[MUSIC PLAYING] Calvary Church is
dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is Expound. Let's get to it, shall we? Turn in your Bibles to the
book of 1 Samuel chapter 16. That's where we left off, right? I trust that you are with me. Maybe, you've read ahead. But we are looking
at chapter 16, and who knows how far will go. I am not going to
make any promises. But I want to get right to it. I don't want to dilly dally. I want to jump into the text. So Father, we pray
for wisdom and pray that your Spirit would teach us. I need to be taught. We need to be taught. We need to be
instructed, inspired, and we feel, Lord, that as
a society and as a church we're at a very crucial time. And so we pray that you
would speak to us as a group, as a church, as a
body of believers, but also individually,
because you know all the nuances of our
lives, all the different things that we face, all the
unique challenges. We pray that you would grow
us up in the word of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. We've been studying
the life of Saul, and we've seen that Saul,
almost from the beginning, not quite from the
beginning, but almost, was a failure as a King. He will make an admission
in a few chapters. We will read it. He will say it to David, who
he will be hunting at the time. He will say this confession,
a very rare confession from his lips. He will say, Indeed,
I have played the fool and erred exceedingly. That is his life statement. And really, it's
an understatement. He played the fool
in so many ways. He played the fool by arrogance. His son won a battle. He blew the trumpet. He played the fool
by indifference, making his soldiers fight a
battle without any nourishment whatsoever. And we saw last week he played
the fool by disobedience. He flatly disobeyed
a command of God in dealing with the
Amalekites, this age old enemy, that he was supposed to
wipe out but did not. So now, the King gets fired. God will accept his
resignation, actually he, will tear the kingdom,
according to the prophet Samuel, from the hands of King Saul. Now, for that to happen
the scene must shift, and in chapter 16 the scene
shifts from the Amalekites battle to the little town of
Bethlehem, the place where Jesus will be born years later. So we go from chapter 15, the
story of an Amalekite King, named Agag, to the future
Israelite King, King David. There is more
written about David than any other Old
Testament character. A full 66 chapters are
devoted to the life of David. And we'll understand why
as redemption plays out on the pages of the Holy writ. We will see that
the Messiah will come from the line of David. So the first King of Israel
was not from the tribe of Judah as David will be. He was from the
tribe of Benjamin. But the people
clamored for a King. They got their King. Now, he is rejected. But now, the focus
will be on David. And David, as I
said, there'll be a lot written about him in
this book and in the next book and in several books to come. As I mentioned the
scene will be Bethlehem. And that should
automatically, and I think it already did, just
raise a flag, ring a bell. It's like, Oh, Bethlehem. Because in 1,000
years from where we're reading outside the
little town of Bethlehem there'll be a choir from
heaven, and the angel will say, glory to God in the highest,
and unto you this day is born in the city
of David one who will be Christ the Lord,
the King, the Messiah. Notice it will be called
the City of David. Now, that's important
because when we're introduced to David in
chapter 16, David is a nobody. He's a nobody that
was out keeping sheep. Nobody really cared
about him, but God did, and God picked him. So important will David be
that the city of Bethlehem will be referred to
as the city of David. And Jesus will be
called the son of David. So in chapter 16, verse 1,
then the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for
Saul seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to
Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself
a King among his sons. You should probably
know that David is going to have not
one anointing but three anointings in his lifetime. This is the first one. It is a private anointing. The second one will be a
public anointing at Hebron when he becomes the leader of
Judah, the southern tribes, or the tribes down in the
southern part of the kingdom. Then later on he'll
have a third anointing where he will be acknowledged
as the King of all of the tribes of Israel,
North and South, also a public anointing. Something else I want you
to keep in mind, the name anoint, or the term
anoint, or to smear with oil-- that's what anointing
is because when they anointed people they didn't take
like a little swab of oil and make a cross
on your forehead, like you're being
anointed with oil. They poured oil and
smeared oil on the person. And so the term Messiah,
Mashia in Hebrew, literally means the smeared
one, the anointed one, the one that oil
has been poured over to make a demarcation
that this person is selected for special service. So kings were anointed,
smeared with oil, marked out for special service. Priests were anointed,
smeared with oil, marked out for special service. The ultimate anointed one, the
ultimate smeared individual, the ultimate Mashia, will be
the son of David, Jesus Christ. He will be given that term
Messiah, or in the Greek, Christ. So fill your horn
with oil and go. I am sending you to
Jesse, a Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself
a King among his sons. There's three things you need
to know, or note, at this point. Saul is rejected, number one. Samuel is dejected, number two. He's mourning. But David is selected,
number three. And so here's somebody
who has been rejected by God, the first King. He is pushed aside. The kingdom will be
torn from his hands. This makes Samuel the prophet
very dejected, very low, very mournful. All the while God has
already got it covered. He's got somebody selected,
somebody picked out in his heart, in his mind, even
prophesied way back in Genesis chapter 49, where
Jacob, on his deathbed, said of the tribe of
Judah, the scepter will not depart from Judah. Nor the law giver from between
his feet until Shiloh comes. Shiloh is a term
for the Messiah. So notice the scepter,
the right to rule as King, will not depart from Judah. So God is raising up what
was always on his heart, was always on his mind, the plan
of a deliverer, Jesus Christ, through the lineage of David. I will provide myself a King. So Saul is rejected. Samuel is dejected. But God has selected David. I want that to sink
in because I never want you to think
that God panics, that God sweats a
problem situation. God always has a plan. He's never without a plan. God never bites his
fingernails and goes, Oh, man. Boy, Saul really blew
it that last chapter. I don't know what
I'm going to do now. It's like, push him aside. Next. God's got it covered. And in his Providence
he is going to move one out and
move another piece in. Now, I have to say,
and again, I don't want to dilly dally or wait
too long because I want to move ahead, but Samuel impresses me. You would think that
after all that Samuel has had to put up with Saul
being arrogant, prideful, being indifferent to his troops,
being very disobedient to God, just remember the last
chapter and the confrontation they had that Samuel, when
God said, I'm done with him, that he would go, phew. I am too. Get rid of him. You should have fired
him a long time ago. You think that he would go
to Saul and say, you dummy. You're a loser. Get out of town. But he's mourning for him
and, literally, in Hebrew, the word mourn means to grieve
like somebody grieves at death. He is grieving as if he died. And I am just so impressed
with the heart of this prophet. I think he really, really
wanted Saul to succeed as King. But he knew it was too late,
and he goes into mourning and God says, OK. I get it. I get it that you're bummed out. I get it that you're saddened,
that you're mourning, but how long are you
going to keep this up? Know that I've got
something up my sleeve. I'm working a trick. I've got somebody picked out. And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it,
he will kill me. And the Lord said, take a
heifer with you and say, I have come to
sacrifice to the Lord. Then invite Jesse
to the sacrifice, and I will show you
what you shall do. You shall anoint for me
the one I name to you. And Samuel did
what the Lord said, went to Bethlehem, and the
elders of the town trembled at his coming and said,
do you come peaceably? Now, why do you
think they trembled when the prophet came to town? Well, remember what
happened in chapter 15? Remember what the prophet
did to the King Agag? He hacked him to
pieces with a sword. I'd tremble if that
guy's coming to my town. I don't know what he's up to. So they were
probably a little bit fearful as to what
the prophet is doing, and already they know
that Saul, they're King, as kind of a mental
case and very unpredictable. Does he know what
Samuel is doing? Even Samuel, himself, is
living in trepidation. He's scared. He's reticent to go. And I find it interesting that
the Lord gives him a solution. He doesn't say
lie to him, but he says, well, you could tell them
that you're there to sacrifice, which is the truth because
if you bring an animal and you sacrifice it, then you
can say, I'm here to sacrifice. But it wasn't the
entire truth, was it? Because he was there
to select, anoint, somebody to be the
next King, to be the replacement of King Saul. But I find it interesting
that God says, you can tell him the
truth by bringing this in. Now, this is prudent. We know this in
everyday conversation. You don't tell people
what you are thinking. You're not brutally honest
with people around you. You'd be fired if you were. You'd be divorced if you were. Most marriages couldn't stand
a brutal honesty of everything that a person thinks
or wants to say. So we learn to be
wise in our speech, and the Bible tells us
to be wise in our speech. So the wise approach
to go to Bethlehem is to take a heifer,
a young female calf, and have a sacrifice. Now, you might be asking why are
they sacrificing at these towns and not in Jerusalem? Well, Jerusalem is not the
established capital yet. God did say back in the
law that you shall only worship the Lord
in the place when I tell you what that place is. But God has not
revealed that yet. It will be Jerusalem,
but until then it seems that people
could have sacrifices in different towns, different
villages, like in Shilo-- that's how the book opens. Eli is there as the priest in
Shilo, where the Tabernacle is. And people would go, and they
would bring their animal, and they would have
sort of like a barbecue. They bring an animal. They'd sacrifice
it, and it would fall under the category of
a Thanksgiving offering, or a thank offering, or
a fellowship offering. The idea was giving thanks
that we are God's people and just celebrating a meal
in the presence of God. So just like just think of
it as an extended, glorious, spiritual barbecue that he
was having in Bethlehem, and he is there to anoint David. So he says in verse 5 to
the people, peaceably, I have come to
sacrifice to the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, or
consecrate yourselves, come with me to the sacrifice. Then he sanctified
Jesse and his sons and invited them
to the sacrifice. So it was when they came that
he looked at Eliab and said, surely, the Lord's
anointed is before him. Eliab was the eldest son
of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Eliab, evidently, was very
tall, tall in stature, so Samuel looked and said, now,
that guy looks like a King. Why would he think that? Well, the first King, King Saul,
was also very tall, wasn't he? He was head and shoulders
above everybody in Israel. So naturally, he was
the only Israelite King as a point of reference so far. He sees Eliab and
says, well, that guy looks very Schwarzeneggeresque. I think he will do just fine. That's King material. That's royal material. So it's interesting
that Samuel had a standard in his mind of
what would make a good King. And it was appearance. It's how he looked. He looked stately. He looked tall. He looked authoritative. So as I look at him, I
am making a judgment. Surely, that is the
Lord's anointed. But the Lord said to Samuel,
do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature
because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see
as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but
the Lord looks at the heart. So Jesse called Abinadad,
that's the second born, and made him pass before
Samuel, and he said, no. Neither has the Lord
chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shimeah
pass by and he said, no. Neither has the Lord
chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of
his sons pass before him, and Samuel said to Jesse, the
Lord has not chosen these. It's a very interesting
statement that God just made. Man looks at the
outward appearance. God looks at the heart. Now, that statement
happens to be true. It's not a putdown. God isn't saying,
you dumb humans. All you do is look
at the outward. Because the outward is
all we have to go on. All we have to be able to make
any evaluation when we first meet a person is, generally,
by the first impression, eye contact, smile,
handshake, conversation. We do look at the
outward appearance. We are appearance-oriented
creatures. I can prove that. Did any of you look
in the mirror today? I'm guessing 100% of you did. Most people spend,
in our country, about 3.8 to 5 hours a
week looking in the mirror. Interesting, by the way, of
all the countries on Earth where people look in the
mirror the most, any guesses? Italy. See, yeah. You were going to say US because
we're going to ditch the US. No. It was Italy. The Italian men and women spend
considerable more time looking at themselves in the mirror. So why do we look in the mirror? It's not because we like what
we see because some of us don't. Some of us don't like mirrors. Mirrors are brutally honest. They tell you the truth. And some of us, and
I'm including myself, don't really appreciate mirrors. We use them because we
want to do our best. Why? Because we know man looks
at the outward appearance. And so we'll put an
article of clothing on, and we want to
look a certain way. We want to appear cool, or
we want to appear beautiful. And so why? Because we know this to be true. Man looks at the
outward appearance. So don't blame the prophet. This isn't a put down. That's his standard is outward
visibility, outward appearance. That's not God's standard. Verse 11. And Samuel said to Jesse,
are all the young men here? Are all your sons here? You've given me seven. God has said nix, nay,
no to all of them. Are all the young men here? Then he said, this
is Jesse speaking, well, there remains
yet the youngest, and there he is keeping
the sheep, pointing out the window to a flock of sheep. Samuel said to Jesse,
send and bring him. For we will not sit down
until he comes here. So Samuel had a standard
and that was appearance. Jesse, it seems, also had a
standard, and that was age. Because he made a
remark, well, yeah. There's one, but
he's the youngest. In other words, he's the least
important of all my sons. In fact, he has the job of
just being a sheep tender. You know, David
was the, Oh, yeah. I almost forgot kid. He was, yeah. We got one more,
but he's into FAA. You know, he's always
out watching those sheep and he's technically
my son, but-- So he had a certain
standard in his own mind, and he thought one of
his first seven sons-- so there's eight
sons altogether-- but one is out in the
field, and he's brought in. Interestingly, he wasn't
even invited into the mix. So he sent and brought him in. Now, he was ruddy-- ruddy means red-- with bright
eyes, or beautiful eyes, and good looking. And the Lord said, Arise. Anoint him for this is the one. Then Samuel took the horn
of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers,
and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from
that day forward. So Samuel arose
and went to Ramah. So Samuel had a
standard, appearance. Jesse had a standard, age. God has a standard, the heart. Now, what is the heart? When the Bible speaks about the
heart, I fear that some of us get that term mixed up. Most Christians misuse the
biblical term for heart. How do I know that? Because they say
things like this. Well, you might know
that in your head but not in your heart. It's not head knowledge. It's heart knowledge. And we as Christians,
unfortunately, not biblically, unfortunately, have
in our minds that we should set the heart against
the head, against the mind. As if, well, the
heart is more superior and how you feel, the
emotional part of you, the heart, the real you, more
important than the intellect. Do you know that in the
Bible the heart and the mind are the same. The heart refers
to the mind, where you process your thinking, where
your will is to make decisions, and where your
emotions are produced. That's the real you. That's the core of your being. That is the biblical heart. So you look at the
outward appearance. I see what a person
thinks about, how they process their
thought, what they want, what motivates them. I look at the heart. So the Spirit of
God came upon him. Now, notice the Spirit comes
upon David but will leave Saul. Verse 14. But the Spirit of
the Lord departed from Saul and a
distressing Spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants
said to him, surely, a distressing Spirit from
God is troubling you. First of all, notice that
the Holy Spirit left Saul. Now, this is very Old Testament. This never happens
in the New Testament. You're New Testament believers. The Spirit of God has come
in you and is upon you. That's not going to change. In the Old Testament
it was different. The Holy Spirit came upon people
selectively, and temporarily, where in the New Testament he
comes upon people permanently, and pervasively. All believers of all generations
in all parts of the world who are believers in Christ
have a relationship with the Holy Spirit,
and he doesn't leave. He's an abiding possession. But in the Old Testament the
Holy Spirit came upon kings, came upon certain individuals
for certain tasks. What troubles some of us is
that a distressing Spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. What's that about? Some demonic tormenting
Spirit that the Lord, in his sovereignty, allowed
Saul to be afflicted by to do two things, punish Saul,
and introduce David, or stage David, for the next
phase of his life. So you know that God is
in control of all spirits. He's in control of all things. He's absolutely sovereign. He's in control of
the devil himself. It's not like there's
this cosmic fight and over here,
ladies and gentlemen, there's the devil in this corner
is God, and ding, ding, ding. Here it goes. They're battling. Who knows who's going to win. Are you kidding? Fights over before it began. God's the champ. Satan can't go one
round with the champ. Greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. [CLAPPING AND CHEERING] So God allows, permits,
and, by the way, demons can only
operate by permission. When the demons were
being cast out by Jesus, they had to ask a
permission slip from Jesus to go into a herd of swine. Because no movement can be
made in the Spirit realm, even the demonic realm,
without the will of God. So God, for his own purposes,
and two I just mentioned, for the punishment of Saul and
for the initiation of David, allows a distressing
Spirit to torment him because of his pushing God away,
pushing God's control away, pushing God's Spirit away,
in this case, a troubling Spirit distressed him. So look at their solution. Let our master now
command your servants who are before you to
seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that he
will play it with his hand when the distressing Spirit
from God is upon you, and you shall be well. Man, you just need
a good record. You need a good CD. You need a good
band to listen to. So Saul said to his
servants, provide me now a man who can play
well, and bring him to me. Then, one of the servants
answered and said, look, I have seen
a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who
is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man
of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person. And the Lord is with him. That's his most
important characteristic. But they're working for Saul,
so that's last on their list. Therefore, Saul sent
messengers and said to David, send me your son who
is with your sheep. And Jesse took a donkey loaded
with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent
them by his son David to Saul. So David came to Saul
and stood before him, and he loved him greatly, and
he became his armor bearer. Now, notice that. Notice that David
loved Saul greatly. He went to work for him. He became a court musician. He will become his
armor bearer, as well. But David was loyal
to Saul, and he will continue to love him and
continue to be loyal to him even during that decade when
Saul will try to kill David, when he will seek his life,
when you will force David into hiding. David will be plagued by
doing anything that would go against the Lord's anointed. He was loyal to him and
loved him to the end. So he wasn't like, I really
want this job as King. When will that King leave
so I can be in charge? He was loyal to him, and
he loved him and would have served him to the very end. Then Saul sent to
Jesse saying, please, let David stand before me for
he has found favor in my sight. So it was whenever
the Spirit from God was upon Saul, that
David would take a harp, play it with his hand, and Saul
would become refreshed and well and the distressing Spirit
would depart from him. You know, music is such an
important part of humanity. It's part of our culture. It's a part of every culture. I think every culture
I have ever encountered has a national anthem, a
song that they rally around for the nation. I wish we would rally around our
national anthem more, not less. [CLAPPING] When you sing a song, it
should evoke a certain emotion, a certain pride of nation. There are folk songs in every
generation and every culture. There are songs in commercials. You want to sell a product,
come up with a clever tune. People will start singing it. I still sing those stupid
commercial songs from the 60s that I've heard. So they did a good job in
advertising because it's stuck. So music is so important. It's important in worship. It's important for
our spiritual culture. Still to this day, when I hear
certain hymns, certain songs, it evokes an emotion in me. I love all the new songs. I love all the new expressions. You know I'm an
advocate for that, but when you bring
back one of those ones that I remember hearing
that brings back a whole emotional pitch
and fervor in my Spirit. Now, I heard an
interesting story about the importance
of music in a culture. A missionary went to Nigeria
to build a mission station. There was a foreman
that he hired and a crew that he hired to
build the mission station. They went to work on the
first day and the second day and things were rolling along,
and then third or fourth day the work just stopped. And the missionary
went to the foreman and said, so, you got
off to a good start. You brought the material
in, but you stopped. He goes, yeah. I don't know what the problem
is, but for some reason, the foreman said, the
musician has been delayed. Missionary said, musician? What does that have to do
with building a work station? Oh, musician is very
important to what we do. So what they meant
is somebody who would come there and beat on
a log with a certain cadence and chant folk songs that
they were familiar with, and they would work to that. So it's almost like saying,
yeah, you know my radio broke. I'm sorry. I can't hammer those nails. I can't work for you today. So very, very important. So all that to say
music is important, and it was important
for Saul even. The only problem is he was using
it to try to solve the problem, and he was just
covering the problem. He was just masking the problem. The problem is in his own heart,
his own rebellion against God that has invited this
tormenting Spirit. But he's just letting the
music drown it out, cover it up, just turn it up
louder, party hearty. But not really deal
with the core problem. Now, verse 1, chapter 17. The Philistines gathered their
armies together to battle. They're always a problem. They're an ongoing source of
irritation to the Israelites, and this is probably
the most famous battle that we encounter of
Israel and the Philippines. The Philistines gathered their
armies together to battle. They were gathered together at
Socoh, which belongs to Judah. They encamp between Socoh
and Azekah in Ephes Dammim. See, this is where I wish you
have been with me to Israel because if you've been
with us to Israel, you could close your eyes,
and what I just read you can picture exactly the scene. Most of us who
haven't been, you have to let me try to describe
it to you with words. So I'll try. So this valley that they are
in was a natural battlefield. It is called the Valley of Elah. And it's an S-shaped valley. It's about a mile wide, and on
either side are sloping hills. And this is how a lot of
ancient battles played out. So the battlefield
was in the middle. The armies were camped on either
side of these sloping hills. Again, if you go
to Israel with us, we can actually show you
the hill where Israel stood and the hill where
the Philistines stood. And you can stand in
the middle of the valley and go through the text and go
even through the little brook where David selected the stones. You know that area is still
farmland and largely untouched. So the way it would
work is the army would be pitched
on one side facing the army on the opposite hill. Then they would go
down into the valley and just sort of spar each other
on, just choose each other off, like, come on. Let's fight. Yell at each other. But each army was hoping
that the other army would attack first. Why? Because again, the
camp is up on the hill. So if the army wants to
attack the army's camp, it's literally an uphill battle. You're fighting uphill. And it's always easier to throw
a javelin or stones or whatever attack when you're in an
uphill position facing downhill than the opposite. Same in golf. It's always easy to have
an approach shot downhill rather than uphill, right? So that is the issue. They're in this valley. They're camped on either side. They're hoping the
other will strike first. It's a pretty even
balance so far. It's about to change. It says, and Saul and the men of
Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in
the Valley of Elah and drew up in battle array
against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on
a mountain on one side. Israel stood on a mountain
on the other with a valley in between them. And a champion-- now the
battle changes-- and a champion went out from the camp
of the Philistines, named Goliath, from
Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. If that is an
accurate number, that means he was nine
feet nine inches tall. Hold that thought. He had a bronze
helmet on his head. He was armed with
a coat of mail. The weight of the coat was
5,000 shekels of bronze. He had a bronze greaves on
his legs, a bronze javelin between his shoulder, and
the staff of his spear was like a weavers beam. And the iron spearhead
weighed 600 shekels. It's like a 15 to 20 pound
shot put weighted spear. And as shield bearer
went before him. Nine foot nine inches. Every single NBA team
would be after that guy if he was around today. Right? I mean, slam dunk. Just stand there. Pft. Pft. Just past it to Goliath. Right? Imagine what size
shoe he had to wear. What kind of a bed does
a guy sleep in like that? I know, a king-sized
bed, of course. California king, exactly. just a little bit longer. In 1918, there was a man by
the name of Robert Wadlow who was born in Alton, Illinois. And when he was
born, he was born at eight pounds five ounces. By the time he
was age 13, he was seven feet eight inches tall. His ultimate height was
eight feet nine inches tall. And when he died his
casket was almost 11 feet. It had to be carried
by 12 men to bury him, and there have been people
who have been known to be this tall, but they die young. They have all sorts of
medical complications. So that's what the
scripture says. However, we do have
a textual issue. If we were to read the Masoretic
text of the Old Testament, if we were to read the
commentary on the Old Testament by Josephus, the
Jewish historian, if we were to look at
the Septuagint version, the Greek version of
the Old Testament, if we were to look at the Dead
Sea Scrolls, which now happen to be the oldest Old
Testament manuscripts we have in existence, it
says that he was not six cubits and span but four
cubits and a span, which shows a discrepancy. It would make him six foot
nine inches rather than nine foot nine inches. Now, you could say, well,
six foot nine inches, I mean, we shouldn't think
about that, or entertain that, as possible, even though some of
the old manuscripts have that, because that wouldn't
be a formidable giant. Oh, yes, it would,
given the fact that the average
Israeli at this time was five foot three was
the male average height. So imagine a fully
outfitted LeBron James, I think he's six
foot nine, right? He's pretty hefty. So imagine LeBron
James standing next to Danny Devito,
the actor, and you have that kind of a scenario. It could possibly, plausibly,
be four cubits and a span. A span is the length of your
thumb to your forefinger, so it would be six foot nine. My brother was six foot eight. And I remember when he
would walk into a room, and he rode a Harley
Davidson, rode with another guy who
was also six foot eight, when they would come into
a room together, people went, whoa! I mean, it was a
formidable presence. So it could be that he
was nine foot nine inches. Could be that he was
six foot nine inches. Either way, if you're five
foot three, you're a champion. Now, something
about this soldier. This soldier, Goliath, I think,
was a very specialized kind of the soldier. He's in the Philistine
army, but it could be that Goliath
was actually a mercenary, that he hired himself, that
he was a soldier for hire, for money. Because, do you remember when
the 12 spies were sent in by Moses to the land,
and they came back and the 10 gave the
report that we can't go take the land because
there are giants in the land, the sons of Anak
are there, Anak. The Anakim, the giants,
are in the land. Well, it seems that
they didn't go away, that when Israel
settled the land, I'm just going to read a
quick little text of Scripture to you in the Book of Joshua. It says in Joshua
chapter 11, at that time Joshua came in and cut off
the Anakim from the mountains from Hebron, Debir, Anab,
all the mountains of Judah, from the mountains
of Israel Joshua utterly destroyed them
with their cities. None of the Anakim
were left in the land of the children of Israel. But listen, they
remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. Where is this
Philistine giant from? Gath. So it could be that he was one
of the leftovers of the Anakim. He hires himself out. He knows, it's like,
look, I'm a big dude. You could use me. And so he's technically
in the Philistine camp, but his background is one
of the genealogical records of the giants. So I wanted to throw
that into just shed a little bit of light on Goliath
that you may not have known. So verse 8. He stood, and he cried out
to the armies of Israel and said to them, why have you
come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and
you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves,
and let him come down to me. So here's this
LeBron James looking at a whole bunch of Danny
Devito's saying, pick a dude. One of you 5 foot
3ers, come on out. Let's go toe to toe. We will fight together. If he is able to fight with
me, verse 9, and kill me, then we will be your
servants, but if I prevail him and kill him,
then you shall 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. So you understand
what's happening. Instead of this
stupid way to do war where you get a whole
bunch of soldiers fighting a whole bunch of soldiers,
how about just have one representative and
winner takes all. Now, if you think about
it, it's not a bad idea. Because when there's
a problem in the world we send our best soldiers,
and we have the best soldiers. We send them out overseas,
and they protect our country, and they do a valiant job, but
some politician decides, yeah, I think we ought to go to
war against that country, and so we send America's finest. And many are killed. And they do it valiantly. And they do it
for a right cause. But what if we sent the
leader of the nation who wants to go to war to fight the war? [LAUGHING] A lot could be said about that. But I'll tell you what,
if we started doing that, we would vote a whole
lot differently. [LAUGHING] We want to make sure the
guy has military background. He's a fighter man. He's so capable. We'd want the LeBron
James scrapper. [LAUGHING] When Saul and all Israel heard
these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed
and greatly afraid. Now, David was the son of that
Ephraimite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse,
who had eight sons, and the man was old, advanced
years and the days of Saul. The three oldest sons
of Jesse had gone to follow Saul into battle. The name of his three
sons who went to battle were Eliab, the firstborn. Next to him, Abinadad,
the third Shimeah. David was the youngest. And the three oldest
followed Saul, but David occasionally
went and returned from Saul to feed his father's
sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistine,
that's Goliath, drew near and presented himself
40 days, morning and evening. Talk about intimidating. Every day for almost
a month and a half. Twice a day. Making the same challenge. Send me a dude. Send me a man. Let's have a fight. It would grind. It would wear down the
spirits of the opposing army, and it was intended
to do exactly that. And it was intended to bolster
the spirits of the Philistines. They were having a
heyday with this. Then Jesse said
to his son, David, take now for your
brothers and ephah of this dried grain
and these 10 loaves, and run to your
brothers in the camp, and carry these 10 cheese to
the captain of their 1,000, and see how your brothers
are doing, how they fare, and bring back news of them. Now, Saul, and they, and
all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah
fighting with the Philistines. So David rose early
in the morning, left the sheep with the
keeper, and took the things, and went as Jesse
had commanded him. And he came to the
camp of the army as the army was
going out to fight and shouting for the battle. So they're there up to
their same old things. They go down into the valley, [WAR CRY] And Goliath said, send me a guy. Just kind of staging
it every day. For Israel, verse 21,
and the Philistines had drawn up in battle
array, army against army, and David left his supplies in
the hand of the supply keeper, probably in a cart, a
chariot, ran to the army, and came and greeted
his brothers. And he talked with them. And there was the
champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath
by name, coming up, notice this, coming up from
the armies of the Philistines, and he spoke according
to the same words. So David heard them. And all the men of Israel when
they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. Think Wizard of Oz. So the men of Israel
said, have you seen this man who has come up? Surely, he has come
up to defy Israel, and it shall be that
the man who kills him, the King, that is King Saul,
will enrich with great riches and will give his daughter
and give his father's house exemption in Israel. So whoever is the man that we
send over to fight, if he wins, he gets to marry
Saul's daughter, and his whole family
is tax exempt. Will never pay taxes
again in Israel. Now, here's what I want you to
notice about what's going on. As the battle progresses, now
they're not just going down in the valley, down
where the brook is that divides the
valley in half, now Goliath is coming up that hill. He's advancing. So not just staying down
there and yelling at him, he's coming up. He's being more intimidating. He's being more defiant,
and he's being aggressive. He's coming up. Three times, they came up. He's coming up, coming up. I want you to get that
picture because that is how Satan works. He won't expend much energy on
you, if he knows you're weak, but if he knows you're
strong, he'll come up. He'll think of other tactics. He's a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. And he never gives up. Just like Goliath, he's there
morning, evening, morning, evening, morning, evening. He just keeps at it. And he gets a little closer
and a little more defiant and a little more aggressive
every day as the days go on. And as I said, he
never gives up. When Jesus was
tempted by the devil, and Jesus successfully
handle that temptation, it says this in the Bible. And when he had ended
every temptation, Satan left him until he
could find an opportune time. That's the devil against Jesus. He left him, but he was
looking for an opportune time. Do you know that
Satan always looks for an opportune time, a
weak moment, when you're off guard, when you
feel invincible, when you feel in-conquerable. You've just had a victory. I can handle this. He's coming up. He'll never give up. And if he goes unmet,
he gets stronger and stronger and stronger. And that temptation, and
that struggle you face, that you can't get out of,
gets stronger and stronger because the enemy's coming up. So David hears this. He knows what's happening. He sees what's happening. David spoke to the man who
stood by him saying, tell me that again. What did you just say? What shall be done for the
man who kills the Philistine and takes away the
reproach from Israel? For who is this
uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the
armies of the living God? Don't you love David's spunk. And the people answered
him in this manner saying, so shall it be done
for the man who kills him. Now, David has the
right perspective. David's a shepherd boy, but
David's a servant of God. David knows his God. And notice the perspective. Go back to verse 10. Here's what Goliath said, I
defy the armies of Israel. That's not David's perspective. David said who is this
uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the
armies of the living God? Who does this idiot think
he is mouthing off to God? This is God's army. We're God's people. That's the right perspective. That's the perspective
of faith, and that's the true perspective. In the book of
Zacharia the prophet will say, whoever touches Israel
touches the apple of God's eye. If somebody goes after you,
if a fist comes towards you, or a foreign body or a
piece of sand comes at you, you block it. You keep it out of the
eyeball, the apple of your eye. God's very sensitive
when it comes to anybody attacking his people. Remember when Saul
was, not this Saul, but New Testament
Saul, Saul of Tarsus, who would become
Paul the apostle, was attacking
Christians in Damascus? He was after Christians. That's not how Jesus saw it. He knocks Saul off his
horse and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? When you touch them
you are dealing with-- you're going to
have to come through me. I'll take you on. You want to fight, Saul? Bam! That's David's perspective. This guy's mouthing off to the
armies of God, The living God. And something else, I
want to focus on that. He didn't just say the
armies of Israel's God, the armies of the what? Living God. You know why he said that? Because he knew there's only
one God, that every other belief system, no matter how
sincere a person may be, they're worshipping
gods that don't exist. You can call a god
anything you want. You can have any
religious system you want. So it's not real. It's fake. It's been made up. There's only one
true living God. Do you know who the
Philistines worship? Not a living God. They worship a god
by the name of Dagon. Dagon was a god with a fish
head and the arms of a man, and they worship the
God called Beelzebub. Beelzebub means the
Lord of the Flies, or, literally, the dung beetle. They worship a dung beetle. These Philistines worship
insects that crawl on dung. And that guy's defying
the living God? You see how his perspective
is when he enters this battle? You need to understand
that because that's what accounts for him going full
speed ahead into this battle. Now, Eliab, his oldest brother,
heard when he spoke to the man. And Eliab's anger was
aroused against David and said, why did
you come down here? And with whom have you
left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and
insolence of your heart. You have come down
to see the battle. David said, what
have I done, now? Is there not a cause? And he turned from
him toward another and said the same thing. And these people answered
him as the first ones did. And when the words
which David spoke were heard, which they
reported them to Saul, and he sent for him. Now, remember Eliab
is the eldest. Remember, Eliab was
the first in line to be considered
to be King, which means he is the first
to be rejected as King. So he remembers that whole
incident, that whole ordeal. Can I just warn
you, in a good way, just so you understand this, not
to keep you from serving God. But when you decide
I'm going to step into the service
of the Lord, I'm going to go be a missionary on
the other side of the world. I'm going to go plant a church. I'm going to go lead
worship with my music. I'm going to go-- I just want to serve the Lord. Not everybody around you is
going to understand that. You're going to have blow
back, flak, misunderstanding, misjudgment even
from your own family. It's going to happen. Not to dissuade you,
just know that going in. That's just job hazard. Comes with the job. I'm looking at the time, and [CROWD BOOING] I love that you say that. [LAUGHING] We really need an
hour and a half, but-- [CLAPPING] I also love your children. And I love those who volunteer
tending your children and those who love and serve and have
other commitments to do but-- One last thing about
Eliab and we'll close. No, I'll save it for next week. [LAUGHING] Same time, same channel. Father, thank you so
much for the opportunity to delve into the life
of this man who is called a man after your own heart. A man who decided
that living in safety was not what he was about,
was not what he was called to. And if there is an
enemy at hand that is defying the armies
of the living God, he wanted to be a
part of that action. Instead of retreating
back to the sheepfold, instead of going
back to Bethlehem, we will see how
engaged he becomes. And how he is able to exemplify
a man after your own heart, a man who knows that with
God one is always a majority. And how impressed we are
and will be with David in these early
years of his life. Thank you, Lord, for the
lessons we have learned. Thank you for the hunger
and thirst that so many have to hear your word. We pray, now, Lord
that you would bless the rest of our week. Bless our going
out, our coming in. Send us, Lord. Send us into battle. Send us into service. We know it's going
to be difficult. We know that some
won't understand but how honored we
are and will be just to be slaves, servants,
of the most high God. In Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us from
this teaching in our series Expound.
