"Slaying Giants"

It is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible, the battle between David and Goliath. This tale of the young boy who, using only a sling shot, defeats a mighty giant of a warrior, has become the iconic tale of the triumphant underdog.

In my previous job, part of my responsibilities were to lead a weekly chapel service for preschoolers. The children loved this story, their eyes growing wide with delight at the thought of someone not much older or bigger than them winning such a huge battle.

My guess is that many of us have not heard this story since we were children ourselves. Hearing it again as adults, we may be surprised to realize that this iconic story is much more than a children’s fairy tale about a young boy defeating a bullying giant.

This is a story about the power of the living God of Israel.

The power we first see in this story is the power of Goliath, a giant of a man. (I’m not sure how they know this, but an article I read this week speculated that Goliath was six feet, nine inches tall – noticeably tall even today, but truly a giant 2,500 years ago).

If Goliath’s size wasn’t intimidating enough, his weaponry added to his warrior persona – helmet of bronze, coat of mail, weapons of a size that only a giant could carry.

And his ego is of appropriate size, too -- brash, bullying, intimidating.

“Why have you come out for battle?” Goliath taunts Israel’s soldiers. “Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we might fight together.”

Goliath engages in the shock and awe of his day.

Or as Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann says in an article on this story, “Goliath is the whole military-industrial-technological enterprise personified, who not only traffics in arms, but trades on intimidation.”

And that intimidation works.

Israel’s army and its king, Saul, cower in fear at Goliath’s taunting. That fear is heavy in the air when the young boy David arrives at the army encampment to bring lunch to his older soldier brothers.

As David goes to greet his brothers, he hears Goliath’s taunts. But unlike Israel’s professional soldiers and leaders, he is unfazed by them.

The young shepherd boy goes and reassures the king. “Let no one’s heart fail because of him,” he tells Saul. “I’ll go and fight with this Philistine.”

It is a remarkable boast from a young boy, the eighth son of a poor family, who spends his days doing the menial work of tending sheep.

David’s naiveté and innocence stir Saul, for whom the battle is lost before it has even begun.

“You can’t do that; you’re just a boy,” he says scornfully.

But David, unafraid of meeting a giant in battle, is also not afraid to stand up to a king. So David speaks again, telling Saul of times when he has stood up to danger while guarding the sheep.

“Your servant has killed both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God,” David says.

“The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”

With this speech, David introduces a new actor into this story, “the living God.”

“Not your standard political flag or your religious cliché,” Brueggemann says, “but a living actor in the drama whose power and presence and purpose reposition everyone. The odd claim of ‘the living God’ reshapes the conflict in ways that neither Saul nor Goliath could discern.”

It takes the shepherd boy to introduce the God of Israel into the story. Israel’s king, Saul, doesn’t do it, as if he thinks Israel’s God is irrelevant to the reality of life. Saul and Israel have forgotten their own story and have adopted as true the false story of Goliath.

“It is David who utters the name,” Brueggemann says.

“And in that moment of naming, David makes available to Saul and to all the generations of listeners since then (including us), the long recital of inexplicable transformations and inversions by which marginal ones are made free, empires are made weak, dead people are made alive, and the world begins again.”

Brueggemann adds that he believes the reason this story has been kept alive is precisely so we can hear this speech, again and again.

We, like Saul and the Israelites, must be reminded that the living God, our God, is relevant to all aspects of our lives, is always ready to do battle against oppression and injustice.

We, like Goliath and the Philistines, must be reminded that the weapons of shock and awe are not the weapons of God, that relying on brute force and intimidation is not the way of the Lord.

When Saul hears David’s speech, the king is moved to action and almost to belief. “Go,” he tells David, “and may the Lord be with you!”

But then the king’s deeply ingrained fear kicks in, and he insists on clothing David in his armor and arming the boy with the king’s weapons. The king cannot imagine any other weapon defeating the giant.

But David immediately recognizes that the king’s armor and weapons will do him no good.

“If you want to be killed by the Philistines,” Brueggemann says, “imitate the Philistine, dress like him, think like him, and talk like him, and you will die.”

So David goes off to battle armed with a bag of rocks and the name of the God of Israel.

Goliath is disdainful when he sees who has come to do battle with him. “Come on boy, let me feed you to the birds and wild animals,” he taunts.

The bully’s threats do not deter David from his mission. As Goliath shows his weapons, David introduces his own.

“You come to me with sword and spear and javelin,” David responds, “but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

“In the face of that shamelessness which breeds where there is great power, David utters the name,” Brueggemann says. “And all of a sudden, worldly dominance is recast as arrogant defiance. The change happens because of the name.”

“This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand,” David tells the giant. “And I will strike you down…so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear.”

Goliath has no answer to David’s speech. Instead, the giant moves toward the shepherd boy.

The ending is almost anticlimactic in its brevity. As Goliath moves forward, David reaches into his bag, takes out a stone and slings it, hitting the giant in the forehead. Goliath crumples to the ground; the threat that intimidated all in Israel save a young boy is gone.

The story of David and Goliath has been an apt background to the riveting story being played out on our TV screens this week, as Iranian citizens go up against the monolithic powers of corruption and brute force and intimidation.

In this story we are reminded that the God of freedom and justice and peace breaks out in ways that regularly surprise the rulers of this age, whether they are arrogant Philistines, hopeless Israelites, or ruthless dictators.

But this story is also a reminder to all of us that life need not be lived on the terms of fearful Saul or brazen Goliath, life need not be lived in a state of fear or as an arrogant purveyor of intimidation and power.

“Those are not the options before us, because neither is an act of trust,” Brueggemann notes. “There is another ‘more excellent way’ that keeps our living free from the corruptions of fear and power.”

That way asserts what Goliath and Saul never guessed, that God “will not be subject to the landscape of the Philistines, nor to the weariness of Israel.”

Brueggemann suggests that we need to repeat this story and others like it often to keep us from selling out to fear and power.

“We sell out because we wear Saul’s armor,” he says. “We imitate the Philistines, we doubt David’s speech, we forget the name, we are incapable of radical freedom to speak the world different.

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Readings

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

"There came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!” Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.” When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

As we work together with Christ, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything. We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

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