The Life of David Series: Killing One Giant with One Stone

Yakob ben Ibrahim, of the tribe of Benjamin, stood clutching his spear and watching the scene unfolding before him, his heart in the pit of his stomach. Two armies were drawn up against each other in a wide valley. Between them, a wiry wisp of an adolescent boy strode with grim determination towards the enemy line, while a giant hulk of a man covered in armor and bearing a wicked-looking spear approached from the other direction.

When the call had gone out for the tribes of Israel to gather against yet another incursion of the Sea Peoples, called the Pelistim, and their Canaanite allies, Yakob had not hesitated to answer. He was a young man, but old enough to remember the days when the disorganized and fractious Hebrew tribes were easy prey to the dominant Sea Peoples. Now, with Shaul ben Kish at the head of a unified nation, for the first time Israel was giving as good as it got in the conflict. The fact that Shaul was from Yakob’s own tribe of Benjamin made him all the more proud to serve. And with Shaul’s brave son Yehonatan waiting in the wings, well, the future looked bright.

Or it had looked bright, until the giant had appeared. The remnant of a once-powerful race, rumored to be of supernatural origin, their numbers had been greatly reduced as the Israelites had slowly conquered the land. But they could still be found, especially in the lands of the Philistines, who recruited them for their armies. They were known for their great height, fighting skill, and hatred of Israel and Israel’s God.

When the giant had stepped out from the ranks of the Pelistim on that first day, Yakob’s blood had run ice cold. He could sense the dread in the Israelite battle lines stretched out to either side of him. This was certainly Goliat, renowned in all the land. As he had strode forward, bearing his impossibly large spear with ease, his impenetrable armor clanking loudly, Yakob, no coward, had resisted the urge to turn and run.

Them came the voice, booming across the valley floor, the mountains on each side making it echo frightfully among the already-demoralized troops. Amidst blasphemous oaths against Yahweh designed to unnerve the gathered Israelites, Goliat threw down a challenge: the battle was to be decided by two champions, himself and whomever King Shaul would choose.

Then both sides had settled down to wait for the Israelite champion. And wait they did. With each day that passed, it became evident that there was nobody with the courage or ability to stand up to the giant. And as King Shaul’s pleas and offered rewards for a volunteer grew more and more desperate, the constant mocking from the mouth of Goliat grew more and more blasphemous.

Until one day news spread through the camp that a volunteer had come forward. The Israelites gathered into their battle lines, and the Pelistim followed suit. All eyes on both sides strained to see the brave warrior who would step forward. Hope, anticipation, and not a little anxiety could be felt among the Hebrew troops.

Then the champion appeared, and all hope and anticipation fled, leaving only the anxiety. Yakov and his companions stared in disbelief as an adolescent boy, barely into his teens, walked out into the no-man’s-land between the two armies. King Shaul had chosen a…a child?

The shock on Israel’s side was matched on the side of the Pelistim, then followed by uproarious laughter that rocked the valley. Goliat himself burst out into a rollicking belly laugh, accompanied by choice insults aimed at the Hebrew “champion”.

Meanwhile, the boy continued to close the space between himself and Goliat, apparently unperturbed. At one point he stooped to scoop something up from the stream that ran through the valley, seeming almost indifferent to the hulking mountain of a man hurling insults just a few yards in front him.

And it was then that Yakov realized with a start that he knew this boy. Because of the geographic proximity of the two tribes, the men of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah were camped close to one another. Yakob had seen this young man arriving with supplies for his brothers among the Judahite warriors. He knew one of them, slightly, Eliab, and had heard the boy referred to as “David”. He wondered what Eliab thought about his young brother walking out to meet certain doom at the hands of Goliat.

Presently Goliat appeared to tire of the name-calling. He hefted his spear and lurched towards the boy at a slow jog. David stopped and stood still, his feet slightly apart, his hands loose at his sides. Yakob looked on in horror. He had no desire to see the boy skewered like a rabbit by the giant’s spear, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes. Goliat picked his pace up to a lumbering run, rapidly closing the space between them.

Suddenly the boy’s voice echoed through the valley, surprisingly clear and strong, Yakob thought, for such a small lad.

“Anochi ba-elecha beshem Yahweh tsebaot, elohe ma’arichot Yitsrael, asher herafetah!”

The words struck Yakob to the core of his being.

“I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied!”

At the name of the Hebrew God he despised, Goliat sneered and, running at full speed now, lifted his spear to pin the impertinent boy to the ground where he stood.

What followed happened so fast many did not see it. From nowhere a sling appeared in David’s hand. With lightning speed it whirled, then released. At that same moment Goliat’s head snapped back with a violent “crack”, and and a red fountain blossomed on his forehead. The giant’s momentum carried him forward another two steps before he stumbled and fell prostrate before the boy, who was coolly replacing the sling to the leather pouch at his side. The giant’s feathered helmet rolled off to one side.

With Goliat now a corpse at his feet, David wasted no time. He sprung to the dead giant’s side and, with surprising ease, yanked his oversized sword from its scabbard. With one fluid motion he swept the sword down, easily removing Goliat’s head from the rest of his body. Still grasping the sword in his left hand, he lifted the head up for all to see. The giant’s face still bore the grotesque sneer it had worn just as the stone had hit.

And then David let out a yell that echoed up and down the valley. The shout grew louder and louder and Yakob realized that his fellow soldiers were yelling, that he was yelling. Yelling, and shaking his spear, and running full speed towards the enemy.

As for the Pelistim, they broke and ran, with Yakob and his companions in hot pursuit. As the victorious Hebrews streamed across the valley and around the fallen giant, Yakob saw David still standing there, sword in hand, severed giant’s head raised high, and a look of determination in his eyes. Later in life, Yakob would reflect that this was the first of many times that he would see that expression on David’s face.

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In our studies in the life of David we have come to I Samuel 17, and perhaps the most famous episode in David’s life: his confrontation with the giant Goliath. Before we get into the lessons of the text, let’s examine a few details.

Those Philistines Again

Not only is this David’s first battle experience, it’s his first encounter with the enigmatic and fascinating people whose name has come down to us as “Philistines”. We’ve met them before in this study as they have made their presence felt in the lives of Samuel and Saul. And from now on they will play a large, and usually (but not always) antagonistic role in our narrative. In further chapters we will talk about more about them. For now it is helpful to remember that they were the force to be reckoned with in the region in David’s time. This is due to their warlike nature, and the fact that they probably had the tacit support of the powerful Egyptian empire, serving as a client state tasked with maintaining the profitable trade routes of the Levant open to Egyptian trade. This they did by alternately making alliances with local peoples and making war on them. They also were adept at maintaining instability among their enemies by playing one group off against another, something we will see come to the forefront on more than one occasion in the future.

Giants in the Land

There is a good chance that Goliath was not himself of Philistine descent. His name suggests Canaanite origin, and his size makes sense that he was from a city that had once been a stronghold of the Anakim…a race of giants (see Joshua 11:22). Some try to connect the Anakim to the Nephilim of Genesis 6. That is a harder connection to make…but not altogether impossible.

So, basically, the story of the Anakim goes like this: These giants of men dominated the southern part of Canaan until the conquest of Joshua, where they were relegated to the cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. Shortly after Joshua’s conquests, the Philistines arrived in the Levant, and either conquered or assimilated the original residents of those cities, which became three of the five cities known as the Philistine Pentaplois. Hence Goliath would have been a descendant of those Anakim, possibly with a deep seeded generational hatred against the God’s people…not too different from the current residents of that region.

But, if there was actually a race of giants that lived during that period, certainly there would be some sort of archaeological evidence for it, right? Well, guess what…there is.

You Look Vaguely Familiar

There is a question about apparent inconsistencies between the events of chapter 16 and chapter 17, particularly as it pertains to when Saul and Abner actually met David. We dealt with this extensively in our last installment of this series.

The Stone-Cold Truth

We often here that David faced Goliath with “just a sling and a stone”. While that opinion may have been shared by Saul and company, David new otherwise. A sling and a stone in the hand of a skilled warrior can be deadly, as Goliath found out. Don’t believe me? Watch this.

So what’s in it for us?

The story of David and Goliath is one of the most thrilling, and most famous, in all of the Scriptures. And yet preachers and theologians have struggled to find practical spiritual applications for modern believers. Most messages you hear on the subject end up with moralistic platitudes about “fighting your giants” and “God uses small things for great purposes”, or some other such dubious application. So, what is there for me to take home from the passage?

I believe it is important first to notice David’s overarching purpose in accepting Goliath’s challenge. Look at verse 26:

Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Then again in verse 36, we find David talking to king Saul:

“…Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”

Then once again, as he is facing down the oncoming giant:

“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

We see from these that David’s overwhelming desire is not for power, for wealth, or for his own glory. Rather, it is that the name of the God of Israel be glorified. Here is something that we can take home. The Glory of God is to be the overwhelming aim of our lives. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Or, as the Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:31:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Eating. Drinking. Everything else. There’s not much in life that falls outside of those three categories.

And as we seek to glorify God in every facet of our daily lives, we are bound to encounter opposition.

Back to our text for a moment. when we look closely at the three instances where David explains his motivation, we find that in each one he is facing opposition in this quest. Thus, even before he takes on Goliath, he has to jump over two hurdles in the way – not of his selfish ambitions – but in the way of God’s glory. And we can learn something, I think, from this opposition.

Fickle Family

The first to deride David’s overwhelming passion for the glory of God was his own brother, Eliab. He heaps scorn upon David. It is interesting to note that David’s anointing at the hands of the prophet Samuel had already taken place, and everything indicates that David’s brothers were present. They, of all people, should have understood and rallied to their cause.

The text doesn’t tell us why they objected, but from their response, we can make an educated guess as to why.

Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

Notice the belittling and accusatory nature of Eliab’s words. Notice also the author’s insistence on reminding us that Eliab was the oldest brother. When we remember that Eliab was the first to be passed over by Samuel at David’s anointing, we can safely, I think, come to the conclusion that jealousy of David was his main motive.

And here is something we can relate to. As we seek to glorify God, we may face opposition from people within the family of faith, jealous that God is using us in a particular way, and not them. And on the flip side, we may see God using others in a particular way and not us, and find a root of jealousy building up in our hearts.

So what did David do? In verse 29 and 30 we see David turning his back and walking away. At the end of the day, our obligation is to glorify God, and we shouldn’t waste too much time with those who would hold us back through jealousy.

Lackluster Leaders

The next person David finds himself explaining his motivations to was not so easily dismissed: it was King Saul himself. He couldn’t just go out and fight Goliath without the kings approval. So we see David explaining himself in more detail. Verses 34 – 37:

But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Now Saul, as leader of the nation of Israel, should have been attuned to David’s desire to honor God. But we have already seen that this was not the case with Saul. When David volunteers, he already knows how he is going to defeat Goliath. By the examples he gives, he knows he is going to use the same methods he uses in protecting his sheep. ´

But Saul is skeptical. He doesn’t refuse David, but he insists that David fight Goliath using Goliath’s methods. Finally David tells him, in essence, “Listen, you’ve got to let me do God’s work the way God has prepared me to do it.”

For us, in our quest to glorify God, I believe Saul represents institutional reluctance that can stifle the work of God in a person’s life. I’ve seen it happen many times. A person doesn’t fit into a particular mold, and so is deemed not fit for whatever it is he knows God wants him to do. Fortunately, God has ways of working through, or around, institutions.

Evil Enemies

Finally we come to Goliath. Goliath hates God, and wants to harm his people. David is aligned against him, and ultimately with the people in the other two categories. As we have seen already, as the giant approaches David makes it clear to him why he is his enemy: it is because Goliath has positioned himself as an enemy of God.

This is helpful to remember as well in our God-glorifying efforts. Opposition can come from within the family of faith, and from without. David stood against God’s enemy, and both Eliab and Saul benefited from his courage.

Conclusion

The David and Goliath narrative is a master class in how to be passionate for the Glory of God. It is also a watershed moment in the life of David, one that has a major effect on the following events of his life, as we will see in our next chapter.

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