Faith and Courage

David & Goliath by Barbara Buzzard

I wonder what you honestly make of the story of David and Goliath. Is it like a fairy tale since it speaks of  giants? Is it similar to a ‘once upon a time’ story?  Is it a myth? If it is just a story -what lesson are we to learn from it? I have been thinking a lot about courage and so of course David comes to mind. I know that you know the story but there may just be something new here – stay with me please. Here is the story as we are told it in Scripture.

God’s, people, as you know, were known as Israel or Israelites. Their enemies were people called the Philistines. The Philistines  challenged the Israelites to a battle. Here is the setting: each side stood on an opposite  mountain overlooking a valley. They were to meet down in the valley to fight if anyone was brave enough.  So far no one had dared. What were they fighting for? The side that lost would have to be servants of the other side.

According to 1 Samuel 17, Goliath, a heavily armed Philistine giant,who was about 9’tall had been challenging Israel and Israel’s King Saul for 40 days to send out a man to fight him. 40 days is a long time for this to go on – the Israelites were being called cowards and worse – their God was being insulted. No one would face this giant warrior until David, a young shepherd,  armed only with a sling and stones, volunteered.

Goliath stood and shouted to the armies of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me.

We pick up the story from Scripture –(1 Sam 17: 9 Goliath says: “If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”

10 Then the Philistine giant said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”

11 On hearing the giant’s words, King Saul and all the Israelites were …(now just suppose I asked you to fill in the blank here – what would you say – determined to get him? Ready to fight?  No…The actual biblical account says ‘dismayed and terrified.’ So you can see the fear that this giant of a man caused.

One day during this period of 40 days of insulting and mocking Israel when David  went to give his older brothers some supplies he heard Goliath himself taunting the King. David was no doubt shocked. David Was Concerned About God's Reputation: The fact that Goliath was taunting Israel bothered David tremendously, not so much because of his national pride but because Israel represented God's chosen people. To attack Israel was to attack the God of Israel. Goliath was mocking Israel and their God. Since their God is our God – the God of Abraham & Isaac and Jacob - this story should hit home.  When David 1^st saw goliath he asked: who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God? David wanted desperately to put an end to the abuse of Israel, so he volunteered to King Saul that he would go out to him.

 King Saul tried to talk David out of battling Goliath. In fact, he said – ‘don’t be ridiculous!’ But David told the King about his experiences while shepherding and David was able to persuade him. David had killed both lions and bears, even rescuing a lamb from the mouth of a bear and using his own strength to strike  down the bear and kill it.

David was absolutely certain that the God who saved him from bears and lions would also save him from Goliath. The King tried to give David his own personal armor, a bronze helmet and a sword. This must have been quite funny – remember Goliath was over 9’ tall and David was just a young boy. David tried them on but found that he could not walk with all that metal because he wasn’t used to it..I think that King Saul felt that David didn’t stand a chance but he gave his permission for David to fight. After all, no one else was willing.  And so – David went into battle with no armor, and no weapon to protect himself. He was absolutely confident that God was with him. Do you think he might have prayed very earnestly before going into battle? Certainly he knew that size doesn’t matter if God is on your side.

     Goliath was highly offended that Israel would send someone so young to fight him. He laughed at David. Being laughed at is very hard – have any of you ever been laughed at or mocked? It is horrible. Goliath swore against David and David’s God and spoke of the birds eating David’s  flesh. This did not apparently cause David to tremble at all.

     And so the situation was this –  a young shepherd who wears no armor at all fights an enemy warrior who is a giant. Goliath wears a coat of armor weighing about 126 #. That may have been about the weight of David himself!. Just the point of Goliath’s spear weighed about 30#. When David rejected King Saul’s armor it was as if he was rejecting human strength. He chose the armor of God.

     David selected 1 of the 5 stones he had in his pouch, aimed  his sling and  ran toward Goliath. He was no doubt shouting that he came in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. His stone hit the giant in the forehead and killed him.

     When I began this lesson I asked whether you thought the story of David & Goliath was a fairy tale or myth. You still might think so.  This is some information which you may not have heard before so listen up. It might surprise you to know that experts have studied and researched the details of this event with very great interest. Listen to how some experts see this: Ballistics is the science of projectiles and firearms. A slingshot would be considered a projectile – something  that would propel an object through the air as a weapon. Today we would think – missile.  You might well wonder why in a Sunday Youth lesson I am speaking about ballistics. Just stay with me please and I think it will become clear. Ballistics experts from the Israeli Defense Forces have done calculations showing that a typical size stone hurled by an expert slinger at a distance of 35 meters would have hit Goliath’s head with a speed of 334 meters per second – more than enough to penetrate his skull and render him dead.. In terms of power, this would be equivalent to a fair size modern handgun. The studies show that David could have slung and hit Goliath in little more than one second, allowing Goliath no time for protecting himself.

In the book of Judges, slingers, which was what David was, are described as being accurate within a “hair’s breadth.’ A hair’s breadth means just that – the width of a hair. The sling was a devastating weapon-a precision instrument in the hands of an expert. There is apparently in the scientific world no doubt whatsoever that David could have done what he did.

Before this fight, most people would've said David didn't stand a chance. But David showed that “with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). With God's help, you can stand your ground with faith and be triumphant.

David’s faith wasn’t in his skill as a slinger, although that gave him some confidence.  His faith was entirely in God.

This combination of faith and courage allow the impossible to happen.

For Christians, it symbolizes how God can protect us and is on our side. David said this, “I have the Lord on my side”.

We know that we are not required to fight real giants. Our battles are of another kind – let’s call them spiritual. We have to fight the evil of lies and persuasion to do evil things. Prayer is a super valuable resource and weapon and should be our – go-to whenever we need help. Courage is an amazing quality which God honors and respects. We should have it near the top of our lists of things to aim for and ways to please God.