Printable Transcript

1 Samuel 17:31-54 (NASB) David Kills Goliath

When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, (A) I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued [the lamb] from his mouth; (B) and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. (C) Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear;

(A) David is bragging that he is experienced in single-handedly attacking & fighting a larger & stronger opponent.

(B) He makes a point of announcing openly for all to hear regarding his experience in close quarters/one-on-one fighting. But what else is happening here? David is using a deception… he is disclosing the tactic/strategy of a (putative) previous success, but not the tactic/strategy he intends to use later against Goliath! If there are spies about, he is deceiving them, and passing false intelligence to the enemy – All warfare is based on deception [I-18] & [Spies XIII-23]

(C) He has openly declared his prior success of this “seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him” more than once, so it is presumed by the listeners that he will operate in the same manner here! – Do not repeat the tactics that gave you previous victory [VI-28]. . . and that is assuming David really had particularly used the staff (rather than the sling) in defending his flocks from predators. . . this could have been a double deception.

and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Notice here that David acts out of his own past experience – he has no actual mandate from God to engage Goliath, he has no instruction on how succeed, in fact, David has no assurance of help from God of any kind.

And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.” Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, (D) “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” And David took them off.

(D) A soldier does not disdain his own weapon for those unfamiliar to him.

He took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his pouch, (E) and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine. (E) Note that David does not appear to hide the sling. He displays both of his weapons: the sling (a long range weapon) and the stick/staff (a close quarters weapon). . . he has no shield.

Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. (F) The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” (F) Here, Goliath takes note of David’s weapons. As any combatant would, Goliath notes and assesses his opponent’s armaments. However, even though the sling is there to be seen in David’s hand, Goliath only give comment to the staff. . . The counter intelligence appears to have worked, Goliath has heard of David’s exploits and past victories, and he appears to think that David intends to come at him with the stick! David’s use of spies has worked! See XIII. The Use of Spies

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.” This is Goliath’s trash talk before battle.

(G) Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin,

(G) David make verbal note of Goliath’s armaments. . . and the shield bearer is absent. Goliath appears to has either missed noting David’s sling (not likely for a seasoned warrior) or he dismissed it in view of his intelligence on David’s past exploits.

but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” This is David’s trash talk before battle. Trash talk is part of the PsyOp aspect of a champions’ battle.

Then it happened (H) when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that (I) David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

(H) Whether Goliath has noted David’s long-range weapon or not, he still has to close on David to engage him with either the spear or the javelin – he has not even drawn his sword.

To Goliath: if David falls back, he is going to use the sling; if David advances, as David does, then David intends to use the staff.

(I) But, David is not merely advancing; he is running toward his opponent. Goliath is now expecting to engage David’s staff. David is doing the expected to conceal an unexpected turn. See VI-6 & XI-19 “. . . take advantage of the enemy’s unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack in unexpected quarters.”

And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and (J) struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground. (J) See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5lqNhk3bI for the sling as a lethal weapon. Also, David does not need to kill Goliath with the stone, only disable him – David ultimately kills Goliath with his own sword.

Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine (K) and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath (K) and killed him, (K) and cut off his head with it. (K) So, in this sentence, David kills Goliath three times in three different ways: stones him; stabs him; and cuts off his head.

(L) When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. (L) There is no question to the on-lookers which champion (and which god) won the fight, and therefore which army wins this day.

The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the slain Philistines lay along the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath and Ekron. The sons of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and plundered their camps. Then David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, (M) but he put his weapons in his tent.

(M) This is relevant. The Philistines were a technologically superior army in that the Philistines had entered into the Iron Age, and therefore had iron weapons. In contract, the Israelites were still a Bronze Age army… remember Saul, the king, had a bronze helmet. Remember, God does not intervene in this on David-s behalf at all. Without David’s existing soldiering ability and understanding of tactics and strategy (particularly his successful use of the PsyOps aspect of the champions battle), the Israelite army would have been routed, the future King David would have been killed, and we would likely be performing this exercise using the Koran.

 It is important to recognize here that God does not intervene in this conflict on David’s behalf at all.   As noted above, David has no mandate from God to go out and engage Goliath, he has no instruction on how to succeed, nor assurance that he will succeed.  In fact, David receives no special providence from God of any kind in this engagement.  It is David’s faith that wins the day – faith in God and faith in himself.

It is also important to remember that David is young – probably around fourteen years of age.  So, where did David get his apparent weapons expertise and understanding of tactics and strategy (particularly his successful use of the PsyOps aspect of the champions battle)?  Regardless of an apparent lack of formal training, David had astutely (or maybe intuitively) applied several principles of the art of warfare as confirmed by our comparison of David’s acts with the teachings of Sun Tzu.  

Looking at his situation as set forth in the words of scripture, though young, David was already engaged in a dangerous and risky occupation.  Clearly, from his own words, David has had the time and the opportunity to observe and to engage in interactions with predators larger and stronger than he.  As well, he has had the motivation and the opportunity to train with the weapons he had at hand: the staff and the sling.  Additionally, as the youngest of eight brothers in a primogenitary culture, he was likely familiar with the intrigue and posturing in the interplay of the relationships between himself and seven older brothers with his father.  As the youngest, yet the one favored by God of all the brothers (remember, David received God’s anointing from the prophet Samuel after Samuel had rejected in turn each of David’s older brothers), it was also important to his survival in the family that David understand intrigue and posturing between his brothers for their father’s favor,and how to engage in and exploit this interplay.

Bottom line:

David was chosen by God and put through a series of life circumstances in his youth that prepared him physically and psychologically to think and act as a soldier.  Further, there was no time throughout David’s long life, even as King, that his being and acting as a soldier was ever disfavored by God, or that brought him into conflict with God’s will.  To the contrary, it seems that the times that our brother David fell from grace with God were those times he failed to be and act a good soldier.

The lesson:

We accept that we have been chosen by God to be soldiers.  Regardless of whatever else, good or bad, that God has visited on us in each of our lives, being a soldier is as scripturally justified a Godly calling as any other calling a Christian may experience in his/her life.  In fact, it seems to the Squad that in contrast, there is in scripture little justification for being a physician, a lawyer, or an accountant.  So, it is up to each of us to recognize in ourselves those soldierly personal principles which are true, which are honorable; those that are excellence and worthy of praise, and to focus on these things (Phil 4:8), to celebrate these soldierly traites, and to live them to the glory and praise of God as much as any other aspect of our life.

As we struggle to transition from one theater of operations to another (a military arena to a civilian arena), the Squad thinks it is important that we retain our soldierly identity and especially our best soldierly principles.  

Our soldierly identity is like a tattoo, it can blur over time, but it is always with us.  Our soldierly principles are the problem. . . over time we can minimize and even fully forget some of those principles, which causes us to improperly exaggerate  others.  What happens then is that we become less capable of staying on mission – of even defining what the mission is.