Scripture: 1 Samuel 17: 1-58
Sermon: Armed with Imagination[1]
Topics: imagination, David, Goliath, faith
Preached: October 30, 2005
Rev. Mike Abma
1 Samuel 17
Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2Saul and the Israelites gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, and formed ranks against the Philistines. 3The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.4And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armoured with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. 8He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, ‘Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.’ 10And the Philistine said, ‘Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together.’ 11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. 13The three eldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle; the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14David was the youngest; the three eldest followed Saul,15but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.
17 Jesse said to his son David, ‘Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers; 18also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See how your brothers fare, and bring some token from them.’
19 Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20David rose early in the morning, left someone in charge of the sheep, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. 23As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.
24 All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid. 25The Israelites said, ‘Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. The king will greatly enrich the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter and make his family free in Israel.’ 26David said to the men who stood by him, ‘What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?’ 27The people answered him in the same way, ‘So shall it be done for the man who kills him.’
28 His eldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the men; 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.’ 29David said, ‘What have I done now? It was only a question.’ 30He turned away from him towards another and spoke in the same way; and the people answered him again as before.
31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul; and he sent for him. 32David said to Saul, ‘Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’33Saul said to David, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ 34But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.’ 37David said, ‘The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.’ So Saul said to David, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you!’
38 Saul clothed David with his armour; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39David strapped Saul’s sword over the armour, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, ‘I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.’ So David removed them. 40Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.’ 45But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.46This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,47and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’
48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, striking down the Philistine and killing him; there was no sword in David’s hand.51Then David ran and stood over the Philistine; he grasped his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him; then he cut off his head with it.
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52The troops of Israel and Judah rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53The Israelites came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent.
55 When Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, ‘Abner, whose son is this young man?’ Abner said, ‘As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.’ 56The king said, ‘Inquire whose son the stripling is.’ 57On David’s return from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58Saul said to him, ‘Whose son are you, young man?’ And David answered, ‘I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.’
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
There are two things I remember about the second grade: one is playing soccer at recess; the second is listening to our teacher, Miss Roest, read to us in class. The book I remember most clearly is C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair. On sleepy afternoons, she would read one chapter at a time. I was wide awake and spell-bound.
I could hardly wait to hear more about the land of Narnia.
I could hardly wait to hear more about the adventures of the two
children, Jill and Eustace, and their friend, the Narnian Marsh-
wiggle named Puddleglum.
I was enthralled when they almost got eaten by giants.
I was on the edge of my seat when they slid down, down, down into
the dark and dirty underworld – a place deep underground
where the sun never shone
and one never knew whether it was day or night.
I held my breath when they were about to rescue Prince Rilian of
Narnia from the terrible power of the Queen of the Underworld.
I remember dreaming of owning all the Chronicles of Narnia so that I could escape into them whenever I wished. So that I could travel to that invisible land with make-belief characters like Marsh-wiggles, and Giants, and talking creatures, and a Lion who was Lord of all. Narnia was an invisible land. But the stories were real to me, very real. They explored the very real territory of good and evil
the territory of dangerous truths and comfortable lies,
the territory of what it means to have courage
and what it means to be a coward.
A WRONG WAY TO READ DAVID & GOLIATH
Whether you know lots about the Bible or whether you know very little, chances are you know about the story of David and Goliath. Few stories in the Bible are as long, as detailed, and as thrillingly drawn out.
Here is a story with power.
But here I am going to make a confession.
When I was recently out of seminary, some fifteen years ago, I wrote a sermon on this same passage. I re-read it this week. At that time, I’m afraid I tried to do something cute.
I played on that image of five smooth stones, and I wrote a sermon about
the five moral principles we need to have in order to face our biggest worries in life.
I wrote about the five spiritual guidelines needed to overcome whatever giants we may be facing.
It was a cute sermon.
But I’m afraid I did something terribly wrong.
I had reduced this story to a little moral lesson.
I reduced it down to 5 things we can do,
5 things we can achieve
to battle all the worries and fears that face us.
I reduced it down to the 5 right tools,
the 5 right weapons,
the 5 right pieces of armor.
If we have those, we can face anything.
If we have those, we can win any victory.
I may have made that sermon cute, but I killed the story.
And I will tell you how I killed it.
You see, by reducing things down to 5 little moral lessons,
I had put all the emphasis on our performance, not on God’s power.
I had turned this story into what we can do for God.
But this story is all about what God does for us. Period.
What set David apart is that he had a heart, a mind, an imagination open enough to what God can do, and what God does do in this world.
CRAMPED, DARK, FEARFUL IMAGINATIONS
But King Saul did not have that type of heart, or mind or imagination.
Why do you think the story lingers so long on Goliath’s armor and all his weapons?
Why do you think we’re told how Saul tries to dress David in armor and tries to put his own sword in David’s hand?
It is to point out a sad theme in this story:
that Goliath and Saul really are not that different.
Sadly, Israel had wanted a king “just like the other nations.”
Now they had a king “just like the other nations” – a king who put his trust in the size of his army, the strength of his armor, the sharpness of his sword.
The other sad thing about this story is that the Israelites don’t look a whole lot different than the Philistines.
Here are the armies on either side of the Valley of Elah, facing each other.
They are portrayed as mirror images of each other.
They all live in a world of cramped imaginations.
They all live in a world darkened by fear,
a world easily swayed by evil,
a world that makes brutes like Goliath champions and kings.
They live in a realistic world — “What you see is what you get.”
They saw how big and brutish Goliath was, and thought, “ best not rush in and get squished.”
Israel had been frozen in this fearful inertia before.
Way back when they were about to enter the Promised Land,
ten spies came back as realists.
They saw what they saw – the Canaanites were giants and they were little
grasshoppers.
“Best not rush in and get squished,” they said.
GOD-DOMINATED IMAGINATION
Into this dark, fearful landscape comes David.
David is different.
He sees things differently and he does things differently.
He isn’t like his older brothers and the rest of the Israelite army.
He isn’t like Saul.
He has an imagination that is able to take old and deep truths and to express them in new and fresh ways. Since he was a boy, he had heard the stories of God’s power and God’s provision. As a shepherd, he had experienced God’s nearness when he had to face a bear and a lion. Over time, David’s God-dominated imagination only deepened.
That is why he couldn’t believe what he saw and heard when he came to the front lines of the battle. When David saw Goliath, he asked, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God.”
A God-dominated imagination has power – the power to cause a stir.
David causes a stir.
He sees things differently.
David also does things differently – he is different from Goliath. He is also different from Saul. He will enter this battle without armor, without a sword. He will enter this battle armed with an imagination – a holy imagination that whispered in his heart, “The Lord is the stronghold of your life – of whom shall you be afraid? (Psalm 27:1.)
THE WORD IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
Did you happen to notice how much of this chapter is made up of speeches and how little is actually made up of the battle?
David doesn’t start the battle the moment he puts a stone in his sling and rushes to meet Goliath. No, he started the battle the moment he arrived and hears Goliath’s taunts. In all of the speeches, David’s imagination is battling the fearful imagination of those around him.
When Goliath makes his speech to terrorize the Israelites,
David responds with words in defiance of Goliath and in defense of the living God.
When his big brother Eliab makes a speech telling David he better go back to taking care of sheep, David responds with a speech of his own, asking him, “What’s your problem?”
When Saul makes a speech to David telling him to get real – “You’re a boy, Goliath’s a brute,” David replies by saying, “If the Lord can save me from lion and bear, he can save me from this brute.”
Then there is the final set of speeches:
Goliath shouts and roars at David, telling him he is just a puny punk who is about to be vulture food. Even then, David does not back down. David fires right back and tells Goliath that the Lord would win the day and all nations would know there is a God in Israel.
Long before a stone is put in his sling, David has had to stand firm.
For 47 verses the tension builds between these two camps:
the realists and the idealists;
those with 20/20 earthly vision and those with 20/20 heavenly vision;
those living by sight and those living by faith;
those who say what is Real is only what you can see and those who have the imagination
to say, No, what is most Real in life is what we cannot see.
What is most important to David is not his sling, not his five stones.
What is most important to David is that he is armed with a God-dominated imagination!
THE SILVER CHAIR and A HOLY IMAGINATION
We live in an age that some describe as an age of anxiety.
We live surrounded by fears, by threats, by worries.
So when the days grow dark,
and fear is all around,
what is most Real to us?
To answer that, let me go back to C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair.
Remember how that book ends? Well, if you have forgotten, let me remind you. You see, near the end of that story Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum find themselves in the dark underworld for days on end. It was so dreary that they begin to forget what the sky and the sun look like.
Finally, when they are losing hope, they find Prince Rilian of Narnia.
He has been the prisoner of the dark Queen of the Underworld.
Just as they are about to rescue him and bring him back to Narnia, they come face to face with the dreaded Queen of the Underworld.
Their clash is also one where the speeches are long, and the action is short.
“Where do you think you are going with him?” the Queen asks.
They tell her they are bringing the Prince back to the Overworld,
to the land called Narnia,
where the sun shines,
where the sky is blue,
and where Aslan rules.
The Queen laughs at them and asks “What are you talking about? What is this thing you call a sun?”
They point to a lamp and say, “See how that lamp hangs from the ceiling and gives light to the room. Well, the sun is like a lamp, only far greater and far brighter, and it hangs in the sky and gives light to the whole Overworld.”
The Queen then scoffs at them and says how ridiculous this notion of a sun is. A lamp can hang from a ceiling, but what can a sun can hang from?
There is no sun. It is just a childish dream.”
Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Prince Rilian then say,
“But there is a sun and there is Alsan, the ruler of Narnia.”
The Queen again laughs and asks, “Who is Aslan and what is Narnia?”
They respond and say “Aslan is a lion, a Great, and Wise and Good Lion. And Narnia is a beautiful and wonderful land of blue skies, and trees and creatures…”
The Queen again laughs loudly and says, “Enough. Enough. You really are dreaming. How very childish of you. Put away all this childish talk. I have work for you all to do here in the Real World. Listen, there is no Narnia, no sky, no sun, and no Aslan.”
The Queen almost has them all under her spell when suddenly Puddleglum says,
“Suppose we have only dreamed up all these things:
the trees and the creatures of Narnia,
the sun and the sky,
even Aslan himself.
Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world.
You call us children playing make-believe,
But let me tell you, our play-world licks your real world hollow.
That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world.
I’m on Aslan’s side, even if there isn’t an Aslan to lead it.
I’m going to live as a citizen of Narnia, even if there isn’t a Narnia!”
Puddleglum stands firm.
He stands firm against the Wicked Queen of the Underworld.
He stands firm because he was armed.
He was armed with what David was armed with.
He was armed with what all believers are armed with.
He was armed with an imagination that was absolutely convinced
that the most real,
the most important,
the most precious things in life are not the things we can see;
they are the things we cannot see.
May we all be armed with just such a holy imagination,
An imagination that keeps us
strong in the power of Christ’s victory over death;
strong in the width and length, height and depth of Christ’s love for
us;
and strong in the assurance that our past, our present and our future
belong to him.
Amen
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The idea of Imagination comes from Eugene Peterson’s Leap Over the Wall, chapter 4. ↑
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