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Wednesday October 10, 2018

 

The Philistines and the Israelites were in a deadlock. One one side, the Philistines, Israel’s sworn enemies, were camped out on a hill waiting to attack. One the other side, gathered on another hill with a valley between the two, and under the leadership of King Saul, the Israelites held a defensive posture. Neither army dared to enter the valley and be the first to attack. Therefore, in light of the deadlock, the Philistines sent Goliath who was their champion warrior to challenge Israel’s best to a one on one combat. By doing this, they could settle the war and minimize the bloodshed.

 

For forty days, Goliath came out each morning to announce his challenge: ” This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” Each time Goliath proclaimed his challenge, King Saul and the Israelites would coward in fear. This is of no surprise since Goliath was nine feet and nine inches tall. He wore a bronze armor weighing 125lbs, wore a metal helmet and bronze shin guards with bronze plates attached to protect his feet. In addition to this, he carried a sword on his hip, a 15 pound bronze javelin and his special weapon which was a short-range spear that he used to penetrate his adversaries’ armor. For this reason, King Saul and his army were terrified of Goliath and none wanted to accept the challenge. That is until a young boy named David appeared on the scene. Following his appearance, one of the shortest battles of all time took place, the battle of David and Goliath.

 

David came out to meet Goliath and before reaching the battle line he took one stone, placed it in his sling, and killed the giant.

 

While Saul and the army of Israel saw Goliath as a powerful giant, David saw him as a big man with no mobility. Saul and his army saw Goliath as a well-armed and invincible warrior but David saw him as someone who dared to challenge the Almighty God. David never thought of himself as being at a disadvantage, on the contrary, David knew that Goliath didn’t stand a chance.

 

For starters, Goliath was expecting a hand to hand fight but David had no intentions of battling Goliath hand to hand. This why David wore no armor when he went to meet Goliath instead all he took with him was his shepherds staff, his slingshot, and five stones. David intended to use Goliath’s size and lack of mobility against him. Scientists posit that from the moment the stone left David’s sling it took less than a second to kill Goliath. Goliath was neither prepared nor expecting this! Moreover, David went out with his staff completely certain that he was on God’s side and proclaimed the following to Goliath right before he defeated him:

 

You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. – 1 Samuel 17:45

 

To walk in David’s shoes is to be completely convinced that God is greater than any problem, challenge, or situation.