CHAPTER 17

(1063 B.C.)

GOLIATH

1Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongs to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. (We are told, There was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul [14:52]. The Philistines were an inward foe, which is much worse than an outward foe. Because Saul never did quite defeat this inward foe, at least conclusively, that inward foe would ultimately defeat him.

piritually, it is the same presently. We must defeat all inward foes. This can be done only by the Believer placing his Faith exclusively in Christ and the Cross. The Cross must not be eliminated or pushed aside. If this is done, the Holy Spirit will not help us, and that leaves such a person with no course but that of defeat [Rom. 7:15].)

2And 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.

3And 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.

4And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. (This means that he was over 9 feet tall. In a spiritual sense, this is exactly what every Believer faces; and, to be sure, it is not possible for us to defeat such opposition within our own power and strength. There is only one way it can be done, and that is by looking to the Cross. When the Holy Spirit through Paul told Believers how to live for God, He took us, first of all, to the Cross. It is found in Romans 6:3-5. If the Believer doesnt understand the Cross as it regards Sanctification, then its impossible for such a Believer to defeat the Goliaths which come against him [Rom., Chpt. 7; Gal., Chpt. 5].)

5And he had an 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 (about 125 pounds).

6And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

7And the staff of his spear was like a weavers beam; and his spears head weighed six hundred shekels of iron (about 15 pounds): and one bearing a shield went before him. (The number six is stamped upon Goliath. He was six cubits high, and he had six pieces of armor, counting the weapons. The number six was stamped upon Nebuchadnezzars golden image. And it will identify the future Antichrist, the number of whose name will be 666 [Rev. 13:18].)

8And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are you come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. (Goliath was one of the last giants which were a product between fallen angels and women [Gen. 6:4]. This effort of Satan was meant to corrupt the bloodline, which would stop the coming of the Messiah, which occasioned Noahs flood, with this last insurgence meant to take over the Promised Land, which would deny Gods People a place, and thereby, as well, stop the coming of the Messiah.)

9If 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 you be our servants, and serve us. (Regrettably, most Christians are now serving the Philistines, i.e., bondages, because they do not understand the Cross [Rom. 6:3-14.)

10And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. (The only fight we are called upon as Believers to engage is the good fight of Faith [I Tim. 6:12].)

11When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid. (If they were going to attempt to fight him by natural means, they had every right to be afraid; once again, in reading these words, the Believer should understand that in the spiritual realm you are facing Goliaths. There is no way you can defeat these terrible powers of darkness, unless you do it according to Gods Prescribed Order [Rom. 6:14].)

DAVID

12Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-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.

13And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the first born, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

14And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.

15But David went and returned from Saul to feed his fathers sheep at Beth-lehem. (This seems to be after the occasion of David playing the harp for Saul, which probably happened about two years earlier. Two years for a teenager brings about great changes, which is probably the reason that Saul did not recognize David, as we shall see.)

16And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. (The probationary number in the Bible is 40. Through David, who, in this instance, was a Type of Christ, Israel would pass this test.)

17And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for your brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brethren;

18And carry these ten cheeses unto the Captain of their thousand, and look how your brethren fare, and take their pledge (meaning they would give some token to David to take back to them, signifying that they were well and healthy).

19Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines (actually, there had not been any heavy fighting as of yet, but such fighting was the intention).

20And 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 the fight, and shouted for the battle.

21For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.

22And David left his carriage (stuff) in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.

THE TAUNT OF THE GIANT

23And as he (David) talked with them (his brothers), 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 (the challenge of Verses 8-10).

24And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.

25And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who kills him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his fathers house free in Israel (probably meant that the family was free from taxes, and maybe even personal service in the army).

26And David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the Armies of the Living God?

27And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man who kills him.

28And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke unto the men; and Eliabs anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why did you come here? and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? (Meant sarcastically.)I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you are come down that you might see the battle (said with contempt!).

29And David said, What have I now done? is there not a cause? (In effect, David said, I was only talking about this challenge, and was doing no wrong.)

30And he (David) turned from him (Eliab) toward another, and spoke after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner (they told him that Saul would enrich anyone who killed the giant).

31And when the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him (evidently, David had been stating that he would fight the giant, which seems to have infuriated his brother).

DAVID KILLS GOLIATH

32And David said to Saul (after he was taken to the king), Let no mans heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine (undoubtedly, at this point, the Lord had already told David what to do; consequently, his statements are now made on the basis of the principle of Faith).

33And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth (in the natural, all of this was correct!).

34And David said unto Saul, Your servant kept his fathers sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

35And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and killed him (all of this because the Spirit of the Lord was upon David from the time of his anointing [16:13]).

36Your servant killed both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the Armies of the Living God (to boast accordingly in the natural would have been foolish indeed; however, and as stated, the Lord had, no doubt, already told David what to do).

37David said moreover, The LORD Who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with you.

38And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.

39And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. (The flesh will ever try to hinder Faith by clothing it with unbelief. Sauls armor will defeat no Philistines. It will destroy no Goliath and, yet, the Church keeps trying to wear it. Take it off and put on the whole armor of God.

avid would be detained a moment by unbelief, but would soon gather his spiritual perspective and allow faith to proceed. The armor of Saul is the bane of the Church!)

40And he took his staff in his hand (a Type of the Word of God; in fact, the history of these families was carved upon the staffs and, in Davids case, would have included the Lords dealings with him), and chose him five smooth stones (five is the number of Grace; with an uninterrupted flow of Grace, which is the Goodness of God freely given to us, anything can be done) out of the brook (a Type of the Holy Spirit), and put them in a shepherds bag which he had (represents the Gifts of the Spirit), even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

41And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bore the shield went before him (before Goliath).

42And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance (the Giant made fun of David and, more than likely, the Philistine army was laughing, as well).

THE RESPONSE OF THE GIANT

43And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods (he probably claimed the help of Dagon, the Philistine god).

44And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field (or so he thought!).

THE RESPONSE OF DAVID

45Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to you in the Name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, Whom you have defied (as Goliath cursed David by his gods, David now invokes the Name of the LORD of Hosts; so, in effect, it is Jehovah against Dagon).

46This day will the LORD deliver you into my hand (as stated, the Lord had already told him what to do); and I will smite you, and take your head from you; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the Earth; that all the Earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (David wasnt dealing from presumption, but rather from a sure Word of the Lord; hence, he could boast!)

47And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORDs, and He will give you into our hands. (To be sure, the battle is the LORDs; however, we have to function against the giants which come against us according to Gods Prescribed Order, or else we will lose the conflict. That Order is Christ and what He did for us at the Cross, which must ever be the Object of our Faith. That being the case, the Holy Spirit will then take our part, exactly as He did for David, and we are assured of victory [Rom. 8:1-2, 11].)

48And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew near to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine (Faith does not retreat, but rather runs toward its foe).

49And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. (This was a Type of what Jesus would ultimately do to Satan. It had been predicted by the Lord immediately after the Fall, when He said to Satan through the serpent, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; it [He] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His Heel [Gen. 3:15].)

50So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. (God is not limited as to what He can use to bring about victory. In this case, He would use a sling and a stone, but possessed by a boy who had Faith.)

51Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine (the Christian is meant to stand upon his Goliaths, and not them standing upon him), and took his sword (the Sword of the Spirit), and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

52And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until you come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron.

53And the Children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents (took all the spoils which had been left).

54And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent (about a thousand years later, our Heavenly David would walk out of the tomb with the head of Satan, so to speak, in His Hand; and, because He lives, we shall live also).

55And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the Captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I cannot tell.

56And the king said, Enquire you whose son the stripling is.

57And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

58And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, you young man? And David answered, I am the son of your servant Jesse the Beth-lehemite (as stated, possibly some two years or more had passed since David had played the harp for Saul, so he didnt recognize the young man as the same one who had calmed him with music).