Who Will Fight for Me?
Pastor KC Liu/1 Samuel 17:1-58/1.29.2017
Good morning! Today, we are studying 1 Samuel 17, and it is the famous story of David and Goliath. We have heard of this story many times. It’s arguably the greatest children’s Bible story of all time, and we are so familiar with it. Even people who don’t go to church knows the story. Often newspapers and magazines will use the title “David vs. Goliath” when describing an underdog individual taking on a corporation. Or a bad basketball team beats the #1 ranked team. Like UCI basketball taking on UCLA basketball.
The thing is, sometimes we are so familiar with a story, we loose the awe of it, and the whole meaning gets lost. But learning stories isn’t like learning the “Multiplication table”. If you learn that 4x4=16, that’s it. 16 is the only answer, and it will never change. You don’t have to keep relearning the multiplication table.
But for a story, even a simple story, it can grow and deepen in its meaning and significance. It can be told differently depending on the audience’s maturity and capacity to understand. Our goal today is to get pass the children’s version of David and Goliath, and go deeper into what the story is really trying to tell us. I have titled the message today, “Who Will Fight for Me?”
For the scripture reading today, since it’s 51 verses long, I would like to get some volunteers readers. (Herald, Peter, Nathan, Michael, Edwin, etc.)
Try to get into the character, and do some voice acting. Now let’s put you guys in the right positions. Israelites on one side, and Goliath on the other side.
(After reading) Let’s give them a hand!
Right now, I want to paint a realistic picture of what’s going on. I don’t want a cartoonish version of the story in our head. Let’s think reality. First, I think David was probably between the age of 16-20, and he was a very athletic young man. We know that he had the strength to grab on to a lion’s jaw and club him to death, so he had some serious muscles under his raggedy shepherd’s clothes.
I am going to use some imagination here. If David was in high school or college, he would probably on the Varsity Wrestling Team. Size wise, I am guessing he was average height. I checked and the average Israelite man is 5’9”. Now he is going up against Goliath who is 9” tall. This guy right here, the Great Khali, the WWE star, is 7’1”. He is the closet thing to Goliath I can find. He is not the kind of guy you step in a ring with and think that you have a chance to beat him. That’s why the Israelites were shaking before him.
Saul was also a warrior king. He had fought and won many battles prior to this. He stood a head above everyone else, so he must have been 6’6”. That would put SAUL the same size as THE ROCK. I would not get in a ring with the Rock, I mean Saul. All of the Israelite soldiers are looking on Saul to go fight him. After all, Saul was the only one that can remotely match his size. But even Saul was terrified of Goliath.
Now let’s look at David and his sling. Let us not assume that his sling was a toy sling used by boy. It was actually a long 6 feet rope with a pouch in the middle. Hold both ends with one hand, and it’s about 3 feet of rope. A skillful slinger will twirl it around in a circle a few times to gain speed and velocity and then snap the stone out with great force, up to 100-120 miles per hour.
It can inflict so much damage that it was used widely in battle. The Roman soldiers would have infantry units that use just the sling. It was like an archery unit shooting out arrows. The thing is, it’s easy to generate great velocity, but you’d give up accuracy. You can also have great accuracy, but you’d be giving up velocity. The hard thing to do was to throw it with great velocity AND accuracy. To hit a tiny moving target (aka, a moving forehead) with great force would take years of practice by a master slinger.
Up to this point, I’ve shown the actual map of the battle scene, the realistic sizes of David, Saul, and Goliath, and also sling as a real weapon. The point is, this battle is real, it’s not some fantasy children’s story. This battle really happened, great. So how is this battle relevant to our lives?
At children’s Sunday school, kids learn that they can be just like David, a small brave boy that can face any challenge. And as Vegetale puts it, “even little guys can do BIG things too!” And “Be brave like David! With God on your side, you will always win!”
What else do we learn? (interaction)
Yes, these are all true to a certain degree. For the kids, we keep things simple, so this is good enough. But we know that this is oversimplifying things. And as adults we have to look deeper into this story.
The truth is, we are all fighting battles in our lives. Some are small battles that we can handle. Some battles are so big we get crushed just thinking about it. Some battles are so big that it takes you into despair.
Can we be brave like David, pick up our 5 stones and run towards our battle? Yes, we can pick up our 5 stones, we can muster up some courage to face our own enemies, but what happens when we sling that first stone and miss by a mile because we have no idea how to fight. What if we miss the 2nd stone, and the 3rd, and the 4th , and the 5th. Then before you know it, Goliath is now two feet in front of you, and grabs you by the neck, and picks you up. You can’t breathe under that pressure. You’re fading away. You don’t get to win this battle.
For example, for those who are married, you know that having a wedding is the easy part, but keeping a marriage is the hard part. What happens when the honeymoon period wears off, and now you are fighting about everything. I can’t believe the battle is in our marriage. Now we might want to pick up a stone and throw it at our spouse, thinking that they are the giant you need to defeat!
But we’ll soon realize they have a few stones to throw at us too! And they think we are the giant they have to defeat. Then we hit each other and hurt each other emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Then after those 5 stones are gone, your spouse is also gone, split, separated, divorced. Then we realize we didn’t know how to use those stones. I should have thrown it at my own sinful flesh, like un-forgiveness, bitterness, impatience, anger. But instead I threw it at the person I vowed to love. We just messed up big time.
We know we don’t always WIN, because there are battles in our lives that we’ve already lost, and we can never get it back. There are battles with our own bondages and addictions that we’ve been fighting for years, and yet we still lose.
The fact is, if we are trying to be David, we will be sorely disappointed. You’re NOT David. I am NOT David. We are NOT Davids. You are not going to kill Goliath. He is too big, too strong. Out of your league.
You see, Goliath is a picture of the fallen world, bound by sin, wicked and evil through and through. Goliath is the voice that mock our God. There’s no way we can fight this battle on our own.
But we may ask, “if we are NOT David in this story, who are we??” Good question.
As we look at the whole Biblical narrative, the whole redemption story in the Bible, we look more like the Israelites, scared to death to face the giant. We are shaking and hoping that some other brave soul will volunteer to fight.
Even Saul, the warrior king, was thinking, “who will fight for us? Who will fight for us?”
Now, here is how we have to read the Bible differently. We must read the Old Testament stories in a Christocentric way. We have to see Christ, our Savior, in every story.
The great Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savior of Christ in it.” I like the way he thinks.
It is clear that King David is
a type of Christ. David is a foreshadow, a preview of the works of the real Savior. That’s why Jesus is also referred to as “Son of David.” David is fighting for us, which means Christ is fighting for us.
Also, we have to ask this very important question when we read the Bible. Is the Bible about ME or about JESUS? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what HE has done? If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example for living, then the story is really about me. I must muster up the faith and courage to fight giants in my life.
But if I read David and Goliath as God showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about Him. So is the Bible about ME or about JESUS? Obvious, it is about Jesus, and not me.
If it’s about JESUS, then it’s his job to fight the impossible giants of sin, law, and death. Then and only then will I have the courage to fight ordinary giants in life, such as suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, and hardship.
It can inflict so much damage that it was used widely in battle. The Roman soldiers would have infantry units that use just the sling. It was like an archery unit shooting out arrows. The thing is, it’s easy to generate great velocity, but you’d give up accuracy. You can also have great accuracy, but you’d be giving up velocity. The hard thing to do was to throw it with great velocity AND accuracy. To hit a tiny moving target (aka, a moving forehead) with great force would take years of practice by a master slinger.
Up to this point, I’ve shown the actual map of the battle scene, the realistic sizes of David, Saul, and Goliath, and also sling as a real weapon. The point is, this battle is real, it’s not some fantasy children’s story. This battle really happened, great. So how is this battle relevant to our lives?
At children’s Sunday school, kids learn that they can be just like David, a small brave boy that can face any challenge. And as Vegetale puts it, “even little guys can do BIG things too!” And “Be brave like David! With God on your side, you will always win!”
What else do we learn? (interaction)
Yes, these are all true to a certain degree. For the kids, we keep things simple, so this is good enough. But we know that this is oversimplifying things. And as adults we have to look deeper into this story.
The truth is, we are all fighting battles in our lives. Some are small battles that we can handle. Some battles are so big we get crushed just thinking about it. Some battles are so big that it takes you into despair.
Can we be brave like David, pick up our 5 stones and run towards our battle? Yes, we can pick up our 5 stones, we can muster up some courage to face our own enemies, but what happens when we sling that first stone and miss by a mile because we have no idea how to fight. What if we miss the 2nd stone, and the 3rd, and the 4th , and the 5th. Then before you know it, Goliath is now two feet in front of you, and grabs you by the neck, and picks you up. You can’t breathe under that pressure. You’re fading away. You don’t get to win this battle.
For example, for those who are married, you know that having a wedding is the easy part, but keeping a marriage is the hard part. What happens when the honeymoon period wears off, and now you are fighting about everything. I can’t believe the battle is in our marriage. Now we might want to pick up a stone and throw it at our spouse, thinking that they are the giant you need to defeat!
But we’ll soon realize they have a few stones to throw at us too! And they think we are the giant they have to defeat. Then we hit each other and hurt each other emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Then after those 5 stones are gone, your spouse is also gone, split, separated, divorced. Then we realize we didn’t know how to use those stones. I should have thrown it at my own sinful flesh, like un-forgiveness, bitterness, impatience, anger. But instead I threw it at the person I vowed to love. We just messed up big time.
We know we don’t always WIN, because there are battles in our lives that we’ve already lost, and we can never get it back. There are battles with our own bondages and addictions that we’ve been fighting for years, and yet we still lose.
The fact is, if we are trying to be David, we will be sorely disappointed. You’re NOT David. I am NOT David. We are NOT Davids. You are not going to kill Goliath. He is too big, too strong. Out of your league.
You see, Goliath is a picture of the fallen world, bound by sin, wicked and evil through and through. Goliath is the voice that mock our God. There’s no way we can fight this battle on our own.
But we may ask, “if we are NOT David in this story, who are we??” Good question.
As we look at the whole Biblical narrative, the whole redemption story in the Bible, we look more like the Israelites, scared to death to face the giant. We are shaking and hoping that some other brave soul will volunteer to fight.
Even Saul, the warrior king, was thinking, “who will fight for us? Who will fight for us?”
Now, here is how we have to read the Bible differently. We must read the Old Testament stories in a Christocentric way. We have to see Christ, our Savior, in every story.
The great Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savior of Christ in it.” I like the way he thinks.
It is clear that King David is
a type of Christ. David is a foreshadow, a preview of the works of the real Savior. That’s why Jesus is also referred to as “Son of David.” David is fighting for us, which means Christ is fighting for us.
Also, we have to ask this very important question when we read the Bible. Is the Bible about ME or about JESUS? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what HE has done? If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example for living, then the story is really about me. I must muster up the faith and courage to fight giants in my life.
But if I read David and Goliath as God showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about Him. So is the Bible about ME or about JESUS? Obvious, it is about Jesus, and not me.
If it’s about JESUS, then it’s his job to fight the impossible giants of sin, law, and death. Then and only then will I have the courage to fight ordinary giants in life, such as suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, and hardship.
For my Jewish and Muslim friends out there who has a great respect for King David, allow me to show you from scripture how King David is a prophetic sign pointing to King Jesus.
In the case of David, you have the anointed one of God who receives the anointing of the Holy Spirit in 1 Samuel 16. David goes out in the wilderness where an Goliath presented himself before the people of God for 40 days and 40 nights. He tried to tempt them, “if he kills me, then we will be your slaves.”(v.9) And interestingly, Goliath was wearing a scaled armor, like a snake scale. Then David crushes the enemy’s head, and brings victory to God’s people. What happened with David was the parallel of what happened to Jesus.
In the NT, Jesus gets baptized and receives the Holy Spirit. Out in the wilderness, the serpent snake presented himself for 40 days and 40 nights. He tried to tempt Jesus, “if you will bow down and worship me, I will give you the kingdoms of the world.” (Matt 4:9) Then Jesus withstands the temptation, then he goes to the cross to pay for the sins of mankind and redeems mankind. And in doing so, he crushes the serpent’s head, and brings salvation to God’s people.
Again, for my Jewish and Muslim friends out there, when we read any of the Old Testament stories that also appears in the Torah or the Quran, it will all point to the Gospel of Jesus.
Let’s take our beloved Father Abraham as another example. He is revered in all three monotheistic faiths of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
In the story of Abraham and Isaac, where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son. What happened there? (extra reading: Genesis 22:1-14) Abraham took him to the hill, bounded him and was about to kill him on the alter, when the Angels said stop, and look aside where a ram’s horn was caught in the branches. Thus providing the animal that was suppose to be sacrificed. God is the one who provides!
If we fail to see Christ in this, the story of Abraham and Isaac means: “you must be willing to even kill your own son for him.” What a heavy burden to bear! What an impossible choice to make! How can we choose between our son and God?? That’s just impossible. But once we realize that this story is a picture of God providing his own son to be sacrificed on our behalf, it sets us FREE. God does all the hard work, God does the battle for us, we just receive it with a thankful heart.
So in our Battles of life, we know we don’t have to fight it ourselves. We have our Savior who has already fought for us. He fought the biggest battle that can ever be fought, and HE WON!! When Jesus died and rose again on the third day, it was like he sank that stone into Goliath’s forehead.
Jesus defeated the giant that we can never beat, the giant of sin and death. Jesus fought so that we will forever be loved by the Father, we will never be rejected. Jesus fought that fight, so that we can have confidence and courage to face our challenges in life such as suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, and hardship. It doesn’t matter anymore if you fail,
…because even in your failure, YOU ARE LOVED.
So now, we don’t have to ask this question anymore, “Who will fight for me?” I know Jesus is fighting for me, even now.
Romans 8:34 says, “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
Jesus is fighting for me. Jesus is praying for me. So now when I am fighting in the Battle of Life, I just simply say, “Lord Jesus, I can’t do this, please fight for me.”
I want us to take a bit of time for prayer. Perhaps you are fighting a battle right now, maybe in a relational crisis, maybe in a financial crisis, maybe a health crisis, whatever you are fighting, would you be willing to let God take control? It may be as simple as LETTING GO.
I want to invite the keyboard back up to play a simple song. And take a few minutes to sense what God is doing in your heart.
PRAYER: ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you.25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’
In the case of David, you have the anointed one of God who receives the anointing of the Holy Spirit in 1 Samuel 16. David goes out in the wilderness where an Goliath presented himself before the people of God for 40 days and 40 nights. He tried to tempt them, “if he kills me, then we will be your slaves.”(v.9) And interestingly, Goliath was wearing a scaled armor, like a snake scale. Then David crushes the enemy’s head, and brings victory to God’s people. What happened with David was the parallel of what happened to Jesus.
In the NT, Jesus gets baptized and receives the Holy Spirit. Out in the wilderness, the serpent snake presented himself for 40 days and 40 nights. He tried to tempt Jesus, “if you will bow down and worship me, I will give you the kingdoms of the world.” (Matt 4:9) Then Jesus withstands the temptation, then he goes to the cross to pay for the sins of mankind and redeems mankind. And in doing so, he crushes the serpent’s head, and brings salvation to God’s people.
Again, for my Jewish and Muslim friends out there, when we read any of the Old Testament stories that also appears in the Torah or the Quran, it will all point to the Gospel of Jesus.
Let’s take our beloved Father Abraham as another example. He is revered in all three monotheistic faiths of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
In the story of Abraham and Isaac, where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son. What happened there? (extra reading: Genesis 22:1-14) Abraham took him to the hill, bounded him and was about to kill him on the alter, when the Angels said stop, and look aside where a ram’s horn was caught in the branches. Thus providing the animal that was suppose to be sacrificed. God is the one who provides!
If we fail to see Christ in this, the story of Abraham and Isaac means: “you must be willing to even kill your own son for him.” What a heavy burden to bear! What an impossible choice to make! How can we choose between our son and God?? That’s just impossible. But once we realize that this story is a picture of God providing his own son to be sacrificed on our behalf, it sets us FREE. God does all the hard work, God does the battle for us, we just receive it with a thankful heart.
So in our Battles of life, we know we don’t have to fight it ourselves. We have our Savior who has already fought for us. He fought the biggest battle that can ever be fought, and HE WON!! When Jesus died and rose again on the third day, it was like he sank that stone into Goliath’s forehead.
Jesus defeated the giant that we can never beat, the giant of sin and death. Jesus fought so that we will forever be loved by the Father, we will never be rejected. Jesus fought that fight, so that we can have confidence and courage to face our challenges in life such as suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, and hardship. It doesn’t matter anymore if you fail,
…because even in your failure, YOU ARE LOVED.
So now, we don’t have to ask this question anymore, “Who will fight for me?” I know Jesus is fighting for me, even now.
Romans 8:34 says, “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
Jesus is fighting for me. Jesus is praying for me. So now when I am fighting in the Battle of Life, I just simply say, “Lord Jesus, I can’t do this, please fight for me.”
I want us to take a bit of time for prayer. Perhaps you are fighting a battle right now, maybe in a relational crisis, maybe in a financial crisis, maybe a health crisis, whatever you are fighting, would you be willing to let God take control? It may be as simple as LETTING GO.
I want to invite the keyboard back up to play a simple song. And take a few minutes to sense what God is doing in your heart.
PRAYER: ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you.25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’