The Battle is the Lord’s

Click here for the audio message of 1 Samuel 17

1 Samuel 17:41-51

Last time in our study we saw God rejecting Saul as King. God instructs Samuel to go to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem and anoint one of his sons as the new king of Israel. Samuel sees Jesse’s first born son and wants to anoint him. However, God says no.

Samuel continues to look at all of Jesse’s sons until only the young shepherd David is left. God tells Samuel that David is the one. Samuel needed to learn a lesson about looking at people for who they really are on the inside, not just what they look like on the outside.

God knows our hearts. He uses us as we are and molds us into what he wants us to be if we allow him to. David was chosen to be king because God knew his heart. And we see David trusting in God in our Scripture lesson this morning.

At the end of chapter 16, we see the spirit of God leaving Saul and a tormenting spirit is upon him. This causes Saul great mood swings. It brings him depression and fear. In order to cheer himself up he requests some music. So the kings servants find David who plays the harp beautifully. David ends up serving in Saul’s court.

Today’s lesson of course is that familiar story of David taking on Goliath. No doubt, we are all familiar with the story. It is probably a story that we heard as kids. Goliath was a giant. Every day he would challenge the Israelites to a fight.

The Israelites were afraid of Goliath though. And from a human standpoint I can see why. Goliath was a warrior. This is Arnold Swartzenegger as the Terminator or Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. You just don’t mess with guys like that.

From a spiritual standpoint though, the Israelites had forgotten that God promised to be with them. They were simply lacking in their faith. God had promised them victory if only they believed and trusted him.

Enter David, a man after God’s own heart. He shows up at the battlefield to bring some food and supplies to the troops. He finds out that Goliath has been taunting the Israelites for 40 days.

David starts to question the troops about the fight. He questions why the soldiers allow this man to defy, intimidate, embarrass, and shame the armies of God. David’s brother hears about this and basically tells David to get lost. No doubt he is a little jealous. After all, this kid is a Shepard, not a soldier.

King Saul hears about David’s activity and sends for him. David convinces Saul to allow him to fight the giant. Again, from a human standpoint, this is a ridiculous idea. David was young and inexperienced. Goliath was a seasoned veteran, a warrior.

The fate of Israel rested in his battle. If David loses then Israel is enslaved to the Philistines. Saul was taking quite a risk here.

Think about it for a minute. Normally, we select people who are humanly qualified to do a job. Likewise, we normally take on responsibilities for which we feel qualified. Sure faith is important, but it doesn’t remove the need for qualified people to do certain jobs.

We must continue to rely on God for strength and guidance in our lives. David surely did. As part of his conversation with Saul, David tells about his experience protecting his sheep from bears and lions. But David knew he was only able to protect his sheep because of God.

Because of his experiences, David is confident that he can defeat Goliath. David knows that God has been with him, is currently with him, and will be with him in the future as well. The same applies to us today as well.

Think about some of the events that have happened in your life. Surely looking back on things you can see God’s hand at work. No doubt you can still see God at work in your lives today as well. So why would you even think that He won’t be there for you tomorrow.

It’s time for the battle. David grabs five rocks and heads out to face off against the giant. Goliath basically laughs in David’s face and continuously insults him. Goliath has quite the attitude. But David has something better. He comes in faith with God on his side.

Of course, we know how the story ends. David flings a rock at Goliath that knocks him to the ground. David grabs Goliath’s sword and chops off his head. And as any good story ends, they all lived happily ever after, right? Well not quite as we shall see in the coming weeks.

The key lesson for this morning is the fact that the battle is the Lord’s. We must trust in God’s Word. Of course, in order to trust in His Word, we must know His Word. We must read and study His Word and continually place it into action in our lives.

No doubt, the Israelites knew God’s Word. They knew they were the chosen people. They knew that God would protect them, but they failed to take what they knew and place it into action.

Each of us face struggles and troubles everyday. Maybe there is a Goliath of a problem that we are trying to deal with. But we must put our faith into action like David did and trust that God will see us through whatever situation we are facing.

One of the great myths of our society and this is something that we even teach our children, is “if you set your mind to it, you can do anything.” That is simply not true. The message of the world is this: victory goes to the strong and the spoils of victory to those who are powerful.

Well as we see in our lesson this morning that is not God’s way. As we learned a while ago in our studies of the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in Spirit, blessed are the humble, blessed are the weak and so on.

God has some different ideas, and David represents those ideas to us this morning. David sums it up best in verse 47 right before he kills Goliath, “And everyone will know that the Lord does not need weapons to rescue his people. It is his battle, not ours. The Lord will give you to us!”

We can do nothing on our own, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. All things truly do work for good for those who love God and are called according to His will and purposes.

Let these be our words to live by this week.

Closing Prayer:

Lord, we thank you for these words of wisdom. Help us to truly trust in your word and act in ways that show our trust and confidence in your providence over our lives. Help us to realize that the battles of this world are not ours, but they are yours. We give you thanks for always being with us and ask for your continued patience with us as we journey through life.

AMEN.