David Defeats the Giant

Read 1 Samuel 16-17 “Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand” (1 Sam. 17:50, NASB). When I was a young boy my brothers and sisters and I would read together from a Bible Story Book. We would learn about persons in the bible that believe in God and worship and serve the Lord. We learn the names of these characters and the great things they do and that they serve the Lord and worship Him. One of the most famous characters is David. There are three main things that the stories tell about David. He plays a harp for the king when the king is sad. He becomes the king of Israel. He defeats a Philistine giant. In this article I want to discuss David defeating the giant. Why does David confront the giant? What does David do to prepare for the battle? How does David defeat the giant? Why is David’s victory important? We first meet David in 1 Samuel 16:11-14. God sends the prophet Samuel to Bethlehem to the house of a man whose name is Jesse. Samuel is to anoint the son that God shows him to be the next king of Israel. In 1 Samuel 17:4 we meet a Philistine champion. He is a frightening figure. His name is Goliath from Gath. He is over nine feet tall. His armor weights over one hundred and twenty-five pounds. His spear weighs over fifteen pound. He is accompanied by an armor bearer. He challenges the army of Israel to send a man to fight him. The people of the loser will become the servants to the winner. Saul and all of his men are terrified. No one volunteers to face Goliath. I suppose it is better to be a living slave than to be a dead. At that time Jesse sends David to take some food to his three brothers serving in Saul’s army. He hears the challenge of the giant and decides that he will answer the challenge. Saul hears about David and prepares David for the battle. He warns David of the danger that he faces. He gives David his armor. David discovers that Saul’s armor does not fit him, and he is unfamiliar with war armor. David meets the giant and wins the battle. Now, let us answer the questions raised in the first paragraph. These questions are valid for us today because all of us face giants. Why does David confront the giant? David is the anointed of God and he has God’s Spirit (16:13). He hears the words of Goliath as he mocks Saul’s army. More importantly, David hears Goliath’s challenge as he taunts the armies of the living God (17:26). David knows that the giant is not challenging the soldiers only. He is defying the God of Israel. He will stand for the name of the Lord and prove that the Lord is the only true and living God. What does David do to prepare for the battle? He goes to see Saul the king of Israel. As stated earlier Saul warns David of the difficulty of the task. The giant is much larger than David. He has more experience than David. The best that Saul can do for David is to give him his armor and weapons to fight with. David finds Saul’s armor inadequate so he takes his sling and gets five stones. This is how David prepares himself physically. David is prepared spiritually as we have seen that God’s spirit is upon him. David is also prepared mentally. He draws upon his experience in defeating the lion and the bear. All together, these give David confidence that he is able to defeat the giant. How does David defeat the giant? David gives the answer to the giant when he meets him. When David meets the giant he says these words. ‘“This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild 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 the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands’” (17:46-47, NASB). David kills the giant and the men of Judah and Israel pursue the Philistines and kill them. As I stated at the beginning of this article we would read the Bible Story books and learn the names of heroes in the Bible and what they do. The question is why are their stories important to us? What can we learn from this story? First, Hebrews 11 tell us that these characters accomplish great things because of their faith in God. These characters are witness to us that God gives us victory when He calls us and gives us a job to do if we have faith in Him. Our faith in God is shown by our obedience to God and our faithfulness. This story is important because we need to know that what God says He is able to perform it. Let us remember that David is chosen by God to become the next king of Israel. If David is not victorious he will not be Israel’s next king, and God is proven to be a weak and false god. This story tells us the nature and purpose of the giant. The giant is someone who would stop us from carrying out the work that God calls us to do. In a theological sense a giant is someone who defies God and we have not the abilities of our own to defeat them in a conventional way of thinking. However, we see in this story that God has already prepared David through his own experiences and using the methods that he already knows. David defeats the giant and the purpose of God is brought to pass. It is unfortunate that Christian folk are often more concerned about the giants that interfere with their personal ambitions and goals while giving little or no thought to what God desires for them to accomplish for the glory of God. If we would serve God we must be most concerned about what God is calling us to do for the sake of the kingdom of God. This story does not teach us that God will remove the giants that stand in the way of our personal goals; and especially when they are not aligned with what God has called us to do. We can be sure that God will give us victory over every giant that stands in the way of our accomplishing what God calls us to do.