Goliath, Seen When Faith Is Missing

David was simply tending sheep faithfully in his own place, but God saw his life, sent Samuel, and made him king. David’s steps, as he lived by God’s will, were clearly different from Saul’s. The first mission David received from God was to drive out an evil spirit, and it was given to teach him who it was he would have to fight from then on. With obedient faith David drove out the evil spirit that tormented Saul, and he worked the miracle of killing Goliath, whom the world stood in awe of, with a sling stone. It was not easy for young David to face Goliath, but he learned that when he went out in God’s name, he could win, whatever strength the opponent had.

Of course, he committed the sin of killing Uriah to take Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. But when we look back over David’s whole life, it is true that he devoted himself to God. What is clear is that when David was anointed by Samuel, he rightly understood what God wanted from him. Believers who have truly met God can live a life set apart from the people of the world.

As soon as the Philistines heard that an evil spirit had come on Saul, they attacked. Believers in God have failed to play their part, and that is why the nation is in trouble and crises come to churches and homes. Because they did not live out their faith, the places where believers stand have grown dark. Satan knows that believers are God’s people, yet he keeps trying without end to corrupt them and turn them into people of the world. From the moment he rebelled against God until now, Satan has not rested but walks around like a roaring lion to make even one soul stumble. He does not force people to stop believing in God. Instead he turns God into a god of prosperity, like an idol, and gets people to believe in a God made up of lies. For then believers are corrupted, chasing after the world instead of God’s will, so Satan can achieve his goal.

Believers today have forgotten the faith of their forebears, who were persecuted to keep the truth. They settle into the present and do not know what true faith is. Rather than trying to know the truth, they think church buildings, church offices, and wealth are blessings received in proportion to their faith. The wrong conduct of churches that do not stand firmly on the truth, and of believers who love the world, has become visible to the people of the world, and now they are attacking and mocking the church. This is exactly Satan’s goal. By exposing this side of the church to the world, he blocks from the start any chance for people to hear the Word of truth. As pastors and church members fight over their interests, making the size of the building and the number of people their strength, the world spreads the news even louder.

Why do they fight while saying the church is the body of Christ? While preaching that life in this world is the life of a sojourner, why are pastors and members splitting into sides and fighting to take over the church? Satan watches the churches moving according to his will and turns it into a big issue, so that more people of the world see the church’s wrong side and keep away from church. The buildings and the believers meant for God’s work have become the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The church, whose sin Jesus atoned for with his life, is living for the food that perishes, and as the price of that sin, the church and the nation are falling into confusion. To save souls, the church must take responsibility and repent.

Satan knows well how to attack us and win. He knows the churches want to be like the world, and so he uses the greed we carry as his tool. If you truly deal coldly with Satan and obey God in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, Satan will surely fall apart on his own. To keep our faith, we must know the Word deeply, and we should put down roots in the truth so that we are not uprooted even when fierce winds blow.

If you are in God, you will see that the world and Satan share the same purpose and move together, locked in step. The world is a shadow in which the spiritual world can be seen. So when you are with Christ, you can tell how Satan moves, and you can respond. Keep firmly in mind that Satan can do anything to bring you down, and hold on to the Lord with bold faith.

Matthew 10:16

16“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

These are the words Jesus spoke when he sent his disciples out into the world. The Lord knew the world was as dangerous as wolves, but to save souls he had no choice but to send his disciples into it. The world is endlessly cold, indifferent, and cruel toward the truth. To preach the gospel in so dangerous a world, he told them to judge quickly like serpents and persevere until they gain what they seek, and to have a faith as pure as doves. Spiritually, the serpent is Satan, who tempts people and brings God’s wrath upon them. Jesus told them to be wise like such an evil creature. In saying so, he was quoting a proverb about being as careful and discerning as a serpent.

The serpent tempted Eve and made even Adam, who had heard God’s word and knew it, disobey God’s word. That is why you must have eyes that see wide, deep, and far. When the serpent tempted Eve, it did not tell her outright to pick and eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. It approached her slowly so that she would not notice, and in the end it got what it wanted. Even if you know the Word, if you let your guard down, you will fall for Satan’s schemes as Eve did.

Jesus told his disciples that when they went out into the world to preach the gospel, they should have wisdom and discernment and carefully escape the dangers they would meet moment by moment. People easily become proud if they have wisdom alone, and so he told them to have the purity of doves, that is, a frank, honest, and innocent faith. You too can block Satan’s attacks only if you live in the world with the wisdom of the serpent and the purity of the dove.

1 Samuel 17:4-5

4A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out. 5He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he wore a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

Among the Philistine champions who attacked Israel was Goliath. Samuel goes out of his way to describe Goliath in this much detail to show how hard an opponent he was for Israel.

In ancient measurement, a cubit is reckoned at about 45 cm and a span at about 13 cm. If Goliath’s height was six cubits and a span, he would have been 283 cm tall. He had a helmet of brass on his head, and his coat weighed five thousand shekels of brass. At 11.5 g to the shekel, the coat alone comes to 57.5 kg. On top of that, Goliath carried a sword that weighed as much as 7 kg. In short, Goliath, the spearhead of the Philistine army, was so big and strong in body and in weapons that no ordinary person could compare with him. If a man like this called for single combat, would anyone readily step forward? Samuel describes Goliath in detail here so that we learn how David, a man of God, works his way through so great a crisis.

When Goliath shouted for anyone who would face him to come out, the soldiers of Israel held their breath in fear. Israel had no room to plan any strategy, nor could they put it off until another day. Someone had to fight Goliath. That is why Israel, caught with no way forward and no way back, must have been all the more afraid. Just as the Philistines invaded when Israel was weak, seizing the opening, believers may suddenly meet a Goliath when they grow spiritually weak. That is because Satan is watching for the times when believers are not spiritually full.

Though Goliath mocked them in a loud voice, not one Israelite stepped forward. When God was their king, he himself worked so that they could win every battle, but Israel, having rejected God and chosen man, is holding its breath at Goliath’s roar. Saul, who had stolen God’s glory to make a name for himself, could do nothing once God’s Spirit left him.

However huge Goliath’s frame, to God he is only a creature. For those who trust in God’s name there is no Goliath they cannot defeat, so God must have been exasperated to watch his people hiding before Goliath. You too have probably met many Goliaths in the world. Your Goliaths may be people who are hard to face, worldly tasks that overwhelm you, and competition too much to bear. They may be a family you cannot share your heart with and poverty, and the many problems and illnesses you cannot solve by your own strength may be Goliaths too. You may lose heart and weep because you cannot defeat that Goliath, but however much you cry, Goliath does not go away. King Saul, whom God’s Spirit had left, and soldiers without faith cannot defeat Goliath roaring like a beast, however many of them there are. In the same way, people who have left God have strayed from Christ, who is the way, and so they can never escape Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:45

45Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

This scene shows well how a person who relies wholly on God faces Goliath. Believers who have the sword of the Word can defeat any Goliath they meet. Satan appears suddenly with problems believers would fear, but believers full of faith entrust everything to God, and so they never panic or lose heart.

David boldly told Goliath that Goliath might talk big with the world’s power, but he would fight in the name of Yahweh, whom Goliath was defying. Goliath had thought no one would be a match for him, and when he looked at David, who had come out to fight, he saw a boy, very young and good-looking. With so many strong soldiers there, a child had come out without a weapon, in the name of Yahweh, and Goliath must have been dumbfounded. If David had not taunted him, Goliath would have given up on fighting, since having no one stand against him was itself a victory.

We can see that God’s battles always proceed in God’s own special way, beyond human common sense. After all, he solved Israel’s crisis, which no one could resolve, so easily, by raising up young David, small and insignificant. Even when, to human eyes, it seems it could never be solved, we can see it solved so easily it is almost absurd when God does it. When we think there is absolutely no way and see God solve it in a way no one imagined, we cannot say how thankful we are to believe in God, or how joyful it is.

Just as anyone can suddenly meet a Goliath, David never imagined that the day would come when he would meet such a huge Philistine champion. David had only done his best tending sheep, and when bears and lions carried off the sheep, he protected them without sparing his own life, and God used that loving heart, that sense of responsibility, and that ability. David was not at all afraid to face Goliath, who looked like a beast. For he only had to see him as a beast after the lives of the sheep. When you live a life of faith, God remembers those good deeds and brings them to light at the most fitting time, so that you are recognized by everyone. From the human side, this event was clearly a crisis for Israel and for David. But from God’s side, it was the best opportunity to reveal David, the one he had prepared. If you too do your best in small things, God will raise you high in an instant, so that everyone acknowledges you.

David came to the battlefield on an errand for his father and happened to see Goliath. When he said he would fight him, his brothers brushed him aside and rebuked him harshly. They got angry, saying that a worthless boy like him was stepping forward in so great a matter as the nation’s war because his heart was stubborn. The world looks at the outward conditions it can see, so it never acknowledges anyone who does not meet the conditions it wants. If David had had a huge build like Goliath’s, the people of Israel would have come looking for him first. When God calls his workers, he calls people prepared in faith rather than people with outward qualifications, and he lifts them up and glorifies them. So that faith may truly be faith, he seats them in fitting places, and through those places he makes the believers who carry that faith shine.

David stood before Goliath with five stones. He told Goliath he would show that God does not save with sword and spear, and that salvation belongs to Yahweh. When he finished speaking, Goliath rushed at David in a rage, swift as an arrow. But the sling stone David threw was faster, and the stone sank into Goliath’s forehead. David, who had always fought beasts to save lives, struck Goliath squarely in the forehead as he charged. However much Goliath comes charging with the world’s power and Satan’s plans behind him, the stone a believer throws in faith can stop Goliath, that beast.

What is the Goliath that torments you? Look back and see: is it the neighbor’s child who does well at school, or a friend with a lot of money, or yourself, always thirsty for the world and unable to go to God? However big a taut advertising balloon floating in the sky may be, it loses its shape in an instant when pricked with a small awl. In the same way, the Goliath standing before the children of faith is like a huge balloon.

Goliath, who had been charging at David, was gone in an instant when the stone struck him. It was terrifying when he charged, as though it meant death, but when David took courage and threw the stone of faith, Goliath died. The Goliath you see is like a balloon that looks bigger when you have no faith, when you fear your opponent, when you lack confidence, when you are unhappy with your circumstances. So when you take courage in faith, Goliath will disappear.

No Goliath can defeat those who go out carrying the white stone that is Christ. When you live in your own place, fearing God and doing your best, God will lift you up and glorify you as he did David. May you always live with a faith that is wise as a serpent and pure as a dove. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 18:1-12

1When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. 3Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. 4Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even including his sword, his bow, and his sash. 5David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over the men of war. It was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants. 6As they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music. 7The women sang to one another as they played, and said, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” 8Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?” 9Saul watched David from that day and forward. 10On the next day, an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the middle of the house. David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; 11and Saul threw the spear, for he said, “I will pin David even to the wall!” David escaped from his presence twice. 12Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and had departed from Saul.