The Philistine army is on one hill, and the Israeli army is on the opposite hill. Goliath comes down to the valley between them, and taunts the men of Saul's army, and they hide in fear. It's no wonder...remember, a cubit is about 18 inches (measured from your elbow to the tip of your fingers). If Goliath was over six cubits, then he was at least 10 feet tall! And we know Goliath wasn't a skinny guy...the armor, helmet and spear he carried were very heavy...his strength must have exceeded at least three men!
So here is this young shepherd boy, who was only supposed to play the harp for the king to have his "bad spirits" go away. As we've already seen, God uses the weakest and least likely people to do great things! I stress this with my kids, since everyone has talents and limitations. But with God, we are strong!
All the books of the Bible relate to each other, and tell the same story...God's glory and plan of redemption for all of us! If we recall in Genesis 6:4, there were mysterious giants who were "mighty men of renown" and of great strength. There are different opinions as to what these giants were (descendants of Seth, or hybrid offspring of the Nephilim). I think the latter makes more sense, since we see in 1 Chr 20:6-8 that these giants were not only huge, but they had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. This is a good example of what an abnormal union between angel and man would do.
(v.29) We as Christians and ambassadors of Christ, we are to be loving and kind. But God does call us to defend His name and especially His Word. Here, David is outraged that this Goliath is taunting and blaspheming the LORD, and no one will do anything about it! He utters a classic question:
"Is there not a cause?"
David knows that evil will win if good people don't stand up to them. He is given Saul's armor and sword, but they don't fit him. This is equivalent to the gifts of the Spirit...we all have our talents from the LORD, and if we try to do things that He hasn't gifted us with, we aren't successful. David knew this, and he went with what he was good at...the slingshot. As a shepherd, he used it to ward off wolves, lions and bears.
So with faith that God will have him slay Goliath, he goes to the river and gets five smooth stones for his slingshot. Why five stones? Why not just one, or ten? We don't know for sure, but 2 Sam 21:20 and 1 Chr 20:6-8 tell us that Goliath had four brothers! Perhaps David was determined to kill all five giants that day!
This is a lesson to us all...we can face our "giants" in life with God on our side!
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