1 Samuel 17:1-10 “a middle man, the man between two.”

 ”Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”“ ‭‭

I Samuel‬ ‭17‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. They encamped in the Valley of Elah: The green rolling hills surrounding the Valley of Elah still stand today and they witnessed one of the most remarkable battles in the Bible. It began when the Philistines, constant enemies of Israel during this period, assembled their army on a mountain, and on an opposite mountain stood the army of Israel.

b. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath: He was a large man (six cubits and a span can be anywhere from 8’5” to 9’2” – that is, 256 to 280 cm), and he had armor and weapons to match his size.

i. Goliath was tall, but his height is not unheard of in history. Poole on Goliath’s height: “Besides the giants mentioned in the Scriptures, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny, and others, make mention of persons seven cubits high, which is near double to an ordinary man’s height.” Youngblood mentions the documented case of Robert Pershing Wadlow, who was eight feet eleven inches tall at the time of his death on July 15, 1940, at the age of twenty-two.

ii. Goliath was from Gath and Joshua 11:22 says that a people known as the Anakim were still there in Joshua’s day. That was some 400 years before this, but it shows how there may have continued to be men of unusually large size from the city of Gath.

iii. Different sources give different estimates, but Goliath’s armor and weapons together probably weighed somewhere between 150 and 200 pounds. This was a big man, and strong enough to carry and use these huge weapons.

c. Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.… I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together: Goliath issued a bold challenge to the army of Israel. Adam Clarke says that the word champion really comes from the Hebrew word, “a middle man, the man between two.” The idea is that this was a man who stood between the two armies and fought as a representative of his army. (Guzik)

“a middle man, the man between two.”

”For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,“ ‭‭I Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The Man Christ Jesus is our middle man, the Man between two, between God and men!

Is He your middle Man?

Blessings