David and Goliath

The event

The armies of Israel and the Philistines faced off across the Valley of Elah, and for forty days a Philistine champion named Goliath of Gath — a man of towering size and heavy bronze armor — taunted Israel's ranks, daring anyone to meet him in single combat. No one did, including King Saul, who stood a head taller than most of Israel yet had no answer for this new giant. Into that standoff walked David, sent by his father merely to deliver food to his brothers in camp.

David's response has echoed through the centuries: he refused Saul's armor as untested, and went out with a shepherd's sling and five smooth stones, declaring that he came 'in the name of the LORD of hosts.' The fight was over almost as soon as it began. What makes the story more than a childhood favorite is its theology — David's insistence, stated plainly before the battle, that 'the battle is the LORD's,' and that the whole earth would know there is a God in Israel.

The victory launched David's public reputation, and with it, Saul's jealousy. It's often placed shortly after David's private anointing by Samuel, in the mid-1020s BC, while David was still young enough to be underestimated by everyone on that battlefield except himself and God.

Scripture references

• 1 Samuel 17:1-58