1 SAMUEL 17
Read 1 Samuel 17:1-58
This story is one of the most well known in the Old Testament and a staple of Sunday Schools, David v Goliath, the little guy against the big guy. Football cup matches when a non-league team is drawn against one of the top teams are often described as David v Goliath. But if we think of things only this way we can miss some of the main points of the text.
Goliath is more than just a hulking giant. He is that, of course, and the writer makes sure that we know about his imposing size which brought fear to the Israelites. But that should be ringing bells for us. In the previous chapter we saw Samuel trying to discern which of Jesse’s sons he should anoint as king of Israel. The oldest, Eliab, was an impressive figure, but the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height . . . Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’.
Again we see the Lord’s providence in events. David was not present at first when Samuel was considering which of Jesse’s sons should be anointed king. And David was not part of Saul’s army opposing the Philistines in this chapter; he was only present because he was bringing supplies to brothers who were serving in the army. And David ‘just happened’ to be there one day when Goliath issued his daily challenge to Saul’s army. We are told that the Israelites had been saying, ‘Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel’ (v25). David added a theological element to what was going on. He said, ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God’ (v26).
David volunteered to take on Goliath in single combat. He feels that he is equipped for the task because as a shepherd he is up against ferocious animals again and again. But he makes the point that it was not his own strength or skill that brought him success, but it was the Lord who has delivered him from these animals in the past (v37) and the Lord will deliver him from the giant Philistine, Goliath. Saul offered David his own armour but it did not fit (remember that Saul was an imposing man a head taller than his contemporaries and David was little more than a child). But David was not concerned. He went to face Goliath with no armour because he had faith in the Lord’s protection. When David approached Goliath he shouted out, ‘I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied’ (v45). The Lord honoured David with success and David honoured the Lord afterwards saying, ‘It is not by the sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s’.
The lesson to be taken is not that we should face our own Goliaths (be it the school bully, the overbearing workplace boss or whatever). It is about taking the honour of the Lord seriously as something to be protected in this world and having the faith to believe that ‘the Lord is my strength and my shield’ (Ps 28:7).