- Lesson 9 in the Connect360 unit “How Great Is Our God: Passing the Faith Along” focuses on 1 Samuel 17:38-51.
When you are trusting in God’s power, your weaknesses are not the issue. They already are known, and what is known cannot be used against you by your enemies. God promises he will provide grace “sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
This battle is over even before it begins. David ran to meet his foe in the middle of the field, slingshot in hand. Everyone in Israel had been saying, “This guy is so big, we cannot beat him.” David said, “Goliath is so big, I cannot miss him!” By trusting in God’s power and using God’s weapons, David achieved victory over Goliath with one simple stone. And just like that, the enemy had been defeated; David was right, the battle was truly the Lord’s (1 Samuel 17:47; 2 Chronicles 20:15).
One further show of power: David ran up to Goliath and used the Philistine’s own sword to behead him (17:51). In doing so, David made certain the spiritual enemy was not just dead, but he was absolutely dead. Recall that the Philistines had promised to surrender if their champion lost the one-on-one battle (1 Samuel 17:9). We should never expect that the enemy will live up to his promises. David’s actions, while gruesome, gave the Israelite army newfound courage, and they took after the opposing army with great fervor and passion.
At the end of this narrative, we find a picture of Jesus and the cross. David is an Old Testament type of Christ who points forward to the Messiah in the New Testament. In Genesis 3:15, Satan is cursed for the destruction he has brought into Eden. Specifically, God stated that the woman’s offspring “shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
As the seed of the woman, Jesus crushed the head of Satan at the cross. When the Israelites finished pursuing the Philistines, they plundered the enemy’s camp. Jesus has done this for us, as well. He has crushed the enemy’s head, and the enemy is on the run. By faith, we rest in his victory.
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