You flea-bitten varmint! So goes one of Yosemite Sam’s favorite insults hurled at Bugs Bunny during many of my childhood Saturday morning cartoons. I also think it would have been the sort of thing Goliath would have yelled across the valley at the gathered Israelite army. Now picture this…a guy, nearly 10 feet tall, whose armor weighed over 130 pounds, carrying a spear with a 16 pound iron tip…this guy was a warrior’s warrior. He was a beast. And every day…twice a day in fact…he would walk out in front of the enemy and make the challenge. For forty days, the same giant, the same arrogance, the same boastful words, the same challenge…mono y mono. Me against your best…for all the marbles. Let’s get one thing clear, Goliath wasn’t worried about losing against these flea-bitten varmints. But oh, what an effect it had on the Israelites. Imagine you are a soldier in that army. Day after day you are ridiculed. Day after day you are told you are weak. Day after day you are called a coward, and the truth is, you pretty much are. But who could blame you? I mean, as I have already said, Goliath is a monstrosity of a man.
And it seems as if the torment will just go on and on. No end in sight. The two sides are at a standstill. It’s the trench warfare without the trench. Each day the Israelite soldiers come to the edge of their side of the mountain, hurl insults at the Philistines. The Philistines then come out of their tents on their side of the mountain, and hurl insults back. Then Goliath shows up, and the Israelites run away and hide. It is this way for, as I said, 40 days.
But then the hype music starts. If you have ever watched the beginning of a college football game as the team gets ready to come on the field, you know what I’m talking about. Bells start bonging. Then the guitar riff. Drums come in. AC/DC cranked to 11 on the house system. Strobe lights are going off. The fog machine is doing its thing. And out of the tunnel comes the undisputed heavyweight Israeli champion, with his record of 27-0, with 25 KOs. The crowd goes wild. It’s about to go down…except, none of that actually happened. There is no music. There is no champion. Israel has no secret weapon. Instead, a teenage boy walks into the scene. He is the youngest son of Jesse, who had already sent three of his other sons to join the army. Jesse now wants an update on how things are going so he sends David. He is present when Goliath comes out and gives his daily challenge, and David starts asking questions, leading up to the moment when he tells Saul, the king, that he will go fight the giant. Saul’s response is the same one we would give if David was standing in front of us. Between bouts of uncontrolled laughter, Saul gets four words out…“You are too small.” But then, after David makes his convincing argument that he could do it, Saul tells him to go ahead, but not before giving his armor to the shepherd boy. Well, of course it doesn’t fit, so he takes it off, and instead grabs his staff, and heads to the battlefield.
Along the way, he stops at the river, and grabs five stones, for these will be his weapon, along with the sling in his hand. He approaches the giant and the two begin verbally sparring. Goliath insists that he is going to feed David’s body to the animals. David, on the other hand, is thinking way bigger. He replies that the Lord will deliver the victory to the Israelites, and the beasts of the field will dine on the entire Philistine army. With the talking done, it was time to get down to business. They trade Mr. Universe poses, do several sets of one-handed push-ups and burpees, and…ok, that didn’t happen either. But I do love how 1 Samuel 17:48 describes what happens next…David runs to meet Goliath. Not walk, not a casual Sunday stroll…no, he ran. The confidence he has in what is about to happen is a lesson we could all learn. David reaches in his bag, pulls out a stone, places it in the sling, and starts spinning it around, gathering centripetal force energy, until the moment he releases the cord. The stone flies and hits Goliath right in the forehead, causing him to face plant into the ground. David then ran over and took the giant’s sword and killed him. The arrogant Philistine, who was so certain he would win in battle, died by his own sword.
One final word…you remember David took five stones from the river. He only used one, so did David not trust God enough that it would only take one stone? If so, why take five? There is widespread commentary on this. Goliath had four brothers, though some texts refer to “sons of Goliath.” Either way, there were five of them. And it is not a stretch to think that the remaining four would defend Goliath’s death and come after David. Think about what you would do if someone harmed one of your loved ones. So, the other four stones were not in case David missed. They were intended for four additional targets. That…is God-driven, stone-cold confidence.
Faith, Leadership, and History 