The chapter is about the importance of faith, but it’s about something else also. It's about the rare occurrence of such faith. Wouldn't you think that out of all the people of Israel, there would at least be a few Davids; there would be a handful of people – fifty, a hundred? – men who had similar faith? But the most striking feature of this chapter is that there was only one. And the teaching really is this: that in the days of spiritual decline, real faith can be even rarer than we imagine. Real faith! There were surely a lot of people who loved the Lord. There was a remnant; there must have been, because God says that there will always be a remnant, always. And yet, even though there was a born-again remnant, there wasn't faith, real faith. It is the same in this country. There may be seven thousand who haven't bowed the knee to Baal; there may be a big remnant of precious born-again people, but applying a test like this in some spiritual way today, might it not be revealed that until a lone David was produced by the Lord, there was little real faith. That is what we want to see more of today: passion and faith. People who will say, ‘How easy that the world is allowed to walk right over the testimony? And Christian people are content to live and worship in a humdrum, low-key manner, and nobody will prove the promises of God, and really get down to gospel work? Passion, feeling, concern, and real belief in the promises of God. It may be that it is a lot rarer than it ought to be. Blood-bought people, precious converted people, there were in those days; but only one who had real faith. That is the teaching of the chapter: that in days of decline converted people may not be so rare, but real powerful faith is very, very rare, and there is a difference between the two. So we have got a lot to search our hearts on when we think of these things, and consider these things.
We can sometimes over-praise historic preachers. Take John Wesley: what amazing travels he undertook! Even when he was old, an old man, there he would be battling through Scottish mountains in deep snow, with nobody prepared to travel with him to get to the town the other side of a mountain where he had agreed to preach. Amazing man, remarkable man! But then we have to remember this: praise John Wesley for his travels, but praise God for the souls. All credit to that man for what he was willing to do in the body. But when he preached, don’t say, ‘It was Wesley's preaching that knocked them over; it was Wesley's preaching that stirred their hearts; it was Wesley's preaching that won souls.’ No, it was the arrow of conviction of the Lord of hosts, entering hearts; and never forget that. When we speak of great preachers and all that they have accomplished, and what they have done, we rightly trace their dedication and their labours, but we shouldn't go on and give them the credit for the souls. That is what David is very careful to maintain here: his balance. It's all credit to the Lord, all the way through. So when you think of what happened, don't say to yourself, what an amazing shot! What an amazing slinger! What an astonishing strategy on the part of David! Wasn't it brilliant how he brought Goliath down! Say rather, all credit to him for his courage, his forwardness, his trust in the Lord, that he was prepared to fight; but all credit and glory to the Lord, because what happened was a miracle. It's too extraordinary for David to accomplish that, unaided by the Lord. That is why, at the front-end of the narrative, Goliath is massively built up, and made invincible, and when the verse about his execution comes, it is all over in a second.