Riverside Community Church

Giants

The story is found in 1 Samuel 17 and it is the most well-known story of a man in the O.T. In fact, outside of Christ, we know more about David than any other person in the Bible. The scene is set in the valley of Elah, a valley in the Judean mountains. These mountains run north/south and the only way through them from the east is through an east / west valley -this valley is called Elah

On the north side near Socoh are the Philistines up the mountain side on high ground.         The Philistines had come from the coastal region on the Mediterranean Sea and from the Aegean Islands. On the south side across from the Philistines, is King Saul and the Israelite’s army. They too are on high ground up the mountain side.

There they stood for 40 days each army not wanting to give up the high ground and charge at each other. For that would mean certain defeat to advance uphill into the enemy’s line.

From the east, from the pastures around Bethlehem, comes David, the anointed one, soon to be King, carrying food for his brothers and King Saul. And then walking down the mountain slope on the north side comes this behemoth of a man, Goliath. 9 feet tall, bronze armor from head to foot, just his metal coat weighs 125 lbs. the metal tip of his spear weighs 15 lbs.

And he taunts and challenges the Israelites.

 

 

1 Sam 17: 8-10

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 …, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”

 

and David heard it

 

As we look into this true historical Biblical story I want you to know that this event also correlates to us, we too face giants in our lives. Some of you have faced giants already in your life, maybe you have a giant defying you right now, and perhaps you have not faced your giant yet.

Let us see how David defeated his Goliath.

 

David’s motivation

Goliath defied the Israelites army and hence defied their God, the God of Israel.

This disrespect towards God, motivated David to defend the honor of his God.

The challenge by Goliath was to the whole army, but David took it personally.

Last Sunday we saw that when David was anointed by Samuel to be the king in waiting, that the Spirit of God came upon David in power.

That Spirit in David was being defied by Goliath, disrespecting Him, and it stirred up in David the motivation to fight the behemoth.

 

If you’re a Christian then this same Spirit that was in David is in you, and when a giant comes up in your life it is defying the God in you. It defies the God in my life by saying “the God in you can’t defeat the giant in my life”.

What kind of giants do we have in our lives???? A weakness we can’t overcome, a bad habit we perpetuate, a sin that defeats us, a relationship that we shouldn’t have, or a relationship that should be better than it is.

                                 

We may lack the type of character that we know God wants us to have, character traits like contentment, integrity, purity, not greedy, traits like that.

 

There are giants in our lives, in the past, in the future or right now, and they defy the God in you. If you stand up and walk out to face this giant do so to prove that there is a God in my life, just as David said to Goliath that he would defeat him and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

 

David’s past experience

I would think that many of us if not all of us have already faced at least 1 giant in our lives. Goliath wasn’t David’s first fight either.

1 Samuel 17: 34-37

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this … Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 

David looked back and saw victories God had won in him in the past and it gave him confidence to face the current giant before him.

The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 

The God of the past is the God of present too, He has not changed, so stand up go out and fight your giant knowing that He will rescue you, He is able to do it in your life too.

David fought differently

In ancient time there where 3 forms of fighting men

1) Horsemen, riding a horse or in chariots

2) Heavy infantry, like Goliath –this was the majority of fighting men

3)and then there where the poor man’s fighting men, archers and slingers.

 

Goliath was heavy infantry, but David went out as a slinger

Saul tried to give David armor but David said: no I have not proved them but he had proved his sling

 

I thought I understood the David and Goliath story until I watched a Utube video this week

(illus)

I watched the world champion slinger throw a stone like what David used, using a sling like David and hit a 4.6 square inch target (the area of forehead exposed on Goliath). The target was set nine feet in the air and was at a distance of approximately 30 feet away.

They had placed a meter to measure the force of the stone in the target area.

This modern day slinger took three swings of the sling above his head and hurled that stone bullet with such force it smashed the target completely.

A doctor on this video indicated that a force measured on the meter greater than 3 would certainly break through the forehead bone killing the person.

When they checked the meter that the slinger had hit, the meter read 3.2

The David stone hit the Goliath forehead breaking through and lodged somewhere in the frontal lobe of the giants brain. HE FELL FORWARD DEAD.

 

Such a lethal weapon, and with such accuracy. David had proved it.

 

Here’s the point, Goliath may have been a giant but David wasn’t the underdog.

David didn’t fight Goliath by his own strength, he fought in the name of the Lord

and so should we, not by our own strength, not by self improvement to conquer a giant, a habit, a sin, a character flaw.

 

         But for the name of the Lord, for the glory of God in our lives

If God be for us who can be against us.  BELIEVE IT

 

David didn’t fight as Goliath wanted to fight as a heavy infantry, on the giant’s terms but he fought the giant as a slinger.

         And we too need to fight our giants with the spiritual weapons God has forged for us.

The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, the shield of faith, the belt of truth etc. These are our giant conquering weapons.

Ephesians 6:10-17 (NIV)

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 

Question. Do you have a giant in your life, defying the God in your life??

 

Fight for the glory of God in you, fight to prove there is a God in you.

Remember how God has helped you in the past, have Godly confidence. He will rescue you. Don’t fight your giants on their terms, fight it with the spiritual weapons God has provided you. And when God rescues you from your giant the whole world will know that there is a God in you.

 

Do you have a giant, will you walk down into the valley like David and fight your giant now, today?

 

If you have committed yourself today to fight your giant, let me know so I can pray for you too.

 

Pastor George

g.macdonald@nexicom.net