This is undoubtedly one of the most famous and preached upon events in the Old Testament. The Philistines were gathered for war against the Israelites, and they had a champion, Goliath, who was genuinely a giant of a man. Goliath challenged the Israelites. This raises a few questions. First, why did neither nation engage in a proper battle? Ie send the whole army against the other army? For Israel the answer is probably that they had few weapons. We read earlier that the Philistines had disarmed Israel. No doubt they had gathered a few weapons since then following their various victories, but they would probably still be very inferior to Philistine. But what about the Philistines? What were they afraid of? Maybe they feared the God of Israel, but had confidence in their champion , Goliath, and thought they could then defeat Israel in a dual.
This stand off went on for forty days, and is a most ridiculous "battle", if one can call it that. Yet that is what the enemy often does to the church and to individual Christians today. He uses fear to paralyse the church. Jesse sends David with supplies for his brothers who are fighting, or rather not fighting, the battle.
David arrived at the battlefield and heard that Saul had offered a great reward for whoever would take on and defeat Goliath. David's brothers rebuke David and falsely accuse him. David, then goes to Saul and offers to fight. If we are to fulfil all that God has for us we will need to resist mockery and go against it.
Saul did not find David a convincing figure. David had faith because he had seen off bears and lions in protecting the flock. We build up our faith by putting what faith we have into action in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. When we do this our faith grows.
Saul agrees to let David go, but tries to put armour on David. David in the end takes all this armour off, knowing that he cannot fight in it. We need to understand the way that God works in our life.
David then goes against Goliath, making declarations of faith. And as we know, David killed Goliath.
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