidence to face Goliath as well. David's belief in God, his faith
in the promises of God, gave him courage to face the biggest
problems. and to do so confident that the
Lord would be with him and would protect him. David had personally
proved the Lord in smaller matters, though a bear and a lion isn't
so small, and he trusted him to be with him for the big things
too, for Goliath. He'd slain the two animals in
the wilderness, when he was on his own. Now he would have two
armies watching as he stepped out to face Goliath. And another
thing that we learn here is the way in which Saul dismissed the
idea of David fighting. Saul was preoccupied with David's
inexperience and with his youth. And Goliath's strength and experience
as a warrior was undoubtedly formidable, but Saul was looking
on the outside, on the surface, and he did not see how the Lord
was working a miracle of grace and goodness right before his
eyes. When David explained about the
bear and the lion, Saul reneged and agreed that David could go. However, he was eager that David
would wear some of the king's own armour. It's actually almost
funny to think about how the king's armour, the king was a
very tall man anyway, but how they tried to put the king's
armour onto this teenager. David politely told Saul that
he could not use it. because he had armour that Saul
knew nothing about. David trusted in one who had
promised to be his shield and his defender. And Saul's brass
helmet and coat of mail was of no use to David. It was a poor
substitute. True faith in Christ does not
need to rely on the works or the abilities of man. And this
brings me to the final thought that I have today, but perhaps
the most important of all. David's confidence and his strength,
his faith was in the promises of God and the covenant that
God made with his people. And yes, it is true that there
had been a personal promise given to David by Samuel when he had
been anointed as king. But David knew that God was Israel's
covenant-keeping deliverer. And David relied upon that most
of all. David knew that Goliath had no
interest in God's covenant. David knew that he had defied
and denied God's glory. And David knew the Lord was on
his side. But he actually knew more than
that. He knew that this was the Lord's battle for the Lord's
own glory. It was not David going forth
to fight Goliath, but the Lord himself. And David was merely
the weapon in God's hands to slay the giant and to deliver
his people. Now let's compare that to the
Lord Jesus. He has come to do battle for
us against our enemy, sin, Satan, death and hell. He has come from
heaven to conquer. He has delivered us at the cross
and he will deliver us day by day and he will deliver us safe
to heaven, those who trust in him. Saul wanted to arm David
with his armour, but David had no other defence beyond faith
in God's promises, and he went forth in the power of the Lord
God of hosts. And our Lord Jesus Christ as
well, trusted in his father's promises. In the covenant of
grace, God promised Christ a people if he would bear their sins.
and he did bear our sins and he carried our sorrows and God
the Father honoured his son by giving the church to him as his
bride, as his church, as his people. David had to set aside
Saul's armour and he chose five smooth stones from a brook. There was no human part in those
stones. This was the Lord that made those
stones smooth in the brook. And nor can we add any work to
help in the matter of our salvation. It is God's grace that saves
a sinner. It is a work of sovereign power. Over the centuries, God polished
those stones in the brook, in the river, and he made them smooth
in that stream until David stooped, picked them up, and placed them
in his bag. Someone once asked me, why did
David take five stones and not just one? And I didn't really
know the answer to that. And then I read in 1 Samuel chapter
21 and verse 22 that there were four more giants in the army
of the Philistines. Maybe David took a stone for
each one of them just in case he had to fight them all. Such
was the confidence and faith that David had. So like David,
let our confidence be in the Lord. Let our confidence be in
his promises, in his power, and in his purpose to save his people
from their sin, and to deliver them out of the hands of their
enemy for his own glory. David proved his Lord. and by faith we too shall prove
the Lord to be faithful to all his gospel promises to all who
believe. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.