Preparing for Sunday - 1 Samuel 17

Preparing for Sunday - 1 Samuel 17

This Sunday we come to one of the most familiar stories in the whole Bible, David and Goliath, and it's a story we almost always tell backward. Before you gather, spend some time in 1 Samuel 17 asking a different question than the one you're used to. Not "how do I beat my giant?" but "who wins the battle God's people cannot win?" Come ready to meet the Champion He sends.

Critically Think

1. Read 17:1-11. Notice how the narrator piles up Goliath's height and his bronze armor in verses 4-7. What effect does all that detail have on the way Israel, and you as the reader, sees him?
2. What exactly does Goliath propose in verses 8-9? Whose fate rides on the outcome of a single fight between two champions?
3. Look at 17:11 and 17:24. How do Saul and all Israel respond to the giant, and how long had this standoff already dragged on (17:16)?
4. In 17:23 and 26 David hears the very same words Israel had been hearing for forty days. What does he hear in them that everyone else had stopped hearing? Notice that for David this isn't first a military problem but a blasphemy problem.
5. Read 17:34-37. When David explains why he isn't afraid, what is his confidence actually resting on, his own record, or something else?
6. Why does David take off Saul's armor in 17:38-39, and why do you think the narrator lingers over the staff, the sling, and the five smooth stones in 17:40?
7. Read David's words in 17:45-47. In whose name does David come? According to verses 46-47, what is the whole point of this battle, and who does David say the battle belongs to? Then notice 17:50, "there was no sword in the hand of David." Why does the narrator want us to see that?

Prayerfully Meditate
Israel measured the giant against themselves and despaired right on schedule. Where in your own life are you measuring what you face against your own strength, and coming up short?
Israel counted the giant's height. David counted on the living God. What would change this week if you started measuring your trouble against the greatness of God instead of the size of the threat?
David's confidence wasn't nerve, it was memory. He reasoned from the God who had already delivered him. What has God already done for you that you've quietly stopped remembering?
The temptation in every crisis is to suit up in Saul's armor and fight the threat on the world's terms. What borrowed armor are you tempted to trust instead of the Lord Himself?
You do not win this battle. You follow the One who already won it. Where are you still straining to fight a battle Jesus has already fought and finished in your place?

Intentionally Act

1. Read 1 Samuel 17 all the way through before Sunday, slowly, watching how often the text points away from David's strength and back to the Lord who saves.
2. Name the giant you keep measuring against yourself. Write it down, and next to it write one true thing about the God that giant is up against.
3. Take an honest inventory of your Saul's armor, the securities you reach for when you're afraid, and deliberately lay one of them down before the Lord in prayer this week.
4. If you've never trusted the Champion who walked into the valley in your place, don't wait. Come Sunday ready to follow Him, and bring someone with you who needs to hear that the battle belongs to the Lord.
5. Learn the songs below before we gather, so that on Sunday you're not just hearing about the victory but singing the one that's already been won.
   
   

Songs for Sunday

• Glorious Day 
• Abide
• Victory in Jesus