Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Last Sunday I pointed out that this is the year of Mark – the year when our main readings come from Mark’s Gospel and the other readings are usually chosen to support the Gospel text. During these Sundays after Pentecost, however, the lectionary offers us an alternative – a chance to focus on some of the David stories found in the Old Testament. Many of these stories are fairly well known, and yet they do not come up in the regular lessons. So today I want to tell you about David and Goliath. Then next Sunday we will look at the David and Bathsheba story.

The David stories begin at a time of conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines, a powerful people who controlled the flat, fertile plains along the Mediterranean coast. At this point in time, the conflict had settled into a standoff. Every morning the Philistine army would line up on the southern hillside and the Israelite army would line up on the northern hillside, with a valley in between. Neither army wanted to make the first move, because it would mean being at the disadvantage of fighting uphill against entrenched troops.

In this stalemate, the Philistines began to wage psychological warfare. They had a soldier from Gath by the name of Goliath who was a giant of a man. He stood over nine feet tall. He was like a human tank – wearing 125 pounds of armor and carrying a spear whose shaft was a small tree and whose iron point weighed 15 pounds. Every day Goliath would taunt the Israelites, challenging them to send out a soldier so that the two of them would settle this war, one on one. But there was no Israelite soldier willing to take on this giant Philistine. So for 40 days the taunting continued, and the two armies were at a standoff.

Now Saul, the king of Israel, realized that he was loosing the psychological war and that his men were becoming more and more demoralized. He was desperate to find someone who would rise to the challenge and hopefully defeat Goliath. He offered great wealth to the man who killed Goliath, along with his daughter’s hand in marriage and a complete tax exemption to his father’s family.

Three of the Israelite soldiers were brothers from nearby Bethlehem. Their father, Jesse, sent his youngest son David to the battlefront with provisions for them and told him to report back on how his brothers were faring. So very early one morning David left his flock of sheep and made his way to the battlefront. He arrived in time to hear Goliath give his daily taunt and defy the God of Israel. David was a young boy with a deep faith in the Lord. He took offense at the words of Goliath and at the fact that there was no one to stand up for God. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David asked.

When Saul heard that there was someone in the camp who might be willing to take Goliath on, he immediately summoned David to his tent. When Saul laid eyes on David, however, he was terribly disappointed. “You can’t fight this Philistine,” Saul scoffed. “You’re only a boy, and he is an experienced soldier.”

With child-like faith, David responded, “Don’t lose heart. I have been tending my father’s sheep for years. Whenever a lion or a bear threatens the flock, I kill them. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paws of the lion and the bear with deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul must have been impressed by David’s faith and courage, so he agreed to let David take up the challenge. He armed David with a breastplate, a helmet, and a sword, but David was not accustomed to wearing such heavy armor. It made it difficult for David to maneuver. So David shed his armor and sword and took up his shepherd staff and slingshot instead. Then he picked up five smooth stones and put them in his shepherd’s pouch.

The next morning when Goliath came out to offer his daily challenge, David came down the hillside to confront him. When Goliath saw that David was only a boy, he was offended. “Am I a dog that you come after me with sticks?” he said. He cursed David and threatened to feed his flesh to the birds and the beasts.

David responded to Goliath this way: “You come against me with sword and spear, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will give you over to me and I will strike you down. Today I will feed you to the birds and the beasts and everyone will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saved.”

As the giant Philistine angrily and confidently strode toward David, David took one of the stones out of his shepherds bag and loaded his slingshot. Then he launched the stone at Goliath and struck him right between the eyes. The giant Goliath fell face down to the ground – stone dead.

When the Philistines saw that their hero and champion was dead, they turned and ran away in fear. The Israelite soldiers pursued them to the gates of Gath and Ekron, solidifying their victory over the Philistines.

The story of David and Goliath is a classical tale of the little guy going against the big guy and winning. That is the plot of movies like “Hoosiers” where a small-town Indiana high school basketball team goes up against all the big city teams and wins the state championship, or “Rocky” or “The Karate Kid” or more recently the Harry Potter stories. But to hear this story on that level is to miss the point. The point is not that a little guy with enough courage or chutzpah can defeat the big guy. The point is not that we should confront bullies and God will help us defeat them. This is a faith story. This is the story about a shepherd boy who trusted in the Lord and who would not allow the name of the Lord to be defied. This is not just a hero story. This is not so much the story of a man with great faith as it is the story of a man with a great God. It is the story of how an ordinary person of faith who was willing to step up to the plate in defense of his God, can overcome incredible odds.

When we hear this story, we have to ask ourselves, “What is it that God would have us do to demonstrate and proclaim God’s glory to our world? When we hear this story, we have to ask ourselves, where are the giants in our own life, which defy our God and leave us afraid and unable to step out in defense of our God?

Now, we all have our own individual Goliaths, but it seems that we also face some common giants in our society today – giants like the Goliath of consumerism which declares in so many bold and powerful ways that money really can buy happiness and that if only we had a little bit more then everything would be OK. In our world today, it is not easy to champion the idea that spiritual things are more important than material things. Where do people of God find the faith to trust not in the things of this world, but in the God of heaven and earth? Where will we find the courage and strength to abandon the drive to acquire and accumulate more and more? When are we going to realize that it is more important to cultivate the gifts of the spirit for our selves and our families than it is to wear the most popular fashions or live in a big house or drive a fancy car or have the latest toys?

Perhaps it is the Goliath of pleasure which declares in so many bold and powerful ways that joy comes from what we are able to do and to accomplish. In our world today it is not easy to champion the idea that true joy comes not from our activities, our achievements, and our successes, but from our relationships – especially our relationships with God and with God’s people. When are we going to realize that there is more joy and satisfaction in serving God than there is in indulging ourselves? Where will we find the courage and the strength to stand up to all the other demands on our time and realize that the time we spend worshipping is really more important than the time we spend working, that the time we spend in Christian education is more important than the time we spend in recreation or sports, and that it is really more important to serve than it is to be served?

David was able to face Goliath because he learned to trust in the Lord when God delivered him from the lion and the bear. We have even greater reason to trust in the Lord. We only need to look at the cross of Jesus Christ to see how great God’s love for us truly is and how far God is willing to go in order to deliver us. Look at this cross and see why we cannot stand by as the world defies the Lord our God. Look at this cross and discover how you can face your own Goliaths today with the same courage and faith that David did so long ago. Amen.