5

David and His Ugly Giant

Dr. Larry Thorson
August 5, 2007

I Samuel 17

1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.[1]

In every conflict there are two sides. In every conflict a battle line is drawn between the two sides, and that’s just to get out of bed in the morning. With some of you there’s no conflict at all because you’re morning people and can’t wait to get up. You have other battles. But for some the battle begins with the alarm clock. Something in your brain set that alarm the night before and now says “It’s time to get up, move!” But your body says “No, it feels better to stay in bed”. Then the battle ground moves to the kitchen. You know that fruit would be so much better for you but eggs smell so much better with thick bacon than that nasty diet your doctor suggests. Whether you realize it or not we have battle lines drawn everyday in our lives. I’m going to suggest that the way you’re going to win your battles is no different than the way we will see Israel win its battle in our story today.

Let’s begin by meeting our opponent.

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.

Translated into our measuring system, that’s about 9’6”. In comparison Guinness World Records last year confirmed Bao Xishun, a 7’9” herdsman from inner Mongolia as the world’s tallest man. He was in the news last December when he used his long arms to save two dolphins by pulling plastic out of their stomachs. Recently he married for the first time at age 56 to a 5’6” store clerk in Mongolia. They should have an interesting relationship.

But a 9’6” height is almost impossible for a human body to function with. Interestingly the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel, (these are the long lost original manuscripts of portions of the Bible) gives the height of Goliath as "four cubits and a span," (about six feet six inches), and this is what the original Greek Septuagint Bible and the first century church historian Josephus also record. Somehow the six cubits and a span got into the translations. I’m going to go with the 6’6” size because the Bible doesn’t say there’s anything miraculous about Goliath and 9’6” would definitely be miraculous.

5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

His armor alone weighed at least 126 pounds. His spear was like a fence rail with a spear tip alone weighing over fifteen pounds. Clearly he was big and strong, not unlike how our very own problems sometimes feel. In this case the opponent had a name, Goliath. The fact that the Bible gives him a name from a known city means it wants you to know that he was a real person from a real place. This isn’t mythology.

Sometimes our opponent isn’t a person at all but rather an emotion. Once when I was struggling with insomnia a counselor told me to go ahead and give a name to the depression that would plague my sleep. He said every time I felt it coming on rebuke it in the name of Jesus. As weird as it sounded, it helped a lot because it isolated my problem where I could actually deal with it. Just think how we give names to hurricanes.

When I ran cross country in high school my coach used to tell me of a bear that used to hide in the woods ready to jump on any runner’s back who was slowing down. There were no bears in Santa Clara but it sure felt like one was on my shoulders near the end of my races or at least that’s how I probably looked when I was running. Name your opponent and daily rebuke it in the name of Jesus.

8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."

There’s the challenge. All or nothing. Head to head competition. If you succeed, you’ll be a national hero. Instead of the movie stars hosting a party for David Beckham, they’d be hosting a party for you. A bronze statue would be erected in your honor. Never again would you have to be in want. Of course if you lost, you’re dead. Your name would probably become synonymous with slavery. Let’s say your name is Larry and you lost so your country fell slaves to the enemy, from then on they might describe being in slavery as being “Larryized”. Not good.

So you heard the challenge. You’re either going to run away from the challenge and hide, hoping that it can’t find you or you’re going to take it on and rebuke it. But don’t be surprised when you rebuke your opponent if he becomes belligerent.

10 Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." 11 On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

That’s what your enemy does. It defies God. In this case the enemy defied the armies of Israel. The armies of Israel in this story were instruments of God to fulfill his promise to give his people a promised land. But God also has armies of angels and spirits that fight for us to fulfill God’s promises to us. The enemy defies those armies. Remember Sadamm Hussein? Or Osama ben Laden? Or Hitler? Then along comes a kid named David.

32 David said to Saul, Let no-one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him. 33 Saul replied, You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth. 34 But David said to Saul, Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, Go, and the LORD be with you.

Underline the words “The Lord who delivered me…” That’s the fire that gave David the courage to take on his ugly giant. He remembered the times when God delivered him in the past. That’s the same place where you get the courage that gets you up in the morning. Remember that God doesn’t change. The God who delivered you before in smaller things is the same God who can deliver you today. Habitat for Humanity locally was facing a major, major crisis this spring. We were finishing up the construction of a new house and we had no more land to build on. Nothing. Without land we can’t do what Habitat exists to do, build houses with the poor. Without land we can’t raise money. Without land we can’t keep our contractor busy. Without land our vision was hollow.

Personally I was struggling because my predecessor Dr. Don Owens was instrumental in starting Habitat locally and it looked like I was going to be the pastor who saw it close down. One day Robin Lowe from City Council and one of the founding members of Habitat came to see me on another matter. As we were wrapping up I mentioned to her that we were about to lose Habitat in our valley because we couldn’t get land. We had two ugly giants. One were Hemet landowners who wouldn’t budge on the price of their land and a city council that wouldn’t help us.

Robin left my office, made some phone calls and got the wheels turning to get us some help. With the city’s help we made a ridiculously low offer to a landowner in Hemet who was asking $600,000 for his lot. To our absolute surprise the landowner accepted our offer of $150,000 for six lots. A week ago Tuesday the Hemet City Council approved the purchase and the zoning. We now not only have six lots but six lots next door to the Downtown Athletic Club where our new sign will give us the much needed publicity for fund raising.

I will not soon forget Robin Lowe’s visit to my office nor the timing of one Hemet landowner in lowering his price in the future when we have to slay future ugly giants to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish.

Today make a list of the ugly giants God used you to slay in your past. Put that list in a safe place and refer to it whenever you have to take on the next giant.