The Bible story of David and Goliath is one of the most well-known and favourite stories – maybe you’ve heard it too in a school assembly, or read it in your own Bible. About 1000BC, ancient Israel and the neighbouring Philistines are at war. The stakes are high, countless could get killed in a head-to-head battle between the two armies. There is an easier way forward, a battle between two champions. The Philistines’ choice is easy: they’ve got Goliath, a warrior standing 3 meters tall, heavily armoured and with powerful weapons. Who will fight for the Israelites though?
Then David, a teenage shepherd, comes to bring supplies to his brothers, serving in Saul’s army. He hears Goliath mocking not only his nation’s army but, far more importantly, the name of the LORD, the one true living God! David steps forward in great faith to fight this giant. God had helped him fight against a lion and bear, now he’ll protect him against this giant too, David trusts.
David seems the ultimate underdog: guaranteed to lose, like an untrained boy pitted against a heavyweight kickboxer. And yet, hear his words as he walked up to Goliath: “You come against me with sword and spear, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, whom you have defied. He will deliver you into my hands, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel; for the battle is the LORD’s!” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)
Why is this story in the Bible? Not just because it’s a great tale. Neither to help us fight ‘the goliaths in our lives.’ We’re much more like the terrified soldiers watching helplessly on the sides than like the champions fighting. Indeed, we need someone to fight for us, even today, though not in a real battle of armies with swords and spears. For David was a picture, a forerunner, of his great descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to bring resolve to the greatest spiritual war we’re all in.
Like David, Jesus too looked like the ultimate underdog: a baby lying in a manger, growing up in backwater Nazareth as an ordinary carpenter. In reality, he is the greatest of all Champions! He seemed to lose as he was innocently condemned to die on a cross – but by that death and in rising again from the dead, he won the greatest victory: over death itself, which is the punishment for our wrongdoing and rebellion against God (Romans 6:23), and our greatest spiritual enemy, the devil.
And now God calls everyone – whatever your background or ethnicity – to receive victory over all those enemies. Not in our own strength or efforts, but by siding with Champion Jesus. Therefore, trust and follow Him, and be forgiven of all wrong and enjoy the spoil of battle: eternal life with the one true living God!
This column first appeared in the Newark Advertiser in November 2025, and was written by Klaas-Jan Gunnink