THE IMPOSSIBLE THING - II
I Samuel 17:4-11, 16, 20-25
Virg Hurley
Sermon, March 20, 2016
David had gone to the battle line; heard Goliath’s roaring challenge to Israel; volunteered to engage him; been outfitted in Saul’s gear and found them wanting; dressed in his homespun and went to meet the foe.
A. To achieve victory David had to use his God-given skills.
B. To achieve victory David had to focus on God, not Goliath.
Lest we forget: Goliath represented all the terrible fear Satan engenders when we think of opposing him. All nine feet, five hundred pounds reeked of contempt for ordinary mortals. His military hardware matched his size. The Bible writer left nothing unsaid of Goliath’s impregnability. A coat of scale armor—one plate lying on another—not the usual iron rings linked together—weighed 125 pounds. Bronze greaves covered his legs and a bronze helmet his head. Goliath effortlessly flung a bronze, not a wooden javelin, over his shoulder, and for sport extended his 20 pound spear at arm’s length, holding it there as an expression of titanic strength.
As such behemoths often do, as playground bullies did and do, he intimidated his opponents into surrender. Like Frankenstein he stalked out of his lines everyday to stand in valley center: to issue his challenge, to strut back and forth, then return to his tent, his day’s work done—and not a minute too soon, with the sun glaring at him from a clear blue sky.
His appeal was simplicity itself. “Let’s not have your army fight our army. Let me stand for my side and someone stand for yours, and whichever one of us wins will be the same as our whole army winning.” The brute could afford the swagger. No warrior in Israel came close to his size. And Saul, more terrified than the rest, suffered the opprobrium by being taller than anyone else and, therefore, the likeliest candidate to meet the enemy.
Abhorring the challenge, the king instead ordered skirmishers out regularly to engage their counterparts in brief, bloody battles of clubs, spears and swords. Then the troops broke contact and retired from the field until the next day’s skirmish. War by boredom: hurry up and wait; hurry up and fight; hurry up and retire.
David stood on the valley floor and looked up the hillside where Israelite warriors peered down. He instinctively jerked his hand into the air and screamed the name of God Almighty. And, from the summit, waves of cheering washed over the lad, flooding him with excitement.
Forward to the battle. Across the swells in the valley floor David marched to his destiny with greatness. And, seeing an Israelite at last advancing alone, Goliath began his death march from perhaps 75 yards.
At 50 yards he stopped, looked, gaped, and began to swear in thunderous disdain against the insult Israel had delivered. Had Saul no code of honor? Didn’t he know that personal combat demanded at least somewhat-equal combatants? Did Saul consider him so little worth honor he treated him like a dog! For 40 days he’d been licking his chops waiting a fight. And Israel had at long last sent someone out—and he turned out to be a runt, an unarmed child. Oh, the rage the giant felt. Oh, the curses with which he poisoned the air.
Then he finally decided: O.K., that’s the way Saul wants it, it will have to do. He would take revenge on Saul later. Just now he’d consume the pup standing insolently 50 yards away. He’d use that boy as an example of his prowess. He’d hoist him on his spear, holding him aloft to the shame of Israel, then toss him off to die in a heap.
“You want a fight, boy?” he sneered at David. “Fine; let’s fight. But I’ll warn you now, you’ll lie in this field until birds eat your eyes out and animals bare your bones.”
This is what we call a boast.
David stood those yards apart, listening. When Goliath finished, David began, answering boast with boast. Only he out boasted Goliath in length and in content.
In God’s name he had come, not with sword or spear, David shouted. And the God he served, whom Goliath had disgraced, would deliver him up. David would strike him, cut off his head and see to it that Goliath’s corpse remained on the field to be consumed by carrion. It would all be done to prove that Israel had a God who saved by his power alone.
So...all the talking was over; all the bragging was done. Who could deliver the goods? The two stood closer now, less than 40 yards, Goliath sneering in contempt at David, David dripping with scorn for Goliath. The time for action had come, David trusting in God, Goliath in his size.
In a sudden rage Goliath lumbered forward, expecting David to run for cover. Instead David loped forward in a sweat of concentration, looking for his chance to hit Goliath with the stone snuggled in the sling.
Intending to terrify David, Goliath clanked and clanged onward in his armor, spear held aloft and cocked, ready to hurl, his voice booming across the plain, denouncing David, cursing God, shouting defiance to any who stood in his way. On he came, a tank in human form to wreak his vengeance. On he came, the miserable behemoth, to kill the king.
David calmly viewed the oncoming menace and saw the opening. The giant had defense everywhere except around his nose and lower forehead. David watched, Goliath continued his noisy approach, his eyes flaming, spittle forming on his beard as he alternately cursed and threatened mayhem.
Out of his lope David broke into a trot, heart pumping wildly. His trot became a wind sprint covering the last twenty yards between them. And as he flew across the ground practiced hands armed the sling, pulled it aloft and at ten yards, as Goliath readied his spear to strike, David twirled his slingshot once, twice, thrice, then let it go....
Time stood still as David glided to Goliath's right, and re armed to strike again. Without need. For the stone had almost instantly crashed into Goliath's forehead. Stopped in his tracks, he at first did nothing but look balefully at the youth, his wounded face a puzzled question, “What happened?” David’s mocking stare tapped at his forehead. Goliath pulled his eyes up to see a bump above his nose, instinctively reached to feel...and understood. A pitiful moan fled his mouth. His knees buckled, his unspent spear fell and he slowly, limb by limb, frame by frame, section by section collapsed into the dirt.
David quickly bent at Goliath's side, whipped his sword from the scabbard and severed his head. Holding the grisly trophy aloft, David waved it to Israel. They burst into a guttural war hoop that terrified the Philistines, who fled across the mountains and down to the seacoast towns, angry Israelite warriors pursuing and unleashing vengeance to the very gates of Gath and Ekron.
Conclusion
Remember: both David and Goliath had power. Goliath represented the 10th century B.C. danger to Israel that 21st century A.D. nuclear-Iran poses to her. Under ordinary circumstances he proved the invincible champion, armed-to-the-teeth, powered by the best this world had to offer. No one on either mountaintop bet on David.
But...thank God for this...Goliath wasn't fighting a boy, but the Living God. David repeatedly wound the two-stringed sling with a pouch. But God released the one string that sent the stone like a guided IBM missile into Goliath’s brain, above his nose, below his helmet. Since David's God is now for us, who or what can successfully withstand us?
