1 Samuel 17 New International Version (NIV)

David and Goliath

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, (a wine press )came out of the
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Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.  5 He had a bronze helmet on his head
[a]

and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels ; 6 on his legs he
[b]

wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a
weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.  His shield bearer went ahead
[c]

of him.

Gath is portrayed as a city of the legendary “Anakim”, a race of giants,

battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have
him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but
if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 Then the
Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each
other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and
terrified.
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Now David was the son of an Ephrathite (the old name of Bethlehem) named Jesse, who
was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very
old. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was
Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The
three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his
father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
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For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah  of roasted grain and these ten loaves
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of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the
commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance  from [e]

them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against
the Philistines.”

Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out,
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as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle
positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing
each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and
asked his brothers how they were. 23 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. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He
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comes out to defy Israel. 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 family from
taxes in Israel.”

David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills
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this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done
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for the man who kills him.”

When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned
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with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you
leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked
your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to
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someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as
before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant
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will go and fight him.”

Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only
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a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a
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lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 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. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised
Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living
God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will
rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

1. David saw Goliath and saw an opportunity.

Goliath a symbol if impossibility. BIG, TOUGH AND WITH ARMOR.

Small battles prepares for a greater one.

2. David’s motivation

His love for God

The Reward (He saw the opportunity)verse 25

Story the shoe salesman

Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”

Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze
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helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around,
because he was not used to them.

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them
off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them
in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

3. For David, God is enough to win the battle.

Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to
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David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with
health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come
at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and
I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and
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javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the
armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands,
and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the
Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is
a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that
the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to
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meet him. 49 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
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hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the
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sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52 Then the men of
Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of
Gath  and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath
[f]

and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their
camp.
 David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s
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weapons in his own tent.

As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of
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the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?”

Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.”

The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.”
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As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him
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before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.

“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.

David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”