Enter the valley and face the giant

The cowering Israelites and their king on one side. The bloodthirsty gang of Philistines on the other, boasting do-rags, BO and barbed wire tattoos. In the valley stood their champion – all 9 feet of him, wearing 125 pounds of armor and carrying his 15 pound javelin. Goliath’s biceps burst, his thigh muscles ripple and his boasts belch through the canyon, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other!” (v10)

No Hebrew volunteers. Not even their tall, warrior-king. They are dismayed, terrified. No volunteers. Until today. Until David. For this will be Israel’s Independence Day!

David just showed up this morning. He clocked out of sheep-watching to deliver bread and cheese to his three older brothers on the battlefront. That’s where David hears Goliath defying God. His blood boils! No one mocks his God! That’s when he makes his decision.

After meeting with the cowardly king and rejecting his bulky armor, David takes his staff in his hand and chooses for himself 5 smooth stones from the brook. He puts the stones in his shepherd’s bag and places his sling in his hand.

David heads into the valley. This teenager does not run away from the giant, he confronts him. On the one side of the battlefield, Saul and his timid army gulp. On the other, the Philistine skull-splitters scoff. In the middle, the shepherd boy confidently walks into the valley to face the giant. Who bet on David? Who put money on the kid from Bethlehem? Not the Philistines. Not the Hebrews. Not David’s brothers or David’s king. But God did!

Goliath scoffs at this spindly-legged kid entering the valley of Elah and calls him “Twiggy.” “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” (v 43) Skinny, scrawny David. Bulky, brutish Goliath. The toothpick versus the tornado. The mini-bike attacking the 18-wheeler. The toy poodle taking on the rottweiler.

In this whole story, no one else discusses God. David discusses no one else but God. This is more than David against Goliath. More than Butler versus Duke or Ghana versus the U.S. or the fledgling colonies versus the British super-power. This is God-focus versus giant-focus. For if you read all of 1 Samuel 17 again you will notice that God-thoughts outnumber Goliath-thoughts 9 to 2.

David sees what other don’t and he refuses to see what others do. All eyes, except David’s, fall on the brutal, hate-breathing Hulk. All ears, except David’s hear the taunts and jeers and curses. All the soldiers, except David, feel their knees knocking and their boots shaking in terror. Sure David sees the giant, but he also sees that he is not entering this valley of death alone. Listen carefully to David’s battle cry: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's.” Note the plural noun – armies of Israel in verse 45. Armies. The spectator sees only one army of Israel. Not David. He sees the flag still flying at dawn’s early light; he sees the Allies on D-day; he sees the platoons of angels and infantries of saints. He knows of the burning sulfur in Sodom; the standing walls of water at the Red Sea; and the tumbling walls of Jericho. He has seen God guide his hand before with the attacking of the Asian lion and the slaying of the Syrian bear who had threatened his flock.

David sees a God greater than this giant. He sees the armies of the Lord flanking the mighty Philistine army. And because he does, David runs to attack the Philistine.

David’s brothers cover their eyes, both in fear and embarrassment. Saul sighs as the young Hebrew races to certain death. Goliath throws back his head in laughter; just enough to shift his helmet and expose a square inch of forehead flesh. David zeroes in on the target. The sound of the swirling sling is the only sound. Ssshhww. Ssshhww. Ssshhww. The stone missiles through the air and into the skull. Goliath’s eyes cross and his knees buckle. He crumples to the ground and dies. David runs over and yanks Goliath’s sword from its sheath and separates Goliath’s head from his body.

Giants still roam our world. Debt. Disaster. Danger. Deceit. Disease. Depression. Death. Super-size challenges still swagger and strut, still pilfer sleep and embezzle peace and suck the joy out of life. How long since you entered the valley and ran toward your challenge? We tend to retreat, to duck behind a desk of work or sneak into a tavern of distraction or crawl into a bed of forbidden love. For a moment, a day, a year, we feel safe, insulated, anesthetized, but then the work runs out, the liquor wears off or the lover leaves and we hear Goliath again. Booming. Bombastic.

The tendency is to run. To hide. To cower in fear. To forget about God and focus on our prodigious problems, on the humongous hopelessness, on the mountain of sins and the monument to despair.

Try a different approach. Rush your giant with a God-saturated soul. Face your giants by facing God first. Before going low into the valley, David went high – approaching his omnipotent God in prayer. Before descending to fight, David ascended to the Lord of hosts for help. David rejected Saul’s armor and used God’s almighty power to guide his stone to the giant’s temple.

For David, God-thoughts outnumbered Goliath-thoughts 9 to 2. How does this ratio compare with yours? Do you ponder God’s grace four times as much as you ponder your guilt? Is your list of blessings four times as long as your list of complaints? Are you four times as likely to describe the strength of God as you are the demands of your day?

Focus on your giants and you will stumble. Focus on God and your giants will tumble.

Get down on your knees in prayer. Ascend to the Lord’s throne and avail yourself of His power. Use the tools God has placed into your hands – the cleansing water of baptism, the strengthening food of the Lord’s Supper, the dynamite power of the Word. These are the giant killers!

David didn’t know if he was going to walk out of that valley alive. But David saw the opportunity to walk into that valley and give God the glory. So don’t run away from your giant. Run towards him. Let God receive the glory for His victory in your life. Your sin is God’s opportunity to showcase His grace. Your struggling marriage can billboard God’s power. Your cancer is God’s chance to flex His healing muscles. See your struggle as God’s canvas. On it He will paint His multi-colored supremacy. When you go low in the valley, that is God’s occasion to lift you high with His astonishing victory!

What God did for David, what He is doing for you personally, is the same victory that God brings to this church. David saw God grant him the victory over the lion and the bear and he trusted God would grant him the same impossible victory over the giant. As a congregation we look back at the lions and bears and giants in Epiphany’s past – crippling debt, a false prophet, a mass exodus of members, a lukewarm faith and tepid commitment by members to the Lord’s mission.

But we also see God’s hand of victorious of blessing. Physical blessings like a lighted sign, refurbished organ, upstairs bathrooms, converting classrooms into a Friendship Room, church office and nursery, stained glass windows, the school addition, elevator, pit and parking lot. We see God’s spiritual victories of increased enrollment at WLS, increased membership at Epiphany, the working together of the three Racine WELS churches, the explosion of great Lutheran music and a pastor and congregation that love and appreciate each other.

Goliath had four other brothers. I think the shortest one was maybe only 8 foot tall and they called him “Runt.” God has overcome our giants in the past, but it is good for us to always keep giants in front of us. Something to work towards and overcome with God at our side in the valley. The giant of redecorating Epiphany’s interior. The giant of repairing and repainting the church’s exterior. The giant of increased staff in our church and school. The constant giant of you being faithful weekly in worship, attending at least one Bible Class throughout the year and holding yourself accountable to reading the Bible, devotions and the pastor’s blog and emails. (All good doctrinal stuff!)

We step into the valley and confidently face our personal and congregational giants. We will be victorious for we are not alone. The Lord is with us in the valley. He is the One who came low from heaven so that He might lift us up to heaven. He descended into the dark valley of death and lay in the grave of the earth so that we might burst forth victorious from our graves and rise to meet our Lord in the air.

Everyone despised and rejected this little man. They scoffed at him as “Jesus of Nazareth.” They did not see that this little man was housing the infinity of divinity. This little man walked into the valley to face the giant called Satan – a giant who had terrorized and demonized humanity since Eden. The gentle Good Shepherd roughed up Satan and shoved him into his dungeon of hell. Jesus cracked him over the head with the heavy wooden crossbeam. He stepped on the snake’s neck and crushed the ancient serpent’s head. Then Jesus finished him off with Satan’s own weapons of sin and death. Just when Satan thought he had won, Jesus slaughtered sin and demolished death. He slew the dragon. He conquered the giant. The devil is terrifying to all, except our David, who is Christ. And because of Jesus you no longer have reason to fear Satan’s dead and bloated carcass.

Jesus is our Champion – in the valley of death, on the plain of despair, or upon the mountain of sin. He is great David’s greater Son who walked into the valley, conquered our giant and then has given us the victory. And all those gathered can see the result of Christ’s victory in your life and in this congregation.

Giants. Whether as individuals or as a congregation – we must all face our own giants. Yet we dare not face them alone. Enter the valley, O great giant-slayer. For the battle is the Lord’s. The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make a miracle out of you. Amen.