85. God vs Goliath: How God Saved His People

G' day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

If you scraped your knee and there was blood everywhere, you might want someone to save you.

Maybe your mum or dad or grown up will come and patch you up and make you feel better.

But if you have a bigger problem than that, you'd want someone else.

If your problem is a really, really, really sore tooth, you'd.

You wouldn't want just any grown up to come and save you.

You'd want a dentist.

But what if your problem is bigger than that?

You'd want someone else.

If you had a hole in your heart, you wouldn't want a dentist to save you.

You'd want a doctor.

When you need a saviour, you need someone whose power to save is as big as the problem you need saving from.

So what if your problem is.

Is the biggest problem in all the universe?

What sort of saviour would you need then?

We're about to find out.

Get ready for our next episode of stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Once again, the Philistines have marched out to war.

They've put on their armour, picked up their weapons and gathered their armies.

And as they have so many times before, they've marched into Israel to attack God's people.

King Saul gathers his army in the valley of Elah.

They make a camp, then take up their positions to fight.

There on one hill, the Philistines are on another.

And they stare at each other across the valley.

In the book of 1 Samuel, this is the fourth time the armies of Israel and Philistia have faced each other.

Many of the soldiers standing there may have fought each other before.

Their fathers had fought each other, their grandfathers had fought each other.

Who will win now?

Here in the valley of Elah, as the Israelites are gathering their courage to fight over on the other side of the valley, one single Philistine steps forward.

A man who's terrifying.

He seems impossibly tall, certainly taller than all of them, but he's wearing the best and strongest armour made out of bronze.

He's got a bronze helmet on his head, a coat of bronze mail armour to protect his body.

He has bronze shin pads to protect his legs.

All of it together weighs a huge amount, but he's a huge, powerful man and he can carry it.

As well as his armour, he has weapons.

He has a javelin for throwing a sword and a spear for stabbing people.

The spear is much thicker than everyone else's spears.

It would be much harder to break than everyone else's spears.

As if all the armour and weapons aren't enough.

He also has a shield because he's already carrying so much weight.

He actually has a man who works for him carrying his shield in front of him.

This huge, powerful man's name is Goliath, and he's come as the champion of the Philistines to fight on behalf of the Philistine army, to fight an Israelite champion who can fight on behalf of Israel.

The champions can fight so the armies don't have to.

As Goliath stands in between the armies in the valley of Elah, he calls out a challenge to the army of Israel.

In 1 Samuel, chapter 17, verse 8, he shouts, why have you taken positions for battle?

I am a Philistine and you are Saul's servants.

Choose a man and send him to fight me.

If he can fight and kill me, we will become your servants.

But.

But if I defeat and kill him, you will become our servants.

Today I stand and dare the army of Israel send one of your men to fight me.

Any one of the Israelites could step forward to fight this giant of a man.

But there's one person who seems like an obvious choice.

The Israelites have a giant of their own, King Saul, who's a head taller than everyone else in Israel.

What's more, he's been chosen by God to be the king of Israel, the Saviour of Israel.

But as Saul watches the Philistine down in the valley of Elah, he, along with the whole Israelite army, are trembling with fear.

Meanwhile, not too far away in Bethlehem, Jesse is at home.

You may remember from the last episode that Jesse has eight sons.

The three oldest, Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah, have gone off with Saul to the war.

Eliab's another guy who you think, hey, he could challenge Goliath.

When Samuel first saw him, he was impressed at how big and tall he looked.

But he's too afraid as well.

David, the youngest son, is still at home looking after his dad's sheep.

He's too young to go off and be a soldier in the valley of Elah, though Goliath is still shouting his challenge.

Every morning and every evening, he challenges the Israelites to send out their champion.

He does it for 40 days and for 40 days, every morning and every evening.

The Israelites are too afraid.

No one accepts the challenge.

No one goes down into the valley to fight.

One day, Jesse sends David to the valley of Elah with some food for his sons.

In verse 17, he says to David, take this half bushel of cooked grain and take 10 loaves of bread.

Take them to your brothers in the camp.

Also take 10 pieces of cheese.

Give them to the commander of your brother's group of a thousand soldiers.

See how your brothers are.

Bring back something to show me they are all right.

Your brothers are with Saul and the army in the valley of Elah.

They are fighting against the Philistines.

Hmm.

It seems like Jesse doesn't have quite the right information.

Yes, the army is in the valley of Elah, but none of them are fighting the Philistines.

They've been stopped by their fear of the giant warrior.

David leaves early in the morning.

When he arrives at the Israelite camp, the whole army is heading out to the battle line.

Imagine his excitement seeing the brave warriors of Israel dressed in their armour, shouting their war cry, marching out to face off with the Philistines.

He's not going to hang back at the camp.

He's got to see this.

He leaves the food with a man back at the camp and and runs to the battle line.

He finds his brothers, big strong men that they are, and starts talking with them.

When who should come out from the Philistine battle line but Goliath?

Yelling out his usual challenge.

And just like what's happened every other day, the Israelites freak out and run away.

This isn't quite as exciting as David might have thought.

The Israelites start talking to each other about the whole situation.

They say in verse 25, look at this man Goliath.

He keeps coming out to speak against Israel.

The king will give much money to the man who kills Goliath.

He'll also give his daughter in marriage to whoever kills him.

And his father's family will not have to pay taxes in Israel.

That's a pretty good deal unless you get killed by Goliath.

Then it's a pretty awful deal.

And the Israelites seem to all think that Goliath's much more likely to kill them before they can kill him.

David's in shock.

He can't believe what's happening.

How can this, this Philistine embarrass Israel like this?

The Israelite army isn't just any army.

It's the army of the living God, the one true God, the God who defeated the mighty Egyptians who'd sent the Philistines fleeing in the last battle.

Who does Goliath think he is?

In verse 26, he asks the men, what will be done to reward the man who kills this Philistine?

What will be done for whoever takes away the shame from Israel?

Goliath is a Philistine he is not circumcised.

Why does he think he can speak against the armies of the living God?

They explain to David what the kings promised.

As they're speaking, David's older brother Eliab hears him, and he acts like an older brother sometimes does.

Sorry.

If you're an older brother, I hope you're not bossy like this.

Eliab says to David in verse 28, why did you come here?

Who's taking care of those few sheep of yours in the desert?

I know you're proud.

Your attitude is very bad.

You came down here just to watch the battle.

David responds just like younger brothers often respond to older brothers.

He says, now what have I done wrong?

Can't I even talk?

And then he goes off to ask some other men the same question he asked before.

What will be done to reward the man who kills this Philistine?

What will be done for whoever takes away the shame from Israel?

Goliath is a Philistine.

He is not circumcised.

Why does he think he can speak against the armies of the living God?

The interesting thing about David's question is he seems to be the only one thinking about God.

In all the battles we've seen in 1 Samuel, when the people trust God, they're fine because God gives them the victory.

And so as he asks the Israelite soldiers this question, he's kind of embarrassing them.

He's showing them that they don't think God can help them.

They don't trust God.

Someone tells Saul that there's this young guy asking embarrassing questions, and Saul has David sent to him.

When David gets there, he says to Saul, don't let anyone be discouraged.

I, your servant, will go and fight this Philistine.

You can almost imagine Saul's jaw hitting the ground.

You, a guy too young to even join the army, go and fight Goliath?

That's nuts.

He says in verse 33, you can't go out against the Philistine and fight him.

You're only a boy.

Goliath has been a warrior since he was a young man.

He doesn't ask the more obvious question.

If David's willing to go and fight, then why is he, Saul the king, too afraid?

The answer has to do with David's trust in God.

As David starts replying, it sounds like he's saying he can fight because he's so strong and powerful.

He says, I, your servant, have been keeping my father's sheep.

When a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock, I would chase it I would attack it and save the sheep from its mouth.

When it attacked me I caught it by its fur.

I would hit it and kill it.

I, your servant, have killed both a lion and a bear.

Goliath, the Philistine who is not circumcised will be like the lion or bear that I killed.

That sounds like David thinks he's really strong.

It sounds like he's saying he's strong enough to beat Goliath, but actually he's not saying that.

He doesn't think he beat the lion and the bear because he's strong.

He beat them because God saved him.

He trusts that God can save him from Goliath as well.

Listen to what he says next.

In verse 36 he says Goliath will die because he has stood against the armies of the living God.

The Lord saved me from a lion and a bear.

He will also save me from this Philistine.

David's a much better person to be king than Saul.

Not because he's bigger than Saul, not because he can hold a sword better, but because he actually trusts God to save him.

Saul, who doesn't really trust God, agrees to let David go.

He says, go and may the Lord be with you.

He tries to help David by giving him his armour and sword But David can barely walk around in it.

He just isn't used to it so he takes it all off.

That's fine though because he isn't trusting his armour to save him, he's trusting God to save him.

Instead of a sword he takes a stick and instead of a spear he takes his sling.

He carefully selects five smooth stones from a stream and then he walks down into the valley of Elah to meet Goliath.

In the valley the Philistine moves closer to the challenger stepping out from the Israelite lines.

His shield holder is walking in front of him.

As Goliath gets closer he's completely shocked.

He can't believe what he's seeing.

This isn't a mighty warrior coming out to fight him.

It's a boy.

Goliath's disgusted.

How can they think this puny little kid can hurt him?

He yells at David in verse 43 do you think I am a dog?

That you'll come at me with a stick?

Then he uses his Gods names to curse David.

He thinks his gods are stronger than the Israelite God.

He's forgotten how the Israelite God, the one true God, has beaten the Philistines and their gods so many times.

He says to David, come here, I'll feed your body to the birds of the air and the wild animals.

David isn't worried.

He knows the truth.

He knows the one true God.

It doesn't matter how big or tough God Goliath is.

David knows that God will save him from Goliath.

He yells back in verse 45.

You come to me using a sword, a large spear and a small spear.

But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven's armies.

He's the God of the armies of Israel.

You have spoken out against him.

Today the Lord will give you to me.

I'll kill you and I'll cut off your head.

Today I'll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals.

Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel.

Everyone gathered here will know the Lord does not need swords or spears to save people.

The battle belongs to him.

And he will help us defeat all of you.

The time for talk is over.

It's time to fight.

It's time to discover if the Israelite God is stronger than the giant, if he's truly able to save his servant David, or if Goliath really will feed David's body to the birds and wild animals.

Goliath moves forward to attack.

David doesn't back away.

Instead he runs forward to meet him.

He takes a stone from his pouch, puts it in his sling, spins the sling around and around and around and around his hand and then lets the stone go.

It flies through the air and smack.

It whacks into Goliath's forehead and sinks into it.

And Goliath falls down, down, down and crashes face first onto the ground.

David's defeated the Philistine, the giant, mighty warrior with just a sling and a stone.

He doesn't even have a sword in his hand.

He runs up and he grabs Goliath's own sword and uses that to kill Goliath.

Then he uses it to cut off Goliath's head.

The Philistines freak out.

They see that Goliath, their champion, is dead.

They panic and run.

The Israelites chase them all the way back to Gath, Goliath's home city and another Philistine city, Ekron.

When the Israelites come back, they take heaps of things from the Philistine camp.

David keeps two important things.

Firstly, he keeps Goliath's head.

Years later, when God finally makes David king over Israel and gives him Jerusalem as a capital city, David will take Goliath's head into that city.

It's a reminder of how God saved him and faithfully kept his promises about him.

David also keeps Goliath's sword, the sword that God saved him from.

Goliath was a giant problem for the Israelites, but their God was bigger and stronger than Goliath.

Most of them didn't even trust God.

Even Saul the king didn't trust God.

But David, the one chosen to be the next king, the next Christ, he knew that God could save him.

He knew that no matter how big Goliath was, God is bigger and stronger and more powerful.

King David helps us think about the greatest Christ King, Jesus.

Jesus came to deal with the biggest problem of all, the problem of our sin and rebellion against God.

To do that, he had to face a much bigger enemy than David did.

He had to face death when he died on the cross.

When Jesus went to his death, though, he did it knowing that God his Father would save him.

God would rescue him from death itself.

And by doing that, he'd defeat death through Jesus.

God's defeated death for everyone who trusts in Jesus.

Jesus is our champion.

He's fought the battle so we wouldn't have to.

He was saved by God from death so that all of us could be saved back in Israel.

Saul is going to bring David into his army very quickly, though he's going to become jealous of David and even try and kill him.

David will suffer lots of hard things as he waits for God to make him king.

But that's a story for another series.

Thanks everyone for listening.

I hope you found it really helpful.

We're going to take a break from one Samuel for a while and look at some other stories.

God willing, we'll come back to 1 Samuel again next year.

If you haven't left a rating or review yet in your listening app, it would be great if you're able to do that.

It helps people find the show and it's a great encouragement to me as well.

You can also send me a message on the website faithfulgod.net I'd love to hear from you.

For now, keep trusting Jesus and we'll speak again soon.