In my twenty-plus years of preaching the Bible, I am constantly surprised at how God orchestrates the preaching of specific passages of His Word in the midst of specific circumstances at the personal level, church family level, and cultural level. It was over a year ago when I first laid out this series in 1 Samuel. From that point forward, we have studied through this book, chunk by chunk, according to the outline I created, and we have not deviated from it. And here we are today, studying a passage about the biggest bully in all of Scripture.
The story of David and Goliath is a well-known story. Goliath is the schoolyard bully, Israel and Saul are the cowards who are too afraid to face the bully, and David is the little teenage boy who miraculously defeats the bully in a supernatural display of courage.
This story, of course, comes at a time when all Israel and her chosen king, Saul, have rejected God, walked in utter disobedience to God, have allowed the enemy to progressively work its way deeper and deeper into the heart of the land and are now guilty of doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord (at least as far as King Saul is concerned according to 15:19). Long story short, Israel has rejected God, and her rejected king has done what is evil in the sight of the Lord and now they are facing a big bully who is picking a public fight with them. Look at the passage with me…
1Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammin. 2And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. 3And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7The 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. 8He 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. 9If 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.” 10And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
#1: THE BULLY PICKS A FIGHT (VV. 1 – 3)
When you examine verses 1 – 3, you get the picture of a school yard bully aggressively picking a fight with his victim who is passively assembled in front of him.2 The language of these first three verses reveals that “the Philistines gathered their armies [aggressively] for battle” in a location “which belongs to Judah” – indicating that Israel had failed to confront and defeat the enemy but had instead allowed the enemy to thrive in their midst, and that “Saul and the men of Israel were [passively or begrudgingly] gathered” in response to the bully picking a fight with them.3
Make no mistake about it, the bully has a picked a fight and his victims are powerless to defend themselves. It is almost as though Israel, and her rejected king have completely given up on the notion that they are a people who have been redeemed by God and that no bully could ever stand a chance against them if they would just cling to their redeeming God and walk in obedience to him. But of course, we all know how difficult it is to obey God when all that your eyes can see is a violent, angry, intimidating, manipulative, undefeated bully standing in front of you.
#2: THE BULLY’S DESCRIPTION (VV. 4 – 7)
Think about the description of the bully with me for a minute; think about what Israel was looking at with their human eyes. The bully’s description in verses 4 – 7 is a description that would strike terror into the heart of even the most capable and well-trained military man. Goliath, the bully, is somewhere between eight and ten foot tall, his armor and weapons weigh as much as an average man, he is an undefeated champion of war, and he is clothed and weaponized with the highest quality of bronze and iron available.4
To the human eye, this bully, is absolutely terrifying. The description of this bully is meant to make us feel the sheer impossibility of ever defeating him. His very appearance is meant to let you and I know that we can never dominate nor defeat him. If you and I attempt to fight him, he will undoubtably prevail against us. And if his appearance is not enough, notice how abusive and intimidating his words are.
#3: THE BULLY’S WORDS (VV. 8 – 10)
In verses 8 – 10, the bully resorts to shouting angry, intimidating, violent words at God’s people as he taunts them, belittles them, and ultimately tries to provoke them into a fight. Standing in the wide open in verse 8, in front of everyone, he screams at God’s people, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul?” In other words, “What do you think you are doing, getting ready to fight me? I am the biggest bully around, and you are nothing but weak little slaves of a rejected king!” Can you hear the belittling? The intimidation? The taunting? The anger? The violent threat of complete domination?
This is what bully’s do; they defy the Spirit of God and attempt to hurt God by bullying God’s people. And it may seem like this bully, in verses 8 – 9, gives a reasonable way for Israel to minimize their losses by offering up a sacrificial lamb – catch the inference to Christ who is our Sacrificial Lamb – so that they only lose one man in battle instead of losing everyone but the reality is that this bully wants to make a mockery of God’s people by exerting his dominance, in a public spectacle of violence and verbal abuse. He literally says, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day.”
There will be no surrender for this bully. He is used to winning fights with his sheer physical and verbal assaults. He enjoys knowing that his victims are afraid of him and he revels in the fact that he can get away with whatever he wants to do because no one has ever stood up to him and defeated him.
He is so used to controlling the situation through his intimidation, manipulation, and coercion, that he does not give a second thought to the damage and destruction he is causing; in fact, he seems to enjoy the abusive little game he is playing with God’s sheep. He loves instilling fear and dismay in his victims because it makes him feel like he is in control and that he has all the power, even though the reality is, bully’s like this are merely weak men who use their skills to prey on God’s sheep who have a tendency to shrink back in fear when a bully reveals his ugly face.
#4: THE FEAR AND DISMAY (V. 11)
This is exactly what Saul and Israel do once they clearly see the bully with their human eyes and hear what he says with their human ears. Verse 11 tells us that “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed (shocked, confused, and paralyzed) and [were] greatly afraid (terrorized, and immobilized)”. This is the desired response that every bully wants.
A bully wants his victims to be dismayed, shocked, confused, paralyzed, terrorized, and immobilized so that he can continue his abuse without hindrance. And of course, in the case of Goliath, the bully of Israel, he gets what he wants for a short period of time.
For a very short time, Goliath is allowed to continue his abusive rampage against the people of God. But make no mistake, the bully will not get away with this for very long. God does not play games with those who bully his sheep. God is holy and just and he will not stand by for very long when a bully is terrorizing his people.
APPLICATION…
Now by way of application, we need to do a little thinking about the bullies in our lives. As I said at the beginning of this message, I am always a little surprised and honestly more than a little grateful for God’s sovereign hand revealed in the timing of preaching His Word. I can always see specific ways that the passage I preach on any given Sunday was meant to speak directly to things happening in my personal life, the culture around us, and in the life of the church family.
In my personal life, I grew up with a parade of men who came in and out of our home who loved to bully my mom and my sister. I remember all too clear, a night when one of my mom’s boyfriends took a baseball bat to the car that my mom and I and my sister were trying to escape in. It was horrific, terrifying, and confusing. I was dismayed and greatly afraid. This bully was more than I could handle. And I vowed that I would never be victimized by a bully like that again.
As far as the culture is concerned, I do not think it is difficult for us to look upon the world we live in and see big bad bullies with our human eyes. Whether it is the recent public assassination of Charlie Kirk and the ongoing war that is ramping up across our nation in the wake of that tragic event or the rising levels of crime rates, domestic abuse cases, and the subjugation of women and children for the pleasure of predatorial men… there are plenty of bullies in the culture we live in and we see it every day.
In the western church today, bullies typically have the loudest voices and are some of the most charismatic and likeable people on the surface, while behind closed doors, they commit unspeakable evils against the weak and vulnerable; they get some sick pleasure out of devouring God’s blood bought sheep. But God’s Word is clear about how he deals with bullies like these. Let these words ring in your ears:
Psalm 11:5 “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” God’s soul hates the wicked bully who loves violence.
Colossians 3:5 – 8 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” God’s wrath is coming for those bullies who make any of these things their walk of life.
Jeremiah 23:1 – 2 “‘Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: ‘You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.’” God does not play games with bullies who commit evil deeds against his blood bought sheep.
Ezekiel 34:2 – 4, 10 “Ah shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them… No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.” The bottom line here… there is no room in the body of Christ for leaders or members who use and abuse other people just to satisfy the evil cravings of their own bellies.
Psalm 5:4 – 6 “you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” God unleashes his hatred against bullies who do evil things while living in their web of deceitful lies.
Psalm 7:12 – 16 “If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.” God actively pursues unrepentant bullies with deadly force and uses their own weapons of abuse to stop them in their tracks.
We could do this all day long!!! God does not play games with bullies. God is the God of the weak and vulnerable. God will always intervene between bullies and their victims. Goliath will not last much longer! A few weeks from now we will read these words from David as he faces down the biggest human bully in all of Israel’s history.
1 Samuel 17:45 – 47, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with 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 defied. This 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 host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
Rest assured my friends, as you look upon your own life where you may have been wounded by a bully, or you look into the culture we live in where bullies seem to run rampant, or you look at the modern church where bullies come and go, rest assured, the Lord saves and he will eventually deal with the bullies on this earth with a rod of iron.
We must remember that the biggest bullies we face as believers are not the human bullies that leave their marks on our bodies and our souls with their fists and words. No! The biggest bullies we face are spiritual bullies known as Satan, Sin, and Death. My commentary reminded me that, “All of us face an enemy, and army of enemies, as real, powerful, and terrifying as Goliath. Satan himself seeks whom he may devour. Sin threatens to bring us down. Death wields its terrible sword and mocks us all.”5
This army of enemies works day and night to stir up the idols of your heart. Your desire for power, control, acceptance, safety, and comfort get twisted into evil, wicked little bullies who promise you satisfaction if you just obey their impulses. If you could see these idols with spiritual eyes, you would be terrified by the gross ugliness that still lingers in your heart and continues to make its way out in the ways you think and the ways you behave. They really are terrifying bullies who attempt to use you in their war against God.
As terrifying as these enemies are, as much as they love to bully us around with their intimidation, their manipulation, their lies, and their coercion, God’s Word gives us weapons of mass destruction that are designed, not like worldly weapons, but as mighty spiritual weapons that destroy demonic strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4).
We are taught to resist Satan by submitting to Jesus and we are then promised that Satan will flee from us as we walk in submitted obedience to God in the context of the local church (Js. 4:7). Obedient submission to God while resisting Satan is most often visualized as submission to spiritual brothers and sisters who help to lead us and fight with us in this war against our greatest bullies (Eph. 4:21; Heb. 13:7, 17).
We are also taught to put sin to death violently as we surrender to Jesus and put on the mind of Christ as we walk in unified relationships within the body of Christ (Col. 3; Rom. 8). Fighting sin, putting it to death, waging war against our sin, was never meant to be done alone. You were not designed to stand alone on the battlefield doing it your own way. You have been designed to fight sin in a community that lifts high the authority of God’s Word and the sufficiency of the gospel.
Lastly, we are taught that death has no dominion over those who have trusted in, have surrendered to, and are walking in obedient submission to our crucified, risen, and returning King, Jesus (1 Cor. 15:55 – 58; Rev. 1:18; Heb. 2:14). The real problem in the church today is not the bullies in the culture nor the bullies in our past nor even the human bullies we face today.
The real problem in the church today, is that she pretends to be surrendered to Jesus on Sundays while living like death throughout the week; we often praise God with our lips on Sundays while we cuddle with bullies throughout the week. We do this because we forget that death has been defeated. We wind up living for what is right in front of us instead of remembering that death is merely a doorway to eternity with Jesus.
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, can you imagine a fully surrendered body of believers today? Can imagine the spiritual power the church would have today if her members were submitted to one another as they each submit to a crucified, risen, and returning King? Do you know what it would like if the church refused to cower in the basement when bullies started shouting their threats and lies? I would say that when that day comes, the church of the Living God would stand in unison against every bully who dared to defy the armies of God.
The question for you and I is this: Will we stand in the power of the gospel? Will we stand against bullies of any form? Will we stand side by side in this fight against Satan, Sin, and Death? Will we fight together under the shadow of that bloody cross? Will we link arms in the doorway of that empty tomb? Will cling to one another as we remember the promise of eternity?
There is not a bully around who can stand against the power of the Bride of Christ when she picks up the weapon of the gospel and humbly confronts the evil and wicked effects of Satan, in, and Death in our lives. – Amen!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 303 – 304.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., 305 – 307.
5 Ibid., 309.