1 Samuel 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield… The story is a casket, and the spirit of David is its Jewel, Come near, and I will open the lovely casket, and show you its lovelier Jewel. I. DAVID WAS ON GOD'S SIDE. This was a religious war. Goliath fought for Dagon, and cursed David by his gods. David fought for Jehovah. The battle is the Lord's, David said truly. David was careful not so much to have God on his side, as to be on God's side, and do only God's will. Goliath rose before him like a mountain plated with iron and flashing brass: his spear a beam, his voice thunder. At first we pity the stripling as being devoted to certain death. Yet without a quiver, or a moment's delay, he offers himself as the champion of Israel. People speak about the giants you have to fight, but really you, like David, have one giant before you. He is the great adversary, the evil one, the Goliath of hell. Stripling as you are, you must accept his challenge for the duel. If you conquer your Goliath, all his hosts will take to flight. You must not think lightly of this war in the town of Man-soul. Our soldiers in Zululand despised the Zulus, and hundreds of them were slain at Isandula. The remnant still despised their foes, and at Intombi lost their lives for their error. An old Christian, who had hewn his way through the bloodiest scenes at Waterloo, laid his hand upon his breast, and said to me, "I never knew what fighting was till I began to fight with the enemy here. Waterloo was child's play to this." But fear not, for you can be on God's side. Wellington once ordered a captain to take a Spanish fort, before which many of his comrades had fallen. "Give me first a shake of your conquering hand, general," said the captain. They shook hands; the captain dashed forward, took the fort, and declared that the victory was owing to the touch of the general's all-conquering hand. What courage must it then give you to know that God is your shield, and Jesus Christ the Captain of your salvation. II. IN GOD'S STRENGTH DAVID FOUGHT, ELSE HE WAS MAD WHEN HE FACED GOLIATH. God's Spirit gave him his holy courage, suggested his weapons, and guided the stone from the sling to Goliath's crashing temples. Was not David the man after God's own heart because he so frankly owned God in everything? His spirit shines in his beautiful confession, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." No feature in boy or girl, in man or woman, is more beautiful than this gentle and modest spirit, which makes its possessor even as a weaned child; and you shall have a good share of it if you feel that you owe every good thing to God's boundless and unbought mercy. This spirit is no mark of a soft and cowardly nature, for it was the spirit of Israel's champion and Goliath's conqueror. Now the humblest person in the world may cherish the same spirit. Yes, David's lofty spirit may be put into the humblest events. A poor needlewoman in her garret one day told me how she fought the Goliath of poverty. Though lonely and in poor health, she had won the battle. She looked a real heroine as her eyes expanded with exalted feeling, and she thus closed her story, "I may well say with David, 'Blessed be the Lord God, for He teacheth my bands to war, and my fingers to fight.'" Her needle was perhaps used as nobly as David's conquering sword. III. DAVID THE CONQUEROR. If on God's side you shall win in the end, because God shall win, and all His shall win with Him. Their cause must triumph in His. True, God's good soldiers do not always fare on earth as David did when his stone entered the giant's resounding skull; but in their darkest days faith made them sure of utter and eternal victory. "Where wilt thou remain then?" asked the Emperor of Basil, who had refused to forsake Christ for idols. "Either under heaven, or in heaven," he calmly replied. David, you know, is a type of His Son and Lord, our Saviour. He is our champion, who, in our defence, has slain hell's two Goliaths, Sin and Death. You should love to think of Jesus Christ as having conquered all His and our foes. This grand fact makes the Bible full of holy triumph. Ours is a grand faith, as of men whose foes have been routed. As David triumphed not for himself only but for all Israel. So Christ triumphed for all His people. Our faith should then claim a share in all His triumphs. (James Wells, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. |
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