Defending God’s Honor with David

Message Transcription

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Dr. Jesse Long delves into the story of David and Goliath, presenting it as an example of God working through seemingly impossible situations. He provides archaeological and historical context, situating the story in its time and place, and emphasizing that David's sling was a formidable weapon of war.

Dr. Long contrasts David's faith with Saul's fear, showing how the Biblical author reveals David's heart through his actions and words. He highlights David's motivation to defend God's honor against Goliath's insults, drawing parallels to modern-day challenges faced by believers.

The sermon concludes by encouraging Christians to step out in faith to defend God's honor in various contexts. Dr. Long provides examples ranging from public prayer on national television to life-changing decisions like moving to another country for mission work. He emphasizes that often, honoring God involves living ethical, moral lives in our daily walk, likening it to the faithfulness of the 7,000 who hadn't bowed to Baal in Elijah's time.

TRANSCRIPTION:

The theme for this series of lessons while Carl is away is God of the impossible with miracle stories from the Old and New Testaments. Since today we are looking at the story of David and Goliath, this sermon is an outlier because there are no miracles, no miracles in the story of David and Goliath. However, what David does is viewed apparently by Saul in the army of Israel and by many of us as being an impossible, impossible feat. Yet God is not an actor. God is not an actor.

In the story, this impossible feat is enacted by a young man that God has chosen to replace Saul as king in Israel, a feat that may help us, that may help us better understand how God often works in the world.

In Samuel, David is introduced at the anointing scene in Bethlehem. And as Eliah, David's oldest brother, enters the scene and crosses the stage, God says to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord. Notice that it is in capital letters.

Yahweh. Yahweh looks on the heart. Earlier, Samuel had said to Saul, your kingdom will not continue. The Lord Yahweh has sought out a man after his own heart.

Yet when David enters the scene and crosses the stage, he is simply described as having Niv a healthy appearance or Rudy beautiful eyes. He has beautiful eyes and he is handsome. These are feminine modifiers. In the Old Testament. Nothing, nothing is said about David's heart.

The next thing that is said about David's heart is in our story where Eliath, his oldest brother, said, I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. Now, we could dismiss this as sibling rivalry, but what's so special? What's so special about David's heart? Does the story of David and Goliath help us in some way better understand why God chose David, has rejected Saul and perhaps give us a glimpse, give us a glancepse of what God can do with and through us. If you were freshmen in one of my Intro to the Old Testament classes, we actually did this this last week we would get into the story with Veggieales Dave and the Giant Pickle.

Now, I have to say that there is a lot of poetic license in Veggieales. A few years ago we were in the Elah Valley in Israel where this story takes place. And I hadn't seen this before and I haven't seen it since, but there was a large a really Large watermelon patch in the Alof valley. And I thought to myself, well, if Dave had come down into the valley and selected five plump watermelons, that would have really changed the story for me. But it would have worked well with veggieails.

Relatively recent excavations at the site of Kirbet Kafa from 2007 to 2013. Kafa is situated on the northern edge of the Ela Valley. And you're actually looking through the south gate at Kafa at the Aa valley. Recent excavations have uncovered material remains that may help us put the story in perspective. Joossi Garfinkl and his team have exposed a small fort.

The circumference of this circular fort is 765 yards. You can actually see where I've highlighted the two gates at Katha. One on the west and the other on the south, which is really unusual, really unusual to have two gates, especially for a site of this size. There are no pig bones, no pig bones at kafa. And carbon 14 dating dates this to the time of David.

Garfinkkel and his team associate this site with Shah Arayam. Shah Arayam is mentioned at the end of the story. In retreat, many of the Philistines fall. They are killed along the road to Shah Arayan. In Hebrew, shahar means gate and aim is a dual ending.

So you can translate, translate the name of the city as the city of two gates. On this slide you can see Kafa. Notice that Gaff is to the west, about seven and a half miles to the west, overlooking the coastal plain. Goliath is from Gath and Bethlehem is about 12 miles up into the hill country to the east. David is from Bethlehem.

Notice also Azekah and Soko. Here you see an aerial view where you can locate and see Kafa, Azekah, Soo, and notice the Elah valley there in between. This is how the story begins in Samuel. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle and they were gathered at Soo, which belongs to Judah, and encamp between Soko and Azekah. In eps, Damin and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, the valley of the Terabn, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines.

And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley in between them. They may have been arrayed something, something like this. Here you see a photograph looking down on the south gate. Archaeologists would describe this as a early Iron Age four chamber Gate which is consistent with this is a Judahite site during the time of David. Levine believes that Chatha was Saul's camp and that David actually walked through this south gate down into the valley to meet to accept the challenge from Goliath.

Now there's no way of knowing for sure if this actually is the case, but it is plausible. The Philistines were Greeks from the Aegean area, from the Greek islands, at least many of them were. And a group of them settle along the coast of Palestine right around 1190, 1190 BC. On the left you can see some pottery that is not local Semitic ware, but this is more like Greek pottery, actually Mycenaean 3se pottery from Crete. And of course the Bible says that the Philistines are from Caafor, that they are from Crete.

They settle along the coast of Palestine in Israel. They'the green. They are in the hill country. Parallels between the description of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 and the famous warrior vase. You can see these Greek soldiers.

Parallels between the two situate Goliath as a Greek warrior and suggest that the story of David and Goliath is from an early period, a period that corresponds with the Biblical account. David's sling. David's sling was a weapon of war. You can see on the right some Assyrian soldiers, some slingers represented from Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in 701 BC. You see the slingers and then on the left some Slingstonones the size of tennis balls.

I tell students, I tell freshmens, you know, they'll believe most anything. I tell students that, well, the sling was a bazooka. It was a bazooka in the ancient near east. An original audience would not have imagined a little boy out with our west, our western slingshot. And this is reinforced by that great archaeologist, Agatha Christie.

You did know that she was an archaeologist? I know that she wrote some mysteries on the side. Well, she was married to Max Malewan, an important a serologist. And so she excavated with him in Iraq. Joanne idolizes Agatha Christie for statements like this.

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is. He is in her.

And here on the left you can see 2002, actually an exhibit at the British Museum. Agatha Christie and archaeology. Let me read what she says about the story of David and Goliath. Standing on the mound at Neimrod, I watched the local bird scare an old Arab with his handful of stones and his sling defending the crops from the hordes of predatory birds. Seeing the Acc of his aim and the deadliness of his weapon, I suddenly realized for the first time that it was Goliath against whom the dice were loaded.

David was in a superior position from the start. The man with the long distance weapon against the man that had none. Not so much, not so much the little fellow against the big one as brains against br. Even if this is overstatement, this gives us a more realistic frame for reading the story. And Philip Essler reminds us that Israel, ancient Israel, was an honor shame culture.

And honor shame cultures are group oriented and they are characterized by challenge and response. They're characterized by duelling, which is of course the plot of our story. But what's so special? What's so special about David's heart? The answer emerges, surfaces in the story and perhaps especially in the way the story is told with ilusion.

David is being characterized as a Joseph, a Joseph like figure. From Genesis 39, the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. And then from 1 Samuel 18 and David had success in his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. The statement that Yahweh is with the character and he's successful in everything, as far as I know, is only said about three characters in the Bible.

Joseph, David and Hezekiah, who in 1 Kings 18 and 19 is being characterized as a David like character. Perhaps God will do with David what he did with Joseph, as the family of Jacob was saved by Joseph, but also with the creative use of point of view. With the creative use of point of view, there's contrast that is created in the story. This is one of my favorite point of view slides. Boat land.

Well, often in Bible stories there are differing perspectives, different points of view, and we see this in the story. The story begins with setting the scene and then there is a description of Goliath. And then Goliath speaks. So Saul and Israel, they see Goliath and they hear Goliath. And as readers we are invited also to see and hear Goliath.

Notice what the narrator says about Saul and the army. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Here we have a direct inside psychological view. They'afraid and then verse 24, all the men of Israel, when they saw the men, they fled from him and were very much afraid. But of David.

Notice what the author says as he talked with them with his brothers. Behold, I've underlined Behold. Because in Hebrew narrative, behold is an indicator of perception, point of view. Behold the champion, literally the one in between. The Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before.

In one verse, David both sees and hears Goliath. Now, this is brilliant storytelling. He sees and hears, but there is no inside view that he's afraid. Instead, with what David does and what he says, we see a young man of faith. So there's contrast created between Saul and David.

Saul a man of fear and David a man of faith. But then there is also the repetition, the repetition of key words here especially word, the word defy. That shows us David's response to Goliath. Goliath says, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Now, we usually translate this defy or mock, but actually it has a larger range of meaning.

Goliath is insulting, he is shaming, he is shaming Israel. Notice David's response. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy, that he should, should insult, that he should shame the army of the living God? Notice. For David, he has not just insulted the army of Israel, he has insulted, he is shaming the God of Israel.

This is actually, you can see what he says. What shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away this, this shame, this insult from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should shame the armies of the living God? And to Saul he says, your servant has struck down both lions and bears. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them.

For he has defied, he has shamed the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion, from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. David actually believes that he has the skill to do this. And he said to theistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied this very day. Yahweh will deliver you into my hand.

That all the earth may know that there is, there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh saves not with sword and spear for the battle, the battle belongs to Yahweh. And he will give you into our hand. David believes that God is him and that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is fighting Israel's battles. And so he steps out to defend Yahweh's honor. He steps out to defend the God of Israel.

But what's so special? What's so special about David's art? The inspired author has shown us David's heart, hasn't he? Which is consistent with the indirection of Biblical storytelling. He has shown us in what David has done and perhaps especially in what he has said.

In an increasingly secular culture, wouldn't it be wonderful if there were more people, more of us who were willing to step out to defend God's honor? Just like this group? And there are. There are several Broadway members in this, in this slide, in this picture, just like this group, we are ready to go down into the valley and accept the challenge. We were ready to accept the challenge of Goliath.

But today, the valley or the contest, the battle is not in the valley, is it? It's in the Marketplace, the public square, and with the media, perhaps especially social media. Sometime, sometimes it may be dramatic and confrontational, like with David. It may even be something that is especially brave, like when Dan Orlovsky, an ESPN analyst, led the nation in prayer, as Dar Hamlin known live television, led the nation in prayer, as Damar Hamblin had suffered or was suffering cardiac arrest in a Monday Night Football game. At other times, it may be something that actually is bigger, something that may involve a life choice, like the choice that Holly Cook Hofner and her husband Cody made.

Holly was a 2013 graduate of Lubbock Christian University. She was a children's ministry major, an honors student. She graduated summa cum laude, one of the best students that we've ever had in our Bible program. And she and her husband Cody decided to forego graduate school and instead they moved to Turkey. They moved to Turkey to love, love people like Jesus, people of another culture and another religion.

Now, Holly and Cody are in Lubbock right now. She's about to give birth to her third child. But they're then planning to go to Berlin and work with Turkish refugees. It's not probably a good time for Americans to be in Turkey. But sometimes standing stepping out to honor God may be really something that is momentous and life changing.

More often, it's the daily walk of living ethical, moral, honest lives that reflect the God we serve. Like the 7000. In the days of Elijah, Elijah had defeated the prophets of BAAL in this marvelous miracle where he called down fire from heaven. That devoured a sacrifice. But then Elijah ran in retreat in the face of Jezebel's threat.

Thinking that he was the only one left, he ran to Mount Sinai, where God put him in his place. Elijah, what in the world are you doing here? Well, I'm the only one left. What in the world are you doing here? And then, after giving him some commissions, God says, almost in passing, Elijah, I have 7,000 in Israel who have not kissed, who have not bowed the knee to Bailal, Elijah learned that God doesn't always thunder.

And he doesn't, does he? More often than not, he works in the lives of women and men like us who are just faithful. It's living each day like the 7,000 in Israel who were faithful to the God of Israel. And who knows, who knows with hearts that are committed to honoring him, to honoring him with everything, with our whole self, God just may do something in and through us that others have thought were impossible.

Would you bow with me in prayer? Gracious Father and O Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for the way that you work in our lives. Bless us with the courage, the courage to step out and defend your honor. The courage to live faithfully in the context of a world that appears to have forgotten you.

In your name, O Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.