David and Goliath

When these two names come to mind you probably think of the popular Sunday school story of David overcoming his fear and standing up to a bully. As an adult in church you may have been taught to overcome the ‘giants’ or fears in your life. Even the world uses David and Goliath analogies when wanting to highlight the battle between small business (the underdog) and large corporations.

But does the Biblical narrative have anything to do with underdogs, bullies or overcoming our fears?  Is there more to this story? Let’s take a look at the story in 1 Samuel 17

Israel and Goliath

The story unfolds in the Valley of Elah. For 40 days, Goliath, an extremely tall champion from the Philistine army continues to taunt and defy the Israelite army. The people of Israel are God’s people. So by taunting Israel, Goliath is taunting God Himself. Yet, when Goliath spoke, Saul, the king and leader of the Israelite army was afraid and dismayed.  

Saul, the King of Israel… afraid?  

Before we continue, let’s step back to 1 Samuel 15 and 16 and look at a couple of key plot points often left out of these bully and hero stories.  

Because of Saul’s disobedience, God rejected him as king and chose David instead. As it was not yet time to publicly proclaim David as king, God had the prophet Samuel anoint David without Saul’s knowledge (1 Sam. 16:13). This took place in Bethlehem, in the house of David’s father, Jesse.  God’s Spirit was now with David and had departed from Saul (16:14).  Saul now terrorised by an evil spirit, could only be soothed by the playing of a harp.

By God’s providence David was not only the required harpist, but mighty, handsome and wise. Quite a description for a young boy! Saul became fond of David and eventually made him his armour bearer (16:21).  

With this background, let’s go back to Elah…

David and Goliath

David has been spending his time between serving Saul and tending Jesse’s sheep in Bethlehem (17:15). Jesse has now sent David with supplies for Israel’s army (which included David’s three older brothers). When David arrived he got a first hand glimpse of Goliath.  

Compare David’s actions (17:22) with Saul’s (10:22). Who ran to the battle line and who stayed hidden?

Upon hearing of the reward for the one who slays Goliath (17:25), David volunteered to fight.  Saul was concerned that David was too young and inexperienced.  But David was not only skilled with a slingshot to protect his sheep, he had also killed lions and bears with his own hands (17:34-35). To David, Goliath was another beast to kill.

Unable to wear Saul’s armour due to its size, David opted to use his slingshot. Goliath looked on in disdain and cursed David.  But what does David say to Goliath?  

David accomplishes exactly what he said he would do.

Bullies and Underdogs?

Goliath was a battle hardened warrior with no fear of Israel’s God.  If we want to use him as a symbol of a bully, then David himself could also be accused of being one, given he and Goliath used similar taunts against each other (17:44, 46).

David had already proven himself to be a brave shepherd.  But now, empowered by the Spirit he had no fear of fighting the one who defied his God. It should have been Saul fighting not his armour bearer.  Yet, not only did David fight, he fought alone. To suggest David was an underdog or overcoming impossible odds completely removes God from this picture.

Saul is the coward, instead of fighting he offered a reward to whomever killed Goliath.  Rejected by God, Saul was now incapable of leading Israel.  

What we can learn from this story

Yes, David’s victory can be used to illustrate that with a genuine boldness of faith, God will fight for us and help us overcome our fears.  His predetermined plans are not always known to us, so we must trust him in faith.  

But, may I ask you to consider another angle to this narrative?  That is David, being chosen by God and anointed to be the next king of Israel, is a forerunner to the Messiah.

To see some parallels between David and Jesus click here