One of the most iconic figures in Jewish history is King David; his humble beginnings, his valiant rise to glory, and his tragic fall from grace. It is his humble beginnings that interest me. It is not a story of an underdog, rather a lesson of not prejudging or drawing conclusions from what amounts to false assumptions.

Samuel’s Call

His story begins when Samuel the Prophet was commissioned by God to select the next King of Israel, because King Saul had not been faithful to Gods command. The prophet traveled in secret to Bethlehem and to the house of Jesse as God commanded. Here he saw the eldest son Eliab and stated “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him” but God intervened and gave the now famous council “The Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart”. Samuel assumed that he was looking for an eldest and grown son but he was mistaken. He then set about interviewing each member of the obscure family but Samuel did not receive divine confirmation for any of them so he asked the father if he had any other children. The father fetched the youngest who tended the sheep. He was ‘ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to’ and this was the one God chose, so Samuel privately anointed David to become the next king of Israel.

Saul’s Court

We then learn that King Saul is troubled, so his court seeks out someone who can play calming music. and one of Saul’s servants responds ‘Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with him.’ It so happens that the mighty valiant man is David. He is brought into the King’s court to play music for the king, and is so loved that David becomes Saul’s armour bearer. The king is, of course, unaware that God intends for David to replace him. It is likely that Saul is suffering from a mental illness, perhaps dementia, and David’s music calms him. It is unclear where this story fits into the chronology, but it may come after the next event that is recorded which is the story most people associate with this soon to be king which is the story of David and Goliath.

Facing the Philistines

Here, David is back with tending sheep and his brothers are all off ready for battle against the Philistines. All are arraigned on either side of a great valley and there is a stalemate. Neither side dare attack the other because they would be at the disadvantage of having to march down into the valley with their enemy poised on higher ground. Finally, in an effort to break the stalemate, the Philistines send out a giant warrior named Goliath to challenge the Israelites to a dual. Goliath is described as being 9’9”, and his coat of mail alone weighed 126lb. He was a formidable foe. Send out one man to fight Goliath, whoever wins this one-on-one challenge will win the war. Of course, nobody among the Israelites is willing to go up against this enormous soldier so the challenge goes unanswered for 40 days.

While this crisis is unfolding, Jesse sends his son David to the Israelite encampment to provide food for his brothers which indicates that David is still a child. The earlier story of David being brought before the king as a harpists, he is described as “a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters” which is why I surmise that the David and Goliath story is either out of sequence, or is a flashback to explain why he is a man of valour. Nevertheless, just before Jesse sends him off, we read in 1 Samuel 17:15  “David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep” so the narrative indicates that the David and Goliath story comes after.

When David arrives at the camp and hears about Goliath’s challenge he is perplexed. David asks ‘who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living god?” (1 Sam 17:26) In an act of faith, courage, and perhaps a dash of naivety, he goes before the king to plead “let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (17:32). For reasons that are not made clear in the text, the king accepts the strapping volunteer and offers his royal armour. Of course, David is young and no doubt scrawny so the armour is too big and too heavy, consequently he turns down the offer.

Ancient Warfare

We should step back for a moment to consider how these ancient armies were organized. There were essentially three divisions: archers, infantry, and cavalry. Each had its strengths and weaknesses.

• The archers were agile and could bring down the infantry opponents from a great distance but they were vulnerable to the calvary who moved too quickly to take aim at.
• The infantry were foot soldiers with armour, swords and shields; using spikes they could defeat the calvary but as stated, they were fish in a barrel for the archers.
• The calvary rode on horseback or in chariots and were effective in challenging an army of projectile warriors, but were too high up and animals too exposed to be effective against infantry.

It is like the game of rock-paper-scissors.

In the story of David and Goliath, Goliath is infantry and David is an archer. The Israelite generals were looking for an infantry soldier to go up against Goliath, but David offered himself as an archer or, more accurately, a sling thrower. In hand to hand combat, David did not have a chance, but he did not need to get close. He had learned that, so long as he could keep his distance, he could take out a giant bear so why would a giant man be any different. Now Goliath may have been big, but he had some serious handicaps. In his book ‘David and Goliath’, Malcom Gladwell provides some helpful insights about the nature of this unbalanced matching. Most significant is that we misunderstand which one had the advantage from the beginning.

Malcom points out aspects of the story that do not make sense at first blush. First, Goliath, as I noted is infantry but rather than marching out into the arena with a sword in one hand and shield in the other, an armor bearer walks before him carrying his shield. Second, rather than rushing at David as infantry are trained to do, Goliath sets himself in place and orders David to come to him. Third, when he sees David with a shepherd’s staff he shouts out ‘Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?”. As Malcom notes ‘sticks plural? David is holding only one stick’. Finally, from the moment David came out to present himself, Goliath should have seen what he was up against, but he seems oblivious that rather than facing another swordsman, he is up against a sling thrower. Goliath was outmatched, outskilled and out to lunch. But why?

Will the Real Goliath Please Stand Up

Based on what we can glean from the story, Goliath likely suffered from acromegaly which causes the overproduction of the human growth hormone. His size was only a visual display however because due to his condition he had limited mobility and very poor eyesight. He needed an armor bearer to lead him into place because he was blind. He needed David to come to him because he could not see him and he could not move with the speed that is required of infantry. With Goliath effectively immobile and unable to see effectively, David is able to dodge his spears with relative ease and hurl the rock from his sling with precision. Goliath did not see it coming and did not expect it to be coming. With a single throw, Goliath was struck down allowing David to chop of his head with Goliath’s own sword. The war was over.

I recall many a time as a youth or young adult having my views dismissed by my elders because of my age, and being guilty of the same behavior to those my junior. We are often blinded by our own pride. Often too, a message is rejected because we do not like the delivery. David’s Goliath was not the giant Philistine but rather those who doubted him. For many of us our Goliath is our own doubts. What I learn from this story is that if we prepare, opportunities will be put in our way to succeed. We already have all the tools we need to conquer any Goliaths that may get in our way.