A God for You • 1 Samuel 17

22:21 Teaching begins

Notes

Maybe you don’t experience setbacks and failures. This one is not for you.

For those of us who do, there’s this feeling of being alone, the only one. Because you are by yourself you can’t dare to go forward, but you can’t go back either. It’s like you’re stuck. And then you feel bad for being stuck. If you were a better person you wouldn’t be stuck like this, but there you are, you’re that kind of person, so you get what you deserve. You’re a loser.

There is a way to answer that, and that is, you are not alone. There is a God for you. 1 Samuel 17 is a big, long chapter and there’s so much in it, yet it is saying one thing: there is a God for Israel.

And because there is a God for Israel, then you are not alone. There’s a God for you.

I’m reading in 1 Samuel 17 (to verse 11).

1. Israel and Saul let themselves be intimidated and degraded by the Philistines’ cheating, vv. 1-11.

A. It was going to be just like any other battle with the Philistines. They camp on Israel’s land, they move in, they get ready to fight. Saul and his men camp on the other side of the valley. The battlefield is in the lowland, in the valley. So far all is normal.

B. Then the Philistines cheat and propose a battle of champions. Why go through charge, attack, slaughter, when we can just have it out, man to man? 

C. The challenger is Goliath.

1. He’s nine and a half feet tall.

2. He fights wearing something like 132 lbs. of bronze armor.

3. There are two ways of looking at his spear. Either it is as broad as a weaver’s beam, or it has special ropes so that he can throw it harder and more accurately. Either way, the spear tip weighs more than 15 lbs. That’s as heavy as an American bowling ball.

D. The Philistines are cheating because this isn’t a fair fight. They know no one would have a chance against Goliath. Come on, one on one, that’s fair. Not.

E. They want to paralyse and demoralise Israel through fear and it’s working.

1. Everyone is afraid, from the infantrymen right up to Saul the king. Remember that he is the tallest man in Israel. He would be the natural one to go up against Goliath but he won’t do it because he’s the king and you have bigger problems if he loses and gets killed.

2. The Philistines are already winning the battle because they have taken away Israel’s ability to determine what they will do. They can’t go forward and they can’t go backwards. They are stuck in fear.

F. The ultimate goal is to degrade Israel.

1. The Philistines don’t need incapable slaves, they want Israel on the ground, unable to act for themselves, inferior, with no honour, no glory.

2. It seems like the Philistines have nothing better to do than oppress and humiliate God’s people. This is because the devil also loves to intimidate and enslave God’s people.

3. Because they are God’s people, when they are degraded it also degrades God. It testifies that there is no God. He doesn’t exist, He doesn’t help man. All that counts is man, by himself, alone, helpless for fear of death. And in that place they are as good as dead without being dead. They are made as nothing.

2. David is sent to camp and is not afraid to fight Goliath, vv. 12-27.

A. We get this long introduction to David, and what we want to notice is that he is working two jobs. David occasionally returned from serving Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. Isn’t that interesting, that he would go back and forth? Why not just stay where the glamour is, get someone else to feed those sheep? There are four other sons plus servants. There’s something about shepherding that David pursues. We’ll consider this again in a little while.

B. While David is feeding the sheep Goliath is degrading Israel and God twice a day, morning and evening, for forty days, that’s a long time.

C. Jesse wants to know how things are going with Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah, so he sends David with dried grain, bread, and cheeses for their commander, and he wants him to come back with news.

D. When David gets to the Israeli camp they are going out in the morning to the battle line shouting. David leaves his supplies with a quartermaster and goes to talk to his brothers, and hears the Philistine’s challenge. That’s the name this account gives him: the Philistine. David and all the men hear the challenge, and all the men run back from the battle line.

E. David also hears the soldiers talking about the king’s incentives for someone to accept the Philistine’s challenge: Great riches, the king’s daughter in marriage (become related to the king himself), and your whole family free from taxes. These incentives are pathetic. No one is motivated to go out there to fight the Philistine. They are all talking and nothing else. No fighting, no plan, no forward, just fear, talking, and nothing changes.

F. Out of all these men only David is not afraid.

1. He doesn’t ask about the reward to get it straight in his mind. He asks the question to remind the men of who they are and who that Philistine is. That is, He’s blaspheming God and reproaching God’s people, saying God and His chosen redeemed people are worthless and despicable. That’s a lie.

2. This Philistine has no relationship to God at all. That means he’s outside the covenant of Moses, he has no God, he’s sinning against his own life. This guy needs to be killed.

3. David’s brother and Saul the king both say, “You can’t do this.” vv. 28-33.

A. Eliab is angry because he’s embarrassed. He’s the oldest of the brothers and that means he’s the best of the brothers from a human reckoning. But he’s as stuck as Saul and the rest of Israel. He reacts from embarrassment and thinks David is somehow making fun of him, or Israel, or both.

B. So he gets angry and tries to tear down David. In effect he says, “Who do you think you are? You’re just a crummy little shepherd who thinks he’s a hotshot.” He accuses David of pride and wickedness. But you have nothing to boast of, you twerp. You shepherd a few crummy sheep and that’s all you are.

C. David says, “Wow, I haven’t done anything wrong here,” and talks to another man about how the Philistine is blaspheming God and Israel.

D. Finally it gets back to Saul and he calls David to himself. David says, “I’m going to go fight that Philistine.” And Saul says, “There’s no way you can do this! You are too young! He’s been doing this since he was your age.” I mean, look at the difference. You are a little kid, he’s a monster. Whatever confidence you have is misplaced or wishful thinking. Wake up and smell the coffee.

4. David says, “I can do this, and I will do this,” vv. 34-37.

A. Let no man’s heart fail: David has what none of the others has: determination and confidence to face danger and know that he will succeed.

B. It comes from the experience he had with those few sheep.

1. It’s not how many sheep you tend, it’s what you do with those few sheep that makes you a man of God.

2. David experienced the Lord delivering him from the paw of the lion, the paw of the bear, to where he knew God would deliver him from the paw of the Philistine.

3. He knew God was with him. It was God’s presence that would defeat the Philistine.

5. Saul actually works against David in trying to help him, vv. 38-40.

A. Saul figures, I should probably give David all the help I can, so he says, “Here, put on my armour.” And he puts a couple of kilos of armour on David.

B. Has David ever worn this stuff before? Has he ever been in battle before? Not like this.

C. David tries it out, and says, “Man, I can’t even move in this.” And leaves it all behind.

D. He picks five smooth stones from the brook. That’s more my style.

1. Isn’t it interesting that it’s okay for David to be individual and not have to be like everyone else? David has to be himself and fight as himself.

2. The reason is that God is fighting through you. You and God are good enough.

3. Notice, David’s not defending himself, he’s attacking. He’s fighting to win, not try to hold a position or survive.

6. Here’s the point of the chapter: David shows the world that there is a God for Israel, vv. 41-47.

A. The Philistine totally underestimates him. Eliab, Saul, and now the enemy only understand by what they see. They look, they see a kid with no armour, he’s cute, but he is not dangerous.

B. The Philistine is even insulted. You think I’m a little dog who will fetch your stick? He curses David by his gods and talks tough to rattle his opponent before he gets close.

C. David talks right back but this isn’t to rattle Goliath, this is the reason he is fighting the Philistine. It’s bigger than just David, this is a testimony that there is a God in Israel, and FOR Israel.

1. Your weapons are nothing against the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have blasphemed. I’m going to take your head off and give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds to eat. Many, many of you are going to die today, that all the earth may know that there is a God for Israel.

2. Everyone here today is going to know that the Lord does not save by spear or sword. He saves by His presence with us. This is His battle, He has already won it.

7. Everything David has spoken comes true, vv. 48-58.

A. The Philistine’s weapons are nothing before God. Before he has time to use them, David has used a sling to break his skull where there was no armour. The Philistine had no protection before God.

B. He fell on his face to the earth. That is the proper posture of man before God.

C. David uses Goliath’s own sword to cut off the Philistine’s head, which he said he would do.

D. A lot of Philistines die before they get to a fortified city. David spoke the truth there.

E. Israel finds the Philistines die just like animals. They return to plunder their tents that they’ve been living in for the last month.

F. Saul and Abner ask each other, who’s this guy’s father? Who is this guy? They are amazed at what David has done.

8. So what?

A. We have to ask, how in the world can David actually believe that he can do this? It comes from the experiences he had while taking care of those few scrawny sheep that Eliab thought very little of. A lot of things happened while David was doing his job. You might think this is a nothing job I have, but it can be the place where you learn that God is with you.

B. Remember that David was a shepherd before he was anointed king of Israel. While he watched and tended the sheep he was pursuing his relationship with God. He was reading and meditating on the Scriptures. He had lots of time on his hands, and you need time to meditate. It’s not a speed exercise. You might be able to speed date, but you can’t speed meditate.

C. How would David get the idea to meditate at all? From the example of Joshua. God Himself told Joshua, Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Can you imagine David reading this and saying to himself, “I am going to meditate in this day and night. I am going to be like Joshua. Look what happened with Joshua. I have the history right here: God blessed Joshua to conquer thirty- one kings. I want to be like that.”

D. When a person meditates on the Scriptures it becomes more than merely thinking deeply about words on a page. The words are living and active, and they make a path that leads directly to God.

1. Psalms 119:27 Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. You see, you begin by meditating on God’s commandments, but in the end He makes you to see His miracles. How God dealt with Noah, keeping him alive through a flood that destroyed all life on earth. How God dealt with Abraham fighting four kings with 318 trained servants. How Joseph went from slave in prison to the ruler of all Egypt under the Pharoah in one day. Miracles of providing, miracles of victory, miracles of healing, of guidance. Behind all these is God, everlasting, all-powerful. When you meditate on God’s word, you see God.

2. Jesus said the same thing to the religious leaders. John 5:39-40 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” If you let the Scriptures do their job they will lead you to Me, the one, true, living God, but you don’t want Me.

3. David let those Scriptures lead him to God. It began a lifetime of coming to know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

E. But then David found by experience that every word of God is true.

1. A lion attacked, a bear attacked, and God was with David to keep his head, charge on the animals and kill them on the spot.

2. So he knew by experience that the Lord will deliver me from the paw of this Philistine. There is no difference.

F. If you see God, then you see man in his proper perspective. Psalm 49:20 A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish. David didn’t write that, it was written later than David, but it’s always been God’s perspective on man. This big Philistine is living below the level of man, he’s living like an animal. He’s going to die like one of them.

G. There is a God for Israel, and there is a God for you.

1. You are not alone against the devil. You are not powerless, you can make progress. You don’t have to be afraid.

2. You go forward in the presence of the Lord. He is with you.

3. You learn the presence of the Lord in His presence by His word and His Spirit.

Let’s pray.