I Samuel 17:4-11,23-37,45-50 - In the Name of the Lord Almighty

My freshman year in high school I found myself in a David and Goliath type situation. You know, where the challenger takes on the giant with no hope of success. But this instance was one where I was on Goliath’s side instead of David’s. I was a part of the J.V. Basketball team and we were going out to another team to play their only basketball team. They were a tiny school out in the San Juan Islands and they weren’t a part of our Basketball conference, and their team wasn’t a full season team, but a team that would play occasionally. As we began to play them we discovered that they were not very good, and we realized that it wasn’t going to be much of a game. I remember a couple of snippets from the game. Towards the end of the game, the other team was close to thirty points and our coach called us in and told us that any points they scored above thirty, we’d be running lines for each one. I didn’t think that was very fair cause I hated running lines. At the same time, we were close to 100 points and as the time clicked down we started playing hard cause we wanted to make that 100 mark, something that just isn’t done in J.V. High School Basketball. We started playing full-court press and playing hard and rough and we actually made it. The final score was something around 103 to 36.

The other snippet I remember is the other coach coming over and asking our coach why we had to play so hard at the end. This team wasn’t part of our conference, so stats didn’t really matter, and we could have been a bit more gracious with our victory instead of wallowing in our superiority. They asked for the game to have fun, they didn’t have delusions of winning, they just wanted an experience of playing someone. And we felt it was our duty to put them in their place.

I actually felt shame for the way we had behaved. We were acting like a great big Goliath, knowing that we were better than those who faced us and rubbing it in in such a strong way. Our beating them didn’t have any meaning to it and the only way meaning would have come out of this event was if somehow they could, despite all the odds, beat us. We were a Goliath and we trampled over David with glee. Unfortunately, this is often how David and Goliath stories go. Usually the Goliath wins. Occasionally, something miraculous happens and the David comes out as the victor, but this is quite uncommon. A true David win only happens when God is doing something miraculous.

I. Stories of Old

What is it about the story of David and Goliath that captures our imagination so well? It has almost become a cliché as a metaphor for the hopes of the underdog in our society. We may watch a game with a shocking upset and think of it in David and Goliath terms. Or perhaps, when we see a small business make it in a crazy marketplace. I’ve heard the Apple/Microsoft competition often treated like David and Goliath. Apple relishes their David role and Microsoft doesn’t seem to mind being the giant.

David, throughout his life, is the story of the underdog, the least likely of kings, the youngest son, the weak young challenger, the friend of the prince, who continues to find greatness, not in himself but in his trust in the Lord.

And the greatest underdog story of all is that of a young man, not fully grown who goes up against a giant. The young man is wearing civilian clothes, for the armor he is provided does not fit and will weigh him down too much. The giant is fully armored with a mighty sword, a strong shield and a huge spear as well as body armor to protect him in battle.

But little David doesn’t let this stop him. He picks up 5 smooth stones out of a stream and takes his slingshot, and he heads out towards this great Goliath. When Goliath sees David, he laughs and makes fun of David and of Israel. “Have you come at me with sticks?” he asks, “Send me a real warrior, a challenge worthy of me.”

But David comes to Goliath, and after their exchange of insults, Goliath comes at David to attack him, I’m sure he is expecting an easy victory. David runs up, pulls a stone out of his bag and slings it at Goliath with his slingshot. The stone hits Goliath in the forehead and knocks him right down, paralyzing him. At this point David comes up to Goliath and takes Goliath’s own sword and kills him with it, winning victory for the people of Israel.

David, the underdog, went in with nothing more than a slingshot and brought down the Philistines’ greatest warrior, and the hardest part of it was probably lifting Goliath’s sword out of his scabbard.

What an underdog story. What an example for us to follow.

II. Two ways to go

Now there are two ways to respond to this great story of a courageous underdog. One is to praise his courage and hold him up as an example of someone who did not give up but rather stood up for what was right and ended oppression by his actions. This response makes sense. It focuses on the courage it took for David to do what he did. It reminds us not to give up and not to fade away when faced with a challenge that seems too great for us. It reminds us that there are giants to slay in this world and maybe if we just believe in ourselves we might go farther than we ever imagined. This is a popular theme today. You find it throughout the movies that try to tell a good moral. They tell you that you are capable of more than you realize and if you just don’t give up, you will find that you are able to do more than you think. Again, this isn’t a bad message. It’s important that we not sell ourselves short. It’s important that we realize that God created us for more than just settling. Trust in yourself, that you might find the strength that you didn’t know you had. A good message, but not the message of David and Goliath.

For there is another way to respond to this story. This second way is to realize that it is not David’s courage that wins the day, nor is it a lucky shot with his slingshot. It is his trust in the Lord that brings victory.

David does not trust in the might of men. He does not trust in the technology of his day, the armor or the sword and shield. The things of men will fail in the face of the truth of God. David himself, when he addresses Goliath, talks about this trust that Israel and the Philistines have put in the weapons of war, but he knows that there is something much greater to put his trust in. He begins in verse 45 by saying, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty.” In verse 47 he continues, “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

David didn’t see himself as defeating Goliath with his slingshot. Instead, he saw God as the one who brought victory. David didn’t see any way that human armor or weapons could win the situation. Instead he saw God as the one who brought victory. David didn’t see himself as the hero at all. Instead he saw God as the one who brought victory. David didn’t start up a bigger defense fund or increase the army size. He didn’t put his trust in his people’s ability to fight. Instead he saw God as the one who brought victory.

And God did bring victory to David and to the people of Israel. The defeat of Goliath caused for there to be a rout as the Philistines fled back to their city. Israel won the day and won freedom for another stretch of time. The Philistines would be back, but for the time being, by trusting in God, the Israelites found victory and safety.

I think it’s important to notice that this victory wasn’t the last victory. God brought salvation to his people, he saved them from the threat, but this wasn’t their last threat, they would face trials again. And again, they would have to rely on God to save them instead of trying to do it themselves. Trusting God does not mean that he fixes all your problems for you. It doesn’t mean that everything will turn out fine. It means that you trust that God is involved in the process and he will bring you the victory you need in the way that you need it, but God isn’t in the business of fixing all our problems. So be honest in your trust and in your faith. Allow God to bring the victory, but don’t expect that his knowledge and yours are the same.

III. Another Underdog Story

God seems to really like underdog stories, for the story of David isn’t the only one in the Bible. Again and again, God takes the weaker person and uses them to fulfill his plan in a mighty way. We see two brothers, Jacob and Esau, in the Old Testament. God takes the schemer, the weaker of them and promises him that his descendants will make a great nation instead of giving this to the oldest son, Esau. God takes a prostitute in the town of Jericho, and uses her to help Israeli spies who go into the land. When Jericho is destroyed, she is the only survivor, and we discover later on that she is one of the descendants of Jesus, and of our hero today, David. Jesus takes fishermen and tax collectors and calls them to be his disciples, his followers, the founders of his church. When God decides he needs a great missionary to spread the gospel to the known world, he doesn’t take any of the followers who had been with Jesus, instead he takes a man who is out to kill and arrest Jesus’ followers for their beliefs, and Paul becomes the greatest of witnesses to the changing power of God’s love.

God continues to use the underdog throughout scripture, and I think there’s a mighty, theological reason for this. God wants it to be clear that it is his power that is saving his people and not the power of the individual he is using. It wasn’t Paul himself who became this great missionary to bring the gospel to the Mediterranean; it was God working through Paul. It wasn’t Jacob’s scheming that brought him the blessings that led to the beginning of Israel, it was God’s blessing upon him. And it wasn’t David’s strength or courage, or even his faith that brought Goliath down. It was God who delivered his people from the Philistines using David. David understood this and accepted it.

In the story of Jesus we have another story of an underdog doing great things. Jesus wasn’t religiously trained. He had the rulers of Israel stacked against him, and yet he taught and preached and brought people to right relationship with God anyways. God could have won the day with a political leader. He could have sent Jesus to raise up an army and conquer those who oppressed the weak. Future generations of Christians would try to do this, converting people to Christianity at the end of a sword. Forcing peace upon unwilling participants. But this was not God’s way. God chose to send his son to be a servant. God sent his son to die for and bring forgiveness to the oppressor instead of conquering them. It’s a different way of doing things. It’s not the way I would have chosen to do it. But God’s wisdom is greater than ours and God’s plans are much deeper than our understanding, and like David told Goliath, “it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.” God saves by sacrificing.

David understood this, and David trusted that God could save his people from the Philistines in a powerfully unusual way; in a way that proved that it wasn’t David or the people of Israel that brought victory, but rather it was God. Are we ready to allow God to bring victory for us? It might not look the way we would expect. It might not make any sense to us at all, but he can bring us victory out of defeat. He can bring us hope out of despair. He can use the least likely of situations to bring glory to himself and to save us from those things that are oppressing us. So let us trust in the Lord and in his goodness and in his power. He is so able to bring that which we need, let us turn to him and receive it. Amen.