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