Sunday, July 5 · Vineyard Cincinnati Church
Heroes and Villains | Week 1: Facing Our Giants
The story of David and Goliath is an underdog battle where a teenager with childlike faith faces a giant the whole army is afraid of, and the sermon argues the real hero is the Spirit of God working through him. Three things David shows: childlike faith is the superpower, preparation seasons come before giants, and refusing armor that isn't yours matters.
The passages
A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he wore a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. He had bronze shin armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. His shield bearer went before him. He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.” The Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel today! 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.
1 Samuel 17:4–11
As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and said the same words; and David heard them. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were terrified. The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The king will give great riches to the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter, and will make his father’s house tax-free in Israel.” 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?” The people answered him in this way, saying, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.” Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the evil of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle.” David said, “What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” He turned away from him toward another, and spoke like that again; and the people answered him again the same way. When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.
1 Samuel 17:23–31
David strapped his sword on his clothing and he tried to move, for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these, for I have not tested them.” Then David took them off.
1 Samuel 17:39
The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky and to the wild animals of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
1 Samuel 17:43–47
The fear of man proves to be a snare, but whoever puts his trust in Yahweh is kept safe.
Proverbs 29:25
Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Matthew 10:28
Go deeper
Why did Goliath's taunts shake the whole Israelite army while David, who had never fought a battle, was the one who asked who this Philistine was to defy the living God?
Saul's soldiers heard the same voice David heard, and it flattened them. David had been out in the fields with the flock and had already seen God deliver him from a lion and a bear, so the giant did not land on him the same way. Eliab read his question as pride, but the question kept coming out of him anyway.
As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and said the same words; and David heard them. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were terrified. The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The king will give great riches to the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter, and will make his father’s house tax-free in Israel.” 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?” The people answered him in this way, saying, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.” Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the evil of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle.” David said, “What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” He turned away from him toward another, and spoke like that again; and the people answered him again the same way. When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.
1 Samuel 17:23–31
David said to Saul, “Your servant was keeping his father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, struck him, and killed him. Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “Yahweh, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go! Yahweh will be with you.”
1 Samuel 17:34–37
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky and to the wild animals of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
1 Samuel 17:45–47
The fear of man proves to be a snare, but whoever puts his trust in Yahweh is kept safe.
Proverbs 29:25
Why did David take Saul's armor off instead of going to face Goliath in it?
Saul dressed the teenager in his own gear, and David could not walk in it. The king's armor was real and expensive and it fit Saul, not a shepherd with a sling. David went out with what he had actually used in the fields, and the whole valley watched a boy walk down in his own clothes.
David strapped his sword on his clothing and he tried to move, for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these, for I have not tested them.” Then David took them off. He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag which he had. His sling was in his hand; and he came near to the Philistine.
1 Samuel 17:39–40
Saul dressed David with his clothing. He put a helmet of bronze on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail.
1 Samuel 17:38
Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Matthew 10:28
For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10