David and the Giant

“The battle is the LORD’s.” — 1 Samuel 17:47

The Philistines came to fight against Israel. Their army camped on one hill, and King Saul’s army camped on another hill, with a valley in between.

Then out of the Philistine camp came a champion called Goliath. He was a giant, nearly three metres tall! He wore a bronze helmet and heavy bronze armour, and he carried a spear as thick as a beam of wood.

Goliath stood in the valley and shouted up at the Israelites. “Choose a man to come down and fight me! If he wins, we will be your servants. But if I win, you will be our servants. I defy the armies of Israel! Send me a man to fight!”

When Saul and the Israelites heard him, they were terrified. Every morning and every evening for forty days, Goliath came out and shouted the same thing. And nobody dared to fight him.

David’s three oldest brothers were in Saul’s army. One day Jesse sent David to take them some food and see how they were. David got to the camp just as Goliath came out to shout again. And David heard him.

“Who is this Philistine,” David said, “that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

David’s oldest brother, Eliab, was angry with him. “What are you doing here? Who’s looking after those few sheep? I know you just came to watch the battle!”

But David went to King Saul. “Don’t let anyone lose heart because of this Philistine,” he said. “I will go and fight him.”

“You can’t fight him,” said Saul. “You’re only a boy, and he’s been a soldier all his life.”

“I look after my father’s sheep,” said David. “When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb, I went after it and rescued the lamb. I have killed lions and bears. The Lord who rescued me from the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine.”

“Go,” said Saul, “and the Lord be with you.”

Saul dressed David in his own armour, with a bronze helmet. But it was too big and heavy, and David could hardly walk in it. “I can’t go in these,” he said. “I’m not used to them.” So he took them off.

Instead he took his shepherd’s staff, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in his shepherd’s bag, and with his sling in his hand, he went down to meet the giant.

Goliath looked at David and laughed at him. “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” he roared.

But David said, “You come against me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. But I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today everyone will know that there is a God in Israel. The Lord doesn’t save with swords and spears. The battle is the Lord’s!”

Goliath came towards him. David ran to meet him. He took a stone out of his bag, put it in his sling, and slung it. The stone hit Goliath right in the forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

David had won, with a sling and a stone. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran.

The giant had seemed far too big for anyone to beat. But David knew that no giant was too big for God.

Read it in your Bible: 1 Samuel 17

Dear God, when I face things that seem as big as giants, help me to remember that the battle is yours. Thank you that you are bigger than anything. Amen.