As we come to our final message in this four – part series on the story of David and Goliath, I am struck by the fact that many professing believers today do not experience victory over Satan, Sin, and Death on a progressive basis. I think this happens simply because we do not fully experience or as one commentator says fully appreciate the victorious work of Jesus at the bloody cross, and the empty tomb, in light of the promise of eternity.2

As we examined last week, far too many professing believers have yet to burn the ships – metaphorically speaking – that give them the option to snuggle with Satan, Sin, and Death, instead of advancing in their relationship with Jesus who has been victorious over our enemies. Far too many of us have a better relationship with the enemy than we do our Savior and King who is Jesus. Notice how David relates to the enemy in our passage today.

41And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45Then David said to the Philistine, “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. 46This 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, 47and 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.”

48When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. 50So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.

55As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56And the king said, “Inquire whose son the boy is.” 57And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

#1: RELATING TO THE ENEMY (VV. 41 – 47)

In verses 41 – 47, the big bully – Goliath – moves toward David and they have a conversation on the battlefield, before they commence to fighting. But how does David relate to his enemy amidst this conversation? Does he coddle the enemy? Does he cower in fear? Does he cozy up to him? Does he agree with anything the enemy says? Not at all!

On the contrary, David sees the disdain the enemy has for him (v. 42), he hears the enemy’s intimidation and belittling (v. 43), he hears the enemy’s demonic curses (v. 43), he hears the enemy’s threats (v. 44), he reminds the enemy of whom he has really defied (v. 45), he tells the enemy how God will ultimately defeat him (v. 46), and then he reminds the enemy who the battle really belongs to (v. 47).

David does not mince his words, he does not cower down, he does not coddle the enemy, he gives no chance for the enemy to think they are friends in any way. The bottom line is that David relates to the enemy as we should all relate to the enemy. He relates to him directly, firmly, truthfully, and courageously. David’s relationship with the enemy is a relationship that is full of wartime language and posturing – not friendly at all.

I love it when David says in verses 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.” David is not playing around here!

David relates to the enemy by making it absolutely clear that he is not coming to him in the strength of modern or earthly weaponry, he is facing his enemy in the name of God, his enemy has defied the Lord, and his enemy needs to understand that God will give David the victory so that everyone, everywhere will know that God is more than powerful to save us from our worst enemies.

David’s relationship with the enemy is as it should be – a wartime combative relationship. We should note that David’s wartime combative relationship with the enemy is completely founded on his faith in God who will be victorious through David over his enemies. This wartime relationship with the enemy is what sets the stage for David’s defeat of the enemy.

#2: DEFEATING THE ENEMY (VV. 48 – 54)

In verses 48 – 54, David defeats Goliath and Israel defeats the rest of the Philistines. As Goliath begins to move forward, David advances straight to the enemy (v. 48), he aims for his enemy’s head (v. 49.), he relies on supernatural strength with his shepherding weapon – the slingshot – (v. 50), he takes the kill shot by using the enemy’s own weapon against him (v. 51), and then all Israel chases the enemy down, they give them no quarter, and they defeat them completely (vv. 52 – 54).

The author tells us in verses 50 – 52 that “David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his [Goliath’s] sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it” and then, as the rest of the enemy fled, Israel pursued them and defeated them (vv. 51 – 54).

What I see here is God doing something so unexpectedly miraculous through David that it emboldened God’s people to pursue the same kind of victorious lifestyle by having the same kind of wartime combative relationship with the rest of the enemy.

Defeating the enemy requires not only a wartime combative relationship with the enemy, but it also requires a ruthless, head-on confrontation, with full faith that God will do what he always does which is to save us from our enemies in unexpected and miraculous ways.

That knowledge, that this is who God is, and that this is what God does for those who have trusted in him, that knowledge is probably the most crucial aspect of waging war against our enemies and living in the victory that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. We will never wage this war and walk in victory if we do not know who we are and who we belong to. This brings us to our final portion of the text.

#3: KNOWING WHO AND WHOSE YOU ARE (VV. 55 – 58)

In verses 55 – 58, King Saul inquires as to who David is and David tells him exactly who and whose he is – namely that he is the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite. Now this entire scene seems to be a little out of place since we know that David has been serving Saul with his harp playing to relieve him from the demonic spirit, and we also know that Saul and David spoke to each other right before David defeated Goliath.

Commentators give many reasons as to why this scene was placed here, in an out of order sort of way.3, 4 At the end of the day, it seems like the best interpretation here – in my opinion – is that the author set this scene out of order to drive home the point that though Saul will attempt to adopt David to make David into his own in-house champion for the purpose of riding the shirt-tails of David’s victory, David will never lose sight of who he is and who he actually belongs to.

When David answers Saul’s question of his identity, David, the young shepherd boy who had been anointed by God as the one true king of Israel, chosen by God’s own heart, answers with, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite” (v. 58). I do not want to stretch the meaning of the text too far, but in David’s answer, I think we see a young man who knew exactly who and whose he was and by default, he knew who he was not, and he knew who he would never belong to.

This is what I like to call the identity factor. The only way to experience victory in this life of following Jesus is to know exactly who you are in Christ Jesus and to also know that you belong to Jesus. Satan, Sin, and Death have no right to make you their pawn in their war against God. Every time you snuggle up with Satan, Sin, and Death, you are living in a false identity – one that identifies with darkness. But when you resist Satan, flee from temptation, and stare unflinchingly into the face of death, you are identifying with Christ, who is your savior and King.

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, the only reason that we experience defeat in our war against Satan, Sin, and Death is because we fail to recognize and to stand upon the truth of our being made into sons and daughters of a Savior and King who won the victory for us at the bloody cross, and the empty tomb, and has then given us the hope of eternity beyond this broken sin-filled world. David was a valiant king and savior for Israel but Jesus is the better David!

When Jesus went to that cross, he did it because he possessed a wartime combative relationship with the enemy. When he left that tomb empty on the third day, it was evidence that he had looked the enemy in the eye, he ran towards the enemy, he took the kill shot straight to the head of his enemy with an unexpected and miraculous weapon known as the cross that he bore on our behalf.

The cross could not hold him; the tomb is empty. Jesus has been victorious over Satan, Sin, and Death. Jesus’ identity as the one and only Son of God, who came to take away the sins of the world and effectively defeat Satan, Sin, and Death, is the identity that is given to everyone who trusts in Jesus by grace through faith.

You do not need to live in defeat. You can live in daily victory over Satan, Sin, and Death. You can resist Satan, and he will flee from you. You can put Sin to death daily and you can laugh in the face of Death because of Christ crucified, risen, and returning.

As one commentator reminds us, “The news about Jesus Christ is the news of an extraordinary victory… Jesus Christ has magnificently overcome the enemy, and those of us who belong to him rejoice in the victory he has won for us” therefore we can say with the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:54 – 57, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”5 Victory is ours in Christ Jesus, my friends!!!

The way that you and I relate to the enemy with a wartime combative mentality is by walking in greater relationship with Jesus, our victorious King. The way we defeat the enemy is by walking in greater relationship with Jesus, our victorious King. The way we rest in our identity in Christ is by walking in greater relationship with Jesus, our victorious King. Christ has been victorious over our enemies, and His victory is ours to walk in on a daily basis as we advance in our relationship with him. – 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), 335 – 344.

3 Ibid., 343 – 344.

4 Victor, P., Hamilton, Handbook on the Historical Books, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Publishing Group, 2001), 260 – 261.

5 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 335.