1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49
[The Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. 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. 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.” And the Philistine said, “Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, 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. And David heard him.]
David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!” Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 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 said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
This story depicts for most of us, how our fears and challenges in life make us feel and react. Goliath represents a huge challenge or fear that we have all had to face. Whether it is standing up to someone who intimidates us or asking our boss for a raise or breaking free from unhealthy lifestyle choices, severing relationships that are toxic, not giving in to our anger, lust, pride, selfishness or whatever behavior we are in the control of. Whatever it is, it often presents itself in our minds as an indomitable giant. We see ourselves like the Israelites, every day we are mocked by this giant and are told that we will never defeat it and we live paralyzed by our fear of it. We just get used to it being around we think of it as normal!
But then God sends his Spirit to open our eyes and see reality. God’s Spirit seems to want to instill us with courage. God’s voice is bold but genuine, and it cannot be ignored. God’s voice tells us that we don’t have to live this way. If we are open to it, we hear the Spirit telling us we can overcome this. Through God’s grace, confidence grows inside us. As that confidence grows so does our vision for what life can be like when we defeat this enemy.
Those closest to us are often the ones to criticize us for our belief that we can change. Because we challenge them to break free as well. And so we look to some authority figure to give us permission to defeat this enemy. It is normal that we feel we need some validation and that we are right for wanting to change this. But because there is no one that is in our shoes, they might do the best they can to help us overcome, but its never going to be a perfect fit for us. We have to trust our instincts and trust that the Spirit of God that has taken us this far will see us through.
So much of our focus and attention seems to go into us finally getting to the battle line. It seems like David, we are met with resistance and uncertainty all along the way. But when we finally take our shot, its no where near as hard as we feared it would be. Perhaps we can hear in this story God’s Spirit telling us, “Whatever looks big and scary to you, is like a little puppy to me. I created the sun and tell it when to rise and set. I set the boundaries of the see. I laid the foundations of the earth. Do you not think I can handle this?! Run to the battle line and give it all you got for I am with you.”
This whole story is the build up to David defeating Goliath. The actual victory is one sentence! Giants are going to come and go in our lives and most of us are going to put up with them for far too long. Its just the human condition. It takes us a long time to see it and be ready to be done with it. Jesus showed us in his interactions and healing that the things we have lived with our whole lives, He can free us from instantly. Perhaps when this story is paired with the gospel reading this week, the message we might receive is that each encounter of facing our fears in faith, we are left asking ourselves, “Who is this that has such power to defeat ______ ?!”