transcript - Peachtree Presbyterian Church

“David and Goliath”
Sermon Series:
Alive with God:
The Story of David—Poet, Warrior, Failure
January 22, 2012 ©
Dr. Victor D. Pentz
Senior Pastor
Scripture Lesson: I Samuel 17
I love the movie Braveheart. It makes
me want to paint my face blue. It’s a true story
from the thirteenth century of how William
Wallace, a scrappy Scottish commoner, united
the ramshackle Scottish army and, bellowing
“Freedom, freedom!” vanquished the greater
English forces and, best of all, humiliated Edward
the Longshanks.
Something inside us loves the underdog.
We cheer for the long shot; we celebrate the
upset: Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed; the
Miracle on Ice in 1980, when our American
college kids overcame the seasoned pros of the
Soviet Union; the mania of last year’s March
Madness, when tiny Butler University came
that close at the buzzer. We root for the little
guy.
And that brings us to the one Bible story
everybody knows (as the Scots say, “A good
tale never tires in the telling”): David and Goliath.
Have any of you ever tried to use a sling?
No, not a sling shot, a sling? As he may have
with you, David captured the imagination of
this 8-year-old boy, so I asked Dad to make me
a sling. He rigged up this contraption with a
terry cloth pouch and two long leather strings,
one of which he taught me to tie to my thumb
and the other I would hold tight between my
fingers and let go. Since we lived in a citrus
grove my ammo was green lemons. Goliath
was my little brother – until I got in trouble and
had to use a telephone pole, which was way too
skinny for me to hit.
This morning let’s go deeper into this
classic narrative. First we need to appreciate
the dire straits and desperation of the Israelite
people at this moment in history. I invite you to
turn in your Bible to I Samuel 13 (it’s on page
437 of the pew Bible) to provide the context
for understanding the story of David and Goliath.
I Samuel 13 beginning with verse 19:
Not a blacksmith could be found in the
whole land of Israel, because the Philistines
had said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make
swords or spears!" 20 So all Israel went down
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to the Philistines to have their plowshares,
mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened.
Now to verse 22: So on the day of the
battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had
a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his
son Jonathan had them.
Finding a Champion
On the Philistine side every soldier was
armed to the teeth with a sword and a spear. On
the Israelite side we have two swords and two
spears, held by the King and his son, Saul and
Jonathan. The rest of the Israelite army was
throwing Coke bottles or something. That was
total domination by the Philistines.
There’s a theory of history called
“successionism.” where we today just assume
that we are morally superior to people of earlier
times. After all, we tell ourselves, those
were primitive brutal savages. We today are
more enlightened and humane. Well, maybe so,
but here’s something to think about: today in
warfare we bomb cities or compounds with
people in them and when noncombatants are
killed, we’re sad but say that was collateral
damage. In the Old Testament they tried to
avoid that kind of bloodshed. Nations would
say, “Look, you send out a champion. We'll
send out our champion. Our mightiest warriors
will go at it and whoever’s champion wins, that
side gets the victory."
So the Philistines sent out into the valley
of Elah, their champion, a warrior named Goliath
– all nine feet six inches of him, according
to the Bible’s measurements. Goliath was two
and a half feet taller than Shaquille O’Neal and
ready to rumble. His armor alone weighed over
150 lbs.
Often forgotten, though, is that Israel
also had their giant. Among their army was a
man the Bible describes as “head and shoulders
taller” than any other man in the land of Israel.
And who was that? Anyone? King Saul.
King Saul’s job description was to be the
champion for Israel.
But Saul stared out at this 9-foot-tall
honors graduate of the Philistine West Point
and said, “I don’t think so.” I love what he
says in I Samuel 17 verse 25 (which you can
turn to now because this is our focus). Saul
peered out of his tent at Goliath and here’s
what he said: "I will give great wealth to the
man who kills him and my daughter’s hand in
marriage” – here’s my favorite – “and his
family will pay no taxes.”
What is it they say? A human is like a
tube of toothpaste. Under pressure who we
are inside comes out for the world to see.
King Saul was a wuss, cowering there in his
tent.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, young
David was still a freckle-faced kid brother
watching over the family’s flock of sheep
while his brothers were at the battlefront, having
been conscripted into the army. One day
David’s father Jesse sent him on an errand to
take “some cheeses” to his brothers at the
front. Probably in those days it was up to the
family to provide the battle rations. David arrived
at the front just as Goliath was making
his daily run through the valley spewing insults
into the face of Israel’s God.
David, who was probably around the
age of 19, was filled with bravado and he
popped off. Do you ever wish your mouth had
a back space key? What David said, basically,
was: “What kind of soldiers are you, letting
this uncircumcised Philistine insult our God?”
Or as they say in the South: “He needs
killin’!”
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At this David’s older brother Eliab, who
was probably 30, exploded (verse 28): [Eliab]
burned with anger at David and asked, “Why
have you come down here? And with whom did
you leave those few sheep in the desert? I
know how conceited you are and how wicked
your heart is; you came down only to watch the
battle.” (“Zip it, punk. Don’t you hear your
momma calling?” David’s reply is so little
brother.) 29 “Now what have I done? Can’t I
even speak?”
Meanwhile word got back to Saul that
somebody was willing to fight Goliath. Saul
was handing out high fives all around, until
into his tent walked this scrawny teenager.
Verse 32: David says: “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.”
“I can’t send you out there,” said Saul.
“That will make me look even worse than my
not going out myself. Sending a child to the
slaughter – I’ll never live it down. It won’t be a
fair fight.” David thought, “You’re right, King.
It won’t be fair. Poor giant doesn’t stand a
chance.”
Who Gets the Glory?
Someone once defined a leader as a person
with an underdeveloped sense of fear.
That is so true. If you ain’t bleedin’ you ain’t
leadin’. Over here was Saul’s logical survival
instinct, and over here was David, who had a
naïve, irrational, childlike, faith in God.
Years ago when our daughters were
small we as a family were going to the 1984
Los Angeles Olympics. The way we got our
children into the spirit of the Olympics was
whenever there was an Olympics special on
TV we’d all sit down and watch. We gave our
five and three-year-old daughters swimming
lessons and tumbling lessons and Mary Lou
Retton outfits. A couple of weeks before the
Olympics Becky took me aside and said, "Vic,
we've got a problem. I've overheard the girls
talking. Do you realize our daughters think
they are going to L.A. to be in the Olympics?
They’re packing their swimsuits. They expect
to go in the pool.” Well, we sat down with
Sarah and Jessica and explained, “We're going
down there to watch the Olympics, not be in
them.” You should have seen their faces. They
thought that was the dumbest thing in the
whole world: “We're gonna go all that way to
watch other people have fun?” I said, “Now
listen, to be in the Olympics you’ve got to be
the best in the whole world.” They said, “So?”
A three and a five-year-old were ready
to take on the world’s best. Ridiculous, sort of
like a shepherd boy who would not be stopped
from going against the greatest warrior on the
planet.
But would you do me a favor and for a
moment would you let me fantasize a different
outcome? Saul said, “No way!” at first, but
then at night he couldn’t sleep, and then in the
morning he couldn’t face himself in the mirror
he was so ashamed. So one day all of a sudden
Saul charged out of his tent. He’d grabbed his
sword and his spear and he was running down
the hill to take on Goliath. We heard a cheer go
up from the Israelite army and a chant: “Go
Saul! Go Saul!” He wasn’t as big as Goliath,
but Saul wasn’t chopped liver either. But, as it
turned out, Goliath was not only bigger. Unfortunately,
he was also quicker. As they lunged
at each other, Goliath flipped Saul onto his
back, lifted his sword, and was about to administer
the coup de grace when all of a sudden
our man Saul – who’d been watching Wrestlemania
– did an incredible Flying Butero Brothers
double reverse leg whip with an outside roll
and a half twist, which tipped the top-heavy
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giant onto the ground. Saul leapt on him and
slid his sword into a gap of the breastplate of
the giant. Saul was on top, then Goliath was on
top, then Saul was on top, then Goliath was on
top. They broke for a commercial, then Saul
was on top – and finally there was an earthshaking
bellow and scream. Goliath didn’t
move. Saul lifted his sword in the air and the
Philistines ran for their lives.
Now let me ask you one question: in
this scenario who gets the glory? Doesn’t Saul
get the glory? Oh, at first we had some doubts
but in end Saul came through. He pulled it out.
Long live King Saul!
Now let me ask you this. If an untrained,
skinny, freckle-faced kid takes down
the giant then who gets the glory? He had to
have had help. God gets the glory.
Used in our Weakness
That’s why the Apostle Paul says in II
Corinthians 12, “When I am weak then I am
strong. Therefore I delight in my weakness.”
God shows up big when we give our weakness
to him. It’s very natural for us to think, “I have
such weaknesses that, if you knew them, you’d
know they disqualify me from being used by
God in a significant way.” On the other hand
let me spend a moment reminding you of some
of the people God used:
Noah was a drunk;
Abraham was too old;
Isaac was a daydreamer;
Jacob was a liar;
Leah was homely;
Joseph was an abused child;
Moses had a speech impediment;
Gideon was afraid;
Sampson was a womanizer;
Rahab was a prostitute;
Elijah was suicidal;
Isaiah preached naked;
Jonah ran from God;
Naomi was a widow;
Job went bankrupt;
John the Baptist ate bugs;
Peter denied Christ;
The Disciples fell asleep when Jesus
needed them.
Martha worried about everything;
The Samaritan woman was divorced,
more than once;
Zaccheus was too small;
Paul was too religious;
Timothy had an ulcer;
AND Lazarus was dead! If you have a
problem worse than any of those, raise your
hand. The rest of you God can use. I personally
am feeling overwhelmed these days by the
challenges of ministry and leading this church.
Most days I feel like a truck driver sitting at the
cockpit of a 747. (Peterson) Yes, be very
afraid. God keeps us humbly dependent on him
and uses us in our weakness to do his will.
And let me add something that startles
people when they hear it. There are no miracles
in David’s life – no miraculous interventions
from on high. Unlike with many Bible characters,
for David no angel comes down to vanquish
Goliath. There are no rivers that part for
him in his life, no chariots that swing low, and
that is why David is so important for us. David
played the game of life with the same deck we
do. He holds the secret of power for people like
us.
Three Keys
And there are three keys.
The first is prayer. If we face our giant
in weakness and we pray, instantly we see the
full spectrum of reality. King Saul with his
secular mind looked out there and all he saw
was that nine-foot-tall honors graduate of the
Philistine West Point, with whom he compared
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himself, and he was terrified. Saul was dominated
by the visible. David as a person of
prayer looked out at the same giant whom he
compared with God and Goliath wasn’t really
all that big next to the God who made the
Milky Way. David’s vision took in all of reality,
the greatest part of which is spiritual and
invisible.
This morning you and I live in parallel
universes. One has pews and buildings and
fighter jets and the other has prayer and God
and angels and love, faith, hope, and eternity.
To know God’s power we cannot let ourselves
be trapped in the visible; otherwise
we’ll be paralyzed like Saul, as A.W. Tozier
puts it, by the intrusive ubiquity of visible
things, for as Paul says, the things that are
seen are passing away but the unseen things
are eternal. What gave David his edge in life
was his ongoing inner conversation with God.
And so it is with us. Look at all the data. Take
in all the reality through an ongoing, daily
conversation with God.
The second secret of David’s confidence
was knowing that his entire life up to
that moment had been a preparation to
fight Goliath. In verse 33 Saul says to David,
“You are not able to go out against this Philistine
and fight him; you are only a young
man, and he has been a warrior from his
youth.” Hear David’s reply: “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.”
Do you realize David could have
played in the National Football League? He
defeated the Lions, the Bears, and the Giants.
Philistines were obviously Raiders. David
played for the Saints. Come to think of it,
Elijah was fed by the Ravens. And the Falcons
need our prayers.
David was saying, “After fighting lions
and bears, this giant wasn’t as daunting as
you might think. Your Highness, the tactics
and agility I developed in open field fighting
against bears and lions is just what I need
against this big lumbering giant.” In other
words, David says, “I now understand how
the struggles of my past have prepared me for
this very moment.”
It may be that this morning you are going
through some agonizing ordeal or some
pain in a strained relationship or a deflating
disappointment and it’s all you can do to put
one foot in front of the other: “Why, God?”
One day you will know. Imagine David at,
say, 14, a young boy alone at night out in the
wilderness with his sheep. He hears the snap
of a twig and barreling at him through dark is
a charging bear or a leaping ravenous lion.
And David prays “Oh, God, please no more
bears, no more lions.” And here come more
bears and lions. David may have thought,
“What kind of God are you?” God always
knows why God does what God does. There
is nothing in our past that is wasted in God’s
economy. David sizes up the situation and
says, “I can do this. By God’s grace, even
though I’m young and weak, I can do it.”
Prayer, preparation, and, third,
poise. David is profoundly himself. We see
this is in the last thing David does before sallying
forth. The King was in a tizzy and said,
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“Well, at least let me do this for you.” And
Saul hung his armor on David and put his
sword in David’s belt. I love the next line in
the story. It says David “tried walking around.”
When you were five years old did you ever go
to your dad’s closet and put on his navy blazer?
One step and you tripped. David said, “Your
Highness, I can’t do this as a little version of
you. I’ve got to go as the person God made
me.”
.
In this part of Atlanta it’s so easy for
people to hide behind their social armor. We
keep people out here, saying, “Look at the
neighborhood I live in, the schools my kids attend,
the labels I wear, the vacations I take.
Look at this body I’ve worked so hard on to
make you feel inferior. We’d be so much freer
and happier if we were simply the unique originals
God made us to be. Being himself played
to David’s strength. If he had played by the
conventional rules of warfare, he would have
died.
So David, vulnerable, ridiculously underequipped,
in his street clothes, ran right at that
giant – whew, whew, whew, whap! And you
know what happened next.
Goliath hit the ground with a crash that
rattled windows all the way to Jerusalem, proving
yet again that it’s not the size of the dog in
the fight. What matters is the size of the fight
in the dog. Or as Jesus said far better, “Greater
is He who is in you than he who is in the
world.”
You, just as you are, even in your weakness
– are equal to whatever challenge life
throws at you, through prayer, taking in all of
reality each day by conversing with God,
through the preparation God has already done
in your life – especially through struggle – and
through the poise of daring to believing in
yourself just as God made you.
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PEACHTREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
3434 ROSWELL ROAD, NW · ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30305
www.peachtreepres.org · 404-842-5800
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