God will send a redeemer who will be our champion, fighting alone for our souls, and defeating our final enemy, Satan. The story of David and Goliath is a picture of this facet of redemption and of our redeemer.
The story is in 1 Samuel 17. Israel’s long-time enemy, the Philistines, have gathered their armies for battle and are threatening the armies of Israel. The Philistines were a ruthless and warmongering tribe that had been a plague on Israel for all their history. But this time, things are different; the Philistines have a champion who will fight in their place. Goliath of Gath was over nine feet tall, arrogant and intimidating.
So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them. Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield.
1 Samuel 17:3-7 NLT
Goliath challenged Israel to send out their own champion to face him.
Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!” When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.
1 Samuel 17:8-11 NLT
Goliath had done this every morning and every evening for forty days. That’s our first clue this wouldn’t be an ordinary battle. Nine times in the Old Testament, significant events followed the pattern of a forty day or forty year waiting time. In each case, it involved a time of testing or judgement. In the New Testament, two 40-day patterns connect to Jesus. He was tested for 40 days and 40 nights (Matthew 4:2), and there were 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:3).
On this day, Jesse had sent his youngest son David to take bread and cheese to his oldest three brothers who were with the Israelite army. David was the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons, and worked for his father as a shepherd. He was too young to join the army, so he was probably in his early teens at this time.
So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts, as Jesse had directed him. He arrived at the camp just as the Israelite army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries. Soon the Israelite and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army. David left his things with the keeper of supplies and hurried out to the ranks to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out from the Philistine ranks. Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel.
1 Samuel 17:20-23 NLT
David was offended that Goliath was free to defy both God and Israel.
David asked the soldiers standing nearby, “What will a man get for killing this Philistine and ending his defiance of Israel? Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?”
1 Samuel 17:26 NLT
So David was taken to the Israelite king, Saul, where he assured him he could defeat this giant. Saul was eventually persuaded and gave David his permission, his blessing, and his armor. The armor was much too large, so David removed it. He chose five smooth pebbles from a stream, and armed with his shepherd’s staff and sling, he started across the valley to confront Goliath.
Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled.
1 Samuel 17:41-44 NLT
David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies – the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the LORD rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the LORD’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
1 Samuel 17:45-47 NLT
Goliath moved in to attack and David ran forward to meet him. He loaded a pebble in his sling, then hurled it, hitting Goliath between his eyes, the only target not protected by armor. Goliath was instantly unconscious; his knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground, face down. The encounter lasted just a few seconds.
David didn’t fit the people’s template for a warrior champion. He was a simple shepherd, not a warrior. David’s weapons didn’t look like they stood any chance against a heavily armed giant. But the story is a preview of mankind’s champion, Jesus, fighting and defeating our greatest enemy, Satan. And just as David’s weapon looked weak to the Israelites, Jesus’ death on a cross looked too weak to defeat Satan.
There’s another level of symbolism in the story that’s easy to miss. Remember that in Genesis 3, in the Garden of Eden, God said there would be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent forever. But he also said that when the seed of the woman comes, he would crush the serpent’s head.
Our Bibles usually describe Goliath’s armor as “a bronze coat of mail”, but during the bronze age, armor was actually made from scales of bronze linked together to allow movement. It was called “scale armor”. Goliath looked like a 9 foot tall serpent, covered in bronze scales. Symbolically, he represented the serpent of Genesis 3. David had been anointed by Samuel one chapter earlier, so he is the Israelites’ anointed leader.
And now we have the whole symbolic picture God intended: Goliath represents the serpent of Genesis 3, and David represents the Lord’s anointed, the seed of the woman. And with one small pebble, David crushes Goliath’s head. The message is that our champion, Jesus the Messiah, has defeated Satan so we don’t have to be slaves forever to evil.
Facets of Redemption Found in this Picture:
- Our redeemer will be our champion, fighting our battles for us and defeating our greatest enemies – Satan, sin, and death.
- He will have the heart of a shepherd and will reclaim his own sheep, who willingly follow him.
- His weapons won’t be anything like what we expected, but with them he will destroy Satan’s work.
- Our champion, God’s anointed, will defeat Satan so that we won’t be slaves forever to evil.