“The battle is the Lord’s.”
Yesterday we lingered in chapter 16 and watched God choose a boy whose only résumé was a worshipful heart. Today the spotlight widens: that same boy steps onto a battlefield where two nations hold their breath. Let us read 1 Samuel 17 slowly, asking the Spirit who still topples giants to steady our gaze.
• Setting. The Valley of Elah is a broad wadi 15
miles southwest of Jerusalem. Archaeologists have found Iron-Age sling
stones there—smooth limestone spheres about the size of a billiard ball.
David’s arsenal may still lie beneath that soil.
• Opponents. The Philistines were a sea-people with
Aegean roots (cf. pottery styles unearthed at Ashdod and Ekron). Their
iron monopoly (13:19) made Israel’s bronze age weapons look like farm
tools.
• Single combat. Ancient armies sometimes chose a
“champion” to spare mass bloodshed (Hittite and Egyptian records echo
the practice). Goliath’s taunt was more than sport; it was a legal
challenge: the losing side would become permanent vassals.
Western readers often miss the honor-shame stakes. When Goliath mocks Israel (v. 10) he is also mocking Israel’s God. In Near-Eastern logic, deity and people rise or fall together. The crisis is theological before it is military.
The narrator frames the chapter like a duel of speeches:
1. Goliath speaks (vv. 8–10).
2. Saul and Israel react in fear (v. 11).
3. David speaks twice—first to Israel (vv. 26–30), then to Goliath (vv.
45–47).
4. Goliath falls; Israel pursues.
Notice the symmetry: words precede weapons. Faith-filled speech answers arrogant speech, then history turns on eleven words: “The battle is the Lord’s” (v. 47, New International Version).
Hebrew flavor: Goliath is called ’īš-ha-benayim—“the man of the between” (v. 4). He literally stands “between” the armies. David becomes a new ’īš-ha-benayim, mediating victory for God’s people—a whisper of the greater Mediator yet to come.
• Height. Masoretic Text: “six cubits and a span”
(~9 ft 9 in / 2.97 m). The Greek Septuagint and a Dead Sea Scroll read
“four cubits and a span” (~6 ft 9 in). Either way, the point is
intimidation, not measurement.
• Armour weight. 5,000 shekels of bronze ≈125 lbs (57
kg). Even if the shorter height is original, the armour remains
grotesquely heavy—a comic exaggeration underscoring divine irony.
• “Am I a dog?” (v. 43). Dogs were despised scavengers
in Israelite culture; the insult drips with contempt. Ironically,
carcasses of the defeated would become food “for birds and wild animals”
(v. 46). The mocker becomes the mocked.
• Augustine saw Goliath as a figure of pride felled
by the stone of humility.
• Martin Luther emphasized sola fide: “Faith flings a
stone at the enemy while reason trembles in armor.”
• John Calvin warned that Saul’s armor on David
represents human stratagems that do not fit a life of faith.
• Charles Spurgeon preached that David chose five
stones not because he doubted the first but because “he would not be
found unready if the giant’s brothers also awakened.” (See 2 Samuel
21:15-22.)
Suggested practice: Collect five small stones; label them with past victories of God’s grace. Keep one in your pocket this week as a tactile prayer.
• Psalm 9:19-20 – Prayer against arrogant nations.
• Isaiah 31:1 – Woe to those who trust in horses.
• 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 – Weapons of our warfare not of the flesh.
• Ephesians 6:10-17 – Full armor of God, fulfilled in Christ.
• Hebrews 12:2 – Fixing eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of
faith.
“Great Is the Lord” (1982, Michael W. Smith & Deborah D.
Smith).
Its refrain—“Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true; by His mercy He
proves He is love”—echoes David’s proclamation that victory belongs to
the Lord.
Lord of hosts,
You stand taller than every fear that strides into our valley.
Teach us to see giants through the lens of Your greatness.
Fit us with faith instead of borrowed armor,
And let the victory of Your Anointed spill over our trembling
ranks.
Today, may even our smallest stones sing of Your power,
Until the whole earth knows that the battle is Yours alone.
In the name of Jesus, the Greater David, Amen.