1 Samuel 17

Anyone who has ever been deeply disappointed by a friend or family member can understand why aged Samuel mourned so long over King Saul. Israel had rejected Samuel’s leadership over them

because he was too old, and they didn’t want his sons to succeed him because they accepted bribes and perverted justice (8:3). But King Saul was guilty of disobeying God’s clear commandments and also of lying about what he had done, and because of these sins, he had forfeited his throne. He was still in office and yet was unfit to lead the nation, and Samuel had broken fellowship with him (15:34–35). In his grief, Samuel must have felt like a dismal failure as a father, a spiritual leader, and a mentor to the new king. The word translated “mourn” means “to mourn for the dead” and reveals the depths of Samuel’s sorrow.

There is a time to mourn (Eccl. 3:4), but there is also a time to act (Josh. 7:10), and for Samuel, that time had arrived. In spite of how he felt about himself, Samuel’s work wasn’t over yet, for God wanted him to anoint the new king, David, the son of Jesse. If Saul was “the people’s king,” then David was God’s king, and the events recorded in these two chapters indicate clearly that God’s hand was unquestionably on David, the leader of His choice.

David didn’t remain in Saul’s camp permanently but went back and forth between the camp and home as he was needed (v. 15 niv). Whenever he was called to help Saul, he left his flock with a dependable man (v. 20) and hurried to the camp where now he even had his own tent (v. 54). It wasn’t until after David killed Goliath that Saul took him permanently to be one of his armor-bearers (18:1–2). David was a Spirit-led man and his every decision had to be in the will of God and for the glory of God. Others might come and go as they pleased, but David was guided by the providential hand of God. We can see the guidance of God in the events reported in chapter 17.

Goliath is described as standing nine feet, nine inches tall, wearing a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds and carrying a spear that weighed 15 pounds. He was a formidable opponent indeed. He had presented himself to the army of Israel each morning and evening for forty days, and apparently David arrived on the final day (17:16). Jesse chose just the right day to send David to the battlefield to carry food supplies to his three brothers and their commanding officer (vv. 17–18). Unlike modern armies, soldiers in ancient armies had to provide their own rations and help provide for others.

David was up very early that day and heard the morning challenge that Goliath gave to Saul and his army. If the Israelites could provide a champion who was able to defeat Goliath, the Philistines would submit to the Jews and be their servants, but if not, the Israelites must consider themselves defeated and become the servants of the Philistines (vv. 8–9). Unfortunately, nobody in the Jewish army volunteered, including King Saul, who stood head and shoulders above his men. Since Israel had come to a crisis in this confrontation, Saul made a generous offer to the man who would silence Goliath: he would marry one of the king’s daughters, receive great riches from the king, and take his father’s house off the tax rolls. Saul hoped that somebody would be tempted by the offer and try to defeat Goliath.

David’s response to Goliath’s arrogant speech was that of total disgust. Who was this uncircumcised Philistine to blaspheme the name of the God of Israel? Keep in mind that David was too young to serve in the army, but he was acting as though anybody in the camp who had faith in Jehovah could challenge Goliath and defeat him! But all he saw were men fleeing from the field at the very sight of the giant, and even King Saul was terrified (vv. 11, 24). God had brought David to the camp for such a time as this, and he was ready to accept the challenge.

Whenever you step out by faith to fight the enemy, there’s always somebody around to discourage you, and often it begins in your own home. David’s eldest brother, Eliab, became angry when he heard that David was inquiring about Saul’s offer and he ridiculed him (vv. 28–30). “We’re soldiers and all you are is a shepherd boy! You came to see the battle! Go home and take care of your little flock and leave the fighting to us!” Of course, the fact that there had been no battle didn’t embarrass Eliab, and he also forgot that David had originally come in order to deliver food for him, Abinadab, and Shammah. These three men had seen David anointed by Samuel but they didn’t understand what it meant.

“[A] man’s foes shall be they of his own household,” promised Jesus (Matt. 10:36; see Mic. 7:6), and that promise was true in David’s life. It was also true in the life of Joseph, whose brothers hated him, lied about him, and sold him for a slave. Moses was criticized by his own brother and sister (Num. 12), and our Lord’s earthly family at one time misunderstood Him and opposed His ministry (Mark 3:31–35; John 7:1–10). But David didn’t allow Eliab’s harsh words to discourage him, for he knew that God could help him defeat the giant.

But King Saul wasn’t any more help, either in what he said or what he advised. “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth” (1 Sam. 17: nkjv). Saul was echoing the report of the ten unbelieving spies who saw the giants in Canaan and decided that it was impossible to enter the land (Num. 13:28–29). When we walk by sight, we calculate everything from the human perspective, and this always leads to discouragement; but when we walk by faith, God comes into the equation, and that changes the results.

David had experienced the power of God in his own life and he knew that the Lord could turn weakness into power. While caring for the sheep, David had killed a lion and a bear, and he knew that the Lord could deliver him out of the hand of Goliath. It’s as though he sees Goliath as just another animal attacking God’s flock! Saul knew nothing personally about this wonderful power of God, so he advised David to wear his armor. Saul didn’t have the faith to believe that God could do something new, so he suggested the old-fashioned time-honored method of warfare. King Saul was a grown man and a large one at that, and David was only a teenager, so imagine what the armor looked like on David’s body! But men and women of faith obey God no matter what the experts say.

David’s encouragement came from God, and this is one of the secrets of his life. “But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. 30:6). In spite of criticism and in spite of discouraging counsel and bad advice, David trusted the Lord his God, and God rewarded his faith.

“All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, wrote those words, but even more, he lived them. “I am the very little servant of an illustrious Master,” he told a congregation in Australia. David understood what this meant, for he was but a teenager when he faced the giant, yet he knew that the Lord would be with him.

It was the Lord’s victory (vv. 40–47). It’s unfortunate that this dramatic account is considered primarily a children’s story or the basis for an allegory about defeating the “giants” in our lives. While there are many applications of a Bible passage, there is only one basic interpretation, and the interpretation here is that David did what he did for the glory of God. David came to the contest in the name of the Lord, the God of the armies of Israel, and he wanted Goliath, the Philistine army, and all the earth to know that the true and living God was Israel’s God (v. 46). Goliath had ridiculed Israel’s God and blasphemed His name, but David was about to set the record straight. David saw this as a contest between the true God of Israel and the false gods of the Philistines.

God wants to use His people to magnify His name to all the nations of the earth. This purpose was involved in the call of Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3) and God’s choice of the people of Israel (Deut. 28:9–10). One purpose for Israel’s sojourn in Egypt and the judgments God sent against Pharaoh was the proclaiming of God’s name and glory to all the earth (Ex. 9:16). The parting of the Red Sea to let Israel out, and the opening up of the Jordan River to let them into Canaan, bore witness to all the nations that Israel’s God was the true God (Josh. 4:23–24). Even the building of the temple was a witness to the Gentile nations of Israel’s God so that they might know Him and fear Him (1 Kings 8:42–43). What the Lord did through David would be recorded and told around the world and bring great honor to the name of the Lord.

The very weapon that David used—a sling—was a shepherd’s weapon, almost the toy of a child, and yet God used it to defeat the giant and rout the Philistine army. When Goliath saw a lad coming with a sling in one hand and a staff in the other, he laughed at him. “Am I a dog that you come at me with a stick?” But David announced that his real power was the name of the Lord of Hosts, the name that Goliath and the Philistines had insulted. David wanted the whole assembly—Israel and the Philistines—to know that the Lord doesn’t need swords and spears but can deliver His people in His own way through the humblest of means. No wonder David and Jonathan became such fast friends, for they both had faith in a mighty God and wanted to fight His battles to glorify Him (1 Sam. 13:6; Ps. 33:16–22; 44:6–8).

It was David’s victory (vv. 48–51a). The Lord uses means to accomplish His purposes, and David was the prepared servant for this occasion. As a shepherd alone in the fields, he had learned to trust God, and as a faithful guardian of the flock, he had mastered the use of the sling. David had confident faith in God because he had found Him dependable in the crises of life, and he knew that the Lord would not desert him now. The Spirit of God lived in David’s body and would enable him to win the battle. God guided the stone and it sank into the giant’s forehead and he fell on his face before the two armies. David stood over the fallen giant, took out the giant’s sword, and cut off his head, an act that not only guaranteed the victim’s death but also humiliated him and his army and announced total victory. Years later, David would write, “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.… He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze” (Ps. 18:32, 34 nkjv).

It became Israel’s victory (vv. 51b–54). Even as a youth, David displayed one of the marks of a great leader: he took the risk and opened the way so that others could share in the victory. The Philistines didn’t keep their part of the bargain and submit to Israel (v. 9); instead, they fled in fear, so the Jews chased them at least ten miles to the cities of Gath (Goliath’s hometown, v. 4) and Ekron, slaying the enemy soldiers all the way. It turned out to be a tremendous victory for Saul’s army. When the Israelites returned to the Philistine camp, they claimed the spoils of the victory that the Lord and David had won. David apparently accompanied the men in chasing the enemy (v. 57) and began to get the reputation of being a brave soldier (18:7). He stripped the giant and took his armor and put it in his tent. Later Goliath’s sword will show up with the Jewish priests in Nob (21:1–9), so David must have dedicated it to the Lord by giving it to the priests.

When did David take Goliath’s head to Jerusalem? Probably later when he conquered the city and made it his capital (2 Sam. 5:1–10). The city was known as Jebus in that day and was inhabited by the Jebusites (Judg. 19:10), so this verse was written into the text later when the name had been changed. When David moved into the city as king, he no doubt brought with him many precious trophies from his battles. The head of Goliath, as grisly as it was, would remind David that the Lord could be trusted to give the victory if we seek only to glorify Him.

It was not Saul’s victory (vv. 55–58). When Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost (14:1–23), Saul was a spectator, and his bad decisions almost cost them a victory, and once again, Saul merely watched as David defeated the enemy single-handed. This would be Saul’s pattern of leadership to the tragic end of his life.

Saul knew who David was, but he asked Abner who the lad’s father was, for in that day, that was how people were identified. Jesse had been mentioned earlier in Saul’s circle (16:18) but perhaps Abner wasn’t present and Saul may easily have forgotten. (Do we know the names of our acquaintances’ fathers?) As Saul’s minstrel, David went back and forth between home and the camp, and he was present only when Saul was oppressed by the evil spirit; so we can excuse Saul for not knowing who Jesse was. The fact that the victor’s family was relieved of paying taxes, and he would marry Saul’s daughter was part of the bargain (17:25), so Saul would have to inquire about the father. Finally, Saul may have wanted to know if there were any more men like David back home. He probably didn’t know that three of David’s brothers were in his army, but he could have used a few more men like David! (See 14:52.) The result of the day’s victory was that David was added permanently to Saul’s staff.

It has well been said that there are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who don’t know that anything is happening. David had insight into Israel’s plight and knew what was happening. He realized that it wasn’t a physical conflict between two armies, but a spiritual battle between truth and error, faith and superstition, the true and living God and dead idols. David’s faith lifted the war to a much higher plane, just as Paul did in Ephesians 6:10ff. Our battle is against the devil and his army, and human weapons are useless in that conflict.

Faith in God makes us participants with the Lord in the battle for truth. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).