Neither You Nor Your Kingdom Will Be Established

1 Samuel 20:27-37 – But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.” Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!” “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David. In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?”

Application:

• ·         Saul’s perception that God’s hand was on David led him not to repentance and acceptance of his own lot but to greater fear and jealousy toward David.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Let's Go Out Into The Field

1 Samuel 20:8-15 – As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?” “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?” David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together. Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

Genesis 4:8 – Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Ruth 1:17 – Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

2 Kings 11:1 – When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.

Application:

• ·         The first murder was especially monstrous because it was committed with deliberate deceit, against a brother and against a good man—a striking illustration of the awful consequences of the fall.
• ·         Ruth, a non-Israelite, swore her commitment to Naomi in the name of Israel’s God, thus acknowledging Him as her God.
• ·         Athaliah’s attempt to completely destroy the house of David was an attack on God’s redemptive plan—a plan that centered in the Messiah, which the Davidic covenant promised

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Oath

1 Samuel 19:22-20:7 – Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said. So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?” “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!” But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.” So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.

Deuteronomy 6:13 – Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

1 Samuel 1:3 – Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.

Application:

• ·         In ancient Israel’s world, when people appealed to the gods to affirm and uphold their oaths, they singled out the divine power or powers they most revered. For this reason, to take an oath in the Lord’s name was a key sign of loyalty to and trust in Him and of the rejection of all other gods, even an implicit denial that they amounted to anything or even existed. The Israelites were to swear oaths in no other name.
• ·         The Festival of Tabernacles not only commemorated God’s care for His people during the wilderness journey to Canaan, it also celebrated, with joy and feasting, God’s blessing on the year’s crops.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Jonathan Spoke Well Of David

1 Samuel 19:4-9 – Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?” Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death.” So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before. Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

1 Samuel 17:11 – On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

1 Samuel 10:17-18 – Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the Lord at Mizpah and said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’

Judges 9:23 – God stirred up animosity between Abimelek and the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously against Abimelek.

Application:

• ·         The fear of Saul and the Israelite army betrays a loss of faith in the covenant promises of the Lord.
• ·         The Lord emphasized to the people that He has been their deliverer throughout the history.
• ·         The Hebrew for “animosity” is frequently rendered “evil spirit” or harmful spirit”; here perhaps a “spirit” of distrust and bitterness. The Hebrew for “spirit” is often used to describe an attitude or disposition.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Saul Became Still More Afraid Of Him

1 Samuel 18:22-19:3 – Then Saul ordered his attendants: “Speak to David privately and say, ‘Look, the king likes you, and his attendants all love you; now become his son-in-law.’” They repeated these words to David. But David said, “Do you think it is a small matter to become the king’s son-in-law? I’m only a poor man and little known.” When Saul’s servants told him what David had said, Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines. When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, David took his men with him and went out and killed two hundred Philistines and brought back their foreskins. They counted out the full number to the king so that David might become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage. When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days. The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul’s officers, and his name became well known. Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”

Application:

• ·         Saul’s perception that God’s hand was on David led him not to repentance and acceptance of his own lot but to greater fear and jealousy toward David.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

I

1 Samuel 18:13-21,29 – So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns. Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul said to himself, “I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!” But David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my family or my clan in Israel, that I should become the king’s son-in-law?” So when the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah. Now Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. “I will give her to him,” he thought, “so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law.”… Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.

1 Samuel 9:21 – Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?”

Exodus 10:7 – Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”

Application:

• ·         God’s use of the powerless to promote His kingdom on earth is a common feature in the Biblical testimony and underscores the truth that His kingdom is not of this world.
• ·         Saul’s perception that God’s hand was on David led him not to repentance and acceptance of his own lot but to greater fear and jealousy toward David.
• ·         Human rebellion and disobedience always bring death and destruction in their wake.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

With

1 Samuel 18:2-12,29 – From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt. Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well. When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David. The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul…Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.

Judges 9:23 – God stirred up animosity between Abimelek and the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously against Abimelek.

Joshua 1:5 – No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

1 Samuel 17:37 – The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

Judges 16:20 – Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

Application:

• ·         The Hebrew for “animosity” is frequently rendered “evil spirit” or harmful spirit”; perhaps a “spirit” of distrust and bitterness. The Hebrew for “spirit” is often used to describe an attitude or disposition.
• ·         Saul’s perception that God’s hand was on David led him not to repentance and acceptance of his own lot but to greater fear and jealousy toward David.
• ·         “I will be with you” means to direct, sustain and assure success.
• ·         Reliance on the Lord was essential for the true theocratic king.
• ·         “He did not know” was one of the most tragic statements in the Old Testament.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Battle Is The Lord's

1 Samuel 17:47 – All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

Jeremiah 39:18 – I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.’”

Exodus 14:14 – The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

1 Samuel 2:9-10 – He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. “It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be broken. The Most High will thunder from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. “He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

Ecclesiastes 9:11 – I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Zechariah 4:6 – So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

Application:

• ·         Both the Israelite and the Philistine armies were shown the error of placing trust in human devices for personal or national security.
• ·         Ebed-Melek had expressed his faith in God by securing Jeremiah’s release from the cistern.
• ·         “The Lord will fight for you” was a necessary reminder that although Israel was “ready for battle” and “marching out boldly”, the victory would be won by God alone.
• ·         The Lord placed kings of His choice over His people after they entered the promised land.
• ·         Success is uncertain—more evidence that humans do not ultimately control events.
• ·         Zerubbabel did not possess the royal might and power that David and Solomon had enjoyed, and in any event such worldly power was inadequate for the purpose of rebuilding the Lord’s temple.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Whole World Will Know

1 Samuel 17:46 – This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

Joshua 4:24 – He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Exodus 9:16 – But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Deuteronomy 4:35 – You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.

2 Kings 5:15 – Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”

Application:

• ·         The Lord’s revelation of His power to the Israelites was a public event that all the Canaanites heard about, just as they had heard of the crossing of the “Red Sea” and the defeat of Sihon and Og.
• ·         God is sovereign.
• ·         Moses insisted that there is only one God.
• ·         Naaman’s confession put to shame the Israelites who continued to waver in their opinion on whether Baal and the Lord were both gods or whether Yahweh alone was God.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

In The Name Of The Lord Almighty

1 Samuel 17:41-45 – Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Psalm 9:10 – Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Exodus 3:14 – God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

1 Samuel 1:3 – Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.

Application:

• ·         David’s strength was his reliance on the Lord.
• ·         “Those who know your name” are those who acknowledge in their hearts who the Lord is and also live out that acknowledgment.
• ·         “I AM WHO I AM” was the name by which God wished to be known and worshiped in Israel—the name that expressed his character as the dependable and faithful God who desires the full trust of His people.
• ·         The Lord Almighty was traditionally “the Lord of hosts”, a royal title. The title “the Lord of hosts” is perhaps best understood as a general reference to the sovereignty of God over all powers in the universe.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Lord...Will Rescue Me

1 Samuel 17:35-40 – I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

1 Samuel 10:18 – Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the Lord at Mizpah and said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’

Psalm 78:72 – And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

Application:

• ·         Reliance on the Lord was essential for the true theocratic king.
• ·         Speaking through Samuel, the Lord emphasizes to the people that He has been their deliverer throughout the history. He brought them out of Egypt and delivered them from all their enemies during the time of the judges.
• ·         Israel under the care of the Lord’s royal shepherd from the house of David was for the prophets the hope of God’s people.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

You Are Not Able

1 Samuel 17:33-35,37,47 – Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it…The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”… All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

2 Kings 2:24 – He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

Application:

• ·         Reliance on the Lord was essential for the true theocratic king.
• ·         Both the Israelite and the Philistine armies were shown the error of placing trust in human devices for personal or national security.
• ·         Elisha’s first acts were indicative of his ministry that would follow: God’s covenant blessings would come to those who looked to Him, but God’s covenant curses would fall on those who turned away from Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Great Fear

1 Samuel 17:11,23-32,37,47 - On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified…As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”…The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”… All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

Joshua 3:10 – This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

Application:

• ·         The fear of Saul and the Israelite army betrays a loss of faith in the covenant promises of the Lord. Their fear also demonstrates that the Israelites search for security in a human king had failed. On the basis of God’s covenant promises, Israel was never to fear her enemies but to trust in the Lord.
• ·         The manner by which God is about to bring the Israelites across the Jordan River, the water boundary of the promised land, will bring assurance that the one true God is with them and that he will surely dislodge the present inhabitants of Canaan.
• ·         David’s confidence rests not in his own prowess but in the power of the living God, whose honor has been violated by the Philistines and whose covenant promises have been scorned by the Israelites.
• ·         Reliance on the Lord was essential for the true theocratic king.
• ·         Both the Israelite and the Philistine armies will be shown the error of placing trust in human devices for personal or national security.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Tend

1 Samuel 17:12-22 – Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were.

Genesis 37:2 – This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Application:

• ·         Israel as a people have struggled with both God and human beings, has overcome and has been  a source of blessing to the nations.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Saul And All The Israelites Were...Terrified

1 Samuel 17:1-11,32,45 – Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks 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. 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.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified…David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”… David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Deuteronomy 3:22 – Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.”

1 Samuel 8:7 – And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

Exodus 14:14 – The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Numbers 14:9 – Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

Application:

• ·         David’s strength was his reliance on the Lord.
• ·         The fear of Saul and the Israelite army betrays a loss of faith in the covenant promises of the Lord. Their fear also demonstrates that the Israelites search for security in a human king had failed. On the basis of God’s covenant promises, Israel was never to fear her enemies but to trust in the Lord.
• ·         David’s confidence rests not in his own prowess but in the power of the living God, whose honor has been violated by the Philistines and whose covenant promises have been scorned by the Israelites.
• ·         The Lord’s power, not Israel’s unaided strength, achieved victory.
• ·         The sin of Israel in requesting a king rested not in any evil inherent in kingship itself but in the kind of kingship the people envisioned and their reasons for requesting it. Their desire was for a form of kingship that denied their covenant relationship with the Lord, who Himself was pledged to be their savior and deliverer. In requesting a king “like all the other nations” they broke the covenant, rejected the Lord who was their King and forgot His constant provision for their protection in the past.
• ·         “The Lord will fight for you” was a necessary reminder that although Israel was “ready for battle” and “marching out boldly”, the victory would be won by God alone.
• ·         There are no walls, no fortifications, no factors of size or bearing, and certainly no gods that can withstand the onslaught of God’s people when the Lord is with them.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV