Bible Passage: 1 Samuel 17:4-11, 32-40, 45-49
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: March 9, 2025

Bulletin – March 9, 2025

In the name, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

“This man is our champion?”  You can just imagine how Israel’s fighting men might have said those words when they saw David stepping forward to meet Goliath on the battlefield.  I mean, this is David.  He wasn’t even old enough yet to be in the army.  He was only in the camp that day because he had been sent by his father to check up on his older brothers, who were soldiers in the army.  David, he was still just a shepherd back in Bethlehem.  “This man is our champion?”

He wasn’t even wearing any armor!  That was sort of a “no-brainer” for combat.  It was the “least” a soldier could do.  Cover up your vulnerable parts – your heard, your chest and midsection.  A helmet.  Body-armor.  Carry a shield to deflect incoming projectiles.  David had none.  He had tried the armor of King Saul, but found it cumbersome and clumsy.  He took it off.  He went out to meet Goliath with only his shepherd’s sling.  Again, the veterans of battle must have muttered in disbelief under their breath, “This man is our champion.”

It seemed especially ludicrous given the champion David was going up against.  He was going up against Goliath, the hero, the champion of the Philistine army.  Goliath was an impressive specimen.  He was “super-size.” Everything about him was “super-size.”  His body armor weighed more than one hundred pounds!  You want to strap on a hundred pounds and see if you can move around?  The tip of his spear weighed fifteen pounds!  You want to see how far you can throw something that weighs fifteen pounds?  Everything about Goliath was intimidating!

His words were intimidating.  He was a master at “PSYOPS.”  “Psychological operations.”  “Getting inside the head” of the enemy, in this case the Israelite army.  Every morning  and every evening for forty days, Goliath had stepped out of the Philistine camp and taunted Israel’s army,  Choose a man to represent you, and let him come down to me.  If he is able to fight with me and kill me, we will be your servants.  But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our servants, and you will serve us…I defy the ranks of Israel today!  Give me a man, and we will fight each other!  (1 Samuel 17:8-10)  His “psychological warfare” worked!  We are told, When Sayl and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified. (v. 11)  You can just imagine the Philistine soldiers confidently smiling to themselves as they watched Goliath, “This man is our champion!”

Why would David accept the giant’s challenge?  Why would he, a shepherd, go where soldiers did not dare?  If we examine our text, we will find what made David tick.  David was a young man of faith.  Faith in the LORD.  And David was zealous for the honor of his LORD!  When David arrived on the scene and heard the big man’s bluster, he said, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who dares to defy the troops of the living God? (v. 26)  Why did he get personal and bring up the fact Goliath wasn’t circumcised?  Because circumcision was the seal of the LORD’s covenant with Abraham’s descendants!  Goliath may have been a giant, but he was a heathen giant, defying God’s men!  For David, this should not be allowed to stand!

And David trusted his LORD.  When Saul tried to deter David from going out to fight the Philistine, David recalled how the LORD had delivered him from bears and lions. The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. (v. 34-37)  So off to battle!  With his staff and sling and five stones in his bag.  The Philistine can hardly believe his eyes.  “Am I a dog?  You’re going to chase me away with a stick?”  He curses David in the name of his Philistine gods.  In hindsight, that was a big mistake.  David resolutely says, I come against you in the name of the LORD of Armies.  Today the LORD will hand you over to me…Then all the earth will know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear, for the battle belongs to the LORD, and he will deliver you into our hand. (v. 45-46, 47)  David knew who the Champion would be that day.  The LORD!

The two combatants advance.  David grabs one of the stones in his bag.  He nestles it in the pouch of his sling, twirls it around his head, and lets fly!  Direct hit!  Goliath takes it on his unprotected forehead.  A fatal “headshot.”  The giant collapses.  Defeated.  Dead.  There was a Champion that day.  It was the LORD!

We have heard today about another battlefield.  It was a wilderness in Judea.  This battle, too, at first glance, may appear to have been a mismatch.  On the one hand we have hell’s champion, Satan, coming off his big “win” in the Garden of Eden.  Big and blasphemous.  The one whose entire existence is spent defying the living God.  And coming out to him is the Son of David, Jesus Christ.  He has no weapons, no armor we can see.  He does have zeal and he does come in the name of the Lord!  And what did we see?  The devil tempts David’s Son, but Jesus does not sin!  The devil may have won in the Garden, but not in the wilderness!  The tide of battle is shifting!

Then, the fatal “headshot!”  On another day, on another battlefield.  A Friday afternoon.  The battle cry we need to hear.  At 3 o’clock in the afternoon.  “It is finished!”  Jesus dies for sin and guilt.  Satan loses his claim on us.  Victorious, Jesus rises on Easter.  The stone that was rolled away from Jesus’ empty tomb is the smooth stone that hits the devil right between the eyes!  The resurrection of Jesus is the crushing blow.  The enemy has fallen!  Jesus wins!  We look to Jesus and cry out, “This man is our Champion!”

Can you imagine the joy and relief in the camp of Israel when they saw the monster lying dead?  Greater joy than that is yours!  Your archenemy is defeated!  Hell’s Goliath has fallen!  Defeated by Christ!  Live in the joy that comes of knowing, “This man is our Champion!”

Amen.