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1 Samuel
Chapter Seventeen
1 Samuel 17
Chapter Contents
Goliath's challenge. (1-11) David comes to the camp.
(12-30) David undertakes to fight Goliath. (31-39) and goes to meet him.
(40-47) He kills Goliath. (48-58)
Commentary on 1 Samuel 17:1-11
(Read 1 Samuel 17:1-11)
Men so entirely depend upon God in all things, that when
he withdraws his help, the most valiant and resolute cannot find their hearts
or hands, as daily experience shows.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 17:12-30
(Read 1 Samuel 17:12-30)
Jesse little thought of sending his son to the army at
that critical juncture; but the wise God orders actions and affairs, so as to
serve his designs. In times of general formality and lukewarmness, every degree
of zeal which implies readiness to go further, or to venture more in the cause
of God than others, will be blamed as pride and ambition, and by none more than
by near relations, like Eliab, or negligent superiors. It was a trial of
David's meekness, patience, and constancy. He had right and reason on his side,
and did not render railing for railing; with a soft answer he turned away his
brother's wrath. This conquest of his own passion was more honourable than that
of Goliath. Those who undertake great and public services, must not think it
strange if they are spoken ill of, and opposed by those from whom they expect
support and assistance. They must humbly go on with their work, in the face not
only of enemies' threats, but of friends' slights and suspicions.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 17:31-39
(Read 1 Samuel 17:31-39)
A shepherd lad, come the same morning from keeping sheep,
had more courage than all the mighty men of Israel. Thus God often sends good
words to his Israel, and does great things for them, by the weak and foolish
things of the world. As he had answered his brother's passion with meekness, so
David answered Saul's fear with faith. When David kept sheep, he proved himself
very careful and tender of his flock. This reminds us of Christ, the good
Shepherd, who not only ventured, but laid down his life for the sheep. Our
experience ought to encourage us to trust in God, and be bold in the way of
duty. He that has delivered, does and will continue to do so. David gained leave
to fight the Philistine. Not being used to such armour as Saul put upon him, he
was not satisfied to go in that manner; this was from the Lord, that it might
more plainly appear he fought and conquered in faith, and that the victory was
from Him who works by the feeblest and most despised means and instruments. It
is not to be inquired how excellent any thing is, but how proper. Let Saul's
coat be ever so rich, and his armour ever so strong, what is David the better
if they fit him not? But faith, prayer, truth, and righteousness; the whole
armour of God, and the mind that was in Christ; are equally needful for all the
servants of the Lord, whatever may be their work.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 17:40-47
(Read 1 Samuel 17:40-47)
The security and presumption of fools destroy them.
Nothing can excel the humility, faith, and piety which appear in David's words.
He expressed his assured expectation of success; he gloried in his mean appearance
and arms, that the victory might be ascribed to the Lord alone.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 17:48-58
(Read 1 Samuel 17:48-58)
See how frail and uncertain life is, even when a man thinks
himself best fortified; how quickly, how easily, and by how small a matter, the
passage may be opened for life to go out, and death to enter! Let not the
strong man glory in his strength, nor the armed man in his armour. God resists
the proud, and pours contempt on those who defy him and his people. No one ever
hardened his heart against God and prospered. The history is recorded, that all
may exert themselves for the honour of God, and the support of his cause, with
bold and unshaken reliance on him. There is one conflict in which all the
followers of the Lamb are, and must be engaged; one enemy, more formidable than
Goliath, still challenges the armies of Israel. But "resist the devil, and
he will flee from you." Go forth to battle with the faith of David, and
the powers of darkness shall not stand against you. But how often is the
Christian foiled through an evil heart of unbelief!
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Samuel》
1 Samuel 17
Verse 1
[1] Now
the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered
together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and
Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
Gathered, … —
Probably they had heard, that Samuel had forsaken Saul, and that Saul himself
was unfit for business. The enemies of the church are watchful to take all
advantages, and they never have greater advantage, than when her protectors
have provoked God's Spirit and prophets to leave them.
Verse 4
[4] 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.
Six cubits — At
least, nine feet, nine inches high. And this is not strange; for besides the
giants mentioned in Scripture, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny, make
mention of persons seven cubits high.
Verse 5
[5] And
he had an 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.
Coat of mail —
Made of brass plates laid over one another, like the scales of a fish.
The weight, … —
The common shekel contained a fourth part of an ounce; and so five thousand
shekels made one thousand two hundred and fifty ounces, or seventy-eight
pounds: which weight is not unsuitable to a man of such vast strength as his
height speaks him to be.
Verse 6
[6] And
he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his
shoulders.
Greaves —
Boots.
Verse 7
[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.
Beam — On
which the weavers fasten their web. It was like this for thickness. And though
the whole weight of Goliath's armour may seem prodigious; yet it is not so much
by far as one Athanatus did manage: of whom Pliny relates, That he saw him come
into the theatre with arms weighing twelve thousand ounces.
A shield —
Probably for state: for he that was clad in brass, little needed a shield.
Verse 8
[8] And
he stood and 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.
Come down —
That the battle may be decided by us two alone.
Verse 11
[11] When
Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed,
and greatly afraid.
Afraid —
This may seem strange, considering the glorious promises, and their late
experience of divine assistance. And where was Jonathan, who in the last war
had so bravely engaged an whole army of the Philistines? Doubtless he did not
feel himself so stirred up of God as he did at that time. As the best, so the
bravest of men, are no more than what God makes them. Jonathan must sit still
now, because this honour is reserved for David.
Verse 12
[12] Now
David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse;
and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of
Saul.
Old man —
Therefore he went not himself to the camp.
Verse 15
[15] But
David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
Went —
From Saul's court: where having relieved Saul, he was permitted to go to his
father's house, to be sent for again upon occasion.
Verse 18
[18] And
carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy
brethren fare, and take their pledge.
Pledge —
That is, bring me some token of their welfare.
Verse 19
[19] Now
Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting
with the Philistines.
Fighting —
That is, in a posture and readiness to fight with them; as it is explained,
verse 20,21.
Verse 20
[20] 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.
Went, … —
Jesse little thought of sending his son to the camp, just at that critical juncture.
But the wise God orders the time and all the circumstances of affairs, so as to
serve the designs of his own glory.
Verse 24
[24] And
all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore
afraid.
Fled —
One Philistine could never have thus put ten thousand Israelites to flight,
unless their rock, being forsaken by them, had justly sold them and shut them
up.
Verse 25
[25] And
the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy
Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king
will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his
father's house free in Israel.
Free —
Free from all those tributes and charges which either the court or the camp
required.
Verse 28
[28] And
Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger
was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with
whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and
the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see
the battle.
Naughtiness —
Thy false-confidence, and vain gloried curiosity. See the folly and wickedness
of envy! How groundless its jealousies are, how unjust its censures, how unfair
it representations? God preserve us from such a spirit!
Verse 29
[29] And
David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
A cause — Of
my thus speaking? Is this giant invincible? Is our God unable to oppose him,
and subdue him? However David is not deterred from his undertaking, by the hard
words of Eliab. They that undertake public services must not think it strange,
if they be opposed by those from whom they had reason to expect assistance, but
must humbly go on with their work, in the face, not only of their enemies
threats, but of their friends slights, suspicions, and censures.
Verse 30
[30] And
he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the
people answered him again after the former manner.
He tarried —
For being secretly moved by God's spirit to undertake the combat. He speaks
with divers persons about it, that it might come to the king's ear.
Verse 32
[32] And
David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go
and fight with this Philistine.
Let no man's heart, … — It would have reflected upon his prince to say, Let not thy heart fail:
therefore he speaks in general terms, Let no man's heart fail. A little
shepherd, come but this morning from keeping sheep, has more courage than all the
mighty men of Israel! Thus doth God often do great things for his people by the
weak things of the world.
Verse 33
[33] And
Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight
with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
A youth —
Not above 20 years old; and a novice, a raw and unexperienced soldier.
Verse 37
[37]
David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and
out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
The Lord, … —
The lion and the bear were only enemies to me and my sheep, and it was in
defence of them I attacked them. But this Philistine is an enemy to my God and
his people, and it is for their honour that I attack him.
Verse 38
[38] And
Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head;
also he armed him with a coat of mail.
Armour —
With armour taken out of his armoury. He seems to speak of some military
vestments which were then used in war, and were contrived for defence; such as
buff-coats are now.
Verse 39
[39] And
David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not
proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not
proved them. And David put them off him.
Proved them — I
have no skill or experience in the managements of this kind of arms.
Verse 40
[40] And
he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the
brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his
sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
Staff —
His shepherd's staff. These arms in themselves were contemptible, yet chosen by
David; because he had no skill to use other arms; because he had inward
assurance of the victory, even by these weapons; and because such a conquest
would be more honourable to God, and most shameful, and discouraging to the
Philistines.
Verse 41
[41] And
the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the
shield went before him.
Drew near —
Probably a signal was made, that his challenge was accepted.
Verse 42
[42] And
when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was
but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.
Fair —
Not having so much as the countenance of a martial person.
Verse 43
[43] And
the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
Dog —
Dost thou think to beat me as easily as thou wouldst thy dog?
Verse 46
[46] This
day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take
thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the
Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the
earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
A God —
Heb. that God, the only true God, is for Israel; or on Israel's side, and
against you. Or, that Israel hath a God, a God indeed, one who is able to help
them; and not such an impotent idol as you serve.
Verse 47
[47] And
all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for
the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands.
Saveth —
That is, that he can save without these arms, and with the most contemptible
weapons.
The battle —
That is, the events of war are wholly in his power.
He will —
David speaks thus confidently, because he was assured of it by a particular
inspiration.
Verse 48
[48] And
it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet
David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
Drew nigh —
Like a stalking mountain.
Ran — So
far was he from fear!
Verse 49
[49] And
David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote
the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he
fell upon his face to the earth.
Forehead —
Probably the proud giant had lift up that part of his helmet which covered his
fore-head; in contempt of David and his weapons, and by the singular direction
of providence.
Verse 51
[51]
Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and
drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head
therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
David took —
Hence it appears, that David was not a little man, as many fancy; but a man of
considerable bulk and strength, because he was able to manage a giant's sword.
The stone threw him down to the earth, and bereaved him of sense and motion;
but there remained some life in him, which the sword took away, and so
compleated the work. God is greatly glorified, when his proud enemies are cut
off with their own sword.
Verse 55
[55] And
when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the
captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy
soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
Whose son —
David had been some considerable time dismissed from Saul's court, and was
returned home. And therefore it is not strange, if Saul for the present had
forgot David. Besides the distemper of Saul's mind might make him forgetful;
and that David might be now much changed, both in his countenance and in his
habit.
I cannot tell —
Abner's employment was generally in the camp, when David was at the court; and
when Abner was there, he took little notice of a person so much inferior to him
as David was.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Samuel》
DAVID
AND GOLIATH.
1. Samuel 17:38-51.
In the valleys
mentioned in Scripture, there have been enacted many wonderful scenes, and not
least among them is the Valley of Elah (1. Sam,17:2). A valley is suggestive of
lowliness, fruitfulness, and fertility. The valleys of Scripture bloom with the
truths of graces, and are fruitful with the triumphs of God.
Ⅰ. Trained. The central figure of this
reading is David. Up to the time of the incident before us, he had appeared
very little in public, but the Lord had been fitting him for His service. He
had learnt to know God in secret, hence he can now bear testimony of Him in
public. David knew that the Lord, whose strength had proved sufficient in
giving him the victory over the lion and the bear, would give him the victory
over the Philistine ( verses 36,37). “ The Lord had been preparing an
instrument for this new and difficult work. He trains in secret those whom He
is about to use in public. He makes His servants acquainted with Himself in the
secret solemnity of His sanctuary, and causes His greatness to pass in review
before them, that they may be able to look with a steady gaze at the
difficulties of their path. Thus it was with David. He had been alone with God
while keeping the sheep in the wilderness; his soul had become filled with the
thought of God’s power; and now he makes his appearance in the Valley of Elah,
in all the self-renouncing dignity of a man of faith.”
Ⅱ. Trammelled (verses 38,39). Saul arms
David with his armour, but David is only trammeled by the coat of mail, and
puts it off. He cannot go to the Lord’s battle with man’s equipment. Satan
often seeks to tempt the Lord’s servants to put on some suit of mail out of his
armoury. He endeavours to influence the man of prayer to adopt the covering of
half-heartedness; he will try to induce the separated man to wear the robe of
worldly conformity, and he will seek to trammel the Christian warrior with
fleshly armour.
Ⅲ. Taunted ( verses 42-44). The
Philistine taunts David with jeers and sneers. As with David, so with the
Christian. The man of faith is sure to be taunted with the scantiness of his
implements of war, with the unwisdom of his methods, and with the foolishness
of his faith in an Unseen Power; but let them laugh that lose, they are sure to
who win. The only thing that Christ has told us we shall receive from the world
is persecution (John 16:33). They who live godly in Christ Jesus will have to
suffer for it (11. Timothy 3:12), but that only brings us into closer
fellowship with Him who suffered (1. Peter 4:1) on our account, and gives us a
great blessing of happiness (1. Peter 5:10).
Ⅳ. Trusting. The man of faith does not
trust in his weapons (verse 40), but in the Lord Himself (verse 45), and in His
action on behalf of the trustful one (verses 46,47). “ It is interesting to
observe David’s address to Goliath. He does not say, ‘ I come to thee with a
sling and a stone.’ No; but, ‘in the name of the Lord of Hosts.’ With him the
means were nothing—God everything.” Thus faith ever honours God, taking no
credit to itself; and God honours faith in consequence, by giving complete
victory.
Ⅴ. Triumph (verses 50,51). The triumph
of David is a type of David’s Son and Lord triumphing over all the power of the
enemy, as one has remarked, “ The claims of justice could not be met—death and
judgment frowned in the distance, and man could only tremble at the prospect.
But, blessed be the God of all grace, a Deliverer has appeared—One mighty to
save, the Son of God, the true David, the anointed King of Israel, and of all
the earth. He has met the need, filled up the gap, satisfied the yearnings of
the heart. But how? When? Where? By His death on Calvary, in that terrible hour
when all creation was made to feel the solemn reality of what was being
transacted,……The poor trembling sinner may stand by and behold the conflict,
and the glorious issue thereof—may behold all the power of the enemy laid low
by one stroke of his glorious Deliverer, and feel the crushing burden rolled,
by the same stroke, from his struggling spirit. The tide of Divine peace and
joy may flow into his soul, and he walk abroad in the full power of his
emancipation, purchased for him by the blood, and proclaimed in the Gospel.”
── F.E. Marsh《Five Hundred Bible Readings》
DAVID
AND GOLIATH.
1. Samuel 17:38-51.
David, in his
triumph over the giant, illustrates the power and victory of faith.
Ⅰ. Renunciation of faith (verse 39). Saul is an
illustration of the man of the flesh, who counts upon a good armour for
protection, and he seeks to encumber the man of faith with a like protection.
The man of faith tries on the armour, but finds that he cannot act in it, and
therefore puts it off. Earth resources are not God’s resources, hence the man
of faith must mot depend on the former, but on the latter. The man of faith
puts off the weights that would hinder him (Heb.12:1), the clothing of the old
man (Eph.4:22; Col.3:8), and the weapons of earth’s warfare (11.Cor.10:4).
Ⅱ. Weapons of faith (verse 40). A staff, a
sling, and five smooth stones out of the brook Kidron, are all the weapons that
faith takes. The staff of the Lord’s presence (Isaiah 50:10; Psalm 23:4), the
sling of God’s Word, and the five smooth stones which are found in the stream
of Christ’s mediatorial ration and Person are the weapons of faith. The five
smooth stones are —
Christ is,
Christ can, Christ has, Christ will, Christ does.
“ Christ is.”
His living presence is our confidence and consolation (Isaiah 41:10).
“ Christ can.”
He can conquer, for He stooped to conquer, and accomplished His purpose (Luke
11:22; Heb.2:14; Col.2:15; 1. John 5:4,5).
“ Christ has.”
All power is His, and He has all power for us (Luke 10:19; Mark 16:17).
“ Christ will.”
He has promised the victory, therefore it is sure (1. John 5:4,5).
“ Christ does.”
Faith makes His promise a present effect, and a continuous reality (Eph. 6:16;
Rev. 12:11).
Ⅲ. Courage of faith. David did nor wait till
the giant came up to him, he advanced towards the enemy (verse 40). The
Christian should nor always stand on the defensive, he should be offensive at
times (11. Cor.10:5).
Ⅳ. Persecution of faith (verse 41-44). Faith is
sure to be taunted with folly, and sneered at for its unreasonable action.
Christ is the Man of Faith, and was “ despised” ( Is 53:3), “ reviled” (1.
Peter 2:23), “ hated” (John 15:18), and scoffed at (Matt.27:43); so shall we
be, for the servant is not above his Lord (John 13:16).
Ⅴ. Testimony of faith (verse 45). Not in his own
name, nor in his own strength did David come against Goliath, but, as he
declared, in the name and strength of the Lord. In a like manner, the believer
testifies that the power of the Lord, and the name of Jesus, are the potent
forces by which spiritual results are achieved (Acts 3:12,13; 1.Cor.2:4).
Ⅵ. Confidence of faith (verse 46). David has no
doubt as to the issue of the battle. Mark his confidence. “ The Lord will
deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee.” Faith’s confidence is not
born of self-assertion, but is begotten by the sure word of God. Since we have
a “ sure word” (11. Peter 1:19), we have every right to say “we are sure” (
John 6:69)..
Ⅶ. Resource of faith (verse 47). “ The battle
is the Lord’s.” Faith recognizes that the battle is not its own but the Lord’s,
and what foe can stand against Him? The resource of faith is the Almighty God.
The Power of faith lies in the Power which faith lays hold of.
Ⅷ. Victory of faith (verse 49-51). When the
man of faith takes the stone of Christ’s victory over evil, and puts it in the
sling of Divine utterance, and slings it in the strength of the Holy Ghost, it
will bring down any foe. The Christian should never expect defeat, but always
count upon the victorious Lord for complete and continual victory.
── F.E. Marsh《Five Hundred Bible Readings》
17 Chapter 17
Verses 1-58
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle.
The battle of Elah
While the Philistines were posted on the stony hills covered with
brushwood which bounded the valley on the south, Saul and his army were posted
on a similar stony ridge on its northern side. The valley, one of the most
fertile in Palestine, was, at the scene of the conflict, about half a mile
broad, with a torrent bed in the centre, which had been scooped out by the
winter floods. This is apparently the gal or valley referred be in verse
third. It is about ten feet deep, and twenty to thirty feet wide, and abounds
in water-rounded pebbles. Major Conder declares it to be impassable, except at
certain places, thus explaining why the two armies faced one another for forty
days without coming into actual conflict. Either party was afraid to cross the
defile, thereby exposing itself to serious disadvantage; and so they confined
themselves to warlike demonstrations. The abject terror of Saul and his mighty
men excites within us little or no surprise; but it is otherwise with regard to
the brave and lionhearted Jonathan. To encounter Goliath in single combat, was
not a more dangerous or formidable undertaking than that which he had once
before successfully attempted at Michmash, when he and his armour bearer boldly
stormed the garrison of the Philistines, which was but the outpost of an
immense army. Why did he not come to the front on this occasion? It might be
said that his father would not allow him. And if Jonathan had offered himself
as the champion of Israel there can be little doubt that Saul would have been
most unwilling to accept him; but there is nothing in the narrative to suggest
that Jonathan made such a proposal. The impression made by the narrative is
that abject terror reigned throughout the entire army. Neither was it due to
any decline in Jonathan’s piety and faith. It is gratuitous to suppose that he
had become contaminated and lowered in moral tone, by the unbelieving and
disobedient spirit of his father. I am inclined to think, from the noble spirit
subsequently displayed by Jonathan, that as an individual he was now fitter in
every respect, physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, for
fighting the battles of the Lord, than he was when he wrought his great exploit
at Michmash. He still believed, probably with a stronger faith than ever, that
the Lord was able to save by many or by few; but he lacked the assurance, which
he then had, viz., that the Lord was willing to save through him. Without that
conviction he never would have attempted What he did at Michmash. It was only
after God had fulfilled the proposed sign that Jonathan said to his armour
bearer: “Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of
Israel.” But he had not that assurance now. The dark cloud of the Divine
rejection, which had fallen upon his father at Gilgal, had encompassed him
also, and darkened his spirit with its baleful shadow. It deprived him not,
only of the heirship to the kingdom, but also of the golden opportunity of
fighting in the name of the Lord of hosts, with the proud giant of Gath. The period
during which Goliath was permitted to defy the hosts of Israel was forty days.
The frequency with which this period occurs in connection with special
incidents in sacred history is remarkable and suggestive. It rained, e.g.,
forty days at the deluge (Genesis 7:4; Genesis 7:12). Moses on two occasions was
forty days with God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28). The intercession of Moses
on behalf of the people to avert from them the Divine wrath, on account of their
sin in worshipping the golden calf, lasted forty days (Deuteronomy 9:25). The twelve spies were
absent forty days during their inspection of the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:25); and because of the
rebellion, caused by their evil report, the children of Israel were doomed to
wander in the wilderness forty years, corresponding to the forty days spent in
the work of inspection (Numbers 14:34). Elijah went, in the
strength of the food which he received from the angel in the wilderness of
Beersheba, forty days unto Horeb, the mount of God (1 Kings 19:8). The period of respite
which was assigned to Nineveh was forty days, as Jonah was commissioned to
preach in its streets: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed” (John 3:4). The temptation of our Lord in
the wilderness lasted forty days (Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2). And the fact that Saul and his
army were subjected to the challenge of Goliath for forty days, seems to show
that there was a Divine purpose in permitting it to last so long. The forty
days seem to suggest the thoroughness or completeness of the trial. The
impotence of Saul and his army without God was thereby clearly and conclusively
demonstrated. It was only after this humiliating demonstration that the Lord
brought into the field His own champion. “Man’s extremity is God’s
opportunity.” (T. Kirk.)
The Philistines
The Philistines, indeed, were the hereditary enemies of Israel.
They represented brute force and insolent pride and heathen worship, as opposed
to higher thoughts of duty and justice, and the presence and power of God with
His people. The name “Philistine” has been used in modern times, accordingly,
to represent stupidity and opposition to light and knowledge and advancement
and “sweet reasonableness.” (W. J. Knox Little, M. A.)
Verse 7
One bearing a shield went before him.
The shield bearer of Goliath
I. That it is a
grievous mistake for men to arm themselves as in triple mail against good
influences. Goliath had a “helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with
a coat of mail, etc., and one bearing a shield went, before him.” How many in
spiritual matters surround their minds as it were wish a covering of obstinacy
and indifference, so as to keep out from their understandings the knowledge of
the truth, and case their hearts in an impregnable corselet of selfishness, so
as to prevent the entrance of faith. In a different manner from this ought the
humble believer, not inflated with ideas of his own righteousness, much less
with any notion of bidding defiance of the armies of the living God, arm him
for the battle of life.
II. That it is as
futile as it is sinful to attempt to oppose the will of God. The shield of the
shield bearer would not stop the stone sent from the sling of David. It is,
assuredly, a presumption beyond description for the finite to imagine that he
can understand, much less oppose, the Infinite. As well might the fly upon the
wheel attempt to correct or to oppose the action of the machinery. If a counsel
or a work be of God, “ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to
fight against God.”
III. That worldly
friendship, based on a companionship in sin, is weak in the hour of trial. When
Goliath comes forth to tread vaingloriously before the armies of Israel, we
read that this man bearing a shield went before him. He had attended the
gigantic champion in the hour of triumph, does he remain faithful to him in the
hour of misfortune? Does he attempt to strike a blow on behalf of his fallen
master? Does he strive to prevent David from dishonouring that master’s body,
by cutting off the giant’s head with the giant’s own sword? We read of nothing
of the kind; no effort to aid or to protect his master is recorded of him.
Doubtless he fled, as the other Philistines fled, when the great champion fell.
So, the friendship of the world is not only enmity against God, but is not
lasting to be relied on. It is a mistake to state that there is honour amongst
thieves; it is a delusion to think that there is loyalty to each other amongst
sinners. The pursuit of unlawful pleasures is essentially a selfish pursuit;
and the so-called friendships that are formed in it are evanescent and
ephemeral. When such intimacies are found by any of the contracting parties to
be no longer pleasant or profitable, the bond of self-interest that was their
only connecting link is speedily broken, and the so-called friendship dissolved
or ignored. Well is it, indeed, if it can be ended without bitterness and tears
and blood. False friendship is like the gaudy but scentless sunflower, that
will bloom only in the sunshine of prosperity. (R. Young, M. A.)
Verse 11
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they
were dismayed and greatly afraid.
The insulting attitude of worldliness towards religion
The insult was a symbol of the insulting attitude of worldliness
towards religion. Brute force and power paraded themselves as contemptuous of
the power of the Spirit. Religion cannot hold its own against the powers of the
world except by spiritual forces and trust in God. When the guardians of
religion, or those who should witness its inward power, fail in this trust, and
in using the right weapons, then the world has its way. The symbol in this case
is singularly vivid and complete. (W. J. Knox Little, M. A.)
Eliab’s anger was kindled against David.
A series of victories
Hitherto David has had little suffering. Life is made up of
trials: the Christian’s course is never free from them: this we are to see
here, for this seventeenth tells us, besides the contest with the lion and the
bear, of three great trials which at this time befell the “man after God’s own
heart.” I dare say that when you have read this chapter you have thought of
David’s wonderful faith and courage as seen in his conflict with the giant; and
yet it tells us of three trials and three victories; and I believe that either
of the other two was much more painful, and required more faith than was
necessary to nerve him for the single combat.
1. Observe, then, in the first place, that after David was anointed
he went back to his duties as before; for “Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and
said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.” For one moment he had
been exalted, and then all went on as before. Then a brilliant career seemed
opening before him: he was most unexpectedly sent for to the court. But as soon
as the benefit was received it was forgotten; for ingratitude is the commonest
of faults: David is not wanted now; the king’s head is full of war matters; he
stands in need of men, and not of boys; he wants swords and slicers, not harps
and music. Oh! never be carried away with the love of popularity; it is not
worth striving after; there is nothing that may be more quickly lost. Only let
some unkind report be raised about you, or some great man sneer at you, and the
people will be ready, to a man, to turn against you. And so David goes quietly
back, resumes the shepherd’s dress, takes the place of the youngest son, and
feeds his father’s sheep. I declare that seems to me to have been the greatest
of the three trials; he must indeed have had strong faith, and he must have
been endued with the grace of humility. And was it not so with our blessed Lord
Himself? At the age of twelve years He is found “sitting in the midst of the
doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions: and all that heard Him
were astonished at His understanding and answers.” “He went down with them, and
came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them;” (Luke 2:49; Luke 2:51), and for eighteen years He
remained in obscurity. Such was David’s first trial here. Flattered one moment,
and thrown aside the next; at one time likely to be famous in the court, and
very shortly afterwards sent to feed the sheep near his father’s homestead.
Would it be very trying to be laid aside by illness, to sink into obscurity?
2. And now we come to a trial of a different kind, but equally
painful, perhaps, or at all events one that shows the depth of his piety. We
can quite understand how anxious Jesse was for the safety of his boys: his
three eldest sons are gone to the battle; Eliab is there, the pride of his
heart: so David is sent with a little present from home, and doubtless many
kind messages, as Joseph was sent by Jacob to visit his brethren at Shechem.
And when he comes, then his elder brother takes him to task, and utters the
most cruel and vindictive insinuations. And here, too, Jesus can sympathise
with His people. When He entered upon His public ministry, the first place at
which He preached was His own city Nazareth. As He loved His mother, so He
evidently had special affection for His own city, His neighbours, and near
kindred: it was this love which made Him preach in the synagogue at Nazareth;
but they would not receive Him; for “a prophet has no honour in his own
country.” There are some people who can bear a long trial, who may yet be
thrown off their guard by a sudden temptation; and so perhaps it was quite as
difficult to give Eliab back a gentle answer, as it was to go quietly home from
the palace to the sheepfold. Gentle natures are often sensitive, and sensitive
people are almost always irritable. Oh! temper! temper! what a trial it is to
those that are afflicted with it! and terrible is the guilt of those who
provoke an irritable person. But David gained the victory, and must have made
Eliab sensible of the wrong he had done him. This was a far greater victory,
though little noticed, little thought of at the time, and not so much observed
even now by those who read this chapter, as the contest with the giant shortly
afterwards.
3. And now a word upon the third trial and the third victory. David
fells the giant. There is no battle, but flight on the one hand, and eager
pursuit on the other; in a few minutes the hills are completely deserted, and
we can only hear the shouts of the pursuers gradually dying away in the
direction of Ekron. There lies the headless body in the valley of Elah: come
and let us stand by it, and learn one or two lessons. Behold in David the type
of David’s Son. When the great Captain of our salvation was tempted of the
devil, He did not contend with him as God, but only as one of ourselves. He
just took the “smooth stones out of the brook;” He met and defeated him as any
Christian may, with the words of Scripture; as any Jew might then, with
quotations from the Book of Deuteronomy. The Philistine, you see, but for
David’s faith, would have been stronger than the Israelites. The giant did not
fall by sword and spear, but David’s faith in God brought victory to his
countrymen. It was because David was in the camp that Israel conquered. Would
we be loyal Churchmen, would we do good service to our Church, let us be men of
God; let us so behave, that the Lord Jesus shall still be in the midst of us;
let us make use of the stones from the brook, of prayer, and Holy Scripture;
and the Lord will yet save us from ruin, though He may see fit to humiliate us.
How did David know that he was equal to this emergency? What made him sure that
he should conquer the giant? He had had experience of God’s help before. So
indeed had the Israelites; they had gained a great victory under Samuel, and
had reared their “Ebenezer;” but this was forgotten now, and therefore their
faith failed them. But not so David. And then David knew nothing about the use
of armour, though no doubt Saul provided him with the best; but he was expert
in the use of the sling. Ah! those “stones from the brook,” how are they dispised!
Any other means of grace is more valued than Scripture. No doubt David was
regarded as a hero from Dan to Beersheba; the slaughter of the giant made him
famous, and his praise was in everyone’s mouth. Yet I think I have shown you
that the killing of the giant was a very little matter; that what is really to
be admired is David’s faith; and that either of the other two trials was in
reality more severe. (C. Bosanquet, M. A.)
Unsympathetic relatives
In early life Edmund Burke was not happy at home, as no one there
sympathised with his dreams and aspirations. “It is, after all, a man’s own
relations who generally look with the least confidence on his long wrestle with
adversity, and are most astonished when the tide turns and a great victory
succeeds to what had seemed to them mere hopeless toil.”
The two victories in one day
If there had been a conspiracy to frustrate the Divine purpose in
relation to David, his relatives could scarcely have kept him out of sight more
persistently, or brought him forward more sluggishly and reluctantly. Men were
slow to see the seeds of future greatness and godliness which the Lord beheld,
and they looked not for succour in the direction whence He had ordained it to
come. Praise belongs to Him for carrying out His own purpose despite the want
of discernment and sympathy on the part of His people. If His thoughts had not
prevailed over men’s thoughts, the Jewish nation would have lost one of its
greatest kings, and the Bible one of its most instructive histories. The Divine
wisdom in the choice of David was soon proved when the time of trial came, and
he had an opportunity of showing the regal spirit the grace of God had given to
him. The second triumph is by far the more famous, but we must not suffer its
splendour to hide from us the true glory of the first. The man who kills a
giant will always be more talked of than the man who, against the force of
strong temptations, controls his own temper; but it is none the less true
that--“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth
his spirit than he that taketh a city,”
I. David’s victory
over himself. It is not difficult to conjecture the cause of Eliab’s ill-will
and unjust upbraidings. He had not forgiven David for the distinction that God
had granted, and the cruel spirit of envy had turned him from a brother into a
foe. This fiendish passion of envy, so common in human nature, can not only
destroy the joy of a brother in a brother’s welfare, but would also, if it
could get into a mother’s heart, be hellish enough to make her miserable at the
thought of the prosperity of her own first-born boy. What a foul thing that
must be which finds the elements of its own perdition in a sight of the
paradise God gives to others, and which would be wretched and woebegone in
heaven itself if it met with anyone having stronger wings or a higher place
than its own! When, in the last judgment, Envy is placed at the bar of God,
what an indictment will be laid against the Evil Spirit! The insulting anger of
Eliab--the cruelty of Joseph’s brethren--the murderous wrath of Cain--and the
greatest share in the greatest crime in the world, the crucifying of the Lord
of glory--will be charged upon him. The taunts and insinuations of Eliab must
have cut David to the quick. If the undeserved rebuke had been administered in
private, it would have been hard to bear; but Eliab was base enough to be a
public slanderer, and sought, by his foul aspersions, to do irreparable damage
to David’s reputation amongst those who saw him that day for the first time,
and would be too ready to think that there must be good grounds for these
charges of pride and arrogance, seeing they were made by the young man’s own
brother. The temptation must have been strong to answer it with words of
burning indignation, and only a man of much meekness and of great self-control
could have replied to it as David did. Who likes to be accused of vile motives
which he knows have no place in his heart, and to hear his very virtues
denounced as being nothing but hideous vices which he tries to conceal by means
of pious airs and canting pretensions? It was a cross of this kind David had to
carry, and he bore it as if there had been given to him some prophetic
foresight of the perfect example of Him who endured such contradiction of
sinners against Himself, and who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. The
restraint which David put upon his temper under this great provocation was the
most godly thing he could have done, and therefore it was the wisest and most
profitable. Having regard to the great work before him, it was very important
that David should keep his temper. Could the second victory have been achieved
if he had failed in the first conflict? That which was right amidst the
temptations of one hour was the best preparation for the arduous labours of the
next hour. All of her things being equal, he who is most triumphant over
temptation and most faithful to duty today will be the strongest for work and
warfare tomorrow.
II. David’s victory
over Goliath. History records many instances in which cruelty, and tyranny, and
persecution haw thoroughly outwitted themselves and frustrated their own
purposes. Charity must not rejoice in iniquity, but it may exult in the defeat
of iniquity, and especially when iniquity plays the part of a scorpion and
stings itself, and when, like Haman, it unwittingly prepares a gallows for its
own execution. The defeat of the Philistines in the downfall of their great
champion is a most striking illustration of this kind of self-destruction. “Now
there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines
said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears” (1 Samuel 13:19). This cruel policy
was so successful that on one occasion there were only two swords or spears
possessed by the entire Jewish army. Saul and Jonathan had them; but all the
rest of the people had to use such cumbrous and clumsy weapons as unskilled
hands could make without fire or hammer. Necessity has always been the mother
of invention, and we may be certain that, when iron weapons were denied to the
Hebrews, their skill was largely developed in other directions. The youth of
the land could not practise sword exercise, or learn to poise the spear, and
therefore they would be driven to make themselves master of other methods of
defence and assault. Before this period the Benjamites had become famous for
their skill in slinging, for “Among all this people there were seven hundred
chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not
miss” ( 20:16). When all edged weapons were
taken from them, the people would be sure to turn again to those in whose use
their fathers had been so renowned, and practice would again make perfect. Thus
the issue proved that the Philistines laid the foundation of their own defeat
when they took all swords and spears from the Israelites, and compelled them to
try other means of accomplishing their deliverance. The foes of God’s people
meant it for evil, but God overruled it for good. David’s skill with the sling
would have failed to gain the victory if it had been divorced from faith in
God. It was his trust in the Lord which gave such calmness to his soul, as
surely as it was the calmness of his soul which helped to make his arm so
steady and his aim so sure. His faith, however, was not a fanatical faith,
which violates reason and neglects the most appropriate means. When he refused
to wear Saul’s armour, he proved his common sense as much as he displays his
confidence in God. The faith of David was also associated with experience as
well as with reason. He remembered past mercies, and thereby encouraged his
heart to rest in Him who is ever the same. The most effectual way of chasing
away despair and regaining confidence is to adopt the Psalmist’s resolve--“I
will remember the works of the Lord: Surely I will remember Thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also of all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings.” (C. Vince.)
Preparations for conflict
How much like a chapter of accidents this looks! Superficially
narrated, we should say “It happened.” There are no accidents with God, and
none with those who commit their way unto Him. We shall see all these things
were preparations for conflict.
I. Jesse’s anxiety
concerning his soldier sons. We meet David once more on the road from
Bethlehem. Not on his way to the palace of the king, for yet is he the drudge
of the family, and is sent laden with presents to the chief of the division in
which his brothers serve (verses 17, 18), to see how they fare. How akin to
Joseph, who also was sent by his father to his brethren, and met with no kindly
reception! While talking with one and another the boastful challenge of the
giant Goliath arrests his attention. Once no such challenge would have come to
Saul unanswered, but all valour flees when the Spirit of the Lord leaves a man.
David avows his readiness to meet him. Was it a chance that David was sent--that
he was sent that morning--that his brethren were to the front when he arrived
at camp, or a list of curious combinations?
II. The
DISCOURAGEMENT with which David meets. David is jealous for the Lord of Hosts.
He was instantly discouraged, first by:--
1. His own brethren (Matthew 10:36, with verse 28). That fine
soldierly looking brother who captivated Samuel’s judgment is terribly at fault
Listen! he twits his brother with neglect of duty (verse 28). True he does not
know; he is only supposing the sheep must have been left uncared for, as David
is there. To an angry, jealous nature, truth is of little matter. The probable,
or even the possible, is quite near enough.
2. The king discourages him (verse 33). Doubtless appearances were
against David. They have often been against bravo men, and Saul was only the
echo of that prudence which is popular today. God’s men, who endure as seeing
Him who is invisible, cannot be measured by the rule of this world’s wisdom. We
advance now to another link.
3. Thirdly, in all this David was being fitted for the conflict as
the result of the Divine anointing. Discipline is often inward through the
outward, and sometimes the outward is proof of the inward. David’s offers of
service were refused. That the affairs of service are often refused is apparent
in the records of the Holy Scriptures. Dr. Ker unfolds this in a sermon from
the refusal of the Israelites’ offers of service by Joshua. He draws attention
to Gideon’s band, that not all were chosen who offered; and to Christ’s
searching answer to the man who would “first go bury his dead.” Today, as of
old, many offers of service are refused--and why? Thus our sincerity is tested.
Only so do we know ourselves; but every “Christian” comes out of the Slough of
Despond “on the far side.” One result of these discouragements in David’s case
was, he was thrown on God’s promise. His past opens (verse 34). His own mind is
finding wonderful illumination as he tells the king of what he had done. This
is the right use of past experience. “I slew him;” surely the God of my
strength can give me power over this Philistine lion also. Do you not observe
his sense of Goliath’s sin increases in proportion as his faith in God expands?
There is a rising emphasis of scorn surely. “This uncircumcised Philistine;
This Philistine.” How terrible is this contempt, coming from God’s chosen! Thus
early we mark the habit of referring everything to the will and providence of
God, which is the key to David’s character. Thus there is outward victory.
David has gained permission--has won his way; and is not this the window
through which we see the inward victory? All through he maintains his humility,
yet who could imagine any test more trying than this double refusal of service?
And how conspicuous this humility is in his answer to Saul after the victory
(verse 58), and that untrue and supercilious speech of Abner’s (verse 55). He
maintains his patience. What restraint he must have put upon that impetuous
spirit of his to take the sneer so quietly! (verse 29). “He that hath rule over
his own spirit is better than the mighty.” (H. E. Stone.)
David and Goliath
This is a revolution wrought by one brave soul. And this is but a
single incident in the life of one who walked by faith, and who learned his
faith in communion with God. It was this which gave to David the qualities
which this history reveals--a sound judgment, a fearless tongue, a sweet
temper, and a lion’s heart.
I. A sound
judgment. David came to Elah a youth amidst an army of veterans. Yet his
judgment was sounder than Saul’s, than Abner’s, or that of any of the bronzed
warriors around him. Why? Because he came to Elah from Bethlehem, from the
quiet hills where he had communed with God, and strengthened his faith in Him.
The men of Israel had natural courage enough, but this was a combat which, on
all natural principles, seemed hopeless. David, however, looked at the matter
through eyes that were “full of religious light.” David saw God upon the scene.
He was the only one who saw Him; and that sight made the shepherd the true
tactician. Faith in God gave him at once the true point of view. Mere secular
computations had half blinded Israel’s eyes. The impressions and the services
of the young are sometimes better than those of the old, because the elder may
have lost simplicity of faith and have learned to look at life from a worldly
point of view. Inexpert in the details of a matter, still the prayerful woman,
the believing youth, may have a higher, clearer view of some Divine principle,
some promise of Jehovah, which should be His people’s guide. So the mother of
Mills, a quarter of a century before the leaders of the Church had moved,
declared that missions to the heathen world ought to be begun, and dedicated
her own son in his infancy to the work. So Mills himself and his young
associates, praying by the haystack in the fields of Williamstown, saw what
Israel ought to do, saw that was possible which others called chimerical, and planned
a bold campaign for Christ while yet the eyes of the fathers were sealed. They
were mere striplings who offered themselves first to meet the giant forces of
the pagan world. Wisdom dwells not in the noisy camp with the timid multitudes,
but on the solitary hills of prayer.
II. An independent
tongue. “Swift to hear, slow to speak,” is a good rule for youth, but not when
it is clearly seen that others have forgotten God’s commandments, or have
fallen to questioning his promises. Be modest, but be not so cautious a
Christian that you shall cease to be a Christian. Whatever you have clearly
seen in your study of God’s work, be not afraid to speak it out nor to let it
be known that you differ from others. You have good examples for it. “His word
was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with
forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9).
III. And the
frankness of David’s temper was equalled by its sweetness. It was not easy in
the presence of all the soldiers to listen quietly to a brother’s taunts and
sneers, to be accosted as an idle runaway, to be contemptuously ordered back by
that surly Eliab, jaundiced and spiteful with his jealousy. What an admirable
self-control does David show! Have a soft answer for your detractors, and even
stay with them if you may, like David, to fight their battles and cover their
disgrace.
IV. It hardly need
be said that his courage was simply confidence in God. And it was a reasonable
confidence. He did not fail to measure the strength of his giant enemy, but he
heard him defy the living God, and when he heard that he knew his enemy was
doomed. He knew that Jehovah would “make bare his holy arm,” and “make all the
earth to know that there is a God in Israel.” Woe unto him that striveth
against his Maker! The most powerful of men, the most gigantic combination
which diplomacy or society or capital can frame, are doomed when they set
themselves against God’s holy law. David had not only heard the word of
Jehovah’s promise; he had had experience of His faithfulness. This was not the
first danger he had met with quick, uplifted prayer. And David’s confidence in
God was reasonable from another point of view. The hazards he was taking were
not encountered needlessly, from a mere exuberance of daring or delight in
danger. He might well ask, “Is there not a cause?” The interest of Israel, the
honour of Jehovah, were at stake: it was reasonable, therefore, to believe that
he would not be left to fight alone. Still less did he seek this public
championship of Israel, or welcome it to win for himself a name. But David’s
confidence in God was attended by no carelessness. Because “the battle was the
Lord’s,” David did not think there was little for him to do. What do we see? He
carefully selects the most appropriate means, and then he plies them with
intense energy. (Arthur Mitchell, D. D.)
The conflict between good and evil
We may look at David and Goliath as they appear in contest, as illustrating
the forms, spirits, weapons, and destiny of the great moral antagonists of our
world--good and evil.
1. These two men give us a picture of the forms of good and evil.
Evil in our world is like Goliath--of gigantic stature, immense energy, and imposing
aspect. It is a colossus. Good in our world is like David in its
appearance--small, weak, and insignificant; possessing nothing to which the
world attaches the idea of strength or glory. So it appeared in Christ. “He was
a root out of a dry ground.”
2. These two men give us a picture of the spirit of good and evil.
The spirit of evil, like that of Goliath, is proud, contemptuous, malignant.
The spirit of good, like that of David, is that of humble trust and dependence
upon God.
3. These two men give us a picture of the weapons of good and evil.
Evil, like Goliath, has many and powerful weapons to fight its battles. Like
Goliath, it is full-armed. Armies and navies are on its side. The weapons of
good are of the simplest kind; the sling and stone of David would symbolise
them. “The weapons of our warfare,” etc.
4. These two men give us a picture of the ultimate destinies of good
and evil. Goliath, notwithstanding his great strength, proud vanities and
mighty weapons, was slain, and his body given to the fowls of heaven, and the
beasts of the earth. So it will be with evil. Like the imago in the monarch’s
vision, the little stone of truth shall shiver it into atoms. The end of truth
will be like that of David--triumphant and progressive in honour and influence
in the empire of God. (D. Thomas.)
Is there not a cause.
The giant sin of England
Surely there was a cause. David’s was not intemperate zeal, nor
his anger causeless or unprovoked. It was time even for the holy shepherd to
play the warrior, when God was thus openly dishonoured and His cause despised.
What is the state of this Christian land now? Is there not a sin, an ancient
enemy of God’s church, a bold and bitter opposer of His Gospel, which has
poured in upon our land like a flood, and dares us to the teeth, and almost
courts opposition? Is there not a giant champion of the devil’s host, that
stalks forth before its fellows, and seems to challenge the soldiers of the
cross and defy God’s Christian Israel? Has not drunkenness invaded this our
land, spread itself throughout the length and breadth of it, and “set up its
banners for tokens?” “Is there not then a cause” why professing Christians
should bestir themselves to save and purify their land from this foul and
destroying army?
I. The spread of
drunkenness. This fearful sin is widely spread through our land.
II. Let us consider
its effects.
1. What are its effects upon the soul? It is a dark cloud about the
soul, that hides God from it--that shuts out the light of His Holy Spirit, that
would shine into the darkness. It hardens the heart, that it cannot feel. It
sears the conscience as with a hot iron (Hosea 4:11). Even natural kindness is
extinguished.
2. Now mark its effects upon the mind.
3. Now mark its effects upon the body.
4. Mark next its effects on the estate.
III. And what can be
done the gospel of the grace of God can change it, and that alone. (W. W.
Champneys, M. A.)
Verse 32
Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
Spiritual heroism
I. Spiritual
heroism is sometimes unexpectedly developed. Little dreamt David, when he left
his home at Bethlehem that morning, for the simple purpose of visiting his
brethren in the camp, what wonders his single arm would achieve. His heroism
was the development almost of a moment. Before he well knew to what he had
committed himself, he found himself pledged to a deadly conflict with Goliath.
And thus unexpectedly is spiritual heroism sometimes developed. I say
developed, not created. The quality must exist before it can be brought out;
but, this bringing out is often unexpected. A youth has grown up in the privacy
of some country home--quietly, and without attracting any special notice. None
have marked him out for “a burning and a shining light.” So has youth passed
away, in steady pursuit of personal piety, in unpretending labours, in earnest
endeavour to be faithful in the little; and manhood has dawned, when,
unexpectedly, as to Gideon threshing wheat by the wine press, as to Elisha
following the plough, there comes a call to prepare for some great undertaking.
Instances will readily occur, illustrative of these observations, and
confirmatory of their truth. You will recall names, such as those of Luther,
and Hooker, and Baxter, and Carey, and Livingstone, which, though now
emblazoned in the church’s annals, are names of men whose opening life
afforded; even to those who knew them best, but few indications of after
distinction and usefulness.
II. Spiritual
heroism not unfrequently meets with discouragement from those who should be the
foremost to sustain it. What noble plans, and comprehensive enterprises, have
been nipped in the bud by the unkindness, and suspicion, and jealousy of
Christians! What shackles and fetters have been thrown round the free limbs of
many a man, anxious to do great things for God, and to leave the world better
than he found it; and this by brethren too--elder brethren--Eliabs!
III. Spiritual
heroism unsubdued by discouragement does, in due time, find opportunity for its
exercise and display. Though David obtained little sympathy from his brethren,
if indeed any, he had but to bide his time, and God would open up his way. He
quietly waited for providential intimations, and they did not tarry. Without
seeking to obtrude himself upon public notice, or to run before he was sent he
was soon sought out. There is often more real bravery in waiting than in
action; more fortitude in occupying the lonely watchtower on the hilltop, that
the moment for onward march may be known as soon as indicated, than there is in
facing the foe when the rage of battle is aroused. It is no mark of Christian
soldiership to be impatient of the Lord’s will, and to want to be moving when
He has commanded us to be still.
IV. Spiritual
heroism is distinguished by a lofty and firm reliance upon God.
V. Spiritual
heroism, though ardent and impulsive in its nature, is not less wise in the
mode of its warfare. There was a simple weapon he had learned to use with
skill. Mailed warriors might smile when they saw it, and augur that the
conflict about to ensue would be only child’s play; but the sling and stone in
David’s hand had done their work erewhile, and he could trust them now. At
least, failure with these was only possible, with the other certain; and if he
did succeed with such simple means of attack, how much greater glory would
redound to God, and in its degree be reflected on him! So with his sling and
stone he advanced to meet the vaunting giant of Philistia. Now, there is
nothing, respecting which Christians need to be more earnestly counselled than
the cultivation of the spirit of wisdom in their endeavours to be good. Zeal is
not enough; boldness is not enough; utterance is not, enough; all these may
exist in the highest degree, and yet, unless there be combined with them tact,
sagacity, address, the amount of possible good which the individual believer
may accomplish will be greatly curtailed.
VI. Spiritual
heroism is generally honoured of God in the achievement of its aims. David slew
the giant, and every courageous and heroic Christian slays his giants. (C.
M. Merry.)
David and Goliath
I don’t know whether I am correctly interpreting the picture, but
I suspect that everybody in the camp said that somebody else ought to go out
and kill this giant. I suppose you must have noticed how all the disagreeable
duties of life are somebody else’s business. There was the married man--well,
of course, he didn’t go because he had a wife and children who were dependent
upon him. There was the old man in the camp who would have gone if he had been
a younger man, and there was the young man who would have gone of only he had
had the experience of the older men. I don’t suppose there wore many people
there who had not dreamed of doing it. I can quite believe that in imagination
again and again they had dodged that awful club of Goliath and driven their
spear home to his heart. It is astonishing how brave men are in their dreams;
how extraordinarily the world would get on if only it were governed by our
imaginations rather than by our doings. There they were, some of them no doubt
explaining to the others how easily the thing could be done, how they would do
it themselves if only they had the time. An ancient picture? No--a picture of
today. It doesn’t matter what you call your giant. It may be the giant slavery;
it may be the giant cruelty, or it may be the great twin giant of your day and
of mine--the grant drink and the giant lust. There they are, and how many in
the Christian churches imitating the Israelites in the camp? How many of the
young men doing it, dreaming of giving their lives to great crusades? God’s
Kingdom is not going to be helped by your dreams, or by talking of how you
would do it if you were somebody else, or had some lesser duties and
responsibilities. Better to fight and fail; better to lose life and limb and
all things than suffer this daily dishonour, this endless humiliation, and
advertisement to all the world that there is not a single soul of faith with
enough pluck left to challenge this unequal encounter. What do you think the
world thinks when it sees the Church in the position of the camp of Israel?
When David talks about the armies of the living God it sounds like irony. Ah!
yes, and it sounds like irony today, when you refer to the people in the
Churches as being the army of the living God and then think how thousands upon
thousands of us are hiding our diminished heads simply because we are in the
presence of these gigantic evils and wrongs of the modern world, waiting for
God to send somebody else to do something. “Somebody ought to do something!”
Yes, and we are in the happy position here of knowing who ought, to do it.
Where was King Saul all the time? Why, it was for this very thing he had been
anointed, if he knew it. What is the use of your elect man? The Churches are
always talking about the doctrine of election--well, here is his chance, God’s
elect man. Where is King Saul? Let the biggest man in the host of Israel fight
the biggest man in the host of Philistia. Oh! you have seen men like it, and
not individuals alone, but battalions like it, men who if you counted beads,
Churches who if you counted heads, would make a brave show, God knows; but if
you begin to weigh souls it is a very different business. You could not weigh
Saul’s soul: there was nothing to weigh. Why, if you have got to bribe men into
being heroes, and if you have got to buy courage in the open market, it is a
poor thing for the King and for the kingdom. But there was another man in the
camp who ought to have been doing this work. Samuel very nearly anointed Eliab
to be King over Israel simply on account of Eliab’s presence, his athletic form
his powerful frame. He seemed just the sort of man for King, and ever since I
have no doubt whatever he had been saying to himself, “What the land has missed
in lot having me for King!” Well, now is his chance; everything comes to him
who knows how to wait. If he lives to be as old as Methuselah he will never
have such a chance again. He had it, and he missed it. He preferred be sit at a
safe distance from the Philistine and sing, “Let me like a hero fall,” or
whatever happened to correspond to that flamboyant melody in the history of his
own time. He had his chance; he missed it; but I think we ought to do him the
justice of saying that if he failed as a hero, he was a tremendous success as a
cynical critic. I sometimes think that criticism is the greatest natural gift
that we possess, and I have yet to find the man who hides that talent in the
earth. Eliab was a critic to the manner born. He could not do deeds, but he
always criticised the men who did. Oh, how easy it is in this world to sneer. I
wonder if you have ever done it; if you have ever sneered at enthusiasm, if you
have ever sneered at simplicity, if you ever sneered at whole-souled faith in
God. God pity you if you have. If David had failed I would rather be David the
enthusiast than Eliab one critic. And David had not come there to bandy
arguments with Eliab or with any of his compatriots, for his young soul was all
aflame. Love of his country, love of his faith, love of his God met in the
young man’s soul, and he passed through the camp with a sweet serene look upon
his face, and at test they took him earnestly, seriously, and they led him to
Saul and get “them face to face--the real King in the young man with the soul of
flame, and the false King, dismayed and sore afraid. “Let no man’s heart fail
him, I will go.” Oh, Saul, Saul, hadst thou no shame in thy heart to let this
stripling go instead of thee? “Go and the Lord be with thee”--seeing in this
young man one with whom the Lord would verily be, but knowing that the Lord
would never be with him again. And you know one of the saddest things in my
ministry is occasionally to come across fathers and mothers who are quite
willing to give their children to the Christian Church and to the service of
Jesus Christ, and who say to the lad or to the lassie, “Go, and the Lord be
with thee”--but there is always a sort of catch in the voice, because they know
they cannot go, they will never go; know they have grown old and hard in sin,
and they have sinned their God out of their life. Oh, if there are any here who
are practically saying to their young men and their maidens, “Go where I ought
to go but can’t; go on the holy service on which I ought to go but can’t; go,
and the Lord be with thee,” I want to turn to them and say, you are giving up
too soon. God has His place for you, and the mystic presence may come back to
you again, thank God, if only you, like these younger ones, will place yourself
at His disposal and surrender yourself in faith to do His will. But, see, Saul
has nothing to give to this young man of faith, he has nothing to give him of
courage, and all that he can think to give him at the moment is the harness
teat he used to wear. It is no use to Saul now. What use is a helmet, or a
sword, or a spear, if there is not a soul behind them? None! He cannot wield
that sword in God’s war. But David has not proved them. He is going to retain
all the simplicities of his youth, all the simple arts and crafts of which he
has the skill, and he is going out to serve God with the weapons that he knows
how to use. Everything now depends on one fact, that David believes in God.
“The Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Oh! I tell you we have
not yet exhausted or begun to exhaust the power that there is for the man who
simply makes that a real faith, and not a mere written creed! But there is more
in this subject of Saul’s armour than appears upon the surface, and I want to
say a word or two to those who are older There are some people who are so
anxious, as it seems to me, to clothe their young people with ideas that are
too old for them--to send them forth with religious experiences that are not
their own. I want to plead with you--leave us the simplicities of our faith, for
those are the things that tell and count. Leave them the sincerities and
realities of their faith, will you? Leave them their slings and their stones
for a little while; they will do much more with them than with all the armoury
that you may give them out of the sixteenth or out of the seventeenth
centuries. There are some parents that have been known to me who, in the
presence of the great modern giant of doubt, have most earnestly desired to
clothe their children with the old-fashioned weapons, and give them, I won’t
say Paul’s armour, but Saul’s armour, and let them talk somebody else’s
second-hand theology. We do not want old heads on young shoulders. We want the
young Christian who has got his own experience of God. I know perfectly well,
of course, that they talk things which you grave philosophers in the pews
cannot agree with. But it doesn’t matter. They hit the mark with the stone from
their sling. Oh! don’t you know the world today is simply dying for lack of
reality--the man who will dare to be real, dare to be absolutely sincere and
simple in his Christian faith. You remember that incident in Carlyle’s history
of Frederick the Great where, when Frederick is growing to be a young man, a
very learned university professor is get to instruct him in the theological
creed that he ought to bold. The professor dosed the budding Nero with creeds
and catechism until at last the poor young fellow’s mind was so confused that
he knew practically nothing, whereupon Carlyle says this to the professor,
“Teach the young man either nothing at all, or else something that he will know
to be beyond a doubt when he comes to think of it.” Now, it is the things that
are beyond a doubt that you cannot prove perhaps in your logical fashion, but
they are established beyond a doubt, that we want our young people especially
to hold by. I don’t mind how simple your faith in Jesus is, but I want it
sincere, real, earnest, and when you go out to do battle that will be the stone
from your sling which will bring your antagonist to the dust. I have stopped at
the most exciting moment, the critical moment when David is advancing on the
Philistine with a slave and a shepherd’s bag, and five smooth stones. And oh!
how the giant girded at him, nay, he cursed him by his gods. If, when you get
home tonight, you will read the Book of Judges, you will find there this fact
stated, that there were seven hundred men of the tribe of Benjamin who could
sling a stone left-handed to a hair’s breadth, It was not for nothing that
David belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, and he was there to prove that there
was one man of the tribe who had not forgotten the ancient tribal craft. At any
rate, he ran to meet him. There was the whirl of a shepherd’s sling, the low,
hurtling note of the moving stone; neither his eye nor his hand had failed him.
Where are now thy boasts, oh Philistine, and where are now thy fears, oh
Israel! So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. “And,”
say some of you here tonight, “and that was the end.” Oh, no, no; that was the
beginning. Listen. “Then the men of Israel and Judah rose up and shouted and
pursued the Philistine.” I seem to have heard that shout all the world overse
All the people who ought to have done the thing and didn’t, all begin to shout
at once and to pursue the Philistine. Eliab found that, his pressing business
engagements would keep Saul began to betray his spirit and betray a furious
eagerness for the fray The elder men said that perhaps after all they were
young enough; the younger men said they would risk their lack of experience;
the married men said well, perhaps their wives and children would be kept, and
everybody who had been playing the coward was now resolved to play the man. You
remember that it was the habit of Falstaff always to lie down on the
battlefield when the battle was on, and when it was over he would carry back to
the camp a body who had been slain, and boast his prowess. There are lots of
Falstaffs in the world, people who are always fighting the causes that have
been won already by somebody else. There are triumphant supporters today of
causes in England which nobody challenges, which are as secure as secure can
be, but they have no heart for any fight that is not already, won. Ah, yes, I
know very well that it lends itself to a little gentle irony, but I am here
tonight to plead for men of soul, and men of faith. I do not believe much in
the pluck of any man who has not got David’s faith. That is the secret, and it
is to you young men especially that I am appealing. Here we are, you and I, in
this London, and you know that God wants men. There is a Son of David, who I
think is in this building tonight, nay. I know he is, and he is saying to you
all, “Be of good cheer I have overcome the world The giant sin lies stricken. Come
up, come up against him, for you are well able to overcome.” What are you going
to do--still stay, craven, panic-stricken, in the safety of the camp, or are
you coming out to the holy warp (Silvester Horne, M. A.)
David and Goliath
David had been living in communion with God--David had been
storing up spiritual strength and imbibing spiritual principle from God, which
he was now to exhibit under circumstances which appalled the heart of other
men. And thus if is when God has need of His servants, and when circumstances
require their help; then they do show that they have principles which are able
to honour Him, while other men fall back, and then do they show which is the
man that really does most good in his generation; then is it seen whether Eliab
and men of his stamp are able so effectually to serve their generation as
David, who comes forth in the power of God to do deeds at which other men
tremble. And we see another lesson. When these two respective candidates--the
man armed with the power of God and the man standing merely in his own strength
and wisdom, are brought into circumstances of perplexity and danger, then it is
seen which has real courage, the man that can rely calmly upon God or the man
that stands only in his own strength.
I. First of all,
the mistakes and weaknesses of the world in circumstances of difficulty. Whence
was it that Israel’s fear arose? They “judged after the sight of their
eyes”--they looked only on the outward appearance--they made just the mistake
that Jesse did. The reason Israel feared was that they looked upon the outward
appearance; they were guilty of the same want of faith that the ten spies were
who were sent up to spy out the promised land. They saw the Anakims great and
tall; and what did they do? They measured the Anakims by themselves, and they
said, “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers;” and they were afraid. So it
was with Israel: they saw the power, as they conceived it, of the Philistine’s
host; they saw the number of the men arrayed against them; they saw Goliath of
Gath, and their hearts failed. We see that in this case Israel looked only at
their own human resources; they measured their own power, by comparing it with
the overwhelming power apparently of the host of the Philistines, and they felt
that they themselves were as nothing to the Philistines. David had felt a union
between himself and God; David was able to identify himself with God; he felt
that the cause of the armies of Israel was the cause of the living God, and
that the Philistines were arrayed therefore against the power of God. But
observe how this language of faith is instantly mistaken, and excites anger. If
we look at the remark of Eliab to David we shall see this. You know the truth
of this; the moment the world sees a power greater than its own, it calls it
pride. It was so of old; it was so in the case of Joseph’s brethren; they could
revile the “dreamer,” as they called him, yet Joseph only spake words of
soberness and truth, when he related what God had shown to him; but his brethren,
who were not of a like spirit to himself, could not bear it, when he stated
what God had told him. So it was with Eliab, and therefore he rebuked David;
but the truth is this--David was speaking a language which Eliab knew nothing
about--the language of faith. The simple language of faith is to take God at
His word, and to build securely upon it; and although the world may call this
pride, yet there is nothing so like humility amongst all the graces that we
find in the Word of God as that which entirely puts self on one side, and
simply depends upon what God says. This is the spirit of a little child; if
there be anything for which children are remarkable, it is the implicit
confidence that they put in what is told them We often smile at their credulity;
but we might learn a lesson from it by which to serve God more faithfully. I
say, therefore, that this is real humility--for there is no humility so real as
that which ceases from self-confidence and leans on Christ. David lost sight of
himself entirely--he lost sight of everything that was human, and he saw only
God, and he had learned, by seeing the power of God, that “no flesh should
glory in His presence.”
II. But now let us
look at the other principle--the strength and wisdom of the power of faith,
Observe what David said in the twenty-ninth verse, when Eliab rebuked him David
said--“What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” There was deep cause; David
saw the army of Israel as the army of God. It was not Israel that had been
defied, in his estimation, by the Philistine, but God, and there was cause to
act and there was cause to speak, when God’s honour was outraged. And so there
is now. Your object in daily life should be identical with David’s, as David’s
was identical with our Lord’s. When our Lord stood before Pilate he said--“For
this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should
bear witness unto the truth.” And what was David doing? He was bearing witness
unto the truth. David drew from a source which in untouched by circumstances
His need was the same, and therefore his resource was the same, and therefore
his confidence was the same. It was the Lord; and it was all one to Him to
deliver from the bear and from the giant. It was the same principle that
animated Caleb and Joshua. When they saw those Anakims, they did not adopt the
language of the unbelieving ten, but they said, “Ye are meat, for us” Why? “The
Lord is with us.” That was the secret of their confidence.
III. And this leads
us to consider the victory of David. It is not the nature of the weapons, but
the arm that wields them; and the smooth pebble from the brook, when winged by
the power of God, is able to slaughter the great giant of Gath. So with the
preaching of the Word of God. The world despises preaching as an instrument of
God; but it is God’s weapon. The giant despised David; but still David was
God’s instrument to overthrow him. David, in his humility, put, himself out of
the question; there was no desire to magnify himself, but he was desirous to hide
himself, that God’s glory might appear. What are we, any of us? What is the
strongest believer here? He is before God as nothing But what is God to that
man? God is all, and God is everything to him, in all his circumstances. (J.
W. Reeve, M. A.)
David and Goliath
I. And I think the
first thing we are to learn is, that there are always giants to fight. Some of
these giants are in our hearts--wicked thoughts, wicked desires, wicked
feelings Here is a boy with a bad temper; and what an ugly thing that is to
control! How many boys have that Goliath to fight! Here is a girl who is vain,
always thinking that she is better-dressed and better-looking, with a nicer
house and richer father, than some of her little friends. She has giant Pride
to fight and conquer before she can be and do as God wishes. Almost everybody
has some particular giant to contend with, who is taller and stronger than all
the rest. It may be bad temper, or envy, or carelessness, or disobedience, or
laziness, or something else. “I want” and “I wish” are giants that we meet
almost every day. Children are interested in stories of a time, hundreds of
years ago, when men went about armed and on horseback, fighting robbers and
relieving the oppressed; and they wish sometimes that they could have lived in
those days of chivalry, as they are called. No need of wishing that: if any boy
or girl really means to serve God, they will find that there is plenty of
fighting to be done nowadays. To learn to say “no,” and to say it quickly when
they are tempted to do wrong; to overcome all the persuasions to sin of which
the world is full, and so to live good, pure Christian lives--that is the
hardest kind of battle, to slay these giants we meet every day--this is the
noblest victory of all.
II. A second lesson
to be learned is, that Davids are always wanted in the world. What a happy
thing it was for the Israelites that the shepherd boy came down to the camp
that morning. The right sort of young people is just what is wanted. If they
are brave and conscientious and in earnest to do good, how much they can
accomplish. But remember one thing: David did his work in his own way. The
world wants young Davids who are willing and glad to do what they know how to
do. General Saul with all his army of grown-up men did not succeed in doing as
much as David with his sling. There is a song we sometimes sing, called “Dare
to be a Daniel.” It is a very good title, but we ought to have another, called
“Be sure and be a David.” The right kind of little people in the right place--what
would this great world do without them?
III. And then we are
to learn one other lesson from this story: that the best help comes from God.
David found it so. What an idea he had of God’s willingness and power to assist
him. It seemed to the people as if David killed the giant, but really it was
because God helped David that Goliath was conquered. And this is the only way
in which anybody gets along well in this world. When we are in any sort of
difficulty, the way out of it is to ask God to help us. (Monday Club
Sermons.)
David and Goliath; Christ and Satan
I. The combatants.
An example of the duel of battle; the destiny of two opposing hosts committed
to their representatives. The one was flushed with pass victories, insolent,
rancorous towards people of God. The other unskilled in war. As we see Christ
and Satan drawing near to the conflict, we feel that there is more than meets
the eye. Hell and heaven, light and darkness, are represented there. Life or
death eternal for thousands and tens of thousands hang upon the issue. In the
temptation for us, and in our stead, Christ met the foe of God and man. He
takes up man’s cause, and espouses God’s quarrel, and enters the lists against
our dreadful and exultant enemy.
1. Mark Satan’s audacity! We do not marvel at his assailing man; but
to confront the Son of God! Shall we think lightly of such an adversary?
2. Bear in mind the admonition of the king. David went not into the
battle until he had received a heavenly and qualifying unction. So Christ went
forth in might of the Holy Ghost (Luke 4:1-2). “Lead us not into
temptation” is the teaching of One who did not rush into it unbidden.
II. The combat.
1. The time. Forty days did the champion of Gath draw near; forty
days was Christ tempted of the devil. At the close of that period came the
decisive encounter. Goliath triply armed with sword, spear, shield; Satan with
the same threefold temptation by which he had overcome man in Paradise. Compare
1 John 2:16 with Genesis 3:6, and trace the same elements
in threefold temptation of Christ.
2. The armour. David would not go in the armour of Saul; had not
“proved them.” The armour of Christ not of human fashioning; “armour of
righteousness on the right hand and the left” (John 14:30). No flaw in that heavenly
panoply.
3. The weapons. David had no quiver but his scrip; no arrows save
pebbles from the brook, and with these he conquered. Christ vanquished Satan by
sentences of Holy Writ, well directed from the sling of truth: “It is written;”
again and again, “It is written.”
4. The lesson. What a guide for us in our conflicts and temptations!
Lay aside all earthly confidences; discard our own strength. The victory of
David was a victory for all Israel. The vauntings of the Philistines silenced
by the son of Jesse. The victory of Christ is a victory for His people. (W.
P. Welsh, D. D.)
The contest between David and Goliath
Eliab did not like to see the young stripling exciting the
interest and admiration of the soldiers, and showing the cowardice of older men
like himself. He had probably regarded his brother with a jealous eye, ever
since he himself had been passed over by Samuel, and David had been anointed
with the holy oil. David calmly replied, “What have I now done? Is there not a
cause?” Three different interpretations have been given of these words. One is
to understand David as excusing his conduct on the ground that his speech was
mere talk. As if he had said, “What have I now done? Is it not a word?” As
David, however, clearly showed that his words were more than talk, end meant
action, this view seems quite inadmissible. Another is, to understand David as
excusing his conduct on the ground that the proud challenge of Goliath fully
justified his burning indignation and patriotic zeal. But the natural and most
satisfactory view seems to be, to regard David’s words as a direct reply to
Eliab’s charge. Eliab implied that he had left his sheep out of mare curiosity
to sea the battle. But David answers, “What have I now done? Is there not a
cause? Have I not come, as I already told thee, in obedience to my father’s
command?” This calm reply shows that Eliab’s fierce and insulting words had not
ruffled the quiet self-possession of David. It was a noble victory over
himself. His calm patience was allied to indomitable perseverance. Instead of
being cowed by the blustering rags of Eliab, David went on his course with the
same glowing enthusiasm as before. The heroic courage, which rested on past
exploits, and the unbounded confidence that the Lord would be with him in the
conflict with Goliath as He had been with him in other conflicts not less
formidable, overcame the hesitation of the King. Enthusiastic, courageous faith
has a magnetic assimilating power. After Saul had accepted David as the
champion of Israel, he sought to make him as efficient as he could. Had David
worn them, and won with them the victory, Saul would have ascribed it in part
to the armour, and claimed some share of the glory. But as David, when he
assayed to go, found the armour all too cumbersome, he said, “I cannot go with
these, for I have not proved them.” His determination to fight only with the
weapons with which he was familiar, was a stroke of military genius. The
thought that was uppermost in the majority of the onlookers, was in all
likelihood that the young man was going forth to certain death; but in all
there was an earnest desire, and from many an ardent prayer to God, for his
success. Goliath’s boastful style of speech was common amongst ancient
warriors. Homer represents Hector saying to Ajax in the Trojan war--
“And
thou imperious! if thy madness wait
The
lance of Hector, thou shalt meet thy fate,
That
giant corse, extended on the shore,
Shall
largely feed the fowls with fat and gore.”
It was probably not till David had thus confidently replied to the
challenge of Goliath, that the champion of the Philistines deigned to rise, and
proceeded with his shield bearer before him, be fight with one whom he regarded
as an insignificant and presumptuous opponent. Skill in slinging was common in
those days; and some had attained to extraordinary precision in the art. It is
said of an early period of the Judges, that in the tribe of Benjamin there were
700 chosen men left-handed: everyone could sling stones at an heir’s breadth
and not miss ( 20:16). But when we think of the intense
excitement and the great risk of such a duel, the ever-shifting movements of
Goliath, and the small part of his forehead left uncovered by the helmet of
brass, David’s feat in hitting the one vulnerable part of his body, was one of
the most extraordinary kind. Augustine thus beautifully, though fancifully,
improves the incident: “So our Divine David, the good Shepherd of Bethlehem,
when he went forth at the temptation to meet Satan--our ghostly Goliath--chose
five stones out of the brook. He took the five books of Moses out of the
flowing stream of Judaism. He took what was solid out of what was fluid. He
took what was permanent out of what was transitory. He took what was moral and
perpetual out of what was ceremonial and temporary. He took stones out of a
brook, and with one of them he overthrew Satan. All Christ’s answers to the
Tempter are moral precepts, taken from one Book of the Law (Deuteronomy), and
He prefaced his replies with the same words, ‘It is written,’ and with this
sling and shone of Scripture, He laid our Goliath low, and He has taught us by
His example how we may also vanquish the Tempter.” (T. Kirk.)
David and Goliath
An occurrence in the life of Joshua, the remembrance of which may
have often refreshed the mind of David, may well introduce us to the subject of
this day’s meditation. It is recorded in Joshua (verses 13-15). Before him lies
the strong, impregnable fortress of the enemy at Jericho; A war, pregnant with
important issues, must now be waged. It is night. The history tells us that
“Joshua lifted up his eyes”--we know to what place he raised them. He held
communion with God. What befell him then? Suddenly Joshua saw at a little
distance a lofty figure, clothed in warlike armour, standing before him. Now
Joshua knew at lent that he had to do with the representative of the Most High,
who alone determines what shall be the issues of battle. He is courageous in
being able to stay himself on this Ally. From that time forward he walked
before God in genuine humility; realised God’s presence with him wherever he
went; confidently expected it; trusted in the Lord; at all times asked first
what was His will, and turned away from whatever might be displeasing to Him.
And the Lord crowned him with victory after victory, with blessing after
blessing. David walked in the footsteps of Joshua, and the word was verified in
him, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye will remove mountains.”
Let us, in contemplating this incident, direct our attention.
I. Israel’s
danger. The history shows us the Philistines already at Shochoh, three German
miles southwest from Jerusalem, encamped on high, level ground. Opposite to
them the host of Israel is encamped also on a chain of hills. The Philistines,
for the increase of their glory, sought to show to the world that their warlike
strength consisted not only in the multitude of their host, but in the personal
warlike dexterity and skill in battle of every separate warrior. They
challenged, therefore, the enemy to a duel--a practice common in war among the
ancients, as Homer testifies. On the issue of this combat he places the fortune
and the future condition of the whole kingdom. Contempt, such as that expressed
in his challenge to the people of Jehovah, could not be more scornful. The
cause which gave rise to this war which had newly broken out, was closely
connected with the interests of religion, as was, indeed, the case with most of
the wars of ancient times, The heathen fought for the honour of their god
Dagon. They wished him to appear to all the world as the true God. Jehovah, on
the other hand, must appear to be but a phantom, a shadow without substance,
and only worthy of being despised. In these circumstances the children of
Israel had reason to trust with joyful confidence in the arm of the Almighty,
and, certain of victory, to accept the challenge to battle made by the heathen.
But what happened? Israel is afraid because their king is faint-hearted. They
ventured not, with child-like faith, to appropriate the promises of Jehovah.
The wings of faith, which would bane borne them up to the Lord of Hosts in
confident trust, are broken. What will be the result?
II. Deliverance
wrought by means of David. David, as a faithful, obedient son, accustomed
without hesitation to do as his father commanded, even when the commands did
not correspond with his own inclinations, rose up early in the morning, and
came near to the encampment at the very moment when the armies stood in battle
array over against each other. With the greatest astonishment David perceives
what is now going on. “How,” he asks himself. “is the last spark of faith
extinguished in Israel? or is His arm shortened, who once buried in the waves
of the Red Sea Pharaoh with his horsemen and his horses; who, at the prayer of
Moses, destroyed the power of Amalek, and guided Gideon so that with his three
hundred men he was able to sweep from the field the thousands of Midian.” He
was not able altogether to conceal from those that stood near him the feelings
that were in his mind; and the impetuosity with which he added the question,
“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the
living God?” fully revealed his inmost thoughts. Eliab sufficiently knew the
brave boy to believe that wherever the honour of God was concerned he would
courageously undertake the most perilous enterprise. “But what,” thinks Eliab,
“will be the result of such an undertaking? Not only the death of the boy, but
also, at the same time, the overthrow of Israel; and, worse than even this, the
defeat of Israel’s God in the eyes of the heathen!” Thus with Eliab also
thought his two brothers. We see that even with them faith and courage had
disappeared. David replied to the reproachful words of Eliab by quietly asking
him. “What have I now done? Has it not been commanded me?” But the subsequent
conduct of the king showed in him a total misapprehension of the position which
David occupied when he announced his heroic resolution. He commanded that David
should be armed with his armour, his helmet, and the coat of mail, together
with his sword. David did not offer any opposition, seeing that such was the
will of his master; yet he doubted not but that the king himself would soon be
convinced that such an equipment was not suitable for him. History has
presented many and diverse examples in the sphere of the spiritual life similar
to this heroic march of the youthful David. I now call to your remembrance only
a Luther, who, despite the doubts of timid learned men, threw aside the heavy
armour of scholastic wisdom, and, stepping forward in freedom, vanquished the
giant of Rome with the five heads, of his Catechism. And might we not here also
make mention of such witnesses and combatants in the region of the Church, as
with holy courage have broken through the restraints of homiletic or liturgic
forms, and, in the free effusions and creations of their divinely-anointed
spirits, have given the tone to a new and more animating style of preaching,
and thereby have opened the way to a new quickening and elevating of the life
of the Church into greater fruitfulness? But what says Saul now, in this
unexpected state of affairs? Saul said, “Inquire thou whose son the stripling
is.” But when, soon afterwards, David appeared in person before the king, with
the bead of the Philistine in his hands, be addressed to him the same question,
“Whose son art thou, thou young man?” David simply replied, with the expression
of genuine modesty, “I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite,” and
then stood quietly waiting the further commands of his royal master. This
incident in the narrative, it must, be admitted, has in it something strange.
Saul did not recognise in David the youthful singer, who had formerly, with the
melody of his harp, banished from him the evil spirit, and who on that account
had gained his love, and had been received into the number of his pages and
armourers. Many interpreters, misled by this surprising circumstance, have been
induced to regard the chapter from which our text is taken as a historical
supplement to that immediately preceding, and to place the battle with the
Philistine before the time of the first appearance of David at the royal court.
But this is a mere arbitrary proceeding. How can we explain, then, the enigma
of Saul’s ignorance of David? In the first place, Saul, to heighten the
splendour of his throne, had surrounded himself not only with a bodyguard a thousand
strong, and a choir of musicians, but also, as already noticed, with a company
of pages and young armour bearers; and it was not to be expected that amid the
continual storms which marked his reign, he could know and remember the names
and descent of each one of all these bands. Further, David, by his return to
take charge again of his father’s flocks at Bethlehem, had, as it seems, for a
considerable time been out of the sight of Saul, who had perhaps now only some
dim recollections of the comfortless condition in which he was at the time of
the first visit of the shepherd boy, but retained no longer any clear
remembrance of his person. Lastly, it might possibly be that it was only of the
descent and the birthplace of the boy that Saul had now no longer any
recollection; for he put the question to Abner merely as to whose son the youth
was. Thus Israel saw themselves honoured with another remarkable evidence that
the God of their fathers was still truly with them, and that faith in the
promises of their God, when it knows how, with simplicity, to take fast hold of
them, can accomplish all things. In the third Psalm, David sings: “Thou, O
Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I will not
be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round
about.” (F. W. Krummacher, D. D.)
David’s conflict with Goliath
This valley has generally been identified with that which now
bears the name of Wady-es-Sumt--a valley running down from the plateau of Judah
to the Philistine plain, not more than perhaps eight or ten miles from
Bethlehem. The Philistine champion appears to have been a man of physical
strength corresponding to the massiveness of his body. Remembering the
extraordinary feats of Samson, the Philistines might well fancy that it was now
their turn to boast of a Hercules. And morning and evening for nearly six
weeks, had his proud challenge been given, but never once accepted. Even
Jonathan, who bad faith enough and courage enough and skill enough for so much,
seems to have felt himself helpless in this great dilemma. The explanation that
has sometimes been given of his abstention, that it was not etiquette for a
king’s son to engage in fight with a commoner, can hardly hold water. Jonathan
showed no such squeamishness at Michmash; and besides, in cases of, desperation
etiquette has to be thrown to the winds. Of the host of Israel, we read simply
that they were dismayed. The coming of David upon the scene corresponded in its
accidental character to the coming of Saul into contact with Samuel, to be
designated for the throne. Everything seemed to be casual, yet those things
which seemed most casual were really links in a providential chain leading to
the gravest issues. One cannot but wonder whether, in offering his prayers that
morning, David had any presentiment of the trial that awaited him, anything to
impel him to unwonted fervour in asking God that day to establish the works of
his hand upon him. There is no reason to think that he had. His prayers that morning
were in all likelihood his usual prayers. And if he were sincere in the
expression of his own sense of weakness, and in the supplication that God would
strengthen him for all the day’s dunes, it was enough. Oh! how little we know
what may be before us, on some morning that dawns on us just as other days, but
which is to form a great crisis in our life. How little the boy that is to tell
his first lie that day thinks of the serpent that is lying in wait for him! How
little the party that are to be upset in the pleasure boat and consigned to a
watery grave think how the day is to end! Should we not pray more really, more
earnestly if we did realise these possibilities? True, indeed, the future is
hid from us, and we do not usually experience the impulse to earnestness which
it would impart. But is it not a good habit, as you kneel each morning, to
think, “For aught I know, this may be the most important day of my life. The
opportunity may be given me of doing a great service in the cause of truth and
righteousness; or the temptation may assail me to deny my Lord and ruin my
soul. O God, be not far from me this day; prepare me for all that Thou
preparest for me!” The distance from Bethlehem being but a few hours’ walk,
David starting in the morning would arrive early in the day at the quarters of
the army. It is evident that the consideration that moved David himself was
that the Philistine had defied the armies of the living God. Could there bare
been a nobler exercise of faith, a finer instance of a human spirit taking hold
of the Invisible; fortifying itself against material perils by realising the
help of an unseen God; resting on His sure word as on solid rock; flinging
itself fearlessly on a very sea of dangers; confident of protection and victory
from Him? There are two ways in which faith may assert its supremacy. One,
afterwards very familiar to David, is, when it has first to struggle bard with
distrust and fear; when it has to come to close quarters with the suggestions
of the carnal mind, grapple with these in mortal conflict, strangle them, and
rise up victorious over them. For most men, most believing men, it is only thus
that faith rises to her throne. The other way is to spring to her throne in a
moment; to assert her authority, free and independent, utterly regardless of
all that would hamper her, as free from doubt and misgiving as a little child
in his father’s arms, conscious that whatever is needed that father will
provide. It was this simple, child-like, but most triumphant exercise of faith that
David showed in undertaking this conflict Happy they who are privileged with
such an attainment! In beautiful contrast with the scornful self-confidence of
Goliath was the simplicity of spirit and the meek, humble reliance on God,
apparent in David’s answer. What a reality God was to David! He advanced “as
seeing Him who is invisible.” Guided by the wisdom of God, he chose his method
of attack, with all the simplicity and certainty of genius. Conscious that God
was with him, he fearlessly met the enemy. A man of less faith might have been
too nervous to take the proper aim. Undisturbed by any fear of missing, David
hurls the stone from his sling, hits the giant on the unprotected part of his
forehead, and in a moment has him reeling on the ground. It is not possible to
read this chapter without some thought of the typical character of David, and
indeed the typical aspect of the conflict in which he was now engaged. We find
an emblematic picture of the conquest of the Messiah and His Church. (W. G.
Blaikie, D. D.)
Thy servant slew both the
lion and the bear.
The lion and the bear
David’s first battles were
with a lion and a bear. His next with the Philistine Goliath, and after that
with many enemies, with the Amalekites, the Philistines, the Moabites, the
Syrians, the Edomites, and others. It seems to me that you have two enemies to
contend with in your youth--violence and bearishness. Until you have conquered
these you will not have proved yourselves worthy to go against greater foes.
1. Violence of temper is the lion with which you have to fight. Angry
passions are the first passions that assail you. Anger is natural; and in
itself is not wrong. But it is sinful when it masters you. When a lion is in a
cage, and allowed no opportunity of tearing and killing, you do not fear him,
but when he breaks out of the cage, then everyone takes to flight. Anger is not
wrong when the cause is just, the feeling moderate, and the desire of
punishment proportioned to the offence.
2. The other enemy you have to contend with is Bearishness. The
greatest charm in a boy is politeness, or civility; and this is not so often
met with as one could wish. Boys and girls are now allowed so much liberty,
that they behave as if they owed no consideration, respect, or deference, to
their elders and betters. It used to be said that bears never allowed their
cubs to be seen out of the cave in which they were born until they had licked
them into shape, for infant bear cubs were misformed hideous little beasts, but
the mother by pains and constant licking got them into something like shape. I
am afraid that too many little human bear cubs are allowed out before they are
licked into shape. Now what is the cause of bearishness? of cubbishness? It is
thought of self. The boy or girl whose mind is fixed on self is sure not to
have thought of the wants and wishes of others, and to be without the respect
due to others. In the upper classes of society it would be thought so
disgraceful for ladies and gentlemen to turn out bear cubs into the world, that
they are obliged to lick them into shape, and make them learn “manners.” They
put on manners as they put on their clothes. But it would be much better if the
Bear were killed, instead of being hidden in a cupboard. It too often happens
with those who have been taught to be polite and courteous, without being
taught also to conquer the evil principle which lies at the root of
cubbishness, that on occasions the bad beast breaks out, bursts through all
restraints, and then we see that gentle manner was put on, and is not real. The
bear is in the cupboard and hidden, but it is alive and impatient of restraint,
and takes the first opportunity to show itself selfishness is the mother of
bearishness. If the lion is feared the bear is loathed And the bearish child is
a most offensive child, and grows up into a most offensive man or woman.
Bearishness is exactly the reverse of what should be the character of a
Christian. The Christian religion softens, and refines, it teaches all to be
kindly to one another, to love as brethren, to be pitiful and courteous. (S.
Baring Gould, M. A.)
The lion and the bear:
trophies hung up
We shall see what made
David so calm and self-possessed as to venture where nobody else would venture,
and take up the gauntlet and dare to be the champion of the living God.
I. The confidence
of David.
1. The confidence of David was grounded upon his own personal
experience.
2. You will notice that in his confidence there is a blending of the
human with the Divine. Observe: “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear,
and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them”:--That is the human.
“David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion,
and out, of the paw of the hear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine”:--That is the Divine side of it. Work for God with all your might,
as if you did it all; but then always remember that “it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” How is that Philistine to be
killed? “By God,” says one. True; but not without David. “By David,” says
another. Yes, but not without God. Put the Lord on the march with David, and
you put the Philistines into untimely graves.
3. I want you to notice in David’s confidence that he had go
practically observed the service of the human side that he speaks of it first.
If you did work valiantly by the help of the Spirit of God, you did do it, and
should not refuse to say so. How are you to glorify God by denying the fruit of
His Spirit? It is the glory of God that He led you to holy labour, and helped
you in it.
4. Although David thus speaks of the human first, yet be speaks of
the Divine most.
5. Now I want to go a little further, and show that David’s
confidence rested mainly in the immutability of God, the Divine Worker.
6. This leads me to observe that David’s confidence also proceeded
upon his firm conviction that, the immutable God being with him, he himself
would be sufficient for the present emergency.
II. David is a very
fit and wonderful type of the great son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
The lion-slayer-The
giant-killer
What was the pith of
David’s argument? What were the five smooth stones which he threw at the head
of carnal reasoning?
I. Recollections.
Now, what did David recollect, for I want you to remember the same?
1. He recollected, first, that, whatever his present trial might be,
he had been tried before, tried when he was but a young man, peacefully
employed in keeping his flocks.
2. He remembered, too, that he had been tried frequently. He had been
not only attacked by a lion, but also by a bear.
3. David recollected that he had risked all in the prosecution of his
duty.
4. He remembered that he had on that occasion gone alone to the fray.
5. David also recollected that on that occasion when he smote the
lion and the bear he had nothing visible to rely upon, but simply trusted his
God.
6. David recollected also that the tactics which he adopted on that
occasion were natural, artless, and vigorous.
7. David remembered that by confidence in God his energetic fighting
gained the victory.
II. Now for
reasonings. David used an argument in which no flaw can be found. He said “The
case of this Philistine is a parallel one to that of the lion. If I act in the
same manner by faith in God with this giant as I did with the lion, God is the
same, and therefore the result will be the same.” That seems to me to be very
clear reasoning, and I bid you adopt it. Let us now consider the case, and we
shall see that it really was parallel. There was the flock, defenceless; here
was Israel, God’s flock, defenceless, too, with no one to take up its cause. He
was alone that day when he smote the lion, and so he was this day when he was
to confront his enormous foe. As for that, Philistine, he felt that in him he
had an antagonist of the old sort. It was brute force before, it was brute
force now: it might take the shape of a lion or a bear or a Philistine, but
David considered that it was only so much flesh and bone and muscle, so much
brag or roar, tooth or spear The whole argument is this, in the one case by
such tactics we have been successful, trusting in God, and therefore in a
similar case we have only to do the same, and we shall realise the same
victory, I know a man who today says, “Yes, what we did in years gone by we did
in our heroic age, but we are not, so enthusiastic now.” And why not? We are so
apt to magnify our former selves, and think of our early deeds as of something
to be wondered at, but not to be attempted now. Fools that we are! They were
little enough in all conscience, and ought to be outdone. This resting on our
oars will not do, we are drifting down with the tide. David did not say, “I
slew a lion and a bear, I have had my turn at such bouts, let somebody else go
and fight that Philistine:” yet we have heard people say, “When I was a young
man I taught in the Sunday school, I used to go out preaching in the villages,
and so on.” Oh, and why not do it now? Methinks you ought to be doing more
instead of less.
III. The last thing
is results. The results were:
1. David felt he would, as he did before, rely upon God alone.
2. David resolved again to run all risks once more, as he had done
before.
3. David’s next step was to put himself into the same condition as on
former occasions, by divesting himself of everything that hampered him. The
ultimate result was that the young champion came back with Goliath’s head in
his hand, and equally sure triumphs await every one of you if you rely on the
Lord, and act in simple earnestness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
How may the well-discharge
of our present duty give us assurance of help from God for the well-discharge
of all future duties
This question hath two
parts in it, and cannot be so well grounded upon a single text; therefore I
shall name three or four, namely, 1 Samuel 17:34-37; Psalms 27:14; Proverbs 10:29; 2 Chronicles 15:2. I name these several scriptures as so many
proofs of the truth of the point, that it is a case very agreeable to the
Scriptures and to the analogy of faith.
I. What is our
present duty?
1. What “duty” is, in the general nature and notion of it. It is an
act of obedience to the will of our superiors. Duty is that which is due from
man to God: it is “justice toward God.”
2. Something is our present duty. God hath filled up all our time
with duty: not one moment left at our own disposal.
3. Nothing that is sinful and in itself unlawful can be our duty at
any time; and therefore, to be sure, not our present duty.
4. Every thing that is in itself lawful is not therefore our duty.
“All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient.” (1 Corinthians 6:12.)
5. Everything that is commanded, and is in its time and place our
duty, may not be our present duty. Affirmatives bind “always;” that is, we can
never be discharged from that obligation that lies upon us to worship God: but
we are not bound “at all times” to the outward acts of worship; for then we
should do nothing else.
6. That which God now requires of you, and in doing of which you may
most glorify God and edify your neighbour--that is undoubtedly your present
duty. “How shall we know this?” Always look within your calling for your
present, duty; for there it lies. General: As we are Christians, so all saints
are of the same calling: “Called to be saints.” (Romans 1:7.) Particular: So we
differ in our callings. Some are called to the magistracy, some to the
ministry; some are masters, some servants; some called to this, some to that,
trade or occupation. Much of the duties of our Christian calling do follow us
into our particular callings. As duties of worship must be performed in our
families every day, let our particular calling be what it will; so the same
graces must be exercised in our particular callings, which were required in our
general callings: the same graces do follow us into our particular callings and
into all the works of our hands. You see, your present duty lies in your
present work, in the daily business of your particular callings. Herein lies
the nature of all practical holiness--to do everything after a godly sort. The
directions I give you relate only to the religious manner of doing what you do;
though it is God that “instructs you to discretion” in all worldly business. (Isaiah 28:26.) Whatever your
skill and insight is in your calling, prayer may make you wiser: you may obtain
a more excellent spirit in your way than you now have, if you seek it of God. (Exodus 35:31-33.) Though you are
left to the use of your reason as men, yet faith must go along with it as you
are Christians. Therefore I shall show you how to put forth an act of reason in
faith How may we know when reason and faith go together? 1 When, at our
entrance upon any business, we seek wisdom and understanding from God, stirring
up our reason by our faith, looking up to Him from whom “cometh every good and
perfect gift” (James 1:17) that He would “instruct us unto discretion.”
2. When, in answer to faith and prayer, thoughts do come in that
clear up our way to us, and do put us into a right method, pointing out such
probable means, inclining to such apposite counsel, as in a rational way tend
to the expediting of that business which we are about.
3. When, under the greatest assurances of our own reason, we yet live
in a humble dependence upon God for success. He puts forth an act of reason in
faith, who trusts to God, and not to his own reason. It is our duty to make use
of it as men, though as Christians we ought not to trust in it.
But what if, after all
this, it should so fall out that two duties should press upon my conscience for
present performance, and! cannot either by reason or Scripture, determine which
to do first, but do hang in suspense, “am in a strait betwixt two?” (Philippians 1:23.) This is hardly to
be supposed: but, admit it to be thy case, according to thy present judgment;
then
1. Sit down once more, and consider.
2. If of two duties you cannot resolve which is most your duty at
present, then resolve upon both, and begin where you will. God will not be
extreme in that case. Do one, and leave not the other undone, but be sure to
find time for that also.
3. Beg of God to resolve thee. “O that my ways were directed to keep
Thy statutes!” (Psalms 119:5.) “Shall I go up to
Hebron? or shall I not?” (2 Samuel 2:1.) God will “teach”
thee what to do. (Psalms 25:12) “He shall direct thy paths,” (Proverbs 3:5-6.)
Application.
1. All the sins of your lives break in upon you, through the omission
of your present duty.
2. Whatever you do in the room of a present duty is not acceptable to
God.
3. If you do not now perform your present duty, you can never perform
it.
4. You can have as trial of your spirit, nor of the truth of your
state: it is impossible that you should ever prove your sincerity, but by a
conscientious discharge of your present duty.
5. You cannot walk evenly with God, if you do not your present duty.
Some men walk very unevenly: there are so many gaps in their obedience; they
move from duty to duty, quite “leaping” over some, and lightly touching upon
others, as if they had no great mind to any: they act grace so abruptly that it
gives no continued sense; we know not where to find them. There are so many
vacant spaces, so many blanks of omission, so many blots and blurs of
commission: they drop a duty here, and another half-mile off; so that you
cannot say, “A man of God went this way.” (1 Kings 13:12.)
6. You must begin somewhere, at some present duty: why not at this?
It will be as difficult, nay, more difficult, to come to Christ tomorrow than
it is today: therefore “today hear His voice, and harden not your heart.” (Psalms 95:7-8.) Break the ice now, and by faith venture upon thy present duty,
wherever it lies: do what you are now called to.
II. How the
well-discharge of our present duty may encourage us to hope in God for His help
and assistance in all future duties.
1. It is promised. (2 Chronicles 15:2.)
2. Present grace is a pledge of future grace. To him that hath, more
shall be given. (Luke 19:17; Luke 19:26).
3. The experience of the saints confirms this. See Psalms 18:26; Psalms 18:30-32.
4. The saints made this an argument in prayer. (Psalms 38:20-22; Psalms 119:30-31; Psalms 119:94; Psalms 119:121; Psalms 119:173; Psalms 25:21.)
5. A conscientious discharge of our present duty fits and disposes
our minds to the next duty.
6. By the well-discharge of our present duty we may attain assurance
of salvation. (Colossians 3:23-24.) (Thomas Cole,
A. M.)
Verse 37
Go, and the Lord be with thee.
The conscious presence of God with us in our personal life
The Philistines originally formed part of the great Shemitic
family. They wandered from Palestine to Crete, and afterwards, returning to
their former homes, reestablished themselves, and built their five great
cities, Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath, and Ekron. This representation respecting
their early history is in harmony with their name, Philistine, “a wanderer.” It
accounts for the fact that the Philistines and the Israelites used a common
language. It accords with the evidence given by the classic writers of Greece
as to the wide diffusion of the Shemitic race over the islands of the
Mediterranean Sea; and it agrees with the practice referred to by them as
having prevailed so extensively in warfare, of the enemy challenging the foe to
a duel as the test of the power of either side arrayed for conflict. These
Philistines had become very influential in Palestine. Occupying the coast, they
were in possession of the trade carried on with Europe and Asia. In this
chapter the Israelites are represented as engaged in hostilities with the
Philistines, and as furnishing in this time of national difficulty a striking
illustration of the extinction of faith. God has wrought wondrous deliverances
on their behalf. We should have thought that, from the army of Israel encamped
upon that chain of hills, there would have risen the voice of praise, and that,
adapting “the song of Moses” to their present circumstances, they would have
chanted right heartily, “The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name. Thy
right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, will dash in
pieces the enemy; and in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou wilt overthrow
them that rise up against Thee.” But instead of this, the very opposite was the
case. They were filled with terror and alarm. “They were dismayed and greatly
afraid.” Nor let us be too ready to censure them, for we are very prone to act
in the same way. Whatever may have been the emergencies through which God may
have brought us in the past, we are too ready to overlook these deliverances
when new difficulties arise in our path. It is said that when old Rome was in
all her glory, and the Caesars were exercising their mighty sway, one who was
in trouble was communicating his sorrow to a certain philosopher, who, knowing
that the mourner before him was a favourite with the Emperor, said to him, “Why
mourn thus? Caesar is your friend!” The thought of the friendship of the
greatest earthly potentate, the philosopher considered, should assuage the
mourner’s grief, and inspire confidence and hope. And, even so, if we enjoy the
friendship of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, what need have we to feel
dismayed and fearful? What a contrast is presented between these hosts of
Israel on the one hand, and David, the stripling the shepherd-youth, on the
other! How beautiful he appears, clothed with true humility! “Clothe
yourselves,” said Tertullian, “with the silk of piety, with the satin of
sanctity, and with the purple of modesty and humility; so shall you have God
Himself to be your suitor.” “Saul,” without much heart and hope, and almost
despairing of his cause, said, “Go, and the Lord be with thee.” I would adopt
his words, and, not in his spirit, but would say to each of you, with reference
to the year so soon to commence, “Go, and the Lord be with thee.” “Go,” and in
all the duties which will devolve upon you in the new year, “the Lord be with
thee,” strengthening thee for their efficient and faithful discharge. “Go,” and
in all the perplexities which will arise, “the Lord be with thee” to guide and
to direct thy way. “Go,” and amidst the increasing responsibilities of thy
life, “the Lord be with thee,” giving thee increasing wisdom, and imparting to
thee “more grace,” and fulfilling to thee His ancient promise, “And as thy
days, so shall thy strength be.” “Go,” and in all the darker experiences of
life through which thou mayest have to pass, “the Lord be with thee,” to
comfort and to cheer thine heart, and to render thee victorious over the
tribulations of the world! “The Lord be with thee.” No, God’s care for us is a
care for us individually. He says, “I know thee by name.” Our name distinguishes
us from all others; it stands out for our separate individuality as apart from
all others. And even so, as distinctly we are regarded by God. He does not
merely look broadly over the race, but He sets each member of it apart; each
single life stands out, distinct and clear, in the light of His presence. Then,
“Go, and the Lord be with thee!” “With thee,” lad or lassie, entering, with the
new year, upon a new situation, going into fresh surroundings, and having to
lay the foundations of that calling which is to be your occupation through
life. “With thee,” young man or maiden, just leaving the harbour of home. “With
thee,” man of business, who must, in the future, as in the past, be oft
overborne with anxious care. “With thee,” suffering one, with weakened and
shattered frame. “With thee,” aged pilgrim, leaning on thy staff, and gradually
descending the hill of life--“the Lord be with thee.” (S. D. Hillman.)
I cannot go with these.
I have not proved them.
Suitable equipment
The words recall to you at once the whole vivid story of the
combat between the stripling David and the Philistine giant Goliath. It is a
simple tale from the memories of border warfare in an early and somewhat rude
time. There are two ways in which David might have forfeited his victory.
I. First he might
have forfeited it by a careless neglect of the simple opportunities of a boy.
He had only to keep the sheep. It would have been boy-like to have gone after
play or after comrades and leave the flock. It would have been the different
but equally fatal mistake of a gifted nature to dream away the hours with his
back on the turf and his face to the sky, building air castles of future exploits,
the while the beasts preyed on the straying sheep. David avoided the one
mistake and the other. He had his play, indeed; that skill which sends the
stone like bullet to the Philistine’s brow will not have come to such
perfection without many a shot at passing quarry or jutting rock; but it was
play which made him fitter for work, training him in the free use of the
favourite weapon of his tribe; making his arm suppler and stronger, and his eye
more keen. And he had his battle, too, in his own way; he was watchful to
detect and bold to face the prowling and preying beast. And though these may
seem simple things, yet to the doer of them there was a strong sense and clear
knowledge that there was a power with him in them, and if his conflict with the
lion and the bear prepared him to face Goliath by steadying his nerve and
strengthening his self-reliance it did so much more by giving him proof of the
supporting and protecting presence of his God. Is it not the fact that one of
the most frequent, causes of waste and loss here is to be found in what I may
call the adjournment of responsibility? I am not thinking of the man who wants
to taste the pleasures of sin for a time; nor of the man who shirks all his
work and fails in his examinations. I am thinking of men who take things as
they come and do not look beyond; who interpret the phrase “sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof” as a charter for postponing troublesome thoughts of
future responsibility; who think that it will be time enough to attend to those
things when they come.
II. But David had a
second danger to avoid: it was the danger of unproven armour. We can feel that
a twofold instinct guided him right; the royal armour was grand, but he knew
that he would be uneasy in it; and meanwhile his fingers twitched on the sling
strings with the half-conscious sense of how they could hurl against that
blustering front. What is the danger of unproven armour for any of us? It is
not difficult to see; and it may seem to be the very opposite of that which we
have considered. It is the danger of those who look forward, not too little,
but too confidently, and who do so because they believe themselves amply ready
to face life. They feet full armed with well-appointed mail and weapons; it may
be with all the adaptable resources of high academical and social culture; it
may be with the keen thoughts, and bright ideals, social and philanthropic,
which they deem to characterise their generation. Or, most probably of all, it
may be with confidence in the strength of Divine truth and a Divine system,
which they have themselves embraced, and in the strength of which it would be
faithless to doubt that they will succeed with others. Far be it to speak
disparagingly of such as these, they have much in them of the mettle of the
future warrior: the day was to come when David too would do valiantly with
sword and spear. But they have much to learn. The shield and sword, the spear
and armour of God and of His Church are not for the first comer to wield with
mastery. Doctrine the most true, arguments the most convincing, ideas the most
lovely, will somehow be found not to strike home; and it will be well for the
user if hampered and perhaps wounded he is not tempted in reaction of
disheartenment or cynicism to cast them all aside and turn his back upon the
battle. We have, then, here another danger, and opposite though it seems, it
may really be combined, and often is combined with the other. The man who
adjourns responsibility will think that he can put on the whole armour at
pleasure in the future, and that in the strength and completeness of a
professional outfit he could be a match for any enemy. There are giants in
these days, and “surely to defy Israel are they come up:” evils which are
monstrous in their proportions and which have the peculiar note of scornful and
cruel defiance towards God and man. There is the giant of sensuality in all its
forms. There is the giant of worldliness: the domineering power of prevailing
fashion, or of so-called public opinion, or of stolid indifference to every
higher call. And third brother to these there is the giant of unbelief. These
are giants, and now as then we want men to meet them. And not seldom it is to
the stripling that the task should fall. He is not dazed and weary with the daily
bellowing of the giant’s challenges. He comes with a fresh eye, with an
unbroken nerve, with a quick fire of zeal. Place for the young man against the
giant! But at that moment all will depend upon what he is and what he brings.
They must be well proved, he must be master of them, and they may have in them
an unsuspected force of swift and piercing strength. What, to drop the figures,
will this mean? It will mean first that a man who is to do good service against
public evils must have first fought his own fights. He will have known,
perhaps, in very plain reality, what it is to have the beasts come up against
him. To meet the lion and the bear is specially the young man’s task. It is
from the wilderness of temptation that David and David’s Lord go forth to the
help of the Lord and His people against the mighty. And then next, the men who
are to be champions must bring with them genuine, first-hand, realised truth.
We want men who have put things to the proof and can speak of that they do
know: who can not only repeat, but testify, who can wield the great appeal
“experto crede.” It is not much truth of which to a young man at the outset of
experience this can be true: it may be only as the few smooth stones out of the
brook: but, believe me, these may be enough. But what I mean is this: that
while a man may fairly start by taking on trust many parts of that which he
believes, there must be some part in it, some aspect of it, which he has proved
for himself. It has been truly said that it is unchristian to assert that to
rightly understand the faith one must have passed through doubt. But it is
Christian in modesty and truthfulness to say that in a real and adequate sense
a man can hardly be a champion who has not felt the stress and strain upon his
faith of the mysteries and difficulties round about us, whose imagination they
have never awed, whose reason they have never puzzled, whose sympathies they
have never wrung. But there is one thing which must yet be said, for it
underlies the whole. The victory of David was won not only by the sling and
stone, but by the proved and trusted presence of God. Theirs is the strength
which speaks in words which we have not yet learnt to separate from David. “The
Lord is my strength in whom I will trust. By Thee I have run through a troop
and by my God I have leaped over a wall. It is God that girdeth me with
strength.” (E. S. Talbot, D. D.)
Impossible armour
The armour was good armour. Sword, and helmet, and coat of mail,
each was faultless--true metal, excellent temper, perfect workmanship. And it
was a great honour to wear it: it was the king’s own, the king lent it, and the
king put it on. What was wanting? At first there is compliance. To refuse such
honour seems ungracious or seems impossible. “Saul armed David with his
armour--put a helmet of brass upon his head--armed him with a coat of mail:
David girded the sword upon the armour, and assayed to go”--assayed, but went
not. Why? “He had not proved it.” “David said to Saul, I cannot go with these,
for I have not proved them--and he put them off him.” Anything better than the
unproved. Better no armour than the awkward encumbrance of the unwonted and the
untried. There is a warfare between all and each of us. It has two chief
departments--but we need not stay to separate them very carefully--the faith,
and the life. For each of these there is an equipment--call it preparation,
call it education, or what you will: only remember that it is not all
preliminary--it is lifelong, it is daily, it is new every morning. Most young
men have someone who offers them his armour. In these days the schoolmaster is
abroad even for the poorest. In all days the parent, for better or worse, is
present in the homo. The Church is, or ought to be, at hand everywhere, with
its instructing and educating influences. All these may be described as
offering to arm the young mind and the young soul for the battle of that life
which has death in front of it. It is scarcely a reflexion upon this offer to
say that it largely resembles Saul’s offer to David. We hardly see how it could
be otherwise. Parents and teachers must educate out of their own stores of
experience. They cannot and they ought not to ask the child or the pupil what
he has, and advise him to make the best of it. To a large extent he must be
“clothed upon” with faiths and principles to be taken at first on trust. Any
attempt to lay down rules of conduct in circumstances necessarily future, or to
warn against evils not yet developed, whether because the age for them is not
yet, or because the opportunity is not yet, must more or less partake of the
character of arming David with Saul’s coat of mall: the person addressed cannot
yet have proved it, and yet the instructor durst not take the responsibility of
deferring into an indefinite future the counsel or the warning which may at any
moment become vital to the hearer when the voice which now speaks will be
silent. Yet all the time he knows that he is uttering that which can scarcely
be impressive, because it necessarily lacks the personal proving. What pains
ought to be taken to enable the receiver to prove everything--so to bring down
and bring home the instruction as that it may be, at least in its germ,
fruitful at once, operative, on the smallest scale, in the young life! But what
shall we say when we pass from matters of conduct into matters of faith? Must
there not here at least, be an offer of helmet and sword which cannot by the
nature of the case have been yet proved by the receiver? Great indeed is the
responsibility of arming others, young or old, in our armour. Well were it if
those who have the charge of minds would think more of it. Have they proved
their own armour? Can they give a reason, to themselves and to God, for the
faith with which they thus preoccupy another? “Am I my brother’s
keeper?”--always a solemn question--has no graver or more momentous application
than to this matter of the transmission of religion. Yet not to transmit it is
to be worse than an infidel. There must be an arming of one by another with the
Christian panoply if Christianity itself is not to die out of the earth which
it has re-made. We must prove, but we must assert when we have proved, the
mighty verity, without which good were it not to have been born, that “God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” We pass to a later
thought, and one more practical still. The helmet and the sword and the coat of
mail of the Christian faith were first put upon us by others. We thank and we
bless God for it. Never could we have forged them, never could we have found
them, never could we have put them on, for ourselves. The armour put on must be
proved afterwards. The faith of the childhood must be proved by the man. Risk
not the battle of life--risk not the discharge from it--in unproved armour. “Prove
all things,” St. Paul said. “Prove the spirits,” St. John wrote--meaning the
professed inspirations of men who came saying, I have a message unto thee, O
man, from God. “Prove your own selves,” St. Paul said again--always the same
word, though with seven various renderings in the English Bible. If I were on a
platform, arguing with atheists, I should adopt one course. There I should be
speaking to men not yet pledged, or pledged the other way. And upon them I
should urge one argument, not always pressed as it ought to be--All questions
must be argued in their appropriate region. I do not take the telescope to a
leaf, nor the microscope to a star: I do not listen to a face, nor look at a
voice: I do not taste a colour, nor smell a book. In the same way, if I am
asked to believe that Christ died for me, or that God forgives me, or that
prayer is heard, or that death is the gate of life, I do not consult Euclid or
algebra about it; I know quite well that, true or false, that could not help
the decision: no, I remind myself that I am a whole made up of many
parts--conscience, feeling, affection, quite as really constituents of my whole
being as memory, or intellect, or the critical faculty, cold and bald and
naked; and that, if God has spoken, He is sure to have spoken not to one
element but to the whole of me; and that therefore I must bring myself, the
whole of me, to listen whether He has spoken; and if heart and soul find
themselves powerfully affected by a professed revelation--if it seem to
exercise an elevating and softening and sweetening influence upon the temper,
and the conduct, and the intercourse with others, of those who believe and live
it--if, in proportion as a man tries to live the Gospel, the life, the spirit,
the man, is evidently ennobled and beautified--if he really finds the day, the
separate day, made this or that, happy and bright and useful, or else heavy and
slovenly and miserable, according as it is begun, continued and ended in
communion with God through Christ, or the contrary--I see there a proof, real,
if not by itself conclusive, that that revelation is from Him who made me. But
now, speaking from a pulpit, and in a congregation of persons worshipping on
the faith of Christ, the application of the call to prove all things takes a
slightly different form. It bids us to bring to the proof the armour of
Christian profession--which has been put upon us by education or tradition, by
common consent or social propriety, or whatever else--by seeing whether it will
or will not do for us what we have just now supposed it to do for those whose
experience we have spoken of as evidence; whether it can make our lives pure
and humble and noble; whether it will bear the strain put upon it by the
particular trials which beset us in the course of daily life. O, if one half of
the trouble were taken in proving ourselves that is bestowed upon challenging
the legality of a dress or a posture, or making some preacher or writer an
offender for a word, we should grow apace in that real Christianity which is
first humility, and then patience, and then charity. The only, only question
then is, Has the armour been proved? has it borne the brunt of trial? has it
been kept buckled and kept burnished by a living heart-deep communion with the
Author and the Finisher, with the Lord and Giver of Life? (C. J. Vaughan, D.
D.)
God’s fighters not to take the weapons of the world
God’s fighters have often been its germ, fruitful at once,
operative, on the smallest scale, in the young life! But what shall we say when
we pass from matters of conduct into matters of faith? Must there not here at
least, be an offer of helmet and sword which cannot by the nature of the case
have been yet proved by the receiver? Great indeed is the responsibility of
arming others, young or old, in our armour. Well were it if those who have the
charge of minds would think more of it. Have they proved their own armour? Can
they give a reason, to themselves and to God, for the faith with which they
thus preoccupy another? “Am I my brother’s keeper?”--always a solemn
question--has no graver or more momentous application than to this matter of
the transmission of religion. Yet not to transmit it is to be worse than an
infidel. There must be an arming of one by another with the Christian panoply
if Christianity itself is not to die out of the earth which it has re-made. We
must prove, but we must assert when we have proved, the mighty verity, without
which good were it not to have been born, that “God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son.” We pass to a later thought, and one more
practical still. The helmet and the sword and the coat of mail of the Christian
faith were first put upon us by others. We thank and we bless God for it. Never
could we have forged them, never could we have found them, never could we have
put them on, for ourselves. The armour put on must be proved afterwards. The
faith of the childhood must be proved by the man. Risk not the battle of
life--risk not the discharge from it--in unproved armour. “Prove all things,”
St. Paul said. “Prove the spirits,” St. John wrote--meaning the professed
inspirations of men who came saying, I have a message unto thee, O man, from
God. “Prove your own selves,” St. Paul said again--always the same word, though
with seven various renderings in the English Bible. If I were on a platform,
arguing with atheists, I should adopt one course. There I should be speaking to
men not yet pledged, or pledged the other way. And upon them I should urge one
argument, not always pressed as it ought to be--All questions must be argued in
their appropriate region. I do not take the telescope to a leaf, nor the
microscope to a star: I do not listen to a face, nor look at a voice: I do not
taste a colour, nor smell a book. In the same way, if I am asked to believe
that Christ died for me, or that God forgives me, or that prayer is heard, or
that death is the gate of life, I do not consult Euclid or algebra about it; I
know quite well that, true or false, that could not help the decision: no, I
remind myself that I am a whole made up of many parts--conscience, feeling,
affection, quite as really constituents of my whole being as memory, or
intellect, or the critical faculty, cold and bald and naked; and that, if God
has spoken, He is sure to have spoken not to one element but to the whole of
me; and that therefore I must bring myself, the whole of me, to listen whether
He has spoken; and if heart and soul find themselves powerfully affected by a
professed revelation--if it seem to exercise an elevating and softening and
sweetening influence upon the temper, and the conduct, and the intercourse with
others, of those who believe and live it--if, in proportion as a man tries to
live the Gospel, the life, the spirit, the man, is evidently ennobled and
beautified--if he really finds the day, the separate day, made this or that,
happy and bright and useful, or else heavy and slovenly and miserable,
according as it is begun, continued and ended in communion with God through
Christ, or the contrary--I see there a proof, real, if not by itself
conclusive, that that revelation is from Him who made me. But now, speaking
from a pulpit, and in a congregation of persons worshipping on the faith of
Christ, the application of the call to prove all things takes a slightly different
form. It bids us to bring to the proof the armour of Christian
profession--which has been put upon us by education or tradition, by common
consent or social propriety, or whatever else--by seeing whether it will or
will not do for us what we have just now supposed it to do for those whose
experience we have spoken of as evidence; whether it can make our lives pure
and humble and noble; whether it will bear the strain put upon it by the
particular trials which beset us in the course of daily life. O, if one half of
the trouble were taken in proving ourselves that is bestowed upon challenging
the legality of a dress or a posture, or making some preacher or writer an
offender for a word, we should grow apace in that real Christianity which is
first humility, and then patience, and then charity. The only, only question
then is, Has the armour been proved? has it borne the brunt of trial? has it
been kept buckled and kept burnished by a living heart-deep communion with the
Author and the Finisher, with the Lord and Giver of Life? (C. J. Vaughan, D.
D.)
God’s fighters not to take the weapons of the world
God’s fighters have often been tempted to don Saul’s armour, and
it has always hampered them. It may have shielded them from some assaults, but
it has robbed them of elasticity, and half stifled them. They are stronger far
without than with it. As surely as the Church yields to the falsehood that it
must be clothed with worldly power and wealth in order to fight worldly power,
it surrenders its freedom and capacity to attack, though it may obtain a sort
of defence. And it is not only in churches which are called “established” that
the temptation of fighting the world with worldly weapons has been yielded to.
Wherever Christian individuals or communities rely upon anything but the power
of the indwelling Christ to make their work successful, and seek to eke out the
one weapon which God gives into their hand, “the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God,” with others borrowed from the armoury of the world, they
trammel themselves and invite defeat The world laughs, just as Goliath no doubt
chuckled to see the stripling walking ungainly and stiff, in Saul’s armour. It
likes nothing better than to reduce Christians to impotence by getting them to
arm themselves out of its stores, and to fight with weapons of the pattern of
its own. Goliath had long practice in using sword and javelin; David had none.
It is folly to fling aside the weapons that we are used to, and to take up with
new ones, on the eve of a fight. Jesus taught us how His soldiers are to be
attired if they are to conquer, when He said, “Tarry ye . . . till ye be
clothed with power from on high.” (A. Maclaren, D. D)
And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth
stones out of the brook.
The example of David in the use of means
There is much in these particulars to furnish matter for
profitable meditation. Let us take them as our subject of discourse. In the
first place we will consider how David reasoned from past mercies, and grounded
upon them the expectation of future aid from above. We will then consider his
readiness to make use of means notwithstanding his full confidence in the
succour and protection of God. He tried the armour which Saul proposed, though
he felt the assurance expressed in the words--“The Lord that delivered me out
of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out
of the hand of this Philistine.”
1. Now though David was yet but a stripling, he was evidently acting
on the principle which he afterwards expressed in one of his Psalms. “Because
Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will! rejoice.” He
was already using past, mercies as a pledge or promise of future; and
encouraging himself by what God had done, in expecting Him to do yet more in
his behalf. There is something singularly emphatic in those words of St. Paul
to Timothy, “I know whom I have believed.” They are the words of a man who was
his own storehouse of evidence, who had gathered into himself so much of
testimony to the origin of Christianity and the faithfulness, of God, that he
had no need in any moment of difficulty or trial, to have recourse to books or external
witness in order to be assured that he trod a safe path. “I know whom I have
believed;” there may have been a time when I required the evidence of miracle
and prophecy in order to be convinced that I followed “no cunningly devised
fable”--when I had to turn to the registered histories of the saints of other
days to satisfy myself that I served a God who would never fall His people; but
now my own experience has come into the place of external testimony and
Christian biography; I have but to descend into myself, end there do I find
graven on the tablets of memory such records of fulfilled promises and gracious
interpositions as leave me nothing to seek from the archives of creation, or
the volumes of history. And there can be given no reason why this should have
been the ease with St. Paul or David rather than with any amongst ourselves. We
would, therefore, call on you all, to turn your own experience to account, and
to go on, adding page after page to the volume whose want is not to be supplied
by whole libraries of the narratives of others: for there is a warrant in the
recorded account, of favours shown to ourselves which is incomparably beyond
that of much greater favours shown to another. And will you tell me that
nothing has happened to yourselves, of which you might make the use which David
made of a former great deliverance? Aye, if this be your assertion it can only
be because you receive mercies only to forget them. And we speak now to those
who profess some attention to religion. Can you deny that God takes care of you
in the midst of your sorrows--either wholly delivering you from the paw of the
lion and from the paw of the bear, or administering such supports as enable you
to feel the tribulation to be good? We are persuaded that this has been your
experience, though you may have given but little heed to the storing the mind
with mementoes of Divine love. You should keep the past before you if you would
look the future calmly in the face. Every obstacle surmounted, every sorrow
soothed, every want supplied, every fear dissipated, every tear dried, should
be in reserve, ready to give evidence, on any new trial, as to the goodness and
watchfulness of your Father in heaven. Shame on you if you cannot say, “I know
whom I have believed.” It is likely that the older you grow, the sterner will
be the forms of trouble which you will have to encounter, and you will
encounter them confidently in proportion as you bear well in mind how the
milder forms were vanquished.
2. We have shown you how strong was the faith of David. It is true
that finally he went with no weapons but a stone and a sling: he went, that is,
with none of those appliances which seem required, whether for his own defence
or for the defeat of Goliath. But, then it is just as true, that he did not
determine to go thus unequipped to the field until he had done his best to
ascertain that it was not God’s will that he should wear a warrior’s arms.
There seems no reason to suppose that David tried on Saul’s armour merely out
of compliance with Saul’s wish: on the contrary, it appears to have been his
intention to have used his armour, and the intention was only given up because,
on trial, the armour proved an encumbrance. If ever man might have ventured to
say means might be neglected, the result is ordained, and will be brought round
without any of the common instrumentality, David might have been warranted in
refusing the armour without trying it on. But this is just what David did not
do: he proceeded on the principle that no expectation of a miracle should make
us slack in the employment of means; but that so long as means are within
reach, we are bound to employ them, though it may not be through their use that
God will finally work, And can you fail to see how David thus became a great
example to ourselves? I know not in what precise way God may design to effect
the conversion of anyone in this assembly, or to give anyone victory over some
great spiritual adversary; but I know thoroughly what is the business of every
one of you, if you look to be converted, or hope to be made victor. There are
appointed means through which God is ordinarily pleased to bring round such
results: and the readiest mode of frustrating the results is, to take for
granted, that means may be neglected. These means are prayer, the study of the
Bible, and the ordinances of public worship. That you can show me that the
Goliath is often finally slain by stones taken out of the brook, and not by any
of the more massive weapons is nothing against our argument; for our argument
is, that, though slain at last by the pebble, the slayer has commonly first put
on the armour; in short, that no man has a right to have recourse to the stone
and the sling until he have first made trial of the coat of mail and the sword.
We are quite prepared, we say, for occasionally finding, that a casual remark
in conversation, a text quoted, or a passing observation while engaged in his
ordinary occupation, will effect what the public ministrations have failed to
effect,--penetrate the heart, and overthrow the strongholds of pride and
unbelief: and here Goliath falls before the pebble, and not before the armour
of the thoroughly equipped warrior. But, nevertheless, the man of whom we
speak, had recourse to the armoury before he had recourse to the brook; and,
probably, had he refused to appeal to the armoury, that penetrating stone would
never have been drawn from the brook; at all events, no man can have a right to
be looking for miracle who is not diligent in the employment of means: man is
to be trying on the armour, though God may at last use the pebble. And there is
one particular case to which we would apply these more general remarks. I know
not a more difficult or delicate undertaking, than that of defending the cause
of God and of truth against some champion of infidelity and error. It is
probably better to keep silence than to throw one’s self into discussion, and
have the worst of the argument. And you are not to feel sure, that because you
have undoubted truth on your side, you will conquer in the struggle: the proof
by which truth may be substantiated is quite different from the truth itself;
just as is the guilt of a prisoner from the evidence which will make a jury
determine on his conviction. Goliath is not always to be slain with a pebble,
though he defy the armies of the living God to which his opponent belongs. And
the question is, whether the man who has really nothing but the sling and the
pebble should be forward in every company where a Philistine may be, in
accepting his challenge. There are cases indeed in which the unlettered
believer is distinctly called on to engage with the giant, and whenever such
case arises, we have no fear but that God will strengthen him for the fight. If
called like David, like David he will be protected. But the evil generally is,
that our youthful champions, eager, however unprepared, to throw themselves
into argument, fancy themselves imitating David, because he went forth with
nothing but a sling and a stone; but they forget that he first tried to put on
the armour of Saul. We want them to imitate David in each successive
particular. To complete the destruction of Goliath, David ran and seized the
giant’s sword, and with that sword he cut off his head. And how was Satan
finally vanquished, and, as it were, decapitated by Christ, if not with his own
sword? Was not, death emphatically the sword of the devil, seeing that he is
expressly said to have had “the power of death,” and that it was through death
that he had laid waste successive generations, and swept them into his own
place of torment? And, remember ye not how it is declared that Christ died
“that through death he might destroy him that had the power over death, that
is, the devil?” It was by dying that he slew the devil; he vanquished him by
taking death for his weapon: And what was this but David using Goliath’s sword
to cut off Goliath’s head? It may therefore well be called a parable of
redemption, which is written in the incidents of the chapter before us. These
incidents may have furnished a significative lesson to David, just as did those
of the offering up of Isaac to Abraham. And thus do we draw from our subject a
lesson for the nation. But let us not overlook that which belongs to the
individual. The paw of the lion, the paw of the bear, the uncircumcised
Philistine, in every case, needs strength God alone can give the strength--God
alone can give victory in every struggle with corruption, and in the final
struggle with death. But if you will fight as followers of Christ, regarding
him as the Captain of your salvation, and depending simply on the aids of His
Spirit, you shall be made more than conquerors; the giants one after the other
shall fall before you, and the last enemy shall do the work of a friend in
consigning you to glory and honour and immortality. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David.
Combat and consequences
The inward preparation through outward trial may have been hidden
from David. We are not permitted to know the why of many an hour of discipline;
God lets when wait on why! David urges his suit; he wishes to go. Every warrior
called of God has weapons for use that no Saul can give. Dependence alone upon
God gives wonderful independence of men. Behind the outer world record, there
is always the inner and spiritual. From the outward view, Abraham leaving
country and kindred was only in consonance with the restlessness of a nomadic
life. From the inward we know it was the call of God. David was being trained
for triumph, trained for his future as king. This panel is the closing one in
the story of his shepherd days. The old peaceful, songful, careless days end.
They end with a conflict and a victory. Do not the epochs of our lives close
with combat? We close the days of our boyhood really when we enter our first
contest, when we close with some temptation that never came as a temptation in
the old days. The doors are open, the steps are hidden he who would enter must
climb.
I. The apparent
inequality of the combatants. To the eye of sense the conflict between the
Church of God and that armed Goliath of the world appears as if it could only
end in the Church’s defeat! It does really sound like presumption and folly to
sing of victory when we present only ruddy and unarmoured Davids. There is a
quantity the world’s eye never sees!--chariots whose wheels, horses whose hoofs
move noiselessly, such as Elisha’s servant once saw. There is a quality the
world knows not and has no more power to recognise than had Herod to recognise
the kingliness of purity, when Christ stood before him.
II. The real
inequality of the combatants. “Things ere not what they seem.” There is more
than eye can see. David tells him of dependence upon Divine power (1 Samuel 17:46). How calm one can be
when dependent wholly and alone on the Lord! How strangely at variance with
appearances a man’s words may then be! “This day.” So Elijah could stand before
Ahab, or the priests of Baal or Carmel, or Bunyan before the judges at Bedford.
Do not mistake presumption for dependence; they differ eternally. Dependence
upon God never opposes commonsense, but sanctifies it, David’s heart is resting
in his God, his head and hand fulfilling the Divine command. How often at fault
is the judgment of sense! Yet this old-world scene occurs every day. We may
still see aggregations of mere material strength--“walking mountains of brass,”
to quote Matthew Henry. It is no dream, no fancy, to remind you that before the
enthusiasm of faith, and by Divine direction, these shall fall. The Church has
yet to learn the deep meaning of the words, “The weapons of our warfare are not
carnal but spiritual.” Who can successfully cope with evil licensed by
Government, the fearful monopolies of vice, prostitution under British rule in
India, gambling beneath the very eye of the legislative assembly? This victory
was fraught with momentous consequences for David. From that moment he became
acquainted with life in quite another aspect than that of his Bethlehem home.
As Dr. MacLaren beautifully says, “He began to learn its hate and effort,
hollow fame, whispering calumnies, and political intrigues.” Until then he had
not heard the hollow tone of courtiers nor the frenzied laugh of
disappointment. The door of victory was for David, as it is for all God’s
warriors, the door of trial. It was needful for David to know sorrow, to become
acquainted with grief. He must learn the meaning of hate and deceit; not to
practise, but avoid; must come into touch with natures he will afterwards have
to rule. He must gain a mastery over himself. The metal must be annealed. (H.
E. Stone.)
David and Goliath
Saul’s simple blessing, “Go, and the Lord shall be with thee,”
ought to have been allowed to stand as the veteran’s farewell charge to the new
recruit. It would have been as sufficient as the mother’s parting kiss add “God
bless you” when her boy leaves his home of poverty to make his way in the great
city with all his goods tied up in a handkerchief and his Bible in his pocket.
When we have done a good thing, especially a spiritual one, it is difficult to
be persuaded to leave the single impression without some private brand of our
own. Hunters use in the pursuit of wild game an expanding bullet, which
enlarges as it enters the side of its victim. When one has uttered a gracious
truth it can often be left to itself to work its way to the heart. Saul could
not quite keep his hands off the new enterprise. The latent jealousy of the old
commander would rise at any scheme conducted entirely by an underling. The
veteran could not be content to see the stripling champion of the Lord’s cause
without some of the traditional military costume. We remark as in contrast to
this:--
I. The wisdom of
following the Spirit’s suggestions as to the method of a work of faith. “And
Saul clad David with his apparel, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head,
and he clad him with a coat of mail.” For the moment Saul was allowed to array
David in the heavy war suit of the day. A sense of the ridiculous may have come
first to the relief of the lad. He was not so large a man as the king, and the
clanking plates of metal would impede the free movement of the volunteer. There
are times when an appreciation of the humorous elements of a situation will
prevent serious folly. If good people who overwork prophecy on every possible
occasion had only a slight intuition of the appearance of their performances, they
would be aware that something must be wrong in their outfit. Scripture does not
lend itself to grotesque interpretations without exacting penalties from its
manipulators. There are fads of false science which are so silly that they
cannot be meant to be incorporated into the great body of the world’s dignified
truth. The boy in his grandfather’s coat is not counted a serious actor on the
stage of life. But beyond this feeling of unfitness there was this reason, “I
have not proved them.” The youth felt the seriousness of the crisis,
notwithstanding his bravery. He knew the long practice required to get an
unerring aim with the sling. Beyond all these motives which influenced David
would be the assurance that God, who gave him a work to do, would show the method
of it. The Lord who called to the bold undertaking would give the plan.
II. The range of
gifts which the spirit can use and bless in an enterprise of faith. “And he
took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook,
and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even his scrip; and his sling
was in his hand.” This was not the first experience of the Lord’s consecration
of the youth’s gifts. “Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear.” The Lord
often makes use of men’s gifts to get them to a position of vantage from which
they can do more efficient service. Sir Hope Grant when a youth was selected
because of his skill in playing the flute for the staff of Lord Saltoun, who
was going out to take command of the British forces in China. The long voyage
of months around the Cape of Good Hope to their destination was thus to be made
more tolerable for the officers. Grant soon became the foremost Christian in
the English army in the East and one of its most successful generals. David’s
reputation for music got him a place at the court of Saul, and perhaps the
story of his rugged valour among the shepherds secured him a hearing as a
champion of Israel. Guizot’s gifts as a diplomat made him necessary to his
Catholic sovereigns and gave him a position from which he could exert a
beneficent influence for an oppressed church in France. John Wycliffe’s
parliamentary skill and zeal for liberty mede him an important ally of the
House of Lancaster and gained him the protection which he needed to spread the
doctrines of the Gospel. Many accomplishments of the Christian may be of
service in gaining an entrance to doors and hearts closed to direct religious
appeal. Dr. Asa Gray, the botanist, records of his long and singularly
successful career as a Christian and a man of science that when he was ready
for any forward movement he almost always found that things were prepared for
him. Let one have himself in training for a useful life and he will find a
place and opportunity awaiting the employment of his gifts.
III. A consecrated
youth early begins to bear his country’s burdens as a work of faith. “But I
come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,
which thou hast defied.” David belongs to a legion of those out of every nation
who have consecrated their youth to their country’s freedom and to God. They
are a nobler band than Sons of the Revolution. They have been the sires of
States. “The war song that has made all Germans merge their local differences
in one great purpose--the common fatherland--that united Bavarians, Prussians,
Saxons, end Wurtembergers in 1870, and the Imperial Crown to the House of
Hohenzollern--that song is ‘Die Wacht am Rheim.’ “It was written at the age of
twenty-one by a poor German roused against the French aggressions upon his
native land. Not all such heroic souls have been permitted to take up arms.
Their stanzas, their speeches, their deeds of mercy have made them members of
this patriotic and Christian fraternity. Every nation has contributed its quota
for this ancient peerage to which David belonged. It is older than all orders,
chapters, and lodges. The people who are to be preserved in their inheritance
and liberties must still be able to call forth the devotion of these volunteer champions
of law, institutions, faith, and native land. (W. R. Campbell.)
I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
The Conflict and the conquest of faith
God is not unmindful of any of His anointed ones: He has a work
for all His people to do. It was a great work to which David was called; there
were before him greet conflicts, and great triumphs, and therefore he required
great faith. But God does not send any of His people to a warfare at their own
charges.
I. The conflict of
faith. Before David proceeded to the conquest he had to encounter many
obstacles from without; while, there is not the least doubt he was exercised by
many trials within.
1. In the first place he was tried by the gigantic stature and
martial appearance of his adversary, whilst he was a stripling, and a stripling
unarmed. It is in vain to suppose that David was divested of human feeling:
however strong in faith a men may be, still he is but man, end has about him
all the weaknesses and infirmities of human nature.
2. He was exercised, also, by the rebukes of his brethren.
3. And after this, he was discouraged by Saul himself. There seems to
have been here some misgiving of mind on the part of David; at all events he
seems to enter into the views of Saul, and thinks it would be better to be
armed to meet an armed champion And, in the midst of all this, the devil would
be no unconcerned spectator of the transaction: there is not a question but
that David would be inwardly exercised, and agitated, perhaps by the very same
thoughts which he has often put into the hearts of God’s people, and had,
before this, put into the heart of Saul: and he might have argued, “Is it not
presumption in me, a stripling, to meet a giant? Is it not rashness?” And might
he not consider the taunt of his brother, and the remonstrance of Saul, to be
to him the voice of God? Which things are an allegory; for herein we see the
camp of the living God, the Church of Christ assailed by Apollyon the
destroyer. I am now, then, to call your attention to his mode of attack. You
will find it is, in the first place, by open assault, and, secondly, by sudden
and hidden device.
II. The conquest of
faith in the hour of temptation. There are two things that are notable in the
exploits of David: the one was the strength of his confidence--the other, the
weapons of his warfare. The one, you know, was God: “I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, whom thou hast defied:” his weapons
were the sling and the stone. Not that David was without armour: every soldier
of the Lord Jesus Christ has armour on: and so had David; but it was not Saul’s
armour, not man’s armour. God equips all His believing people for their
warfare, as soon as He inclines them into His service: He leads them into His
armoury. Thus harnessed, David went forth to meet the uncircumcised Philistine.
Alas, for the apathy of the day in which we live! Where is the man that will
even dare to risk his name, or his reputation, or his interest? Scarcely one
will be found willing to hazard his ease or his credit to vindicate the honour
of the God who has bought him with His blood. Not so David. He, full of faith,
went out, because he heard the name of his God dishonoured, and his Israel
reproached. “What! against, a giant, and a champion, in arms!” “No matter; he
has blasphemed the name of my God, and in the strength of that God will I go
out and meet him, yea, unarmed as I am.” Thus went David forth. So it is when
the Christian champion, the soldier of Jesus Christ is tried, and he goes forth
to fight; he takes up his sling. By faith he takes a well-directed aim, and by
prayer and supplication he slings the fatal bolt, and wounds his enemy in the
head. (T. J. Holloway, D. D.)
Faith and force
The duel of David and Goliath is but one chapter in the history of
faith and force in conflict. Brute force here appears with sword and shield,
helmet and spear; faith comes with the simple sling and stone, but, with God’s
strength and in His name. Force looks down contemptuously on faith, and holds
itself proud and arrogant. Faith is submissive and humble, but full of hope and
courage. It, matters not what form force takes--that of numbers, of wealth, of
social prestige, of intellect, of educational or of political superiority; if
it arrays itself against simple faith in God, the duel of David and Goliath is
again repeated. Let us notice certain central facts.
1. This is a faith that is in action. Nothing is said of prayer,
though David may have spent the whole night in prayer before the fight. His is
a faith that acts, rather than begs. There are times when even prayer is out of
place. God once said to Moses, “Why criest thou unto Me? Speak to the children
of Israel, that they go forward.” It was a time for marching. The spirit of
prayer may be continued, though the form be suspended. Faith here stands alone
in the person of David. A grain of mustard seed rather than a can of dynamite
is the chosen type of Divine working. A single soul like Luther is filled with
God’s thought and power, while the community is not in sympathy with that
thought. Vox populi is by no means Vox Dei. The voice of the
people killed Jesus Christ, it killed Socrates, it killed the martyrs. It is
the minority, often, that more truly represents the right and the truth.
2. Faith controls forces or forces will control faith. There was a
young man who once was sent out by our missionary board reluctantly, for they
doubted his efficiency; but in a single year he led ten thousand to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. John Clough was a surveyor, and he preached to companies
of men under him on one verse, “God so loved the world,” etc., till 15,000 were
reached and two-thirds of them accepted Christianity. This was in connection
with a mission field so apparently unfruitful that it was thought hardly worth
continuing. He dedicated his surveying talent to Christ Where is your
confidence--in faith or forces? Which? Michael Angelo worked so long on
ceilings and on things overhead that it is said he had formed the habit of
looking upward as he walked the street or field The true believer is “looking
unto Jesus” He brings all he has to Him. “My faith locks up to Thee,” in his
language.
3. Faith is simple and unchanging It can overcome one difficulty or
form of opposition as easily as it can another. Not so in the play of material
forces David subdued the bear in a different way from that employed with the
lion, and Goliath was met with still different methods of physical action; but
the training in faith which the son of Jesse had received enabled him to meet
and overcome all things through God’s power. But petty, pestering trials are
sometimes harder to meet than great ones. A Turkish army once forced their way
into a German city, but were driven back by swarms of bees, whose sting was
harder to meet than the blows of a battering ram. It may require less faith to
meet some great Goliath of difficulty than to preserve one’s Christian
equanimity during a single night’s siege of mosquitoes in a New Jersey hotel.
The housekeeper loses her temper at home amid dust and din, and the merchant
amid the buzzing annoyances of the store. For great ills and small ones alike,
faith in God’s promised presence and strength will alone avail.
4. Faith is protected, though its power seem vain; and force alone is
vain, though it may seem protected. Bystanders at this duel doubtless said:
“Goliath is safe and David is in danger.” But the giant died and the boy
returned in triumph. The three Hebrew youths in the fiery furnace were in the
safest place in all Persia. Jerome of Prague was unharmed trusting in God.
After he confided in the sovereign a promised protection he was betrayed and
burned at the stake. Finally, temporary defeat is to the believer the highest
victory. He may be “killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the
slaughter,” but none of these things need to move him. None of them can
separate him from the love of Christ. (A. C. Dixon, D. D.)
The conquest of faith
The prosperity of David after his first elevation from private
life was but of brief continuance, probably extending only to a few months. In
that little space, however, what an immensity of evil was he called to witness,
and witness, we must suppose, with disgust; an infatuated king, abandoned to
evil and the malice of demons, because of his unfaithfulness; men of studied
deceitfulness and falsehood; luxury, flattery, levity, and sordid worldliness;
all forming the members and elements of the life into which he was so suddenly
introduced. All that David witnessed of the world while with Saul, and felt
from his ingratitude, must, in due course, have undeceived him as to the human
character, were he predisposed to view it with any mistaken esteem or confidence;
and his sudden removal from court must have sent him with fresh alacrity to his
peaceful occupation as a shepherd, in the which he might renew communion with
God, pour out his soul at large, and receive additional strength for future
emergencies. You perceive how wisely this retirement was ordained for David. He
is to play the champion of Israel against terrific odds; his spiritual courage,
his holy daring, then, must be nourished for the contest, not in the effeminacy
and corrupt atmosphere of a court, but with God in sacred communion.
I. David’s
preparatory discipline. During his retirement, David was receiving that nurture
or Divine preparation which should fit him for great achievements, especially
for the overthrow of the adversaries of Israel. Sick of the world, he had to
live entirely with God, and left of every solace but His presence, he had, in
his lonely condition, to learn the way of Providence, and the supernatural
power which can be communicated through faith.
II. David’s
preparatory discipline is concluded and he is now called to the field as the
Lord’s champion. David is a stranger to the science of war, knows nothing of
the dexterity which long experience alone can give in the use of martial
implements, and come to the field ignorant of all that belongs to the deadly
encounter. Was not this hardihood mare madness? Madness undoubtedly, were it
not for certain considerations, which prove his valour to have been most
rational. Look, now, upon his preparation for the conflict. There was settled within
his soul a deep and holy confidence in the existence and absolute rule of the
Divine Being. Further, he had been before in perils, perils in which there were
as fearful odds against his life as in the approaching encounter. Lastly, he
was assured of God’s interposition. His cause was a most righteous one
generally; he was a citizen of a holy state, his adversary was an idolater, and
the champion of idolators; sad, in particular, having insulted the God of
truth, David felt assured that God would vindicate His own cause, and give the
victory into his hands against the blasphemer. And so it came to pass, the
adversary of Israel fell. There is no discharge in this war; you must fall or
conquer, and the struggle is for eternity itself. Go out, then, boldly, in the
name of the Lord of Hosts, in the name, and faith, and experienced aid of Jesus
Christ; and while it is said by one victor, “Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you,” and by another, “Whom resist steadfast in the faith.” he himself who
triumphed over all the powers of hell upon the cross, will renew in you his
victory. Go out in faith, and conquer. We know that the Reformation was a
blessed deliverance, and that the encounter which won for us this deliverance,
lay between one man, a solitary monk, who had found the truth in sacred
Scriptures, and the whole host of superstition. You remember the weakness and
timidity of the man at first, ere his views of truth were perfected; his
consent to lay down opposition to the Pope, provided that some adequate reform
in the Roman Church should be effected. You remember how he replied to the
discouraging taunt. “Luther, the whole world is against you”--“Then Luther is
against the world!” how he prospered, on principle, on truth, and with the
truth, of justification by faith only, inflicted defeat on superstition, and
won for us the liberty of the Gospel. (C. M. Fleury, A. M.)
An overcoming faith
It is impossible to read the above chapter without being more or
less impressed by the simple trust of the shepherd youth in his God. It was
intensely real: to him God was “a very present help in the time of trouble;”
and it is difficult to say which was the stronger, his jealousy for the honour
of the God of Israel, or his confidence in His ability to save. Let us notice a
few of the features that characterised the faith of this young son of Jesse.
I. It was a faith
in the living God. We find these words, “the living God,” many times in the Old
Testament Scriptures. Joshua, referring to the sure destruction of his enemies,
speaks thus: “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is amongst you” (Joshua 3:10). Jeremiah writes: “The Lord
is the true God; He is the living God, and an everlasting King” (Jeremiah 10:10). “We trust in the living
God,” were Paul’s words of encouragement to Timothy; whilst David sang with
gladness: “The Lord liveth: blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my salvation
be exalted.” Surely this shepherd lad had gripped the truth when, in the midst
of the trembling army of Israel, he cried out of a full heart, “Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
II. It was a faith
that was tried. “Eliab’s anger was kindled against David.” The people, too,
seemed to have caught the spirit of Eliab, for they answered him “after the
former manner.” If we would work the works of God, we shall surely have to
encounter our Eliabs. May we meet them in the quiet, firm spirit, of this son
of Jesse.
III. It was a faith
strengthened by past experience.
IV. It was a faith
that worked by means.
V. It was a faith
that never wavered.
VI. It was a faith
that triumphed gloriously. “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ.” (Alfred Lambert.)
The faith of God’s elect
Three figures stand out sharply defined on that memorable day.
First, the Philistine champion. Second, Saul. Third, David. He was but a youth,
and ruddy, and withal of a fair countenance. No sword was in his hand; he
carried a staff, probably his shepherd’s crook. But he was in possession of a
mystic spiritual power, which the mere spectator might have guessed, but which
he might have found it difficult to define. The living God was a reality to
him. At least he had no doubt that the Lord would vindicate His glorious name,
and deliver into his hands this uncircumcised Philistine. Let us study the
origin and temper of this heroic faith.
I. It had been born
in secret and nursed in solitude. This is the unfailing secret. There is no
short cut to the life of faith, which is the all-vital condition of a holy and
victorious life. We must have periods of lonely meditation and fellowship with
God.
II. It had been
exercised in lonely conflict. What we are in solitude we shall be in public. Do
not for a moment suppose, O self-indulgent disciple, that the stimulus of a
great occasion will dower thee with a heroism of which thou betrayest no trace
in secret hours. The Griefs will only reveal the true quality and temper of the
soul.
III. It stood the
test of daily life. There are some who appear to think that the loftiest
attainments of the spiritual life are incompatible with the grind of daily toil
and the friction of the home. “Emancipate us from these,” they cry, “give us
nothing to do, except to nurse our souls to noble deeds; deliver us from the
obligations of family ties, and we will fight for those poor souls who are
engrossed with the cares and ties of the ordinary and commonplace.” We must not
forsake the training ground till we have learnt all the lessons God has
designed it to teach, and have heard His summons.
IV. It bore meekly
misconstruction and rebuke. Eliab had no patience with the words and bearing of
his young brother. A marvellous exhibition was given that day in the valley of
Elah that those who are gentlest under provocation are strongest in the fight,
and that meekness is really an attribute of might.
V. It withstood
the reasonings of the flesh. Saul was very eager for David to adopt his armour,
though he dared not don it himself. He was taken with the boy’s ingenuous
earnestness, but advised him to adopt the means. “Don’t be rash; don’t expect a
miracle to be wrought. By all means trust God, and go; but be wise. We ought to
adopt ordinary precautions.” It was a critical hour. But an unseen hand
withdrew David from the meshes of temptation. It was not now Saul’s armour and
the Lord, but the Lord alone; and he was able, without hesitation, to accost the
giant with the words, “The Lord sayeth not with sword and spear.” His faith had
been put to the severest tests and was approved. Bring more precious than
silver or gold, it had been exposed to the most searching ordeal; but the
furnace of trial had shown it to be of heavenly temper. Now let Goliath do his
worst; he shall know that there is a God in Israel. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The victory of unarmed faith
The story is, for all time, the example of the victory of unarmed
faith over the world’s utmost might. It is in little the history of the church
and the type of all battles for God. It is a pattern for the young especially.
The youthful athlete leaps into the arena, and overcomes, not because of his
own strength, but because he trusts in God.
I. Note the glowing
youthful enthusiasm which dares the conflict. He who trusts in God should be as
a pillar of fire, burning bright in the darkness of terror, and making a
rallying point for weaker hearts. When panic has seized others, the Christian
soul has the more reason for courage. David conquered the temptation to share
in the general cowardice before he conquered Goliath, and perhaps the former
fight was the worse of the two. While David is the embodiment of the courage of
faith, Saul is that of worldly wisdom and calculating prudence. David’s eager
story of his fights with wild beasts is meant, both to answer Saul’s objection
on his own ground, by showing him that, youth as the speaker was, he had proved
his power, and still more to supply the lacking element in the calculation. As
Thomas Fuller says, “He made an experimental syllogism, and from most practical
premises (major a lion, minor a bear) inferred the direct conclusion that God
would give him victory over Goliath.” Faith has the right thus to argue from
the past to the future, because it draws from God, whose resources and patience
are equally inexhaustible.
II. The equipment
of faith. Saul meant to honour as well as to secure David by dressing him in
his own royal attire, and by encumbering him by the help of sword and helmet.
And David was willing to be so fitted out, for it is no part of the courage of
faith to disdain any outward helps. But he soon found that he could not, move
freely in the unaccustomed armour, and flings it off, like a wise man. His
motive was partly common sense, which told him not to choose weapons that his
antagonist could handle better than he; and partly reliance on God, which told
him that he was safer with nothing on but his long shepherd’s dress and his
sling in his hand. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are
mighty. Faith unarmed is armed with more than triple steel, and a sling in its
hand is more fatal than a sword. Sometimes in kindness and sometimes in malice
the world tempts us to fight evil with its own weapons, and to take the
unfamiliar armour. The church as a whole and individual Christians have often
been hampered, and all but smothered, in Saul’s grand clothes. The more simply
we keep ourselves to the simple methods which the word of God enjoins and to
the simple weapons which ought to be the easiest for a Christian, the more
likely shall we be to conquer.
III. Note faith’s
anticipation of victory. The dialogue before the battle has many parallels in
classical times and among savage peoples. Goliath’s bluster is meant by him for
contempt of David and truculent self-confidence. Its coarseness is
characteristic--he will make his boyish antagonist food for vultures and
jackals. It is exactly what a bully would say. David’s answer throbs with
buoyant confidence, and stands as a stimulating example of the temper in which
God’s soldiers should go out to every fight, no matter against what odds. The
great name on which David’s faith rested, “the Lord of hosts,” appears to have
sprung into use in this epoch, and to have been one precious fruit of its
frequent wars. Conflict is blessed if it teaches the knowledge of the unseen
Commander who marshals not only men, but all the forces of the universe and the
armies of heaven, for the defence of his servants and the victory of His own
cause. The fulness of the Divine name is learned by degrees, as our needs
impress the various aspects of his character; and the revelation contained in
this appellation is the gift of that fierce and stormy time, a possession
foreverse He who defies the armies of Israel has to reckon with the Lord of
these armies.
IV. Observe the
contrast in verse 48 between the slow movements of the heavy-armed Philistine
and the quick run of the Shepherd, whose “feet were as hind’s feet” (Psalms 18:33.) Agility and
confident alacrity were both expressed. His feet were shod with the
preparedness of faith. The vulnerable heel of Achilles and the unarmed forehead
of Goliath illustrate the truth, ever forgotten and needing to be repeated,
that, after all precautions, some spot is bare, and that “there is no armour
against fate.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Victory through the Name
I. The talisman of
victory. “The name of the Lord of Hosts.” Throughout the Scriptures, a name is
not simply, as with us, a label; it is a revelation of character. The names
which Adam gave the animals that were brought to him were founded on
characteristics which struck his notice. And the names which the Second Adam
gave to the apostles either expressed qualities which lay deep within them, and
which He intended to evolve, or unfolded some great purpose for which they were
being fitted. Thus the Name of God, as used so frequently by the heroes and
saints of sacred history, stands for those Divine attributes and qualities
which combine to make Him what He is. In the history of the early Church the
Name was a kind of summary of all that Jesus had revealed of the nature and the
heart of God. “For the sake of the Name they went forth, taking nothing of the
Gentiles.” The special quality that David extracted from the bundle of
qualities represented by the Divine Name of God is indicated in the words, “the
Lord of Hosts.” That does not mean only that God was Captain of the embattled
hosts of Israel; that idea was expressed in the words that followed, “The God
of the armies of Israel.” But there was probably something of this sort in
David’s thought. To come in the Name of the Lord of Hosts did not simply mean
that David understood Jehovah to be all this; but implied his own
identification by faith with all that was comprehended in this sacred Name. An
Englishman in a foreign land occupies a very different tone, according to
whether he assumes a private capacity as an ordinary traveller, or acts as
representative and ambassador of his country. In the former case he speaks in
his own name, and receives what respect and obedience it can obtain; in the
latter he is conscious of being identified with all that is associated with the
term Great Britain. For a man to speak in the name of England means that
England speaks through his lips; that the might of England is ready to enforce
his demands; and that every sort of power which England wields is pledged to
avenge any affront or indignity to which he may be exposed. Thus, when Jesus
bids us ask what we will in His Name, He means not that we should simply use
that Name as an incantation or formula, but that we should be so one with Him
in His interests, purposes, and aims, that it should be as though He were
Himself approaching the Father with the petitions we bear. There is much for us
to learn concerning this close identification with God before we shall be able
to say with David, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts.”
II. The conditions
on which we are warranted in using the name.
1. When we are pure in our motives. There was no doubt as to the
motive which prompted David to this conflict. His one ambition was to take away
the reproach from Israel, and to let all the earth know that there was a God in
Israel. We must be wary here. It is so easy to confuse issues which are wide
asunder as the poles, and to suppose that we are contending for the glory of
God, when we are really combating for our church, our cause, our prejudices, or
opinions. To fall into this sin, though unconsciously, is to forfeit the right
to use His sacred Name.
2. When we are willing to allow God to occupy His right place. David
said repeatedly that the whole matter was God’s. His skill must direct us; His
might empower us; His uplifted hands bring us victory.
3. When we take no counsel with the flesh. It must have been a hard
thing for a youth to oppose his opinion to Saul’s, especially when the king was
so solicitous for his welfare. He could not have served two masters so utterly
antagonistic. To have yielded to Saul would have put him beyond the fire ring
of the Divine environment. How perpetually does Satan breathe into our ears the
soft words that Peter whispered to his Master, when He began to speak about the
cross. “Spare Thyself: that shall not come unto Thee.” There is so much talk
about the legitimacy of means, that no room is left on which the Almighty can
act.
III. The bearing of
those who use the Name.
1. They are willing to stand alone. The lad asked no comradeship in
the fight. There was no running to and fro to secure a second.
2. They are deliberate. He was free from the nervous trepidation
which so often unfits us to play our part in some great scene. Our heart will
throb so quickly, our movements become so fitful and unsteady. He did not go by
haste or flight, because the Lord went before him and the Holy One of Israel
was his reward.
3. They are fearless. When the moment came for the conflict, David
did not hesitate.
4. They are more than conquerors, The weakest man who knows God is
strong to do exploits. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
A true spirit, the pledge of victory in the battle of life
These two men give us a picture of the forms of good and evil.
Evil in our world is like Goliath: of gigantic stature, immense energy, and
imposing aspect. It is a Colossus. Good in our world is like David in
appearance: small, weak, and insignificant; possessing nothing to which the
world attaches the idea of strength or glory. So it appeared in Christ: “He was
as a root out of a dry ground.”
2. These two men give us a picture of the spirit of good and evil.
The spirit of evil, like that of Goliath, is proud, contemptuous, malignant.
The spirit of good, like that of David, is that st! humble trust and dependence
upon God.
3. These two men give us a picture of the weapons of good and evil.
Evil, like Goliath, has many and powerful weapons to fight its battles. Like
Goliath, it is full-armoured. Armies and navies are on its side. The weapons of
good are of the simplest kind: the sling and stone of David would symbolise
them. “The weapons of our warfare,” etc.
4. These two men give us a picture of the ultimate destinies of good
and evil. But the subject on which at present we would fasten attention is, A
true spirit the pledge of victory in the battle of life. Life is a battle.
Physical life is a battle against danger and disease; intellectual life is a
battle against ignorance and error; moral life is a battle against selfishness
and wrong, he who has not felt life to be a battle, has not woke up as yet to
the reality of existence. Now, a true spirit alone will make us victorious in
this battle.
I. That a true
spirit is superior to the greatest material strength of our foes. What was the
cause of the victory? It was to be found in the spirit that animated the breast
of David--the spirit of dependence upon God.
II. A true spirit
is superior to the greatest social prestige of our foes. Goliath had obtained
great fame as a warrior. Prestige is a wonderful thing--a mighty power. Give a
man or an institution a prestige, and however feeble and worthless it may be,
people will be disposed to yield to its influence. Many institutions,
governments, books, live not on the ground of their merits; but because of the
prestige they have obtained. But the true spirit will overcome this. Goliath,
with all his prestige, fell. Whatever may be the prestige of evil, the true
spirit will overcome it. Idolatry, war, etc., have prestige, but they shall
fall.
III. A true spirit
is superior to the completest accoutrements of our foes. Huge evil, in our
world, is well-armoured--defended by armies, navies, governments, customs,
learning, wealth; but a man with the true spirit will overcome it. “This is the
victory that overcometh the world,” etc.
IV. A true spirit
is superior to the proudest vauntings of our foes. But how does this true
spirit ensure victory in the battles of life?
1. It enables man to employ the best means. It is fanaticism that
makes men regardless of means. Enlightened devotion is ever anxious to select
the most fitting. Though it feels that all success is from God, it presumes on
no supernatural help. David could stand at a distance from his huge antagonist,
could calmly take his aim, and make his calculations. He could hurl the pebble
at the vulnerable spot. The whole instrumentality seems well adapted. No
miracle was used--for no miracle was wanted.
2. It enables man to use the best means in the best way.
3. It ensures the aid of God in the best use of the best means. (Homilist.)
The source of victory
I. The victory of
the Church is made certain:
1. By the promises of God.
2. By the necessary triumph of righteousness over unrighteousness, of
truth over error, of love over hate.
3. The glory of God and the establishment of universal and eternal
harmony in all the domains of His moral government require it.
II. The source of
the victory is not human, but Divine. A Divine Leader, Christ, to whom all
newer in heaven and earth is given. The weapons He employs are spiritual.
III. The spoils of
the victory ours. (Homiletic Review.)
David and Goliath
The story is a casket, and the spirit of David is its Jewel, Come
near, and I will open the lovely casket, and show you its lovelier Jewel.
I. David was on
God’s side. This was a religious war. Goliath fought for Dagon, and cursed
David by his gods. David fought for Jehovah. The battle is the Lord’s, David
said truly. David was careful not so much to have God on his side, as to be on
God’s side, and do only God’s will. Goliath rose before him like a mountain
plated with iron and flashing brass: his spear a beam, his voice thunder. At
first we pity the stripling as being devoted to certain death. Yet without a
quiver, or a moment’s delay, he offers himself as the champion of Israel.
People speak about the giants you have to fight, but really you, like David,
have one giant before you. He is the great adversary, the evil one, the Goliath
of hell. Stripling as you are, you must accept his challenge for the duel. If
you conquer your Goliath, all his hosts will take to flight. You must not think
lightly of this war in the town of Man-soul. Our soldiers in Zululand despised
the Zulus, and hundreds of them were slain at Isandula. The remnant still
despised their foes, and at Intombi lost their lives for their error. An old
Christian, who had hewn his way through the bloodiest scenes at Waterloo, laid
his hand upon his breast, and said to me, “I never knew what fighting was till
I began to fight with the enemy here. Waterloo was child’s play to this.” But
fear not, for you can be on God’s side. Wellington once ordered a captain to
take a Spanish fort, before which many of his comrades had fallen. “Give me
first a shake of your conquering hand, general,” said the captain. They shook
hands; the captain dashed forward, took the fort, and declared that the victory
was owing to the touch of the general’s all-conquering hand. What courage must
it then give you to know that God is your shield, and Jesus Christ the Captain
of your salvation.
II. In God’s
strength David fought, else he was mad when he faced Goliath. God’s Spirit gave
him his holy courage, suggested his weapons, and guided the stone from the
sling to Goliath’s crashing temples. Was not David the man after God’s own
heart because he so frankly owned God in everything? His spirit shines in his
beautiful confession, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” No feature in boy or
girl, in man or woman, is more beautiful than this gentle and modest spirit,
which makes its possessor even as a weaned child; and you shall have a good
share of it if you feel that you owe every good thing to God’s boundless and
unbought mercy. This spirit is no mark of a soft and cowardly nature, for it
was the spirit of Israel’s champion and Goliath’s conqueror. Now the humblest
person in the world may cherish the same spirit. Yes, David’s lofty spirit may
be put into the humblest events. A poor needlewoman in her garret one day told
me how she fought the Goliath of poverty. Though lonely and in poor health, she
had won the battle. She looked a real heroine as her eyes expanded with exalted
feeling, and she thus closed her story, “I may well say with David, ‘Blessed be
the Lord God, for He teacheth my bands to war, and my fingers to fight.’” Her
needle was perhaps used as nobly as David’s conquering sword.
III. David the
conqueror. If on God’s side you shall win in the end, because God shall win,
and all His shall win with Him. Their cause must triumph in His. True, God’s
good soldiers do not always fare on earth as David did when his stone entered
the giant’s resounding skull; but in their darkest days faith made them sure of
utter and eternal victory. “Where wilt thou remain then?” asked the Emperor
Valens of Basil, who had refused to forsake Christ for idols. “Either under
heaven, or in heaven,” he calmly replied. David, you know, is a type of His Son
and Lord, our Saviour. He is our champion, who, in our defence, has slain
hell’s two Goliaths, Sin and Death. You should love to think of Jesus Christ as
having conquered all His and our foes. This grand fact makes the Bible full of
holy triumph. Ours is a grand faith, as of men whose foes have been routed. As
David triumphed not for himself only but for all Israel. So Christ triumphed
for all His people. Our faith should then claim a share in all His triumphs. (James
Wells, M. A.)
Power and weakness
Providence would not permit him to remain long in obscurity. Once
more the Philistines assemble their hosts together, and suddenly appear on the
frontiers of Judah. Two reasons might have led them to resolve on this
enterprise with a degree of confidence. They might have received tidings of
Saul’s madness; of the recent rupture between Saul and Samuel; and they knew
that Samuel was God’s prophet; the probability, therefore, was that God had withdrawn
from his people the protection with which He had hitherto surrounded them. The
condition of the Israelites at this juncture gives us a clue to the real cause
of the Church’s weakness during many periods in its history, and suggests the
reason why it has oftentimes been so desperately attacked by its enemies. When
its leaders are men of piety, wisdom, and power, when God’s glory is
conspicuous in the midst of it, the Church is unassailable. But when its
leaders are afflicted with madness, when the Divine presence takes its
departure, then its antagonists are inspired with boldness. David was not to be
dissuaded from his purpose by the unjust accusation of his haughty brother. If
you do what is right, you must expect opposition: if you strictly follow the
dictates of conscience you will not fail to be censured by the world, if you
determine to improve in any way the condition of your fellow men there will
always be plenty of people to ridicule your efforts. Be, therefore, constantly
prepared for it; and let this, instead of depressing your spirits, spur you on
to greater determination, to renewed activity, to more strenuous exertions. It
is the voice of weakness which says “Give up;” there is a nobler voice which
says. “Quit you like men, be strong; never falter when duty calls.” David
adopted the likeliest means, by far, to ensure success. Let us be men of faith
by all means, let us implicitly rely on God’s strength, let us acknowledge that
without Him we can do nothing; but then we should not rest content with this
alone, as it nothing further were required of us It is our place to employ
means, the best means we can think of the likeliest means to be successful, if
we would secure the results which we most desire. We know that this is true in
reference to worldly concerns, and we act accordingly. But let us bear in mind
that it is not less true in connection with spiritual matters. This narrative
brings before us a striking contrast, a contrast between the weakness of
self-confidence and the power of faith Goliath may he taken as the
representative of brute force; blustering, showy. Confident, but in reality,
the very incarnation of weakness. You will always find men who will magnify
this kind of force, who will give it the highest praise, who will even worship
at its shrine. But let us remember that there is something nobler, higher, and
more enduring than this--moral grandeur, compared with which, mere force is a
mean, worthless, despicable thing Goliath may also be taken as the
representative of that fierce opposition to God’s truth, which has, at all
times, been more or less prevalent in the world. Atheism has sometimes put on a
bold front, and threatened to sweep away the very name of religion from among
men. We might refer to the mad proceedings of France, during the Revolution, as
a notorious instance of this. But to what a miserable issue these impious
attempts led in the end! And God’s truth has its enemies still, even in our own
land. Infidelity, indifference, and corruption unite their forces against it.
They love to display their strength, they indulge in scornful language, they
predict the speedy downfall of true religion. “He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” Self-confidence may
manifest itself in the conduct of God’s friends, as well as in that of His
enemies. But, wherever it is found, it is invariably associated with weakness.
Peter was never so confident as when he said to our Lord, “Lord, I am ready to
go with Thee both into prison and to death.” But he was never so weak as at
that hour. We may take David, on the other hand, as the representative of
simple, child-like, earnest faith. Yes, faith is a power--a wonderful power--a
power even in this life. These were men in whose vocabulary the word impossible
was not found, and consequently they achieved the most extraordinary results.
By faith Alexander conquered the world; by faith Hannibal crossed the Alps; by
faith Columbus discovered America. These men believed in their ultimate
success, and triumphed over every opposition. But it is in the Bible that we
have the most remarkable, the most illustrious, the most substantial instances
of the power of faith, for here we have faith of the highest kind, faith in
God. Our constant prayer, then, should be, “Lord, increase our faith.” Our
support in trial, our strength against temptation, our ability to perform our
duties, depend upon the measure of our faith. (D. Rowlands, B. A.)
David and Goliath
The three principal divisions of this chapter seem to be, first,
the conduct of Goliath; secondly, that of David; and, lastly, the result of the
battle, in the destruction of Goliath and the defeat of the Philistine army.
And as the Israelites of old were beset by many implacable enemies, so are the
church and household of God now beset by deadly enemies, in unbelieving and
wicked men, who, like the Philistines of old, despise the knowledge of God, and
whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil. Faithless thoughts and evil
passions are Philistines within the citadel; evil examples and persuasions of
ungodly men ere as Philistines in open arms or secret ambuscade without; and
the unseen enemies are wicked spirits; “for we wrestle not against flesh and
blood,” says the apostle.
1. Now, observe with what exactness the person and the accoutrements
of this champion are noticed, as if to show us that there was nothing wanting
to render him a most formidable adversary. His height, six cubits and a
span--about ten or eleven feet; His strength, it must have been prodigious, as
may be collected from the weight of the armour in which he was clothed, and
from the ponderous size of his spear. He seemed prepared to crush any opponent,
and so fortified as to be almost invulnerable. Nothing was probably more remote
from his thoughts than being overcome in a contest; and he therefore spoke in
those taunting and boasting words. He was thinking of conquest, and confident
in his own strength. “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit
before a fall.” So it was with this unbelieving Goliath. His defiance of the
Israelites, and in them of the God of Israel, was the sealing of his own fall.
Whenever it so pleases God, He can make the meanest creature an instrument in
His hand, can raise the poor out of the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill,
and set him among the princes of his people. “He shall deliver thee in six
troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee: in famine He shall
redeem thee from death, and in war from the peril of the sword.” Goliath’s
armour was only of human proof, the weapons of mere human invention: his
boasting and defiance came from an unbelieving and self-confident tongue. And
Satan, the spiritual Goliath, is his armour impregnable? Are his weapons sure
to destroy thee? Is his address to thy fears such as should appal or intimidate
thee? Has not a stronger than he already come upon him, and overcome him? Hath
he not taken from him all his armour, in which he trusted, and divided his
spoils?
2. Let us now turn to the conduct of that remarkable person, who was
designed by God to be the conqueror of the boasting and unbelieving Goliath.
Now, you may observe that David attributes the conquest which he gained over
the furious beasts which attacked his fold, not to his own strength or prowess,
but to the Divine help and deliverance: he looks to the same God who had before
delivered him, for protection now, and feels confident that he shall be
prospered in the approaching struggle. And to whom should the Christian look in
the day of trial and difficulty, but to the same almighty and gracious hand
which has holden him up ever since he was born? What should he call to mind to
encourage him but God’s tender mercies and loving kindnesses, which have been
ever of old? And he will find, as David did, that it is “good for him to hold
him fast by God, and to put his trust in the Lord God.” To one of less courage
than David, a courage which nothing but a firm trust in God and the aid of the
Spirit of the Lord could have given him, the appearance of this formidable giant,
armed at all points, and a warrior from his youth, might well have caused
dismay; but David “looked not on his countenance, or the height of his
stature,” persuaded that God would “deliver him from his strong enemy;” that He
who can save by many or by few would “break the shield, the sword, and the
battle,” would make all human strength but weakness. So, in all your trials, of
whatever kind they be, do not flatter yourselves in your own strength; do not
lean to your own understanding, skill, or power: without God you can do
nothing; with Him you may surmount the most appalling dangers.
3. Here I shall close the history of this wonderful event, the result
of which was the deliverance of the Israelites from the power of their enemies,
and from the fears and apprehensions which had so oppressed them. Let me remind
you that our blessed Lord triumphed over the power of Satan, our great
spiritual enemy, destroyed his works, and frustrated his malice, by the same
aid by which David triumphed over Goliath--he had the arm of God with him; and,
“if God be for us, who shall be against us?” And be assured that you have no
reason for fear if you hold you fast by God. Remember how man’s natural fears
are apt to magnify difficulties and dangers. There is a lion in the way. Had
David shrunk back at the sight of Goliath, where would have been his crown of
rejoicing? If the Christian looks back with fear, what will be his reward? Set
thy face as a flint, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of
trouble. (Thomas Loveday, B. D.)
David and Goliath
1.In one respect every Christian resembles David: he has been
anointed by the Holy Ghost for an especial purpose: called and selected from
the world to be “a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the
Kingdom of Heaven.” As our condition and duties are spiritual, so our enemies
are spiritual. No considerate person will deny that these opponents are as far
more powerful than our best unassisted resolutions as Goliath was than David.
There is, therefore, without any forced or fanciful parallel, this decided
resemblance between the cases of David and ourselves; both are endowed with the
strength of the same Spirit: both are exposed to very unequal enemies. The
first prevailed.
2. Can we learn, from his example, how we may prevail also? After
David had received an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost, and was
solemnly appointed to the highest dignity to which any of his countrymen could
aspire, we do not find that he assumed that superiority to his brethren and
even to his father, to which he was most undoubtedly entitled; he went back to
his pastoral occupation, and remained in the discharge of his duties as a
respectful son and an affectionate brother. This conduct of David will astonish
none who understand the real spirit of the Gospel. If there be one here who
values himself on his spiritual acquirements, and his growth in grace; who
supposes himself to have been arbitrarily selected by God, for no other
purpose, it appears, than to be saved without exertion; who trusts in himself
that he is righteous and despises others; let him be entreated to review the
conduct of a character manifestly and confessedly actuated by an extraordinary
portion of God’s Holy Spirit, and let him compare this conduct, with his own.
Living in strictness, after God’s own heart, David, as be did not seek power or
grandeur, even when the Kingdom of Israel was conferred on him by the most
unquestionable title, so neither did he court, difficulty or danger. His eldest
brothers had gone to win glory in the cause of their God and their country; but
he, God’s chosen servant and his country’s anointed king, lingered in the
fields, inactive and obscure. It is therefore the duty of the Christian not
ambitiously to throw himself in the way of temptation in order to exhibit his
zeal for his profession, or his confidence in victory. This is becoming a
tempter himself, and acting in open violation of a positive command, “Thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Had David, contrary to his father’s will,
rushed to the battle and accepted the challenge of the Philistine champion, it
is most probable that he would have been ruined by his ill-judged and
unauthorised temerity. David, at length, finds an opportunity of reconciling
the gratification of his noble desires with the strictest observance of duty.
He is sent by his father to the camp. He feels that Goliath’s audacious
boasting must be opposed at all hazards; and he also feels that the Spirit of
God is sufficient to enable him, a weak unarmed youth, to enter the lists with
the gigantic challenger. With the same feeling it is that we should advance to
the contest with the enemy of our souls. He is far more powerful than we, and
those who have not faith to oppose to him the invincible weapons of the Spirit
of God, cower and tremble at his advances. He defies us all, who are “the
armies of the living God,” “Christ’s church militant here on earth.” The
Christian whose faith is unshaken wonders when be looks around him and beholds
so many of his brethren tremble before the wily foe: but their terror is a
stranger to his breast. He inquires with David, “what shall be done to the man
who takes away the reproach from Israel?” And the answer is, “the man who
killeth him, the king will enrich with great riches,” “the riches of the glory
of his inheritance.” “He that overcometh,” saith the Lord, “shall inherit, all
things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.” Faith in this promise,
and hope to attain the reward, determine him to exertion. He heeds not the
reproaches of a fearful brother who dares not resist the enemy; be will not
listen to those who would persuade him that his strength will not sustain him,
for he knows that it is not his own strength, but that of the Almighty, on
which he relies. Firmly, therefore, he advances to the conflict, exclaiming “I
come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel
whom thou hast defied.” The grace of God is an invincible weapon, but we must
employ it, or it will no more fight our spiritual battles, than a sword will
defend us while we delay to draw it; or than the stones of the brook could
avail David, while they only lay in the sling. We must therefore, as in
everything else, so in resisting temptations, not only pray for God’s grace, but
do our own diligent endeavour to overcome them. And, if we do this sincerely,
we may be quite sure that we shall be carried through Again, the sling and the
stone would have been useless, had not the Spirit of God guided the hand of
David; and in like manner the Christian must feel convinced that the various
means which are allowed him of contending with sin, are only efficacious
because “it is God that worketh in him to will and to do.” The certainty that
all his strength is from above, and the determination actively to employ that
strength, must go hand in hand; neither will effect anything without the other,
but the two combined will, by the blessing of God finally beat down Satan
under, our feet.
3. In our warfare with sin we shall occasionally find the armies of
Israel ready to fly before the face of the enemy. We shall find some of our
brethren, like Eliab, afraid to engage in the contest themselves, and yet ready
to reproach us with pride and haughtiness of heart,” because we have determined
to live a life of severer holiness than any which they can bring themselves to
bear. In our conduct towards them we must imitate that of David. How eloquent
and forcible is David’s appeal to his injurious brother. “Is there not a cause”
why we should persist in the firmest adherence to a practice conformable to our
professions? There is every conceivable cause. There is gratitude for love
which eternity could never repay; there is love which eternity could never
satisfy; and there is even private interest, which is more effectually served
by the service of God than by any other assignable means. By this appeal our
brother may be convinced that there is some cause for what we do, and, through
the mercy of God, may himself be reclaimed, and be our comrade in the battle,
and our witness and companion in the triumph above. We shall also find persons
in the world like Saul, equally afraid with Eliab to engage, but who will hold
towards us a different language. They will tell us that we are too weak to
contend with all the difficulties which we speak of, and they will offer us, as
Saul offered David his armour, worldly precepts and maxims for the conduct of
life, taken from their own experience and adapted to persons like themselves,
but which, not being founded on the strict and undeviating model of the law of
God, are no more accommodated to the use of the Christian, than the massive and
cumbersome panoply of Saul became the slender and unaccustomed David. But we
“cannot go with these.” We have not proved them, and assuredly, did we prove
them, we should find them useless. (H. Thompson, M. A.)
David and Goliath
I. I ask, and i
propose to answer, the following question,--Why is all this story so
particularly set on record?
1. And first, I am of opinion, that viewed only as a passage in
sacred history--a singularly life-like piece of very ancient narrative--the
chapter before us might reasonably occupy a most conspicuous place. Such a page
could not be spared from Jewish history.
2. Then further,--the indications which it contains of a providential
purpose and plan, would better still account for the presence of the chapter we
have been considering, in the Book of Life. It sets forth how man’s extremity
is God’s opportunity; and how He works by humble instruments; and how, from the
very first he “hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty.”
3. But it requires little familiarity with the method of the Holy
Spirit to be aware that another and a hatter reason may be given, than any of
these, for the large and curious details in which this narrative abounds, as
well as for the prominence given to the story of David’s encounter with Goliath
of Gath. Be persuaded that a greater than Goliath--a greater by far than David
is here. This is none other than a parable or a prophecy in action. Call to
mind also our Saviour’s method with the Tempter. As “there was no sword in the
hand of David,” so was no carnal weapon employed by David’s Son when He
encountered Satan and overcame him. But at least you will see that in slaying
Goliath with Goliath’s sword, David did in emblem the very thing which David’s
Son did in His last encounter with the Prince of this World. But what says the
Apostle? St. Paul declares that Christ died, in order “that through Death He
might destroy him that had the power of Death, that is the Devil.” It was
suggested that the true reason why the history of the encounter of David with
Goliath is recorded with such memorable minuteness of detail, is to be found
nowhere but in the Gospel.
II. I propose to
enforce and explain it. Does anyone then inquire how can there really exist
such a correspondence between a type and its antitype; seeing that the two
histories are severed from one another by full a thousand years?
1. Let us not err, like the Sadducees of old, because we “know not
the Scriptures, neither the power of God.” So many and such remarkable points
of resemblance and analogy cannot be all accidental. It is simply incredible.
All antiquity cannot be mistaken. The wisest of the moderns cannot be dreamers
all. The loom in which the stuff was woven proves to be of Heaven, not of
Earth: and the workmanship is in consequence Divine, not Human. Images of
Divine mysteries are to be seen in wrought here and there: colours other than
were imagined: forms and faces which recall the things of Eternity: words which
would be meaningless--deeds which would be very trifles--unless they are freely
interpreted, as they claim a right to be, of God and of Christ.
2. Then, as for the use of such an exhibition of things future. I can
see at once very many uses. No stronger proof of the Divinity of the narrative
can be imagined. That the same inspiring Spirit was at work with the writers of
either covenant, is plain. That the Gospel was contemplated before the Delivery
of the Law, becomes abundantly established. This entire system has a kind of
prophetic cogency and convincingness of its own; which will, with some minds,
outweigh every other proof of the entire Inspiration of Holy Scripture. The
consequences of our Saviour’s victory over Satan we can, of course, only guess
at. That some very mysterious circumstances of triumph were transacted in the
unseen World, cannot be doubted; but express Revelation is silent. Note,
however, that “the spoiling of the Egyptians” at the Exodus, is again and again
spoken of: nay, is brought, into marked and mysterious prominence. Lastly, when
our Saviour Christ, describes His own victory over Satan under the figure of
the Stronger than the strong--who cometh on the strong man armed and taketh
from him the armour wherein he trusted;--He is careful to add, as one
consequence of His victory, that He “spoiled the other’s house;” and again,
that He “divided his spoils.” And to this agree the words of the prophet
Isaiah,--“He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He hath poured out
His soul unto death.” . . . And now with all this before you, confess that the
circumstantial relation concerning what David did with Goliath’s
armour--Goliath’s sword--Goliath’s head--becomes doubly interesting, doubly
precious! “Glorious hint of the completeness of Christ’s victory!” cries the
Christian student. “So may all Thine enemies perish, O Lord!” We eagerly
confess that there are other lessons, another class of lessons, lying on the surface
of the narrative. This may be called the moral side of Holy Scripture.
David’s Victory
I. in the battle
of life good men have to fight a powerful foe. Satan is strong, subtle, and
experienced adversary. No opponent is too powerful for him; no attack too
difficult, and no place too sacred for assault.
1. In the battle of life we have to contend with numerous
adversaries.
2. In the battle of life we are often hindered by those who ought to
help us. “A man’s foes,” etc.
3. In the battle of life we are animated by various feelings
4. In the battle of life past victories strengthen us for future
conflicts.
II. In the battle
of life good men need Divine assistance. “I come to thee in the name of the
Lord of Hosts, whom thou hast defied.” This dependence was right for four
reasons.
1. It ensured the right help for the combat.
2. It awakened a right spirit for the combat. Goliath was an
idolater; he treated the God of Israel with contempt. David had a profound
faith in God’s supremacy.
3. It led to a right selection of weapons for the combat. The sling
multiplied David’s chances of success, and afforded him greater protection by
keeping his opponent at a distance. It is wise to keep our enemies as far from
us as possible.
4. It secured a right issue in the combat. Appearances are often
against true men and sound principle. Appearances are against the Church now,
but ultimately the Church will triumph. Appearances were against, Christ, but a
momentary defeat was turned into a glorious victory. It is sufficient for us to
know the issue will he right. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
Christian heroism
The Old Testament has just three stories of moral heroism carried
to the verge of martyrdom. They bring before us five heroic figures--David,
Daniel, the Three Children. Today we are met by the first of these stories. Are
you like the one or like the other? Are you a member of the average, or just
the one exception out of thousands? Do you stand with the powerful Saul, and
all his armed soldiers, of all of whom it stands so pitilessly recorded, “When
Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and
greatly afraid”? Or, is there something still within you after all these years
which constrains you as part of your being to stand out alone and put that question
of Divine curiosity befitting either a child or a hero, “Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” It
never even entered into the head of David that such a foe as this Goliath could
win the day. He saw through the man in an instant. He had hurled a foul
reproach against the people of God, his doom was as certain as if he already
lay stretched upon the plain with the stone deep in his forehead. Then, again,
David had reason for his faith. The child was father of the man. Observe yet
again, David would fight only with his own weapons, not with the more perfect
weapons of others. He would be just himself. And yet once more, David felt as
few even of the greatest ever have it given to them to feel, the immeasurable
difference between material force and moral force, between man at his proudest
and God using his feeblest instrument. That is our poor, prosaic language as we
try to sum up the moral and incomparable act of daring; but not such the
language of the young hero poet at the grandest moment of his life. Now you do
not need me to remind you that this history is also parable. It is not only a
record of heroism, it is, further, a type of all moral conflict. Young
children, as they read it in the nursery, half expect to fight some day that
real Goliath. We have other visions of the powers which war against the soul.
We sometimes almost wish that the issue was equally clear and simple and, so to
speak, localised. “Then the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side,
and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and there was a valley
between them.” Impossible there and then to doubt who were the Lord’s people
and on which side you should range yourself--as impossible as it would have
been on this day of July seventy-seven years ago, before Wellington’s great
fight at Salamanca, for any Englishman to doubt on which of the two Spanish
hills he should offer his life to his country. There the historian describes
the opposing armies as exchanging cannonades from the tops of those hills, on
whose frowning rocks, he says, the contending generals stood like ravenous
vultures watching for the quarry. An imposing picture this. We almost see the
scene; but now, in our day, is that, I ask, a fair type of our spiritual battlefield?
Are there two, and but two, separate armies? Is there always a valley between
them? If some formidable champion appears, challenging us and our friends to
the combat, are we quite sure from which corner of the field he will come up,
and whether we can truly and fairly be satisfied that to defy Israel and
Israel’s God he is come up? “Ah!” we sometimes say to ourselves, “if only the
trouble were so clearly defined, just a battle between Israel and the
Philistines, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, purity and uncleanness,
mercy and cruelty, freedom and slavery, reverent piety on the one side, and
arrogant, insolent Atheism on the other; if only it were a pitched battle
between two recognised hosts, leader against leader, army against army.” And,
thank God, there are some issues which are absolutely clear. There are those
upward struggles of which the three fair mountain tops, temperance, soberness,
chastity are the goal and the prize. These struggles are both outward and
inward There is the inward struggle. We do not attempt to describe it, only we
say from our hearts, “God help each brother and each sister to fight it through
His strength and not their own.” But the struggle may be outward also. The talk
about some book or some trial, the smile, the shrug of the shoulder, the
innuendo, the sneer--there is the challenge to test what you are worth, to make
you show your colours, to prove whether you will take a safe but ignoble refuge
with the silent, cowering majority, or whether you will confess Christ before
men and say boldly what you think or feel. It is in battles of this kind that
the insight of David and the faith of David are both needed and found. Now, as
then, the majority do nothing, they are cowed by a vast distrust, they start
already beaten. In truth they walk by sight, and not by faith. But thank God
there are faithful among the faithless The David heart is still beating; there
are those who are certain that the bad cause is doomed, however confidently it
swagger. But we all feel there are other contests in which the path of duty is
by no means so clear. There are, so to speak, battles without a battlefield,
battles which refuse to be localised or even outlined. Where is the enemy? Who
is he? How far is he an enemy? Is he to be fought or is he to be first
understood and then reasoned with? Is he certainly an enemy or may he be a
friend in disguise, a friend, not of ourselves, which matters but little, but
of God, which matters everything. Doubtless we have to fight; we have to confess
Christ, and that before men as well as in the sanctuary of our own hearts, but
our difficulty lies not so much in bearing taunts or confronting direct and
scornful denims, as in answering to ourselves the question, “What is truth?
What is Christ? What does He say of Himself? What do His holiest servants say
of Him? Nay, what do His very silences imply as to His sinlessness and its one
necessary source?” And yet more, what is His will as regards human life? On all
such subjects there are thinkers and writers and speakers who contemptuously
place Christ on one side. That, they would say, is not His sphere. How are we
to treat such men, some of whom we meet daily, many of them upright, earnest
seekers after truth, it may be dear friends of our own? Are these to be
regarded as our Goliaths, brutal impersonations of arrogant impiety? Hardly so.
The parallel does not and will not bold. The more we try to make it bold the
more we are blinding ourselves to facts and sinning against the eternal laws of
charity. And this, conscience tells us, cannot be a fight on behalf of God. We
can never truly confess Christ before men by using weapons which the Spirit of
Christ condemns. And yet we must confess Him. We must first make up our minds
as to His will, as to the principles and causes which are in His sight true and
precious, and then we must be ready to act out our faith. As the kingdom of God
cometh without observation, so the confessing of Christ before men in the
ceaseless battle of faith and unbelief may have but few spectators, and afford
but few opportunities for visible and audible heroism. And yet the true heart
of David may be beating there and the strength which was perfected in David may
be perfecting itself there in many a humble, self-depreciating combatant. It is
by faith of this kind that Christ is still making ills promise good. It is by
creating in human souls a perfect trust in Himself which nothing can enfeeble
or destroy. Are you willing to leave to others who do but echo while they
affect to form the spirit of the age, that applause which such conformity never
fails to arouse; or are you content for yourself with that other applause heard
oven in this life by the humble champion of faith in Jesus?
Servant
of God, well done; well hast thou fought
The
better fight, who single hast maintained
Against
revolted multitudes the cause
Of
Truth: in words mightier than they in arms;
And
for the testimony of truth hast borne
Universal
reproach, far worse to bear than violence
For
this was all thy care to stand approved
In
sight of God, though worlds judged thee perverse.
(Montague Butler, D. D.)
Divine sufficiency
At Oxford they call the same river the Isis which at London Bridge
we call the Thames: what is the difference between the two? Immense. You have
only to look at the tiny stream in the old university city and then look at the
broad swelling current at London Bridge bearing ships upon its ample bosom.
Difference! there is only contrast. Precisely, but I will tell you the
difference all the same. The difference is that the full ocean has poured its
waters up to London Bridge, it has widened the channel and deepened it too, you
cannot tell which is salt water and which is fresh when they have mingled
together, one has come to deepen and amplify the other--the full current of the
boundless sea. There is plenty more where that came from to reinforce the
Thames every day. Now go out in the strength of that figure, and live your life
realising that “that which drew from out the boundless deep” can be turned
again home for your life and for mine; there is plenty where that came from,
eternity is the source of the supply. Infinite is that to which our soul is
called, and every man is omnipotent who stands before the Lord. (R. J.
Campbell, M. A.)
The battle is the Lord’s.
David and Goliath
This familiar dramatic story has much to teach us. One lesson only
is our present consideration--David’s heroic and victorious faith. “Time would
fail me,” said the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in his beautiful
chronicle of the worthies of faith, “to tell of Gedeon and of Barak, and of
Sampson and of Jephthah; of David also.” And when does his faith shine with
such lustre as when, having single-handed slain Goliath, he “turned to fight
the armies of the aliens”? In this narrative we see--
I. The surprises
of faith. Forty days; and is he ever to be met in combat? Who will meet him? No
Hebrew veteran. No well-panoplied soldier, but a young shepherd, and he with
well-slung stone will be victor! Unlikely warrior! unlikely weapon! unlikely
victory! A victory of faith. A surprise of faith. So has it ever been. The
surprises of history are the surprises of faith. Who are the men who have “entered
the kingdom” of influence wherein with abiding sceptre, they rule the human
generations? Men of faith. The great men whose names are in the Old and New
Testament chronicles were less likely, according to human judgment, to leave
the impress they have upon the ages. And what surprises await us if we but
emulate such faith? We “can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth us!”
II. The hindrances
to faith. It is easy to go in company. It is easy among the faithful to deem
our faith strong. But solitude tries the spirit. Celebrated is the poet’s
Abdiel, because “faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he.” And
where was another faithful beside David through all the camp of Israel.? It was
no ordinary foe against whom his courage kindled. Much, too, had he to hinder
him in the craven spirit of Israel. Nothing in this to help David. His eye, lit
with indignant courage, met no answering light in any other. Israel’s only
answer to Goliath’s challenge was--flight! Enough in this to arrest David from
offering himself for the combat. Who is he to stand forth as the pick of the
nation’s valour? He is brought into the presence of the king. But David had to
beat down hindrance sharp and strong before he reached Saul’s tent. Sharper, I
think, than from any other. To be thus rebuked and slandered by a brother! But
his faith stood fast. He answered not bitter with bitter. Eliab was his
brother, not his Lord. “The battle was the Lord’s,” the battle within him as
well as against Goliath And the Lord gave him the inner victory before the
outer. Had his faith failed him before Eliab he had never stood before Goliath.
Hindrances to faith! “How many hindrances we meet” in the way of our heart’s
supreme surrender to, and reliance on, Christ! Hindrances from tyrannic evil
habit whose power Christ only can break. Hindrances from our circumstances; our
business methods; the worldly faithless atmosphere in which we long have lived.
From those who nearest us can affect us the most, from kindred as close
as--closer than--was Eliab to David. What then? All the more need for
earnestness. But whether within or without, “the battle is the Lord’s.”
III. The argument of
faith. Faith has varied arguments. God’s promises are one. God’s character is
another But experience is the argument of David. This he urges with Saul. A
valid argument is that of experience. Has God ever forsaken David even when
life depended upon well-aimed blow against wild beast? As He had never forsaken
him, so he never would. One victory carried with it the assurance of another.
One enemy slain that all enemies should be destroyed. We too have personal
memories of deliverance. These are to be cherished. They are silent promises.
To the listening heart they speak of goodness to come as well as past. “Jesus Christ”
is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
IV. the simplicity
of faith. With what naturalness David enters and moves through this wondrous
story! He “runs” into the camp and against Goliath with a boy’s eagerness, and
yet stands among the soldiers, before the king, and face to face with the
loud-tongued foe with the calm heroism of seasoned warrior. He will have no
controversy with Eliab. He presumes not on his former service to the king;
others open for him the way; the king sends for him. He is not boastful, but
tells enough of his previous prowess to secure the king’s assent to his
championship. If faith be simple, not marred by any self-seeking, fixed only in
the Lord, set only on His glory, difficulties drop asunder into a pathway for
our feet. No matter of what kind they may be. Only trust in God and do the
right; let that be the constant rule of life, and you can safely leave the
result with Him. Be fearful of criticism; be swayed by the opinions of men, and
then the path darkens, troubles gather, and even when the right thing is done
it has no acceptance with God, being done to please men and not Him.
V. The victory of
faith. Calmly forth went David, a spectacle to two armies. On he went alone,
yet not alone, “being,” in the words of Josephus, “accompanied with an
invisible assistant, who was no other than God Himself.” He teaches us to
fight. He assures us of victory. Under His banner “the weakest saint shall win
the day.” He helps to every prayer and effort of resistance. (G. T. Coster.)
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and
smote the Philistine in his forehead.
Faith working wisely
It would be interesting to dwell on the various personages that
appear prominently in this historic scene. They are Saul, Eliab, Goliath, and
David; the dismayed monarch, the envious brother, the scornful enemy, and the
man of God. Whatever Saul’s sins had been, he acted well on this occasion. He
did not despise the rumour of David’s words but sent for him; and when he
professed his readiness to fight the Philistine, “Saul said unto David, Go, and
the Lord be with thee.” There is something very affecting in these words. Saul
had violated the principles of the theocracy; he had been rejected by God, and
the sentence of rejection bad gone forth; “the Spirit of the Lord had departed
from him;” and yet he could recognise the workings of that Spirit, be touched
with expressions of godly trust, and bid God-speed to another in an exploit
forbidden to himself. Poor Saul! In Eliab we have a characteristic display of
genuine human nature. Goliath stands before us as a type of brute power and
blustering self-confidence. What shall we say of David? What simplicity and
strength of heart appear throughout! what meekness before his angry brother,
what modest dignity before Saul, what courage before Goliath, what humility and
confidence before God!
I. David possessed
a strong and unwavering confidence in God. From whatever grounds that assurance
proceeded, he felt it; and it was the secret of his calmness and strength. The
inquiry may occur to us, How came David to have this faith? We do not read of
any Divine declaration made to him on the subject; it is not written that God
told him that he should triumph: whence then did it proceed? was it holy trust,
or vain presumption? It is possible to possess a sure confidence of success,
and to succeed in consequence of that confidence, and yet to have no just
grounds for it; and David might have felt securely and wrought gloriously
without any reasonable basis for his trust. The only ground he himself assigned
was past Providence. But in connection with something else, that deliverance
would have a special argumentative force. Along with his predicted destiny it
would be valuable. The Lord had said, “Arise anoint him: for this is he.” Thus
set apart by the prophet, immunity was assured him; and the immunity already
granted would justly bear the character, not of a mere fact, but of a kind of
pledge and guarantee. And might there not be something more still? Is it
unlawful to suppose Divine suggestion and impression? We are told, in
connection with his selection as Saul’s successor, that “the Spirit of the Lord
came upon David from that day forward.” A like confidence may be possessed as
to particular events. Who has not read of instances of strong presentiment in
men having no religion, in relation to their worldly destiny, or the success of
their enterprises? They were determined to reach a certain goal; they felt that
they could reach it; and they did reach it: power and purpose became prophecy.
The history of saints furnishes like instances.
II. David’s faith
worked wisely. If he had confidence in God that victory would be his, he
expected victory in the way of applying his own powers and resources. It was
not a miracle, but a natural operation, that he looked to for triumph. God must
be in it, but not in it so as to dispense with means. The opinion is very
prevalent, and the impression still more so--though neither so prevalent as
they used to be--that God is in the habit of employing unlikely instruments;
that, for the purpose of revealing His all-sufficiency and bringing honour to
Himself, He delights to contrast results with their secondary causes, and to
disappoint the calculations founded on the supposed efficiency of human agents.
To hear some men talk, you might conclude that God cannot be properly said to
employ instruments at all; that in Nature, and still more in Providence, and
most of all in grace, they are not so much instruments that He employs as
obstacles, not so much things having a tendency and fitness to accomplish His
designs as things altogether unsuitable and inappropriate. Now this belief or
feeling is entirely erroneous and woefully mischievous. Many are the
connections in which this important truth is lost sight of, and men imagine
that they do honour to God by denying or ignoring it Sometimes the grand
central truth of the Gospel is adduced as an illustration of important results
brought about by unlikely means; and Paul’s statements respecting “the
foolishness of preaching” are made to sanction this use of the doctrine of the
cross. Yet surely this is to mistake the matter altogether. We admit and maintain
the need of Divine influence to render even this truth effectual--and that
influence is one of the most glorious proofs of the virtue of Christ’s
death--but we also assert that never was truth more adapted to produce the
effects proposed, to open the deep fountain of human affections, than the truth
of “Christ; crucified.” Much the same may be said of faith, as the appointed
instrument end condition of spiritual blessing. The importance attached to
faith in the Bible, and the marvellous virtue ascribed to it, are often
regarded as a proof a mere arbitrariness on the part of God, having nothing to
do with its inherent qualities and powers. And truly, if faith were what many
deem it, a simple reception of historical facts or theological opinions, it might
properly be so regarded. But if faith is, as any careful student of the New
Testament may easily ascertain it to be, spiritual insight and sympathy as well
as intellectual credence; if it is the reception of Gospel facts in their moral
meaning and relations; it would be difficult to discover how anything except
faith could realise the effects which Christ came into the world to secure. How
can truth operate except by being believed? How can spiritual truth operate but
through spiritual faith? The truth we are now asserting requires to be applied
to spiritual human agency. Many need to be convinced of the propriety of this
application of it; they do not see that the power of Christian workers has a
regular relation to their qualifications. Doubtless in Greek and Roman and even
Jewish eyes, the agency which Christ appointed and honoured was feeble and
worthless, ridiculously so; considered simply as “of the world,” and in
connection with merely worldly works and aims, it was foolish, weak, base, yea
nothing at all: but that is very different from saying that in God’s eye, and
according to spiritual laws, and for the production of spiritual effects, it
was so. The doctrine we have in hand should be recognised in the sphere of
physical and secular affairs. We are not perhaps in most danger here; it is in
the department of God’s spiritual works that we cleave to the faith and
expectation of the irregular and unusual: yet is there on some minds an
impression that law does not preside over our material and worldly interests,
and that God does interfere to avert the natural consequences of actions and
conditions. David had confidence in God, the simplest and firmest, that he
would overthrow Goliath, but in the strength of that confidence he employed his
familiar weapons of offence. He did just what he would have done if he had
sought the destruction of the giant without any confidence in God: but his
confidence doubtless enabled him to do it better than with a faithless heart he
could have done it; it was an inspiring, a strengthening principle. And true
faith is always such. (A. J. Morris.)
Common things in capable hands
A short time ago a geologist heard of a builder’s yard where an
enormous heap of stones might be purchased. The man of science bought the whole
stock for a few pounds, and had the collection removed to his own premises.
From the heap the geologist was able to discover many unique specimens of
fossils, and today several of our leading museums have been enriched and
smaller museums supplied with collections worth in all a large sum. Common
weapons in the hand of a good man are often used by the Lord to achieve
victory. God can use the simplest gifts of His workers if consecrated to His
service. (Sunday Companion.)
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a
stone.
David’s first victory
I. David was a
type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The early fathers of the church were very great
in opening up typical analogies. With regard to this particular transaction let
us note, at the outset, that before he fought with Goliath, David was anointed
of God. Samuel had gone down to Bethlehem and poured a horn of oil upon his
head. The parallel will readily occur to you. Thus hath the Lord found out for
Himself one whom He has chosen out of the people. With His holy oil hath He
anointed him. Jesus, the antitype of David, is anointed with the oil of
gladness above his fellows. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Spirit
was not given by measure unto him. See how the correspondence goes on. Our Lord
was sent by his Father to his brethren. As David was sent by Jesse to his
brethren with suitable presents end comfortable words, in order to commune with
them, even so in the fulness of time was our Lord commissioned to visit his
brethren. Jesus was roughly handled by his brethren, whom He came to bless.
David, you will remember, answered his brethren with great gentleness. He did
not return railing for railing, but with much gentleness he endured their
churlishness. In this he supplied us with but a faint picture of our beloved
Master, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. We pass on to observe that
David was moved by intense love of his people, he saw them defied by the
Philistine. The name of Jehovah was dishonoured! That braggart giant who
stalked before the bests defied the armies of the living God! A further motive
was present to stimulate his patriotic ambition. How could David’s bosom fail
to glow with strong emotion when he was told that the man who should vanquish
and slay that Philistine should be married to the king’s daughter? Such a prize
might well quicken his ardour. Now in all this he plainly foreshadowed our Lord
Jesus Christ. He loved His own: He was always ready to lay down His life for
the sheep. And then there was the joy that was set before Him that He should
have the church for His spouse. Goliath is called in the Hebrew, not
“champion,” as we read it in the English, but the middle-man, the mediator. If
you put the whole case fairly before your own minds, you will readily see the
fitness of the word that is used. There is the host of the Philistines on the
one side, and there is the host of Israel on the other side. A valley lies
between them. Goliath says, “I will represent Philistia. I stand as the
middle-man.” Now, it is exactly upon that ground that the Lord Jesus Christ
fought the battles of His people. We fell representatively in the first Adam,
and our salvation now is by another representative--the second Adam. He is the
Middleman, the “one Mediator between God and man.” Mark you well that David did
smite Goliath, and he smote him effectually--not in the loins, or on the band,
or on the foot--but in a vital point he delivered the stroke that laid him low.
He smote him on the brow of his presumption, on the forehead of his pride. So
when our Lord stood forth to contend with sin, He projected His atoning
sacrifice as a stone that has smitten sin and all its powers upon the forehead.
Thus, glory be to God, sin is slain. It is not wounded merely, but it is slain
by the power of Jesus Christ. And remember that David cut off Goliath’s head
with his own sword. Augustine, in his comment on this passage, very well brings
out the thought that the triumph of our Saviour Jesus Christ is here set forth
in the history of David. He, “through death, destroyed him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil.” You will find the analogy capable of much
amplification. Make a picture of it at your leisure, and it may prove a
beneficial study and a profitable meditation.
II. David as an
example for every believer in Christ.
1. You cannot do David’s work if you have not David’s anointing. When
you remember that your Divine Master tarried for the heavenly anointing, you
can hardly expect to do without it.
2. David, too, stands before us as an example of the fact that our
opportunity will come, if our efficiency has been bestowed, without our being
very particular to seek it. David fell into position.
3. Learn from David, too, to return quiet answers to those who would
roughly put you aside from your work.
4. Learn, again, from David’s example, the prudence of keeping to
tried weapons.
5. Next, observe that from the work which David begun he ceased not
till he had finished it. He had laid the giant prone upon the soil, but he was
not satisfied till he had out off his head. I wish that some who work for
Christ would be as thorough as this young volunteer was. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The giants, and how to fight them
All young people like to hear and read stories about giants. I
suppose there is hardly a person in this country who knows how go read, but who
has read the famous history of Jack the Giant Killer. I remember, when a very
little boy, reading it, and thinking what a wonderful history it was. Some
people pretend to think that it was hardly possible for David to throw a stone
with sufficient force to sink into the giant’s head. One of this class, a
foolish young man, who pretended not to believe the Bible, was once riding in a
stagecoach, which was full of passengers. He was trying to ridicule some of the
Bible stories. Among others, he spoke of this one about David and the giant. He
said he thought the giant’s head must have been too hard for a boy like David to
send a stone into it; and, turning to an old Quaker gentleman, who sat in the
corner of the coach, he asked, “What do you think about it, sir?” “Friend,”
said the old gentleman, in a dry, quiet way, “I’ll tell thee what I think: if
the giant’s head was as soft as thine it must have been very easy for the stone
to get in.” I want now to speak about five giants that we should all unite in
trying to fight against.
I. The first giant
I am to speak of is the giant heathenism. This giant doesn’t live here. He is
found in countries where the Gospel is not known. His castles may be seen in
Africa, and in India, in China, and in the islands of the sea. He is a huge
giant. This giant is very strong, and very cruel. Well, what are we to do to
this giant? Why, we must fight him, as David did Goliath. The Bible is the
brook to which we must go. The truths which it contains are the stones that we
must use.
II. The second
giant I would speak of is the giant selfishness. The giant selfishness never
sees, or hears, or does anything for anyone but himself if you find that you
are getting to think more of yourself than of others, then be sure the giant is
after you. We must fight this giant by self-denial.
III. The third giant
I want to speak about is the giant covetousness. This giant is very large in
size, and very strong in limb; but he has the tiniest tittle bit of a heart you
ever saw, might put it in a nutshell. The only wonder is how so huge a frame
can be supported by so little a heart. But this is not all, for little as his
heart is, it is hard as stone. He is ashamed of his name, and won’t answer to
it. He pretends that his right name is--frugality. But this is a great story.
Frugality is a very different person. He is a good, true, honest fellow If you
ask, How are you to fight him? I answer, by learning to give.
IV. The fourth
giant of which I will speak is the giant ill-temper. But how are we to fight
against, this giant? I answer, By trying to be like Jesus. We always think of
Him as--the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” Do you suppose that this giant ever
got a single link of his chain on Jesus? No.
V. The last giant
I wish to speak about is the giant intemperance. He is a very ugly-looking
fellow When he is in a good humour, and feels jolly, he puts on a silly face, and
looks very foolish. But when he gets in a passion he is awful looking, and it
makes one shudder to see him. (R. Newton, D. D.)
David and Goliath
The moment the words are read the instruction will be seen.
1. Helps may sometimes be so multiplied as to become hindrances. We
reserve a measure of our pity for the modern Davids in the pulpit who imitate
popular preachers, and in the classes who seek to reproduce the rare
excellences of famous teachers more tall and more brilliant, and so fail
because they stalk around in unnatural panoply, and are borne down by a
greatness they cannot fill out to its full swell.
2. There is always room in the Divine purposes for proper originality
in human methods.
3. The best instrument for God’s service is generally that which God
has bestowed on the individual worker. It is simply silly for any spiritual
martinet to bluster when he sees that Christians are doing well in winning
souls, and insist that David shall put on armour like Saul’s when he can
accomplish far more in his own way as a slinger with his brook stones. Let all
wise men and women take what Providence has put within their reach. Here comes
again in a new history the old demand once made of Moses: “What is that in thy
hand?” The crook he had used with the sheep in Horeb became the “rod” which
divided the Red Sea. Shamgar took his ox goad, because he was accustomed to it.
Samson seized the jaw bone of an ass, because he found it “moist” and ready
when he “put forth his hand.” Dorcas did glorious good in Joppa with the needle
her hand loved.
4. Giant killing is yet the chief calling of the Church. We may call
the apparently mismatched combatants Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Truth and
Error; it is invariably the worse which seems colossal, and the better which
appears insignificant. Error can generally find an obsequious armour bearer;
Truth sometimes has to stand alone with a sling. Often great leaders will
contribute their cast-off clothing, but they do not offer to put their extra
height, into risk. And the lesson is full of counsel and cheer for chivalrous
souls who are valiant for the truth, that they have patience, fight with
courage, and trust God forever.
“For
the God of David still guides the pebble at His will:
There
are giants yet to kill--wrongs unshriven;
But
the battle to the strong is not given
While
the Judge of right and wrong sits in heaven.”
5. Here seems to be a register of the real worth of mere “muscular
Christianity.” A few calm words from Canon Charles Kingsley might well be
quoted here: “Better would it be for any one of you, young men, to be the
stupidest and the ugliest of mortals, to be the most diseased and abject of
cripples, the most silly, nervous, incapable personage who ever was a laughing
stock for the boys upon the streets, if only you lived, according to your
powers, the life of the Spirit of God, than to be as perfectly gifted, as
exquisitely organised in body and mind, as David himself, and not to live the
life of the Spirit of God, the life of goodness, which is the only life fit for
a human being wearing the human flesh and soul which Christ took upon Him on
earth, and wears forever in heaven, a Man indeed in the midst of the throne of
God.”
6. It is the weakest sort of so-called honour which has to assert
itself in bluster.
7. The calmness of faith is always resolute and self-possessed. “The
battle is the Lord’s.” There is a motto for all Christian life. John Bunyan has
mentioned some of our modern giants: giant Despair, and giant Grim; giant Pope,
and giant Pagan. Perhaps we could think of a few more who have come nearer yet
to our own experience, and might have been named in the history of Christiana
and the children. There is giant Pride, and giant Profanity, giant Untruth,
giant Envy, giant Appetite; all of these confront us and with some of them we
have had fights. But we can stand before them quite calmly if only we remember
we come “in the name of the Lord of hosts.”
8. The best defence against evil is found in a swift attack.
9. There can be no Providence in God’s government that is not in some
sense truly special.
10. The weapons of the wicked are often at the last turned against
themselves.
11. The victory of faith belongs only to Jehovah. (C. S. Robinson,
D. D.)
David’s victory ever Goliath
I. Observe, first,
from this account, that a humble station is no hindrance to the grace of God.
David, unknown and unnoticed, feeding his father’s sheep at Bethlehem, was
chosen by God to be an instrument to promote His glory, and to do great good in
the world.
II. Observe, again,
that faithfulness and diligence in appointed duties is the way to honour and
respect. It was so with David. In the performance of his daily duties, in
obedience to his father, in submission to man, be was prepared for great and
noble deeds.
III. But the lesson
especially taught us in this chapter is that which the Apostle Paul elsewhere
enforces: “My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”
“If God be for us, who can be against us?” If we trust in Him through the
merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour, we need not fear our spiritual enemies--the
enemies of our souls. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
The victorious races
Look now with me, a moment, at another element of strength in the
Missionary Church. Not only is the power of God promised to her fidelity, but
the wisdom of God is visible in the choice of her materials. In our modern
times, God has put His gospel faith into the best races on the globe. David has
better blood in his veins than Goliath. The races to which God has intrusted
His staff and five smooth stones of gospel truth are the same races that drew
up Magna Charta and the declaration of Independence--the races that have made
iron types to talk and iron ships to swim--that have strung the telegraphic
nerves through humanity’s limbs, and have woven out of revealed law the highest
forms yet reached of Christian civilisation. For the spread of His gospel, God
has made Great Britain strong, and Holland industrious, and Germany learned,
and has saved the American Republic as by fire. The welfare of Christianity has
God bound up with the welfare of certain races and nations. If this be so, how
vitally important it is that those nations who essay to Christianise other
nations should themselves be Christianised to the very coral. (T. L. Cuyler,
D. D.)
And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted and pursued
the Philistines.
Keeping the victory
When General Wolfe was mortally wounded at the battle of Quebec,
he said after his third injury, “Hold me up; do not let my brave boys see I am
wounded.” A little later, as his blood was fast ebbing away, he said, in faint
tones, “The victory is ours! Oh! keep it.” So, when our Lord died for our sins
on the cross, He virtually said to His redeemed ones, “The victory is ours. Oh!
keep it.” And this is the victory that makes His victory ours, and overcometh
the world, even our faith. There must be no surrender by sin or unbelief of
what He has obtained for us. (H. O. Mackey.)
Whose son art thou, young man?
Relation of ancestry to character
I am not surprised that when this shepherd boy (ushered in and introduced
by Abner, commander-in-chief) entered the Royal presence with the ghastly
trophy, his fingers clutching the hair of Goliath’s head, the king looked at
him with admiring wonderment, and put the plain, straightforward question of my
text, “Whose son art thou, young man?” It was natural that Saul should wish to
know something of the antecedents of so brave a youth; doubtless, he wanted all
the particulars about his age, the place of his birth, his upbringing, his
occupation, and so forth; but he conceived that such signal valour must be
hereditary and ancestral; so his first and main inquiry touched the parentage
of the juvenile warrior, “Young man, who was your father?” Whatever views we
may hold upon the subject of heredity, there cannot be a doubt as to the fact
that qualities, moral, intellectual, and physical, are transmitted from father
to son. Some families are noted for longevity; others for good looks; others
for love of adventure. The aquiline nose runs in the line of the Buonapartes;
the large lip in the House of Hapsburg; the bald head in the House of Hanoverse
In some instances there is a certain expression of countenance traceable to the
third or fourth generation. I call on one of you at your lodging, and take up
the portrait album on your table; and instantly say, as I point to a photograph
there, though I never saw the original, “You don’t need to tell me who that is;
one can see at a glance that you are a chip of the old block.” Mental qualities
are transmitted too. In one case it is musical talent that descends; in
another, the love of poetry; in a third, the gift of acquiring languages. And
what is yet more to the point, moral tendencies, bad, good, and indifferent,
are passed on from parent to child. Only last week I heard of a case in which a
confirmed slave of alcohol actually said, “My father was a drunkard, and my
grandfather was a drunkard before him; I shall be a drunkard too; we belong to
a race of drunkards. I may as well accept my fate, it cannot be helped.” On the
other hand, noble and generous features of character appear sometimes to run in
the blood. If there could be anything like a pious momentum coming from a long
line of Christian progenitors, some of us ought to be godly indeed. St. Paul
was not afraid of being misunderstood by Timothy when he wrote to him, “I thank
God when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt
first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice.” And this suggests the
truth, that on the mother’s side, perhaps even more than the father’s, this law
of heredity seems to prevail. When David answered King Saul’s question he made
no mention of his mother, but there is nothing in that omission; for he quite
understood the monarch’s object, that he wished to know his family connection
Could I be near you in the hour of strong temptation, when you are ready to
belie all the holy memories of a pious home, I would whisper in your ear the
question--till you would start back with loathing from the vice to which you
were going to yield--“Whose son art thou, young man?”
I. My first word
is to those of you who save sprung from a lowly parentage. If there is anything
more utterly contemptible than for one who has risen a bit in the world to be
ashamed of his humble origin, it is the conduct of him who ridicules his
low-born brother. Sometimes we hear it remarked, with a sneer and a curl of the
lip, concerning some young man who is doing well, and carrying all before him,
“Oh, he has risen from the ranks!” Well, the more honour to him, if it is so;
and the more shame upon the silly, contemptible snobbishness that could be
guilty of such an utterance. It is in no spirit of cheap Radicalism that I say
this. It is not a question either of patrician or plebeian sympathies at all. I
will venture to say it is simple common sense. Blue blood, as it is called, is
by no means the purest blood. I believe that some of you have far more reason
to be proud of your pedigree than could you trace it to Tudor or Plantagenet.
II. My next word is
upon the heavy responsibility that rests on you who have been born in the line
of a Christian parentage. We shall not talk of rank now, but of character. You
come out of a godly nest. Your father was a man of God, your mother a sincere
believerse A long line of Christian inheritance is something to rejoice in.
When a man can make out a genealogical tree of his own family, and point cub to
me, that root, stem, branch, and twig were all holy, I say he has good cause to
thank God, and esteem himself as belonging to the peerage of the skies. Well
did William Cowper say--
“My
boast is not that I deduce my birth
From
loins enthroned, the rulers of the earth;
But
higher far my proud pretensions rise--
The
son of parents passed into the skies.”
“Whose
son art thou, young man?” It is a frightful aggravation of a man’s guilt when
his whole life is a contradiction given to his father’s counsels and his
mother’s prayers; when the child of a godly ancestry tramples on all the holy
traditions and memories of the past, and determinedly breaks through the moral
fences that had been set around him. Such persons generally make an awful
rebound. The worst of men are apostates from the purest faith. Tell me what
good influence a young man has resisted and defied, and I will give you the gauge
of his depravity.
III. I am not afraid
to put the question even to those of you who have had no such advantage. I
thank God that I have seen many a clean bird come out of a foul nest. If ever a
man might have been supposed to have had bad blood in his veins, it was
Hezekiah, who was the son of one of the worst monarchs that ever reigned over
Israel. He was cursed with a most polluted parental example. One might have
said of that young man that he was born to vice. And yet he turned out a devout
and holy man of God. Yes, Divine grace is stronger even than blood. History can
supply many an instance, to the praise of Him who ofttimes finds the brightest
diamonds in the darkest mines, and the richest pearls in the deepest seas.
IV. I feel that I
cannot part with the text without giving it a purely spiritual meaning, in
respect of which there are but two paternities, and one or other of these each
of you must own. Would to God that, as I address to you all the question,
“Whose sons are ye, young men?” you could with one voice reply, “Behold, now
are we the sons of God.” “Ye are of your father, the devil,” said Christ, with
awful plainness of speech, to the unbelieving Jews; and let it never be
forgotten that, unless we are the subjects of Divine adoption, we are all “the
children of the wicked one.” I tell you that, whether you realise it or not,
you have, each of you, Royal blood in your veins. Your pedigree traces back to
the King of kings. St. Luke goes right up to the fountain head when he finishes
his genealogical table thus: “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of
Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the Son of God.” Awake to the
glorious fact, and claim your high inheritance! Amen. (J. T. Davidson.)
Your pedigree
The king saw, what you and I see, that this question of heredity
is a mighty question. The longer I live the more I believe in blood--good
blood, bad blood, pure blood, humble blood, honest blood, thieving blood,
heroic blood, cowardly blood. The tendency may skip a generation or two, but it
is sure to come out, as in a little child you sometimes see a similarity to a
great grandfather whose picture hangs on the wall. That the physical and mental
and moral qualities are inheritable is patent to anyone who keeps his eyes
open. The similarity is so striking sometimes as to be amusing. Great families,
regal or literary, are apt to have the characteristics all down through the
generation, and what is more perceptible in such families may be seen on a
smaller scale in all families. A thousand years have no power to obliterate the
difference. Scottish blood means persistence, English blood means reverence for
the ancient, Welsh blood means religiosity, Danish blood means fondness for the
sea, Indian blood means roaming disposition, Celtic blood means fervidity,
Roman blood means conquest. The Jewish facility for accumulation you may trace
clear back to Abraham, of whom the Bible says “he was rich in silver and gold
and cattle,” and to Isaac and Jacob, who had the same characteristics. This law
of heredity asserts itself without reference to social or political condition,
for you sometimes find the ignoble in high place and the honourable in obscure
place. A descendant of Edward I, a toll gatherer. A descendant of Edward II, a
doorkeeper. A descendant of the Duke of Northumberland a trunk maker. Some of
the mightiest families of England are extinct, while some of those most
honoured in the peerage go back to an ancestry of hard knocks and rough
exterior. This law of heredity is entirely independent of social or political
conditions; for you find avarice and jealousy and sensuality and fraud having
full swing in some families. The violent temper of Frederick William is an
inheritance from Frederick the Great. It is not a theory founded by worldly philosophy,
but by Divine authority. Do you not remember how the Bible speaks of a chosen
generation, of the generation of the righteous, of the generation of vipers, of
an untoward generation, of a stubborn generation, of the iniquity of the
fathers visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation? So that
the text comes today with the force of a projectile hurled from mightiest
catapult, “Whose son art thou, young man?” “Well,” says someone, “that theory
discharges me from all responsibility. Born of sanctified parents, we are bound
to be good, and we cannot help ourselves. Born of unrighteous parentage, we are
bound to be evil, and we cannot help ourselves.” Two inaccuracies. As much as
if you should say, “The centrifugal force in nature has a tendency to throw out
everything to the periphery, and therefore everything will go out to the
periphery.” You know as well as I know that you can make the centripetal force
overcome the centrifugal, and you can make the centrifugal overcome the
centripetal. As when there is a mighty, tide of good in a family that may be
overcome by determination to evil, as in the case of Aaron Burr, the libertine,
who had for father President Burr, the consecrated; as in the case of
Pierrepont, Edwards, the scourge of New York society seventy years ago, who had
a Christian ancestry; while, on the other hand, some of the best men and woman
of this day are those who have come of an ancestry of which it would not be
courteous to speak in their presence. The practical and useful object of this
sermon is to show to you that if you have come of a Christian ancestry, then
you are solemnly bound to preserve and develop the glorious inheritance; or if
you have come of a depraved ancestry, then it is your duty to brace yourself
against the evil tendency. I want to arouse the most sacred memories of your
heart while I make the impassioned interrogatory in regard to your pedigree:
“Whose son are thou, thou young man?”
I. I accost all
those who are descended of a Christian ancestry. I do not ask if your parents
were perfect. There are no perfect people now, and I do not suppose there were
any perfect people then. You have a responsibility vast beyond all measurement.
God will not let you off with just being as good as ordinary people when you
had such extraordinary advantage. Ought not a flower planted in a hothouse be
more healthy than a flower planted outside in the storm? Ought not a factory
turned by the Housatonic do more work than a factory turned by a thin and
shallow stream? Ought not you of great early opportunity be better than these
who had cradle unblessed? Your Heavenly Father charges against you all the
advantage of a pious ancestry--so many prayers, so much Christian example, so
many kind entreaties--all these gracious influences, one tremendous aggregate,
and He asks you for an account of it. Ought not you to be better than those who
had no such advantage? Better have been a foundling picked up off the city
commons than with such magnificent inheritance of consecration to turn out
differently. Oh, the power of ancestral piety! Oh, the power of ancestral
prayer!
II. I turn for a
moment to those who had evil parentage, and I want to tell you that the highest
thrones in heaven and the mightiest triumphs and the brightest crowns will be
for those who had evil parentage, but who by the grace of God
conquered--conquered. Find out what the family frailty is, and set body, mind,
and soul in battle array. Conquer you will. I think the genealogical table was
put in the first chapter of the New Testament not only to show our Lord’s
pedigree, but to show that a man may rise out of an ancestral line and beat
back successfully all the influences of bad heredity. See in that genealogical
table that good King Asa was born of vile King Abia. See in that genealogical
table that Joseph and Mary and the most illustrious Being that ever touched our
world, or ever will touch it, had in His ancestral line scandalous Rahab and
Thamar, and Bathsheba. Perhaps the star of hope may point down to your manger.
Perhaps you are to be the hero or the heroine that is to put down the brakes
and stop that long line of genealogical tendencies, and switch it off on
another track from that on which it has been running for a century. Estranged
children from the homestead come back through the open gate of adoption. There
is royal blood in our veins; there are crowns on our escutcheon. Our Father is
King, our Brother is King; we may be kings and queens unto God foreverse “Whose
son art thou, thou young man?” Son of God! Heir of immortality! Take your
inheritance! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Heredity and celebrity
I confess I am rather interested in the whole subject of heredity.
I have been at some pains to inform myself as to the calling or occupation of
the fathers of many men who have risen to honourable distinction in the world;
and, perhaps, you would like to have some of the results of that inquiry. I
shall select a few at random taken from a very varied list. The distinguished
astronomer Kepler was the son of an officer in the army; the poet Wordsworth
and Sir Walter Scott, of attorneys; Chatterton, of a schoolmaster; Handel, of a
surgeon; Thomas Hood and Samuel Johnson, of booksellers; Mozart, of a
bookbinder; Blackstone, the eminent lawyer, of a silk mercer; the poet Pope, of
a linen draper; Sir Isaac Newton, of a farmer; Thomas Arnold, of a tax
collector; De Foe and Akenside, of butchers; Dr. Jeremy Taylor, of a
hairdresser; the artist Turner, of a berber; Christopher Columbus, of a wool
comber; the great astronomer Halley, of a soap boiler; Haydn, of a wheelwright;
Luther, of a miner; Lord Eldon, the famous lawyer, of a collier; George Fox, of
a weaver; Captain Cook, of an agricultural labourer; and last, but not least,
John Bunyan, of a tinker. (Great Thoughts.)
The value of a noble ancestry
There is the prophecy of a holy ancestry. (2 Timothy 1:5.) Oliver
Wendell Holmes remarks that most people think that any difficulty of a physical
sort can be cured if a physician is called early enough. “Yes,” Dr. Holmes
replies, “but early enough would commonly be two hundred years in advance.”
There is the tremendous law of heredity, the awful sweep and reach of which
science is just now beginning to throw some adequate light upon. But this law
takes in its strong grasp not only features and damages and incitements which
are physical; it pushes onward into coming generations characteristics which
are mental and moral also. And if one be budded out of a religious ancestry, it
is a vast boon and blessing. And to be steadily determined to he true to such
ancestry, and to refuse to run athwart the strain of it, is a tremendous help
and impetus in warring the good warfare. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
I am the son of thy
servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite.--
Undeclared royalty
That is a very simple account for a man to give of himself, yet it
answered the question which elicited it. Standing before the king, grasping the
head of a man who made Israel quake, a nation looking at him, yet he speaks as
if a stranger had accosted him in some peaceful retreat of the pasturage! David
might have said, “Samuel came to my father’s house in search of a king. He
passed by my brethren one by one; I was seat for at length from the sheep fold,
and Samuel anointed me king of Israel. Behold in this bleeding head the first
sign and pledge of my kingly power!” Instead of speaking so, he merely said,
with a child’s beautiful simplicity, “I am the son of thy servant Jesse the
Bethlehemite.”
1. Learn that men may be anointed long before their power is
officially and publicly declared. God may have put his secret into their heart
long before he puts the diadem upon their brow. We do not know to whom we are
speaking.
2. Learn that God’s arrangements are not extemporaneous. The men who
shall succeed to all good offices are known to Him from the beginning to the
end. To us the prospect may be dark, but to God the whole course is clear; the
successor is anointed, but, not yet declared.
3. In studying the period of David’s history which is comprised
between his anointing and the killing of Goliath, we shall discover some
qualities in David which we may well imitate. Soon after his anointing, David
became harp player to the king. This seems to be a descent. Are there not many
apparent anti-climaxes in life? Is this a conspicuous example of them? “Play
the harp! Why, I am king,” David might have said. “Why should I waste my time
in attempting to prolong the life of the man who is upon my throne? The sooner
he dies, the sooner I shall reign; not one soothing note will I evoke from my
harp!” Had David spoken so, he would have dropped from the high elevation which
becomes the spirit of a king. Are we skilled in music? Let us help those who
are sad. Have we this world’s goods? Let us seek out the poor, that, they may
bless us as the messengers of God. Have we power to say beautiful words? Let us
speak to men who are weary of the common tumult which is around them. To help a
man is the honour of true kingliness. After this engagement as harp player,
David went home to pursue his usual avocations. How well he carried the burden
of his prospects! We see no sign of impatience. He did not behave himself as a
child who, having seen a toy, cries until it is put into his hands. David had
the dignity of patience. He carried the Lord’s secret, in a quiet heart. When
David came to see his fighting brethren, by the express instructions of his
father Jesse, he disclosed a feature in his character in true keeping with what
we have seen. When he had become acquainted with the case, he at once looked at
outward circumstances in their moral bearing. Other men, including Saul
himself, were talking about, mere appearances. They did not see the case as it,
really was. Their talk, in fact, was strongly atheistic. Now for another tone!
David called Goliath, not a giant, not a soldier, but an uncircumcised
Philistine, who had defied the armies of the living God! This is a moral tone.
This is precisely the tone that was wanted in the talk of degenerate Israel! As
used by David, the very word uncircumcised involved a moral challenge. This
tone retrieves the honour of any controversy. It brings strength with it, and
hope, and dignity. Oh, for one David in every controversy! Men lose themselves
in petty details, they fight about straws, they see only the surface; David saw
the spiritual bearing of all things, and redeemed a controversy from vulgarity
and atheism by distinctly and lovingly pronouncing the name of God. The atheist
counts the guns, the saint looks up to God; the atheist is terrified by the
size of the staff, the saint is inspired by his faith in right and purity. Such
a man cannot fail. David interpreted the past so as to qualify himself for the
future. When Saul doubted his inability to cope with the Philistine, David
recounted some of his recollections as a shepherd. The past should be our
prophet. David confided in the unchangeableness of God. Forms of danger vary;
but the delivering power remains the same. The great fight of life is a contention
between the material and the spiritual. Goliath represents the material; he is
towering in stature, vast in strength, terrible in aspect. David represents the
spiritual: he is simple, trustful, reverent; the merely fleshly side of his
power is reduced, to the lowest possible point,--he fights under the
inspiration of great memories, in a deeply religious spirit, not for personal
glory but for the glory of the living God. As a contest between strength and
strength, the scene was simply ridiculous. Viewed materially, the Philistine
was perfectly right when he disdained David, and scornfully laughed at the
weapons which the stripling produced. Goliath showed a most justifiable
contempt; as a materialist he could indeed have adopted no other tone. David
made no boast of his weapons. He pronounced the name of God, and put his life
in the keeping of the Most High. The application of the truths of this lesson
is easy as a matter of inference, but hard as a matter of realisation. Some men
save, others are saved. Such is the law of sovereignty. This law of sovereignty
penetrates the whole scheme and fabric of life. David saved, Israel was saved;
activity and passivity make up the sphere of this life. Without any attempt at
fanciful spiritualising, we see in David the type of the one Saviour of the
world, Jesus Christ, who bruised the serpent’s head, and won for us the one
victory through which we may have eternal life. “Crown Him Lord of all.” (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Spiritual incongruities
I have tried to apprehend the character of David. David was a
prophet, but I shall speak most of him as a man; and I desire most to call your
attention to him in his actual and his merely human life. This it will be my
effort, briefly to sketch, and, as I sketch it, to connect such reflections
with the statements as arise naturally out of the incidents. The opening of
David’s public course glows with sublime ardour, and is full of heroism. He
will go forward against presumptuous sell-confidence. He understood where the
noblest strength lay, and nobly he used it. He showed, what the whole history
of man exhibits--that faith in Divine protection, that devotion to conscience,
that intellectual skill, that moral enthusiasm, can trample down resistance,
however gigantic. What is muscle at any time against mind? What is passion
against belief? What is frenzied anger against deliberative conviction?
Reverence and Reason are the true conqueror of the earth. To them belong the
victory, and to them belong dominion. David stands out, as a type of this great
power. The monster fell dead before his missile, and he, the victor, has left,
a record of our learning, to reveal to us, for everlasting ages, what is the
potency of the gifted and the inspired mind. He may be placed as the deathless
incarnation of what, trust and thought can accomplish against tyranny and
force.
1. David was one of those great and original men, whom humanity at
rare intervals produces. His mind was of that order which creates the age in
which it lives, and that saves or destroys the nation which it rules. His
character was that which Time, if it would, is not able to kill; that which
History is forced to remember. It is the destiny of transcendent power, whether
it be good or whether it be bad, to leave everlasting impression on the affairs
of mankind. David was a man of power, various and exalted. Strong in intellect,
and wise in experience; strong in will, end commanding in expression; strong in
every attribute which compels obedience, he was accomplished also in the
qualities that win it. Poetry, music, architecture, he loved with extreme
desire; he advanced them with a noble zeal. In some points he resembled
Bonaparte. Like Bonaparte, he arose from the people, and sat upon his throne by
their will; like Bonaparte, his people adored him, and would endure to the last
extremity of human nature for his interest. Like Bonaparte, he was a conqueror.
His circumstances were created by the age, and not by himself. He had to meet
and to subdue them as best be could. Like Bonaparte, he was a dictator. He had,
to be sure, his great and mighty men, for he knew, by the glance of a look, the
man who was born to control his associates; and as he knew the man, he selected
him. Like Bonaparte, he was a legislator. He gave his people laws, and he established
among them a settled and systematic administration. But he had a piety, and a
faith, and a devotional sensibility, of which the mighty modern had not a
single impulse. There is another modern, to whom David also bears, in some
degree, a resemblance--Peter the Great, of Russia. David, as Peter, found only
barbarism in the land; but, ere he died, it was exalted and civilised. The
great king of Israel, as the great czar of Russia, was the patron of every art,
and the friend of every genius who could raise his country into prosperity and
dignity. He found his brethren dwelling in tents; he departed from among them
living in palaces. He found them scattered tribes; he left them a collected and
compacted nation. Under the guidance of his stupendous mind, the land was
filled with plenty, the sea was covered with commerce, literature was
encouraged, industry was successful, victory waited on arms, and wisdom
prevailed in counsel. If we contrast David with Saul, David appears as superior
as heaven is to earth. It is superiority, not of an improved succession, but of
a new creation. Saul, like David, was exalted from common to kingly life. Saul,
like David, was a man of battle, and a man of blood; and here the resemblance
closes. To the end, Saul was only the savage warrior, a man of might and
daring, a man of prowess and enthusiasm. This agrees fully with his personal
qualities, and is in nowise opposed to his original condition. It is all that
we might imagine, and our expectations are neither surpassed nor contradicted.
Commanding in the qualities which make a man of war, David had, in more signal
perfection, those which in a better period would have made a man of peace.
2. The history of David leaves one impression on the mind deeply and
plainly; and that, is that moral principle does not always correspond with
devotional sensibility. I do not say that devotional sensibility is not a fine
element in moral action; nay, I hold that,, without it, the highest beauty is
wanting to character and to virtue. But still, devotional sensibility may be
found in many persons, who are weak in right principles, and unstable in right
purposes. How fervently could David pray, but bow feebly did David practise!
Yet David was not really insincere. It is well and wisely written--“The heart
is deceitful above all things; who can know it?” Much and strange contradiction
there is in life, but less of positive hypocrisy than is imagined. David is a
type of many kings and many men. The example, in this character which Scripture
gives us, is ever and ever repeated in history; and it is as often corroborated
in daily life. And, in our own experience, how changeful and uncertain are our
characters? In an hour we passionately resolve, and in another as recklessly
break our resolution. Instability and inconsistency there are in this, but
sincerity there is in it also. The real philosophy of the matter is that the
religious element, like the other elements of our nature, must be good or bad,
as it is directed. By the religious clement I mean, in this connection, the
faculty which connects us with the invisible and eternal world; and this,
directed by ignorance and passion, may do, without remorse, deeds that have no
name, but, influenced by knowledge and by benignity, raises a man, not simply
to be a little lower than the angels, but to be their equal and their
companion. But the merely devotional man is not necessarily a virtuous man;
nay, he is not necessarily a benevolent man; he may fail in rectitude, or he
may fail in humanity. Of this principle, the whole history of the Church gives
sufficient evidence; for many a devout man has been dishonest, and many a
devout man has been cruel. I do not join in the common cry which stigmatizes
all such as hypocrites. I do not believe that the failings of those on whom the
world charged inconsistency always sprang from deceit: I simply believe that
they were men of partial development, and that, in the exaggerated expression
of some faculties, others were disproportionately, and thence injuriously,
weakened. Wickedness there is abundantly in the world, and so far there is, in
the world, a universal subject and cause of grief. But, when sin unites with
noble gifts, it is exceedingly sinful. Let me offer a few words--a few words on
that, blood-guiltiness, for which some men, through David, assault the Bible.
We are to judge David as we judge other men, by his times and by his
circumstances. His age was one of rudeness and it was one of blood. It was a
period when men got readily into conflict, and when conflict was associated
with little that was forbearing or magnanimous. The barbarian instincts to
contention were those which then were the most developed. Prowess was the great
test of excellence. Might was the principle of right. The military hero was
“the highest style of man.” Shall we make that David’s sin, which was David’s
fate? Was he not a warrior by the necessity of events, rather than by any
personal contrivance? What else could his life have been, but that of warfare?
By what means could he have avoided being, throughout his course, a warrior?
David’s career was splendid and successful. Was he happy? Was he even
moderately happy? When David sat upon the throne of Israel did he never recall,
in melancholy vision, the green pastures and the still waters, where his
breast, was calm, and where his step was free. David was not a happy man.
Despondency settled on his soul, and calamities, treading fast upon each other,
haunted all his latter days. He is an example that no grandeur, no prosperity,
no impunity from station, no glory of command, no flattery of obedience, can
strip sin of its hatefulness or rob it of its sting; that God’s eye is on the
monarch as thy, beggar; that, in the depth of millions, their transgression can
find them out; and that, in the stern truth of God’s own sentence, it can
shriek within their conscience the terrible rebuke of Divine condemnation.
David, too, is an evidence, if evidence were wanted, that grandeur is a poor
shelter against grief. When shame fell upon David’s house, when hatred placed
one child in deadly feud against another, the glare of royalty was a small
matter in the sadness of nature. What was kingship to the English Charles,
when, after arraignment before his own people, he clasped his children for the
last time to his bosom, before his going to the block? What was kingship to the
French Louis when he felt he must leave his helpless wife and orphans to the
mercies of the mad avengers, who began in his own blood the retaliation for
centuries of suffering, which was only to be accomplished in a wilderness of
death? What was kingship to David when his own flesh were his enemies? I have
spoken of David as I proposed, as one within the circle of our imperfect
humanity, and I have spoken of him in the spirit of humanity. In this spirit I
view in him an incarnation of its capacities, and an example of its weakness.
In this spirit I cannot think of him otherwise than in solemn reverence and
solemn sorrow. With this solemn sorrow and solemn reverence, I contemplate his
mighty mind; with reverence I see its grandeur; with sorrow I behold its fall
from that grandeur, to wilder itself in madness, or to lose itself in folly. I
learn how strength may work for wretchedness, how privileges may turn to
penalties. Looking upon David comprehensively, in his greatness, in his
abasement, in his repentance, in his guilt, in his aspiration, in his
affliction, I am reminded of his own words, suggested doubtless by his own
experience--“Verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity!” (Henry
Giles.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》