As it is the Feast Day of King David
(every December 29), we will post some information of David and Goliath from
Wikipedia and give our thoughts on how this can be used in War.
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David and Goliath, a colour lithograph
by Osmar Schindler (c. 1888)
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The original purpose of the story was
to show David's identity as the true king of Israel. Post-Classical Jewish
traditions stressed Goliath's status as the representative of paganism, in
contrast to David, the champion of the God of Israel. Christian tradition gave
him a distinctively Christian perspective, seeing in David's battle with
Goliath the victory of God's King over the enemies of God's helpless people as
a prefiguring of Jesus' victory over sin on the Cross and the Church's victory
over Satan.
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David hoists the severed head of Goliath as
illustrated by Gustave Doré (1866). David Slays Goliath (1Sam.
17:49-51)
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Biblical account
The account of the battle between
David and Goliath is told in 1 Samuel, chapter 17. Saul and the Israelites are
facing the Philistines near the Valley of Elah. Twice a day for 40 days,
Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and
challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the
outcome in single combat, but Saul and all the Israelites are afraid. David,
bringing food for his elder brothers, hears that Saul has promised to reward
any man who defeats Goliath, and accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees
and offers his armor, which David declines, taking only his sling and five
stones from a brook.
David and Goliath confront each other,
Goliath with his armor and shield, David with his staff and sling. "The
Philistine cursed David by his gods." but David replies: "This day
Jehovah will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will
give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of
the air and to 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 God saves
not with sword and spear; for the battle is God’s, and he will give you into
our hand."
David hurls a stone from his sling
with all his might and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath
falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines
flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as Gath and the gates of
Ekron". David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head
to Jerusalem, and Saul sends Abner to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose
son he is, and David answers, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the
Bethlehemite."
MY
THOUGHTS:
We need soldiers who are courageous
like David to defeat their enemies in Battle. David depended on the strength of
the Lord to defeat evil.
David’s slaying of the giant,
Goliath, reminded me of one of the Seven Good Judges, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen words:
“There is as much moral cowardice in shrinking from the execution of a murderer as there is in hesitating to blow out the brains of a foreign invader.”
But in this case for David, he was
not shrinking but using his courage.
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