In the book of 1st Samuel the 17 Chapter, a story is told there that most people knows and enjoy. This is one of those feel good stories that give us the reassurance that good will always triumph over evil; this is the story of David and Goliath. Although the main theme in this story as they all are in every bible story and that is: Good will in the end triumph over bad, righteousness over evil and love over hate. There are some very important and practical lessons of life to be derived from this story.
Today I will try to bring out a few lessons that I found buried, within this feel good true story. Let us take a look at the first part of this story and see what golden nugget are there waiting for us to learn from.
Here we see a situation arose, where the Philistine gathered their army to attack Israel, it is important for me to trouble your memory now, if we can remember well, the Philistines had a long history with Israel, they had many battles against each other. In most of those battles, Israel defeated the pagan Philistine. The philistine also knew when Israel was faithful to Jehovah: the God of the Israel, he fights their battle for them and he did he have never lost a fight.
It is also important to understand that all of the surrounding nations, knew of the God of the Israelites, they also knew that he is powerful beyond measure and he don’t hesitate to use his power on his people’s behalf. They also knew that Jehovah will cause Israel to suffer defeat when they fail to honor him, when they go whoring and or worshiping other Gods. So with this in mind Israel’s neighbors, made an extra effort to maintain piece with Israel especially when Israel lived as God wanted them to. They fear Israel's God will exhort vengeance on them. They also knew under what condition Jehovah will not intervene on Israel’s behalf.
Here we see, without provocation, the philistine gather their army to war against Israel. We know there was bad blood between both nations but the question that must be answered is; why at this time in Israel’s history, the Philistine choose to provoke Israel to war?
It was a risky move on the part of the Philistine, to start a war with Israel but it was a risk they were willing to take. Let me tell you why it was risky. Israel was the ideal under dog, in that, each time they went to war they fought against nations that was bigger, stronger, with more sophisticated weapons of war, yet Israel was always victorious say for a few occasions when Jehovah fail to show up and ensure Israel’s victory; this was because they had backslide and turn away from their deliverer. An example of Yah's working on Israel's behalf was that incident that occurred Israel crossed the Jordon and all of the surrounding nations heard how Israel defeated the well fortified nation if Jericho, causing the mighty walls of that city to fall without hands. As a result all became afraid of Israel and Israel’s God.
Another fact we must come to terms which is: the nations around knew what the God of Israel expected of his chosen people, they also knew that Jehovah warn them not to expect his favor when they turn there backs on him and follow after other Gods.
So the lingering question that is yet to be answered is: why is it that at such a time as this time did the Philistine chose to rage war against Israel? To one who was not verse in the knowledge of Jehovah it was a terrible time for the philistine to start a war against Israel but to the informed it was the perfect opening for the Philistine to do so and win.
You see, the Philistine knew about the affairs of Israel, they knew that Yahweh had rejected the king of Israel, and therefore there were a possibility that Yahweh may cause the defeat and captivity of Israel because of the present condition of Israel.
Another point we must also take note of, the Philistine had mustered or gather their army for battle, and Israel did the same. In other words the Philistine was set out for an all out war, the engagement of army against army. However; midway the philistine saw it fit, to change the terms of engagement or the rules of battle. In stead of an all out war which entailed the violent confrontation of armies, they change the game to a one on one. They knew they had an unbeatable giant, a champion of war; they also knew there was no one in Israel with the skills, the strength, the sophisticated weapon and the knowledge of Goliath of Gath had, who was capable of defeating their champion.
Like the philistines there are people in our lives who share the same space with us, who are sitting in the wings, patiently waiting for things to go wrong in our lives; when such things happens, they show up doing all in their power to make our conditions worst. They will choose to fight in manner that is new to us. They may bring up petty things; put a new spin on them, to make our already difficult times even more severe.
The lessons we ought to learn from the first part of story are:
- You have to be aware of the type of people around you; especially in time of trouble. There are people among you, who will take advantage of your unfortunate situation and push you further into the abyss that is intended to suffocate and kill you.
- When you think your conditions are private very often your enemies are fully aware of your situations.
- Don’t expect those who dislike or hate you to play fair, but expect them to do all that is in their power for orchestrate and secure your destruction.
Because of the fact that we are unable to read the minds of others, it is truly hard to know if the people who cheered for us in the good times, will cheer for us in the bad times. We must be careful, for what we may consider cheers may actually be shouts of scorn and mockery.
Here we see that the pagan Philistines, not only chose to fight against God’s army when they think that Jehovah’s people were at there weakest stage, they change the rules of the fight without warning and they changed the rules and method of engagement to there advantage. From the looks of things, a victory for the Philistine was assured, it is either the philistines were going to win by default or Goliath was going to massacre some poor Israelite.
The Israelis were afraid to confront the Giant; they felt, because Jehovah had publicly renounced King Saul, there was no way they could have won the challenge against the Philistine champion. No one, not even the king was willing to risk his life in a battle; they believed they were doomed to lose. As a result of their belief, Israel was not willing to whole heatedly follow a leader who was doom to lose. As a matter of fact; no one was willing to sacrifice there life to fight a losing battle, for a king who was already rejected by God. We must remember this challenge was a fight to the death. The fight were to continue until one man was dead and the only way, to ensure the death of the loser and to confirm a victory, was the beheading of the loser by the victor.
The odds were highly stocked against Israel in this bottle, When Goliath came out, the Israelite Soldiers took one look at the size of the man they were expected to fight and became very afraid, when they saw his weapons and his full body armor they were sore afraid but when they heard the tidings/stories that were circulated within the Israelites camp about Goliath. The rumors made things worst. they learn of his unbeaten records, in war and in man to man combat against some of the most skilled men of war to have walk the earth; they heard of his fighting skills, the weight of the coat Goliath he wore that was made of mails that weighed one hundred and twenty five pounds; the fact that the tip of his spare weighed twenty five pounds. A combination of all these things reaffirmed the fear the men had and they became even more afraid.
What was unknown to the philistine and most of Israel was; although Yahweh had publicly rejected King Saul as King of all Israel, he did not leave Israel without leadership; for in secret, Jehovah had already caused the anointing of David: Son of Jessie, to be the King of all Israel. Although David was just a child, Israel was not without God appointed, God anointed leadership.
Because of the situation that existed in Israel, Goliath came out and laugh in the face of God’s chosen people. For forty days the Giant did this, He mocked Jehovah people, and as a result of the cowardly behavior that was displayed by the Israelites, the entire Philistine army laughed at the chosen children of God. This taunting was not embarrassing enough to motivate any one to defend the honor of Israel their nation or to defend the honor of Jehovah, there God who had declared Israel his chosen people.
In the camp of Israel there were a boy, that boy was David son Of Jessie. David was shocked at what he saw and heard. He was disturbed at the fear that held the entire army of Jehovah captive, even his brother whom he looked up to, exhibited the sicken cowardly behavior. David became perturbed when he heard the pagan Philistine, defy and mock the Army of the living God. It was right there and then that David decided in his heart that he was going to fight that Giant, defend Yahweh’s honor and save the pride of his nation Israel and there were nothing anyone could have done to detour David from his intended mission.
David was ushered to the king and there the child declared his intention. The King was shocked at the courage of the lad and although he knows that such a battle was not design for children and such a child should not have been allowed to participate in such. King Saul chose to neglect his responsibility and save his behind but in doing so he actually sentenced David to death. The proof that Saul knew this was evident when David expressed his intent to fight Goliath Saul said in verse 33 of 1 Samuel 17: Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”
This statement was totally true David was too young, he had no experience in the art of war and he had no armor or weapon of war yet Goliath his opponent had mastered such art. It was too late to teach David the art of war, how to wield a sword, how to use a shield in his defense, how to throw a spear with deadly accuracy and how to evade the attacks of the skillful Giant.
It is important to note that no self respecting Leader or king will ever endanger the life of a child in the way Saul endangered David life. The arena wherein David was allowed to go and confront such grave danger was no place for a child and Saul knew that. It was the responsibility of the King to take on the challenge if no one in his ranks, was up to meet such a challenge.
The Naivety of the child, his love for Jehovah and his disgusts at the whole series of events he witnessed; gave David an unshakable faith that cause his eyes to be blinded to the size of the Giant; the lad ears were deft to all of the rumors he have heard of Goliath skills, as well as his own inability to adequately participate in such an event.
But David also know that he was anointed by the Host High God and that Giant was not, He knew he had challenged a lion and a bear and killed them in battle but the Giant did not, he was a member of the chosen people of God and Goliath was not, He was destined to be King of over all Israel and Goliath was not. Instead of focusing at the things, skills and experience he did not have, David focused on that which he had. David declared to King Saul: The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”
As we go on deeper into the experience of David as it relates to him accepting the challenge against Goliath, we will note that David only had his Sheppard’s rod, his Sheppard’s bag, a sling and three Stones.
It is important to note that each day Goliath came out of the Philistine’s camp to issue the challenge he came out equipped to do battle against Israel’s best. He always had his official shield bearer running ahead of him, Goliath was always dressed in full body armor; he always had his sword and his Javelin. Goliath being an experience man of war, did not took nothing for granted, he was fully outfitted bronze helmet and all.
Let us take a realistic look at the reality that confronted David. Here we have a Giant 9 feet tall, wearing full body armor which includes a bronze helmet. The helmet that made up the head protection of the armor covered the entire face, head and the neck of the wearer. The helmet had just enough space for the wearer’s eyes so they can see.
How David was was to accomplish this impossible task, well on his own it was impossible but with Jehovah all thing even the impossible is possible. The story went on to say that David place a stone into his sling and swung it, the Stone hit Goliath on his forehead or should I say, the stone struck Goliath’s helmet in the area of his forehead, then the Giant fell to the ground. David did not have the strength to hit the Giant on his helmet and fell him, it was Jehovah who fell the Giant however because of David’s faith Jehovah allow him to get the credit.
The stone connecting to Goliath’s helmet threw him off balance and caused him to fell to the ground, it is important to note that the stone did not kill the Giant. It is important to note that it was after Goliath fell to the ground that David ran to the fallen Giant, took his sword and kill him then cut off the pagan, Philistine Champion’s head; as is recorded in verse 50.
It is important that we know, that this whole experience and David’s victory served as Yahweh’s way of introducing David to Israel and the entire world, as the Next King of Israel. This experience moved David from a literal unknown to becoming a house hold name in all of Israel as well as in all of the surrounding nations.
