1 Samuel 17

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to read and discuss one of the most famous stories in the whole Bible. Let me flip to it. Went too far? 1st Samuel chapter 17. Don't check out. It may be familiar, but I bet there's some details of this story that don't exactly fit the VeggieTales narrative.
So let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll give you guys a word. Oh, you got to be a little more careful. You must put your coffee on God's word. I mean, those two things are hot. It's very hot. Mm hmm. Those two things are good, but sometimes they don't mix when the coffee's on the page. Oh, and the pages on the coffee. Oh, that's true, too.
All right, let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for time together in your word. And we pray that as we read your word, that even though we may be familiar with many parts of this story, that your Holy Spirit would please teach us from it and teach us how to live. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Here we go. First Samuel chapter 17. Just go paragraph by paragraph. Go ahead, Deborah.
Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered at Soco. Soco, yeah. Which belongs to Judah. They encamped between Soco The encampment between Sokko and Ezekiel in Ephes Damim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
He had a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had a bronze armor on his leg and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels, and a shield-bearer went before him.
Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard this, heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, the third Shema, Shema, Shema. David was the youngest, and the three oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistines drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening. Wow, that's like over a month, every morning and every night. Like, come on, send someone to fight me. It's like a giant game of chicken standoff.
Then Jesus said to his son David, take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves and run to your brothers at the camp and carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand and see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them.
Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Eha Ella fighting with the Philistines. So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines. And he spoke according to the same words. So David heard him.
And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. So the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel. Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done for the man 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? And the people answered him in this manner, saying, So shall it be done for him, for the man who kills him.
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was aroused against David. And he said, Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left these few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. And David said, What have I done now? Is there not a cause? Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing. And these people answered him as the first ones did. Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul, and he sent for him.
Then David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with the Philistine. And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Moreover, David said, Jehovah, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord will be with you.
So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them. So David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and set them and put them in the shepherd's bag, in the pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand.
And he drew near to the Philistine. So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David. And the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw only And saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. So the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come with me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his guts. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I will come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day Jehovah will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines, the birds of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. then all this assembly shall know that Jehovah does not save with sword and spear for the battle of Jehovah's, and he will give you into your hands, into our hands.
So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it.
That wasn't the Lizard Tales version. And when the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. Now the men of Israel and Judah rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley of the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road of Sarim, even as far as Gath and Ekron. Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put his armor in his tent.
When Saul saw David coming 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, O king, I do not know. So the king said, Inquire whose son this young man is. Then, as David returned from the slaughter 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 man? So David answered and said, I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite. All right. Well, we got our three questions to ask ourselves. A, what is this? About. B, what's the? Best vs. Summaries. And C, what are we? Called to do. Well, now we got an awkward situation.
David is King Saul's medicine when the nasty spirit comes upon him. He has a bad temper. He plays a little harp for him and Saul is happy. But then he goes home. He's Saul's armor-bearer. He goes home and he's got his sheep, but then there's this battle, Goliath, Israel, challenge.
You send out your champion, we send out our champion. Whoever wins, that essentially is going to determine the battle. And David goes and what happens? There's no feet going out to the champion. Why not? Because he's a giant. So what's David's answer? He's like, you guys, I'll go out myself. Yeah. He actually disdains him, right? He says, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go out and fight this Philistine. What's Sol's answer to that? You're just a kid. You're just a wee little boy. And what's David's response?
Let me try. Well, he tries to give a little bit of proof, right? Mm-hmm. What's the proof he gives? He's like, I've killed a lion. I've killed bears. I took it by its beard, yank. I don't have a beard. Yeah. If you had a beard, that would be weird. OK. Yeah. So but who does he say gave that bear and the lion to him? Did you notice? God. It's the Lord who did that. The Lord who delivered me. This is verse 37. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear. He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
And so it's all like, all right, it's your death. At least I'll dress you in style. And then David's like, I can't walk in this thing. Yeah, right? I can't wear this big, tall dude's bronze armor and stuff, right? Like, this ain't gonna work. It's too big. I've not tested this. It's not battle tested. I've not worn this around. Right?
It's like going on a hike with new hiking boots. You can't do that. You wanna walk around a little bit. Break a mint. Can't do it. So instead, what does he take to the battle? Stones and a sling. Yeah. Now, we think of a sling, and we think of, like, you know, a little, like, slingshot, like, like a little toy. That's not what this is.
Actually, anybody, but this is a fun thing to do online is have you seen the YouTube videos of the people who use these slingshots? Have I shown you them? I mean, it's like one of the prides of Benjamin is that they've got like these hundreds of warriors who are left handed warriors. So they're like they're more agile and people don't expect it because they're not right handed to left hand, but they can also sling stones.
I mean, these are like deadly weapons. Almost like come close to breaking sound barrier fast type stuff. And so he takes these five stones. We don't go to the battle with just one. Five smooth stones. But what was this interaction like when he walks out there? Some of my favorite parts of the whole story. Goliath is like.
What is Israel doing? Yeah, am I a dog? Am I that worthless to you? You send out some little kid to me? Is that the best you got? I'm gonna kill you, kid. What's David say? Yeah, you've got a bunch of weapons, but I've got a secret weapon. What's a secret weapon? God. Yeah, the Lord. It's actually not such a secret weapon, right? Then all the assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands.
He says, I'm going to, the birds are going to eat away your body, dude. And so what happens? which is kind of actually like repeating what Goliath said he was going to do to him. You're reversing it. Yeah, he reverses it. So, not you, not me, but you. He says, but the Lord's going to do it, and he's going to display his glory. So, you think you're going to save yourself in your own might and your own strength, but the Lord's going to humiliate all of you today.
And then the Philistine stands up, and he's not even gotten his sword out of his sheath when David kills him with his stone. Yeah, right, bullseye. Dice. What does David do? Well, he doesn't die yet. David cuts off his head with his own sword. I think he's probably dead already. Probably.
He decapitates him, and then what is that signal to the rest of the army? look their champions dead let's go get the other guys and so those all guys flee right they could even go as far as one of the furthest Philistine cities Ekron right Philistia is known for kind of five famous cities there's one of them and they chase them and they come back and they plunder their tents and then what happens He's, David's taking the head of Goliath and he puts his armor in his tent and then Saul sees, Saul had asked his commander who, what like, who the, who David's dad was.
And then Abner was like, I have no idea. and then Saul said, well, ask him. Yeah, so he's brought, now here's the thing in the background, right? This is Saul, the king, a guy who, if you cross him, Samuel's so afraid of him that he thinks he'll kill him, and yet Samuel has anointed David already to be king. And so this is David, now the champion, standing in front of a king that doesn't know that David's been anointed the new king.
So what's this whole section about? Give it in one sentence. David goes from little boy to champion. Okay, David from little boy to champion. I would say God displays his might and glory by giving the battle to David, the new king. That's a long run on sentence. Alright, what would you underline as the best verse to summarize this section?
47. 47. Okay, yeah, I have most half of 45 through 47 double underlined in my Bible. So, yeah, I've got a whole bunch of stuff underlined for this chapter. All right, well, let's talk about sea calling. What does this call you to do? You're gonna go all ISIS and cut off people's heads?
No, trust in the Lord. What do you mean trust in the Lord? How did you get that from this? Well, if David didn't trust the Lord, he would have been just like all the other guys who are too afraid to take on Goliath. Hmm. So you think your faith in the Lord can allow you to do phenomenal feats?
If the Lord wills. If the Lord wills. Yeah. Right. Could David have lost this battle? Absolutely could have. Right. We have to be humble with that, because some people take it and say, what are the Goliaths in your life that you need to slay? Well, yeah, OK, this calls us to faith, right? Absolutely.
But I'm not David. You're not David. There's actually a really famous story about this, right? So if I don't have a Philistine to conquer, maybe the Philistine is my own flesh, my own sinfulness, right? I need to put to death. But even that battle, can I actually win perfectly? No. So what hope does this give us? That the Lord's got a plan. Yeah, the Lord has a plan. God is good and his plan was to send us a better David. A more unlikely hero in Jesus who had come from David and be our conqueror.
You ready to pray? Would you like to close this in prayer? Or would you like me to? I'll take it from the awkward silence you want me to. Lord, thank you for giving us time together in your word. You are a wonderful and gracious God. And we pray that we would follow after you. We thank you for sending us our champion, Jesus Christ. And I pray that we would walk in his ways always. In Jesus's name. Amen. may God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus and we'll see you next time. Bye.