David and Goliath. This is one Bible story that has taken firm hold in the English language. People might be shaky on the details, but they understand the metaphor. And they are ready to cheer on the little guy who takes on the giant, whether that giant be a powerful individual or a corporation, institution or government.
I usually send out my Sunday sermons on Saturday morning for St Paul’s people who won’t be able to get to church, and also for my clergy friends who might have had a particularly hard week and be in need of sermon ideas. Please make use of anything that is useful for you and leave anything that is not.
You will continue to receive emails in the Faith of our Mothers series each Tuesday.
David and Goliath even featured in the New York Times game, Connections, on Friday. Maybe someone on the team there follows the Lectionary!
We love this story because we want to be David - slinging a stone and watching a giant fall. We can all think of a few giants we’d like to take down, and this story gives us hope that maybe, occasionally, it might just happen.
But the power of stories is in their invitation to consider a number of perspectives. Though we are used to seeing ourselves as David, we could look at it through the eyes of David’s brothers. This is a bit of the story that isn’t in the lectionary:
His eldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the men [about how King Saul might reward the one who took Goliath down]; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David. He said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart; for you have come down just to see the battle.”
David’s response is exactly the same as any younger sibling’s in any century. As a youngest sibling, myself, I remember saying this countless times: “What have I done now?”
Clearly, there is some history here! We saw part of that history last week. God’s choice of David over his older brothers could not have been conducive to fraternal harmony. It reminds us of Joseph – who we all know from the Technicolour Dream Coat musical. Joseph was a little brat who kept rubbing his elder brothers’ noses in stories about his own specialness, until they got so fed up they decided to sell him into slavery.
Throughout Scripture we see that God tends to choose the youngest sibling AND we also see that younger siblings tends to be annoying little brats.
I speak as a younger sibling.
In the Sunday School version of this story, David is a brave little hero and Eliab is out of line for reprimanding him. And there are some elements in the narrative that point us in that direction. Eliab assumes David has abandoned the sheep, when he hasn’t and he assumes David is there by his own choice, when the reader knows that their father sent him.
Both of those things suggest we should take Eliab’s words with a grain of salt. However, David’s behaviour throughout his life does indicate someone with an overblown sense of entitlement; possibly someone with narcissistic tendencies.
The story David tells Saul about hand-to-hand combat with bears and lions either suggests a tendency to embellish the truth to make himself look like a hero OR a tendency to take unnecessary risks in order to make himself look like a hero. Either way, I think we can understand his big brothers getting exasperated with him.
Eliab is not mentioned again in the Biblical narrative. He does not seem to have played any part in David’s battles or his reign as king. There is no indication that David had the benefit of guidance or support from any of his brothers. Instead, the strongest influences in David’s life will become the violent thugs he hangs out with while in exile. Until he encounters the court prophet, Nathan, David is seriously lacking in wise counsel.
Perhaps – just perhaps – if his brothers had learned to tolerate their annoying little brother, and had stayed in good relationship with him, then David might – with their support - have grown up to be a better king, a better husband and a better father.
In the English speaking world at the moment we have a formidable crop of young people. Not all of them, of course, but a lot of Gen Z’s are way more bold, outspoken and skilled in fighting for justice than any Gen X’s like me were at their age. Also, they grew up with social media and they are not afraid to use it!
I often hear older people disparage Gen Z. And yes, they may be a bit demanding and idealistic at times, but do we really want to be like Eliab - getting fed up and leaving them to their own devices? Wouldn’t it be better to assure them of our support?
I think we can all identify with David’s brothers, getting fed up with this annoying young upstart. But if I asked you to identify Goliath, you might have a bit more trouble.
The big man, who has always been stronger and louder and scarier than anyone else. It is harder to put ourselves in his shoes, isn’t it? Most of us are much more conscious of our weakness and vulnerability than our strength.
But I put it to you that most of us have more power than we think we do. And that can be dangerous because if we think we are powerless then we think we have no choice, and if we think we have no choice then we think we have no responsibility for our actions.
When Jess Hill wrote her excellent book on intimate partner violence she called it See What You Made Me Do. See what you made me do! “It isn’t my fault I just hit you. You made me do it!” That’s what happens when powerful people tell themselves they are powerless.
So, while I know we all prefer to think of ourselves as the David in this story, it is essential that, every now and then, we ask ourselves whether anyone might look at us and see a Goliath?
Most of us live in Australia. If we are also white and educated and employed (or comfortably retired) we are right near the top of the ladder, internationally, in terms of capacity and resources.
We tend to be more aware of the people higher up than us, and if we only ever look at them we can feel powerless, but when we force ourselves to look down and really notice those with less advantage, less resources, less capacity, then we have to acknowledge that we do have relative power. And we are therefore responsible for how we exercise our power.
Goliath would have been acting under orders from those above him - his general and his king. Perhaps even he felt powerless. So he allowed himself to be used as a tool for his nation’s army to humiliate and intimidate their enemies. That is always an option for those with power: to use our resources and advantages to keep others down.
And we have all probably done that sometimes. Used whatever power we have to gain and keep control. But as we stand there on the battlefield in Goliath’s armour, we can imagine a better way. We can imagine using our power to support and protect and empower.
Giants can be heartless and violent and dumb. But they don’t have to be. Power tends to corrupt. But it doesn’t have to. It can protect and provide and liberate.
And so, for us as we look at the world in which the majority of people have less power and less wealth and less resources than us, we could pretend that nobody is paying for our lifestyles, OR we could be immobilised by guilt and self-loathing, OR we can do some serious thinking about how we might put our power and resources to use for the good of others.
That’s what makes this such a loved and enduring story. Every character has something to say to us. Even David has some things to teach us.
The Sunday School version of this story presents David as pure of heart and naïve. Neither of those things ring true when you read the whole chapter.
David wasn’t just a naïve little shepherd-boy who strolled onto a battlefield assuming God would protect him. As a shepherd, David had learned to fight by protecting his sheep from lions and bears. He wasn’t a soldier, but he was an experienced fighter.
His choice not to wear armour was not a demonstration of vulnerability. It was because heavy armour would restrict his movement, and he needed to be agile.
We often think of his sling as a puny weapon compared with a sword, but it was actually the right weapon for this fight. If he had fought Goliath with a sword, by the time he was close enough to wound Goliath, his own head would have been sliced off by his enemy’s much longer sword. He needed a weapon that could be operated from a distance – in his day, that meant a sling.
Far from being naïve, he is presented as thinking strategically.
Neither is he presented as being pure of heart. His motives were most definitely mixed. The reason his big brother got cross with him was because he had been excitedly questioning everyone he could find about exactly how the king would reward someone who defeated the giant. (vv24-30)
David wanted the reward. He also wanted to defend the honour of his God and his people. He had mixed motives. I’m not going to criticise him for that though. How often can any of us honestly say we are acting from pure motives? Usually, some element of self-interest is present alongside more altruistic intentions.
This story is presenting us with a young hero who has two great prizes in his sights: the glory of God and welfare God’s people
AND
his own glory and enrichment.
Both those ends are served by him defeating the giant. In this situation he doesn’t have to choose between self-interest and the interests of his people. He can do both.
The question that will be raised again and again from now on will be this: when there is a choice, when he has to choose between God and self; between the good of the people and the aggrandisement of David; which path will he take then? Will he act in his own interests? Or will he serve the interests of his people and his God?
We will see him make the right call sometimes: He is capable of acting against his own interests to do the right thing. But more often we will see him putting his own interests above those of his people and his God. And every time he does that, and then justifies himself, he twists his heart more and more in the direction of self-interest until he grown into a king who thinks nothing of raping and murdering to get what he wants.
He doesn’t get there straight away. Nobody gets there straight away either. A thousand little choices train us toward compassion or toward cruelty.
David’s story, as it unfolds, will also show us that no matter how far we go down the wrong path we can always turn around, repent, take responsibility for the harm we have done, and work on training our hearts in the other direction. But the further we go down the path of pure self-interest the harder it is to turn around.
David and Goliath is one of the great stories of the world. I could preach on it a hundred times and bring out five hundred spiritual lessons. But for today:
1. Let’s allow David’s big brother to challenge us to guide and support “annoying young people”.
2. Let’s allow Goliath to challenge the way we recognise and use our power.
3. And let’s allow David to challenge our life course: toward either self-interest or compassion.
As you face all these challenges this week, may the God who gave David victory over Goliath give you victory over all that holds you back from being light and love to all around you. Amen
Let’s pray:
For more about David, see:
Rizpah: Grief the Non-Violent Protest
Michal: When God is Silent (25/6/24)
With Love from Rev Margaret
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (1 Sam 17:28). (1989). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Much to ponder here…