Let us open our Bibles this evening
to 1 Samuel chapter 17. I'm sure this evening that we
all are familiar with the contents of this chapter. We have in In
it, David slaying the giant Goliath. Many times we hear people of
the world even refer to their cause as being somewhat like
David and Goliath. They see themselves, their weakness,
themselves being small, and their opponents as being like giants. But we're going to look at four
things in this chapter tonight. I trust the Lord will bless. But before we begin those four
things, I want us to see this. I want you to keep your places
here with chapter 17, but turn back a few pages to chapter 11. 1 Samuel chapter 11. Actually, the first verse of
chapter 10 says, Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured
it upon his head, that is, upon Saul's head, and kissed him.
Then in chapter 11, in verse number six, we read, And the Spirit of God came upon
Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was greatly was
kindled greatly. And the tidings which he heard
was that the Ammonites had invaded the land. And he came and he
heard that news and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and
his anger was greatly kindled. And we see his courage. We see
his courage and his boldness. in assembling an army together
and defeating the Ammonites. But then if you look in chapter
16, 1 Samuel chapter 16, and verse number 14, but the spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul. So we see the Spirit of the Lord
came upon Saul, and when the Spirit of God came upon him,
he had the power, the ability to be the king, to be the leader,
and to lead the troops of Israel. But now, remember, because of
his sin, his disobedience, he did not destroy all the Amalekites. Here in chapter 16, we see The
Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. So when we come to
chapter 17, where we're looking this evening in verse 11, we
read, when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine,
they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Spirit of the Lord had
departed from Saul. He no longer had that courage,
that leadership ability which God had given him And now he
is greatly dismayed, we see, and because he was the leader,
of course, the army of Israel itself was greatly dismayed,
greatly afraid, the scripture says. And I would just remind
us tonight, as we think about what David did in this chapter,
that in Hebrews chapter 11, we know that chapter lists many
of the Old Testament saints, telling us of great feats, accomplishments,
which they did by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And concerning
David, what he did by faith, it says he waxed valiant in fight. Waxed valiant in fight. And that's
what we see here when he goes out to fight with Goliath. By
faith, David in himself did not have that courage or that strength
or that ability. But by faith, what he did, he
did by faith. What he accomplished, he accomplished
by faith. And the reason I point this out,
of course, is all the glory, all the glory of what is accomplished
here belongs unto the Lord. It was through his power, through
his strength. Yes, David was used, and David
believed God. But as we sang just a few minutes
ago, Their rock is not as our rock. That is what the nation
of Israel said. In other words, these other nations,
their gods, their rocks were not as our rock, as David's rock,
as David's God. Now I'm going to bring the Lord
willing four thoughts out to us from this chapter. Like I
said, I'm sure all of us here tonight, we're all familiar with
the chapter. But I have four thoughts that
come to my mind. First, the difference. The difference that one man may
make. Think about that. The difference
that one man may make. Here we see the two armies are
gathered, they are arrayed against one another, and there's no movement
for 40 days. For 40 days, there's no movement.
The giant, from what I've read, was evidently over 11 feet tall. He was a very big person. He
was a giant, no doubt about it. And we see that he was covered
from head to feet in armor. That's important to see. He was
covered from head to feet in armor. There was no way that
any weapon could touch this giant. And it's especially to see in
verse five here in chapter 17 that he had on his head a helmet
of brass. He had on his head a helmet of
brass. He's guarded himself well. So there's no weapon that can
touch him. And he proposed to Israel this
proposal. You send a man out to fight me,
and if he defeats me, then the Philistines will become your
servants. But if I defeat the man you send
out, then you will become our servants. We see that in verses
eight and nine. And he stood and cried unto the
armies of Israel and said unto them, Why are you come out to
set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine and you
servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you and
let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me
and to kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail
against him and kill him, then shall you be our servants and
serve us. That one man. This is his proposal,
let one man come and fight, and if he defeats me, then we will
be your servants and vice versa. Matthew Henry believed that at
this time, the army of Israel was much larger than the army
of the Philistines. The army of Israel was much larger,
and the reason he believed that, of course, is because we have
seen in previous studies, previous chapters, how that Israel routed
the Philistines in several battles. And so he was of the opinion
that the army of Israel at this point was much larger. But they were at a stalemate. Why didn't Israel attack The
Philistines, because of one man, the giant. And why did the Philistines
not engage in battle with the Israelites? Because they were
undermanned. There was many more of the Philistines. But this all changed. Think about
this. This all changed by the coming
of one man. 40 days, you know, that's a time
in the word of God that we find quite often, isn't it? But 40
days, they were at a stalemate. I mean, one army was encamped
on one side of the valley, another army on this side, and this giant
coming out every day and challenging the nation of Israel. And nothing
happened. Nothing moved. But it all changed. by the coming of one man. How
many times do we think or do we say something like this? Well,
I'm only one person. I'm only one person, you know.
I know things are bad, but what can one person do? What can one
person do? Well, David didn't reason like
that. David didn't see himself as one
man. He saw himself as one man with
God. He didn't just see himself as
one man. But what can one person do? I
had a man ask me that just recently, and he was very sincere. Seeing
the situation that we are living in, today, today's society. He said, what, what can we do?
What can one person do? And I asked myself that question. I thought about this. What can
a little captive maid in the house of Naaman do? What can
she do? She's been stolen from her family,
from her country and taken into a foreign country. And she's
a servant. What can one What can one little
maid do? She can tell her master if he
was in Israel, there's a prophet there, a prophet who could heal
him of his leprosy. What could one man do named Philip
in John chapter one when the Lord found him? What could he
do? Just one man. And they certainly did not know
that much, not Philip and Andrew, John, who first came to the Lord,
as it is recorded there in John chapter one. What could one man
do? He could find his brother. He
could find his brother. And he found him, Nathanael. And he could tell him, we have
found him, of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did
write. So that's my first thought. Think
about the fact that one person can make a difference. You know,
we think we need a lot of people, but one person, one person, what
a difference one person can make. When we see it here, one person,
David, he makes all the difference in the world. One person praying,
one person seeking God and God's blessing and God's help. What can one person do? We don't
know. It's never, never been determined,
right? What one man with God can do. A second thought as I read through
this chapter is I want us to say that a couple of the Proverbs
are illustrated here. A couple of the proverbs are
illustrated. Proverbs 16 and verse 18 is a
well-known proverb, and we see it illustrated in this chapter.
The proverb is, pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit
before a fall. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. Goliath, he was so full of pride
because of his size, because of his strength, and oh, what
a haughty spirit he demonstrated. I defy the armies of Israel this
day. Give me a man, give me a man
that we may fight together. And then when David goes out
to fight him, He says, am I a dog? Am I a dog that thou comest to
me with staves? In other words, is that what
you consider me to be, just like a man would take a stick in his
hand to fend off a dog? Is that what you consider me
to be, just a dog that you come to me with a shepherd's staff
in your hand? Haughty, I, he said, I, I will
give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of
the field. Don't we see that? Pride, haughty
spirit. But what does the scripture say?
Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall. And this man full of pride and
so full of haughtiness He's going to fall. He's going to come down. Just as the scripture says. And
the same thing is true of you and me. You know, in the United
States of America, at least, it seems to me that we think
of certain sins, and they aren't wicked. They're evil. There's
no question about that. We think of many different sins. We've got our catalogs, but not
many of us actually think about pride. We seem to think, well, that's
not so bad. Some of these other things that
we could mention, you know, but pride. But you know, the scripture
is very clear, isn't it? God hates pride. A proud look. Seven things the
Lord hates and the first thing that is named there. What a proud
look. A proud look. This man was full
of pride. And just as the Proverbs said,
pride goeth before destruction. Keep your place here, but look
with me in Jeremiah. I know You're familiar with this passage,
but here in Jeremiah chapter nine, we're warned about this. Verse 23 and 24. Thus saith the
Lord, Jeremiah nine, verse 23. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but
let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me. That I am the Lord which exercise
loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For
in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And my word to you
and to me especially is let us all know and feel more and more
that we are what we are by the grace of God. Whatever we are,
that's what the Apostle Paul said, wasn't it? One of the greatest,
maybe many people believe the greatest of the apostles. And
yet he said he was the least of the saints, a sinner. So that's one proverb that stood
out, stands out to me. Pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before fall. This man, this man, Goliath. But then there's another proverb
in Proverb 27 in verse four, a lesser known proverb maybe,
but I see it also is illustrated in this chapter. The proverb
is, wrath is cruel. Anger is outrageous. But who
is able to stand before envy? Now I see this in Eliab, David's
brother. If you look down to verses 28
and 29, David comes to the camp and he begins to ask some questions.
He couldn't understand it, how this one man could defy the armies
of God. And he begins to ask some questions,
and his brother, and this was the eldest brother, the eldest
son of Jesse, remember, and he had been passed over. When Samuel
came to anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king, remember Eliab
was the first one, the oldest one, and Samuel thought, my,
this is the man. Here he is. He's taller. He's
a nice looking man, this is him. And God said, don't look at the
outside, look at the heart. And so he's passed over. Now
in this battle, he and his two brothers next to him, they're
engaged in Saul's army. And so they're there and Jesse,
David's dad, sends David with some provisions to take to his
brothers and take to the army. And Eliab, the eldest brother,
heard when he spake unto the men. David was asking some questions. And Eliab perceived he's going
to volunteer. He's going to step out and challenge
that giant. He didn't have the courage. He
didn't. He didn't have the courage to
do it. And so in anger, as the proverb
says, wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous, but who is able to
stand before envy? He's envious of his brother.
He's envious of David. And so he accuses David of being
proud and having a haughty spirit. Eliab, his eldest brother, heard
when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against
David. There it is, his anger, wrath. And he said, why camest thou
down hither? And with whom? Now, notice how
he tries to belittle David. In fact, he tries to make it
look as though David was not faithful. He was not a faithful
man. He just walked off and left those
sheep, those few sheep. We don't know how many sheep
there were, but he makes it sound, why camest thou down hither,
and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? You just walked off and left
them? Those few sheep, you were charged with taking care of them? without come down that thou mightest
see the battle. You just come down, came down
here, walked away from your responsibility of watching those sheep, just
a few sheep at that. What is he doing? He's envious
of David. He's jealous of David. And as that proverb says, who
is able to stand before envy? But we see David's humility. Remember last week, last time
in chapter 16, we saw that David was taken to Saul's palace to
play the harp, and he was made an armor bearer, whatever that
meant. He was made one of Saul's armor
bearers. And we see his humility in leaving
that position of some preeminence, some prominence there, and going
back and tending the sheep, his father's sheep. We see his humility. And we also have to notice his
answer to his brother. Is there not a cause? You accuse
me of doing what I'm doing and asking these questions out of
naughtiness. Isn't there a cause? And we see
here a picture of our Lord. David came to his own, to his
brothers, the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter one and verse
11, he came unto his own and his own received him not. He
came unto the nation of Israel, his own, and his own received
him not. And then here's a third thing.
David, I'm going to say, David heard something in the giant's
words that no one else heard. He did. Look in verse 45. He heard something in this giant's
words that I don't believe anyone else heard. Then said David to the Philistine,
thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God,
notice it's the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. Saul and all of the men there,
all they heard was he is defying us. He's defying us. He's defying the army. But David heard in those same
words this giant. He's not only defying the armies,
he's defying the army's God. That is God Almighty. He's the
God of Israel and these are Israel's army. He's not just defying an
army, he's defying God. I thought about that verse in
Isaiah, which says, woe unto him that striveth with his maker. That's what this man was doing.
He picked a fight, all right, but he picked a fight with God,
not with the armies, but with the God of the armies. Woe unto
him that striveth with his maker. Let the potsherds of the earth
Strive with the potsherds of the earth. In other words, let
men fight with men. But whatever you do, don't engage
in a war with God. You're not gonna win that. And
that's what this giant had done. And David realized it. David
sensed that. David, I believe we see here,
he knew by faith what one of his great, great, great grandsons
was going to hear. of the king that later set upon
his throne by the name of Jehoshaphat, he was in a great strain and
the prophet told him, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason
of the great multitude. Now listen, for the battle is
not yours, it's the Lord's. And I believe David realized
that too. The battle, him going out to
fight Goliath, was not his, it was God's. He, this giant, defied
the God of Israel. And one other thing in closing,
if you look down in verse 51, David, as I pointed out, this
giant had a helmet of brass on. Now everyone is familiar, David
took his slingshot and with that one stone, he felled the giant,
but evidently, The giant wasn't killed with that stone. It stunned
him, it knocked him down. But notice in verse 51, therefore
David ran and stood upon the philistine and took his sword
and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut
off his head therewith. And the point being that David,
he killed the giant with his own sword. with his own weapon. Look with me, if you will, turn
in the New Testament to Hebrews chapter 2. I see this as a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 2, verses
14 and 15, The apostle said, for as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he, that
is the Son of God, also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. used man's fear of death. And not just fearing death, that
is dying, but after this, the judgment. The devil used that
and he continues to use that to keep men in bondage, to hold
men in bondage. The Lord Jesus used the devil's
weapon. What was the devil's weapon?
It was fear of death, of death itself. The Lord, by His death,
He used the devil's weapon, death. By His death, He swallowed up
death. He defeated our enemy. So that you and I tonight, those
of us who look to Christ, who trust in Him, we have no cause
to fear death, unless, unless. Unless God can be so unjust as to demand payment first from
our surety and then demand payment from us. And we know that's not
gonna happen. God is just. And our surety,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's paid. He's paid our sin debt so that
we will never be charged. Paul could write, O death, where's
thy sting? O grave, where's thy victory?
The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks be to God which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the
Lord bless this word and use it for our good this evening.