The Spirit is Moving in the Valley, Too

1 Samuel 17:1-11  Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.  (2)  And 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.  (3)  And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.  (4)  And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.  (5)  And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.  (6)  And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.  (7)  And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.  (8)  And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.  (9)  If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.  (10)  And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.  (11)  When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

• He declared that much bloodshed could be spared by each army sending out their champion to face one another and determine the battle by having the two men fight it out.
• Why set the armies in array
• He was there, a Philistine.
• And any one among the servants of Saul could come.

• Saul previously fought Ammonites, Philistines and Amalekites.
• But now he was fearful because the spirit of God left him.
• Abner was a great warrior and general, who is nowhere to be seen here as well.
• Jonathan the son of Saul was present, who had not only smitten a garrison of the Philistines, but with one man more only had attacked another garrison, and routed the whole army of the Philistines, and yet now shows not his head against a single man.

• Its when you aren't shouting.
• You're not running the aisles and praying for everyone else.
• You're a bit more introverted than usual, because your problem has just taken anything else around you that you can be concerned over out of your mind.

1 Samuel 17:16-17  And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.  (17)  And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;

• Some feel it was because they knew the Israelites prayed at those two times, to further mock them.

• Obviously, this problem had to be dealt with and was not going to disappear by ignoring it.

• And mountains usually speak of high times and happy times.
• But when they stared right into an unavoidable valley in front of them, knowing it was something that was not going to go away, even the mountain top did not seem very nice.

• Jesse wanted to know how they fared.
• Were they still alive?
• Some even feel the following verse refers to a pledge of bills of divorce to be given to their wives in case the men died in battle.

1 Samuel 17:18  And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.

1 Samuel 17:20-23  And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.  (21)  For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.  (22)  And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.  (23)  And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them.

1 Samuel 17:25  And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel.

• He heard the mockings of Goliath.
• He was stirred inside.

1 Samuel 17:26  And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

• He said the Philistine was uncircumcised.
• In other words, a heathen.
• In false religion.
• Knowing nothing about the true God.
• Only the nation of Israel at that time knew about the true God who demanded the covenant of circumcision since Abraham's time.
• And he reproached Israel, God's people.
• He defied the armies of the living God, in contrast to some false god made out of dead wood or stone.
• And to reproach Israel was to reproach God's people.
• He loved God's people.
• And to defy God's armies was to defy God.
• He loved God.

• He asked them to repeat it.
• Then we reads of his older brother ELIAB, rebuking him and falsely accusing him of abandoning the sheep just to have fun gawking at the battle scene.
• And then David looks to some others and asks them to repeat the news of the reward.
• David humbly wanted the men to spread the word so that Saul might hear it, rather than exalt himself to Saul.

1 Samuel 17:34-37  And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:  (35)  And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.  (36)  Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.  (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. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.

• Earlier, God allowed David to be called to the palace to serve Saul as a musician when Saul was tormented by an evil spirit after the Spirit of God left him.
• This occurred after God anointed David.
• When God anoints you for a ministry, He will cause things to happen where you will get out there.

• Enough to hear what was going on.
• And we see David's heart.
• We already knew he was a shepherd from earlier chapters where Jesse called him to Samuel while in the field, and earlier when Jesse called him to go to the battle site, and leave his sheep with another.
• And Eliab asked him what he had done with the sheep.
• And here David exposes his heart of a shepherd.

• David saw a bear take a lamb from the flock.
• With so much concern over the lamb, he forgot about himself.
• He loved God, and loved that sheep, and that caused him to run out after the bear and pull the sheep out of its mouth.
• When the bear turned on him, God's power came onto him and he tore the bear and killed it.

• And God would deliver him from the hand of the giant like he did from the paw of the bear and lion.

• As much as he loved the sheep, he loved the people of God.
• And as much as He trusted God against the lion and bear, he trusted God against Goliath.

• God is going to get you out there in the open if you have those two loves.
• He is going to set things up to bring you and use you, if you have those two loves.

• Notice that when Eliab falsely accused David of irresponsibility in leaving the sheep, when Jesse summoned David to do so and leave the sheep with another to deliver some goods to the boys at war, David did not rail back.
• He simply said, "What have I done?  Is there not a cause?"
• In other words, he simply politely responded and walked away.

• But a love for God and for others sort of removes that emphasis out of your heart.
• You don't mind it so much when people falsely speak against you.
• You quietly carry on and do what you know is God's will.
• Even if its your own brother or sister who is opposing you!

• But...

1 Samuel 17:38  And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.

• And now he gives David some armour.
• It was not Saul's own personal armour that he wore, but rather armour Saul had in provision with him for his soldiers.

• Assayed means to test and experiment with it.
• Trying to get used to it.

• Shepherding and using a staff and a shepherd's bag for provisions for his sheep.
• He was used to God being with him and protecting him.
• So...

1 Samuel 17:40  And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

• His love for God's people was like his love for the sheep.
• So he went with the shepherd's staff.

• He went to a brook and took out five smooth stones.
• And thought to use them against Goliath with his sling.

• The margin of the Bible tells us that taking stones from the brook can also be rendered as taking stones from the valley.
• It was a brook in the valley.
• Smooth stones because of the rushing water.

• The rushing water of the brook -- that little river -- speaks of the moving of the Holy Ghost.
• The Spirit is Moving.
• And for the stones to be smooth, they had to have been in the brook in the rushing water for a long time.
• The water eroded the edges off the stones.
• It made the stones perfect to fit in the sling and fly out of the sling.

• Of all places, right in the valley!
• He did not have those stones until he walked into his valley.
• And may not have been accustomed to the armour of man, but he took stones that were accustomed to the moving of the water.

• The picture is clear.
• David received exactly what he required from the moving of the Spirit that was right there down in the valley.
• The Spirit is Moving in the Valley, Too

• When all is going well, and the Spirit is blessing us, we're on a mountain top.
• But the Spirit moves in the Valley, too.
• You just have to look for it a little bit more.

• Soon he found some rushing water.
• The water was moving.
• God's Spirit came like a rushing, mighty current of wind in Acts 2.
• It might be harder to find in the valley, with all the distraction of the enemy working, but the Spirit is moving in the valley, too.
• You'll find it if you look.

Numbers 13:23-24  And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.  (24)  The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

• All Israel doubted except Joshua and Caleb.

Numbers 13:32-33  And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.  (33)  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

• Goliath and Giants.
• David and grasshoppers.

• God was with them.
• And the grapes of Eshcol that proved the blessings were they were found by the brook Eshcol.
• The two men were most likely Joshua and Caleb who carried the grapes.
• While the others feared the enemy, Joshua and Caleb went to a brook where the water flowed.
• In the enemy's territory where a battle must be fought and won, they found a waterway.

• Joy in the valley!

• The blood of Jesus is a weapon we can use against the enemy!
• Like stones from the brook, the grapes from the brook speak of the wine of the blood of Jesus, which Jesus said represents the New Testament in His blood.
• Use the blood against the devil by realizing the blood speaks of death.
• And Jesus' death occurred on the cross and broke the hold the devil had over everyone who has believed upon Jesus.
• So His blood is a weapon!

• The moving of God's Spirit and the truth of your victory over all death and hell through the death of the cross will cause you to have to overcome any obstacle.
• We are able to go up and take the country!

• We get so wrapped up in fear that we cannot think about leaning on God's Spirit.
• We're so overly concerned about self-preservation that all we think about is ourselves and there's not much room for thinking of God and faith because of it.
• But David had a love for God and God's people.
• And that selfless thinking made lots of room for him to think of God's power in the valley.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

• Not necessarily an escape from the temptation.
• The same verse says the escape causes us to be able to bear the temptation.
• Go through it.
• So it cannot be an escape from being tempted.
• Its not an escape from trouble.
• But its an escape from the DAMAGE of being overcome by the temptation.

• He said God would deliver him from the hand of Goliath as well.
• The staff also reminded David of God's love and concern over him.
• David was one of God's sheep.
• And maybe this is what inspired David to write...

Psalm 23:1-4  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  (2)  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  (3)  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  (4)  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

• The valley looked like sure death!
• The valley of the shadow of death!
• And though God leads in the paths of righteousness, and beside still waters and green pastures, if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I need not fear evil.

Judges 7:18  When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

• And His Spirit-given weapons did far more than any of Saul's man-made armour could ever do.
• It struck Goliath in the forehead.
• The forehead speaks of the will, as God told Ezekiel he'd make his forehead harder than the stubborn foreheads of the people, meaning his will would not budge against the wills of the people to continue in sin.
• And the will of the devil is to destroy you and use your valley to defeat you.
• But through the Spirit you can destroy the will of the devil, and squash his purpose against you!

• Have your heart easily tuned to where He is.
• Get a love for God and for His people in your heart.
• Make room in your heart for greater things than old self-destroying self-pity.

Acts 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

• Since God said there would be much fruit in the land, the grapes confirmed that by Eschol brook, encouraging Joshua and Caleb to believe the rest of God's word must be true as well.
• He will give them the land.
• Despite the giants.