To refresh your memory: the story dates back to the 11th century BC when the Philistines settled along the Palestine coast, threatening Israelite tribes who lived inland in the mountains. The Philistines sent their armies inland to a city called Socoh, into the Valley of Elah. They were battle-tested and very dangerous people. Alarmed, the king of Israelite s, called Saul, gathered his men and hastened down the mountains to take position in the same valley.
The Philistines camped across the southern ridge of the valley and the Israelite s pitched their tents on the northern ridge, both armies looking at each across the ravine. Nobody dared to move because descending into the valley was a suicidal move. Finally, tired of waiting "a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall (2.74m). He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (56 kg); on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels (7 kg). His shield bearer went ahead of him.(17:4-7)"
Long story short he was massive and very well armored. He stepped out of the crowd and shouted out: "Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." (17:8b-9)" . In other words Goliath was inviting the enemy to confront him in a single combat which was common practice in the ancient world to avoid bloodshed in an open battle.
The Israelites were frightened to death. There was no one among their men as big and as strong to put up with Goliath. For 40 days would Goliath challenge Israelites to find a brave man and fight him...
Until one day when a young shepherd, a blond teenager came up the Valley of Elah to bring some food to his brothers in the Israelite army. He heard the challenge and wanted to fight the giant. His name was David. King Saul obviously realized how ridiculously lethal it was for a young boy to fight a monster. But he did not have much choice, nobody else volunteered. Besides, this fellow claimed he killed bears and lions with his bear hands protecting his sheep.
King Saul tries to give him his own sword and armor but David refused: "I cannot walk in these." Instead he reached down and picked 5 small stones, put them in his bag and descends into the valley. Goliath looks at the boy and feels insulted. He was expecting a seasoned warrior to come and fight him, instead he sees a child with a stick.
"Am I a dog", Goliath says, "that you should come to me with sticks?". "Come here", he says to David, "and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field."
David puts one of his stones into the leather pouch of the sling and fires it at the exposed forehead of Goliath. Goliath falls. David runs to him, takes his sword and decapitates him. The philistine army fled.
The battle is won miraculously by a boy who defeated a giant against all odds.David glorified God and history glorified David in paintings, poems and sculptures. Below is one of the most famous pieces of art to represent David by Michelangelo.
For years I believed this victory to be a miracle. But is it?
"Ancient armies had three kinds of warriors. The first was cavalry - armed men on horseback and chariots. The second was infantry - food soldiers wearing armor and carrying swords and shields. The third were projectile warriors, or what today would be called artillery: archers, and most important, slingers. Slingers had a leather pouch attached on two sides by a long strand of rope. They would put a rock or a lead ball into the pouch, swing it around in increasingly wider and faster circles, and then release one end of the rope, hurling the rock forward, [Malcolm Gladwel]
The historian Baruch Halpern explains that these 3 kinds of warriors balanced each other like the game rock, paper, scissors. Infantry could stand up to cavalry with their long spears. Cavalry could, in turn, defeat projectile army because the horses moved to quickly for the slingers and archers to aim and projectile warriors were deadly against infantry an infantry soldier weighed down with armor was like a sitting duck for someone who can sling from hundred of meters away.
Goliath was heavy infantry. David was a projectile warrior. Eitan Hirsch, a ballistics expert with the Israeli Defense Forces, did a series of calculations and concluded that a typical size stone hurled by an expert slinger at a distance of 35 m would have hit Goliath's head with a velocity of 34 m/s - more than enough to penetrate the skull and kill him.
"Am I a dog to you that you should come to me with sticks?" Sticks...David had only one stick, in fact. Also, remember Goliath was telling David: "Come here..." He wanted to see David to come closer because he was not able to see him well. And you also remember Goliath was a 2.74 tall giant. Medical experts believe Goliath suffered from a medical condition called acromegaly (giantism) - an overproduction of growth hormone.
This would explain his massive size and his double vision problems that are a side effect of this disease - perhaps this is the reason why he said "sticks". But we will never know..
Why am I telling you this?
There will always be intimidating giants that will seem powerful and mighty from afar, there will be situations in our lives, battles that we think we will lose and it is not worth fighting and some of them are truly not worth fighting...but do not let the appearances to fool you. Sometime it takes a bit less than a leap of faith to defeat a giant and you do not have to be one in order to be victorious.
inspired by a beautiful read "David and Goliath" by Malcolm Gladwel.
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