Giant

Why?

Why the monarchy?

Why a king?

, the simple answer is because we need a king. We were designed by God to To have a king. That first king, Adam, failed. We find that story at the very beginning of the story, Genesis 1-3. Adam, made to be the leader, the spiritual, divinely empowered leader of humanity, falls into a supernatural rebellion. You remember the story of the nachesh, the serpent, this divine being that comes and deceives Eve and deceives Adam and brings them into his rebellion against the Creator.

This is the heart of the storyline of the Bible. *Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, God announcing the curse to the woman, to the , and then to the serpent, the forces of chaos and evil*

God says this, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed, your offspring, and her seed, her offspring. He will bruise your head and he shall bruise or crush his heel.

The storyline of the scriptures is that story. The story of how God is going to set things . The story of how God will once again raise up a king that will crush the head of evil forever. This is the story of the Bible.

And , as we started six years ago, walking through this storyline from Genesis, you come out of that garden, and Adam and Eve have their first son, Cain, and there's this bated breath. Is he going to be the seed?

And you don't have to go very far to go, nope, he ain't the seed. That doesn't go at all. Killing his brother and going off and intensifying evil in much. And we start walking through the story. Where's the seed?

Where's the one that's going to crush the serpent?

Where's the one that's going to bring us back to Eden?

Where's the one that God is going to use to set things ?

And Genesis chapter 5, we get the list of descendants from Adam all the way to Noah, and it's , nope, nope, nope, nope, no.

By the time we get to Noah in Genesis chapter 6, things have gone incredibly poorly for humanity.

And we find this incredible secondary rebellion that is unbelievably supernatural in its essence. Beginning of *Genesis chapter 6, verse 4 says this, *.

. . the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and bore children to them, these were the mighty men of old, the men of renown. " I spent a lot of time unpacking the reality of this, that this is a cosmic rebellion. This is a boundary trespass. These supernatural beings created by God to serve God with natural human beings that are created to serve God both in their own realms.

They cross realms. They do something they're not supposed to do. And they create beings that are not in the image of God. They're in their own image. And the result of that, if you go back to Genesis chapter 6, is that evil goes rampant among mankind.

The sentence in Genesis is unbelievable. The thoughts and intents of was only evil all the time, always. we know the story of God's judgment of the earth with the flood and his preservation of Noah and his family. in the ark, and they come out through the flood. And then we're in the story. We're , , maybe Noah is going to be the new Adam, the new king.

And, , because it's new creation. It's start over. It's fresh. And you don't have to go very far. A couple verses in, Noah's not the guy.

Noah's not the one that's going to do it. And then we keep going through the story, and Genesis. . . Chapter 9 gives us the genealogy of Noah and all of his sons and the peoples and nations that were formed out of him.

And through it, we're , are any of them going to be the one?

that's going to crush the head of evil and bring us back to Eden?

And the answer is no. And we get to Genesis chapter 10, and all of mankind comes together in another rebellion against God.

And that's what the building of the Tower of Babel is. It's not a bunch of ancient people that thought they could literally build something high enough to reach heaven. This is the building of a ziggurat, a house of worship. They are trying to control God, to make God come to them and serve them in their way at their place. And in a classic example, be careful what you ask for. God does show up.

He doesn't give them what they want. He confuses their language. But he does more than that. He disinherits the people's Deuteronomy 32 lays this out for us. He gives them what they want. You don't want me as your God?

Fine. He disinherits the people, he confuses the language, he scatters them throughout the earth, and he puts them under the authority of other divine beings, and then God begins the work of making for himself a new people. out of that we get Genesis chapter 12, and we find this guy named Abram.

who's 75, married, childless, and living at home in his parents' basement. And God says, that'll do. That'll do just fine. God calls him, and he makes this promise to Abram. It's , if you will follow me, I'm going to bless you, and here's what's going to happen. Through you will come the one that will bless all the nations.

Through you, I'm going to give a seed. And now we're back to Genesis 3. 15, the seed that is coming. now we know that when that seed comes, when that king comes, that is going to set things and crush the head of evil and bring us back to Eden, he's going to be a child, a descendant of Abram. Abram has, , , it's a convoluted story because he and his wife can't have a child. And he decides to help God out and takes his wife's mistress and has Ishmael.

And Ishmael's not going to be the guy. And then finally God, when they're 100 years old, gives them Isaac. And we're , , is Isaac going to be the guy?

He's not the guy. And then is Isaac's son Jacob going to be the guy?

He's not the guy. What about his 12 sons?

Are any of them going to be the guy?

And they're , they're not the guy. And we're waiting. When's the king coming?

Where's the king coming from?

God, you said the seed's coming. God, you said it's going to come through Abraham. But where is he?

And then the story takes a really unexpected dark turn. Abraham's descendants end up in Egypt. God sends them there to protect them, but then they end up enslaved. And for hundreds of years, they're enslaved, and finally they cry out to God, and God hears them. And God prepares a deliverer for them. And when I say prepare, prepares.

Moses from his birth is identified as one that God is going to protect and that God is going to use. And in an echo of Noah and the ark, he's spared in the basket in the waters of the Nile. And then he messes everything up and kills a . But God still uses him. He's got to spend 40 years watching sheep out in the middle of nowhere. But then finally God takes Moses and brings him back, and God uses Moses, and he uses Aaron, and he defeats Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt.

And it's such a phenomenal story, the Exodus, of God's supremacy, not just over the things of the earth, but the things of the heavens. And God leads his people out. And there's a sense maybe Moses is the guy. But Moses isn't the guy. In fact, Moses' sin makes it impossible for him to even enter into the promised land, let alone bring everybody back into Eden. And we're waiting, and the story goes on.

We get to Joshua. Joshua inherits the mantle of leadership from Moses. And Joshua leads the people out of the wilderness into the land of promise. And Joshua is an amazing who does amazing things and has great faith and faithfulness, but he doesn't get the job done. He just doesn't get it done. In Joshua chapter 11, verses 22, it says this, There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel.

Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. I love how the author does this. Oh, there weren't any of them left. , except some, ?

Joshua and Israel, they drove out all. And what are the Anakim?

, the Anakim are the descendants of the Nephilim. They are the giants. They are the men of renown. They are the offspring of supernatural beings and material beings. And they are an aberration and offense to God's creation. And Israel's conquest of the land, it's not about nationalism, it's not about ethnicity, it's about God using his newly created people, Israel, to bring judgment upon the descendants of the Nephilim that remain in the land.

And Joshua does a pretty good job, and they take out most of them. But they don't take out them all. And there's consequences to that. . . .

the consequences, after his death, and the people begin to settle into the land, they stop the work that God has commanded them to. They become complacent. They begin to make deals with the enemy that still remains. And in Judges chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, the angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bochum, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land, and I swore to give to your fathers, and I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land.

You shall break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. What is this that you have done?

You almost hear the frustration, ?

The angel that delivered them out of Egypt, the angel that walked them through the wilderness, the angel that led them in their conquest of Canaan, they just simply give up. What is it this you have done?

now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare to you. And boy, isn't that the story of Judges?

The story of Judges is how Israel went from faithfulness to faithlessness over and over and over again. How they followed after the gods of the land. How they turned from the God that had been good and gracious to them. And how they. . .

broke covenant over and over again that by the time we get to the end of the book of judges the people of god the people of israel are indistinguishable if not more wicked than the peoples in the land that god had called them to judge it's tragic and the book of judges ends this way in those days there was no king in the land and everyone did what was in his own eyes the book of Judges ends with this refrain that is said over and over again throughout it, but it ends with this reality. Israel is scattered. It does not have a centralized leader. It does not have a king that can do what a king is supposed to do. And what a king is supposed to do is to defend the people and to destroy evil. That is the role of the king.

And when we get into this period of the story, the monarchy, the series that we're walking through now of the kingdom, this is where we're at. Israel is desperately longing and desperately needs a king. the book begins with Samuel, the last of the judges. first great prophet that rules over all of Israel since Moses, and we're , maybe Samuel is the guy. But Samuel's not the guy. He's an incredible prophet.

He's more than a prophet. He's also going to be the one, he's the kingmaker. He's the one that's going to anoint the king. And we get into 1 Samuel, and the first king, Saul. And Saul is good-looking and tall. He's got all the, on paper, this is what you want from a king.

But Saul has a very broken character. And Saul starts out, and the start of Saul, it's always this bittersweet reality. He partially obeys God in his own way. over and over again. But after Saul is anointed as king, the first thing the book of Samuel does is Saul comes into conflict with the Ammonites and the Ammonite king named Nakash. Nakash, the serpent.

He's named the same word as the divine being in Genesis chapter 3 that led the first king, Adam, into his rebellion.

now Saul, the first king of Israel, is anointed by God to do what a king does, which is to confront and destroy evil. And the first thing he does as king is he goes to battle against the serpent king of the Ammonites. And he gets a little bit of a victory. Not a complete one. But there's this almost sense of hope. Maybe Saul is the one.

But you don't have to keep reading very long to go, oh, Saul is not the one. And in fact, God comes and says, Saul, you're not the one. I've got somebody better. I've got a after my own heart. And God removes his spirit from Saul. Samuel, the kingmaker, anoints David.

That's where we were last week. He anoints David. David is anointed as the king. And the spirit rushes upon him. And that's where we are in chapter 17.

Longest introduction I've ever done in my life. I promise you it's going to pay off, I hope. David has been anointed as king. Here's the pattern. The first thing that he's going to have to do is what a king does. Confront and destroy evil.

That's chapter 17.

Let's take a look. Now, the Philistines gathered their armies for battle.

They were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Soko and Azekah in Ephesh-demim.

You guys know that place, ?

Yeah. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of Elah and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side. Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them. this is an interesting place for a battle. it's in between two mountains.

You've got clear sides. In the middle is this no 's land, the valley. If they're going to fight, that's where the battle is going to take place. And they get there, but neither side is really eager to get into the battle. And verse 4 says, There came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

out of the Philistines' camp on that one mountain, down into the valley comes a champion. Now this is common in the ancient Near East.

If you've read the Iliad and the Odyssey, you've seen this sort of thing where a champion will come out and another champion will come out and they'll do battle that the whole armies don't have to do their thing and the whole thing will be decided upon this one battle. out comes this champion named Goliath, and he comes from Gath. Do you remember where the giants still dwelled in Joshua chapter 11, the ones that Joshua and Israel didn't destroy?

They came from Gaza, from Gath. and from Ashdod, along the coast, in the areas of the Philistine, these seafaring people. in this area are still where the remnants, the descendants of the Nephilim still dwell, these men of renown, these supernatural hybrids, these chaos agents of evil in the world. And out steps one of the last remaining ones, Goliath of Gath. And was tall. , there's some controversy because some of the oldest manuscripts have him only being 6'9".

And some of the later manuscripts have him being over 9' tall.

And , I read a lot of commentaries this week arguing just ferociously for either side. And after reading a lot of it, I came to the startling conclusion that it really doesn't matter. It's Because the average height of the ancient Near Eastern people was a little bit under five foot. if the average person is five foot and you see a that's six foot nine, he's a giant. You see a guy that's nine foot six, he's a giant. Either way, is big.

And Enlightenment people are , oh, this is just hyperbole and the Bible is just making this up. , have you ever been around somebody really tall?

Several years ago, when Shaq was still playing ball, I went to a game, and I got to go down on the floor, and I stood next to him, and I shook his hand. And I swear to you, my hand felt a little tiny doll. And I put my foot next to his feet. I'm , I'm not even a . , it just, he was huge. I looked up on the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest was a guy named Robert Wadlow. He was 8 foot 11 inches tall. Let me model. He was 8 foot 11. 1 inches tall. You've got to have that .

1. My point is, Goliath comes out, and he is huge. Huge. He is huge. And it describes him as a champion. Describes him as a champion.

This is a really interesting phrase in the Hebrew. It's only used here in the entire scripture. It's a phrase that literally means the of the between or the of the space between. And on one sense, that makes sense if you're picturing the battle, ?

you've got one army on one side, another army on another side, and the no 's land in between, and down comes the champion into the space between. I think the author, though, is saying something much more than that. Goliath in his very nature as a descendant of the Nephilim is an unnatural being. he's part supernatural, part natural. He is, by definition, he is in his core somebody that doesn't fit, somebody that doesn't belong, somebody that's in the place in between. this becomes interesting.

Now, it says he had a helmet of bronze on his head.

And he was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. Now, your scale probably doesn't work in shekels.

But this is heavy. 125 pounds of armor. This is significant. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, was armed with a coat of mail. He had a bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was a weaver's beam and his spearhead weighed 600 shekels of iron and his shield bearer went before him.

You probably wouldn't be able to pick up his spear. I got this guy that keeps showing up on my Instagram feed. I think his name's Anatoly or something. And he's a weightlifter, but he dresses up as a custodian. Have you seen this guy?

It's hilarious. And he's got a mop that weighs 35 kilograms. It's unbelievable. And he just walks around holding it it's nothing. And then he gets in there with these big beefed up, , , steroid-using crazy dudes, and they're, , lifting this weight, and he walks over, and he hands them their mop, and they can't hold it. They can't lift it up.

And then he one-handed lifts up the weights that they're, , proud that they're doing, and they freak out and lose their mind. I love those videos. And now every time I see them, I think of Goliath. They're just holding this giant spear. , was big. was strong.

But they're. . . There's some details in this description of his armor that are absolutely mind- blowing. It's one of the longest and most detailed descriptions we ever get of any warrior and their armor anywhere in the scriptures. which of course should make you sit back and go, , what's going on?

Why are all these details given?

Thank you for asking. I want to try to tell you. It says first this, his armor was made of bronze over and over again. Bronze helmet, bronze leg, bronze, bronze, bronze, copper. . The Hebrew word for that is nechoshet.

And that might sound familiar to you. Nechoshet. It's the exact same root word from nakash, serpent. it comes out and he's covered in. . .

nakash, the root, not only means serpent, it means practicing of divination in its verbal form, and it means bright or shining one. when you think of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. . . Don't think about some slithering snake. The serpent in the Garden of Eden is this divine being, supernatural being, and it's a brightly shining serpent.

That's the enemy. Now, Goliath steps down as this champion, this of nowhere, this in between.

And he's dressed, covered in shining. And it says he's got a coat of mail. That word there for coat of mail, it's the word for scales you find on fish or on snakes. It's his overlapping armor, ?

Made up of over 600 pieces of overlapping plates to make his mail. what do you have?

You've got to try to picture, why does the author spend much time describing him as this giant walks down into the valley?

What do they see?

They see this bright and shining, scaled being. The author wants you to hear the echo, to see a little bit of what's going on. Goliath isn't just a Philistine. He's not just another human warrior. This is one that is an agent of chaos and rebellion and death. He is under the judgment of God.

He is one of the great chaos monsters, Leviathan or Bahamut, these others that we see throughout the scriptures. it says this, he stood and he shouted. to the ranks of Israel. Why have you come out to draw up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul?

Choose a for yourselves and let him come down to me. he comes down and he makes the challenge. And if he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if we prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. Servants is probably too tame. It should be slaves.

That's what it's indicating. That's the implication. And see, this gets to the heart. Who will Israel serve?

See, this is the echo that we've seen over and over again in the story. Who will they serve?

Will they serve Pharaoh or will they serve Yahweh?

Will they serve the gods of the land or will they serve Yahweh?

Now, will they serve Goliath and all that he represents or will they serve Yahweh?

I'm not going to read through the bulk of the story with minimal observations. I just want you to listen to it now with this lens. Understand that this is describing not just a physical battle between two warriors, but a supernatural confrontation between the power and forces of Yahweh and the power and forces of evil that have rebelled against him. let's walk through it. The Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a that we might fight together.

When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now, David was the son of an Apathrite of Bethlehem.

Apathrite is just another name for Bethlehem. It means fruitful or blessed. it's telling us who David was. He comes from Bethlehem in Judah. His father was named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the was already old and advanced in years.

the Bible just does this often. He was old. What's he trying to communicate here?

Jesse, the father, is too old to be going out to battle. But he's got sons. Now the three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle.

The names of his three sons who went were Eliab, the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third was Shammah. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. the back and forth, you remember last week, David was brought into Saul's presence to play the liar and give Saul relief from this tormenting spirit that he'd been afflicted with as an act of judgment by God. And David is spending some time with Saul, and he's also spending some time going back and forth watching his father's sheep, and says, for 40 days.

, that number keeps popping up in the story, doesn't it?

Over and over again. For 40 days, the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening. every morning, every evening, Goliath is coming down the mountain, standing in the valley, and taunting and mocking the people of God. Now Jesse said to David his son, take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers.

Also take these ten cheeses to their commander of their thousands. See if your brothers are and bring some token from them. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines.

Except they're not really fighting. They're just each on their own thing looking at each other. And every day, every night, every morning, every night, Goliath is coming down and taunting. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army.

And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the in-between one. The Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before, and David heard them. They'd all been hearing them for 40 days, but now David hears them. He hears it differently. All the men of Israel, when they saw the , fled from him and were much afraid.

Nobody wanted to get in the ring with Goliath. And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this who has come up?

Surely he has come up to defy Israel, and the king will enrich the who kills him with great riches, and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. David starts to hear the word that's gone out that Saul has made some promises to anybody that can go out and fight and defeat Goliath. And it's three things. One, I'm going to give you great riches. Two, you're going to marry one of my daughters, you get to come into the royal household. And three, you don't live free in Israel.

This one might excite some of you. No taxes, baby. He's living the dream. All you got to do is kill a giant. David said to the men who stood by him, what shall be done for the who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

The people answered him in the same way. shall it be done to the who kills him. Now Eliab, his older brother, eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men.

He hears David talking about what's going on, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, "'Why have you come down, and with whom have you left the few sheep in the wilderness?

I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. '" nobody fights brothers. And if you were here last week, the tension between David and his brothers is deep and profound, and there's probably a lot underneath that. It's interesting what Eliab says, I know the evil in your heart. When God has already declared this about David, that he's going to be a after God's own heart. Now David said, David said, what have I done now?

Was it not but a word?

And I love that. And it says, and he turned away from him towards another. I'm not going to. . . He's had this his whole life, probably, from his eldest brother.

And he spoke the same way, and the people answered him again as before. David's going through the army. Do you guys understand what's going on here?

This guy's defying us, and he's defying God, and are you with that?

And when the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul. And Saul sent for him. David, they've all heard this for 40 days and nobody's done a thing. David gets there for one day. He hears it one time and he's , we got to do something. And word gets to Saul and Saul sends for him.

And David said to Saul, let no 's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go out and fight with this Philistine. David's , I'll go do it. And Saul said to him, you're not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him. You're but a youth, and he has been a of war from his youth. Now, if you remember in the last chapter, David was described as a of valor, a mighty warrior.

He'd been out with the sheep, and yet he was young. He was younger. He didn't have all this experience in war the way that they would expect him to do, but he had all sorts of experience in confronting enemies. He demonstrated courage and skill, and he wouldn't back down. But David said to Saul, , your servant used to keep sheep for his father, and when there came a lion or a bear, and they took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him down and delivered it out of its mouth. I don't know how many of you have taken on a lion or a bear, , but David did.

And not only did he take them on, he won, ?

He says, and if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Didn't just get up close and personal, ?

With a bear and a lion. I know we have our Sunday school flannel graphs and pictures of David and he's this weak, tiny little could fight. He was a of valor. Unbelievable God. He says, Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. The living God.

See, this is not just a battle between human armies. This is a cosmic conflict. He's not just defying Saul. He's not just defying Israel. He's defying Yahweh. His very essence and being is defiance to Yahweh.

And David said, Yahweh, the Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, all , Go and Yahweh be with you. This is interesting because David's been anointed as king, but he hasn't been installed as king. And Saul is still ruling as king, but the anointing has been removed from him. who should be going out to fight Goliath?

Saul. That's what kings are for. Saul's not going out there. this shepherd comes out and says, I'll go do it. And he's , all , go. And God be with you.

But then verse 38 is humorous.

Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. He's trying to put on David the symbols of the enemy and of evil. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, I cannot go out with these, for I have not tested them. David put them off.

If you remember, Saul was the biggest guy in all of Israel. He may not be as tall, he may not be as big as Goliath, but if you've got armor that is designed for somebody, let's say 6'8", or 6'6", and you're 5'6", That ain't going to work for you. And David put them off. He's not going to go out in the bronze and the scales of the enemy. He's going to go out in the spirit of Yahweh. he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones and from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch.

His sling was in his hand and he approached David. The Philistine. , when I was a kid, I had a little arm sling, , and you'd try to, you know, whatever. Couldn't really do anything with it except annoy your sisters or break a window. I don't know if you've ever seen videos of the slings that people in the ancient Near East. .

. These are massive slings, and these things are unbelievable weapons. They don't look much. but they get the job done. It says, The Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.

We dug into that a little bit last week. He's annoyed by it. the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?

Oh, you got your little shepherd's staff. Am I a dog that you're going to come and drive me off?

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. See, the conflict is not just between David and Goliath. It's not just between Israel and the Philistines. The conflict is between God and the enemies of God that have rebelled against him. The Philistine said to David, Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have chosen.

defied. Once again, David lays it out. You're not just defying us. You're not just defying Saul. You're defying God. Your very existence and essence is a defiance to him.

This day, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth. And all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves, not with sword and spear, for the battle is whose?

the lord's and he will give you into our hand this is a supernatural story from start to finish this is god fighting on israel's behalf through his chosen and anointed king because that's what a king is supposed to do confront and destroy the enemy When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistines. I love that little detail. Everybody else for 40 days has been standing on the mountainside saying, Are you going to go?

Are you going to go?

You should go. , no taxes. Get to marry one of the. . . For 40 days, they've been motionless.

David's there for one day, and he runs to the battle. What courage, . But see, this is his faith. His courage is not in himself. His courage is in Yahweh. David is a after God's own heart.

He has been empowered by the Spirit to confront and destroy the enemy. David put his hand in his bag and he took out a stone and he slung it and he struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank. The stone didn't stink. Could have been really bad. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground.

His mouth was in the dust. Does that ring any bells for you this morning?

It should. David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. David ran and stood over the Philistine and took a sword and drew it out of his sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron that the wounded Philistines fell in the wave.

from Shariim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put his armor in his tent. Now, again, this is much more than just a battle between two warriors or two armies.

There's something profound in this story. This image. . . of the giant Goliath falling face first into the dust and then having his head removed. If you've been with us as we've been in 1 Samuel the last few months, there's a story early on in 1 Samuel where the Ark of the Lord was captured by the Philistines.

Do you remember that?

And they captured the Ark of the Lord and they took it to their city and they put it in their temple to Dagon. dagon was the god of the philistines he interestingly enough is depicted as a half half fish he's a fish god he's covered in scales interesting little detail and they put the ark of the covenant in their temple with dagon as if to say our god is greater than yahweh and they went to sleep and they woke up the next morning and what had happened to the the idol of their god dagon remember It had fallen down on its face in front of the ark it was bowing to the ark. And they're , , that won't do. they stand up their God again, and they go about their business, and they go to sleep, and they wake up the next morning. You remember what had happened to the idol of Dagon?

Once again, it had fallen down, and this time its hands and its head were removed and on the threshold. And you've got to see this morning that the battle between David and Goliath is a repeat of that exact same thing. The object of their worship, not the god Dagon now, but the giant Goliath is flat on his face in the dust and his head is off and God has not just defeated him, he's humiliated him. God has vanquished the foe. This is This is God demonstrating his superiority and supremacy over all of his foes, heavenly and earthly, immaterial and material. Whether God or hybrid or , God is over all of it.

And God wins. , of course, it's an echo forward as . But let's hold on to that. Let me just finish the chapter really quickly.

Verse 55, as soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this youth?

And Abner said, as your soul lives, king, O king, I do not know. And the king said, inquire whose son this boy is. And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, whose son are you, young ?

And David answered, I am the son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. You've got to go, , what's going on here?

Because last chapter, David met Saul, knew who his dad was, and said that David had great favor in the eyes of Saul.

And now, at the beginning, he meets him and tries to give him his armor. And then here we are at the end of the chapter, and Saul's , I don't even know who this guy is.

who this guy is?

And he asks him who he is. how do we resolve that?

, I think there's maybe a couple of ways that we can look at it. One. . . this is theological history. the author of this is not writing history we write history.

He's writing history with a theological purpose. there may be issues of chronology here. Maybe one thing happened before another. But I don't think that's really what's going on here. Here's what I think is going on here. Saul is being tormented by a spirit.

And you don't expect mentally unstable people to be mentally stable. What do you expect from mentally unstable people?

Mental instability. What are we seeing in Saul here?

Mental instability. One minute he knows David, loves him, approves of him. He's got favor in his sight. And the next day he's , who are you again?

David answers, I am the son of your servant Jesse. the Bethlehemite. this, of course, points us to Jesus as the whole chapter, and the whole story always does.

Because, and spoiler alert, Jesus is the seed we've always been waiting for. Jesus is the king that we've always needed. And Jesus did what the true king does. confronts and destroys evil. Now David's victory, as glorious as it was, wasn't ultimate.

We're going to keep going through the story. He's going to fail, just Adam, just Cain, just Noah, just Abraham, just Isaac, just all of them. David himself will fall and fail. His son Solomon will fall and fail.

The monarchy, the kingdom, will be divided. It will be destroyed. The people will be removed from the land. They will go into exile because none of these kings get the job done. Chaos creeps back in. And here comes Jesus.

the son of David, son of Abraham, born in Bethlehem, the true and better anointed one. And I this. I want you to think about this. Goliath, he's the champion. He's the one in between. Jesus comes as the one in between, but in a different way, not as an agent of evil and brokenness.

Goliath is part supernatural, part human. Jesus comes fully God, fully . Jesus comes as the one that bridges. There is one God and one mediator between God and , the Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5.

Jesus flips the script entirely. He's the perfect mediator, the God- who steps into the space between heaven and earth, not as a chaotic monster, but as the incarnate Word of God and the true King of kings. He humbles himself to the point of death. And the echoes. And the echoes of Saul and David in Jesus' life. If anything about the life and ministry of Jesus, you should see them.

when Saul is anointed, the first thing that he does is fight against Nakash, the king of the Ammonites. The first thing that happens to David after he's anointed is he fights against Goliath, the descendant of the Nephilim. The first thing that happens to Jesus after he's anointed. . . where is he anointed?

By the Spirit at his baptism in the Jordan. What's the very first thing he says?

The Spirit leads him into the wilderness for 40 days and nights where he is tempted by the evil one. See, what Saul failed?

What even David failed to do ultimately, Jesus does perfectly. The Spirit drives him in the wilderness to face the ultimate monster, the Satan himself, the ancient serpent. For 40 days he fasted, enduring the taunts and temptations that echoed Goliath's boast. But where Adam failed in the garden, where Israel failed in the wilderness, Jesus stood firm. He resisted every lure and the bread from stones, the leap from the temple, the kingdoms of the world. With the sword of the Spirit, he replied, it is written, it is written, it is written.

Jesus was the true king that set the stage for total victory. Jesus is the new and better Adam, succeeding where the first king failed, restoring ordered chaos. He's the new and better Israel, faithful in the wilderness where the nation faltered, and he's the new and better David, the shepherd king who lays down his life for the sheep, facing not a single giant, but the ultimate chaos monster, sin, death, the enemy on the cross. At Calvary, the serpent struck his heel. Jesus, bruised and bleeding, dies. But on the third day, resurrection.

The head crusher rose, disarming the powers of darkness, making a public spectacle of them, as Colossians 2. 15 says, just David paraded Goliath's head through the camp. The shining serpent's gleam extinguished. The scaly chaos crushed underfoot. This is the climax of the storyline. Jesus doesn't just slay a giant.

He slays the giant behind all giants. No more in-between aberrations. No more beasts taunting God's people. In Jesus, the kingdom is restored. Eden's glory is reclaimed. And every nation is now blessed through Abraham's seed.

let me talk about how this story fits into where we're at now. I watched a lot of videos, read a lot of articles this week about the events that unfolded around Charlie Kirk's killing, and the response has been chaotic. To see videos of people celebrating, somebody's murder, to see videos for people calling for his wife to be murdered, for his kids to be murdered, to see this sort of thing. And I've seen a varied and heartbreaking response, not just from the world, but from the church, from people that claim to follow Christ. And I've heard this story being used. I heard multiple videos of people saying, , it's time for us to get the slings out and go to battle.

Matt Chandler pastors in Dallas. He has one of my favorite sermons on this story that I've ever heard. And he focuses on this point about who do you think you are in the story of David and Goliath?

what role do you think you fill?

And maybe in Sunday school or maybe in other sermons you've been told, hey, you're David. You need to go find your five stones and get your sling and you need to go slay the giants. And Matt makes this point and I want to reiterate it this morning. You're not David. You're just not what you'd to be, but you're not. You're David's brothers standing there for 40 days listening to the taunts and then accusing your brother of maliciousness.

You're Saul refusing your responsibility. You're the other warriors in armor trembling in fear in front. David points to Jesus, the king. You're not the king. King is the king. David points to Jesus, the giant killer.

He's the serpent crusher. the point of the story is not to be David. It's to trust in the one that David pointed to. To trust in the one that David pointed to. See, David. .

. , this whole monarchy series and season is different. He lives under the Mosaic Covenant. They are a unified national body that God has chosen to exercise judgment upon people in a certain time and a certain place. We don't live under that covenant. We are heirs of the new covenant of Jesus through the Spirit.

We don't fight against our enemies. We fight for our enemies. Let me say that again. In the new covenant under King Jesus, we don't fight against our enemies. We fight for them. We pray for our enemies.

We bless those that curse us. See, as I watch those videos this week of people saying the most insane The most horrible, vile, evil, wicked things. My reaction was probably many of yours at first. I was mad. I was angry. As Denny said at the beginning of the service, I felt that rise up in me, that desire for vengeance.

But as I sat and I prayed, as I listened to the Spirit, as I reached out, something began to happen again. Because I've learned over and over and over again a simple truth from the book of James, that 's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. My anger doesn't. Your anger doesn't. We don't overcome hate with hate. We don't meet evil with evil.

And then I started to see the people in those videos in a completely different light. They are prisoners. Prisoners. trapped in the broken system of chaos and evil. They are blinded by the God of this age to the beauty of Jesus, the King of kings. They are not to be hated.

They are not to be despised. They are to be loved and pursued with the truth of the gospel. We are to pray for them. We are not to be consumed with our anger. We are to be known by our love The story of David and Goliath reminds us that there is more going on than meets the eye. May I remind you, church, we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

The events of this week have a supernatural and spiritual cause and reality behind them. The enemy that we think is the enemy, the enemy that the news wants to tell you is the enemy, the enemy that every podcaster in the world wants to tell you is the enemy, is not the enemy! We wrestle not against flesh and blood. And the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of this world. they can mock our prayers and thoughts all they want, but the prayer of a righteous or woman avails much because it is in prayer that we fight. It is in prayer that we battle.

It is in prayer that we take captive every thought to Christ and destroy every stronghold raised against him. And it's in prayer that we're reminded of who we are. And I just, I need to say this this morning. I see much entitlement in the church. I've seen it posted. We deserve, we deserve to be saved.

, I don't know who told you that, but it wasn't Jesus. Because this is what Jesus said. He said, if you want to come after me, you've got to pick up your cross, die to yourself, and follow me. Jesus said, men will hate you because of me. Period. In this world, you will have what?

Approval?

Acceptance?

Prominence?

In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, because I've slain the giants of giants. And the battle is the Lord. We've lived in such peace. We've been lulled into an unreal and false sense of what it means to follow Christ. To follow Christ is to be in an active conflict of cosmic proportions.

To follow Christ is to enter into the battle that's taking place not just in the material world, but in the heavenlies all the time, all around us. And to follow Christ means. . . There's prices to be paid. There's more going on than meets the eyes.

My hope and prayer is that you and I would learn to see the world, not through the lens of our media, oh God, save us from that. Not through the lens of Facebook, oh may God save us from that. But we learn to see things happening through the lens of the Spirit, through the reality described to us through the Scriptures, through the Word of God. And then we recognize the enemy that is not the enemy. And we're called to love and pursue the most broken, the most lost, Because anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. church, fear not.

In your anger, do not sin. Seek the Lord. Trust in Jesus. Stand in his grace. Rest in his peace. Amen.