Giants Are Not What They Appear To Be - Kevin Brechbill David and Goliath

Diligently, daily, protecting his sheep.

The title of it is "Giants Are Not What They Appear to Be."

And the familiar story that I'm about to tell you comes from the book of 1 Samuel.

And I'm going to start with one verse. It's in Samuel 16:7, 1 Samuel. It says, "But the Lord said unto Samuel, 'Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his statue, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.'"

At the heart of ancient Palestine, in the region known as the Shephelah, connecting through a series of ridges and valleys, the Judean Mountains to the east with the wide flat of the Mediterranean plain.

It has breathtaking beauty, home to vineyards, wheat fields, and forests of sycamore trees.

It also has great strategic importance.

Over the centuries, numerous battles have been fought in this valley for control of the region. Whoever controls these valleys has clear trade routes to Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. The most important valley is Ajalon.

However, the most storied, talked about valley is of Elah.

This is the valley I would like to introduce you to tonight.

Elah is where the Sadaian faced off against the knights of the Crusades in the 12th century.

It played a central role in the Maccabee War with Syria over a thousand years before. However, the most famous is in the Old Testament times, is where the fledging armies of Israel faced off against the powerful armies of the Philistines.

The Philistines were from Crete, a seafaring people who moved to Palestine and settled along the coast. The Israelites were clustered in the mountains under the leadership of King Saul.

In the second half of the 11th century BCE, the Philistines began moving east, upriver, through the storied valley of Elah. Their goal was to capture the mountain ridge near Bethlehem and split Saul's kingdom in half.

Now remember, the Philistines were battle-tested, dangerous, and they were sworn enemies of the Israelites.

When King Saul heard about this movement, and for obvious reasons, he was alarmed. He quickly gathered his armies and met them where? In the famous storied valley of Elah.

The Philistines set up camp in the southern ridge of Elah.

The Israelites set up camp on the northern ridge of Elah. There was a large valley between them.

Neither army wanted to attack. Why?

Because each needed to descend down the ravine wall on their side, go across the valley, and then scale the ravine wall on the other side. To attack meant suicide on both sides.

And they were in a deadlock, each waiting for the other to move first.

Finally, the Philistines, who were battle-tested and used to warfare, made a move.

They sent their greatest warrior. He would descend the wall, walk to the middle of the valley, he being at least, at a minimum, seven foot. I'll let you take up that argument later. Armed with a bronze helmet, a full-body armor, he carried a javelin, a spear, a sword, and an attendant went ahead, carrying a large shield.

He would stand each day and shout to the ranks of Israel, "Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight me and kill me, then we will be your servants.

But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us." Something no Israelite wanted to do. In the Israelite camp, no one moved. Who could prevail against a terrifying opponent?

Then a shepherd boy showed up from Bethlehem, stepped forward, and volunteered for the job.

Saul immediately objected, and rightly so. You can't go against a Philistine and do battle with a battle-hardened and experienced man, seven foot minimum from his youth. Saul knew it was suicide. But the shepherd boy from Bethlehem was adamant.

Why? He had faced other ferocious opponents, he argued. He said, "When a bear and a lion tried to steal his sheep, he would go after them and strike them down, take the lamb from their mouths, and kill them."

Saul relented.

David begins running toward the giant. And in 1 Samuel 17:44, when the Philistines saw him coming, the Philistines said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beast of the field."

This began one of history's most famous battles that every child here knows. The giant's name was Goliath, and the shepherd boy David.

David and Goliath, I believe, is a beautiful story about how ordinary people should confront powerful giants.

By giants, I mean of all kinds.

Powerful opponents. From armies, mighty warriors, disabilities, misfortunes, disappointment, oppression, discouragement, only to name a few. When it comes to giants, the powerful and the strong, is what we see our only option.

Should I play by the rules or follow my instincts? Shall I persevere or give up? Shall I strike back or forgive?

Through the story of David and Goliath, I would like to explore two ideas with you tonight.

Much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of these lopsided conflicts.

Because the act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty.

But I believe we consistently get these kind of conflicts wrong. I think we misread them. I think we misinterpret them. Giants are not what we think they are. The very same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the source of their greatest weakness.

The fact of being an underdog like David changes people's ways we often fail to appreciate.

It can open doors, create opportunities, educate and enlighten, making possible what might otherwise seem impossible or unthinkable.

I believe we need a greater guide in facing giants. And I can't think of a better place to start than the epic battle between David and Goliath some 3,000 years ago in the storied valley of Elah.

When Goliath shouted out to the Israelites, he was thinking single combat.

Single combat was common practice in the ancient world in order to prevent endless bloodshed.

For example, in the 1st century, the historian BCE writer, and this is a mouthful, Quintius Claudius Quadruples, I'll say it once, tells us of a battle. A Gaul warrior mocking his Roman opponent, rousing the indignation of Titus Manlius, one of the highest birth, not willing to have his Roman valor shamefully tarnished by a Gaul.

Titus challenged the Gaul to a duel. Armed with a legendary shield and Spanish sword, the fight took place over the bridge of the Anno River in the presence of both armies. The Gaul, who was far more experienced, better trained, Titus, the Roman, relied on courage rather than skill.

Strength for strength, striking shield against shield.

Titus, knocking the Gaul off balance, was able to slide his Spanish blade into the Gaul's chest, thus killing him. Cutting the Gaul's head off, he tore out his tongue, covered in blood, hanging it around his neck, thus claiming victory.

This, I believe, is what Goliath was expecting in every other warrior there that day, including King Saul.

It never occurred to him this battle could and would be fought another way.

Goliath came fully prepared to protect himself for hand-to-hand combat. He was skilled from his youth at infantry. Armed with an elaborate tunic made with hundreds of fish-like bronze scales covering his arms, reaching down to his knees, estimated to weigh over 100 pounds. Bronze shin guards with bronze plates over his feet, wearing a heavy metal helmet.

Carrying three separate weapons, all optimized for close combat.

He carried a thrusting bronze javelin capable of penetrating armor and shield. A sword on his hip. And his primary weapon he carried was a special kind of short-range spear, heavy spear with like a thick metal shaft. As the Bible calls it, a heavy weaver's beam. In 1 Samuel 17:7, it says, "Now the staff of his spear was like the beam of a weaver or a loom." And his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels.

And it had a cord attached to it. If you look it up, there's some elaborate set of weights, allowing when it was whipped with a strong arm, it released with extraordinary force and accuracy when swung by a strong arm as Goliath.

As the historian Moshe Garcel writes, "To the Israelites," I quote, "this extraordinary spear with its heavy shaft plus long and heavy blade, iron blade, when hurled by Goliath's powerful arm, seemed capable of piercing any bronze shield and armor together."

Can you see now why the Israelites would be afraid to fight Goliath?

Then David appears.

Saul tries to give him his own armor just to give him a fighting chance. David refuses. He says, "I can't even walk on these. I'm unused to them." Instead, he reaches down and picks up five smooth stones, putting them in his shoulder bag, and runs towards Goliath carrying a shepherd's staff.

When Goliath sees him coming, I think he's genuinely insulted. He was expected to do battle with a seasoned warrior, a single combat. Instead, he sees a shepherd boy, one of lowliest birth, carrying a shepherd's staff just to irritate him. 1 Samuel 17:43, it says, "And the Philistines said to David, 'Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?'" What happens next is legendary. David pulls out a sling, puts one of his stones in it, fires at Goliath's only exposed spot on his forehead, dropping him in his very footprints.

Running forward, grabs a giant sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines see their warrior dead. The biblical account reads, "And they fled."

The battle is miraculously won by what I call an underdog, who by all counts should not have won it all that day.

This is why we have told, this is the way we have told one another the story over many centuries. It is the phrase, "David and Goliath." It has become embedded into our language as a metaphor for impossible victory.

The problem with that version of events is that most of our perceptions and understanding is simply inaccurate or maybe just wrong. I would like to propose to you another way.

The ancient armies had three kinds of warriors: cavalry. They were armed, men on horseback or in chariots. Infantry were foot soldiers wearing heavy armor and carrying swords and shields.

The third is what they called projectile warriors, what today would be called artillery or archers, or more importantly of the day, slingers.

Slingers had a leather pouch with two ropes. Slinging took an extraordinary amount of skill and practice. However, in experienced hands, a sling was a devastating weapon. Under a skilled arm, it was one of the most deadly weapons of its day.

Paintings from medieval times show hitting birds in flight. Our slingers were said to be able to hit a coin as far away as they could see it.

In the Old Testament, in Judges 20:16, it's talking about men of war from all this people who could use both hands, the right and the left. All these could sling a stone at a hare and not miss it.

Thus, the term within a hare's breath, as we know it today. An experienced slinger could kill or seriously injure up to 200 yards. In fact, if you read history, the Romans actually invented special tongs made to remove objects such as stones embedded in some unfortunate soldier's body.

Imagine standing in front of a major league baseball pitcher, only he had not a cork ball, but a solid rock.

The historian Barack Halpern argues the three kinds of warriors balanced each other in war. With their long pikes and armor, infantry could stand against cavalry. Cavalry could, in turn, defeat projectile warriors because the horses moved too quickly for artillery to take proper aim. And projectile warriors were deadly against infantry. A big lumbering soldier was a sitting duck for a slinger who was launching stones from 100 yards away.

I believe Goliath was heavy infantry.

When Goliath says, "Come to me that I may feed you to the beasts of the fields," Goliath is thinking of the way Titus fought the Gaul. The key words are, "Come to me. Come right up to me." He needs David to come to him for single combat.

When Saul offers David his armor, he assumes single combat. That's how duels were taken care of in battles in that day.

However, David had no plans of playing by the rules. David had no intentions of honoring the rituals of single hand-to-hand combat. When David tells Saul that he killed wild animals, he's telling Saul much more than just his courage.

He's telling Saul that he's planning to fight Goliath with the very same method as he fought the wild animals: a slinger, a projectile warrior. He runs towards Goliath. Without armor, he has speed and maneuverability, putting a smooth rock in his sling as he runs, whipping it around and around at six to seven revolutions per second, aiming the projectile at the giant's only vulnerable spot, his forehead.

It's actually a pretty big spot to hit compared to a hare.

Eaton Arraich, an Israeli ballistic expert, recently did a calculation. With an average-sized stone hurled at six to seven revolutions per second by an expert slinger at a distance of approximately 35 meters, it would have hit Goliath's head with a velocity of 34 meters per second, more than enough to penetrate his skull and render him unconscious or possibly dead.

With that calculation, Harrich writes that David could have slung and hit Goliath in a little more than a second, a time so brief that Goliath would have had no time to protect himself.

What could poor Goliath do?

You pit him a little bit? He was carrying over 100 pounds of armor, prepared to do battle at close range, where he could stand warding off blow after blow and delivering mighty thrusts of his powerful spear.

Have you ever thought about what poor Goliath may have been thinking? First, he looked at David with scorn, then probably surprise, and then what could have only been complete horror as it began to register to him that he was up against a deadly slinger running at him. In 1 Samuel 17:45, it says, "Then said David to the Philistine, 'Thou comest to me with a sword and a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand, and I will smite thee, take thy head from thee, and I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day under the fouls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know—excuse me—that there is a God in Israel.

And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give it into our hands.'" Did you notice that David mentions Goliath's sword and spear two times?

I actually think it's his way of emphasizing how profoundly different his intentions were. As David was running across the valley floor that day, reaching into a shepherd's bag for a stone and put it in a sling and starts to swing, I personally don't think at that point anyone watching from either side had any doubts about David's possibility to victory.

David was a slinger, and slingers beat infantry hands down. Another historian writes, "Goliath had as much chance against David as any Bronze Age warrior with a sword would have against an opponent armed with a.45 automatic pistol."

Why is so much misunderstanding surrounding the battle that day in the valley of the story of Elah?

On one level, the duel reveals the folly of our assumptions about power and strength.

King Saul is skeptical of David's chances because David was small and Goliath was large.

Saul thinks of power in terms of physical might.

Saul does not appreciate that power comes from other forms as well, like David did in breaking the rules of single combat.

I would say that is one of David's secrets of his success throughout his entire life. In fact, I would argue that Saul made this mistake most of his life as king, and he's not only and not alone in making this mistake.

Proverbs 13:7, "There are those with nothing who make themselves rich, and there are those that are very rich who humble themselves."

For some reason, I believe this is a very difficult lesson to learn. When we see giants in our life, why do we automatically assume the battle is his for the winning? What does it take to be that person who doesn't accept conventional order of things as a given and be like David?

When an underdog fights like David, he usually wins.

However, way too often when facing our giants, we battle our giants with the same weapons that the giants have, and we wonder why we lose so many times. If we choose to fight our giants toe to toe, weapon with weapon, single combat with single combat, we will lose every time because they are giants. Remember that.

And they are greater and stronger than us.

So tonight, I would like to suggest to you one of the primary reasons of David's success is not that God performed some supernatural miracle of just an accidental underdog beating the impossible battle with Goliath, but rather that David was practicing his skill as a slinger, learning the art of a slinger many years as a shepherd boy, diligently, daily protecting his sheep. Do you ever think about the fact that until this story was written, nobody knew about the lion that he killed, and nobody knew about the bear that he killed?

However, the whole nation saw the great victory that David had that day. And I believe it was because of his willingness to be obedient and practice when no one was looking, refining the art of obedience, refining his skills. And this is how I believe that God wants us to conquer our giants in our life.

Thanks, and God bless.