1 Samuel 17 (Part 1)

Open your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 17. Do you know how it is when you become very familiar with something in your life, you stop noticing it? It's the craziest thing in the world. I can go into brand new surroundings and become fairly observant as far as, what's on the wall, what the odors, the smells that you may pick up in a new place, and what kind of carpeting there is, or how the doors squeak, or something like that. But in your own home that you live in, you just, you can walk by something, and not even notice it. I was looking around our house the other day and I saw some pictures on the wall that I'd never noticed before. And I'm sure they've been up for probably years. And I just happened to look and I was like, wonder where that came from? Sue just put it up and then I didn't even notice it. And that's the way it is with familiarity, isn't it? When we become familiar. The kids you grew up around, the siblings, if you had siblings. They enter into a room and it's no big deal. You're so familiar with them, you hardly even notice when they come or go. But if somebody you don't know comes into the room, or leaves the room, you're aware of it. You're like somebody comes in the room and you don't, it's like, oh, yeah, it's somebody new. But when it's just one of your family members, it's like, hey, what are you doing? We don't put on any kind of airs for people with whom we're familiar, right? Why am I saying all this? There's a point. When it comes to Bible passages, we can do the same thing. We can become so familiar with a Bible passage that we stop noticing it. We stop looking into it for something that is really going to make a difference in our lives. And this is one such passage. Who doesn't know the story of David and Goliath? Even people who don't believe the Bible know of the story of David and Goliath. Right. You hear it quoted in movies, TV programs, in books that have nothing to do with the Bible, nothing to do with God. They'll talk about, this is a David and Goliath scenario, or something like that. And they can say that because they know enough of the story to have a basic concept or understanding of what happens actually in this story. I'm sure some people think it's probably legend, or a myth, or just a fanciful tale like, Aesop's Fables or something like that. But this really happened. The story of David and Goliath really took place. There really was someone named David. There really was a man named Goliath who was a Philistine who was incredibly tall and powerful and so forth. And this story really took place. And so I want to just bring all this up so that you and I would be aware of the fact familiarity often sets us back in our seat a little bit to think almost to ourselves. Oh, well, David and Goliath, I've heard this story. I mean, I've read this to… All of my children, heard the story of David and Goliath, all four of them. And I read it to every—and with Tim, I read it over and over again because it was his favorite Bible story. I was always a little disturbed by that little smirk he had on his face when it got to the point about David cutting off Goliath's head. Kind of bothered me a little bit. I was concerned that he had this grin on his face at age five, when I would say, and David cut off his head. He’d go, (Pastor Paul imitates a smirk and laugh) and thank God the boy’s at Bible college now. But you're always at that place with your kids when they're little, you know they're going to do something great, you just hope it's legal. Anyway we are so familiar, we've heard it so many times. So let's pray. Lord, once again, let this speak to our hearts at the deepest level. Let this minister to our lives. We open our hearts to You a new and a fresh tonight. Lord, we want to wipe whiteboard here, because when it comes to a story like David and Goliath there's already so many things written there, but we want to just wipe it clean in order that we would hear a new. And understand a new. Father, give us spiritual ears, spiritual eyes, teach us tonight from Your Word. We look to You Father, in Jesus precious name, amen. Are you ready? Verse 1.

So they encroached onto the land of Israel there in the southern political kingdom of Judah. Remember that Israel and Judah and this is before that time, but Israel and Judah basically had a political split at one point. It was all Israel, but the southern kingdom was called Judah, the northern kingdom was called Israel. That political split hasn't happened yet, but it is already evident by the terms that are used here. And it says that “the Philistines… (here at the end of verse 1) encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.” Basically they're on a hillside and we'll see that here in just a moment. In fact, in the next verse it says,

Now the valley of Elah, by the way, is still there today. You can go and you can see the place where this battle took place, you can go right to that area. You can even, there's even a brook that still winds through the valley of Elah, where David got his 5 smooth stones when he went up against Goliath. You can wade into the brook and pick up some rocks. People like to think, that you pick up a rock and you think, well, maybe that's one of the ones David had in his bag. Who knows. But when it says mountain, whenever you read the word mountain, and it's talking about Israel, don't think about Mount Everest or Mount Rainier or anything like that. The mountains of Israel are pretty much just big hills. And that's the way mountains are in Israel. They're just big hills. So when it says that the men of the Israeli army were on one hill, a mountain side, and the men of the Philistine army were on the other mountain, they're not on these gigantic mountains overlooking like you might see on Lord of the Rings. It's a hillside, they're on a hillside. Now there's a valley in between them, and they're taking up their positions. And you need to understand that they're ready to go. I mean, they've got weapons in hand, and they're getting all psyched up. That locker room psych sort of a thing, like, yeah, we're going to beat these guys, sort of a thing. And then they're getting all, they're manning up. And they're all ready to say, here we go, charge, sort of a thing. But then something happens. Verse 4 tells us what that something was.

Now, that's not the way you and I determine the height of something. I haven't heard anybody lately say, well, that looks about four cubits high to me. We don't honestly know. Scholars differ a little bit on the height of Goliath. It goes anywhere from the upper seven foot eleven area to nine foot nine. We're not really sure. All we know is he probably landed somewhere between real tall and crazy tall. And menacing tall sort of a thing, right? I mean, so tall that he was intimidating. Have you ever walked up somebody who was just intimidating? They were so tall. I probably shouldn't tell you this story, but Sue used to have a boyfriend. Did I ever tell you that we went to high school together and she was dating this guy, right? And I wanted to date her, but she wasn't interested at that time. But she had a boyfriend who was a six foot nine. And he was intimidating. And I'm not short, but I'm not six foot nine. And I remember walking by him a few times and just kind of thinking, phew, not sure how I'm going to compete with that. And it's, there's just something intimidating about tall people. By the way, I got the girl, you knew that part, right? The small guy does win sometimes. But it's intimidating. Tall people can be very intimidating. And this man is very intimidating. And it tells us here that he was even dressed in an intimidating way.

That means his armor was about 125 pounds. That's a lot of weight. If you ever have carried around a 100, I find a bag of softener salt to be about as much as I can do. Right. That's what, about 40 pounds, something like that? And 125 pounds of armor on this guy.

Or 15 pounds. There you go. This guy is a massive muscle. He's intimidating. He looks intimidating. He's carrying around these armaments that are intimidating. Most men would have a hard time carrying what he's wearing.

How would you like to be Goliath's shield bearer? Yeah, me neither.

Verse 8. It says, “He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.”” Now I want you to see, again what is going on here. Each of the armies is poised to begin the battle. They're all ready. Both of them are ready to rush out and just, and start the battle. And they're okay. The Israelite army, they're okay with going into battle as long as they go into battle together as an army. But what is Goliath doing? Here's what he's doing. Here's what you have to understand he's doing. He steps out and he says to everybody, hey listen, I'll tell you what, let's make a deal. If we come together as armies and we all rush together down into the valley here and we just begin to start swinging swords, and poking with javelins, and whatever all else, there's going to be a lot of bloodshed here today. I'll tell you what, I'll give you an opportunity to limit that bloodshed. We'll keep it to a minimum. Here's the deal. You send one man, one man from your army out to meet me, and he and I will do battle; just the two of us, man to man. And if I beat him, you are our slaves. If he beats me, we will be your slaves. And I defy you. I defy the ranks of Israel to send out a man who is willing and courageous enough to meet me in battle. That's what's going on. He's giving them a challenge to forego the horrors of battle. But in order to do that, one man has to step forward and battle hand to hand with this man named Goliath. And here's the response by Israel. Look at verse 11,

I don't know if your Bible, if you have a different one than the translation I'm reading from, might have a different word than dismayed. But I found out that dismayed is actually a very good word because it means to lose courage. To be dismayed is to lose courage. And that is exactly what they have done. They're okay going into battle as a group, but now that Goliath is calling out one man, one man who's courageous enough to fight him in hand to hand combat, they are at a loss of any courage. And you have to ask yourself the question, why are they so afraid? Can't we not find one man who's willing to go to battle against this guy? I mean, hasn't anybody heard the saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall? Meaning, the bigger sound they make when they hit the ground, sort of a thing. No. Nobody's willing to do that. Sometimes as often as go the leaders, so goes the army. And we find out here that Saul, king Saul is afraid. He's afraid. He's not going up against Goliath. He's the king. He probably should. I mean, he was a, he's a warrior. And yet Goliath is striking fear in even Saul, and so that fear spreads to all the men. And I think there's a couple of reasons why he's striking so much fear in Saul. First of all, we remember reading something very interesting in our last study about Saul. And that is, the Holy Spirit departed from him. And that's a very, very important thing to remember. The Holy Spirit has departed from Saul. He no longer has the Holy Spirit on him. And the Holy Spirit is our source of courage. I don't know if maybe you're, you comfort yourself in being a very courageous, strong person. I don't. I know the kind of man that I am. I can be a real weenie sometimes. But it's through the Holy Spirit that we can walk in strength and power. And Saul has not the Holy Spirit any longer in that capacity. And that is one of the big issues here. Secondly, secondly, there's another reason why I think Saul is really afraid. Do you remember what the Scripture told us about Saul when it described him way back when we met Saul for the very first time? You remember how it described him? It described him as, a head taller than any other man.

I want you to think about that for a minute. Saul is probably the tallest guy in the Israeli army and he's the king. Which means he ought to be the example. Now, here's the deal. If Saul is going to respond to Goliath, and if he's going to play by Goliath's rules, or play Goliath's game, because make no mistake about it, Goliath is setting the rules to the game here, right? He's the one who stepped forward. He's the one who said, alright, here's the deal. Here's what we're going to do, right? This wasn't Saul who stepped out and said, here's what we're going to do. This isn't somebody else in the Philistine army that steps out and says, here's what we're going to do. It's Goliath. He sets the rules. He sets the standard. He lays down the groundwork for how this thing is going to go. And look at the man who is making the rules. He's the tallest man in the army. What does that say? He's going to make the rules obviously and factor them into his own strengths, right? He's a tall guy. He's a very imposing sort of a man. So he's going to make the rules of combat based on that. He says, and it's assumed. Why was everybody afraid of Goliath? He's so big. Who could possibly go up against him? Boy, he'd have to be a really big guy. That's how we think. Do you understand? That's how you and I think when we're facing a giant, when we see a giant, and it could be a giant person or a giant problem, we think to ourselves, how in the world am I going to deal with this problem? Where am I going to get a weapon big enough to fight this problem? And what we're doing people, is we're battling on the terms of the problem. And that's why everybody's afraid. And that's why Saul's afraid, because Goliath is a big man. He went out there, he set the rules, and Saul knows he's probably the tallest man, and he's afraid. I can't beat this guy. I may be tall, but I'm not tall enough. I may be strong, but I'm not strong enough. I may have some courage, but I'm not courageous enough. I can't do it. But do you understand what Saul is doing here in this situation? And I think all the other men are doing it too. They're looking at the problem through the eyes of Goliath. They're looking at the problem through the matrix of the rules that Goliath has established for combat. And when that happens, Christians, when that happens to you and I, and we begin to see our problems through the eyes of our problems, nothing is big enough. Nothing is strong enough. Nothing is good enough. We're courageous enough to fight the battle and we're sunk before we even begin. But as we're going to see here, there's a young kid named David. Snot nosed kid, wet behind the ears, whatever else you want to say about him. And he decides he's not going to play by Goliath's rules. Let's look what happens. Verse 12.

(its talking about Jesse)

Do you guys remember in the last study that David had already been called into the king's service because when the Holy Spirit was taken from Saul, you'll remember that an injurious spirit; an unclean and evil spirit, would come upon Saul forcefully. And he would become very agitated, and very anxious, and very violent. And so his men came to him and said, let us find someone who can calm you down, a musician who can play some sweet melodies and that will soothe you until you're settled down. Saul said, fine, go find such a man. Well, they found David and they brought David into king Saul's service. So David has been going back and forth between his father and Saul during this time. And he's been playing his music, probably that he learned while he was sitting out in the fields with the sheep, taking care of the sheep, and worshiping the Lord, and so forth. Now it tells us here just how long this stuff had been going on. Look at verse 16. This is really amazing. It says,

So this just didn't happen once. This wasn't a situation where they came up to battle and they said, all right guys, let's go get them. And then Goliath steps out and chance his little challenge and everybody comes back cowering in fear. Not just once, for 40 days, and it happened twice a day. Now that's pretty elementary math, people. That's 80 times they have heard this big galoof shoot off his mouth. Defying the armies of Israel, challenging them to a hand to hand duel, and them responding in terror. Backing away, lowering their sword and saying, well, I can't go. 40 days. This is amazing. Verse 17 says,

Well, not really fighting. They were poised to fight, but it never really got off the ground. Goliath saw to that.

--- “20 And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper (so he was a man of responsibility) and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry.” Can you imagine doing this for forty days? You get up and you do it again. And you shout the war—I don't know if they were hoping Goliath was going to just drop dead by himself. I don't know. Maybe the guy will just get old and he'll just have to retire. And we'll have a fighting chance here. I don't know what's going through their minds. But they, every day, they get up, they go out to the battle line, they shout their little Go! Go! Go! Go! Sort of a thing, and every day they get beaten back by, the words of Goliath. And so they're drawing up their army “…for battle, army against army. (verse 22) And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers.” David wasn't afraid. He walked right out to, what you and I would call in military terms today, the front lines. “23 As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. (but this time something different happened) …David heard him.” That's what was different. David heard it this time. And this is the first time, obviously, he knows nothing of this. And look what it says in verse 24, and this must have been hard for David to see, but it says, “All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, (meaning Goliath, they) fled from him and were much afraid.” If you have a New King James Bible on your lap, your Bible says that they “were dreadfully afraid.” You know what's interesting about this term that is called very, much afraid, in the ESV or dreadfully afraid in the New King James? I looked it up. It's an interesting Hebrew word that can also apply to the fear of the Lord. In other words, the fear of the Lord, which is something these men should be experiencing. And I'm not talking about cringing fear, it's not the same kind of a fear of Goliath, it's not the same sort of a deal. But it is fear nonetheless in the sense of respect, and honor, and awe, and these men should be fearing the Lord, and they're fearing a man instead. The fear of man is a terrible snare. And so they are taking something that is good in that when it is applied to the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and they're applying it instead to the fear of this man, and they are dreadfully afraid of him. And so what we see going on here is just ---

--- this misplaced fear, which is often what fear isn't it? The things that you and I are afraid of in life, should we really be afraid of them? I say, I dare say not. In fact, I think the Word goes out of its way to tell us not to be afraid of the things that we're afraid of. There's a wonderful passage in Isaiah that, that says, do not fear what they fear. Do not fear what this people fear. (Isaiah 8:12) Oh, what's this world that we live in? We are so fearful. I was noticing when Sue and I were in the airport I can't remember if it was going or coming. But you see TV monitors, and newspaper stands, and people reading newspapers sitting next to you. What do you suppose I saw over and over and over again? What word do you think I saw? Ebola. People are in a tailspin. People are irrationally fearful. And you know what the Bible says to you and I? Don't fear what they fear. Don't call conspiracy what this people calls conspiracy. And don't fear what they fear. (Isaiah 8:11-12) Fear God. He is the one you should fear. Jesus, what did Jesus say? He said, don't be afraid of those people that can only kill your body. (Matthew 10:28) What's that? You and I think that's a pretty big deal, right? I mean, if somebody came up to you and said they were going to kill you and they had the means to do it, I don't know about you, but I'd be afraid. But Jesus says, you must understand these things in their proper perspective. Don't be afraid of those who can only kill the body. Fear rather He who can kill the body and the soul, and cast both in hell. (Matthew 10:28) That, He says, He is the one whom you should fear. In other words, fear God. Not be afraid of God in that cringing way that the Israelites were dreadfully afraid of Goliath. That's not the kind of fear we're talking about where every time somebody mentions God, you're a puddle. Or you run away from God. That's not the kind of fear we're talking about. We're talking about the kind of fear that shows respect and awe and reverence. Fear God. Don't fear man. Fear God. Don't fear these things. Don't be afraid of these things. It's misplaced fear, you guys. I can honestly tell you, and I have, I'm a man who has experienced my fair share of fear in my life. Many, many times the Lord has had to speak to me personally about my propensity to give in to fear. And I can tell you with all honesty that my fear is 100 percent misplaced. It ought to be in the Lord, but I so often put it in other things. ---

And then the Lord will allow me sometimes to experience those other things and find out they really weren't worth my time to be afraid of. Misplaced fear. These men were dreadfully afraid, but it was misplaced. David is going to come along, he's going to show them what the fear of the Lord looks like. Because when there's the fear of the Lord, there's courage for the things that we would otherwise fear or be afraid of in this world. Look at verse 25 in your Bible. “And the men of Israel said, (and they're obviously speaking to David here now, because they've been experiencing this now for 40 days, 40 plus days) “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.”” By the way, that means tax free. This is pretty interesting, isn't it? Saul was not willing to go up against Goliath. He didn't want to go. So he's looking for somebody else to do what he really probably should have done as the king. He should have gone up against Goliath. He should have had the faith, but he didn't. Well, and nobody else is going to go. So guess what we got to do now? We got to sweeten the pot. Alright. I am going to give a monetary reward for any man who is willing to go up against Goliath. Are there any takers? Scans the crowd. Nobody steps forward. Okay. I don't know how many of you guys have seen my oldest daughter. She's a looker. Tell you what, not only will I give you a monetary reward for going up against Goliath, I'll give you my daughter. Please understand. This is more than just getting a wife. To be married to the king's daughter would make you a prince. Essentially. I mean, in that sort of a status of royalty. Okay? This is a big deal. This is a big deal. So I'll give my daughter in marriage to the man who is brave enough to go up against Goliath. Are there any takers? I don't know, maybe she wasn't that good looking. I mean, when you look at Goliath, you're thinking, boy, she'd have to be really drop dead gorgeous. Nobody responds. All right, all right, we're going to do my final offer. Not only will I give you a monetary reward, not only will I give you my daughter's hand in marriage, I'll make sure that you and your family never pay a penny in tax ever again for the rest of your lives. Are there any takers? Silence. Verse 26, “And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”” Did you, by the way, did you notice how David sees this event? How he sees this conflict? This is important, you guys. It's one thing how those soldiers see it, and they're saying, there's that man, Goliath, he's coming out to say this again. And David goes, “who (in the world) is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Notice he doesn't just say, he's defying the armies of Israel, he's defying the army of God. This is David's perspective. It is a kingdom perspective. People hear this, this is important. It is a kingdom perspective. This is so important. David, oh, David had an inside track on things that you and I struggle with, frankly. He saw things from a kingdom perspective. You and I see things from a personal perspective, by the way, which is our kingdom. I'm talking about the kingdom of God. David saw things from that perspective. He looked at Goliath and he said, wait no, no, no, no, no, no. He is insulting God. The men looked at Goliath and they said, he's insulting me. Do you see the difference? And when they put it on a personal level, it was Goliath against them. And all of them said, I can't do that, I can't go up against Goliath. David said, it's not me and Goliath, it's Goliath and God. And you know what? If Goliath is going to go up against my God, he doesn't stand a chance. That's the way David saw it. That's the perspective that he had on this giant of a man. That's, he didn't even see the fact that he was a giant of a man. He didn't go, whoa, that's a one tall brute. He said, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine…?” And the term, uncircumcised obviously makes reference to the fact he's basically saying, who is this man who is out of covenant relationship with the Lord God who dares to spit in His face? Boy, I wouldn't want to be him. That man's coming down hard. That's the way David believed. Because he saw things from a kingdom perspective. What did Paul say in the New Testament? For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers of this dark world. Principalities.

What was Paul trying to get you and I to do when we look at the battles that we face? He was trying to get you and I to step back and take a broader look and to say, this is not a personal situation. You are not my enemy. I have an enemy. There is a malevolent personality that is out to get me, but it isn't you. That is just the distraction. There is a bigger battle that is being waged in the spirit realm. And Christians, you and I do not make warfare as this world makes warfare. The warfare or the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, Paul says, right, what are they? They're spiritual and they're able to take down strongholds, right?

What my Bible says. I think yours is too. That's our, that's the weapons of our warfare. But if we're sitting there hacking away at people (pastor Paul imitates fighting), sort of a thing, we're missing it. We're missing the battle. We're fighting in the wrong arena and we're liable to lose. Walk away with a bloody nose and Satan just sits back and laughs. Got them involved in the complete run. They thought that was the battle over there. It's actually being waged here. And we engage that battle on our knees. Did you catch that? We engage that battle on our knees. We engage that battle in prayer. Now here people, I don't want to use prayers as the big nasty stick tonight to beat you over the head with it again. I'll just say one thing. Okay. I'll leave it at that. If you want to know the condition of your faith, check your prayer life. That's your faith pulse. The amount you pray is the condition of your faith. Now, okay, verse 27. “And the people answered him in the same way, (saying what we already read) “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.” So on and so forth. So David's going around, he's asking people, he's talking about this, what in the world, who is this? He's talking this way. You got to know that this is the first time in 40 days this has been happening. Everybody's just been going, oh dear, he's so big. And David comes out and it's like what is going on here? Looking at— probably making these guys feel ashamed cause he's a kid. We, we don't know exactly David's age could be upper teens. Could be right around 20, somewhere in there. But in the perspective of the men that he's hobnobbing with there on the front lines, he's a kid. He's the youngest of 8 he's not old enough. He's just hanging back. Could be, he could be as young as 16 years old. We really don't know. In fact, that could be closer to the truth, but this kind of thing gets around. Do you know what I mean? When somebody starts saying, who's he? Sort of, that's going to start, that's going to spread. Just hear that kid down there talking, Eliab's little brother da-da-da-da. It's going to make its way, through the thing. Listen, you know that whenever you do that, whenever God has touched someone's heart to move powerfully by faith, and if God touches your heart to move powerfully by faith, you can bank on something, one thing. You know there's going to be opposition, right? You know, there's going to be opposition. You know, what’s hard? Is when that opposition comes from people that ought to know better and might even be the people that you would say, these are the folks that should be loving me. Maybe my family or my closest friends. That's what happens here to David. It says here in verse 28 that,

This is a personal attack on David. And you got to know that when God really touches your heart, the enemy is going to mount some kind of an attack, right? Going to come at you. What's the goal of that attack? It's the big D. Discouragement. Right? Do you know how powerful discouragement is as an arsenal, or rather a weapon in the enemy's arsenal? Do you know how powerful that is? What happens when you get discouraged? I know what happens when I get discouraged. I give up. That's what discouragement does to us. We give up. We just go, well. And there are four things that Eliab does here to attempt to discourage David. Four, let's call them, fiery darts, shall we? Because that's what the enemy loves to do, right? Shoot those fiery darts your way. And the first thing is, he questions his motives. And the question is, “Why have you come down?” Have you ever noticed the enemy loves to do that? He loves to call your motives into question. So why… Just like the enemy did to Adam and Eve in the garden. Did God really say you couldn't eat any of the fruit? That doesn't sound right. That question that leaves you with the impression that somebody is a big fat jerk. And I may not be coming out and telling you, but I think you get it.

And in Eliab's case, it's you, David. So why are you even here? It all depends on how you say things, that whole inflection and the emphasis of. You can say something to someone and just by the way you say it, you can incriminate them. Why are you here? Sort of a thing. That's the first thing he does. He questions his motives. Notice he goes on to question his responsibility. He says, “And with whom have you left those …sheep in the wilderness?” And again, it's a question that leaves you with the impression, if somebody's listening and they don't know the facts, that maybe this man is irresponsible, right? Right. We know from the story that David put the sheep in the hands of somebody before he left. But by asking the question and who did you leave the sheep with David? It gives you that impression, like, you do this. You can ask questions in such a way, that, don't you, that make people wonder if somebody is, whatever. If I walk up to a guy and say, so are you done beating your wife now these days, or. He may never have ever done it before, but just by asking a question, I incriminate him with my question. You see what I'm saying? The third thing that he does is he questions David's heart. Did you notice what he says here? He says, “I know your presumption and the evil of your heart.” Oh, the enemy loves to do that. And he'll use people to do that in our lives. I know what's going on in your heart. I know you, right? No, you don't. You know no such thing. You know the bottom line? I can't see your heart and you can't see mine, so there. But when we want to incriminate someone, when we want to accuse someone and potentially discourage them, what better way than just say, I know what's going on inside your heart. No, you don't. Flat out you don't. Have you ever accused someone falsely? Have you ever thought you, you ever gotten an email from someone? Isn't email wonderful as a potentially misunderstood form of communication from the standpoint that, have you ever gotten a response from someone and then wondered, I wonder what they meant by that. My daughter, bless her heart. My oldest daughter, we chat a lot, just electronically, just instant messaging type stuff. And she said, and we'll often every day, sometimes it's just good morning. And I'm usually a person who's fairly strict about punctuation. So I capitalize my letters and I put my exclamation points on there and my periods and stuff like that. And I'll write Good Morning!, which is my way of being cheerful. You have to sound cheerful through texting.

And I, one day I was, I think I was texting with like one hand. And it's hard to capitalize when you got just one hand. And I didn't put an exclamation point. She was all worried. She calls her mother, is dad okay? Why? What's the problem? Well, he didn't capitalize. This is true. This really happened. He didn't capitalize and there was no exclamation point. It's real easy, isn't it? To just misunderstand. You don't know what's in somebody's heart. I think I was eating with one hand and texting with the other. It's tough to do exclamation points with one hand. I'm sorry, you're not going to get it if I've got some food. Anyway. And then the last thing that Eliab is really accusing David of is just suggesting that he's there for nothing more than seeing the thrill of the battle. He says, I know that you've just “come down to see the battle.” I know that's why you're here. You just want to see some action. You're just riling up the guys to see them go to war so that you'll be able to see, somebody get run through with a sword. You've just come for the thrill, sort of a thing. David responds in verse 29, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” 30 And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before. 31 When the words that David spoke were heard, (as you can well imagine, through the whole army) they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. 32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man's heart fail because of him. (because of this Goliath character) Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”” Wow. Can you imagine being the king? Big, tall guy, warrior in the past. Here's a 16 year old. You're afraid. The whole army's afraid. This 16 year old comes up and says, don't… I was going to say something I shouldn't, but don't be afraid. I'll fight him. I got this thing dialed in. “33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able (you can’t do this, you can’t) …go (fight) against this Philistine (you’re just a kid, you’re just a youth) …he has been a man of war from his…” He's been fighting battles before you were even born, David. What are you talking about? Listen, listen people. Saul is obviously missing the thing here. But this is another thing that will happen many times when God has punctuated your heart with the faith to walk before Him and to step out.

And somebody comes along and says, you can't do that. You can't do that. It's not possible. It's not going to work. Listen, it's not going to work. This is not logical. Think rationally, reasonably. This isn't going to work. Saul fails to see three things. Very quickly, he fails to see the battle for what it is. It's a spiritual battle. It's a battle that belongs to the Lord. He fails to see David for who he is. A man of faith, young boy, but a man of faith. And he fails to see God for who and what He is. And that is the deliverer who will work through the man who has faith. He fails to see those three things. People, you and I cannot fail in these areas and not live to tell about it anyway. We cannot fail to see the battle for what it is. That's where Paul says, our battle is not against flesh and blood. (Ephesians 6:12) We cannot fail to see faith for what it is. And we cannot fail to see God for who he is. Listen, David saw God for who He was. But this constant taunting of Goliath had established for the Israelite army a stronghold of fear that they couldn't see through. People do you understand that? Do you understand what strongholds do? Strongholds create barriers to faith. Faith can't see past it, right? Right. And that's what was happening here. They were thinking, Saul was thinking, this thing can only be met by brawn and power and size. You're just, you're a kid, you're a kid, you don't even come up to his belt. You can't do this, David. And that's why they were afraid. “But David said to Saul, (verse 34) “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for (why? for) he (and here's the kingdom vision, for he) has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear (look at this) will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”” How did David see God? How did David see God, you guys? He was the deliverer. He was the deliverer. David didn't think he was all that. David didn't think he was a great warrior. He thought God was a great deliverer. Now that's a pretty big deal for a kid, a teenage kid, to go up against a bear or a lion. That's a big deal. I wouldn't do that. But he did it, and he prevailed. But

--- David knew why he prevailed. He didn't say to Saul, hey man, I'm strong. I'm fast. I've killed bears. I've killed lions. Don't you worry about me, you old king. I got this thing handled. He's not bragging on himself. He's bragging on God. Do you understand that? He says, God delivered me. God delivered me from the paw of the lion. God delivered me from the paw of the bear. And God will deliver me again. Why? Because He is the deliverer. Do you see God that way? I know. I know the answer to that question. Sometimes. Sometimes we do. He will “deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”” Don't you get the impression from that statement, it's like, I'll start writing a letter to your family telling them you went out bravely. Have at it, buddy. I don't think he believes him. “38 Then Saul clothed David (this is very significant by the way, this next section, Then Saul clothed David) with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39 and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.” Stop there. Very important thing. Saul is attempting to clothe David in his own armor, which, by the way, he felt David needed because he still doesn't see the battle for what it is. He still thinks it's a battle of brawn. He still thinks it's going to be muscle that's going to get this thing done. He doesn't get it. And so he says, well, listen, I can't send you out there exposed as you are. Here, put on my armor. And by the way, remember how tall Saul was? Tallest guy in the army, head taller, so he gives his stuff to David. We don't know exactly how tall David was, but obviously it didn't fit. Listen. Listen. What is real to you? To Saul, what was real was his armor, his sword, his shield, his spear. Those were real. What was real to David? God. God was real. God was real. God was real. He wasn't just a concept. He wasn't a fictionalized idea. He wasn't a mindset. He was, is real. David doesn't need the armor because God is real and he knows where the real battle is. And it's not in armor. It's not in brawn. It's not in these things. And so what does David have to do? Well, actually before we answer that question, here's the other thing we need to understand. What is Saul doing? And this is what people will attempt to do to you and I when they see our faith. They will attempt to dress you in their unbelief. Because you see, Saul's armor is essentially the essence of his unbelief. Because he's not putting his faith in God, and because his faith is in other things, like the armor, it stands for his unbelief. And so he's like, well David, alright, God be with you, go out there and do it, but here, let me dress you up in my unbelief first, so you have a fighting chance. Right? And David, very graciously, he should have said no from the get go, but very, I mean, he's the king after all, so he puts him on, tries walking around in his stuff, he's like, dude, I can't do this. I can't walk around in this stuff, this is ridiculous. I know how God has delivered me in the past. So I'm going to go meet the Philistine in the way that God has delivered me in the past. And I believe He will deliver me now, again. And so what did David have to do? What does it say that he did there at the end of verse 39? What's it say in your Bible? My Bible says, “So David put them off.” What is that armor? It's unbelief. It's the flesh. It's putting my faith in bronze. Strength. David had to put it off. He had to take it off. Isn't that exactly what the apostle Paul told us to do? Let me show you a passage from Ephesians chapter 4. Look at this. It says,

Listen if you're going to walk by faith, you're going to win battles you got to put off the unbelief. You got to put off the old ways going to put off the things that are going to hinder you. That armor was going to do nothing but hinder David and it was only going to be a reminder of unbelief and what people are falsely putting their hope in. This is what is commonly referred to as a cliffhanger, because we're going to stop. ---

I know you know the story. We'll talk about slaying giants a little more next week, okay? And we'll get into the rest of what takes place, even to that part that needs to make Tim smile, next week. We'll stop there. Fear can be very paralyzing, can't it? It paralyzes us. 40 days? Yeah, no problem. Fear can paralyze you for a lot longer than that. Fear can paralyze you for 40 years. The reason we give in to fear is because we look at the battle completely through different eyes, through wrong eyes. Instead of seeing it the way we should. Instead of seeing it through the eyes of God, from the perspective of faith, we see it from the perspective of the enemy. Don't let the enemy set the rules for the battle. Don't engage the enemy on his terms. It's not about being big enough and strong enough and powerful enough to engage the enemy. The battle belongs to the Lord. And that's what David is going to say in the face of that Philistine, you come at me with all these instruments and weapons of unbelief. I come to you with faith in the living God. And buddy, you are so going down. It's a great story. It's a true story, but it's an important story that you and I see again in a new way so that we might rise up in the faith that is ours through Jesus Christ