Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Domestically and internationally, the stress level is high. How do you deal with it? Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson. We all experience stress, especially today. I think this is one of the major weapons of the enemy against us. But how we handle and deal with stress makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? Whether we're going to have victory or defeat in the midst of our circumstance or our situation. How we handle it is the key.

Guest (Male): It's time once again for Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. Andre the Giant was 7 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 500 pounds. Former NBA player Yao Ming is 7 foot 6 inches and weighs in at 300 pounds. However, there was a man who dwarfed them both. His height was somewhere between 9 and a half to 11 feet tall, and his coat of armor alone weighed as much as a man. His name was Goliath. Let's join Pastor Jeff as he begins a look at this familiar story from 1 Samuel chapter 17.

Jeff Johnson: 1 Samuel chapter 17. Last week, God's spirit departed from Saul. The reason for that was rebellion. God allowed an evil spirit to come upon him. His servants were very concerned about him because of the great depression, the rage, the homicidal acts that he would commit. He was out of his mind and they were very concerned. It just so happens that David was available to come and to minister to him through song and through praise music to calm him that the evil spirit would depart from Saul.

Then in chapter 17, it says, "Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Socoh, which belongeth to Judah, and they camped there. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched in the valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them."

There's a very early missionary who has written much about the pressures and the trials of being out on the front lines for the Lord. His name is Hudson Taylor. Under extreme pressure working in China, and this is during the time where Europe was backing away, England was backing away, politically there was an upheaval, there was no money coming in to run the mission work in China.

This is a quote from Hudson Taylor. He said, "It doesn't matter really how great the pressure is. It only matters where the pressure lies." This has everything to do with our story this morning. It doesn't matter how great it is, it just matters where the pressure lies. External pressure and threats either drive you to the Lord or they will drive you away from the Lord.

We've got two individuals here. With Saul and David, we see both of them faced with the pressure of circumstance. It's right in their face, and we are pressured daily with these. Both respond differently, and this is where I think it's really instructive and it's really revealing to us to look at these two guys and how they responded to this circumstance that came up in their lives.

With Saul, it drew him away from God immediately. With David, it brought him increased reliance upon God. In fact, it just got him motivated to continue on and to become stronger in the Lord. So we have the negative and we have the positive effects. We have the victory and we have the defeat. That's really what I want to look at. Is this what you want, victory? Then this is the way you should go. If you want defeat, then we're going to study about defeat and you're going to see how you can be defeated. But I think most of us would say, "But I want victory in my trials and my circumstances."

So we're going to look at how both of these guys respond to this pressure. David really shows us the need for faith and how it can become an awesome force in our lives to bring victory. David is a good example of this. So we see here in chapter 17, they're back. In other words, they don't ever go away. Trials continue, circumstances continue, and guess who's here again? The Philistines.

They have somehow regrouped after being beaten very badly by Israel. They have now regrouped, they have come into the valley, and they have actually taken over the southern end of what is called Palestine, the southern part of Israel. They've taken hold of the valley there. There's one road going through it. Actually, they have cut off anybody coming from the Mediterranean up to the mountains of Judah. So they have entered into the Israel side of the portion of the valley there, and both of the armies are camped on either side of this valley. It's a very fruitful valley. It's a very lush, beautiful valley. In fact, this is the same valley that remember Joshua and Caleb came into the promised land and got those big grapes and carried them across. This is the valley of Eshcol, the area of Eshcol.

We get out of our bus usually as we go. I always like to bring groups to this place because it's so beautiful and the story is just right here. When you're in the area, it's great. We go to this creek and there's this little creek that kind of goes right through the middle of this valley. On either side are the hills where the armies were camped. It's really a rough terrain. Soft earth and really hard to do any kind of heavy-duty fighting. I think maybe this is one of the reasons why the armies weren't clashing together with one another. Coming down these hills and then having to get back up the hill after having a fight down in the valley would be very difficult. They would lose a lot of lives. So they just were sitting on top of these two hills in kind of like a standoff. They're just looking at each other and wondering what's going to happen.

This, of course, is a great place to share about giant trials and what to do with them. As I get the group, we gather together there by the creek and I start to share this story. We all experience stress, especially today. I think this is one of the major weapons of the enemy against us. But how we handle and deal with stress makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? Whether we're going to have victory or defeat in the midst of our circumstance or our situation. How we handle it is the key.

Verse 4, let's go on. "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." His friends probably called him Golly. When he died, they probably said, "By Golly," and that's where we get our term. I don't know. Here comes stress though. Here's the problem, the circumstances they're confronted with.

I'll tell you something about the customs back then. They did have a custom that when you had a standoff like that, each army would send out their champion. This is a good way to save a lot of lives. The champion would come out and they would fight to the finish. The losers would serve the others; winners would take all. Of course, the bloodshed was minimal then.

So here comes their man. This guy is a giant. He's a descendant of the sons of Anak. These guys were known to be giants. He's a cubit and the cubit here is different in different commentaries that I read. But it's normally from the tip of the finger to the end of the elbow, approximately 18 inches. We don't know for sure. It says that he is not only six cubits but he is also a span. A span is from the thumb to the finger, approximately 6 inches. So if you calculate all this up, he comes somewhere in the place of maybe 9 foot, and some have even said to 11 foot 6.

We're talking about a center. Anybody would love to have this guy. Can you imagine 11 foot 6? Just put it in. We're talking about a big guy. There's something about I'm a little guy. When I get up to guys 6 foot or whatever, it's intimidating. Usually the little guy goes, "How's the weather?" Big guys are intimidating. This guy is big.

Verse 5, "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." So he's decked in this full armor. He comes out with all this; the helmet of brass probably just shining, a coat of mail. It says here how much it weighed. They speculate between 150 and 200 pounds just for this coat of mail that he had on his front and his back this guy was carrying around.

Verse 6, "And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders." Brass leg protectors and a brass plate over his heart that would be right in the middle of the mail, a coat of mail and this big brass plate. It was of course to cover the most vital organ. On a flak jacket, when they give you a flak jacket, there's a piece of metal right here, right in front of your heart. Again, protecting the vital organ.

Verse 7, "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." He had this incredible spear. The weight of the head of the spear was approximately 20 pounds. For those of you that are into doing sports, you know a shot put is about 16 pounds. I think what the record is today is something like 73 feet. You take the shot put and you throw it 73 feet. But it's heavy. This guy had on the front of his spear a 20-pounder. Can you imagine thrusting that thing?

It took one guy just to carry his shield and he was probably buried in it and really sweating it. Wednesday, remember, we were going through the armor of God and we talked about the shield of faith. We also talked about how this shield is not something that you put on; it's something that you have ready for you at all times for your protection, just like the helmet and the sword. You'll notice as we go on here that the one thing that he didn't use in this battle with David was his shield. Because he didn't use his shield, he was snuffed out. It's something to think about as we go on into this story.

Verse 8, "And he stood and he 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. If 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 Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together."

You can picture this. Both armies on both sides of the hill, big valley in between, and this giant comes out into the valley coming down with all of his armor on. Here's the deal: winner takes all. Whoever fights to the finish. He begins to defy God. He begins to defy the armies of Israel, but in doing that, in defying the armies of Israel, he is of course defying God. He begins to do this out there in the middle of the field.

This guy was such a huge sight to see. His gear was just you could see it way down in the valley. His helmet was shining. This guy was huge. He was probably screaming out with a real deep voice, like one of those alto guys, like the big giants they use in these movies. He's screaming out and everybody's just panicking.

When I read this, I thought of 1 Peter 5:8 where it says that our adversary is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I thought that's just like it. He's like a lion. He's not a lion and he roars like a lion. He's all bark and no bite. But we always see him as, "Oh my gosh." That's how we look at the enemy many times. This is going to devour me.

So this guy's shouting out with this deep voice. This guy is a killer and everybody looks at him, backs off. Israel, notice in verse 11, this is their response: "When Saul and all of Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid." That's to say they were chicken. They were overwhelmed. They were in total fear, especially Saul. Why? Because he was head and shoulders over all of those in Israel. He's a big guy. If there was ever a candidate to fight Goliath, it's Saul. Come here, man, this guy's challenging you. Saul's back there, he's bummed out. He doesn't want to go up against this guy and he knows everybody's looking to him. King, what are you going to do? He's sitting there, the guy's big. What are you talking about? What am I going to do?

He knew, Saul knew that God's spirit was not upon him, that he had lost his enabling. God was no longer the object of Saul's faith. I want you to see that. He had no drive, he had no strength. He was a total chicken and he was backing off.

Verse 12. Now back at the ranch, we're going to see what's going on with David. "Now David was the son of that Ephrathite 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." It goes on to tell the names of the three sons: Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah.

Back now with David, we see him and he gives us a response here that is incredible that we need to look at. His reaction is awesome and how he relies upon his God. We've already seen Saul's reaction, Israel's reaction. Three of David's brothers were with Saul in the battle line.

Verse 14, "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." So as David was done ministering to Saul and he calmed down after one of his fits of rage, he said, "I got to get back to the sheep. I care for the sheep, I'm going to go back to them and I'm going to take care of them."

David was a true shepherd. He just felt guilty if he didn't get back to the sheep. So he went back to them to do what? To feed them, to protect them because he had a true pastor's heart. Over in Jeremiah, God comes against the pastors and the shepherds of Israel. He says this in Jeremiah 23 in verse 1 to those false shepherds. He says, "Woe be unto you, the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! You that have fed my people, you have scattered my flock." In other words, they really truly haven't fed the flock. They haven't really protected them.

The false shepherds, the false leaders during that time had caused the people to fear because they were ripping them off constantly, not really feeding them from the Lord and not really being a faithful pastor or shepherd. In fact, over in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 8, God says of David, "Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel."

David with that shepherd's heart was to rule over God's people. From his lineage would come what? The Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. So we see this heart of God, we see this handing down through David to finally Jesus Christ and him coming and being our great shepherd. When you think of David's life, you think of all that he did, even the bad things that he did, the terrible things that he got into. Then you look at God's mercy on his life, God's loving kindness, his forgiveness on his life is just overwhelming.

Scripture says that we are to confess our sins and God is going to be faithful to forgive you of all your sins and wash you from all uncleanness. Our God is a forgiving God, is a merciful God, is a loving God. We need to run to him. It's the goodness of God that brings us to repentance. We must go and have a heart as David and repent of our sins and he will be faithful to forgive and to wash us.

Verse 16, "And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days." That's interesting. He kept taunting them, kept coming down for forty days. The number of testing and trial is the number forty in the Bible. In other words, when you look through the scriptures you see that Moses was in the wilderness for forty years; he was being tested and tried of the Lord. We see also that it rained forty days upon the earth; the earth was being tried and tested. And we also see Jesus was brought into the wilderness for forty days to be tried and tested.

I thought of the scripture in James where James says, "Blessed, oh how happy is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him." In other words, we are going to be tried. We are going to be tested. But blessed, oh how happy is the man that endures the temptation. God is not going to give you too much where you can't handle it; he'll also give you a way of escape. Jesus is that way. We need to call on the name of the Lord and we shall be saved. That's God's promise. He'll pull us out of that temptation and that situation and give us the victory.

So we see it here as the man came out to defy God and the armies of Israel forty days. Then verse 17, "And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren; and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of the thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge." In other words, find out what's going on with them.

"Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines." Or preparing to fight, actually. "And 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." They were just psyching themselves up for it. "For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army." It says that David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and he ran into the army and he came and saluted his brethren.

When you look at this, you kind of wonder first of all, why did Jesse want David to be a little errand boy and to bring these goodies into the camp? I kind of wondered, I thought maybe it's kind of a bribe so his sons wouldn't have to go up against Goliath. Maybe Jesse's kind of watching out after his three sons that are with Saul and he's trying to bribe the men around. These are my sons, they're good boys, don't send them out. Could be.

David becomes this errand boy and notice as he leaves the sheep with a keeper. He is a good shepherd; he leaves his flock with somebody who would keep them, protect them and feed them before he leaves, making sure that they're taken care of. Then he goes into the valley, and it's about 10 miles from Bethlehem. So he had to take a chariot. He got into this chariot, drove up to the spot where they were at, and as they were psyching themselves up for battle, he comes on the scene.

Verse 23, "And as he talked with them, behold, there came up a 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."

Guest (Male): We'll stop right here for today, but you can feel the excitement building as we approach the famous confrontation between David and Goliath. Be sure to join us next time here on Sound Doctrine for more. All of this is part of Pastor Jeff Johnson's series in 1 Samuel. I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you can hear today's study as well as make a donation to this radio outreach. That's at sounddoctrineradio.org. You can also listen at oneplace.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio app. I should also mention Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Be sure to join us again next time we meet for another encouraging and challenging study with Pastor Jeff in the book of 1 Samuel. That's here on Sound Doctrine, presented by Calvary Chapel Downey.