David & Goliath 4 - 1st Samuel 17:48-58

David and Goliath have both just shouted threats to each other, and I was thinking about it this today because I was listening to the Book of Mormon, the part where Abinadi is teaching Noah and his priests and exuding the power of God, and all the power in his words is similar to David shouting to Goliath and the entire Philistine army “I cone to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.” Imagine the kind of power that comes with those words and the conviction that they are true. It’s wild to think of the faith and Spirit involved in shouting them to the whole Philistine army while preparing to engage with their mightiest warrior. That we could all have that faith. The power if the same, Abinadi, David to Goliath, what would it take to get there for us? David hadn’t seen God, he hadn’t had any supernatural visitations that I am aware of, he probably didn’t even have an unusually deep study of the scriptures, he didn’t have any formal rabbinical training, and as far as I know, he hadn’t even asked God for that spiritual power or gift. This is what God can do just by Himself, now imagine what God could do with us if we put forth even just a little bit of effort to show that we are willing to be taught and obedient. It’s an interesting dynamic to think about.

Goliath starts down the hill to the fighting place and so does David and David didn’t just run towards Goliath, he “ran toward the army.” David’s hope was probably that if he killed Goliath, that the Philistine army would honor their agreement and not advance toward him at all, but who knows if they would do that. Every step David took toward Goliath was a step toward the Philistine army and even if he managed to kill Goliath, there’s no guarantee that the rest of the army wouldn’t charge him. So David’s faith wasn’t just that he could kill Goliath, but also that God would protect him against the rest of the army as well.

Note that David “ran” toward Goliath, it wasn’t a Sunday stroll, he ran toward Goliath, and every step he took toward him, his options dwindled. If he missed the first throw, he was rapidly losing ground that he could use to reload, so again, a lot of trust in God’s deliverance here. Now imagine the mechanisms at work here, David is running toward an enemy army, he reaches into his small bag, loads his stone into this sling, whips it around to gain momentum and then throws it at Goliath. Thinking back to clips you watch of like the combat footage in Ukraine and just how the mechanisms of combat works, every thing David is doing is a failure point. What if he couldn’t reach his bag of stones while he was running, what if the stone fell out of the sling while he was trying to get it going, what if he missed with the sling? The adrenaline was probably going, everything that could go wrong was heightened by the pressure of the situation, and everything went perfectly, that’s what God can do. God can make nothing into everything and can make everything into nothing, depending on what the plan is.

The stone that David slings at Goliath, “sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.” There was an Instagram video that I saw a couple of months ago of a guy with a sling shot that hit one of those dead trees and it hit the tree so hard and fast that it looked like it exploded because of the dried wood, it was wild, definitely worth a brief video search to see just how deadly these things are. That the stone was buried into Goliath’s forehead would have caused significant intracranial damage, maybe survivable especially with today’s modern medicine, but enough to knock him out face first into the ground.

Goliath landing face down is significant because it indicates a pattern. TB reminds us back in 1st Samuel 5, when the ark of the covenant is taken by the Philistines and put in front of the god Dagan to be used as a foot stool by him, in the morning the statue of Dagan had fallen face down. TB says, “Falling face down is to fall prostrate; it is the position of submission. The idol of Dagan fell face down in submission to the God of Israel and now the giant Goliath falls face down in submission to the God of Israel. This meaning was not at all lost on either side. The Philistines panicked because their god couldn’t’ save them, and the Hebrews now knew (as David told Goliath they would learn in verses 46 and 47) that Israel’s God is still here and active and fighting for His people.”

Goliath is lying face down on the ground after the stone sunk into his forehead, but David doesn’t have a sword, so he takes Goliath’s own sword and cuts his head off with it. I would imagine that Goliath’s sword was very heavy, especially since it was significant enough to mention the weight of all his other equipment, but David was able to wield it, there was probably some adrenaline running in there too. The Philistines “saw that their champion was dead,” and they ran away. TB notes that this wasn’t the agreement, the agreement was that whoever wins, the loser has to submit to the winner, but they didn’t do that, they just ran away, and the rest of the army of Israel become emboldened and pursued the fleeing Philistines through the valley “to the gates of Ekron,” which I don’t know where that is or how far. I think it’s interesting that now that David had defeated Goliath, all of a sudden the rest of the army has the courage to fight and fleeing enemy. Tactically it is the right choice, but spiritually, it was pretty late in the game. David took Goliath’s head and his armor as trophies. I also think it’s interesting the comparison of David cutting Goliath’s head off with his own sword and Nephi cutting off the head of Laban with his own sword.

Now we have an interesting part and it’s after the battle, Saul sees David defeat Goliath and asks his general “whose son it this youth?” This makes it sound like Saul didn’t know who David was, which doesn’t mesh with last chapter and parts of this chapter and they’ve interacted several times and David even supposedly works for Saul playing music when he’s upset. TB notes that scholars have debated this for centuries with some concluding that it’s a copiest error, some saying that this is an indication of Saul’s failing mental health, and he says that he’s not convinced that any of these are either correct or incorrect. TB explains, “here’s the key: Saul doesn’t ask David who HE is. Rather he asks who David’s FATHER is (whose son are you?) This matter of who David’s father is connects perfectly to this story when we look back to verse 25.” Verse 25 was the one where the promises of rewards are explained for the defeater of Goliath. The rewards were marriage into Saul’s family, money, and the victor’s father’s family being exempt from taxes and military service in the future. TB continues, “The confusion conversation was about Saul addressing the third part of the offer. In order to reward David’s family he obviously had to know who David’s father was.” Saul wouldn’t have known who David’s father was when he was a musician because he was recommended by another servant, he was just a guy who worked in the palace, Saul wouldn’t have been that invested in David’s life or family until he defeated Goliath and Saul had to fulfill promises to that family. So this makes sense