Those upon whom the fulfillment of the ages has come, have much to learn about faith from the Biblical account of David killing Goliath, and, as it is with much of the Old Testament, this event in David's life was not meant for him alone. It was also intended as a source of revelation for us, because there be GIANTS greater than Goliath gathering just over the horizon to persecute the people of the Lord and oppose the will of God in the last days.
Giants, although never common, were apparently not uncommon in David's day, and we're not talking about NBA seven footers. We're talking about nine feet of muscle and sinew. They would have their own weight class in the WCW or WWF.
In Genesis 6:2-4 we find that the occurrence of giants originated with a strange event in which fallen angels, referred to here as "sons of God", mated with women.
When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
The Nephilim...(giants)... were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (insert is the author's)
Mankind, with bloodlines corrupted by fallen angels, was given over to evil in those days, and God determined to cleanse the earth with a flood. Only Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives were spared.
However, in Numbers we find that the descendents of the Nephilim still existed in the days when Moses led the Israelites to the promised land.
We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. Numbers 13:33 NIV
Although scripture does not provide an explanation, it is possible that at least one of the wives of Noah's sons was contaminated by the Nephilim bloodline. This would seem strange since the very purpose of the flood was to purge sinful mankind, but Noah's sons, their wives, and any children would have been covered or sanctified by Noah's covenant with God, regardless of their individual standing with God and regardless of any contamination of the bloodline. It also appears that Gath was the stronghold of these descendents of fallen angels and the daughters of men, and Goliath the Gittite was the predominant Nephilim of his day, the champion and hero of the Philistines.
Goliath challenged the Israelites to provide a champion of their own to face him in single combat, because, from the Philistine point of view, if the Israelites were foolish enough to take up the challenge, Israel would quickly become subjugated to them.
On the surface of things it seems unlikely that a young man, who was still considered to be too young for military service, would be allowed by Saul to face this giant, since the outcome of this uneven fight could put the entire nation of Israel into slavery.
So why did he allow it?
Unknown to Saul, David had already been anointed by Samuel to be the future king of Israel (1 Samuel 1:1-13), and Saul had chosen him to be one of his armor-bearers, although Saul did not yet know that David had been anointed to take his place as king of Israel. The fact that Saul did not know about David's anointing by Samuel is easy to understand. David's brothers could have spread the word, but they were embarrassed by their own rejection, and David himself kept quiet, waiting on the Lord to reveal the anointing at the appropriate time. Therefore, David, as Saul's armor-bearer, had some standing with Saul before the event, or he would never have had an audience with Saul at the battlefront. And Saul's jealousy had not yet been aroused, because he knew nothing of David's anointing.
David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." 1 Samuel 17:32-37 NIV
David's account of killing the lion and the bear is unbelievable when considered from the natural point of view, and it would have been just as unbelievable to Saul. The only other person in the Bible who killed a lion with his bare hands was Samson, and he only killed a "young lion". Not even a powerful grown man is capable of seizing a lion or bear by the hair and killing it with a single blow. Only a man anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit would be capable of such a feat.
We assume, because of Saul's failure later in life, that he was not a man of faith, but only a man who had been given "ears to hear" would have believed that David had killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands in the strength and anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Many who have read this account miss the singular and important fact that Saul believed, by faith, David's account of killing a lion and a bear, and he, too, received by faith the promise that this uncircumcised (outside the covenants of God) giant could not stand against the anointed of God, even if the anointed one was still a shepherd boy and not a warrior.
The decision to let David face Goliath is proof that Saul's own faith was involved in the decision and, yet, he tried to equip David with his own armor and weapons.
In the life of the body of Christ today that would be the equivalent of receiving a command or commission by revelation from the Holy Spirit and then trying to implement that command or commission with the strong arm of the flesh.
It won't work, as many Christians and many churches today have proven over and over. The work of the Lord is only effective when the grace (anointing and empowerment) of God is manifested through our active faith, and David's faith was evident.
David rejected Saul's armor, saying, "I cannot go in these, because I am not used to them."
His rejection of Saul's armor was a rejection of the strong arm of the flesh in favor of the power of God.
In this account we also see how the Holy Spirit prepared David for this work of faith by allowing him to face the lion and the bear. Sometimes we don't understand the difficulties and hardships we have faced in the past until we have to face the giant. Then we understand that we would never have had the faith to stand against the giant if we had not experienced other fiery trials along the way. The fiery trials were necessary for the development of David's faith, and they are necessary for ours as well.
Oddly enough David's killing of a lion and a bear appears not to have been known by anyone but David. He kept it to himself until the Holy Spirit caused him to reveal it to Saul. If he had revealed it to his family at the time, he would either have been ridiculed as a liar and a braggart, or he would have become a famous folk hero.
How many of us would keep such a thing to ourselves? But David kept quiet and waited on the Lord.
As David prepared for the fight he picked up five smooth stones as the Lord obviously instructed and put them into his shepherd's bag. But why five stones? If the Lord was going to deliver Goliath into his hands why would he need five stones? Was this an act of unbelief, a momentary lapse in the extraordinary anointing of the moment?
Yet, immediately afterward we hear David prophesying to Goliath.
David said to the Philistine,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, and he will give all of you into our hands.
In David's heart it is already done. He had the revelation of God, and he is so eager for the manifestation that he ran toward Goliath.
Can you imagine the giant's confusion? He is a fully armored, battle hardened, four hundred pound warrior, and David is a teenage boy in sandals running toward him with a slingshot whirling around his head in a noisy blur.
The outcome was never in doubt with David, and the outcome should never be in doubt with us.
If we have the revelation of God in our hearts we should run to the battle with the joy of the Lord rising up inside us no matter how the circumstances seem to be stacked against us.
David's faith was not something he worked up on his own. He didn't copy some other man of faith, using his words and actions. He didn't dig through the Bible looking for promises to claim. He didn't decide that he wanted to kill Goliath so he could marry the king's daughter and then try to work up the faith to get the job done.
He did what New Testament believers are supposed to do. He did not try to direct the anointing to meet his needs. He responded with obedience to the anointing he received.
When Samuel anointed David, David did not refuse, nor did he boast. He simply received and believed, and he waited on the Lord. When the lion and the bear attacked the sheep David responded to the anointing without hesitation, and the Lord allowed him to experience the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Again he did not boast or attempt to gain glory for himself. He simply obeyed and then waited on the Lord.
Most New Testament believers would immediately go out looking for more lions and bears to kill. Some would start a lion and bear killing ministry. In short order there would be a new denomination, the Church of the Lion Killers, who would believe that they now had the whole truth.
But David waited on the Lord, and the Lord brought him out of the fields to the battle where he anointed his trustworthy servant once again.
Most of us yearn to experience the power of God. We're so eager for it that we sometimes attempt to manufacture the manifestations of the Holy Spirit and attempt to manufacture the manifestations of faith, but what did David do? David waited on the Lord.
David would have been taught the Torah and the prophets in his family and in his synagogue, but he waited on the Lord in regard to the anointing and his faith. He waited on the Lord, and then he responded to the Lord's anointing in absolute, determined, joy-filled, obedience.
But what about the five stones? Wasn't that a moment of doubt, a momentary slip of faith? After all, it only took one stone to kill Goliath.
In 2 Samuel 21:15-22 there is an account of four more giants being killed by David's men.
These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men. 2 Samuel 21:22 NIV
The revelation and promise of God included, not only Goliath, but four additional giants. Thus five stones.
David's faith and obedience included giants that he did not, yet, know about.
There are lions and bears and giants in our lives, too. If we go up against them in our own strength (or with some new "faith" fad) and at the moment of our own choosing, we will be put to flight, even though it is the Lord's will that we overcome.
In spite of what some teachers of the Word are saying, we cannot generate giant-killing faith as an act of our own will. The Lord will first allow the lion and the bear to come against us to prove the anointing and the faith He is giving us. Only then will we be allowed to face the giant.
If we want to experience giant-killing faith we must first be willing to go through the fiery trials and the testing of our faith (the testing of our willingness to "hear" and "obey" the voice of the Lord in all things).
Every experience of "hearing" and "obeying" the voice of the Lord, even as the still small voice of the Spirit, our spiritual conscience, every prayer of faith, every difficult passage of life in which we have turned to the Lord, trusting by faith, is a preparation for the trials to come.
Like athletes, we are either aggressively pursuing the perfection of our faith, or we are just "maintaining." And, like soldiers, we are either eager to be on the front lines, like Marines or Special Forces, killing giants, or we are content to be lollygagging back in camp.
But if lollygagging back in camp is our choice we will be totally unprepared when the giants storm the camp, and there are giants preparing to storm the camp.
It is noteworthy that the lion and the bear attacked the sheep. They did not attack David. David's fearless, faith-filled response was triggered by his sense of responsibility for the sheep rather than self-defense. Likewise, David's response to Goliath was not personal. His fearless, faith-filled response was against the threat to God's covenant people.
What does that tell us?
It tells me that if I want the manifestation of giant-killing faith in my life I must submit to the testing of my faith in all things rather than seeking faith "techniques" for the meeting of my own needs. It tells me I need to be about the business of interceding for others, especially for my brothers and sisters in Christ, but that I must not attempt to manufacture faith, even on behalf of others.
It tells me that if I wait on the Lord He will be faithful to anoint me and fill me with faith for His purpose, and it tells me that if I am obedient to the anointing and the revelation, the giants will fall, even those giants that I do not, as yet, know anything about.
But I do know that they are coming, and you, brothers and sisters, if you are paying attention to what the Lord is saying to His church, know they are coming, too.
See, I have warned you in advance. Matthew 24:25
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Final Instructions - A discipleship Bible study guide based on the Lord's instructions to His disciples on the day He was betrayed and crucified. John 13-17