Fighting in God's Weight Class
Introduction: The Tyranny of the Experts
We live in an age that is terrified of giants. Our giants do not carry bronze spears, but they do carry doctorates, and they stand on platforms of institutional authority, and they bellow out their blasphemies against the living God every day. They are the experts, the consensus, the establishment. They tell us what is science, what is justice, what is history, and what is possible. And like the army of Israel, the modern church has for too long stood quaking in its boots, paralyzed by the sheer size and swagger of the opposition.
The story of David and Goliath is perhaps the most famous story in the Old Testament, and for that very reason, it is one of the most misunderstood. We have domesticated it, turned it into a sentimental children's story about a little guy overcoming the odds. But this is not a story about the triumph of the underdog. This is a story about the triumph of a covenant-keeping God over the arrogant, blaspheming powers of this world. This is not a story about David's courage, but about the object of David's faith. It is a paradigm for all spiritual warfare. In this valley of Elah, we see two worldviews collide, two faiths clash, and two champions meet. One trusts in the armor of man, and the other trusts in the name of God. And we must decide this day which approach we will take to the giants in our own land.
The Text
Then the words which David spoke were heard. And they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, "Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." Then Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth." But David said to Saul, "Your servant was shepherding his father’s sheep. And a lion and a bear would come and take a lamb from the flock, and I would go out after it and strike it and rescue the lamb from its mouth. Then it rose up against me, and I would seize it by its beard and strike it down and put it to death. Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has reproached the battle lines of the living God." And David said, "Yahweh, who delivered me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and may Yahweh be with you." Then Saul clothed David with his robes and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. And David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." And David took them off. Then he took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine. Then the Philistine came on and drew near to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. And the Philistine looked and saw David. And he despised him; for he was but a youth and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. And the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field." Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have reproached. This day Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the camp of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and He will give you into our hands." Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David sent his hand down into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and put him to death; but there was no sword in David’s hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and put him to death and cut off his head with it. Then the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, so they fled. But the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the slain Philistines lay fallen along the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath and Ekron. Then the sons of Israel returned from hotly pursuing the Philistines and plundered their camps. And David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his tent.
(1 Samuel 17:31-54 LSB)
The Resume of Faith (vv. 31-37)
The first thing we see is a collision of two kinds of sight. Saul, the pragmatist, looks at David and sees a boy. He looks at Goliath and sees a warrior. His conclusion is simple arithmetic: "You are not able." This is the logic of the flesh. It is the wisdom of this world. It sizes up the opposition, calculates the odds, and concludes that God's people should probably just keep their heads down.
But David is not operating by the same math. When Saul questions his credentials, David does not offer a resume of his own strength. He offers a testimony of God's past faithfulness. He says, in effect, "I have a history with God in the backcountry. When I was doing my duty, keeping my father's sheep, God showed up. He delivered me from a lion. He delivered me from a bear." This is covenantal reasoning. David is extrapolating from God's past character to His future action. The God who is faithful in the secret place will be faithful in the public square.
And then David delivers the theological heart of his argument. He says this "uncircumcised Philistine" will be just like the lion and the bear. Why? "Since he has reproached the battle lines of the living God." This is not about David's honor. It is about God's honor. The term "uncircumcised" is a covenantal slur. It means Goliath is outside the promises of God, an alien to the covenant, and therefore has no claim on God's protection. He has picked a fight with God, and he is fighting far outside his weight class. David's confidence is not in his own ability, but in God's jealousy for His own name. "Yahweh, who delivered me... He will deliver me." That is the logic of faith.
Rejecting Saul's Armor (vv. 38-40)
Saul, partially persuaded but still thinking like a pragmatist, offers David the best gear the world has to offer. He clothes David in his own royal armor. This is the world's solution to a spiritual crisis. It is an attempt to fight God's battles with the world's weapons. It is the temptation to rely on polished programs, on institutional credibility, on political savvy, on anything other than the raw power of God.
And the armor does not fit. It is cumbersome, awkward, and alien. David says, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." This is a crucial lesson. You cannot fight tomorrow's battles in someone else's armor. You must use the weapons that God has proven to you in your own life. David had tested God's faithfulness with a shepherd's staff and a sling. He had not tested it with a king's sword and helmet. So he takes them off.
He goes to the brook and chooses five smooth stones. He is not being naive; he is being practical in his faith. He is a skilled slinger, and he is preparing for the task. But his trust is not in the stones. The stones are simply the means God has ordained for him to use. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark. It is stepping out in obedience, using the gifts and skills God has given you, and trusting Him for the outcome. He walks out onto that battlefield as a shepherd, because that is who he is. And God is about to show that a faithful shepherd is more powerful than a blaspheming giant.
The War of Words (vv. 41-47)
Before the physical battle, there is a spiritual and verbal battle. This is the trash talk at the fifty-yard line, and it reveals everything about the two combatants. Goliath looks at David and despises him. He sees a pretty boy, a youth. "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" He curses David by his impotent gods and threatens to turn him into bird food. This is the voice of the world. It is arrogant, it is contemptuous of God's people, and it trusts entirely in its own visible strength.
Then David speaks, and his speech is one of the great declarations of faith in all of Scripture. He draws the battle lines with perfect clarity. "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin." You trust in military hardware. "But I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have reproached." I trust in the living God whose reputation you have insulted.
David then preaches the giant's funeral sermon to his face. He does not say, "I hope I win." He says, "This day Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands." He speaks with the certainty of a prophet. And he gives the reason for this certainty, the grand purpose of the whole affair: "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." This is doxological warfare. The goal is not David's fame, but God's glory. And he concludes with the central thesis: "Yahweh does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is Yahweh's, and He will give you into our hands." This is the truth that paralyzes the worldly and empowers the faithful.
The Decisive Blow (vv. 48-54)
With the speeches over, the action is swift and decisive. As Goliath lumbers forward, David does not hesitate. He runs toward the battle line. Faith does not shrink back; it advances. He reaches into his bag, slings a stone, and strikes the giant on his forehead. The stone sinks in, and the great blasphemer falls on his face to the ground. He falls in submission, as it were, before the champion of the God he mocked.
Notice the precision. The man who trusted in his bronze armor is struck down in the one place it did not cover. God's providence does not miss. And notice the irony. The text makes a point of saying, "there was no sword in David's hand." But a moment later, there is. David runs, takes Goliath's own sword, and cuts off his head with it. The enemy is dispatched by his own weapon. The very thing in which he trusted becomes the instrument of his demise.
This single act of faith turns the tide of the entire war. When the Philistines see that their champion is dead, their courage evaporates, and they flee. And the army of Israel, which had been cowering in fear, suddenly finds its voice and its legs. They arise, they shout, and they pursue their enemies. One man's covenantal faithfulness unleashes victory for the entire people of God.
Our David, Our Giant
This story is glorious history, but it is more than that. It is a prophetic picture of a greater battle and a greater champion. David, the shepherd-king, is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true Son of David who came to fight our Goliath. Our giant was not a nine-foot Philistine; our giant was sin, death, and the devil himself, who for millennia had stood and reproached the people of God, holding them in bondage to fear.
The world looked at Jesus of Nazareth and despised him. He had no worldly armor, no political power, no army. He came with the sticks of a carpenter's son. And on the cross, the devil cursed him and mocked him, believing he had won. The world saw only a defeated man.
But Jesus came in the name of Yahweh of hosts. And on that cross, He took the enemy's greatest weapon, which is death, and used it to destroy the enemy. "That through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14). He took the giant's own sword and cut off his head. He won the decisive victory, so that all the earth might know that there is a God, and that He saves His people.
Because our David has won, we are no longer to be paralyzed by the giants in our land. The battle is the Lord's. We are called to reject the ill-fitting armor of the world's approval and to pick up the simple, smooth stones of faith and obedience. We are called to run to the battle line, to speak the name of our God, and to expect Him to act for the glory of His name. The giants will fall. They always do.