Saga: The Story of David: A Giant Surprise
June 19, 2016
Rev. Bill Denham
1 Samuel 17:38-51

Our Scripture reading this morning comes from First Samuel 17, and it’s printed in your inside-out insert in your bulletin, and if you’d like to follow along please do as I read.
Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them.Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him.When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.”But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of theLordof hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.This very day theLordwill deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israeland that all this assembly may know that theLorddoes not save by sword and spear; for the battle is theLord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, striking down the Philistine and killing him; there was no sword in David’s hand.Then David ran and stood over the Philistine; he grasped his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him; then he cut off his head with it.
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. (I Samuel 17:38-51 – NRSV)
And now, Lord, as my words are your words, may they be taken to heart. And if I should stray from your words, may they be just as quickly forgotten. Amen.
Several weeks ago Dr. Pace contacted me and asked me if I would be willing to preach for him this morning. He is out of town on vacation, and I was delighted and honored. I said, “Yes, I would.” He said, “We’re going to have a series of stories about King David. It’ll be called the King David Saga. And I’ll send you the Scriptures I want you to preach on. So he sent me the chapter that has to do with the confrontation between David and Goliath. I was very excited. I went home and told Laura about it. I said, “I’ve got this great sermon title.” She said, “Bill, you cannot use that.”
I said, “Why not?” And she said. “We are Methodist. This is St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. You cannot use it.” I said, “Okay.” Anyway so the title in your bulletin is another I came up with. It’s called “A Giant Surprise.”
Do you all want to know my original title? It was “It Don’t Mean a Thing if You Ain’t Got that Sling.”
Okay, let’s look at the story. The Philistines are on the move. They live on this very narrow strip of land that is sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea and the Israelites’ lands. So if they are going to expand their territory at all, the only way they can do it is to go east. And this is exactly what they had done. They had invaded Israelite territory. Saul, the king, and the leader of the army, has come out to meet the Philistines, and they are lined up and have positioned themselves on different hillsides. The Israelites are on one side, and the Philistines are on the other and in between them is this valley.
Now both of them are in wonderful positions, defensive positions, because whatever army tries to make the initiative they will have to come out of their safe position. They will have to come down the side of their mountain, go into the valley and then go up the other side to face the opposing army. It’s really an uphill battle.
Now long ago, in order to avoid massive bloodshed, it was not uncommon for leaders of different armies to agree to have sort of a single combat. That meant that both armies choose their best warrior, their champion, to go down and fight it out. It would be a fight to the death with the winner take all depending on who won. And whoever the winner was they were declared the victors.
Well, the Philistine champion is Goliath. He is described earlier in the Bible as Goliath of Gath, and Gath was a part of Philistia. It was known for having tall people. Even so in Gath Goliath is the tallest of the tallest. Just imagine if you will Shaquille O’Neal and then add two feet. This was one big guy. He’s fully armored. He has 225 pounds of bronze armor. His spear alone that he’s able to lift and throw with great agility, weighs 16 pounds.
And who do the Israelites have? Well, they had Saul. He’s their king, a veteran of many battles and has been very successful. But even King Saul does not want to take on this Goliath. And our hero then appears on the scene.
David the shepherd arrives. He’s got ruddy cheeks, he’s probably got some peach fuzz on his chin. He’s a teenager and he keeps the sheep. And he’s bringing food from home to his brothers who are in the army.
The site of this battle is about 15 miles east of the Mediterranean Sea and about 15 miles west of Bethlehem. It’s almost midway. So it would not have been a long distance for David to come to bring this food to his brothers.
He gets there just in time to hear Goliath bellowing, taunting, cursing and making insulting remarks. And of course at the end issuing his challenge. Which, by the way, has gone unmet for 40 consecutive days both in the morning and in the afternoon. And David is thinking, “These men are in our territory. They’ve invaded our land – how can this be possible?”
Then he quickly realizes that the entire army is absolutely terrified of this man. David gets into a conversation with his brothers, and King Saul hears about this conversation, and he sends for him to come to his tent. David goes to his tent, and they began to dialogue. And David convinces Saul that he is the one who can defeat Goliath. Saul offers David his armor, his big helmet, his huge helmet. He offers him his armor. He has David strap his belt around him and put on his sword. David tries to move around, and he can’t. Kind of reminds me of when I was a little boy and I’d dress up in my daddy’s clothes. His coat would be too big and likewise the tie, the shirt and the hat. It just did not work.
So David must have been laughing to himself, thinking, “This guy’s got to be kidding. There is no way I can use this armor and be successful in my fight against Goliath.”
I remember a big business meeting that I went to many years ago in San Antonio. I knew at this meeting it would be rather confrontational, so I thought, “I’m going to wear my best armor.” I had my best suit, my best tie, my best shoes and I looked sharp. I’d taken out everything I thought I needed for this, and it was at one of those swanky hotels where they have the little bottles of shampoos on the counter in the bathroom. I thought, “Well, I’ll just take advantage of this. It’ll make some super armor for me to use.”
Big mistake. When I got out of the shower after washing my hair, the top of my head smelled like orange blossom lemon fresh jungle gardenia. It was horrible. I spent the rest of the day trying to pretend that I had a head that didn’t smell terrible. Everybody else went around sniffing the air.
David did not make that mistake. He didn’t make the same mistake I did. David knows he cannot wear someone else’s armor. And so he chooses to use his own.
Now David is a slinger. Remember that, because from surviving friezes that we have found from thousands of years ago from the walls of ancient buildings, we know that there were three kinds of warriors that lived and fought during that time. The first was the cavalry, the men who rode on horseback or in chariots. The second was the heavy infantry or foot soldiers. They were armed foot soldiers with swords and shields and protective armor. And the third group was the artillery. These were the archers, the javelin throwers, and these were the slingers. We’re not talking about a slingshot here, like the type some of us had as boys. We’re talking about a sling, which was a small leather pouch, maybe a few inches long, and it had cords at either end of it. What you did was take a very serious rock or a round ball made of metal and put it there. Then you began to swing it as fast as you could go, and then you let it fly. These could be used with amazing accuracy.
That stone or ball would be moving at about 35 meters a second. Those of you who follow baseball just imagine the fastest pitch you’ve ever seen by a professional baseball player slamming into someone’s head. Seasoned slingers, those who had been in many battles, were capable of either killing or either maiming another soldier from as many as over 100 yards away. Amazing!
Well, David had that skill. He wasn’t just lying down out there on that hillside scratching the sheep on their heads and looking at the stars. He’s become proficient in that and he says he’s been able to protect the animals in different ways from these animals that would come in and kill the sheep.
David knows what he knows. And he knows that he cannot wear another man’s armor and get the job done. So he grabs his staff, and gets 5 smooth stones, put them in his shepherd’s sack, grabs his sling and walks into the valley.
Goliath appears again, bellowing, insulting. He insults the army, he insults the Israelite people. He insults even the Israelite God Yahweh. And he ends up saying to David, “I’m going to make road kill out of you!”
David gives it right back. In what almost amounts to an invocation David says to him, “This battle belongs to God.”
Goliath starts moving slowly toward David. On the other hand, David starts running toward Goliath. He puts a stone in his sling and begins swinging it, then lets it go. Bam! He hits Goliath right in the middle of the forehead. Stunned, maybe even dead, certainly semi-conscious, Goliath falls forward, face down in the dirt. David didn’t waste any time. He raced up, gets Goliath’s sword out of the scabbard, and he chops off Goliath’s head. And the Philistine army was stunned, dumbfounded, absolutely terrified. They take off running for their lives.
David is kind of being like Indiana Jones. Remember in “The Raiders of the Lost Ark” where the Arab guy has that fancy sword, and he’s whirling it around? He intends to cut Indiana into pieces. And what does Indie do? He just reaches in his pocket, gets out his pistol, and blows him away!
Well, that’s what David has done. And this story is a real humdinger. But the question is what does this story that happened 3000 years ago have to do with us today? Everything. Everything. Because it is God’s intention for each of us to defeat the giants in our lives.
And we all have giants. This isn’t a story about a superior military weapon. This isn’t a story about a teenager who got off a lucky shot against the incredible hulk in the Philistine army. This is a story about a man Goliath, well seasoned, and well armed, with lots of experience in armor depending on himself versus David, a teenager with limited experience, but with the full power of the Lord on his side.
Now what is a giant? What is a giant? It’s a problem or situation that fills you with fear or controls your life. And the list of giants is a long one. It may be the death of a family member. It may be a divorce. It may be a business loss. It may be a very serious illness. It could be depression. The list goes on and on.
For me the giant in my life came in the fall of 1987. I’d been a fairly successful businessman in Beaumont, and in November of 1987 it all came crashing down. I lost my business. We lost our home. We lost our savings. We lost our country club membership. The trips to Europe - that was all over. Gone. And I was so angry. I was so bitter. I felt like I had been absolutely betrayed, and I was just furious, so, so angry.
I was fighting the giants of depression – all that comes in. I had to look my wife in the face and tell her that I’d lost her home. It was unbelievable.
And since this is Father’s Day, I will tell you that it was my father who helped me begin to defeat my giants. A couple of weeks after that Dad called me and he said, “Now, Bill, I want you to listen to me. I want to tell you something, and I want you to listen closely. I know you’ve lost everything, the business, the home, everything. It’s gone. And one of the things you were counting on was leaving something for your children to inherit. And that’s not going to happen. But how you and Laura conduct yourselves during this time will be the greatest gift you can give them.
“Because if you don’t think that each of those children that you love and adore (they were twelve, ten and six), if you don’t think that each of them is not going to face a giant in their lives, then you’re wrong. One of them may lose a business. One of them may have a bad marriage. One of them may have a special needs child. One may go through a severe depression. I’m telling you that it’s going to happen to each one of your children. And if they can see how you conducted yourself with God’s help during this time, it will be the greatest inheritance they can receive.”
That was a hard conversation for me to hear. But I thought he was right. I didn’t want my children to grow up and be angry and bitter and against the world. I didn’t want that. And I was. I sat in those pews, week after week, my teeth clenched and my fist clenched, and when they said the Lord’s Prayer, not me. To ask God to forgive me like I had forgiven others, I wanted to go blow some men’s kneecaps off. No, I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t.
But God had spoken to me through that conversation with my father. That conversation was the sling that I needed to begin to defeat my giants. I prayed that God would help me be the best father and the best husband I could during this time.
You see, giants can paralyze you. Goliath paralyzed an entire army. And why did that happen? It happened because the leader, King Saul, had drifted away from God. He began relying on his own advice, his own brains, his own ability. He had drifted away from God.
And, my friends, your distance from God largely determines the size of your giant. Your distance largely determines the size of your giant. See, when David was fighting, he didn’t say, “It’s between you and me.” No, he said, “This is between you and God. This is between you and Yahweh.”
So how do we defeat these giants? How do we defeat them? I’d say there are two ways. One is to rely completely on God and secondly, use the armor that you already have. You cannot defeat the armor wearing another person’s piece of armor. People, even well intentioned people, may try to give you their armor. They may offer it to you. But most of the time it doesn’t work, it doesn’t fit. What works for them does not and will not work for you. You must let God be in control.
See, David didn’t have to out and find something, he already had it. It was the understanding of God’s power through his sling.
I’d say too that in your battle with the giant you will know when you’re losing. When you’re running away from the giant, what did David do? He ran toward the giant. He leaned in. He faced him and ran toward him. And when you have the full power of God behind you the giant loses the advantage. The giant falters and falls.
Now one thing, because I’ve got so much snow on the mountain up here, I’ll tell you. Giants don’t always go down on the first sling. Golly! I wish they did. But most of the time they don’t. Remember, David didn’t just take one stone with him. He took five. And if that first stone hadn’t worked, then he had another to get out and do it again, and to do it again. But if you go into battle fully equipped with the power of God behind you, and you keep on slinging, eventually your giant will go down at your feet.
God is greater than all of our giants. In Ephesians chapter 3 from the Message version here are these words: “God can do anything, far more than you could imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams.”
We need to believe that. Some of our tried and true methods are slings of prayer, keeping the faith, studying the Word of God, and spending time with Christian friends. In 2 Timothy, a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Pace had this as part of his Scripture for his sermon. It’s when Paul writes to Timothy, “And God did not create you with a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
I don’t know what giants you’re facing today. But I would suspect that most of you have faced some before. Like David, you’ve already fought some mountain lions and some bears, and what happened I suspect that for some of you God moved mountains. For some of you God made the impossible possible.
It was in May of 1988. Laura and I had lost everything the previous November. Christmas was bleak and the spring was awful. Laura and I were still trying to pick up the pieces of our lives. We’d moved from a beautiful antebellum mansion, 5400 square air conditioned feet into a tiny little rent house with a thousand square feet. All three of the kids and here are me and the furniture. We learned that Will’s Scout troop that he was in was going to Camp Philmont that summer. They always had a big trip. Camp Philmont was a wonderful Boy Scout camp located in northeastern New Mexico. Some of you men may have been there. Some friends of us came to us and said, “We want to pay for Will’s trip. We want him to go.” And we were thrilled, and we accepted. But they said, “You’ll have to furnish Will with his spending money.”
That was a bit of a challenge, but Laura and I came up with $35. That’s all we had, that’s all we could do. And when we came up with the $35, I had a sit-down visit with Will. I told him, “Will, this is all we’ve got. Now on this trip, those other boys will be buying belt buckles and arrow heads and all kinds of caps and souvenirs. You don’t have the money to do that. I have just enough money here so you can have a cold drink or maybe an ice cream once a day on your trip. But you’re going to have to be very responsible with this because this is it.” He said, “I understand, Daddy.”
So off they went on the trip and had a marvelous time. They came back and the families met them and Will got out and came running, and hugged Laura and me. He was lugging this statue, plaster of Paris thing, that was about that big and that wide and weighed 20 pounds. It was of an Indian shooting an arrow with his bow.
“What have you got there?” we asked him. He said, “Well, I’ve got this statue. Do you like it, Dad?” I said, “Yes, it’s really nice.” He said, “I bought it the third day.” And I said, “The third day? Will, wait a minute. You mean you spent all your money on the third day? You didn’t save it? That means you didn’t have anything to drink on those other days.”
He said, “I know, I know, but do you like it?” I said, Yes, yes, I like it.” But I was so irritated. I thought, “This is not the agreement that we made.”
And he said, “Yeah, but you like it, Dad?” I said, “Yes.” Then he said. “I’m glad, Dad, I bought it for you. Happy Father’s Day.”
Now in that moment, Church, I knew that I had begun to defeat my giants. And I tell you this morning that God loves you, he loves me, and he is there to provide the sling that we need to defeat our giants.
David said, “All those gathered here will know it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. And he will give you into our hands.”
It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that sling!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.