What Am I Missing – Lesson 3 – Why We Are Not Surprised By Davids Victory

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WHAT AM I MISSING?  |  LESSON 3  |  1 SAMUEL 17

Why We Are Not Surprised By David’s Victory

This series looks at what we often miss when we read familiar Bible stories. First Samuel 17 tells the story of David and Goliath. At first, the fight looks impossible: a giant, trained warrior against a shepherd. But Scripture does more than tell us what happened. It uses specific techniques, repeated words, silence, matching scenes, to get us ready for the ending before the fight even starts. This lesson names five of those techniques and shows how each one works.

The Battle in the Valley of Elah

The book of 1 Samuel tells how Israel received its first kings. Israel is the nation descended from Abraham, the people God chose for Himself. Saul is Israel’s first king, and Samuel is the prophet who anointed him.

Saul’s army camps on one mountain, and the Philistines camp on another, with a valley between them. A Philistine champion named Goliath proposes a fight between two men: the loser’s nation will serve the winner’s (17:8–9). For forty days, everyone in Israel’s army stays away from the fight. Then a shepherd from Bethlehem named David arrives with food for his brothers. He hears the challenge, volunteers, and kills Goliath with a sling and a stone.

Five ways this chapter prepares us to expect David’s victory:

•     Before Goliath ever appears, we are told the LORD has already chosen David and rejected Saul.

•     Height, heart, and youth are words that come up more than once, and each time they teach the same lesson.

•     Everyone’s fear gets described in detail. David’s fear is left out completely.

•     David uses Goliath’s own words, but says the LORD is the one being defied, in place of Israel.

•     Israel’s request for a king to “fight our battles” is answered by David’s words, “the battle is the LORD’S.”

 

 

Told Before It Happens

Scripture often tells us something before it happens in the story. That way, we know more than the people in the story know. To see this, we need to look at what happened before the two armies ever met in the valley.

Saul had already been king for some time when he disobeyed a direct command from the LORD. Years before, the Amalekites had attacked Israel. Now God told Saul to destroy them completely as punishment. Instead, Saul let their king live and kept the best sheep and cattle for himself (15:3, 9). Samuel, the same prophet who had anointed Saul, told him that obeying God mattered more than offering sacrifices (15:22). Because Saul disobeyed, the LORD rejected him as king (15:26). This matters here because it explains why, one chapter before Goliath shows up, God had already picked a different king.

God sent Samuel to a man named Jesse in Bethlehem: “I have provided me a king among his sons” (16:1). Jesse brought seven of his sons to Samuel, one at a time. Samuel saw the oldest son, Eliab, and thought he looked like a king. God corrected him:

1 Samuel 16:7 7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

 

 

The Hebrew word for heart means the whole inner person. It includes the mind that thinks, the will that decides, and the character that leans toward good or evil. It is more than feelings; it is where a person thinks and chooses.

The LORD passed over all seven sons standing there. Jesse’s youngest son, David, was still out in the field watching the sheep, so Samuel sent for him. When David arrived, the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him: for this is he” (16:12).

1 Samuel 16:13 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.

 

 

The next verse tells us about Saul: “the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul” (16:14). Here is the first thing we already know before Goliath even shows up: the LORD picked David and gave him His Spirit, and the LORD took His Spirit away from Saul.

The Same Word, Twice

The Old Testament often uses the same word in two different places to connect them and make a point. This chapter does that at least four times.

Height. Saul stood “higher than any of the people” (9:2), and it made him look like a king. Later, Samuel looks at Eliab, who is also tall and impressive, and thinks he must be the next king. God corrects him with the same word: “Look not… on the height of his stature… for the LORD looketh on the heart” (16:7). Picking a king and winning a battle are two different things, but this chapter teaches the same lesson both times: size can impress people, but the LORD decides the outcome. In the next chapter, Goliath’s height gets a lot of attention (17:4). By then we already know this much: the LORD decides who wins, whatever Goliath’s size.

Heart. In chapter 16, God tells Samuel how He judges people: “the LORD looketh on the heart” (16:7). That is why God picked David instead of Eliab. In chapter 17, the word heart comes back, and this time Eliab uses it. He gets angry at David and says, “I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart” (17:28). Eliab claims to know David’s heart. But we already know better. God looked at that same heart back in chapter 16, and He chose David because of what He found there.

Youth. Saul objects when David offers to fight Goliath: “thou art but a youth” (17:33). Later, Goliath sees David and says the same thing: “he was but a youth” (17:42). An Israelite king and a Philistine soldier agree on nothing else in this whole story, but they agree on this. Both of them are wrong. David’s win was always going to come from what God planned to do through him, rather than from his strength or experience.

Uncircumcised. Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham’s family (Genesis 17:10–11). Calling a man “uncircumcised” meant he stood outside that covenant. David calls Goliath “this uncircumcised Philistine” (17:26). Jonathan used the same word earlier in the book, about a whole camp of Philistines. He attacked that camp with only his armor-bearer beside him, saying first, “there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (14:6). Then “the LORD saved Israel that day” (14:23), two men against a camp of soldiers. The word “uncircumcised” carries that same lesson into this chapter: God protects His covenant people from those outside it, regardless of army size.

Four different words. Each time, the lesson is the same. People keep looking at height, age, and army size. But God is the one who decides the outcome, every time.

What the Author Leaves Out

Sometimes what Scripture leaves out teaches us as much as what it puts in. Watch this pattern. When Goliath first shouts his challenge, we are told exactly how Saul and Israel reacted: they “heard those words of the Philistine… and they were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (17:11). Heard, then afraid. Forty days later, Goliath shouts the same challenge again. This time Scripture uses the same word, heard, for David: “David heard them” (17:23).

1 Samuel 17:24, 26 24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid. 26 …for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

 

 

The pattern holds again for the soldiers around David. They “fled… and were sore afraid” (17:24), just like before. But the matching sentence for David, heard, then ___, never comes. Scripture leaves David’s feelings out completely and lets him speak next instead. David speaks right away, sounding sure of himself, while fear had gripped everyone else around him.

One Part Changed

Sometimes a person in Scripture echoes what someone else just said, but changes one part of it, and that change says everything.

Goliath said he came to “defy the armies of Israel” (17:10). David echoes Goliath’s own words, but swaps the name at the end: Israel becomes “the living God” (17:26). The living God is a title that sets the LORD apart from the false gods other nations worshiped. That one swap turns a fight between two armies into a fight against the LORD Himself.

David says this same thing three times, to three different people. The first time is to the soldiers around him (17:26). The second time is to Saul, who doubts David can face a trained warrior. David answers Saul with his own story: a lion and a bear had come after lambs in his father’s flock, and the LORD saved him from both (17:34–35).

1 Samuel 17:37 37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

 

 

David looks at what the LORD has already done for him and expects Him to do it again. The third time is straight to Goliath’s face: “the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (17:45). Hosts means armies. Goliath trusted his sword, spear, and shield. David trusted the LORD, the real Commander of Israel’s army.

Opening and Closing Together

Sometimes Scripture opens and closes a long section of the story with matching words. This creates a frame, and the frame shows the main point of everything inside it.

Nine chapters earlier, Israel asked for a king who would “go out before us, and fight our battles” (8:20), in place of the LORD, who had already been fighting those battles for them. Saul became that king. But when Goliath appears, Saul stands back with the rest of the army, dismayed and afraid. Israel’s own king stays behind.

David does what Saul left undone. He runs straight at Goliath (17:48). But he hands the credit somewhere else. Before he ever reaches Goliath, he tells the army who is really fighting this battle:

1 Samuel 17:47 47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.

 

 

Israel asked for a king to replace what the LORD had been doing. Saul left that job undone. David finishes it, but he sends the credit right back to the LORD. The battle Israel asked a king to fight still belongs, in the end, to the LORD.

The Battle Belongs to the LORD

By the time David walks into the valley, all five of these things have already done their work. We already know things that Saul and Goliath have yet to find out. We have followed the same words as they show up again and again. We have noticed what Scripture left out. We have heard David call this a fight against the living God. We have watched Israel’s old request get answered before the fight even starts. For us, the outcome is already settled.

Goliath cursed David “by his gods” (17:43), the false gods the Philistines worshiped. “There was no sword in the hand of David” (17:50), only the sling he already carried. He knocked Goliath down with one stone, then used the giant’s own sword to finish him (17:51). Israel and Judah then chased the fleeing Philistines (17:52). The very soldiers who had stood back in fear now joined the chase and shared in the victory, even though David alone had done the fighting. The LORD’s win, through one man, became the whole army’s win too.

What Were We Missing?

Five things Scripture does in this chapter:

•     Tells us ahead of time. Before Goliath even shows up, we already know God chose David and rejected Saul (16:7, 13–14).

•     Repeats a word. Height, heart, youth, and uncircumcised each show up twice, and connect two moments (9:2; 16:7; 17:28, 33, 42; 14:6, 23).

•     Goes silent on purpose. We hear all about Israel’s fear, but David’s reaction stays untold (17:11, 24).

•     Swaps one part of a phrase. David turns “armies of Israel” into “armies of the living God” (17:10, 26).

•     Opens and closes with matching words. “Fight our battles” turns into “the battle is the LORD’S” (8:20; 17:47).

 

 

This chapter helps us see, rather than surprise us. Every one of these five things points the same way: the LORD had already decided this fight before it started. He said so both through what happened and through the way it all unfolded.

What We Learn

These five things teach us three reading habits:

• Look for what a passage tells you early. Information you get early changes how you read everything after it.
• Track words that repeat. A word can travel from one chapter to another and carry the whole point with it.
• Notice what Scripture leaves out. Silence can be just as planned as any sentence. Ask why it is there.

This chapter also teaches three truths:

• The LORD looks on the heart. David’s win looks surprising only if we judge people the way Saul and Goliath did, by what stands out on the outside. Paul asks the church at Corinth, “Do ye look on things after the outward appearance?” (2 Corinthians 10:7). I want to look past the outside, in myself and in others, and pay attention to the heart instead: faith in the LORD, love for His Word, faithfulness in small things.
• The battle is the LORD’S. I can trust the LORD to keep His promises and give Him credit for what He does. And I can tell others what He has done, so that they, like “all this assembly,” know that “the LORD saveth.”
• The victory comes through the anointed King. We just saw how David’s army shared in a win he alone achieved for them. David is Israel’s anointed king, and the word Christ means the same thing, Anointed One. Luke 2:4 and 11 tell us a far greater Anointed King, a Saviour, was born in Bethlehem, “the city of David.” Through Him, we share in a far bigger victory, over sin and death, that He alone achieved for us (1 Corinthians 15:57).

What has the Bible already shown us before this passage?

David was the only one in Israel who expected this outcome. He already knew what the LORD had done for him, and he already knew Goliath was defying the living God. That is why he ran toward the fight while everyone else stood back afraid.

The LORD who chose David because of what He saw in David’s heart still looks at hearts today. He is still the God who saves, and when we face a battle of our own, it still belongs to Him.