1 Samuel 17:45-50 GOD’S WORD Translation
45 David told the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the army of Israel, whom you have insulted. 46 Today the Lord will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head. And this day I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals. The whole world will know that Israel has a God. 47 Then everyone gathered here will know that the Lord can save without sword or spear, because the Lord determines every battle’s outcome. He will hand all of you over to us.”
48 When the Philistine moved closer in order to attack, David quickly ran toward the opposing battle line to attack the Philistine. 49 Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, hurled it from his sling, and struck the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank into Goliath’s forehead, and he fell to the ground on his face. 50 So using ⌞only⌟ a sling and a stone, David proved to be stronger than the Philistine. David struck down and killed the Philistine, even though David didn’t have a sword in his hand.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
David’s triumph over Goliath is one of the best-known stories of the Bible.
An agile boy with a few smooth stones defeats a giant, armored warrior decked out with heavy weapons.
It’s a story of contrasts and ironies: tall versus short, strength versus weakness, arrogance versus humility, and too, glorious victory versus humiliating defeat.
In this ancient text, we find ourselves savoring in the triumph of the underdog.
But this impressive, miraculous story is not mainly about David and Goliath.
The core conflict is between the false gods of the Philistines and the God of Israel, Yahweh Sabaoth, “the LORD of Hosts” or “the LORD Almighty.”
Yahweh Sabaoth is one of the most widely used names for God in the Old Testament, occurring nearly 300 times.
The name Sabaoth comes from the Hebrew word for “that which goes forth” and for “armies” or “hosts.”
The name Yahweh Sabaoth declares God’s absolute reign, absolute sovereignty over heaven and earth and over all armies, both earthly and spiritual.
David, understanding the real conflict, declares that “the battle is the LORD’s.”
And through him, Yahweh Sabaoth, “the LORD of Hosts,” defeats the mighty Philistine Goliath, the Philistine Army and their gods.
A hymn of the church sings, “Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same”—and we can absolutely rely on all of his strength in our daily battles.
The Man in Between
1 Samuel 17:48-50 GOD’S WORD Translation
48 When the Philistine moved closer in order to attack, David quickly ran toward the opposing battle line to attack the Philistine. 49 Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, hurled it from his sling, and struck the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank into Goliath’s forehead, and he fell to the ground on his face. 50 So using ⌞only⌟ a sling and a stone, David proved to be stronger than the Philistine. David struck down and killed the Philistine, even though David didn’t have a sword in his hand.
As previously stated, this is one of the most familiar moments in Scripture, but do not let that blind you to the extraordinary nature of the victory it describes.
A mere shepherd boy with his staff, five stones, and a sling brought down an experienced man of war, a giant, who came after him with mighty weapons.
It is maximum victory the fame of which hasn’t dimmed through the centuries.
At stake in David’s astonishing battle against Goliath was all of Israel’s future.
The army didn’t fight, no one moved a muscle to move forward.
Neither did their failed king, Saul – who sat alone despondent in his royal tent.
They only watched in disbelief, in their shame and guilt as their future hung on the shoulders of David, who was chosen by Yahweh to be “the man in between.”
David was the anointed, appointed, inspired and empowered servant of God—and in that respect, in that very real sense, he was the true prototype of Jesus.
Like that of Israel’s army, the present and the future of every man and woman and child for generations to come, hangs high in the life versus death balance.
Our ultimate defeat on the overwhelming battlefields of life is by our death, when the abundant life we’ve imagined and built for ourselves comes to a halt.
Our death, our inevitable mortality, terrifies us because it is the punishment for our sin (Romans 6:23) which not one single one of us are without (Romans 3:23).
The law of God demands perfection, yet none of us are perfect (v 10).
Death, then, is the undefeatable Goliath before whom we can but tremble.
We need someone infinitely mightier to stand in between us and our death.
We need somebody who is absolutely unafraid, to step forward where we refuse.
And He did.
Just as the fearless David moved forward where no one else dared step, he stood between the army of Israel and their defeat, so Jesus stood between us and ours.
His max victory in that moment is the greatest news the world has ever known.
The demands of the whole law were completely met by His perfect life.
The maximum, ultimate penalty of the law was carried out in His death in place of us, who deserved to die for complete, absolute cowardice, before our enemy.
And the power of death was 100% defeated by the power of God over death, His empty tomb, rolled away stone, witnessed resurrection as He triumphed over it.
As David in the Valley of Elah, alone on the field of ultimate combat won victory not only for himself but for the whole of Israel, so Jesus at Calvary, the rolled away stone, empty tomb won victory for all who are united with Him by faith.
No wonder Paul resoundingly declared 1000 year later, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57)!
As we witness to David setting aside his mortality, believing in the sovereignty of God over his life, picking up his rocks and preparing his sling for combat, As we look upon the cross of Christ and the triumph of His resurrection today, we are looking at the eternally honored victory that has been won, won for us all.
Pause now if you dare, to pray, rejoice, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving because every single one of us have maximum, absolute victory through Him.
Then in the strength of that victory, in the power of God over life and death, go out into a not so courageous, not so empowered world that is both fractured and broken and scared to death of death, declare Yahweh Sabaoth, that people need not fear sin for in faith they too can take hold of Jesus, our victorious champion.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 46 The Message
46 1-3 God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Lord of Hosts, Lord God who goes before us, and remains with us in the fields of war, help us to rely on your strength to wage the impossible battles which we face each day against our own trials and temptations. We ask this in Savior Jesus’ name. Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 