Slaying the Giant

I had the honor of preaching at Hope Baptist Church in Mankato, MN last weekend. Below is my manuscript.

Sometimes we have heard a story so many times that the story begins to take on a new life. Characters become so familiar to us that we ascribe our own motives and emotions to them. We linger on our favorite parts of the story and often leave out some important details. Characters who were meant to be representations become the heroes or are forgotten completely. One such story I’ve spent a lot of time in lately is the story of David and Goliath.

            My three year old son loves the story of David and Goliath and I fear it is for all the wrong reasons. He likes to act out the battle; however, instead of being the winner of the battle he much prefers to be Goliath. He never pretends to use a sling and a stone, but likes swords and spears and armor. He likes to be the big scary guy that laughs and growls to intimidate others (as much as a 3 year old boy can intimidate anyone). He completely misses the point of the story. But even if he chose to be on the right side of the battle I think he would still miss it.

            The story of David and Goliath is so well-known that the basic storyline is known even among most non-Christians. If you break the story down enough it can sound like many other fables we like to share. We love a story of the little guy overcoming insurmountable odds. It makes for great movies. We like to cheer for the underdog in major sporting events. We root for the good guy who seems to have everything in the world going against him. We want the little guy at school to find freedom from the big bully who mocks him across the playground. And we want the meek and gentle good guy to win the girl. These are all “David and Goliath” stories.

           But I want to suggest that none of them is truly a David and Goliath story. The hero of the tale is not David. The moral of the story isn’t that God will fight for the good guys. The story is meant to highlight God’s power to overcome all that stands in opposition to his plans. Let’s take a look at the narrative in 1 Samuel chapter 17:

READ 1 Samuel 17:1–54

            This story sticks in our minds because the imagery is so vivid that we can very easily see ourselves standing before a 9-foot warrior and trembling in our sneakers. The fear can seem so real because each one of us has experienced or maybe currently faces an obstacle that stands in your way and to even think of moving towards it leaves you fearful. But before going there, let us look at what is happening in this text.

 
          Verses 2 through 7 paint the scene in a large valley with both armies staged on either side preparing for hand-to-hand combat. The circumstances were not pleasant. If you were a soldier in the battle your life could very likely end soon. If you weren’t killed in the battle and the enemy won the battle, you would be taken as a slave away from your family the rest of your life. And opposing the Israelite army was this champion soldier, Goliath of Gath. He towered over every other soldier on the field. He had armor so thick and heavy that no arrow or sword could penetrate it. The body armor itself weighed over 100 pounds. Yet he was so strong that he could move his own weapons without being slowed by it. His spear was likely as long as he was with a head that weighed 15 pounds (think 2 gallons of milk). He was skilled in battle. He feared nothing. He taunted the Israelites knowing that there was no one else who could match his size and military skill.

           And his taunts worked to strike fear into the hearts of Israel. They had no chance against such an enemy. They didn’t have the skill. They didn’t have the weapons. And if they failed, they were either dead or slaves in another country.

            Then, in verse 12, we are introduced to God’s weapon, little shepherd boy, David. I find the transition from verse 11 to 12 intriguing. After Goliath’s taunts all of Israel was dismayed and greatly afraid. And then we see, “Now David was the son of Jesse.” Wait! What?! What is happening on the battle field. Everyone is afraid and now you are going to tell me a cute little story about a shepherd? But this is God’s plan. He is about to respond to Goliath’s taunts with a humble display of his own power.

            This is a good time to pause and consider Goliath’s opposition. Five times we see in chapter 17 a reference to Goliath defying the armies of Israel, both in his own curses and David’s summary of his antagonism. The word “defy” doesn’t simply mean to be opposed or to reject something, but it has a sense of derision to it. Goliath despises Israel and uses his words to express revulsion toward Israel and all of their ways. In a sense he is cursing Israel. This should lead you to think of what God said he would do to those who curse Israel. In Genesis 12:3 God promises Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” Surely David remembers this promise when he hears the curses of Goliath.

            Even after Abraham, when God was bringing the people into the Promised Land God told them in Deuteronomy 7, ““If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.” David knows that God promised to defeat Israel’s enemies.

            He knows that God has a plan to use his people to bring redemption to this broken world and nothing will stop God from enacting his plan. There is nothing special about Israel that God must defend them. In fact it is quite the opposite. God says in Deut. 9:4: “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.” There is nothing better about Israel (or you and I for that matter) that requires God to protect them from their enemies. It is only because he chose to set his love upon them and provide for them. And he has shown himself faithful to that promise over and over again to do that very thing.

            And this is why David charges into battle without fear. Deuteronomy 6 tells parents to teach their children during every waking moment of the day about the promises God has made and the works he has done. As a child of a devout Israelite family, David would know well the works and promises of God. He knows that God promised to protect Israel. He has heard stories past down through the generations how God did protect Israel. And he saw it in his own life when God led him, as verses 34–37 describe, to defeat a lion and a bear to keep his own sheep safe. David did not think that the key to victory was to carefully craft and diligently execute his own plan; he simply trusted in the promises of God.

            From here we know the end of the story. Picking up in verse 41where David meets his opponent we see Goliath mocking David, but David isn’t concerned about protecting his own image. One of the five times that we see the word “defy” in this chapter is when David proclaims in verse 45, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” Goliath didn’t simply defy Israel when he taunted them, he defied God himself.

            This world is God’s. He created it. All of the beauty we see was made to reflect his beauty. People were made to display his love toward one another. People rejected that, yet God is working out his plan through the people of Israel to restore creation to its original splendor. God had chosen Israel not because they were great, but because that is how he thought it best to restore creation by his great power. To defy the instrument of his plan is to defy God himself. David, knowing that nothing can derail God’s purposes, was simply aligning himself with God’s plan in opposing Goliath. He proclaims with confidence in verse 46:

"This day the LORD 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 host of the Philistines this day to 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, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand."

            David knows that “the battle is the LORD’s.” Nobody can stand against God, not even the greatest warrior on earth. He simply steps with confidence into God’s victorious plan. Whatever enemy that stands before him that opposes the will of God stands no chance against the power of God.

            So, what does this mean to us in this room? Is the story of David and Goliath telling you simply to face your fears and God will bring down any giant standing before you? I don’t think so. There are four things I want us to consider when we think of this story.

1)         God is in control, he has a plan, and nothing will thwart his plan.

2)         Man’s greatest enemy is sin and death.

3)         God has defeated this enemy on the cross.

4)         Man can only be on one side or the other? Which side of the battle do you align yourself with?

              So First, it is important to know that this story is primarily about God. It is a minor scene in the great narrative of God redeeming people from the effects of the fall. God originally made this world perfect. Adam and Eve lived in the garden and walked with God in perfect harmony. Life was good. But the first people decided to pursue happiness without God, flipping the world upside-down, bringing all kinds of pain and suffering with it. We see these effects everywhere and we repeat the same mistakes. We cannot blame Adam and Eve when we put other things above God ourselves. We choose our own path every day. We put ourselves on the throne of authority over our own lives. And because we are too small, too limited, we do not have the capability to run our lives as well as God can. But from the beginning God had a plan to restore things to the way he intended them. The Bible is the unfolding of God’s plan throughout history.

            He promised Adam and Eve that one day one of their children would be used to crush the enemy and bring restoration (Gen. 3:15). God revealed more of the plan to Abraham that one of his children would be used to bless people from every nation (Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). On Mount Sinai God described to Moses what this redeemer would be like and the type of life that he would purchase for his people. Through king David God paints a faint picture of the type of king this redeemer would be over our lives. Every book of the Bible describes human and satanic attempts to derail God’s plan, but every time we see how God is still in control to bring his plan to completion.

            The story of David and Goliath is another one of these stories. Goliath dares to stand in the path of God as David says in verse 45 “whom you have defied,” and the story shows that no matter how big the enemy or no matter how small the weapon of battle, God will accomplish his purposes.

              Second, we see in this story that sin is the real enemy. Goliath wasn’t simply being mean to the Israelites; he was defying God himself. Goliath never said, “I curse your God.” But David, knew that his defiance was against God. That is the essence of sin, opposing God. When David himself committed great sin in 2 Samuel 11 by stealing a man’s wife and having her husband killed, he wrote Psalm 51 calling out in repentance to God proclaiming that his sin was primarily against God. Our greatest enemy is not the bully on the playground, the difficult boss at the office, or the financial problems we may be experiencing. Our biggest problem is our own sin, our own lack of trust that God’s ways are the best ways, our lack of enthusiasm for God’s glory.

              No matter what we fear we can know that God can overcome that fear. Essentially, fear is lack of trust in God. When we fear something we elevate its power above God and the thing itself becomes God. We act in response to what we fear. Against Goliath, David feared only God and therefore went head on into battle.

             To put it simply, it is a picture of our redeemer overcoming our ultimate enemy; on the cross Jesus severed the head of sin and death winning the victory on our behalf. Goliath represents sin and its ultimate end. Sin stands towering before us leaving us no way out. If we try to overcome sin in our own power it will eventually destroy us, if not killing us then it will enslave us.

              There are some sins that lead to death. Some sins will quite literally create illnesses in the mind or body that will destroy us. Think of all of the diseases and decay that result from an abuse of sex or drugs. Other sins, however, are more subtle. We lie to cover up our weaknesses and continue to lie to keep them hidden. We proudly boast in our goodness to keep other people from seeing our faults. These types of sins tempt us with happiness and pleasure, but as the pleasures wear off they require more commitment to avoid their immediate consequences. Eventually we are addicted to the sins and we can’t imagine life without them, we begin to believe they are necessary for survival, and we define who we are by them. It is a deep pit that we can’t climb out of because most of the time we don’t even realize we are in it.

             Third, it may not be obvious at first, but the point of the David and Goliath story is to point you to Jesus as the means to that victory. All it takes is a small instrument like David in the hands of a powerful God to bring down a giant sin. At the time of Christ there was nothing glorious about a cross. It was an instrument of torture for the worst of criminals. What an offense it would be for the Savior to be killed on a cross! What a joke it would have been for a dirty shepherd boy to be the instrument of Israel’s salvation against its greatest enemy. But God uses the foolish things in the world to shame the wise and the powerful. On the cross Jesus defeated the power of sin and death, dropping it to its knees and cutting off its head.

            Even the place where Jesus was crucified may have a more explicit connection to David and Goliath than we think. The place was named “Golgotha” or the place of the skull. Nobody has been able to find any historical documentation on how that place got that name. Some might speculate that it was because so many had been executed there. My Old Testament professor wondered if it wasn’t a reference to David and Goliath. David not only drops the giant Goliath to the ground, but he cuts off his head in verse 51 and carries the head to Jerusalem as a trophy of God’s victory over their enemy. Perhaps Golgotha is short for Goliath of Gath. This would suggest that David’s defeat of Goliath was simply a foreshadow of God’s greater victory over sin to come when Jesus died on the cross.

           And finally, however, this victory over our giant enemy, sin, doesn’t apply to everyone. At the great battle against the Philistines there were many who were destroyed along with Goliath. Even the king of Israel, Saul, did not submit himself to the authority of God and eventually lost his position and even his life. Those who will be saved will be those who, like David, align themselves with the will of God, those who submit to Christ’s authority, those who fear God more than man. The New Testament terms for this are “repentance” and “faith.”

             To repent means to turn away from your previous desires, your previous patterns of life. It means to reject everything about your own plan for your life, to despise who you are apart from Christ. When you are repenting you are looking at the giant of sin that stands before you and saying with desperate plea, “I can’t do this! I am weak. I am tired. I have nothing to give in this battle.”

And by faith, then, we put our trust in the power of God to slay the giant. Faith is trust in his promises to redeem his people. It is believing his plan to restore everything and wipe away sin and death. Faith is placing all our hope on Jesus’ death on the cross as a sufficient payment for our sins and in his resurrection as the promise that one day sin will be completely removed from our world.

              If you have not yet repented and put your faith in Christ, see the message of David and Goliath as a warning that God will defeat all those who oppose him. He will one day cast sin and death and all who cling to their sin into eternal darkness. But on the cross he provides a way out. All who believe in him will be spared from that fate. Whatever addiction or fear towers over you that you cannot seem to defeat, God is able to slay that giant and willing to do so on behalf of those who trust in him through Christ.

              But the gospel message isn’t just how we get saved, it is the truth by which believers live. The giants don’t all instantly go away once we choose to step onto God’s side of the battle. God doesn’t simply fight the battles for us making life easier for us. We need to face every sin that confronts us and attack it with the truth that Christ conquered it on the cross.

The story of David and Goliath doesn’t teach us to buck up, devise a plan, and resolve to defeat the giant with our own determination. Our strategy is to confess our weakness to God and move forward in trust that he has given us the power of his Holy Spirit and the fellowship of his church to overcome any temptation. And the battle keeps on going until the day we leave this world. David faced many struggles after he defeated the giant. He fell into great sin, but he repented of it with great weeping and mourning and called out to God to give him the joy of salvation from the giant of sin which was far bigger than Goliath.

           The first of Martin Luther’s 95 theses said that when Jesus commanded us to repent, he meant that our lives would be marked with continual repentance. So I leave you today with a great call to arms in your soul. There is a battle going on with sin. John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Engage the battle, not by creating clever tricks or plans by which you can avoid sin or pretend it is not a threat. Face it with the power of the cross. Repent! Call out to God to be merciful to you and by the blood of Christ give you the power to overcome sin. And put all your faith in the one who slayed the giant Goliath and crushed sin’s skull at Golgotha.

Who is Jesus?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: Who is Jesus? or What is our hope for restoration?

            The history of the world hinges on a unique man who lived 2,000 years ago. Some say he was simply a wise teacher with good things to say about generous living. Others believe he was merely a prophet with an important message about God. The Bible, however, says this man, Jesus, is infinitely more.

From the beginning of time people anticipated someone who would restore what Adam and Eve had lost in the garden. God promised that a particular offspring of the woman would crush the deceiver and restore peace with God. God promised Abraham that through his descendants would arise a man who would become a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. God called to himself a ragtag group of people to be his representatives on earth as he worked to restore humanity and he promised to them a king who would rule with kindness, justice, and mercy. The Jews expected a priest who would go before God for them to seek reconciliation with God when they went astray. They longed for a prophet who would bring words of life from God to guide them to a new creation life. How all of these expectations could be met in one person was a mystery.

Then, after hundreds of years of silence from God, in a small village in Israel, not among the important and mighty but among the meek and lowly, a little baby boy was born in a stable. He was born to a woman who had never been with a man. The broken human nature that each person received from the union of their father and mother passed by this boy in his unique conception. He wasn’t born of two people like all other people, he was specially conceived by God’s Holy Spirit; he was God’s Son, God himself in the flesh.

His earthly parents named him Jesus (meaning God saves) because he will save his people from their sins. He lived a perfectly obedient life, never once straying from the will of God. He spoke the words of life from God like a prophet. He interceded before God on behalf of his people as a priest. He brought his kingdom of peace, justice, kindness, and mercy to dwell within his people. Everywhere he brought his kingly authority people were changed; blind people received sight, paralyzed people could walk, hungry people ate plentifully. The promised redeemer had arrived!

However, in a confusing twist of events the people turned on him. He threatened the authority of the rulers and religious leaders. He didn’t fit the mold of what the people though the redeemer should be. So they condemned him to die like a criminal. They mocked his claim to be king by putting a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe around his shoulders. The Romans killed him by hanging him on a cross to starve, to suffocate, to bleed. When he died, his friends took him off the cross and laid him in a tomb, hearts aching and confused about how the redeemer could die.

But God knew what he was doing. This was all part of his plan. The redeemer had to die; he wasn’t coming to redeem an earthly kingdom, but to make it possible to bring rebellious people into his heavenly kingdom. The curse that every person bore since the beginning of creation, the punishment that every person deserved for turning against God Jesus took upon himself on the cross bearing the wrath of God on behalf of his own people. Right before he died he cried out, “It is finished!” proclaiming that his mission was complete; the debt that people owed to God was satisfied.

Even though he died horribly on that cross and he lay lifeless in the tomb, death could not hold God. After three days Jesus rose from the grave showing himself to hundreds of people so that nobody in Israel could deny it. He crushed death under his heal. He stood victorious over the curse, over death, over sin. He became the hope of resurrection for all his people. After spending many days with his disciples he ascended into heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to live within all who put their trust in him. Dwelling within his people he helps them live the same victorious life over sin and temptation, and he gives them hope for the day when all creation will be restored.

Who is Man?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: Who is man? or What has gone wrong with the world?

            Before God spoke the first word to bring creation into existence, he had a special plan to fashion a being to bear his likeness and reflect his joy to one another. On the sixth day of creation he set that plan into motion with the creation of people. Up until that point he had created multitudes of stunning, beautiful, and extraordinary scenes and creatures: the sun, stars, and moon; great seas and continents; the largest land creatures and tiniest crawling bugs; exquisite flowering plants and thick, luscious forests. But the crowning glory of creation was people.

These people were made to live in harmony with God. The love and joy this Trinitarian God shared within himself was extended to humans. People would walk with God, knowing his perfect love. They would explore his creation seeing how every detail pointed to his powerful creativity. God made these people to live in loving relationships with one another reflecting the joyous relationship God had in himself. In the beginning God declared this garden-life to be very good. But it didn’t take long for everything to go terribly wrong.

Soon these people decided that they had the ability to find something better than God’s joy. They wanted to decide for themselves what would bring them the most happiness. They wanted to escape the oversight of their kind and generous Father and discover the world on their own terms, for their own purposes. The God who just spoke them into existence and gave them a perfectly happy home with abundant provision suddenly became a means to the purposes of someone far lesser. They wanted to make themselves god.

Clearly the world today is not what God created in that original glory. What happened? When people decided to subdue the world for their own purposes they committed cosmic treason and flipped the entire creation upside down. Work became a burden, not a blessing. Relationships became battle grounds, not sources of pleasure. Instead of having dominion over creation, creation’s power threatened the lives of people. Most severely, people attempted to subject their loving Father into a servant to fulfill their own desires.

Without the proper source of joy this upside-down creation began to deteriorate quickly. Pain and suffering result from broken relationships, enslaving addictions, and dysfunctioning bodies. Societies develop for the benefit of the privileged instead of the good of all. Creation is subjected for the selfish purposes of people instead of protected for all to witness the creative glory of God. Rather than calling out to God to deliver creation from our mishandling of our privileged position, we double down on our failure by constructing our own paths back to created glory; and we fashion gods who will affirm our efforts to make ourselves god.

It is a deceiving path that appears to get brighter the deeper we run into its darkness. How will we escape this destructive cycle?

Immaturity of Sin

Delayed Gratification is a term that I've often been fond of to discern someone's level of maturity.  We live in a culture that needs everything right now.  Don't want to wait until married to have sex, do it now.  Don't have money to pay for what I want, put it on the credit card.  Can't take the time to cook a healthy meal, get fast food.  Children, by definition, lacking maturity have a difficult time waiting because they don't have enough life experience in waiting to know that "good things come to those who wait."  They don't know that opportunities come and go regularly and by taking time to do things right they will be better prepared for the next opportunity.  Instead, in our immature passions we jump now at something and, at best, enjoy a fleeting pleasure that could have been longer lasting had we invested more patient preparation.

I was recently reminded of another stage of maturity in a child's life through reading a book on marriage and it has really got me thinking about my continual need for sanctification.  In the first few months of a baby's life their world extends to about 12 inches in front of their faces.  As far as they understand this world is all about themselves.  When what is going on in their own bubble is uncomfortable they let everyone outside the bubble know about it until someone else comes to fix it.  If you put a toy in front of an infant they will recognize its existence.  But the moment they can no longer see that toy they act as though it no longer exists.  This is called Object Permanence; at about the age of eight months a child gains the ability to recognize that an object continues to exists even though they can no longer see it.  A child who has yet to develop Object Permanence will have a difficult time being away from his parents when they walk away because the person that makes him feel so good (in his own mind) no longer exists.  Once the child develops Object Permanence he can feel comfortable letting his parents go because he knows they still exist and experience has shown that they will come back.

Today I was reminded of an excellent book in which the author talks about the immaturity of sin as she looks back upon the sins she once defended:

“People whose lives are riddled with unrestrained sin act like rebellious children. Sin, when unrestrained, infantilizes a person. Here I had thought that I was so mature, so capable, so ‘important’ in the world, and the truth remains that I didn’t even know how to act my age! After conversion, I was surprised to discover how old I really was.”

-Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of and Unlikely Convert, p. 108

This is the case for all of us, isn't it?  When we engage in sin, when we give into temptation, when we "follow our hearts" we act as a a child who is incapable of making decisions according to the reality of the world God created.  Though our eyes are wide open we act as though truth has disappeared.  When men are tempted to look at pornography it is because they have lost Object Permanence; forgetting about God's provision for intimacy.  When we lie, complain, or boast in ourselves it is because we have lost Object Permanence; forgetting that God is still there even though we don't see Him.  What we need are not strategies for sidestepping the temptation, but mature hearts who are content to trust God's good provision when the current circumstances disrupt the comfort of our little bubbles.

"Sin infantilizes a person." God help me avoid sin and honor you by maturing my heart to be satisfied with your provision whenever you choose to give it and rest in the permanence of it even when I can't see it.