Goliath

We read that the children of Israel were not successful and conquering the whole land like God commanded them to.

But that coastal area where those Philistines were, which obviously they were inbred with Nephilim bloodlines, as we see with Goliath and stuff, they were plenteous.

And David had to fight them and contend with them.

And David's mighty men fought with these giants.

Goliath had four brothers, but Goliath was from the city of Gath.

And there's archaeological site there, Tel Es-Safi or Zafit.

And we went there, man, that was like less than a year ago.

And so honestly, it was kind of a little bit early in the, they've been there for 25, 26 seasons.

We read that the children of Israel were not successful and conquering the whole land like God commanded them to.

But that coastal area where those Philistines were, which obviously they were inbred with Nephilim bloodlines, as we see with Goliath and stuff, they were plenteous.

And David had to fight them and contend with them.

And David's mighty men fought with these giants.

Goliath had four brothers, but Goliath was from the city of Gath.

And there's archaeological site there, Tel Es-Safi or Zafit.

And we went there, man, that was like less than a year ago.

And so honestly, it was kind of a little bit early in the, they've been there for 25, 26 seasons.

That is some risky and patient obedience.

And then there's the story of David and Goliath.

And David had so much trust in God that when Goliath called out, who's going to fight me? David, who wasn't even a soldier, he was bringing lunch for his brothers to the battlefield.

And he says, who is this guy? Like, who is Goliath to defy the living God? And he's like, I'll fight him because he trusted in God.

And with a stone, he killed Goliath when everyone else was afraid.

Then you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who obeyed God and would not listen to Nebuchadnezzar and worship his golden statue.

They got thrown into a blazing fire, but they weren't touched because God saved them.

Not really.

"He was one of the sons of the giant." Which giant? Probably Goliath.

Well, he was one of the sons of the giant and he was girded, verse 16 tells us, with a new sword, and he saw David waxing faint and thought, "Ha-ha, I'm gonna do him in." But verse 17, "Abishai succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him." One of David's men, Abishai, came and helped David out and did that giant in.

"Then," verse 17, [laughs] "the men of David swore unto him, saying, 'Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.'" Hey, Dave, you're our light.

"And so it came to pass after this," verse 18, "there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob.

Then Sibbecai, he slew Saph, which was also a son of the giant.

And after him," we read, "Jaraaroragim," [laughs] verse 19, "slew the brother of Goliath, the staff of whose spear was like a big beam." So this guy, Jaraarorogi- whatever his name is, he took on the brother of Goliath, you see, and did him in.

"There was still," verse 20, "another battle in Gath.

And the Philistines see this, and they turn, and they just run [audience chuckles].

And of course, the name of the giant is Goliath, and the name of the shepherd boy is David.

And the reason that story has obsessed me over the course of writing my book is that everything I thought I knew about that story turned out to be wrong, right? So David in that story is supposed to be the underdog, right? In fact, that term, David and Goliath, has entered our language as a metaphor for improbable victories by some weak party over someone far stronger.

Now, why do we call David an underdog? Well, we call him an underdog because he's a kid Little kid, and Goliath is this big, strong giant.

We also call him an underdog because, uh, Goliath is an experienced warrior and David is just a shepherd, right? But most importantly, we call him an underdog because all he has is, this giant, is that, is that Goliath is outfitted with all of this modern weaponry, right? This glittering coat of armor and a s- and a, a sword and a javelin and a spear, and all David has is this sling.

Well, let's start there, with the phrase, "All David has is this sling," because that's the first mistake that we make.

In ancient warfare, there are three kinds of warriors.

From medieval tapestries, uh, we know that slingers were capable of hitting birds in flight.

in particular?

Like, the eight-foot giant, I forgot, is it, I think, Goliath or something?

Like Goliath.

Goliath, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

There's some, there's stories like that that I feel like are-

Yeah

...

David was given the assignment to take down the greatest threat to the whole nation of Israel.

A Philistine warrior by the name of Goliath that intimidated the entire Israelite army.

And the qualifications David had was he was willing to trust God as a shepherd.

He managed and protected the lives of the sheep with which he was entrusted with such determination against the ferocity of any predator that would come against them and trusting God to bring those victories to him that God said, I can trust him to overcome this intimidating Philistine warrior.

The valley of Rephaim is about giants.

Goliath was connected to Rephaim.

So everybody say valley of giants.

So it was a bit of a tough place.