1 Samuel 17:8
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. 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.
The two armies stood drawn up in battle array facing each other, Israel in peril, when the Philistines sent forward their giant champion to provoke Israel. He came forth against Israel to defy them and to challenge them to provide a man from their ranks.
Standing and crying out to the armies of Israel in insulting language, he boasted that he was a Philistine and called them servants to Saul. He demanded that they choose a man for themselves and let him come down to him in single combat. The contest was to settle which nation would serve the other: if he were defeated the Philistines would serve Israel, and if he prevailed Israel would serve the Philistines. His words openly defied Israel and expressed confidence in his own strength.
He repeated the challenge day after day without arousing a champion to silence the boaster. Morning and evening for forty days he came forward with the same demand. His proud defiance of Israel and of God filled all Israel with fear and trembling. Saul and the army did not dare answer, because self-confidence had replaced humble reliance and trust in God.
David came to the army to greet his brothers, having been directed by an angel to save his people. While talking with them he saw the fear and learned of the daily defiance. His spirit was stirred within him, and he was fired with zeal to preserve the honor of the living God and the credit of his people. He was the one who later killed the Philistine champion.
The verse pictures a proud, boastful enemy whose weapon is loud bombast, ridicule, proud assertion, falsehood and misrepresentation. It is carried with a high, boasting spirit under an appearance of godliness, and it draws a noisy following. The same spirit reappears when opposers publicly ridicule God's servants, preach with fury as if infuriated by demons, and challenge them to discussion. Such was the circumstance of contemptuous ridicule directed at Brother Hare.
The defiance and boasting came from Goliath, not from Israel, showing a proud, taunting, hostile and provocative spirit. To leave such a defiance of God's people unmet dishonors God, so it must be met. Those proclaiming truth, especially the final warning, must not imitate that spirit by provoking confrontation or seeking religious debate. They are to speak with humility and love and let the truth itself confront hearers. Boastful falsehood is defeated by simple truth, as David's small pebbles defeated Goliath and exposed his weakness. The victory comes not by sharp severity or loss of temper but by dignified defense of truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit with prayer, leaving a right impression favorable to truth.