A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
#8 - "GREAT COURAGE”
1 Samuel 17:1-51
by Rev John R, Hannem,
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Courage is certainly a valuable and desirable characteristic. Most of us greatly admire men and women throughout history who have demonstrated great courage. I think of the courage of Nathan Hale, the young man who, when about to be executed said, "My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country." But courage is not just something people needed in the past. It is an essential quality for us today. No, our nation is not at war, but each of us Christians is in the midst of a battle. It is a conflict between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. It is a battle for the hearts and minds of men and women. We need people with courage. We need folk who have the courage to stand up for what is right, courage to speak against what is evil, and courage to take risks for the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Now, we all probably agree that courage is a good thing to have. But how do we attain it? How do we conquer our fears? No, we can't go to the Wizard of Oz to find courage or even to get a medallion that says we are a brave person. But, the Lord can make us into a courageous people. One of the ways He does that is to give us examples to follow. Our text today is 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. I encourage you to turn there in your Bibles. There are few stories in the entire Bible which are as well-known as this one. And frankly, there is no Bible passage which better illustrates how God gives courage to His people, even when the odds are against us. Today we are going to explore the reasons for David's courage, and my hope is that this will help us to be brave when we face opposition as well.
When we come to 1 Samuel 17, we see a battle between the people of
The idea is simple. Goliath is the champion of the Philistine army, and he wants to fight the champion of
Then along comes David. He is still a teenager. He has three brothers who are with Saul on the front lines. He has served in Saul's court, but when he is at home, he is a shepherd. David arrives on the scene and quickly becomes aware of the situation. 1 Samuel 17:23,24 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. David also learns that Saul has promised to reward anyone who defeats the giant. 17:25b "The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in
First, David was not intimidated by the opposition. Goliath had been successful in intimidating the whole army of
Listen to his words when he sees and hears Goliath. 17:26b "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" That is a great verse. Who does Goliath think he is? This is a terrible mismatch. Goliath is just a man. He puts on his pants one leg at a time. He is no match for the army of God. That is how David saw Saul's army; the army of God.
The old saying is that fools step boldly where angels fear to tread. To try to wrestle a grizzly bear, or even a black bear, would not be brave, but foolish. Sometimes people appear courageous just because they underestimate a situation or an opponent. "I'm not afraid to do that," may mean someone doesn't understand what that involves.
Sometimes a wise person is afraid. As Captain Ahab said in Moby Dick, "I don't want anyone on this boat who is not afraid of whales." But, a brave person doesn't overestimate the strength of an enemy. He is not intimidated just because someone claims to have superior strength.
One of the reasons we often lack courage to do what is right is because we are afraid of what other people might think. We tend to overestimate the importance of other people's opinions. It doesn't really matter what someone else might think; what counts is what God thinks. Remember what Paul says in Romans 8:31, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The answer is, a lot of people can be against us, but Paul's point is it doesn't matter. There is nothing that anyone, human or demonic, can do to harm us when we are under God's protection. Yes, God often allows them to cause us pain, but that is only temporary. One person who understood this was an English Puritan named John Lawrence. On his tombstone are these words: "He feared man so little, because he feared God so much."
As Jesus said, "Don't be afraid of someone who can kill your body, because that is all they can do." Our soul is completely safe in the Lord. Courage begins when we refuse to be intimidated by the opposition.
Secondly, David didn't let others discourage him. As David considers going against Goliath, we might expect everyone would say, "All right, go get him." But no, his oldest brother, Eliab, becomes very angry that his kid brother is even there. The next person reacts in a similar way, perhaps because he feels guilty for being afraid of Goliath. David then goes to King Saul and says, "I will go fight that Philistine." 1 Samuel Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." But, David's courage doesn't evaporate. Even though family and friends are saying, "You are too young, you don't stand a chance against Goliath," David is not discouraged.
Friends, oftentimes courage involves standing up, not just to our enemies, but also to our friends. The Christian statesman, William Wilberforce, fought a successful 30-year battle against slavery as a member of the British Parliament. He said the hardest thing was that his friends frequently would implore him to give up, telling him that the slave traders were too influential. As someone said, "It is easy to be brave when all behind you agree with you, but the difficulty comes when 99% of your friends think you are wrong." Maybe you are in a situation where your family and friends are discouraging you from doing something you believe God wants you to do. It is a good thing to listen to the counsel of these folks, but remember: They can be wrong, but God never is.
Thirdly, David gained courage from his previous experiences with the Lord. In response to Saul's objection, David tells him how, as a shepherd, he killed both a lion and a bear. "I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it." Kind of like Daniel Boone killing a bear with his bare hands. It would have made great television. Then David says, "If I can handle lions and bears, Goliath is not going to be any problem." "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you." David learned from his experience as a shepherd that God could protect him and could give him the strength to defeat foes which were much stronger. He saw no reason why the Lord would not do the same thing as he went out to face the giant.
Courage often grows out of our experience. The more we practice, the braver we get....Friends, I am still learning how to trust God and not be afraid. I remember the first few days after someone broke into the parsonage while our family was asleep upstairs. I would be awake most of the night. I’d get up out of bed and turn on the 3-way light switch in the upstairs hallway that turned on the light in the downstairs entryway, I felt fear. What if someone breaks in again? Is my family safe tonight? After a few days, I began to regain perspective. Yes, of course we should be wise and we should take reasonable precautions, but there is no way I can ever guarantee my physical safety, or that of my family. Instead, I need to trust God.
Over and over again in my life God has proven Himself trustworthy. Sometimes it has been in dramatic ways. I will never forget after having driven all night suddenly finding myself driving through a farmer’s field outside
No, friends, God does not promise to always give us physical safety, but He does guarantee that not one hair on my head will be harmed, unless for some reason He chooses to allow that to happen.
The fourth reason for David's courage is that he understood God's power. When David goes out to meet Goliath, he is met by cruel taunts. "I'm going to feed you to the birds or the animals," Goliath says. But David gives this eloquent response, 1 Samuel 17:45-47 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in
We live in an age of anxiety. A few years ago many were worried about over-population and nuclear weapons. Then it was global warming and the Y2K computer bug. Now it’s terrorism and suicide bombers. This past week it’s been the fear of hurricanes. People are afraid. We don't know what the future is going to bring. Of course, human beings have never been aware of what the next month or next year would bring, but for some reason we now seem especially anxious about what lies ahead.
The fear of death is almost universal, but not quite. I am thankful for the very brave people I have known, some whose family members are in this room, who were not afraid to die. They believed God was more powerful than death and that He could be trusted to take them safely to their eternal home, which is far better than the life we have here on earth. Their knowledge of God's power and love enabled them to have great courage even when facing what the Bible calls the last enemy -- death. 1 Samuel 17:48-50 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
Let me ask you this morning, what are your fears today? I know that some of you are concerned about health problems. Maybe you had some tests this week and the doctor said, "This doesn't look quite right; we will have to run some more tests." Whenever that happens it is very hard not to be afraid. Others feel very anxious about the future. Maybe it is uncertainty at work. Perhaps you have an important decision about school, a career, or the future. These are all things over which folks lose a lot of sleep. Maybe there is someone in this room who is not a Christian; not a believer in Jesus Christ. You know you should receive Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, but you are afraid to do that. You are afraid what other people are going to think. You are afraid because you don't know how it will change your life. Others of you are following the Lord; in fact, you have been a Christian for quite a few years, but there are family members and friends whom you have never told about your faith in Christ. You have not told them because you are afraid of how they are going to react. You are afraid they might laugh at you, or totally reject you.
Remember, God doesn't want us to be afraid. He tells us the same thing He told Joshua, the leader of
Of whatever we are afraid, we need to turn those fears over to God. There are a lot of anxious, fearful people in the world today. The Lord doesn't want us to be one of them. Remember what He tells us through Paul in 2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (spirit of fear), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. May the Lord help us to have great courage in this week and in all the weeks ahead as we strive to faithfully serve him.
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