Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.”
I Samuel 17: 45
The historical record of David going forth to fight Goliath is thick with meaning on several different levels. We love to hear of the underdog besting the overdog. It is a motif that continually enthrals the human heart. It also reminds us that the people of God are a warrior people and come from a long line of dragon-slayers. We need to keep this continually before our young men.
Then, again, as David makes clear in our text, the battle between Goliath and David was spiritual—by which we do not mean that it was immaterial and non-physical. There was a small matter of a tiny stone about to be embedded in Goliath's skull which was all too empirically tangible. His collapse and subsequent beheading was all too material. It was, however, a spiritual battle, because the animus beneath the sword, the spear and the javelin was a disbelieving hatred of God on the part of the Philistines in general and Goliath in particular. This is what led them to despise Israel and Goliath to taunt the God of Israel.
This same spiritual battle continues to this day. Friendship with the world means enmity toward God, James tells us. He who wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4). “World” here means the created realm under the dominion of sin, with all its panoply of devices and machinations against God. Those who repent and believe in the Messiah of God are in this world immediately set apart for ridicule and taunting, as was David, unless it pleases the Lord to restrain the natural inclinations of fallen men.
In the New Covenant there is no nation state, as in the Old. So the enmity and warfare that arises from the taunting and mocking of God is not expressed on the battlefield of clashing armies. This, of course, is not to say that there will never be a time in the history of the New Covenant when Christian nation states arise. It is just to say that we have not yet seen them in a thorough going, consistent fashion. We have seen adumbrations to date in our history, but nothing consistent or “root and branch” as the Puritans would say. When such Christian nations emerge—there may well be times when once again Unbelieving nations will be motivated to go to war against God and His people, and His people will be called to stand upon the walls to defend and protect the innocent with deadly force.
Christians all around the world, face opposition, and even deadly force every day from the same evil spirit which animated Goliath: the weapons of our warfare remain as they have always been—spiritual weapons. Paul summarizes the array of weaponry and equipment available to us employing the extended metaphor of a Roman soldier's armour and equipment. (Ephesians 6: 10—19)
When David went forward to battle Goliath, his wrestling was not against flesh and blood. Not really. The sneering and taunting of Goliath, his sword and spear and javelin, were a manifestation of the real enemy, not the enemy itself. Behind Goliath was the Serpent of old. He was merely employing Goliath's tongue to express his taunts and mockery of God Himself. David knew this. Therefore, he did not place his trust and faith in swords or horses. A king is not saved by his mighty army (Psalm 33:14—17) and a horse is a false hope for victory. Therefore, David did not trust in his bow or his sword. (Psalm 44:6).
So, he testified solemnly to Goliath: "today you will know that there is a God in Israel, who does not deliver by sword or spear; the battle belongs to Him, and Him alone." (I Samuel 17:47). Although David had material weapons—the sling was empirical and the stone was tangible—although he finally despatched the giant with his own sword, his real weapons were spiritual ones: faith, trust, and hope in God and God alone. It was these spiritual weapons which made his material weapons, such as they were, effective and powerful.
When the Unbelieving culture taunts and mocks God, as is more and more the case, we—who come from an ancient lineage of dragon slayers—are to take heart. The more overt the mockery of God, the more God will hasten to the defence of His people, who stand in the breach to bear the brunt of this enmity against the Lord.
It is not a smart thing to do to taunt the Living God, the Lord of hosts.
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