2 Samuel 21:15-22 They Might Be Giants

You're listening to a podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek is preaching from his series,

The Warrior Poet King, A Study of 2 Samuel. Let's listen in. This morning we're going to dive back into the book of 2

Samuel and our text is going to once again remind us of the faithfulness of God toward King David.

We're talking about his life, but always with a mind to the fact that he's not just merely telling us

David's story, but he wants us to see ourselves in David's story as well.

He wants to identify that he who is the God of David is the God of you as well.

He is the God of Recast Church as well. God made a promise to David, and God is the one who keeps his promise to David.

And he has said that the Messiah, the chosen king over all kings, is going to come from you, from your offspring,

David. There are two different opinions about the text that I encountered this week in my study.

In the flow of David's life, we've seen a downward spiral, have we not? Those of you that have been here part of the series, raise your hand if you think there's been a bit of a downward spiral, like sins and consequences of sins and dire things and people trying to take his kingdom from him.

It's been all kinds of intrigue and coups and all of that kind of stuff.

Many people just see this as a continuation of that. One more negative in a string of negatives.

Is this text serving as just the consequences of David's sin and giants come back into the land, or is this text a glorious account of victory after victory after victory?

Scholars line up on one side or the other depending upon their bent, but I would suggest to you that if you have a realistic approach to Scripture, if you're okay with it conveying the real life of real people, then you will quickly come to the conclusion that it's okay for this to be both.

Both the consequences of David's sin, both the Philistines being raised up again to judge him, and equally an opportunity to demonstrate the faithfulness of God.

Is not your life like that, church? We see an account of further wars and conflicts.

We see mighty champions rise up from amidst the Philistines, the sworn enemies of Israel, and we also see them summarily dispatched by David's mighty men.

And before I read this, let me set the table for us with this reality check, and that's just to ask yourself personally this question, is my life not full of both things?

Giants show up, right? Think like barriers to faith and trust in God's promises, those things that seem to be insurmountable, those things that get in the way of what appears to be

God's plan. And yet it's equally true, right? You've seen it, that the battle belongs to who?

The battle belongs to the Lord, the one who promises is faithful. Both massive problems and massive faithfulness have followed me my whole life, both, because I'm a sinner and my

God is faithful. Think of it this way, to highlight the ambiguity of our lives, you can just think about current circumstances, right?

And ask yourself this question with authenticity, not the first answer that comes to your mind, not a flippant answer, but an honest depth of thought, is the current circumstance of inflation, like I'm talking economic inflation, like things cost more, is that a net good or is that a net bad for you?

It's a bit ambiguous, right? Well, what are we talking about? Well, I mean, how many of you like paying more for stuff?

How many of you would sign up for that? How many of you are hoping that inflation just continues, right? No, of course not.

But then ask yourself this question as we think about this text, did giants coming up against David in Israel prove to be a net gain for them or a net loss for them?

Without giants, there is no miraculous deliverance. Now, we don't try to produce the bad circumstances in order to grow our faith.

No, no, not at all. But we take the negative circumstances as God seeking to grow our faith in Him, opportunities for growth.

All things work for the blessing and benefit of those who are

His. Another way to think about this text is that no circumstances will come at us that cannot be for our blessing.

No circumstances will come at you that cannot produce within you good things, the good that God desires to accomplish in your heart and in your life.

But why do we always lean toward expecting life to be black and white and clear and morally discernible?

These biblical accounts do not come at us like an ethics textbook, do they? And the narrative portions of Scripture seem less interested in moralizing, well,

David did good, these giants did bad, and so therefore it's just really black and white and clear.

I mean, I don't know if we ought to identify more with David's men or more with the giants in this text. Are we more in the way of what

God wants to do, or are we more in line with what He wants to accomplish? It's hard to tell in any given moment.

How many of you would admit that maybe within the last few hours, there have been moments where you might have been against God's will? You might have been angry at somebody that you shouldn't have been angry at.

You might have raised your voice. You might have been upset, right? Like, were you the giant or were you the David in that case?

Where were you? So ambiguity is always a part of these narrative portions. But here's what we highlight as we go to read this text.

This text exists to shine a spotlight on God's faithfulness.

God's faithfulness. These texts, texts like this, seem eager to spotlight His faithfulness against all odds.

This account shows that war did indeed follow the kingdom of David down to His closing days.

But this text also shows that God remains faithful to David down to His closing days.

I titled this message, They Might Be Giants. And some of you recognize the reference to the band from the 80s and 90s.

And then some of you have no clue what I'm talking about. But they might be giants, but God is

God. They might be giants, but God is faithful.

So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to 2 Samuel 21, 15 through 22.

And obviously when I preach this here in a little bit, I'll get into the details about how in the world there's giants. But this text,

I want to just read it and show you that the text takes for granted that there were. So we're going to take for granted that there were, and we'll talk about that.

But 2 Samuel 21, 15 through the end of the chapter, which is verse 22. After this, there was war again with the

Philistines at Gob. There, Sibachai the Hushethite struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants.

And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. And Elhanan the son of Jareh, the

Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

Twenty -four in number, in case you couldn't do the math. And he also was descended from the giants.

And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down.

These four were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Let's pray. Father, I start off by confessing to you a strong pull within my heart, standing here in front of these very modern, educated, scientific people.

I confess that it's been a hunger and a desire in my heart to just quickly move this to metaphor.

To suddenly talk about our giants and ignore the fact that this text indicates that there were real giants.

Father, this just highlights for all of us the need for us to take on faith what your word has to say.

I thank you that you are God. I thank you that you are in charge, that you are our creator, that you are our master, you are our

Lord. You don't pull any punches when it comes to that which is miraculous. You brought your people through the

Red Sea on dry ground. You let Jonah survive in the belly of a great fish.

You have done miraculous things down through the ages. So, Father, we put our trust in you, recognizing that we have nowhere else to turn.

Where else would we go if we don't turn to you for our hope and for our help? And we're just left here on our own.

Father, we are a people of faith, gathered together in faith. Gathered together under the authority of your word to hear what you have to say to us and to praise you this morning together.

I thank you that we have an opportunity to sing songs before you. You are our redeemer. You are our savior.

You are worthy of all praise. In the midst of the darkness, you have broken into our lives.

And so I pray that you would ignite our hearts with shouts of thankfulness for your faithfulness this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen. Get comfortable, and please keep your

Bibles open to 2 Samuel chapter 21, verses 15 to 22. This really is the second of kind of four -chapter conclusion to the book of 2

Samuel that we're looking at here. And it may appear just like a smattering of events in these last four chapters.

Just a bunch of, like a hodgepodge of different things. But it actually is a section of Scripture that is highly stylized and compiled with significant intention.

Last week we saw sin and consequences. This week we see victory and battle. Then we're going to have two messages on the heart of David's leadership.

Then victory and battle. Then back to sin and consequences. This is a Hebrew writing style that's called chiasm.

It's kind of like a cross structure to it. And it's used to emphasize what is in the middle.

What's in the middle of this? In this case, the middle of this at the conclusion of 2 Samuel is going to be a couple of messages on the heart of David's leadership.

And in this case, we're going to see it is all about his trust in God's faithfulness that was the heart of David's leadership.

What made him a good leader? What made him a man after God's own heart? His trust that God would be faithful to keep his promises.

So with that context, we find ourselves in a passage that emphasizes conflict and resolution. Victory and battle during the reign of King David.

Now, I believe that these events occurred later in his rule and reign. And we're going to see in our text four giants and four victories for Israel.

Now, verse 15 begins a refrain we're going to hear a total of four times in our text. And to be honest, this text reads like a military record.

It actually, many people think that it was kind of just like ganked straight out of the annals of the military exploits of Israel.

And this part was taken and just quoted wholesale. It doesn't read like an exciting military drama.

There's not a lot of details given to us. Just facts arranged for our observation.

And each one, though, represents an incident of danger for the kingdom of David. And particularly, an opportunity for the

Philistines to take them over. The outline is very creative this morning.

One, giant one. Two, giant two. Three, giant three.

And anybody want to guess what the fourth point is? Giant number four. You guys are tracking with it.

So, giant number one, we see him in verses 15 through 17. And these are all set in the context, by the way.

Each one mentions a novel battle, a unique, distinct attack by the Philistines.

And the Philistines are testing the strength of Israel over time. Again, as I said, I believe at the end of David's, we'll see here in a moment that he's going to be asked to hang up the sword for good.

And I think that this is going on. He was recorded as having battles later into life. And so,

I think that this is occurring later. I've got some, you know, the flow of 1 and 2 Samuel in there.

And scholars back that up and stuff. But giant number one has a name. His name is Ishbi -Banab.

I don't know why they name people the way that they do. But I don't know why my name is Don Filsick either. So, Ishbi -Banab just happens to be this dude's name.

And he is said in the ESV to be a descendant of the giants. That's the way the English Standard Version translates it. Descendant of the giants, plural.

Which is a translation that takes some liberty with the text. Now, I love the ESV. And we've used that here.

And we've got ESV study Bibles available out there. And I like that translation. But it doesn't mean that every single time

I love exactly what they've done with the text. Because when you're translating it from those foreign languages, there's always a little bit of interpretation that you have to do.

A little bit of figuring out exactly what they would have understood it to mean in their day and age with their language.

It translates the phrase, son of Rapha. Where the Rephaim, the sons of Rapha, are identified throughout the

Old Testament. Not always in a family line, but a type of person.

They're always tall, strong, warrior types. Og of Bashan is a guy that the

Israelites encountered as they were coming out of Egypt. Going across the Red Sea and into getting ready to take the

Promised Land. And they encounter this guy named Og of Bashan. And he's declared to be one of the

Rephaim. One of the mighty ones. One of the tall ones. One of the, we would translate, giants as the

ESV has it. He required an iron bed that was 13 feet long.

According to the text of, I think it's Exodus. But he required a bed that was 13 feet long.

A pretty substantial, I mean, how much of it did he take up? I don't know. But scripture tells us little of the giants.

But I want to point out that it takes for granted that they are real. Now some of you immediately go to fables and myths in your mind.

And I understand that. And again, my heart's desire has been to defend God on this point.

But I want to point out that what's common during this era of writing is that things launch out into mythology very quickly.

They launch out into fables. And there is no pulling punches that you end up with things like trolls and orcs and goblins and elves and Sauron and the

One Ring to rule them all, right? I mean, things spin out like that. What does the

Bible do here? It gives us really tall humans, like tall men.

It doesn't get out into orcs and trolls and dragons and that kind of stuff.

No, it's going to stick right here with men who are tall and mighty. They're not 30 -footers either.

They're within the realm of reality. While still be impressive and certainly out of the ordinary, but they're not, you know, they're 9 to 10 feet tall.

Which, how many of you think that's still impressive, right? That's a big deal. But I find it interesting that a direct translation of this phrase, and this is what

I want to point out for our benefit in the ESV, it is singular and would bear a definite article in the

Hebrew language. So if we don't assume Rapha is the name of some ancient ancestor, which many scholars don't, what this means is that throughout this text, it would be appropriate to understand that what the text is saying is that Ishbi -Banab was the son of the giant.

The son of the giant. And there's one particular one. It's going to later say the son of the giant.

Definite article, singular, in Gath. Any of you ever heard of a giant? Maybe know the name of a giant from Gath?

Anybody? Goliath. The son of the giant from Gath.

It's not super significant either way, but I find it quite plausible and likely that all four of these are offspring of Goliath from Gath, meaning that this text is demonstrating an ongoing defense of Israel that began with God granting victory to a very young shepherd boy with a sling and a stone.

It is not accidental that here at the end of his life, we are dealing with something that was very formative early in his life.

This text either way, though, harkens back to more innocent days for David. It's a reminder of a time when he was victorious over the giant.

But giants have come to challenge Israel again in this text, and David is out in the battle with his forces when it says something that's novel and unique of David, something that's never recorded for us.

David becoming weary in battle. That's got to grab your attention. If you've studied the life of David, if you've read his writings, if you've read what's recorded about him in the histories in 1

Samuel, 2 Samuel, and into 1 Chronicles. I almost said 1

Corinthians. That is my next series, but 1 Chronicles. If you dig in and you get to know the life of David, this stands out to you as a unique statement.

I would imagine that in the middle of the battle, it would be a bad time to realize you skipped breakfast, right? You realize that when these guys go out to battle, they are stuck with whatever physical fitness they have at the moment, right?

They're going out and it's go time. To swing a sword, like ancient battle,

I can't imagine what that would be like, right? Your life depends on your muscles acting in a certain way and functioning correctly.

How many of you know that in the middle of battle, you might just pull a muscle? Your calf might cramp up. Any of you ever have a calf cramp up in the middle of sports or running or whatever and you're on the floor screaming, right?

Like it's, ah! And people are like, what's up? Ah, just a cramp. He'll walk it off or whatever. Yeah, and people writhe when their muscles cramp.

But this kind of thing, like David, this would be a pretty inconvenient time to grow weary, to kind of, like I've had that happen, they call it in the biking world, and I don't know if they call it this in the running world, but they call it bonking.

When you ride and you actually run out of energy and you haven't fueled up enough, you hit a wall and it's like,

I mean you might be going 20 miles per hour on your bike and the next thing you know, you can't do eight. Your muscles won't give you anymore.

You grow weary and you, so I'm getting a lot of blank stares right now, but it's happened to me a couple of times where I've gone on a long ride and it's like, all of a sudden it's like, man, am

I gonna make it home? Am I gonna have to walk this thing? Like I just, I can't even, like your muscles just decide, nah, not today.

We're gonna sit this one out and see where you go. What's gonna happen now? And you just feel like rolling over in the ditch and just kind of like, okay, just take me.

That's, yeah, I'm being a little bit dramatic, but it happens. So David is pressed against by this powerful enemy who sets it as his goal to kill

David while David is losing steam in this battle. David is bonked. He's got no more energy.

He's weary. He's tired. And Ishbi -Banab is strong enough to wield a spear with the tip.

The tip of his spear weighs seven pounds. Now that might not seem like a lot to you, so what

I want you to do is if you've got access to some kind of a dowel or some kind of a long, you know, two by four, put a gallon of milk, tape it to the end of a two by four and then try to lift that thing.

And then you get a picture of what this guy was able to manage. A gallon of milk is between seven and eight pounds and that's out at the end of like five to six, five, six, seven, eight foot spear.

Like that's, I think most of us in this room couldn't even pick it up. Two hands, you wouldn't be able to get it off the ground.

And so this guy is a beast of a man. And the text adds, he's got a new sword.

Now when you get your new iPhone or you get your new Google Pixel or whatever it is that you're into, when you get your new device, what's the first thing you want to do?

You want to pack that baby and use it. This guy's got a new device. It's a new sword and it's hungry for some blood.

And he's like, I got a new sword, got to break it in. Why not break it in on David? So that's where this guy

Ishbi -Banab is. Verse 17 tells us a little detail. Not a ton of detail.

We only just get this really kind of almost flippant statement. Abishai, who I mentioned a few weeks ago, is dependable when

David needs someone dead. The Abishai and Joab guys are just really good at dispatching people.

Like that's, oh, that's my favorite. Killing people, that's my favorite. So I hope that doesn't get used out of context.

But every once in a while I say something and I'm like, man, if that was just a clip, that would not go well. So whatever.

Abishai is good at killing people. He steps up to defend his king and he dispatches this massive, threatening mountain of a man.

That's what we get in the text. We don't know the details. We don't know if it was a long battle that ensued between the two of them. We just know

Abishai is successful. And we find that this is happening near the end of David's career. And again,

I said there's all different kinds of things that lead me to that conclusion. But this is held up as the incident.

The wording that's used here and the way that it comes to us in the text, this is the incident in which the kids came to David and told him he was too dangerous on the road and they respectfully ask for his car keys.

Only this is his military men coming to David and asking for his sword.

Turn in your sword, David. You're too valuable to us. Now, it's interesting that, I mean, think about that juxtaposition where we might tend to have a thought that our value is in our ability to do the things that we've always done.

And what would happen if we weren't able to do the things that we've always done? Do we lose our value? No, his military is saying, you're too valuable to wield the sword anymore.

You're too valuable to us, David. We ought to consider this great value that God graciously grants to us at the various stages of our lives.

As we continue to age, our value is not found in the things that we used to do. When I was in my early 20s,

I used to dunk a basketball. Not gonna happen today. Guaranteed. Not gonna happen.

And probably not gonna happen again in my life. And I gotta be okay with that, right? How many of you, there's some things you used to be able to do, you can't do anymore?

Anybody? And the rest of you are young enough to go, not yet, it's coming for ya. It's coming for ya.

But as far as applications go, this is kind of a little bit on the weaker side of applications, but it's worth mentioning since this section features prominently in the life of a very, very, very military -oriented man.

His career is over. What he's known from youth, from the time that he swung that sling and killed that giant, to this day, he has been a man of the sword.

And notice that his career is over, and did he retire? No, he's told to retire.

He's told, David, you're too dangerous out there. You're pulling a muscle, and you're gonna pull a hammy, and it's gonna go bad, and you're gonna die, and then what?

After a close call, his guys come to him and say, turn over the sword. And the reason given is his value has shifted.

His value is not in his strength to swing the sword. His value is wrapped up in his leadership and the light that he brings to the nation.

David has morphed from warrior into more king slash sage.

Look at the end of verse 17. David is a guide and a source of light for the nation of Israel.

We don't want the lamp of Israel to be extinguished.

We don't want you to die, and they call him the lamp of Israel. A way of saying, you put off so much light, you are such a light and an infusing source of goodness for our nation.

We don't want you gone, and we fear that if you keep going at this pace, it's over.

So that's giant number one, Ishbibanab. Abishai takes care of him. David turns in his sword.

Giant number two in verse 18. This is a little bit of a shorter one. Giant number two also has a name.

His name is Saf. He is also a descendant of the giant. And Sibachai, one of David's mighty men, struck down this giant at a place called

Gob. Gob is also equated to the same place by a different name, same place.

Gezer is also, if you were to look that up in a map, Gezer, G -E -Z -E -R, is also

Gob. We will see that at least two battles take place here in this location. It's an ideal location for battle.

It's on the flat plains at the border between Israel and Philistine territory, a little north and west of Jerusalem.

Saf is dispatched by Sibachai. Giant number three, verse 19. Once again, the

Philistines line up at Gob to threaten Israel. And once again, they come out with a champion. A descendant of Goliath, or at least a relative.

Some would say it might very well be Goliath's brother, Lachmi, that is killed by Elhanan here in this text.

I want to point out that this is possible since there's a distinction between the account and the parallel account of this.

You can jot this in the margin and look it up. First Chronicles 20, verse 5, as Elhanan killing

Lachmi, the brother of Goliath, where this credits him with killing a guy named

Goliath. There's a bunch of different ways that it's possible to bring these two accounts together.

The ESV Study Bible has an excellent note to help you clarify this. Study Bibles are beneficial in that when you come across something like this that can be a little bit confusing or that seems to be out of whack, you can just write there in the margins, look it up, and recognize that you're reading somebody's opinion, but at least it helps you to synthesize those things.

But either way, the reality is that Elhanan was granted victory over a very, very large and powerful man that was in the military service of the enemies of God.

And whether he was the brother of Goliath, or he was Goliath Jr., which I lean towards, by the way. I lean towards this being

Goliath Jr. here in the text. Either way, he was a big obstacle. A mighty obstacle removed by the much bigger

God who promised to keep David's royal line going. That leads into giant number four, verses 20 through 22.

So far, our text has removed Ishbibanab, Saph, Goliath Jr., and now we get unnamed giant man.

That's what I'm gonna call him because he doesn't have a name. So unnamed giant man has some features worth mentioning.

He has a routine case of what is called polydactyly. Polydactyly is having more than your appointed number of fingers.

And this guy has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. And you might ask, is that common?

I just, I got hung up on the counting aspect of it. This guy could count. Like, I mean, he could take his shoes off and he could get all the way to 24 and I'm going, how am

I gonna do this? How am I gonna get that? I can't even get to 24, right? But this guy was able to count.

And I geeked out a bit on the research. This, by the way, occurs, it's a shocking amount, this occurs in one out of 500 births today.

One in 500 births has an extra digit, at least one extra digit. They are often, though, surgically removed.

Right, Dr. Downing? He does that from time to time. He was one of my sources for polydactyly and talking about that.

But this guy also, beyond that anomaly, also has, he's obviously a giant in size and he was a descendant from the giant.

But beyond his impressive ability to count over 20 with his digits, he also comes with another feature we see in the text.

He comes with a taunting and mocking mouth. Often enemies do, right?

But he comes with a taunting and mocking mouth. Look at verse 21 where we get a glimpse of this guy's MO. Where he taunted

Israel, Jonathan, David's nephew, shouted to him with all the bravado, hello, you killed my father, prepare to die.

And then he got him. And it was over. Some people get it, right?

And he struck him down. But note that this giant is different in that it's recorded for us that he taunted

Israel. It never goes well when someone issues an affront to God's people. That is not a good place to stand.

This is possibly the most theological point in the whole passage, to be honest. Where does any good and right come into this text?

It comes in with God giving victory. God choosing to give his people victory.

God protecting his people. God vindicating his people. In this case, through radical victory over giants.

And the text screams out, they might be giants, but God is

God. They might be giants, but God is God. And so we come to realize a more general and important truth from this text.

God is the defender of his people. We ought to make it our goal to live in such a way that we never come up against God's people.

The epistles of the New Testament leave the most scathing indictments for those who would divide and sow discord among the church.

We take seriously his defense of his people because he faithfully shows us the real human history that it doesn't go well for those who oppose what

God has set forth to do. And what he's doing in our current era is establishing his people in local gatherings to grow up in faith, to grow in community, and grow in service together.

We see the summary statement in verse 22 of the demise of these four giants. These four were descended from the giant in Gath.

And this last verse with the singular makes me lean heavily over towards these four guys being the direct descendants of Goliath from Gath.

Even if this means that Elhanan was a giant slayer killing both Goliath Jr. and his uncle

Lachmi. So we have two different accounts. That's how I would synchronize it. I would say, yeah, he did both. He got rid of both of them.

Here in this account, we're seeing he killed Goliath's son who, how many of you know that it's pretty common for a son to be named after his father,

Goliath Jr.? And his uncle Lachmi who was the brother of Goliath.

So Elhanan was beast. And these four fell by the hand of David and the hand of his servants, the conclusion of the text says.

Now, don't get hung up on David's sudden involvement in verse 22. Well, wait, I thought he turned in his sword and now they fell by his hand.

Well, David, as king, is credited even while it was his men who took down these particular giants.

And by the way, it's common to give a military general credit for victories despite never firing a single shot in the battle, right?

That's quite common. And so I wanna consider a few ways to apply this text and I'm gonna seek to avoid the most trite of all of them, which is the routine misunderstanding that we get from these texts regularly and that is, go slay your giants.

Go get them this week. Go pull yourself up by the bootstraps and slay your giants. But this passage is not about your power to get it done, church.

And so let me start with a more accurate contextual application from these verses. The first is to trust

God to take care of your giants. Let me point out to you that if you're going to put yourself in David's shoes in verse,

I mean, in 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17 is the record of him killing Goliath.

If you're gonna put yourself in David's shoes there and be like, I'm the, God's calling me to slay my giants and to kill them and to put them down, then you're gonna also have to put yourself in David's shoes in 2

Samuel 21. Where he's sucking wind, cramping up, pulling a hammy, calling out for time out, time out, as Ishbi -Benab is coming down with a seven foot,

I mean, a seven pound spear, getting ready to steal his lunch money. Do you see the overarching picture of the life of David?

Is it coming into focus for you? He was not a self -made giant slayer who sat out with a, sat out just practicing and practicing for the day that his life came and that sling was gonna come in handy to kill giants.

He was just trusting in his faithful God. Just trusting in his faithful God.

He was not a man who killed giants whenever he wanted to. As a matter of fact, in this case, without intervention, he was toast.

He was skewered. He was done. Wasn't on his shoulders. Wasn't his ability. He was a man utilized by God to deliver

God's people at the right time. And here in our text, David is called to step aside and let

God use others. Who killed Goliath?

Who killed Ishbi -Banob? Who killed Saff? Who killed Goliath Jr.? Who killed the six -fingered man?

No, it was not Enigo -Mentoya. And it wasn't merely these mighty men that are recorded for us, though they do well to support the

Lord's anointed king in this text, but I encourage you all to lean into the God who is victorious for His own glory.

He will overcome any and all obstacles that appear to be in the way of Him keeping His promises.

Trust in God to slay your giants. Second, find your value in God.

I mentioned a minor application earlier to just point out that our role in life shifts over time.

Our value doesn't change, but we see in our text that the seasons of battle are over for King David.

His military leaders gather around him for an intervention. Turn over your sword, David. Yep, and the bow.

And the sling. Yes, the dagger at your ankle. Yes, the other sword. Yes, the other bow. Keep them coming.

Turn it all over. And he is declared in the text to be the lamp of Israel.

He is no longer the warrior of whom the young maidens will sing, Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.

But David still has light to shine and light to share. Is it fair, maybe, to call us all to work, to trust

God to age gracefully, to respect each other generationally?

And we do so by acknowledging that God has a role for each of us to play as long as we have breath.

Be sure to keep your purpose and value rooted in God, not in what you can do.

Anybody find that tough? Because there's a lot of things that I've been able to define my life by that I can't do.

You know what I'm talking about? And it's changing every year.

It's changing every year for all of us. Find your value in God who loves you and has cherished you and has lavished upon you the love given at the cross.

The last thing is trusting God's vindication. God loves his people. God loves the bride of his son.

He has a fierce loyalty to us, church. In our text, we encounter a man who taunts the people of God and is struck down.

That's historical. God will not always appear to vindicate his people.

Jesus himself was abused and beaten and affronted for us. Where was the striking down of the

Roman soldiers with the spear? Why weren't they struck down? Why didn't lightning take them all out right then and there?

The people crucifying our Lord and Savior were not struck down in that moment of mocking and deriding him.

The fact that God loves us doesn't mean that all who oppose us will be struck down. Instead, some who oppose us by our prayers for them, by our prayers for them, will actually receive grace and be forgiven and be there one day with us.

How can the same God who struck down giants also be the same God who tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us?

Is there a distinction between Old Testament God and New Testament God? The connecting point is the cross of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the cross, we realize the great love that God has given to us and also the terrible judgment that sin deserves.

He alone has the right to distinguish between those two. He has defeated sin and death for us at the cross of Jesus Christ.

We are going to end this service by taking communion together. If you're living a life for Jesus based on his sacrifice for you at the cross, then

I encourage you to come to one of the tables and take a cracker to remember his body that was broken for us and take that cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for us.

And then let's go out from here trusting in our Savior. He was the one who was struck down for us.

And so when the giants show up, remember that they might be giants, but he is definitely

God. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the victory that we are all promised in Christ.

Not a victory that removes all of our enemies here in this life and just makes the pathway smooth for us to just have easygoing jobs, easygoing community relationships, easygoing family.

We know that that's not reality. We do trust that you are taking this all to a good and perfect end.

You are taking this all to a kingdom under your Son, Jesus Christ, where there will be no more sin, no more death, no more tears, no more suffering.

That's our promise. That's our hope. So, Father, I pray that you would remove from us any of this hope and trust that we place in our abilities in the here and now, our ability to slay our giants, our ability to kill the issues that face us.

But instead, Father, I pray that you would move in all of us to trust in you, to put our hope and faith in your ability to accomplish your purposes.

And there's one purpose that we know for sure, and that is that you will glorify your Son and that you will raise to new life your people on that final day.

I pray that that would give a swing to our step and a joy to us, an ability to endure hardship here, knowing that there is a vindication that's coming.