Tuesday, May 18, 2021

1 Samuel 17 SERIES: Vs.4-7

 Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry
 
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. 
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. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. 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
Vs.4-7
 
There went out a champion — Our word champion comes from campus, the field.
Now concerning this champion observe --His prodigious size. He was of the sons of Anak, who at Gath kept their ground in Joshua's time (Joshua 11:22), and kept up a race of giants there, of which Goliath was one, and, it is probable, one of the largest.

Whose height was six cubits and a span — The word cubit signifies the length from cubitus, the elbow, to the top of the middle finger, which is generally rated at one foot six inches. ....it would then be nine feet nine inches, which is a tremendous height for a man.
 
The weight - five thousand shekels — Following Bishop Cumberland's tables, and rating the shekel at two hundred and nineteen grains, and the Roman ounce at four hundred and thirty-eight grains, we find that Goliath's coat of mail, weighing five thousand shekels, was exactly one hundred and fifty-six pounds four ounces avoirdupois. A vast weight for a coat of mail, but not all out of proportion to the man.
A target of brass between his shoulders — When not actually engaged, soldiers threw their shields behind their back, so that they appeared to rest or hang between the shoulders.
And one bearing a shield הצנה hatstsinnah, from צן tsan, pointed or penetrating, if it do not mean some kind of a lance, must mean a shield, with what is called the umbo, a sharp protuberance, in the middle, with which they could as effectually annoy their enemies as defend themselves. 
 
Goliath is called, in the Hebrew, not "champion", as we read it in the English, but the middle-man, the mediator.
There is the host of the Philistines on the one side, and there is the host of Israel on the other side. 
A valley lies between them.....Now, it is exactly upon that ground that the Lord Jesus Christ fought the battles of His people. 
We fell representatively in the first Adam, and our salvation now is by another representative the second Adam. 
He is the Middle-man, the "one Mediator between God and men."
In His love to us we may view Him as stepping forward into the midst of the arena which divides the camps of good and of evil, and there facing the defiant adversary. He stands to contend in our name and on our behalf.