I want to remind you of a story about a boy and a giant —no not David and Goliath (I will get to them in a minute)—but first let me remind you of Jack and the giant who lived up the beanstalk. The classic English fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk, tells of a boy named Jack climbing a magic beanstalk and finding a giant. The giant falls asleep and Jack steals some bags of gold from the giant. He goes back down the beanstalk to his poor mother and they live well for a while. But the money runs out. So Jack goes back up the beanstalk and this time steals the goose that lays golden eggs. Again, Jack and his mom live well for a time. But, Jack decides to go back up the beanstalk to steal yet one more thing. This time Jack takes a golden harp that plays music all by itself. But as Jack grabs hold of the harp, the harp cries out, “Master, Master!“ The Giant wakes up shouting, “Fe Fi, Fo Fum —I smell the blood of an Englishman!“ The Giant moves toward Jack and what does Jack do? He runs. He RUNS! Of course he does. And, what direction does Jack run? Well, he runs away —AWAY from the giant. Who wouldn’t run away from a giant?
This question brings me to another boy and a giant: David and the Philistine giant, Goliath. When Goliath moves toward David, what does David do? He runs. He RUNS! But, he runs in an entirely different direction than our young friend, Jack. David runs quickly toward the giant. Why, I ask you, would anyone run toward a giant?
Frankly, there is no good human answer to this question. I know David is the hero in our story, but he has all the wrong stuff. Some of you may remember the movie from some years ago entitled, “The Right Stuff.“ It was a movie about the Apollo astronauts. As the movie shows, each of these astronauts had the right stuff. The whole point of the movie is that it takes people with the right stuff to complete a giant task like sending men to the moon. Well, David has the giant task of fighting a real giant and he doesn’t have the right stuff. Not only does David run in the wrong direction (toward the giant instead of away from the giant like Jack in the fairytale has the good sense to do), but everything else about David is wrong as well. David has all the wrong stuff.
Notice, first of all, that David has all the wrong weapons. David has a staff in one hand, a sling in the other hand, and a shepherd’s pouch with five smooth river rocks in it. Now, what kind of weapons are those? The giant takes one look at the staff in David’s hand and says, “Am I dog to be chased with sticks?“ For a huge giant, perhaps approaching nine feet tall, a boy’s shepherd staff would look like a mere stick that he could easily snap in half. David comes, not with a quiver filled with deadly arrows, but with a mere shepherd’s pouch filled with simple stones. Yes, David has a sling and, yes, in that day of ancient warfare a sling was a legitimate weapon. But, instead of “sling stones“, that is, stones specifically ground and polished for use in ancient warfare; David just brings whatever stones he can find in a simple brook. David has all the wrong weapons. How can he run toward the well—armed, well—armored giant, given his complete lack of appropriate weapons?
But it is not just the weapons that are wrong. David himself is wrong. That is, he is the wrong person. David is just a boy. He is a boy who isn’t even supposed to be there at the battle front. His assigned task from his father is to bring bread to his brothers, but now he stands in front of a giant. His oldest brother Eliab who is a warrior in Saul’s army will not fight. Saul himself will not fight. They too may have been overmatched against a giant, but at least they were in the army. They were legitimate soldiers. David is not. He is the wrong person.
In fact, even the battle is wrong. As they say, “you need to pick your battles.“ Well, David should not have picked this battle. Both King Saul and David’s brother Eliab knew that this battle with a giant could not be won. No one in the entire army believed that the battle could be won. The entire military establishment was unwilling to fight the battle, and therefore, it was the wrong battle to fight. But David went ahead anyway.
Then, to top off all that is wrong, David runs the wrong way. He runs quickly toward the giant. All of us, including boys named Jack in fairytales, know that you run away from giants. As I have said, everything is wrong in this text.
To run the wrong direction, as the wrong person, with all the wrong weapons, is pure foolishness on David’s part. David has all the wrong stuff. Don’t you feel that way too? I think that on a spiritual level many of us feel overwhelmed by the giant evil in our world and in our lives today. As a pastor I often have the opportunity to baptize children, infant boys and girls. As I look at the little child who is now a part of the covenant family of God, I think, “What can he or she do in the face of evil?“ I look at the parents, who almost always are younger than me these days, and I think, “What can these two young people do in the face of the giant evils of our day?“ “Don’t they know,“ I think to myself, “that there are those who will tell their child that there is no One Almighty God and that there is no real truth? Doesn’t this young couple, this boy and girl, know that the giants of the land will curse them for teaching their child that there is only one true God?“ I think to myself, “These parents are too young; they don’t have the necessary gifts to fight this battle.“
I look at my congregation, the ordinary people of my church who pledge to walk with the parents of the newly baptized child, and I think, “What can they do in the face of Satan and his lying forces of evil?“ Then most poignantly, I look at myself and I think, “What a joke——what a bad joke, a cosmic blunder it is that I am these folk’s pastor.“ For who am I to guide them in spiritual battle? I fear that I have all the wrong weapons, that I am the wrong person, and that I am fighting the wrong battle. I want to run away. How about you?
Perhaps you recognize the talents and abilities that God has given you to use in your church and family. You do the best you can with what God has given you, but still you feel overwhelmed by the giants of spiritual dryness or doubt. Do you sometimes believe that you just aren’t good enough, big enough, mature enough, or smart enough to live as God’s child?
Perhaps your difficulty is different. Maybe, like King Saul and David’s brother, Eliab, you have won many past victories for the Lord. But now, as Saul and Eliab couldn’t do anything against the Philistine giant, you can’t seem to do anything about your children or grandchildren who have fallen away from the faith. What then?
I, of course, do not know exactly what talents, abilities, spiritual gifts, and weapons that God has given you in life. I don’t know what giants you face. But I do know this. When there are giants in our lives, evil giants, frightening giants, unbeatable giants, our abilities and weapons so often look all wrong just like David’s. So we want to run away.
Earlier this month, on the first Sunday of October, many churches in the United Sates and around the world participated in World Communion Sunday. This is a time for the church around the world, of all nations, of all colors, of all languages to celebrate their common commitment and communion in the Lord of Life. In my experience, it is a glorious Sunday. And yet, I often find myself reflecting on how broken and flawed we in Christ’s church are. I wonder and worry about whether we pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, parents, worship leaders, and faithful members are really up to the giant task of winning the world for Christ. Often I feel like King Saul and I am afraid that the church feels like Saul’s army. That is, we are dismayed and terrified in the face of a giant enemy that we can not beat. In short, I fear that the church is defeated. We are tempted to run, or rather slink away like a dog with our tail between our legs. Yet, David runs quickly toward the giant. How can this be?
Usually, it is at this point in a sermon on David and Goliath that one starts to focus on what fine character and courage David had. We preachers say things like, “We must have the boldness and courage of David to follow our convictions into battle for the Lord.“ It strikes me that while this is true; it misses the point of the text and is not particularly helpful. I don’t know about you, but I’m no David. I don’t think I can do what he did. Moreover, based on my conversations with my parishioners and fellow Christians, most of us don’t think we are Davids. After all, David is famous for a reason. He is exceptional; he is the boy that slew a giant; he is the great king of Israel. We, on the other hand, are just … us. We are not David.
Given that truth, I have good news for you today. The text is not about David. We miss the point of the text if we focus on David. David, after all, does not focus on himself. David makes a speech in 1 Samuel chapter 17 verses 45, 46, and 47. This speech is the focus of the text. It is in these words of David, not in David himself, that we find the right stuff. We find all the wrong stuff in David as a boy, in the weapons he brings, in the direction he runs, and even in the battle he fights; but we find all the right stuff in the words he speaks and in what he believes. He says to the giant, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty.“ In the name of the Lord Almighty David runs toward the giant! Now that’s the right stuff! David doesn’t run because this is his fight or his battle, he says, “The battle is the Lord’s.“ He runs in the name of the Lord.
In these key words of these central verses David is saying that he comes against the giant simply as the Lord’s servant. He knows that he does not have the right weapons. Remember, from the earlier verses of this story we know that David was willing to go into battle with the right weapons. He tried on Saul’s armor. He picked up King Saul’s sword. He just wasn’t “used to“ the armor and sword. It wasn’t that David had some principled objection to armor and swords. It was just that those tools did not yet fit him. In essence he said, “I gotta go with what I know. Why? Because the battle is the Lord’s and I go in the name of the Lord and that is the only weapon I need. If later God wants me to use sword and spear and armor, so be it. But right now I’ll simply go with what I have. And I know that they are the wrong weapons. And I know that I am the wrong person. It ought to be my older brother Eliab, or one of the other soldiers, or King Saul himself. But they are unwilling. But I am here and willing. I’ll go and run in the name of the Lord. The battle is the Lord’s and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.“ This is what David knows and believes.
People of God, what about you today? Following the truth of the text you know that the battle is not yours——and this is a good thing. This is the answer to our dilemma regarding how you and I as a wrong people with the wrong abilities running in the wrong direction can have the right stuff. Yes, it is true that in many ways, you have the wrong stuff. You will to some extent fail in the promises you made to God and his church when your children were baptized or when you made a public Profession of Faith. Moreover, as a pastor I will fail. The pastor of your local congregation will fail. Your brothers and sisters in Christ will often disappoint you. Often, just like King Saul and his army, we will be surrounded by the wrong stuff. But in God we have the right stuff. God gives us whatever gifts he gives us and he simply asks us to go in his direction, to fight in his name, to run his way. And when we do that we have the right stuff: The stuff of the Lord almighty.
But perhaps, like me, you find that your doubt still lingers. You still do not feel good enough, your children or grandchildren still do not believe, the world doesn’t seem to be getting any better, and your church is far from perfect. What if, like Saul and his army, we find ourselves cringing in dismay and terror?
Let me point you once again to the text. Notice that David begins the battle alone, but he does not end it that way. When David goes before the army and shows them that even Philistine giants can be defeated, the whole army rallies to his side and the victory belongs to all of Israel. The whole army of the Lord together defeats the Philistines and wins the great victory. Today, as David was to the Israelite army, so Jesus Christ is to us. For as David went before Israel, so Jesus Christ goes before us. As David defeated the Philistine giant, opening up the way for a great victory, so Jesus defeated the giant of death by rising from the dead and opening up the way of eternal victory and life for all his people. As the Apostle Paul says, “If Christ is for us, who can be against us?“ We do not fight the battle alone. Instead, we fight in the sure victory of Christ!
Do you see the point here? Yes, it is true that too often our problems remain and we, like Saul’s army, are dismayed and terrified. Yes, we may be more like Saul’s dismayed and terrified army and less like bold and courageous David than we care to admit. But remember that because of David’s leadership Saul’s army shares and fully participates in the victory. How much more won’t we, a sometimes dismayed and terrified people, share and fully participate in the eternal victory that Christ wins for us?! It is about Christ, not us.
So where does this leave us? All of us who are in Christ, who are believers, can run quickly toward the enemies and troubles in our lives. We run this way, not because we are so well put together, but because in the name of the living God, Jesus Christ, we have already won the victory.
Let us run in the right direction. Even when we have all the wrong abilities, even when we feel like we are the wrong people for the task, let us run in the Lord’s direction, in the Lord’s name, into the battles he places before us.
In the fairytale, Jack ran away from the giant toward the beanstalk because the beanstalk was his only hope. But we know more than Jack. Thankfully, we are not left in this world with just fairytales and beanstalks. We know the Lord; he does not leave us alone; our hope is in the Lord! And for that we say Amen.
Paul DeVries
Rev. Paul DeVries, most commonly referred to as “Pastor Paul”, is the Sr. Pastor of Brookside Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is married to Diane (nee Vanden Akker) and the father of four children. He graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1989 and served for 12 years as the pastor of Unity Christian Reformed Church in Prospect Park, New Jersey. As a pastor his first love and greatest joy comes in the honor of bringing God’‘s Word to his congregation on a weekly basis through his preaching. He enjoys reading, camping with his family, watching his children’‘s sporting events, and working on home improvement projects - inside and outside his home.
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