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We're going to talk tonight about faith-to-faith giants.

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This is perhaps one of the most well-known of all incidents the Bible records.

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Boys and girls in Sunday school learn about David and his battle with Goliath.

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First Samuel, chapter 17.

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The valley of Elah, which is mentioned here, is to the west and southwest of Bethlehem,

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where David and his family lived.

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It was about 12 or 15 miles away.

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It was there the battle was taking place between the armies of Israel and Philistia.

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The valley itself runs to the northwest from about Hebron, and it runs almost to the Mediterranean

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Sea.

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At the point where the battle was thought to have taken place, the valley is about a

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mile wide and has a ravine with a brook in it.

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So you can see that it was the ideal kind of a place for the type of battle that is

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recorded in 1 Samuel, chapter 17.

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On either side of this valley there were hills or mountain ranges so that the armies were

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gathered on those ranges with the valley in between.

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And it was in that valley that Goliath would come forth each day to give his challenge.

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Let's read about it in verse 1.

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Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle, and they were gathered at Soka,

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which belongs to Judah, and they encamped between Soka and Azekah in Ephes Dammim.

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We are told that that last name means border of blood, which gives you a little bit of

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an idea of its history.

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It was the place, apparently, where a lot of battles had been fought between various

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armies through the years.

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And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah and drew

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up in battle array to encounter the Philistines.

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And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain

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on the other side with the valley between them.

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Then a champion came forth from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath,

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whose height was six cubits and a span.

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And he had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale armor, which weighed

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five thousand shekels of bronze.

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He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.

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And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed six

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hundred shekels of iron.

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His shield carrier also walked before him.

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We get the picture of a rather mammoth character.

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Goliath, it would seem, was approximately nine feet, nine inches tall.

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Even Wilt Chamberlain would shrink next to a man over nine feet tall, almost ten feet

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tall.

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And he had a massive armor on.

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The coat of his armor weighed about 125 pounds, if you can imagine that.

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Now most of us would sink underneath 125 pounds, but that was just the armor that he wore.

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Furthermore, it says that his spear was the size of a weaver's beam, which indicates

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that it was very stout and heavy.

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The spear itself weighed about 17 pounds, and the head on it about 16 pounds.

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And so to throw that kind of a thing would be something like trying to throw a shot put,

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only a lot worse.

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Goliath had an attendant who stood before him with a shield.

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I don't think that was because Goliath could not move quickly.

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There is no indication here that he was overweight, shall we say, and unable to get around.

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But the idea of the shield carrier being before him was so that his arms would be free to

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handle the various instruments of war that he had.

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He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, why do you come out to draw

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up in battle array?

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Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul?

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Do you notice how he says that?

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I am the Philistine.

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That was his reputation.

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He was Mr. Philistia.

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He was the guy who was known as the Philistine, and he was very proud of that title.

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Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

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If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants.

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But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve

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us.

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And again, the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day.

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Give me a man that we may fight together.

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You see, what he was asking for was a typical way of fighting in that day.

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If armies were reluctant to clash in a full-scale battle, they would on occasion each select

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a representative warrior, and the two of them would fight.

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And then the one that won claimed victory, not only for himself, but for his whole army.

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And that's what Goliath was asking for.

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It was rather common at that time.

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When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and

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greatly afraid.

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So that is the picture.

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We have here a giant challenging the armies of Israel.

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Who is this Goliath?

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Well, apparently he was a descendant of the Anakim.

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You say the who?

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The Anakim lived among the Canaanites at the time that the spies were sent into the land

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when Israel was encamped at Kadesh Barnea.

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It apparently was them, according to Numbers chapter 13, that caused the spies to return

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with such terror of the inhabitants of the land.

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It is because of this particular group of people who were quite large that they came

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back and said, we are but grasshoppers in their sight.

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We can never prevail against them.

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It was the Anakim that caused them to come back, so afraid.

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And it seems as though Goliath was a descendant of them.

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You notice that he was from the city of Gath in Philistia.

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At the time that Joshua led the people of Israel into the land and led the armies in

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conquest, they destroyed many of the Anakim.

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But there were a few of them left, according to Joshua chapter 11, verses 21 and 22.

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And it mentions there some of the cities where these giants lived, even after the battles

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in the days of Joshua.

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And Gath is one of the cities that is mentioned.

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And so this man is a descendant from those people.

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He came back to haunt Israel, so to speak, because the earlier ancestors of the Israelites

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had not cared for the Anakim as they were supposed to in destroying them all.

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The Bible doesn't say this, but tradition states that it was Goliath who killed the

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sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas.

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They deserved the judgment of God.

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In fact, God had prophesied their deaths because of their terrible immorality as priests of

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God.

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But tradition says it was Goliath who actually did them in, and that it was Goliath who captured

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the ark of God and took it home to Philistia in those days of Eli.

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In the story that is before us, we're going to see that David possessed a faith that could

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face a giant.

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No one else in Israel had that kind of faith, apparently.

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For when the giant shouted his challenge to the armies of Israel, the response of the

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army was to withdraw in terror and to talk about the giant.

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But no one had the faith to face him.

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It was on that day that David was sent by his father with a gift for the armies as well

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as a request that he bring back from the battlefront a word regarding his brothers, his three oldest

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brothers.

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So receiving that charge from his father, David arose early in the morning, left his

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flocks in the care of someone else, and went to the camp as the army was going out in battle

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array shouting their war cry.

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Verse 21, And Israel and the Philistines drew up in the battle array, army against army.

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David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line

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and entered in order to greet his brothers.

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As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath, named Goliath, was

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coming up from the army of the Philistines.

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And he spoke these same words, and David heard them.

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When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid.

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And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who is coming up?

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Surely he is coming up to defy Israel.

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And it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will

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give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.

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And so we see that Saul had thrown in a little bribe here if anybody would dare have the

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courage to go out to kill this man.

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And Saul's offer was that he would make the man great with riches, that the man could

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marry Saul's daughter, and he would never have to pay taxes again.

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Now you would think if there was not a man who had faith enough to do it, there would

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be a man who would want all those spoils enough to do it.

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But alas, that was not the case.

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David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, What will be done for the man

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who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

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For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?

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And the people answered him in accord with this word, saying, Thus it will be done for

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the man who kills him.

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Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger burned

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against David.

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And he said, Why have you come down?

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And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

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This is dripping with sarcasm.

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I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart.

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You have come down in order to see the battle.

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He says, You have just come down here to watch to see what's going to happen, you little

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runt.

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And who's taking care of your sheep back home?

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Why don't you go back where you belong and leave the fighting to the big boys?

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David said, What have I done?

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Was it not just a question?

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And so he turned away from him to another and said the same thing, and the people answered

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the same thing as before.

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When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him.

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And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail on account of him.

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Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

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And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine, to fight with him,

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for you are but a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.

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David said to Saul, Your servant was tending his father's sheep, when a lion or a bear

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came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him and rescued

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it from his mouth.

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And when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

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Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear.

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And this uncircumcised Philistine, you get the idea David didn't think a whole lot of

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him, will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.

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David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the

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bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

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And David, Saul said to David, Go and may the Lord be with you.

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I think he probably kind of scratched his head as he said it.

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But then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head and he

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clothed him with armor.

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And David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them.

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So David said to Saul, I cannot go with the ease, for I have not tested them.

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And David took them off.

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And he took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook

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and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even his pouch.

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And his sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine.

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So the tension mounts.

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You can just see this, can't you?

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Here's the army of the Philistines on the far side of the valley, about a mile away.

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And you can hear them laughing and jeering as this lad steps forth from the ranks of

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the Israelites to do battle with their champion, Goliath.

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The Philistine came on and approached David with a shield bearer in front of him.

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And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and

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ruddy with a handsome appearance.

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And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?

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And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

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The Philistine also said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds

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of the sky and the beasts of the field.

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David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin,

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but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel

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with whom you have taunted.

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This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands and I will strike you down and remove

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your head from you, and I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this

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day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know

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that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does

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not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you

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into our hands.

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Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that

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David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

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David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine

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on his forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell on his face to the

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ground.

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Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine

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and killed him, but there was no sword in David's hand.

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Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of his

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sheet and killed him and cut off his head with it.

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And when the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

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David, this teenager, possessed a faith that could face giants, and all of the seasoned

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soldiers and the ancient men of Israel had not faith like that boy.

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What are the characteristics of David's faith?

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Three of them.

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Consider them with me.

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Number one, his faith had been born and matured in private.

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David's faith had not been born before a television camera like so many of our celebrities these

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days, but rather his faith had been born on the hills around Bethlehem as he shepherded

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the sheep.

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It was matured in private where no one saw him.

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How did his faith develop?

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Well, undoubtedly he had been taught the word of the Lord in the household of his father

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Jesse.

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But as a shepherd, he had done several things.

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Number one, he had studied the creation.

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On those nights out there on the hills after the sheep had been bedded down in the fold,

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David looked up into the stars and he saw the handiwork of God.

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A number of the Psalms reflect his thoughts as he was there on the hillsides.

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Let me just read to you what one of them says.

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O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth, who has displayed thy splendor

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above the heavens.

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In another place, he wrote years later, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament

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showeth his handiwork.

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As David laid out under the stars at night, his soul absorbed a great understanding of

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the majesty and the might of God, and that caused faith to be born within his breast.

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Secondly, he meditated upon the word out there on the hills.

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In one place, he wrote, I delight to do thy will, my God.

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Thy law is within my heart.

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His was the spirit which echoed, O how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day.

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David did not have a Bible to take on the hillside with him.

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He memorized it.

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He hid God's word in his heart.

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And then he began to think about it day after day and night after night.

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And as he meditated upon the word of God, faith was born in his breast.

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And then he came personally to know the Lord.

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We don't know when that took place or what age he was, but sometime in his youth, that

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faith was born and he became one of the Lord's own.

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So that later he said, the Lord is my shepherd.

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He's mine.

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And I shall not want.

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So David had the kind of faith that was born in private, not only that, but matured in

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private.

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It had been exercised in lonely conflicts.

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Had not the Spirit of God chosen to record these words for us in chapter 17, we would

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never have known about the lion and the bear that he killed with his own two hands.

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And the language there seems to indicate that that happened on more than one occasion.

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There may have been several times that he killed the predators of his sheep with his

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own hands.

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No one knew about that.

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David didn't brag about it.

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He simply mentioned it at this point to prove that he was capable of doing battle against

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an enemy.

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You see, in the loneliness of those hours out there as a shepherd, his faith had been

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matured.

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He believed God for great things.

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We must learn first to conquer those temptations and trials and giants that come to us in private

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if we would know greater and public victories.

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Because David had, when it came to the public test, he was ready for it.

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F.B.

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Myers said, what we are in solitude, we shall be in public.

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Saul was also revealed at this time.

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What he was in private, he was revealed here in public.

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It's sad, isn't it?

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But the more positive one is David.

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What he was in solitude was now revealed in public.

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He was ready.

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The secret victories had prepared him for his public battles.

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Sometimes we think that faith, if it's going to be great, must be in the spotlight.

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But I would suggest to you that great faith does not grow in the spotlight, but rather

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it grows in the dark closet or on the lonely hilltop when one is alone with God.

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Is that not the record of Hudson Taylor in China, of William Carey in India, of Adoniram

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Judson in Southeast Asia, and other greats who have believed God for marvelous victories?

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It was not done under the heat and the focus of the public eye, but it was done there in

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private on the lonely battlefield.

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One characteristic of David's faith is that it was born and matured in private.

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Such it is with some of you.

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Not well known, according to the world standards perhaps, but you are learning what it is in

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your own battles in your private world to have victory.

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Those victories are important not only for today, but for what you will be in the future.

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God is preparing you in private for public service.

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Don't be discouraged that the spotlight is not flipped on.

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In fact, rejoice that it's not on you.

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When God sees that it can be turned on, if it's His will, He'll see that it is turned

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on.

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Will then be content to allow your faith to be matured in private places.

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Beware of faith which has been tried and tested in the unusual and in the spectacular.

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Beware of the kind of faith that has to have a miracle every day to sustain it.

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Faith that will slay giants must be a disciplined faith.

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It must be harnessed in the leather of living one day at a time.

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And so I say the second characteristic of David's faith is that it had been tried and

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tested in daily life.

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Not only born and matured in private, but it had been tried and tested in the daily

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life.

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He mentions here in this chapter, verses 17-20, just some of the normal kinds of things that

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would take place in his life.

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The shepherding, going to check on his brothers, taking a gift to the army.

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These are not spectacular, unusual things.

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This is not some great arena.

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These are just the routine things.

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He was simply doing what his father asked him to do.

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I would say to you that it is there that faith has its greatest trials and tests.

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Great faith is not incompatible with the daily grind, with the daily routine.

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Indeed, that is where it is tested most satisfactorily.

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I know that there are some of us who plead for release from the ordinary in order that

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we might do the extraordinary.

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But before God will ever allow us to do the extraordinary, we must do first things first

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and learn to allow our faith to be tested and passed in the routines of life.

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David had learned to do the monotony of the ordinary.

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He had learned to do the routine things well.

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And then God put him into the valley of Elah for this battle with Goliath.

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When my mother was 32 years of age, she became a widow.

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My father died very suddenly.

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My mother was left with four of us children.

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I was the oldest at eight years of age.

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We were eight, six, four, and about one and a half.

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She was left on a farm with no income and a debt that was probably greater than the

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value of the farm in that day.

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My mother was not a Christian at that point, but it was through that experience that she

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came to know the Lord within about a year.

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And for another six years after that, my mother worked hard.

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During those years that we were young, she did the milking.

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She took care of the sheep on those cold winter mornings when they had to be fed.

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She's the one who, if you'll pardon the term, slopped the hogs.

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She's the one who worked at the grocery store as a checkout clerk to have enough money to

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buy food for four children.

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As we got older, we were able to help her with some of these things.

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I watched my mother's faith grow, and I guess I'll never escape from the lessons that I

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learned watching her.

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My mother today is not well known.

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She is about to retire now from the post office in the little town of Kansas where I grew

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up.

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Her name has not been ever emblazoned in lights anywhere.

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Never will be.

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My mother has a faith that is greater than some of those that have their names in lights.

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Her faith has never been in the Valley of Elah.

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Her faith has matured.

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It has been tried.

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It has been tested in the Valley of the routine of life.

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It is doing the ordinary kinds of things, but what a faith she has.

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There are times when the simplicity of it and the depth of it put me to shame.

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There are some of you, moms and dads here, who can identify very closely with what my

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mother went through.

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It is good for all of us, and especially you, to remember that it is in the routines, it

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is in the daily rituals and the daily grind that our faith is really put to the test and

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where it grows.

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It was that kind of faith that David had.

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I noticed something else about David's faith here in his daily life, his daily expression.

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His faith was able to make an adjustment between prominence and lowliness.

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You see, David at some times was brought before King Saul to play his harp and to give him

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some soothing music when that evil spirit would come upon him.

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So he was in a prominent place.

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He was in the very presence of the king.

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Apparently when the period passed and the evil spirit would release its oppression on

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him, David would go back home.

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It was at home that he was called to this battle, as you see.

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David knew what it was to be one week in a prominent place and the next week to be back

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home by himself with a sheep, and that did not throw him a curve.

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He knew what it was to be prominent or to be lowly.

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The alteration between the court and the sheepfold also caused his faith to grow.

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Faith like David's is faith that can handle the news conference or which can be ignored

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at the counter, the checkout counter.

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It's faith that is not sustained or is not great because it is well known all the time.

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In fact, it's faith that is totally removed from that kind of thing.

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It is faith that can either accept being acknowledged or can accept being ignored altogether.

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It's that kind of faith.

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It was tested, you see, in the daily routine of his life.

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Furthermore, in this daily routine, his faith was the kind that could accept unjustified

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rebukes and misunderstanding like that which his brother gave to him.

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His brother was very unkind and unfair in verse 28.

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Perhaps out of shame for his own lack of faith, Eliab spoke as he did.

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But that did not cause David to be alarmed.

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We see here a meekness of spirit which was simply, again, an expression of his faith.

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He was misunderstood, but David did not try to defend himself, but rather he simply left

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it in the hands of God.

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You see, that's the kind of faith that's a great faith, the kind that goes through the

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daily routines, the kind that goes through periods of misunderstanding and unjustified

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rebuke and is not shattered.

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It's tested, it's tried there in the daily life experience, and it goes on.

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That's the kind of faith David had.

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There's a third characteristic of his faith that I want to talk about, and then we will

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be done.

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David's faith was not only born and matured in private, tried and tested in daily life,

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but David's faith gave him insight and wisdom in his battle.

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It was an insight and wisdom which his peers did not have.

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In the first place, David saw the real challenge while everybody else missed it.

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Everybody else was saying, this fellow, Goliath, is challenging the army of Israel.

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You know what David's response was?

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Do you know what his faith saw?

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Do you know what his vision was?

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This uncircumcised Philistine is challenging the armies, not of Israel, but of the living

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God.

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You see, he saw the battle as it really was.

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He saw the real challenge.

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It seems as though to the others, the armies of Israel served a God who was irrelevant

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and dead.

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He was not really a part of the picture.

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But David's faith was such that God was alive to him, and for this enemy to challenge the

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armies of Israel was for him to challenge God himself.

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So David stepped up to that challenge as he saw it.

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Not only did his faith give him insight into the real challenge, but he saw the only answer

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to the challenge.

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It was not to be found in a massive army or in heavy armor, which he was offered by Saul.

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So David, in verses 45 through 47, clearly states that the battle was God's.

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He says that God is Lord Sabeoth.

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He is the Lord of hosts.

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That is the name of God when he goes into battle.

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David saw that the only answer to this giant was God, and he called God's power into action

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by his faith.

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This was not David's battle to win, but it was his to wage.

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He did not wage it alone, but he waged it in the strength that God gave to him because

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of his faith.

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And then David's faith gave him insight and wisdom regarding the expected result.

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It is interesting that the victory did not surprise David at all.

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He expected the victory all along.

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He told Goliath exactly what would happen.

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He said, I am going to kill you and cut off your head.

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And within a few seconds, that had taken place because David reached in his bag, took out

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one of the stones, and those were not pebbles, by the way.

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Those stones were probably two to three inches in diameter.

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And he put that in his sling, which was made of leather, had two long thongs with a pocket.

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The Jews were very skilled with these, and putting that stone in there, he began to sling

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it around his head this way, and one end of the sling was released at just the right moment,

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and that stone went flying.

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And it says that it sunk into the forehead of Goliath.

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Now, he was so well armored that his forehead was probably about the only thing exposed,

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except maybe his mouth, which was very active.

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And you just pictured this now.

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David is out before him.

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The stone comes to hit him.

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How is he supposed to fall?

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Right?

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But he didn't.

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He fell flat on his face, which seems to indicate to me that it was not just the stone that

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David flung at him, but it was the hand of God that finished him off.

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He went down on his face, and there, mortally wounded, he was slain by David as David took

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Goliath's own large sword and severed his head from his body.