Good to see some new faces here as well. I should go away more often, the church will grow. But no, wonderful to see, I think some visiting here. We have obviously Jeremy Nester from Bathurst but other faces as well. So we welcome you this morning and we're going to turn in our Bibles please to 1 Samuel and chapter 17. 1 Samuel and chapter 17. if you're just joining us, we are going through a couple of series which we're going to just put on pause for a couple of weeks. We're going through Genesis on Sunday mornings and Ezra Sunday evenings and God willing we will get back to those series soon but it would seem a waste to spend all that time and money and effort going to Israel not to at least share some of the overflow with you for the first couple of weeks but after being back and so we're going to start with where we started really at the beginning of the trip and pull out one of the highlights there from the first day which was our visit to the Valley of Elar, the location of one of the most glorious faith victories recorded in the Word of God. No doubt the story of David or the account of David and Goliath would have to be one of the most famous Bible stories, one of the most famous Bible accounts. We learn it as children in Sunday school. It's so famous that the term, a David and Goliath battle, has found its way into even popular language used by people who do not even believe the Bible. But what I want to do this morning is to really give you a sense for some of the geographical context because that's what we were seeing on this trip. and as well as hopefully a bit of a feel for the Philistine territory and then we'll also try and hit a few principles that'll help your walk of faith as well. So a bit of a presentation from the trip, of this section of the trip but also hopefully bringing through some principles from this battle. Obviously we won't be able to do a detailed exposition of the chapter given the amount of information we need to cover but we do want to give you some thoughts this morning that we trust will be a blessing for you. So 1 Samuel chapter 17, for our reading I'm going to read the first 32 verses. you can follow along as I read. The Bible reads, now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together at Shokor which belonged to Judah and pitched between Shokor and Ezekiel in Ephes-damim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. and he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders, and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. And his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David, here's David, was the son of that Ephrathide of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons, and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and next unto him, Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. And David was the youngest, and the three eldest followed Saul. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren. And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took and went as Jesse had commanded him and he came to the trench as the host was going forth to fight and shouted for the battle. Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army and David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren. as he talked with them behold there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words, and David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. The men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel is he come up, and it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? The people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. alive his eldest brother heard when he spake under the men and alive's anger was kindled against David and he said why camest thou down hither and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness i know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle David said, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? And he turned from him toward another and spake after the same manner and the people answered him again after the former manner. When the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul and he sent for him. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. We'll pause the reading there and we'll have a word of prayer, shall we? Dear Father, we thank you again for the wonderful blessing and privilege of being in your house this morning. Lord, I thank you just for the blessing that the song service was. Lord, to my heart to hear the singing of your people Lord, and then the special item as well, we thank You for this opportunity now to consider Your Word, Lord. We thank You that Your Word is not a book of fairy tales, that these were real events that took place in real places and we pray, Father, that our faith might be strengthened, Lord. We pray this morning for the instruction of the mind, the education of the mind, Lord, but more Importantly, the stirring of our hearts that we might see that David's God is our God and that we can face our giants, the spiritual giants we face in our day with your strength and with your power knowing that you have not changed and so we pray Lord that we would be informed Lord, but also encouraged and stirred to be like David of old, men and women of faith who will stand against the giants in our day, we pray. So please help this preacher, Lord, with still the remnants of jet lag and we pray, Lord, that you just help me to be clear and succinct, Lord, and to the point and helpful this morning and we look to you for your blessing in Jesus' name, Amen. So at the start of our trip we spent some time, obviously Israel is in control of this area now, but we spent some time in Philistine territory you might say, in fact we stayed here, I think it was for a night or two in Ashkelon, which was one of the five major cities of the Philistines and we did some a touring of ancient ruins from that area. We spent some time looking at some ancient ruins there in Ashkelon, going back even prior to the Philistine period, back to the Canaanite period and dating back to the time really of Abraham, very interesting. But I want to focus in today on this battle that took place not too far from Gath. Remember, we're talking this morning about Goliath of Gath. and Gath was one of the five major or five royal cities of the Philistines and the Valley of Elah is not far at all from Gath and so we were able to see some of the geography and some of the archaeology and the setting of this great battle and this place where Goliath and the Philistines were from and of course then confronted the Israelites. So I'm going to give you a bit of an outline this morning just to help guide us through as we look at this information. We're going to have some reference to the text but we're really trying to get a sense today for the topography, for the geography of this conflict and so the first point this morning we want to cover is the geography of the battle. and Bible geography is a huge subject and if there's one thing this trip has done for me to date already, it has given me a greater alertness and a greater focus on the geographical references in the Bible. Now probably if you're like me, when you come to some of those geographical references you tend to just read over them or perhaps maybe you might occasionally look up a Bible map but studying Israel before the trip and then going of course on the trip has given me a greater a keenness, a greater interest in these geographical references because in order to have a good understanding of the Bible we need to get the best understanding we can of the context. I remember an older preacher giving me some advice as I started out as a pastor, we were talking about the ministry of the word and he said, context, context, context. Okay, the historical context. the geography, the place, the people, the culture, these are all things that can greatly help our understanding of the Word of God. Now, you'll notice some geographical references here in our text. The Bible tells us that the Philistines gathered their armies to battle and were gathered together at Shechor, which belongeth to Judah. So that's interesting, we have this reference to this place called Shechor, which was within the territory of Judah. So here we have the Philistines encroaching upon and entering Judean territory. I'd never noticed that before, okay, until this trip. And then it says that they pitched between this place called Shokka and also another place called Azekah in Ephes-da-Mim. That word Ephes-da-Mim simply means the border boundary of blood drops. the boundary of blood drops. So we have a couple of geographical markers here, we have an area referred to as Efes Damin which means the boundary of blood drops and that's because this battle took place right on the border between Philistine and Israeli territory. So this battle took place between David and Goliath in the valley of Elar, which is about 14 miles or 22 kilometers west of Bethlehem, where David came from on that day. So if you look at this little map here, you'll see the location of Bethlehem, roughly 22 kilometers west. And so David would have traveled within that day, he could have done this quite easily within one day. The Bible says he rose early in the morning, Okay, and he would have arrived in time to hear Goliath's speech in the evening because Goliath was giving this challenge both morning and evening for 40 days. The Bible says he rose early in the morning there. left the sheep with the keeper and took and went as Jesse had commanded and he came to the trench as the host was going forth to fight and shouted for the battle. Now some of these pictures you'll see are mine, some of them are David Cloud's because he has a much better camera and some of these slides are his but now having been there I can make a little bit better sense of it I think and have a feel for it. So here we have the valley of Elar and here down in the center of the picture and what you're looking at over here is the location, the ridgeline, where the Philistines were encamped and then of course on the opposite side, the opposite hill, we have the camp of the Israelites. Just as the Bible describes, it says there that the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side and there was a valley in between them. So that's the picture we get is of a battle scene. We have two encampments on two ridge lines and then this valley in between. So we actually stood around about this location as you see in the picture looking back towards the direction of Bethlehem that way. So that meant that Israel or the Israel location was on our left and then the Philistine encampment was on our right. Here's a quick pan of the Valley of Elar, it's a farm today, very peaceful, quite picturesque place, hard to almost imagine a battle taking place there, but in this valley, this was the location of that famous battle. Sorry, that's a picture and here's the video. Seized up on us, that's good. Hopefully that's not a foretaste of things to come. Okay, the PowerPoint sees up on me, so just give me a moment. We'll see if we can fix that, it's never done that to me before. It's saying Microsoft PowerPoint is not responding, so we'll just wait for it to respond for a moment. Anyway, there's a nice picture of it, and that was my picture there. And I realized when I was doing this presentation, a bit of a rookie mistake, most of my pans were done portrait. And so that means when you put them on a presentation, they're very skinny. And I wish I'd done more landscape. So you'll have to sponsor me to go back again to get better footage. Ruel, would you be able to help me here? It's just completely seized up. Do you think I should shut it down and open it again? Where's he gone? He's at the Valley of Eli. OK, that's fine. Let me just try and restart it, I think. Just seized up on me, so I'm not sure what's going on there. We'll try again, shall we? OK. There we go. All right, so that gives you a bit of a sense for the valley. And there's a highway over this side now, running through the territory. Very busy highway. And this is the location where the brook would have run. And today, where David drew out the five stones out of the brook. And while I was walking through the brook, I managed to photograph David. He was there. No, not really. But let me just show you this little video I took at the time. So this is the, we're in the Valley of Elar, and this is the brook or the location of the brook where David would have got his five stones from. So it gives you a bit of a sense, it runs down along through the valley here. And that hill over there is where the Israelites were encamped. A little bit more volume. And then looking to the other side, that's where the Philistines are encamped, along that ridge over there. And even back around, as I understand it, right round to the flank over here. So, yeah, very interesting. Here's the book. Somewhere along here, David took his five stones to confront Goliath. I also found Goliath wandering through there and there's Pastor Dan. We also saw some beautiful wildflowers there. This time of year was a great time of year to go to Israel, very lush and green. Here we have an aerial view of the area to just get a better sense again for the location. Now remember we had reference there to Shochor. over here, that's the location of Shokor and then Ezekiel. So the Philistines are encamped between these two locations, the Bible says they're on one, the hill opposite the Israelites and so they're at the very least encamped here but it may indicate as well that they were also seeking to outflank the Israelis here a little bit, round to the side and so you see the location there, then we have Israel on this side and of course the great Elar Valley in between and then Bethlehem out in that direction. Here's looking at it from the top view, the map view, again Israel on this side, Philistines on this side, Socorro over there and Ezekiel over here. So these are the geographical references from the Bible and then that's a photo I took of the hill of Ezekiel. As we mentioned, the Valley of Elah marked the border here between Philistia and Judah. Okay, so here we have Gath, we have the Philistine territory here and then this battle taking place right on the border and perhaps that's why it was called the boundary of blood drops, Ephesdamim. Okay, I also want to talk about another geographical reference in the chapter here. Okay, again just to give you a sense and a feel for the location, we've looked at the Valley of Elah and the location of the encampments. You'll notice in verse 52, look over at verse 52, is towards the end of the chapter and there's a great victory here against the Philistines and the Bible says, "...and the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until they had come to the valley under the gates of Ekron and the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shearim even unto Gath and unto Ekron." So here we have the Philistines fleeing the Israelites, scattering and they flee in three directions. Okay, they flee towards Gath, which is a well-known city, most of you probably heard about that in the Bible, or Ekron, again, most of you would have heard of that, no doubt. But we also had an opportunity to go and view this place here called Shaarim, thank you, and it's actually very close again, in proximity to the Valley of Elah, and this originally was a Philistine fortress. So it was to the north there and it was discovered back in 2007 and the word Sharaim means two gates and they have discovered both of those gates and it's now a part of the Israel National Park system, a scheme, they call it the Elar Valley National Park. So looking at this aerial view again, we looked at some of these locations that are mentioned, the location to Philistines and Israel, the battle that took place between David and Goliath, And then over here on the hill, sitting behind the Israelites, to the side here, we have this, what was a Philistine fortress. So it presents a really interesting picture. As the Israelites pursue the Philistines, they flee in a number of directions, but one of the places they seek to flee to is this Philistine fortress at the top of the hill. Now, we hiked right up the top there and it was quite a walk to get to the top and we're able to see the ruins of that fortress. Now the ruins that we were looking at were the ruins from David's time, so it appears that David took over this area eventually after he became king and built a fortress on the top of the hill and so it's very interesting because you get a really good view of the valley. So you've got the location of Shurayim up the top here Again, that's a name that I just passed over in the Bible and then you have the Elar Valley over there in the distance down below. There's one of my pictures there of the Elar Valley photograph taken from the Shari'im fortress. So I found that really interesting, walking around up there and just imagining if that place was eventually turned into a fortress by David, which there's a lot of evidence for that, I don't have time to go through all of that now, but you could just imagine David later on in life as a king, now a mature man, visiting that fortress and looking down over the valley where he had that great victory against Goliath. I think that's good, isn't it? If we can look back at times in our lives and see victories. where God has worked for us, a bit of maturity, a bit of elevation to see and hopefully some of you older saints could identify with that. There's some Elah valleys, as it were, in your life as a Christian, you can look down upon later in life and thank God for those early victories. So here's the Elar Valley viewed again from that location, what was originally that Philistine fortress eventually taken over by David. We'll pan first from left to right and then right to left. So this is looking from the top of the mountain and that's the Valley of Elar down there. And again, just looking at it from this perspective. That ridge over there was where the Philistines were encamped, got the valley in between and then we're up on top of the hill Apparently Bethlehem is in that direction from here and the Judean hills in the distance. There's a few local Philistines there. No, that's part of our tour group. All right, so there we go. There we have some of the ruins, looking out over the ruins. Again, there's just so much to digest in these places. And at the time of David, the main city gate here at Sherem was what's called a four-chamber gate. Now, this will help you to understand references in the Bible about sitting in the gate. Okay, we're not talking about a little wicket gate into your backyard or front yard. In those days the gates were serious fortifications and very often had these chambers where things could be stored but also where, like a council chambers, where business could be conducted. So you remember the story there of Boaz and Ruth, and how Boaz sat in the gate and called out to the near kinsmen there to transact official business. So we saw both four chamber gates and six chamber gates during our trip, but these were also for fortification purposes. So you can imagine if there was an attempt by the enemy to to get into the gate of this side where soldiers could hide in these chambers and fight back and have some protection against the invaders. There's a top view of a four-chamber gate to give you an idea and the socket of the gate's door is still there from the time of David. So this is what they call a four-chamber gate. This was built during the time of David. So you can see one chamber here, second chamber over there, and then you've got a chamber here and a chamber there. So you've got four chambers. Just looking back through the gate this way. One of the pastors had a drone. Called that the giant blowfly. there's Pastor Dan standing in the southern gate, so that's the gate overlooking the Ela Valley, the fortress of Ela. So just to give you a bit of an idea of how these kinds of gates might have looked, there we have a reconstruction of a multi-chambered fortified gate. Okay, here we have an aerial view of the top of that hill, Sharaim. So again, we have the Elar Valley over here, and we were walking around the ruins over here for a while, looking down into the Elar Valley, you've got Bethlehem in that direction, the Judean Hills, and this is the area that was a fortress there, firstly controlled by the Philistines, some of the Philistines tried to flee there after the battle between David and Goliath, but then eventually taken over, there's a lot of archaeological evidence that it was taken over by Israel during David's kingdom. and there was an administrative palace here in the centre, so this could well have been the place where David would stay when he visited this area. So the geography of the battle, hopefully that helps just give you a little bit of a sense of what we saw of the location of this very famous battle between David and Goliath and hopefully whet your appetite to take a closer interest in these geographical references in the Bible to get a sense for where these things are taking place. We come to our second point now, the giant in the battle. and the Bible tells us here that there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath. So, Goliath came from the Philistine city of Gath, that is why he is referred to as Goliath of Gath. So, I want to talk a little bit about Gath and I want you to see its close proximity, reasonably close proximity to the Elar Valley. That's a photo I took there from the bottom of the mountain. We're looking up to the location of Gath, or at least the upper city. And what you find with these tells is that there is an upper city and a lower city. That's the way things were structured very much in the ancient world. The upper city would have typically your temples, your administrative buildings, that's where the elites would live, maybe the king or the rulers, okay, and then you would have the lower city down around the mountain where the common people would live. And so that's looking through one of the gates or the ruins of one of the gates, it's covered with some material there from the archaeologists at the moment, because there's ongoing work, looking back up to the mountain where Gath was located. as we mentioned, Gath was one of the five royal cities of the Philistines along with Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza and Ekron. Gath was one of the three cities that still had Anakims, or giants, after Joshua had cut them off from the rest of the land. Again, this is another very interesting detail I'd never seen before, but in Joshua 11 22 it says, there was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel, listen, only in Gaza. in Gath and in Ashdod there remained. So during the time of Joshua, due to Joshua's conquests, they conquered the Canaanites and they also did away with the giants in the land except giants still remained in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, three cities of the Philistines. Now the term Gittite in the Bible means an inhabitant of Gath, that's what it means. And interestingly, 600 Gittites served in David's army led by Itti. So interesting thought there, that there were some Philistines loyal to David and came over to his side. Now Gath is located west of the Elar Valley where David killed Goliath. So we actually went and saw Gath first from memory and then went to the valley of Elar afterwards and it wasn't a very long trip at all. The city lies at the end of the valley in fact. So this picture is taken looking east from Gath, this is the kind of view that Goliath would have had as he began his journey to Elar. And there he is standing in the gate. No, there I am standing in the gate of Gath. And some significant things happened in the gate of Gath. This was the very gate where David scrabbled and made himself look mad to escape Achish. Remember that? This is the location of the Gath gate. The archaeologists have found it and are very sure of that. So what we're looking at here is what would have been the gate into Gath. where David scrabbled on the gate and made himself look like a madman to escape Akish. And then apparently, you can see that, what's basically like a little creek running down there. There's no water in there at the moment. Apparently that's the Elar River that runs that way to the Elar Valley. So there's the gate. up on the hill up the top there, that's where the upper city would have been of Gath. So you can imagine Goliath would have come from up there somewhere down through this gate and then went that direction to the valley of Elar to fight. Hey, partly why I made those videos was to keep in my own mind for future reference some of the details and the directions there. So that's the Elar Brook. We looked at some pictures of that. It's normally dry, but sometimes it does flood, as shown in this picture here from Brother Cloud 2013. But this is, again, looking from Gath. That's looking at the Elar Brook, or the Elar River, running that direction towards Elar. So this is the Elar River. We're not actually in the Elar Valley. We're still at Gath. But the Elar Valley's not far from here. So this Elar River runs in that direction through the Valley of Elar. And Gath is just back up there on the hill. There's the gate. Here's the ruins of the gate where all the stuff is. And back up towards the hill of Gath there. I had a mental blank. I think I was still getting over the jet lag there on the first part of the trip. Okay. So, we've looked at some pictures of the large hill and through archaeology we know that it was a city fit for giants, it was a huge city and it gives you a sense for what Israel was up against. I mean, the Philistines were a very powerful people, very technologically advanced and Gath at that time was about eight to nine times the size and population of Jerusalem. So, you know, the Israelites are up against the might of the Philistine army here, they were a very strong people and really the only way the Israelites were going to conquer them was by faith in God. So Gath covered around 123 acres, that's quite a bit isn't it? Had a population of five to ten thousand, the Gath of David's day was eight to nine times the size of Jerusalem. Quoting one author here, The author says, Gath was, quote, an immense and powerful city, strongly fortified, teeming with houses, neighbourhoods, temples, workshops and marketplaces. The city wall was 18 feet thick in some places. There were massive fortifications and large buildings made of huge stone blocks, three to six feet long and fired bricks. the word gath in Hebrew is the word gut, that's how the tour guide referred to it, means wine press and interestingly there's a remnant of a large wine press at Gath today and there are also remnants of large olive presses. In 2014, a gate was found that is believed to be the city gate that is mentioned in the Bible. The newly discovered gate, writes one author here, is being hailed as one of the largest of its kind ever found. The gate is part of enormous and extensive fortifications indicating the importance of the city. In 2005 a piece of pottery was found during excavation of Gath inscribed with two names etymologically similar to Goliath. It was written in early Hebrew script and has been dated to the 10th or 9th BC which is David's time. At the very least, it proves that this name was in use by the Philistines at that very time. There's that little ostracon with a name that is basically or very etymologically similar to the name Goliath written in early Hebrew and it was found in this area on the site. So, a bit of a summary here of Gath by Brother Cloud. The archaeology at Gath confirms a biblical account. Firstly, it was located where the Bible says it was, surprise, surprise. Number two, it was at its height in David's day. Three, it was a large, impressive city, fitting the biblical statement that it was a royal city. Four, it had people with the name Goliath. And five, it was destroyed in the ninth century. So that's Goliath's city, the city of Gath, the giant. Let's consider now Goliath's weaponry. The Bible describes his weaponry in verse 5 to 7 and we're going to try and direct our thoughts a little bit more to the text now that we've laid some of that foundation there. And the Bible says, and he had a helmet of brass, verse 5, upon his head and he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass and he had greaves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass between his shoulders and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron and one bearing a shield went before him.' So we've looked at the geography of the battle, now we're getting a sense for the giant in this battle. He was from Gath, a very powerful Philistine city and he had tremendous weaponry, was a huge man of about 9.5 feet in height or 2.9 very close to 3 meters. He had a brass helmet, brass greaves that covered the lower parts of his legs, a brass shield that covered his upper back, a long spear with a 15 pound or 7 kilogram tip huge, that's huge and it's heavy and a coat of mail which is made of brass plates arranged like the scales of a fish that weighed around 125 pounds or 57 kilograms. So it's interesting isn't it, here we have the children of Israel and they're facing the Philistine threat. But within the Philistines, we have a champion of the Philistine cause. And don't we see in that really a picture of the world? As we think about the world and the battles that we face, we understand that we have the general threat to our spiritual lives from the Philistine world in which we live. And yet we see in Goliath the representation of the world's champions. The world has its champions, those who champion the cause of evil, those who champion the cause of wickedness. And you have to come to terms with that as a believer, that you're not only going to have to face the world as a general system against you, but within the world you are also going to come up against some of the world's champions, some of the giants there that you are going to have to face in your life. We think about the threefold enemy of the believer, the world, the flesh and the devil. And we could say that each of those enemies has its champions. You're going to come up against some giant battles in your life. As a believer, just as David came up against Goliath, certain times in your life you're going to come up against some giants and the odds are going to seem stacked against you. It might be the giant of lust, it might be the giant of anger, it might be the giant of some other temptation in your life and you're going to have to learn like David of old what it means to by faith face the giants. So we see Goliath's city, Gath, his weaponry is impressive and powerful and then we consider his mockery there, he challenged Israel to a man-to-man, winner-take-all kind of fight. It would be him, the Philistine champion, against whoever Israel would be prepared to put forth as her champion. The Bible tells us in verse 11 that Saul and Israel were dismayed and greatly afraid. No, Israelite was a match on a human level for a man like this. Now you think about it, if there was a man who perhaps could maybe come slightly close to matching Goliath, it would have had to have been Saul because the Bible tells us that he stood head and shoulders above everybody else in Israel. And yet Saul was also amongst those who were greatly afraid. we see sadly at this time in Saul's life that he has begun to lose the power of God. If you know your Bible and if you're a reader of the Bible you'll know that just a couple of chapters earlier Saul dissipated God in the matter of the Amalekites and so by the time you come here to chapter 17 we see a leader who's losing his grip, we see a man who is losing or has already lost grip of the power of God. Goliath issued this challenge both morning and evening for 40 days. Number of testing in the Bible. And for 40 days, we're just hitting a few high points here as we go through, for 40 days the giant's challenge was left unanswered. That's a long time. 40 days, day one, morning, the giant gives the challenge, in the evening, day two, day three, day four, day five, rolling into weeks, 40 days and I wonder this morning how many giants are left unchallenged in our day, they are allowed to intimidate the people of God, the giants of wickedness, the giants of evil in our world today, and so many of them go unchallenged in the context of weak leadership. Here we have Saul who's a weak leader, he's no longer walking closely with God and in that environment of weak leadership the giant is able to rise up and to mock the people of God and to stand for 40 days unchallenged. May I say this, that if by God's grace we're going to be a people who know something of victory in our lives, not just victory over the Philistine world in general, but victory over the giants that the world throws up before us, we're going to need to be a people who are spiritually strong. And I'm not talking there about something worked up in the flesh or something self-produced, but I'm talking about the people of God, by the grace of God, moving in a stronger direction. in a day when so many are going in a weaker direction, wouldn't it be good if by God's grace, humbly, again not a self-produced thing, but by God's grace as a church, our desire and our resolve would be not to go in a weaker direction, but in a stronger direction as a church. That brings us to our third point this morning. We want to end with just some thoughts here, some principles, God's man for the battle. And I was just so thankful as I read this account again, just with the thought that God found a man to face this giant. it wasn't in the ranks of Saul's army but here we see God found a man, a man after his own heart and we know from the Word of God that God's eyes run to and fro, 2nd Chronicles 16 verse 9, throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. So God found his man in David and I want us just to consider for a moment some of the spiritual qualities of David, the kind of man that God uses to defeat giants. Firstly, David was a faithful man. David was a faithful man and the principle is this, God uses men who have learned to be faithful in small things before entrusting them with bigger things. God uses men who have learned to be faithful in small things before entrusting them with bigger things. And we have that section of scripture there from verses 12 to 22 and we can sometimes just pass over that, the details of David caring for the sheep, and following his father's command to go to take the bread and the supplies to his brethren. But I think we should not overlook that because we see some of the character of David there, we see some of the qualities of David in the everyday life, the everyday duties of life. David was a man who knew what it was to be faithful in the unseen things. Here he was, somewhere obscure, caring for his father's sheep, and that was the kind of man God put his hand upon. Interestingly, it didn't come from all the armies, didn't come from David's older brothers, didn't come from Saul's ranks there, but God found a man who was a faithful man. Interestingly, David was overlooked by Saul and apparently sent home to Bethlehem because David was ministering to Saul in chapter 16, he was playing on his harp for Saul there, but he was sent home and the three older brothers of David were followed after Saul. It's so interesting, isn't it, how often the true spiritual heroes are overlooked by men of the flesh. Saul said these three men here, David's older brothers, they're the men I need next to me, these are the men I need in my army but David you can go home to the sheep and isn't that so often the case that the true spiritual men and women of God who can really actually by God's grace accomplish something for God are missed by those who are looking at things according to the flesh. So here we find David, a faithful man, faithful and caring for his father's sheep in Bethlehem. A humble man, a humble task, obedient and submissive to his father's authority, willing to care for the sheep firstly and then carry out the task of taking those supplies to his three brothers on the front line. Responsible man, he made sure that the sheep he was responsible for were left in the hands of a keeper before leaving the battlefront. Here we see something of the character of David and the kind of man God uses. I say that for a reason because I've seen this before amongst God's people at times where sometimes there's a desire to do something great for God. do something big for God and could I just encourage you, there's nothing wrong with that if you have a desire in your heart to do something for God and that should be our desire, shouldn't it? That God would use us but could I just remind you of this principle we see working out in the life of David, before God can use you for those bigger things and those greater things, you must learn first to be faithful in those smaller things. True? Because he who is faithful in little is faithful in much. And so you may be willing to do something in the church as far as service for the Lord is concerned, but are you willing to do something behind the scenes that no one sees? You might be willing to sing in the choir out the front and I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong. You may be willing to teach a Sunday school class out the front. You may be willing to play an instrument out the front but are you prepared to be faithful in something small that no one sees like vacuuming the carpet? helping in the kitchen, or doing something faithful in small things. It's a principle there, I think we see, the kind of man that God uses is a man like David, a man who was a faithful man, a man who knew something of following God in the duties of life. Secondly, kind of man God uses to face giants and to defeat giants is a man like David. David not only was a faithful man but David had a heart for God. Or if there's something you can't help but see through this passage is that David had a heart for God. heart with passion for God and that's the kind of man that God is going to use. A man who is a faithful man but a man who is a man who has a heart that beats with passion for God. This is demonstrated, isn't it, in David's response to the Philistine. Verse 23, And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spoke according to the same words. And David heard them. And all the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that has come up surely to defy Israel as he come up? And it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. listen to David's words, this is the expression of David's passion for God, and David spake to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine and taketh away their reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?' It's like David was shocked. You need a reward? Who is this man? You see, Saul and the children of Israel, all they could see was Goliath, but all that David could see was God. David wasn't looking at Goliath. David, in fact, it comes through at least twice here, makes reference to the living God. David's like, hang on a second, we are the servants of the living God. We don't serve Shemosh and these other false idols of the Philistines that are no gods at all. Hang on a moment, folks. We serve the living God, the God who has all power, and David was God-focused. Viewed from the human perspective, no man was match for Goliath, but viewed from the perspective of faith, Goliath was no match for Almighty God. And could I encourage you with that this morning? Because I have no doubt that some of you are facing some spiritual giants in your life, some spiritual strongholds, some Goliaths, as it were, in your life. Could I encourage you that from the human perspective, yes, you are no match for that giant, but could I encourage you from the perspective of faith, and you need to see that giant through the perspective of faith, that giant is no match for the power of God. And you're going to have to get a hold of that like David did, because young men, you're going to face some giants in your life, the giants of temptation, the giants of all these things we face in the world. Young ladies, you're going to have to see that. There's some giants you're going to face, and older saints, you'll face some giants as well. After all, Caleb, when he was older, he still had to face some giants, didn't he? that giant is no match for the power of God. I don't think we detect any hint of pride here in David's words. David, this was just the pure expression of a man who had a heart with passion for God. There's no hint here that he was seeking an opportunity to make a name for himself through the situation. He was simply dismayed and shocked that the Giants challenge was going unanswered. You know that really concerns me today, that there are Giants in our day, I mean Giants for our time, going largely unanswered. There was a time, by the way, when independent Baptist churches came together for things like fellowship meetings and it was with the spirit of, let's challenge the giants. Let's have a call to the old paths. Let's stand up against the great strongholds of iniquity in our day. But today, unfortunately, so often the giants are not allowed to be challenged. Not only that people are not challenging them, but you dare not. challenge Goliath. Now, if you're going to seek to be like David and have a heart for God and express that heart for God with godly zeal, expect some opposition. Look at verse 28, alive his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men and alive's anger was kindled against David.' Not against the Philistine, not against the weakness of King Saul, not against the powerlessness of the people of God, that should have kindled his anger. No, his anger was kindled against a young man of God who had a zeal and a passion for God. And just be aware of that, that if you are going to, by the grace of God, have a heart for God, as David did, and a passion for God, you are going to encounter some opposition as a Christian, and don't be surprised if it comes from close quarters. It might, like David, come from a family member whom you thought was a spiritual person, and yet they oppose your godly stand for the Lord. Have you ever seen that happen? In fact, some believers seem to make it their ministry to walk around with fire extinguishers... trying to extinguish the fires of passion for God in everyone around them. Listen, I'm not talking about an older saint who loves the Lord and is on fire for the Lord and helps guide some of the youthful zeal. We need that, don't we, sometimes? Praise God for that. As a young person, I had some zeal for the Lord and there was some hands of guidance, not discouragement, but guidance to direct that zeal in the right direction. You shouldn't have a problem with that. I'm talking about a carnal response to spiritual zeal where you, because you are spiritually defeated, you want to put out the spiritual fire in someone else. Boy, your life's heart was revealed right here, wasn't it? I'd be concerned about myself personally if I had this boiling anger spewing out of me or boiling up within me every time I was confronted with a godly young man or woman who had some zeal for the Lord. If that is your position, if you feel this anger kindle in you and this sort of frustration and this niggly feeling and you get this boiling going on inside you when you're confronted with godly zeal, the problem is with you. Now Eliab was obviously a fairly impressive man to look upon because even godly Samuel, I mean you don't get someone much godlier than Samuel, he had assumed when he saw Eliab, surely this is God's anointed. What did God say? 16 verse 7, but the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature. It's all about the heart, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I want to have a heart. like David, a heart after God, a heart of passion for God. That's all that God needs. God doesn't need men and women of great stature, even great gifts and talents, it's not about that. Now you may have those and God can use that too, but here that wasn't the point. Eliab was a man who was very naturally endowed and yet he was not the chosen of God because his heart was not such that God could use him. And so our job is to, by the grace of God, seek to have our hearts in a position where God can use us. And let me encourage you in that, you may not be endowed with great gifts and abilities even, you may not have great looks or great strength or great talents, that's not what God is looking for, God needs a heart through which He can work. So we see Eliab's anger here and then his accusations. The accusations came from the anger, didn't they? Why comest thou down hither? Why is it that carnal people always start with questioning motives? motives of those who just have us... I'm not talking about people puffed up in spiritual pride, God keep us from that, I'm talking about people who have, like David, just simply have a heart for God! Is there anything wrong with that? And here we have Eliab accusing David of being carnally motive, isn't that interesting? A carnal heart, a carnal man accusing another of carnal motives. You know, you tend to accuse people along the lines of the way you think. Did you know that? People who gossip tend to suspect that everyone is gossiping about them. True, you tend to attribute the behaviour to others that you indulge in yourself. It's an eye-opener for some of you, isn't it? So these accusations centre on David's motives. Why camest thou down hither and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? Accusing him of a lack of responsibility. Actually, David had left the sheep with the keeper, hadn't he? I know thy pride. Ah, there you go. You're just proud, David. You know, as you read through that again, I don't see a hint of pride in David. I believe it was the expression of a simple hearted man of God. He was not thinking about himself. His focus was not on himself. He was simply saying, how can this uncircumcised Philistine who serves false gods be defying the armies of the living God? You know, in actual fact, I know there are people who get puffed up in spiritual pride. Again, God keep us from that. That's a horrible thing and if you get that in your life then you need to sort that out. It's terrible. But did you know that in reality true holiness is coupled with humility? And what I find is people who are genuinely earnest about holiness and walking with God and following God are actually humble people but often they're accused of being proud. Oh, it's a proud church with all those standards. Seriously. Actually, by the grace of God, I hope that's nothing to do with it. I hope it comes from an earnest desire to be true to the Word of God and to glorify the Lord and comes out as an outflow of our passion for God. That's what it's about. How did David answer? Well, two questions from David cut through the whole thing, verse 29, and David said, what have I now done? That's a good question to ask sometime when people accuse you, excuse me, what have I actually done? Well, I think that you're that... Hang on, excuse me. You're now talking about... I had to say to one brother, I said, brother, are you now prepared to accept the testimony of my own heart? Because you're casting aspersions on what you think I'm thinking or what you think my motives are. Are you now prepared to hear the testimony of my own heart? Since that's in question. Before God, no, that was not my motive. Oh, okay. No, seriously. What have I now done? And in reality, David had done nothing wrong. He was simply concerned for the cause of his God. Is there not a cause? And of course there was a cause. The honour of God and the safety of God's people was at stake. Do we not have a cause today? The cause of Christ? The cause of the gospel? The cause of truth? And if we're true to that cause, we will face the giants, but we must stay faithful and trust God. So we have David here. Why did God use him? David was a faithful man. He was faithful in little things before God entrusted him with bigger things. David had a heart for God. David was a man of faith. we see this demonstrated in a number of areas. We see the testimony of David's faith and we see that David had proved God's power in the past and that gave him faith for the future. Because when he stood before Saul, Saul looked at him and said, David you're but a youth this man a man of war from his youth, how are you going to be able to do this? Thou art not able to go against this Philistine, verse 33, to fight with him for thou art but a youth and he a man of war from his youth. Sometimes sadly it takes a young man or woman. There were older people here but they weren't, for whatever reason, they weren't stepping forward just say that, I understand there's an importance to challenge young people today but sometimes I get a little bit tired of hearing all the preaching directed at the young people. Sometimes in the Bible it was the God used the young people because the older people had lost the plot. Think about the 40 years wandering in the wilderness, that was to get rid of all the oldies so the young people could go in. I'm not saying that... please, if you're old... some of you think... I don't want to get rid of the oldies, no. Let me dig myself out of this hole, that's not what I meant. Okay, don't judge my motives. No, I trust we have a church full of Caleb's, amen? And that's on the other end, I hope by the end of your life you can be like Caleb and say, I'm still able to go to fight. Give me that mountain, there's still some mountains I need to conquer before I go home to glory. So God can use older or younger. We've got David, we've got Caleb, praise God I don't care about your age. I'm just saying here we have a man in Saul who is clearly despising David's youth. My dear young brother. that written to me in an email recently, my dear young brother, if you would get a hold of this it would transform your ministry. Well I don't mind, I am a young brother, I don't mind as long as you're not disobeying the Word of God and despising my youth, which the Bible says you're not to do. dear older brother, you're off on repentance and you should know better after 50, 60 years of studying the Word of God! Respectfully. It's got nothing to do with age, it's to do with the Word of God. David had proven God's power in the past with the lion and the bear. you see how victory in smaller battles paved the way for faith to have victory in larger battles? That's why David had faith, this was the testimony of his faith, he could point back to the lion and to the bear, mind you, they're not really small victories by any stretch of the imagination but they were smaller in comparison to Goliath. But David knew the God who can give me victory over the lion and the God who can give me victory over the bear is the same God who has the power to give me victory over Goliath. And could I encourage you that you need to observe that principle in your life when you're faced with a giant. Just remember back to some of those earlier victories. Remember back to how God gave you victory here and God gave you victory there. And could I encourage you, dear brother or sister, If God gave you victory back then, if God gave you victory back there, God can give you victory for what you face now. David was not a small boy at this time, as many Bible lessons have depicted, okay? And that is sometimes how it's depicted, like he's a three-year-old up against Goliath, No, he was a youth, a young man and a brave, strong young man at that. He defeated a lion and a bear and the fact that he could try on Saul's armour indicates that he was also a man of some stature. The Bible does not say that he put aside his armour because it was too big for him. Does it say that? It doesn't say that. He put the armour to one side because he had not proved it. fact David was described in the previous chapter as a man of war and a mighty valiant man. So he was a young man but he was not a baby boy or a toddler. The testimony of faith. The weaponry of faith. We're nearly finished. Since you're such a blessing while I was away, I thought I'd reward you with an hour and a half sermon this morning. No, I'm just joking. The weaponry of faith. Saul tries to arm David here with his own suit of armour but David chooses to confront Goliath simply with a sling and a stone. Simple, humble weapons compared to Goliath's armour But what was the key thing here? The key thing was that David had proven, that's the key word there, these weapons in the school of faith. Verse 38, and Saul armed David with his armour and he put a helmet of brass upon his head, also he armed him with a coat of mail. So similar kind of attire to what Goliath was wearing, albeit smaller in size, as you notice there. David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go, for he had not proved it. David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them, and David put them off him.' We should be very careful today about substituting what is proven. The proven weapons, they might be simple, the outward appearance. They may be humble weapons but let's not substitute the proven weapons of faith that have stood the test of time for shiny armour that looks impressive but is powerless in battle. That's why we want this old sword, the King James Bible, it's proven. It's a proven weapon, tried and tested. Prayer, proven. the world scoffs at it, it looks so weak and so powerless in the face of the might of the world and yet these are the proven weapons that God still uses. The weaponry of faith. Here's just a little bit of information about the sling. The sling was a fearful weapon in those days. Here we have images from archaeology of Assyrian soldiers with their slings. the Bible talks about the Benjamites and there were 700 men from Benjamin who could sling stones at a hair breadth and not miss. That's pretty accurate, isn't it? Whether David was that accurate, I don't know but he was obviously a skilled man with that sling. Now again, I think sometimes our perception from the storybooks may be wrong, we tend to think of five little pebbles, okay, but if you look at archaeology and the kind of slinging stones that have been found, they were actually very often close to the size of a fist or maybe half the size of a fist. There we have some stones from the Siege of Lakeish on display at the British Museum. And I believe they're around about half the size of a fist. So you need to think about that. When David chose five smooth stones, it doesn't mean five little flat, necessarily smooth stones. The typical stones that were used for slinging in those days were quite large. So you imagine a stone of that size hitting Goliath in the forehead. That's pretty powerful. Here's a stone I picked up, in fact it was the one that David used. No, but I got this out of the valley of Elar and there you go. I don't know whether it dates back to the time of David but it's a good size, isn't it? So I'd like to imagine that perhaps David's used a stone more in the magnitude of that size there. I believe the Israeli Industry of tourism helps replenish the rocks there for all the tourists. But anyway, I'm not sure if that's correct or not, but I've heard that. So I tried to walk further down to try and get something that maybe would be authentic. Anyway, that is from the Valley of Elah, from Israel. I brought home five other rocks for my children because they were very inexpensive gifts. Very, very cheap souvenirs, little rocks from David and Goliath's battlefield. They were hanging out for those rocks. So ready to stone disobedient members and no, just joking. Okay, there's a Jewish boy with a sling and a well-trained slinger, says this author here, could propel a projectile near the speed of a .45 caliber pistol bullet. which is 150 meters per second or 500 feet per second, that's pretty fast. So again, we want to get, again, context. What was happening back there when David used the sling? Yes, it was a humble, simple weapon compared to Goliath's but it was a proven weapon and it was a powerful weapon. Remember that when we think of spiritual weapons, they may, on the outward appearance of things, seem simple and humble but they're very powerful. pack a real punch, don't they, against these giants we face. Hit that giant with a verse of Scripture, Amen? Pow! That's powerful, I'm serious. If Jesus Christ quoted Scripture to the devil, you can too. Do that sometime, don't speak in tongues or be charismatic about it but just say the Word of God out loud if you have to and watch that slingstone defeat the enemy. Here we have a little experiment with a sling just to give you a little bit of a sense of the kind of speed and ferocity involved. And it starts off slowed down, slow motion, and then goes full speed. Got an idea? David Sling. weaponry of faith, the bravery of faith. We see David facing the enemy with great boldness and again we could just go on and on here couldn't we? But great boldness to face the enemy, verse 41, and the Philistine came on and drew near unto David and the man that bare the shield went before him and when the Philistine looked about and saw David he disdained him for he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance and the Philistine said unto David am I a dog thou comest to me with staves and the Philistine cursed David by his gods. little g gods so this is more than just a contest between David and Goliath in the minds of those on that battlefield this is a showdown between the gods of the Philistines and the God of Israel the spiritual component to this battle in fact you find that through the Bible for the children of Israel there was a physical dimension to the battle but there was also always a spiritual dimension And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I'll give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. He's going to kill him, that's what he thinks. Then said David to the Philistine, look at the language of faith here, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. You know the greatest weapon David took to the battle that day with Goliath was not even his slinging stone, but the name of his God. And what was David's motive in all of this? This really gets to the heart of it, doesn't it? Verse 46, What's the purpose of it all, David? That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. You want to know the power of God in your life? You have to be God focused. it's about you and your glory, some people actually want the power of God to do something great so that they will have a name. Some people desire God's power upon their lives so that they'll be well known. No, no, no. God's power is not given to you for you to use to build a name for yourself or to make something out of yourself. No, the reason why God's power moves so powerfully and mightily through David was because David's sole focus was that all the world would know there is a God. That's when power comes, when our focus is not on our glory, but on God's. victory of faith. Verse 48, And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine across that valley we saw. David put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead that the stone sunk into his forehead. Did you get that? That's a powerful projectile. It's sunk into his forehead. Who says the Bible's not exciting? And he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him to make sure, he gets the sword there, but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. Fairy story? No. can go to the very place in Israel today where that battle took place, real place, real battle and a real victory. But what does it all mean for us? Geography lesson, that's important but more than that, what giants do you face in your life right now? David's God the same God you serve and His power is as real and available today as it was then. So by faith you can face the giants and experience victory by God's power. Let's close, our time is well and truly over. Lord, we thank you for the patience of your people this morning, thank you that we were able to consider some of the historical context, Lord, the geography and the archaeology surrounding this historic victory of faith. We thank you it's recorded for us in the Word of God. We thank you that your Word is not filled with mythical places and fanciful ideas, Lord, fairy stories. We thank you that we're dealing with real history here, our Lord, but at the same time, spiritual lessons that we can apply to our lives. So we pray that you put your hand upon us and help us, Lord, as we face those giants. Give us your strength, your power, and your grace, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.