And David said to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with sword, and with spear, and with javelin; but I come to thee in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
For forty days the valley of Elah had gone quiet, because Israel's army had no answer to the giant. Then a shepherd boy changed the terms: this was not a fight about weapons, but about the God whose armies the Philistine had insulted.
Goliath listed metal; David named a Person. One writer explains why weapons like David's always give offence, and how David's answer changed the terms of the fight.
The flesh always thinks itself insulted, because our weapons are not the kind it uses. The flesh likes to see sword opposed to sword, helmet against helmet; the flesh loves its own. But David said, "I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." So David puts the question on its true basis. It is now simply a question between the Lord of hosts and the Philistine. David takes David out of the picture altogether, and brings God Himself in as Goliath's opponent. It does not matter what we are, or how mighty the foe is. Will God not defend His own name? Here is the might of faith: faith always brings in almighty power.
In Scripture a name tells you who someone is. That is why David had already won before the stone flew.
He had a resource greater than Goliath with his armour and weapons. He confronted Goliath in the Name of Jehovah of hosts, the living God. In the Bible a name usually describes the person who bears it. When David invoked the Name of Jehovah he was depending on all that God is in unlimited power. Goliath was doomed from the moment David invoked the Name of Jehovah.
"Lord of hosts" is not a title from Israel's glory days. It first appears when everything was at its lowest, on the lips of a woman who was alone and shamed.
The first chapter of this book reveals still greater weakness. Hannah was alone and shamed. Around her was either spiritual deadness or shameless wickedness. The Lord had been dishonoured in His sanctuary, and His judgment hung over them. It was at such a moment that it pleased God to reveal Himself by a name which He had not taken before... Hannah was the first that we read of who cried to the Lord as Jehovah Tzebâôth (the Lord of hosts or armies, 1:11). David also met and overthrew Goliath in the might of that name (17:45).
The word David uses of Goliath is heavier than mockery. Only one man on the field heard it for what it was.
David could see more than the desperate position of the people. He saw how the situation affected God — "this uncircumcised Philistine... has defied the armies of the living God." The word "defied" or "reproach" holds the double thought of blaspheming and placing in jeopardy. Goliath did more than put the people in desperate danger. He defied God Himself, and David alone saw it.
Words like these have a history behind them. And they are not the boast they sound like.
Now David could never have stood like this at this hour, if he had not learnt God as his God in secret... The name of the Lord must be our strength against every evil, whether outside or within... You have only to put God in remembrance of His own name, and He will be jealous for that name. So there was no pride in David's heart here. He was shrinking himself into nothing, and making God everything. His most confident words are his most humble ones.
David had refused Saul's armour a few verses earlier. Had he kept it, the result would have proved nothing.
If David had used Saul's armour, no one would have learned that the Lord does not save by sword and spear. His fight would have looked like any other. But the sling and the stone gave little prominence to the man who used them. They gave the glory to Him from whom the victory came.
One writer reads the scene as a picture of Christ, setting David's aim and Christ's aim side by side.
He is here the representative of God whom the Philistine had defied. David's purpose was to glorify this God whom Satan had dishonoured, and that was Christ's purpose too. Their strength lay in fighting in His name... David had no doubt at all about how the contest would end... here is absolute faith, which has the secret of the Lord and counts on great things. Here David is the true type of Christ, for he represents God before the enemy.
- Defiance. Goliath's words blasphemed God and put His people in danger. David was the one man who heard the insult aimed at God.
- Name. A name describes its bearer; to call on "the Lord of hosts" is to lean on all that God is in unlimited power.
- Weakness. That title first appears in Israel's lowest hour, on the lips of Hannah. It is the same title David now uses against a giant.
- Stand aside. David takes David out of the fight. It is no longer boy against champion, but the Lord of hosts against a Philistine.
- Glory. The sling kept the winner small, so only God could take the credit. In that, David pictures Christ, who represents God before the enemy.
This day will Jehovah deliver thee up into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the camp of the Philistines this day to the fowl of the heavens and to the wild beasts of the earth. And all the earth shall know that Israel has a God;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and all this congregation shall know that Jehovah saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is Jehovah's, and he will give you into our hands.
The verse is David's answer to a giant, spoken in the open ground between two armies. It names the real opponents in the fight, and says what the outcome will prove.
One writer sets what human nature wants to see against the ground David chose.
The flesh likes to see sword opposed to sword, helmet against helmet; the flesh loves its own. But David said, "I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." So David puts the question on its true basis. It is now simply a question between the LORD of hosts and the Philistine. David puts David right out of the question. He brings in God Himself as the opponent of Goliath.
David went out without Saul's armour, and one writer explains why that mattered.
Here we have the true object of the man of faith. Israel and all the earth were to have a glorious testimony to the power and presence of God among His people. If David had used Saul's armour, no one would have learned that the Lord does not save by sword and spear. His warfare would look like anyone else's. But the sling and the stone gave little prominence to the one who used them. They gave the glory to Him from whom the victory came.
Another writer draws a wider principle from the weapon David used.
The weapon needed was not far off. The stone lay in the brook that ran between the two armies. It laid the Philistine champion low and silenced his boasting for ever. All his armour proved useless against the death-blow. Even the shield his armour-bearer carried in front of him did not stop the stone. God provided what was needed, and it proved to be enough. Here we have a principle of wide application. God does provide the weapons with which, if called upon, His people may meet those opposed to Him.
David names God twice, and not with the same name. "All the earth" is to learn there is a God in Israel; "all this assembly" is to learn that the LORD — Jehovah — saves. Mackintosh sees a deliberate distinction.
"All the earth" was to know and own the presence of God among His people. They could know nothing of the precious relationship involved in the title "Jehovah." That title was for the assembly of Israel alone. They were to know not only His presence among them, but His blessed way of acting. To the world He was Elohim; to His beloved people He was Jehovah.
David faces the giant alone, yet he says "into our hand," not "into my hand." One writer sets his words beside Jonathan's.
Jonathan was conscious in his soul of his link with the people of God — with Israel. So he said of the Philistines, "The LORD has given them into the hand of Israel." We see the same in David when he went out to meet the giant: "He will give you into our hand." In both cases there was no independent action. The faith was indeed their own, but they acted for and with the nation that God owned as His.
One writer asks how David sized up an enemy far stronger than himself.
Look at David in the presence of Goliath. Does he feel it is impossible to cope with such a powerful adversary? Nothing of the kind. His one conviction was that "the battle is the LORD's"; that Goliath was the Lord's enemy, and so the Lord would give him into his hand that day. He measured his enemy by the strength of the Lord. By that measure Goliath shrank into a tiny dwarf before him — into complete powerlessness and nothingness.
One writer takes the words "the LORD saves" and applies them to the reader.
Notice that — the Lord saves. You cannot save yourself; I cannot save myself. It is the Lord alone who can save me. God alone can meet man's need and ruin as a sinner, and I have no option but to accept God's Saviour.
- Whose fight — David steps aside and leaves the Philistine facing God. Goliath had defied Him, so the quarrel was His.
- Whose weapons — Saul's armour would have hidden God. The sling and the stone came from the brook nearby, and left the glory nowhere else to go.
- Whose name — the earth learns there is a God in Israel; the assembly learns the covenant name of the One who saves.
- Whose hand — David says "into our hand," not "into my hand." The faith was his own, but he fought for the whole nation.
- Whose salvation — the faith that cuts a giant down to nothing says the same thing to you. No one saves himself. The Lord saves.