1 Samuel 17:1 Commentary and Bible Study

This passage has often been so mishandled. Years and years ago, as a youngster in the church where I was, the preacher for the occasion took this very chapter and spoke about ‘The giants in one's life’, and I have seen that in print and heard it referred to so often. And then, lo and behold, not so very long ago someone showed me a printout of one of the women preachers on the Internet, and the sermon or the message was from First Samuel 17, and again it was ‘The giants in your life.’ First Samuel 17 has nothing whatever to do with the mythical giants in your life. To start with, there is only one giant in the entire passage, and it should be pretty obvious that there is something wrong with this kind of the exegesis or interpretation of the passage. But it is very tempting to people who don't seem to know how to study the word of God or explain it. There is a giant mentioned here, so that is taken and made the basis of everything, and it follows a predictable course. How did David deal with the giant? He used a sling, and that required good eyesight, so lesson number one is: you need good eyesight; in other words, you have to be vigilant. And there are very trivial applications of this kind derived from the passage. Much more significant is to start with the 29th verse, ‘And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?’ a great issue or purpose, a great battle, even a campaign, something pivotal going on here, a major thing in life. That is what the chapter is about: the major objective and direction and purpose of life, not the individual difficulties that we meet with. There is a congregation, and maybe people are not involved in any great service for the Lord, and they are all living their own lives, and have their own problems, trials, and difficulties, and everything in the Bible is made to minister just to that – to my little life and the things that go on in it, and to my personal needs and difficulties. Yes, there are many earthly difficulties, and we have the promises of God and the blessing of the Lord to help us in all of those things. But there is something far greater than that, and that is the principal, the main objective of our lives, of my life. What is my calling? What is it for? What is the great objective and destination? That is what this passage is chiefly ministering to. In the opening verses of this chapter, we are told just exactly where it was, and what the circumstances were. ‘Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle,’ – they went on the offensive – ‘and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.’ The site for the intended confrontation was a place where there are two very rocky hills – described in our translation as mountains, but that is flexibility in the word. They were separated by a deep valley, and a river running in that valley, which was really a wadi, dry most of the year, but running with water during the rainy seasons. The armies are arranged on either side to the north and to the south. The Philistines have taken territory right out of Judah. They are no longer on the boundary, threatening; they have now entered in, and have stationed themselves well within the country. So Saul, perhaps belatedly, has put out the signal; he has raised an army, and there are many thousands of Israelites and many thousands of Philistines gathered. ‘Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.’ It is fighting language, but it appears that the two armies just looked at each other for some considerable time. There may have been skirmishes, to justify the word ‘fighting’ which is used in the narrative twice, but nevertheless there was no real battle until after the event with Goliath and David, and then it wasn't so much a battle as a rout, a pursuit.