The Rise & Fall of Goliath
Almost as Tall as Goliath
What would you do if you had to wrestle Andre the Giant?
Some of you may remember Andre the Giant. He was a famous wrestler in the 1980s who regularly faced off against Hulk Hogan and many, many others.
When he was born he weighed 13 pounds! His mom was only 5’2″! His dad was 6’2″. Andre was one of five kids and he was the middle child.
Andre grew up to be 7’4″ tall and weighed over 500 pounds! Can you just imagine being body slammed by Andre the Giant? Andre wasn’t as tall as Goliath, but almost!
Maybe you’ve seen pictures, maybe you got to see him wrestle back in the day, or maybe you’ve seen him in one of the most famous movies of all time, The Princess Bride! In the movie he played the beloved role of Fezzik!
Outside the ring he was known as a gentle giant. But inside the wrestling ring he was a fierce opponent. Everyone he faced was automatically the underdog.
Underdogs
Have you ever been the underdog?
Hopefully you’ve never had to face anyone like Andre the Giant in a wrestling match, but chances are you’ve been the underdog at some point in one way or another.
Maybe you were one of the last ones picked on the playground when your friends were choosing teams. Or maybe you’ve always felt under appreciated, underestimated, overlooked, or passed over.
We’ve all been there at one point or another, in one way or another.
And we all know what it’s like when our team is the underdog. In fact, some of the happiest and most exciting times in our lives are when our team, who wasn’t supposed to win the big game, won the big game! When the underdog wins, everyone celebrates. Well, almost everyone.
We love movies and stories where the underdog comes out victorious. Whether it’s Rudy, or Miracle, or Rocky, the Bad News Bears, Legally Blonde, the Karate Kid, or the Mighty Ducks!
We all love those kinds of stories.
But no one likes to be the underdog.
No One Wants To Be the Underdog
No one wants to be the underdog when we’re facing real giants like addiction, depression, cancer, porn, drugs, alcohol, failed relationships, mental illness, just to name a few.
There are some real giants in our world today. And when you come up against these real giants, you can’t help but feel like an underdog.
You can’t help but wonder, is there any possible way these giants can be defeated? Can be overcome? Will there ever come a day when I will wake up and NOT be taunted by this giant in my life that is always haunting me?
What happens when we have to face real giants and we feel overwhelmed and overmatched?
Overcoming Real Giants
Here’s some good news for you today, our God knows a little bit about overcoming giants.
David was a shepherd boy, maybe only 8, 10, or 12 years old at the time. Goliath was a literal giant, a professional warrior, an undefeated champion.
In 1 Samuel 17 we have this epic story preserved in the pages of scripture so that everyone everywhere could remember this moment when the greatest giant you could imagine fell at the hands of an unlikely opponent.
Here’s the story…
17.1 The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Socoh in Judah and Azekah at Ephes-dammim. 2 Saul countered by gathering his Israelite troops near the valley of Elah. 3 So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.
The writer of 1 Samuel sets the stage for this epic battle.
The Philistines are known as the Sea people. They inhabited the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea. They had a distinct advantage over Israel in terms of military technology. The philistines were master iron and bronze workers.
Every soldier in their army had weapons made of iron and armor made of bronze. And their greatest warrior was none other than Goliath. Just listen to what he brought onto the battlefield!
4 Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over [6 cubits and a span] nine feet tall! 5 He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail [a breastplate of scale armor] weighed 125 pounds [5000 or 6000 shekels]. 6 He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. 7 The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds [6 hundred shekels]. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield.
Three Things
Three things I want you to see that you may have never noticed before.
First: Weapons & Armor
Goliath was heavily armed with weapons and armor. That’s because the Philistines had mastered working with iron and bronze. Israel had not. No one in Israel had weapons or armor of any kind except for king Saul.
The king of Israel was the only one who had armor and only Saul and his son Jonathan had weapons made of iron. They each had a sword and Saul also carried a spear. That’s it! Israel didn’t even have a blacksmith!
Second: 666
This is lost in some translations but did you notice Goliath’s height was 6 cubits and a span. His armor weighed 5000 or – translation variant – 6000 shekels. And his spearhead weighed 6 hundred shekels. In the original language those who read this story would have noticed 666, a numerical reference to evil.
Third: Scales like a Serpent
His breastplate looked like scale armor. What does that make you think of? Original readers and hearers of this story would have immediately remembered the garden of Eden and the serpent.
There’s more going on in this story than meets the eye and the author is setting up this story to show us something that God is doing in human history not just to bring victory on this particular day in the valley of Elah to the Israelites, but to bring victory and salvation for everyone, everywhere, for all time!
Every Day for 40 Days
8 Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! 9 If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! 10 I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!” 11 When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.
Can you imagine what this must have been like?
Every day for 40 days Goliath steps down into the valley of Elah and verbally berates the people of Israel and their king! Every day, for 40 days, they are filled with terror.
Every day, for 40 days, they’re wondering if they will die. If they will ever escape. If there is any way out. They are likely outnumbered. Not only that, the enemy has advanced military technology and weapons.
Not only that, they’ve got a giant!
Talk about being an underdog.
Israel felt like the underdog.
By the way, my guess is some of you know exactly what this feels like. You know exactly what it feels like to wake up every day and be taunted and haunted by a giant in your life, your own personal Goliath.
Whatever temptation or addiction, relationship or problem, illness or whatever it is for you… my guess is there are many of you in the room today who know all to well exactly what it feels like to wake up every day with a giant staring you down.
Here’s what happens next…
12 Miles In-Between
12 Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Jesse was an old man at that time, and he had eight sons. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons—Eliab, Abinadab, and Shimea—had already joined Saul’s army to fight the Philistines. 14 David was the youngest son. David’s three oldest brothers stayed with Saul’s army, 15 but David went back and forth so he could help his father with the sheep in Bethlehem.
We don’t exactly how old he was, but David was very young at this point in the story. He was the youngest in his family.
His primary job was to take care of the sheep and to run supplies from his house in Bethlehem to the front lines of the battle where his brothers were some 12 miles away near the hilltops by the valley of Elah.
One day David’s dad, Jesse, tells him to take some food his brothers and then come back and tell him how they are doing. You can imagine how everyone back home in Bethlehem is anxious for news from the front lines.
Has the battle started? Who’s winning? The Philistines are only 12 miles away. If our army is defeated the enemy will be on our doorstep in a matter of hours.
So David takes the provisions and goes to see about his brothers in the valley of Elah.
As soon as David arrives, Goliath steps down into the valley and begins shouting his threats and taunting the Israelite army. And David sees Goliath. And David hears what Goliath says.
A King in Hiding
24 As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright. 25 “Have you seen the giant?” the men asked. “He comes out each day to defy Israel. The king has offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters for a wife, and the man’s entire family will be exempted from paying taxes!”
Israel, wanting to be like other nations, had begged God for a king. God finally honored their request and gave them Saul. Saul was head and shoulder taller than everyone else in Israel, but he was not Goliath. Not even close.
And what’s worse? Saul, the only one with armor and a weapon of any kind, is not only unwilling to go into battle against Goliath, he’s terrified just like everybody else!
The one person anointed and appointed by God to be the king for the people of God to lead, to serve, to protect, defend, and fight for them is hiding in his tent! It’s not the first time Saul was hiding. (1 Samuel 10.22)
I’ll Fight!
32 “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”
33 “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.”
34 But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, 35 I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. 36 I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! 37 The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”
Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”
Which again, is madness!
Can we recognize what is happening here? The king of Israel, the only person in all of Israel with a sword, a spear, and body armor, who is head and shoulders taller than anyone else in Israel, not only in unwilling to fight the Philistine who has been taunting Israel for 40 days in a row but is willing to let a child, a shepherd boy from Bethlehem, face this giant.
This is crazy! It really is.
But is also serves to highlight that what’s about to happen isn’t in any way related to David’s strength, power, ability, or might. David plays an important role in the story, absolutely. But if this giant is going to fall, it won’t be only because of David.
Saul tries to give David his armor. It doesn’t fit. Why would it? Saul is a grown man and David is only a boy. But this is the only set of armor available in the entire Israelite army. It’s not like they could get a smaller size!
So David sheds the armor and heads to the stream and gathers five smooth stones.
If you’ve ever wondered what shepherd boys do in Bethlehem when they’re tending sheep, my guess is that they have a lot of time for target practice. Before the days of Xbox and Playstation, boys had responsibilities and they had a lot of free time. He carried a slingshot and he knew how to use it.
The truth is, king Saul probably knew how to use a slingshot, too. In fact, Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin and the Benjamites were known for their ability to use a slingshot with their left hand and could “…sling a rock and hit a target within a hairsbreadth without missing.” – Judges 20.16
Superior Inferior
Saul had superior skill, superior weapons, superior armor, but inferior faith. Saul was hiding in his tent in fear.
David wasn’t nearly as skilled, didn’t have the right weapons or body armor, but he was full of faith. And David was willing to go into the valley of Elah and face the giant everyone else was terrified of and running away from.
Just a side note, you don’t have to have it all together or have it all figured out to face your giants. All you need is faith in the One True God and the willingness to throw your stone.
Here’s what happens next…
41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44 “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled.
45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! 47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
48 As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.
50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. 51 Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head.
David Didn’t Defeat Goliath
How does a boy with a slingshot defeat a giant with the latest military technology and weapons of his time?
Some have suggested that Goliath brought a sword to a gun fight. And they’re not wrong. A rock flying from the hand of a slinger could easily reach 76 mph and a projectile at that speed at close distance would be deadly.
But let’s be honest… any way you look at it, David shouldn’t have defeated Goliath that day. And in truth, David didn’t defeat Goliath that day. God did.
You can just imagine what happened after David raises Goliath’s own sword and cuts off his head, now the Israelite army is full of faith and runs into battle against the Philistines who, by the way, are now in rapid retreat.
When it’s all over, David returns to camp. He walks into the tent of king Saul still holding Goliath’s head in one hand and Goliath’s sword in the other.
One of these men fulfilled the prophecy, at least in part, that God had spoken in the garden of Eden:
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed…
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3.14-15
This giant wearing armor like scales, like a serpent, was killed when David struck his head.
Young David, full of faith, was used by God to defeat the enemy of Israel.
Real Giants
I don’t want to belittle your giants today.
Some of you are up against some real giants. We live in a world that says if you just work a little harder, try a little harder, you can overcome your giants. Whatever they are. Or, if you just have a little more faith, you can be like David and you, too, can overcome your giants.
And many of you have tried that. You’ve worked harder, you’ve tried harder, you’ve prayed harder, and your giants are still standing in your way.
The reason for that is because of this, your enemy is real, he is relentless, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. The giants we face have different names but they all exist because we live in a fallen and broken world where “satan prowls around like a roaring lion.” – 1 Peter 5.8
Sometimes our giants fall just like Goliath fell that day in the valley of Elah. Sometimes it can happen quickly, but more often than not, what happens is that we have to face our giants more than once.
And that was true for David, too.
We often forget that David grabbed five stones from the stream. One was for Goliath. But David knew something we sometimes forget, just because one giant falls and one battle has been won, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more giants to face and more battles ahead. David knew the Philistine army was still standing on the ridge and no matter what happened between him and Goliath, there was more fighting to do.
All throughout David’s life he would have to face different kinds of giants. Sometimes, David defeated those giants just like he defeated Goliath.
Other times, David was defeated. The difference? The only difference was where David put his trust.
I don’t want to belittle your giants today. But I don’t want you to belittle your God.
Real Faith
You see, no matter the size of the giant you face, your God is greater than your greatest giant. And the key to winning any and every battle is putting your trust in him and throwing your stone.
Your giants, just like Goliath, will never fall if you don’t throw your stone.
But your giants, just like Goliath, will never fall if you don’t put your faith in God alone.
I don’t want to belittle your giants today, but I don’t want you to belittle your God.
Throw your stone. Put your faith in God alone. Over and over and over again.
Throw Your Stone
What stone do you need to throw?
Scripture
Can I encourage you to lean into scripture?
You don’t have to memorize the whole Bible, but find two or three verses that you can return to when you’re in the middle of fighting your battles, facing your giants.
Whether it’s cancer or addiction, a broken relationship or a mental illness, our greatest weapon is the word of God written on our hearts and minds.
Lean into scripture.
Prayer
And lean into prayer. You don’t have to pray for days or hours. In fact, I would encourage you to write a one sentence prayer you can pray over and over again when your in the middle of your own valley of Elah.
Maybe you can pray like David, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, today the Lord will conquer you.”
Scripture, prayer. These are our weapons. This is how we fight our battles.
But we don’t have to go into battle alone. God has given us the church.
God’s People
We are surrounded by God and we are surrounded by the people of God.
And today, if you need help, if you need someone who can lift you up in prayer as you fight your battles, as you face your giants, ask someone you trust who you know trusts God to pray for you.
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