1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49

There are few passages in scripture quite as sensational as the scene we encounter in the giant military might vs. teenager shepherd. It is the legendary stuff of epic story telling. No doubt, if we have been hanging around the church long, it is a story seared into our memories, and left to simmer in imaginative wonder at the preponderance of a bully and an underdog, swords and sling-shots, a scrawny kid-shepherd, and a tyrant who comes tumbling down with the flick of one stone.

The story of David & Goliath has captured the imagination of more than one generation of Sunday School students… how could it not? It includes a taunting giant, a fight to the death, and an impossible victory of the least expected hero over the most invincible enemy. There is a piece in all of us that roots for the under-dog in every story, especially when they are up against an enemy described as giant whose arrogance factor is off the charts.

The Scriptures go into great detail to describe Goliath as a beast of a man. He literally and figuratively towers over his opponents. His armor was impressive to say the least. According to militaristic standards, he was unbeatable.

Every morning for forty days, the scriptures tell us, Goliath would taunt the Israelites. Strutting back and forth across the frontline of battle, daring the Israelites with a near impossible challenge. Can you see the spit flying as he screams his angry mockery? Its no wonder that King Saul and the Israelites were literally shaking in their boots. Their enemies were superior, and the champion fighter of the Philistine army was their worst nightmare personified.

The Scriptures also take time to illustrate who David was. He was the youngest in his family, practically a water-boy, the designated errand-runner between the mundane home-front and extraordinary war-zone. His elder brothers were doing the men’s work on the battle-front, and he was left to tend the sheep during their absence. When David shows up on the scenes of this severe time of testing for the Israelites and asks a simple yet perceptive theological question, his own brother mercilessly scoffs at him. David value is dismissed along with his youth, and he is rebuked in his ability to discern the reality of the threat at hand.

David’s question in response matters deeply in this titanic encounter between the brute and the faithful. His question won him an audience with the King. He asked, seen in verse 26, “Who is this pagan philistine, anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the Living God?”

David’s meeting with the King only ushered further rebuke. The look on King Saul’s face must have been utter condescension. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since youth.” David would have none of it. If no one else will go to face-down this bully who dares to defy God’s army, he would.

Is this a scripture passage reserved for children’s church or Sunday School? Is this the fluff of an imaginary tale, or is this the gospel news for God’s people?

We are all of course, prone to root for the underdogs. I think there is something gospel-oriented about that urge, because God tends to pick the un-pickable, nominate the least expected, empower the weakest character to carry out divine transformative reconciliation on our small blue planet.

In the chapters leading up to 1 Samuel 17, the Israelites had begged God to be ruled by a King and that via the prophet Samuel, God has warned them it would get ugly. The Israelites demanded to be like their neighboring countries. Nothing good ever comes of caving to peer pressure whether as a youth, or a nation seeking acceptance.

The King that God provides ends up being a dud. The power gets to his head, he forgets to include God in any of his efforts. In the scenes right before chapter 17, Saul has been rejected by God because he plundered goods from battle for his own gain. We see the drastic effects this has on his life, as God’s Spirit of anointing left him and he was greatly disturbed.

The order of 1 Samuel is a bit disjointed, most likely the result of multiple sources. By chapter 17, the reader is already witness to the secret anointing of David as Israel’s King by Samuel even though he was initially ignored as an option for the selection by his family.

David was absolutely the underdog in this scenario. He rose to the challenge in an unexpected way. He ignored the expected channels of military power and used what most familiar to him: the tools from his every day training and vocation.

The Philistine army could not be bested on their own terms. Systems of power, technology and violence cannot be beaten with counter-systems of the same. Arms races have never brought peace. Violent crime has yet to disappear because of prisons or capital punishment.

David knew well the Israelites only hope was their Living God. One single rock flung at the brains of the best of the Philistine army, one deadly strike at the command center of the enemy, and the whole thing collapsed in a useless heap of military rubble.

Sometimes the gospel asks us to do some critical reflection. We may automatically identify with David in this story and I think it is somewhat natural to do so, because not only is he the hero, he is the obvious under-dog too.

But what does it mean for countries with military might, for instance, to reflect on this tale? What about the current militaristic super-powers on the world scene? What does it mean to carry such responsibility? Who identifies with the bully here? If we do in fact identify with David, how will we re-imagine our role in standing up to the Evil Empires of our time? Empires perpetuated by greed and rampant injustice: human slavery, poverty, hunger, homelessness, pillaging of the earths resources, hoarding of the good food.

Will military power be our solution, or will cooperating with the creative, transformative power of God’s reconciliation mission be our solution?

The story of David and Goliath not just the stuff of legend and folk-lore. This panoramic narrative has a very specific theological point to make about who God is. Verse forty-seven makes it explicit: “the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear.” It is God, not David, who is the main character of this overarching story, working behind the scenes to persuade David’s courage, and highlight Saul’s inadequacies and failure as King.

I believe God’s spirit could be heard that day as David spoke up to ask about the elephant in the room, the very question the Israelite army should have asked on day one (not day forty), of Goliath’s terror campaign against their army.

I believe God’s spirit could be heard that day in the private tent of King Saul as David laughed at the humor of being drowned in useless armor.

I believe God’s Spirit could be heard that day in the gentle gurgle of the babbling brook, as David left behind the cumbersome weight of militaristic armor and brought with him what most useful: what he was best at, the tools of his trade.

We call ourselves Christians. If we mean it, we need to seriously contemplate the life of Christ: one who emptied himself of all power and authority in order to identity with the dust of the earth.

The good news for us from this epic tale of giant vs. shepherd teenager is in the creative transformation of God’s reconciling power which is at work always and everywhere to bring life from death, hope from despair, peace from war; to turn upside down the power structures of this world.

God’s power does not override or force or demand or selfishly hoard protection, God’s power seeks to deconstruct the top-heavy empires of this world. The empires where the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the fewer and fewer, whose military might is a race to the latest technological defenses all in an effort to protect national security.

We may need to stop questioning whether or not God is on our side, and ask instead: Are we on God’s side? What does “God’s side” look like? To be on God’s side, is to be on the side of peace no matter what, in every circumstance. It is to strategically work for peace, always and everywhere against every giant who threatens to prevent the peaceable kingdom from reigning on earth.

To be on God’s side is to trust God and nurture the hope that there is a way into the future even when we stand the chilly-shadow of our giants.

To be on God’s side is cooperate with God’s power to topple the giants of injustice just like David did with Goliath.To bring the vision of no more war and a peaceable kingdom to earth. It requires faithful and truthful speech, courageous confrontation and trust that with God’s help and a well placed stone, we can bring down the Goliaths of our time.