“And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite,” 1 Samuel 17:58.
I recall still with joy the day the late Dr John Douglas pointed out to me in this chapter that the occasion on which David slew the champion of the Philistines, Goliath, was on his second visit to the camp of Israel!
That fact is not too obvious and is easily missed. How like the truth of Christ’s future visit to the land of Israel is seen and understood in the Holy Scriptures!
The truth of that occasion is hidden to many, sad to say.
The fact is seen in the early part of the chapter.
“But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren; and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge. Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines,” verses 15-19.
May I ask you to consider from this chapter, which is full of prophetic foreshadowings of days in Israel that are fast approaching, these simple truths.
I. DAVID CAME BACK TO THE CAMP OF ISRAEL WHEN THERE WAS NONE TO ANSWER GOLIATH
1. Israel was under attack from her ancient enemy. “Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim,” verse 1.
The enemy had invaded Judah and with the aid of their giant champion, Goliath, planned to destroy Israel. Hear Goliath’s boastful challenge.
“Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together,” verses 8-10.
He enlarged upon his ‘plans’ when he derided David.
“And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field,” verse 44.
2. Doubtless, slavery was not just what the Philistines planned for Israel, but total annihilation!
This is seen to be final objective of Israel’s enemies, amongst whom will undoubtedly be the present occupants of the Gaza Strip, the ancient land of the Philistines, as revealed to us in the vision given to Zechariah of the enemies’s final assault on Israel.
“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city,” Zechariah 14:1-2.
This will be the planned finale of the ‘great tribulation’ carried out upon Israel just prior to the Saviour’s return in glorious triumph. It is that time termed by Jeremiah as “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” Jeremiah 30:7 However, Jacob, or the nation of Israel is to be “saved out of it.”
That is what is foreshadowed here in 1 Samuel 17.
3. Israel was so filled with fear that they fled at the mere voice of Goliath. They were utterly powerless before the Philistines at the appearance of Goliath.
“When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid. . . . And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid,” verses 11, 24.
The sight and the sound of Goliath paralysed the armies of Israel!
It is said of the future Antichrist, of whom Goliath is one of the many types given us in the Holy Scriptures, that he had a “mouth of a lion, . . . And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,” Revelation 13:2, 5. Daniel too had predicted, by divine inspiration, just such a latter-day blasphemer. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time,” Daniel 7:25.
John the Apostle likewise wrote of him. “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority . . . And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months,” Revelation 13:2, 5.
He will be therefore, as was Goliath, like his ‘father the devil’ for he, “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” 1 Peter 5:8.
Already heard
The ‘emergence’ of the roaring of the latter day ‘Goliath’ is to be heard today. Never have the things of God and eternal truth been more mocked and sneeringly challenged than they are today.
Television is filled with the ‘wise men of today’ pontificating their silly notions about the origins of all things.
Without the least embarrassment or glimmerings of what it is they claim for themselves, they will speak admiringly of the chimpanzee and claim that the innocent mammal is one of the originators of mankind and all its ills!
I recall an American preacher, at a conference in Edinburgh back in the ’70s, declare that for the professing church, the choice was ‘back to the Bible or back to the jungle’!
There are those who point to the jungle as a source of inspiration for the future! Such is but one of the many God-disparaging voices heard today!
We are entering upon those times when, as Daniel declares: “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom,” Daniel 7:21-22.
As David’s kingship in Israel brought about a new era of victory for Israel, so when the Saviour returns as “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS,” Revelation 19:16, there will be an even more glorious and eternal victory to be enjoyed!
II. DAVID’S WEAPONS WERE NOT THE WEAPONS OF MAN’S WARFARE
“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands,” 1 Samuel 17:45-47.
David had rejected the weapons of man! “And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him,” verses 38-39.
1. There was a very limited understanding of the purpose of God regarding David back then! We know that, although David was anointed by the Lord as King of Israel, it was some years before he was actually accepted as such by the people.
It is a long time ago that the Father in Heaven declared before an audience of Jewish people, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Matthew 3:16-17.
Later, the three apostles were likewise instructed: “Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him,” Matthew 17:5.
That was nigh on 2000 years ago yet this world and the nation of Israel in particular, except for a very small remnant, have refused to “hear Him”!
2. The threats of David against Goliath, were fulfilled by the power of God. “And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled,” verses 49-51.
In the margin, there is a definition of the Hebrew word translated “sunk” in our Bible. The definition is ’sunk as a stone in water’! The ’stone’ that the Lord sends forth is altogether powerful.
Christ is the ‘Living Word of God.’ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth,” John 1:1, 14.
One of the titles of Christ is “the stone of Israel.” “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)” Genesis 49:24.
It is Christ, Who by His Word, will smite the Antichrist and bring to an end his short reign, just seven years, of which, in the second half, he will mount his attempt to wipe out Israel during the ‘great tribulation’.
Paul tells of the ‘stone’ Christ will sling at the Antichrist and end his terror.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8.
Out of the mouth of Christ will come the Antichrist’s destruction. Heed the words of John again.
“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God,” Revelation 19:15.
3. It was the time when he was recognised by Israel as God’s champion. Saul asks the question. “Whose son art thou, thou young man?” verse 58.
It is strange that Saul did not know him. David had been in Saul’s court for some time as we read in chapter 16.
“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. . . . And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer,” verses 14-19, 21.
And yet Saul did not recognise him after his killing of Goliath!
I think we have here a picture, in the ignorance of Saul as to David’s identity, of the ‘blindness and ignorance’ of the Jewish nation at present and mankind in general, as to Who the Lord Jesus truly is!
Spirit departed
It is said of Saul that “the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul.” No person can see or recognise the Saviour without the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,” 1 Corinthians 12:3.
I was brought under conviction of sin and converted by the words of Genesis 6:3.
“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.”
I was made to realise that without the STRIVING of the Holy Spirit, I would never come to the Lord in faith and repentance. I therefore must respond before the Spirit ceased to strive!
One day
One day the eyes of Israel will be opened to behold and recognise the One they have been ignorant of since the days of His first advent!
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen,” Revelation 1:7.
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn,” Zechariah 12:10.
May I ask if you are like Saul today, and recognise NOT God’s anointed KING?
The Saviour asked a man on one occasion: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”
The man earnestly responded with a question of his own. “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?”
He was a man who had benefitted wonderfully from the mercy of the Lord Jesus for he had been born blind but was marvellously healed. And yet, he did not know the Saviour.
There is a not a living soul but daily enjoys the continuing mercy of God but how few KNOW HIM!
Here is the revelation such are in need of.
“And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him,” John 9:35-38.
May your eyes be opened to Christ if you are yet in ignorance of Him and receive Him by faith as did this man.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Friday 28th August 2026