YOUR SERVANT WILL GO AND FIGHT HIM

1 Samuel 17:17-40 / Keywords 17:32

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

 

17:17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah[d] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance[e] from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”

20 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. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 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. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

25 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.”

26 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?”

27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

28 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.”

29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

33 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.”

34 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, 35 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. 36 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. 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.”

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 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. 40 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.

Footnotes

d. 1 Samuel 17:17 That is, probably about 36 pounds or about 16 kilograms

e. 1 Samuel 17:18 Or some token; or some pledge of spoils

1. David was not old enough to be drafted into the army and stayed home shepherding his father’s flock. But he went to the battlefield on his father’s errand to check on the safety of his brothers. He heard Goliath’s defiant insults against the armies of Israel and was amazed that everyone fled in fear. David, though only a boy, had a burning love for God. He couldn’t stand God’s name being insulted by an uncircumcised Gentile. He wanted to challenge the enemy of God’s army for God’s honor.

 

2. When Saul was reluctant to allow him to fight, David talked about how God helped him to defeat a lion or a bear to protect his sheep. David knew that it was a dangerous and fearful thing to fight Goliath, but he had faith in the LORD, who would deliver him from the hand of Goliath (37). He refused Saul’s armor, took his staff, his sling and five stones, and went to Goliath. David trusted that God would give him victory over Goliath and protect his life. His most potent weapon was his faith in the living God. We can overcome fear and stand firm to fight our Goliath only by faith in God Almighty.

 

Prayer Lord, grant me a passionate love for you and enable me to overcome my fear, and challenge the Goliaths in our time for your glory.

One Word Challenge Goliath by faith in God