“Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. [9] If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” [10] And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” (I Samuel 17:8-10 NKJV)
When David heard this, he was enraged for the Kingdom of Israel and said, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” ( I Samuel 17:26 NKJV).
At this point in time, David was just a shepherd boy. He was not even old enough to be in the war. He was only there because his father had sent him to deliver grain and bread to his brothers who were in the war. But like a true shepherd, when David heard the Philistine giant defiling his God and threatening His people, his anger was stirred, causing him to want to put an end to the evil that was saying these things. Have you ever gotten angry when you've heard evil defiling the name of God or threatening His people?
When David met Goliath on the field, Goliath looked him over and despised him. He cursed David by his gods and said, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
[45] Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. [46] This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. [47] Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:44-47).
David did end up defeating Goliath, but instead of surrendering to Israel as Goliath had said, they fled. Israel and Judah chased them and cut them down along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. They plundered the Philistine camp and David took their weapons and brought Goliath's head to Jerusalem, possibly to put it on display for the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem at that time, as a warning of what the God of Israel could do and eventually would do.
The deal that Goliath made was that if an Israelite defeated him in hand to hand combat, the Philistines would become servants of the Israelites, but if he defeated the Israelite, the Israelites would become servants of the Philistines. This is not merely a children's story about a brave boy who took on a giant. Nor is it a lesson for us about defeating our giants, as every contemporary Christian song sings. It is much more than that. The glory of God and the victory of God's Kingdom in the world were riding on David's success. It is understandable why King Saul was reluctant to allow David to fight against Goliath. He did not want his kingdom to become enslaved to the Philistines simply because a boy wanted to fight.
Fortunately David won, and if the Philistines would have kept their end of the deal, they would have surrendered to Israel, putting an end to the continuous conflict between them. However, they didn't, so there was more war to be fought. Israel now only needed to press forward and enforce the victory of David, seizing everything that had formerly been in the enemy's possession.
Sound familiar? If not, it should. The battle between the Kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God was won by a greater David. Jesus's defeat of Satan has stripped him of his power. All that is left to do is for God's people to seize everything that was formerly in his possession. But this won't be easy. Satan and his demons are not going to just let God's people plunder his kingdom without a fight, even though they will never regain the control they once had. Jesus accomplished the victory, now it is our job to go into the conquered world and enforce the victory that Jesus has already accomplished.
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