Month: July 2019

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I came across a video of a TED talk.  A TED talk is a short lecture on a topic that is distributed freely by TED Conferences, LLC.  TED stands for technology, entertainment and design.  Their slogan is ‘ideas worth spreading’. 

The particular video I saw was by a guy named Malcolm Gladwell.  You can google it.  The title is ‘The Unheard Story of David and Goliath’.  He also wrote a book about his thoughts titled ‘David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants”.  I haven’t read the book but I’m guessing Gladwell’s TED talk is a ‘Cliffs Notes’ version of his book.  The video has had 6.5 million views.  That’s a lot of views.

Here is my ‘Cliff Notes’ version of the TED talk…

Gladwell began his talk by stating that the story of David and Goliath in the Bible had always bothered him.  More precisely, he said the story “really obsessed” him.  He said he thought he had understood the story, but the more he studied it, the more he realized that he really didn’t understand it. 

Here’s the setting: The Philistine army and the Israelite army were encamped on opposing slopes of mountains with a valley in between.  For all intents it was a stalemate because neither army wanted to attack the other.  To do so, the attacking army would have to come down it’s own slope, cross the valley and attack up the enemies slope.  It would likely be suicidal.  So the armies languished in a standoff. 

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”                      _ 1 Samuel 16:13

Enter David.  A short time before the epic contest, David had been anointed king of Israel by Samuel, and Saul was told that he would lose the throne.  David then gets chosen by Saul to play a harp to soothe his mind.  God had sent an evil spirit to torment Saul after David was anointed.  At the time of Goliath’s challenge, Saul does not know of David’s anointing. 

While the armies are encamped, David was going back and forth from Saul to tend his flock of sheep.  On one occasion, David arrives at the Israelite camp and he hears Goliath taunting the Israelite army.  David is the only one who steps up to accept the giant’s challenge.

According to Gladwell, there was a tradition in ancient warfare that when armies were at a standoff they would sometimes have a champion from each army fight each other to determine the outcome.  

In his talk, Gladwell explains that he had always believed that David was an underdog in this classic tale.  What he says he discovered is that the opposite is true.  These are his reasons:

1.  David is a deadly expert with the sling.  Gladwell says in his talk that the expert slingers of the time could hit their target at distances of 200 yards.  They could knock birds out of the air.
2. Goliath assumed that he would be fighting an Israelite in hand to hand combat.  Goliath was an infantry soldier and was expecting another infantry soldier.  Goliath is fully clothed in heavy armor and weapons, while David was unencumbered.
3. Gladwell makes the assumption that Goliath is an abnormally tall man due to a condition of giantism called acromegaly.  This is the condition that Andre the Giant had.  According to Gladwell, it is characterized by a pituitary tumor that causes the gland to over produce.  Symptoms include poor eyesight and poor mobility, not to mention abnormal height.  Gladwell cites a couple of verses to back up his contention that Goliath suffered from this condition.  He said the text shows that Goliath had to be ‘led’ down the mountain because he could not see very well.  He said that Goliath couldn’t see David very clearly until he was only a short distance from him.  Gladwell also cites a verse where Goliath says to David, “Am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks?” (1 Sam 17:45).  David is only carrying 1 stick, so Gladwell assumes Goliath has impaired vision. 

I believe that the first contention about David’s skill with a sling is absolutely correct. In Judges 20:16, it says the 700 choice slingers could ‘sling a stone at a hair and not miss’.  It was a deadly weapon and David definitely knew how to use it.  My guess is that he probably ranked among the most proficient slingers of his day.  No doubt he used it often in protecting his sheep. 

David was also at an advantage without the armor.  He had no intention of battling Goliath with sword, shield and spear – weapons Goliath brought to the fight.  David was far more nimble without the armor and heavy weapons.

However, the Scriptures are clearly in opposition with Gladwell’s 3rd contention that Goliath was physically impaired.  Gladwell is inserting things into the texts that are not there. 

First, in 1 Samuel 17:41, it says that “the Philistine came on and approached David, with his shield bearer in front of him.”  I don’t see anywhere in the text where you can deduce that he was being led by anyone as a seeing eye dog would lead.  The shield bearer was doing what he was supposed to do, carry the shield!  I would presume that he was in front because that’s the formal way they did things like that.  On a practical level, in the event Goliath had to quickly take the shield, he could do so without taking his eyes off his adversary.

Second, the Bible does not say that the Philistine was able to make out David ONLY when he got close to him.  All it says in 1 Samuel 17:42 is that Goliath “looked and saw David”.  You can’t conclude from that verse that Goliath had bad eyesight.  In fact, in 1 Samuel 17:48, it says that ‘when Goliath rose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet Goliath’.  This indicates that they were still pretty far apart from each other when Goliath said what he did about the sticks. 

As far as saying sticks (plural), instead of stick, that can easily be chalked up to a euphemism.  David was only carrying one stick, it’s true, but it’s not enough to justify the assumption Goliath was hard of seeing. 

With regard to Goliath’s height, it was not a gland problem.  He was from a race of giants.  In 1 Chronicles 20:4-8, Scripture describes other fights with giants who were related to Goliath.  In verse 8, it says they were all descended from the giants in Gath.  In Hebrew, the word ‘giant’ in these passages is ‘rapha’.  It is the root of the word Rephaim.  The Rephaim were a race of giants.  Scripture says that Og of Bashan, who was 13-14 feet tall, was the last of the Rephaim.  The giants of Gath, which included Goliath, were most undeniably descended from the Rephaim.   It was not a case of human deformation.  The Rephaim (which included the Emim and the Anakim – Deut. 2:11) were descendents of the Nephilim from Genesis 6.

One last thing about Goliath – he was their CHAMPION!  The Philistines would not have sent some slow-footed, near-sighted klutz to beat the Israelites’ best!  The Philistines would have sent an undefeated, veteran warrior!

Was David an underdog?  Only in stature.  David knew his skill level, but the most important thing that he knew was that God was with him, and that God would deliver Goliath into his hand.   Gladwell completely ignored this fact.

“This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.  And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and 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 the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”  1 Samuel 17:46-47

David was a prophet, and his prophesy was fulfilled exactly as he foretold.  Remember the verse at the beginning of this article?  It says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon David mightily from the time of his anointing going forward. 

If I can say something else about the idea of each army’s champion fighting to settle a grudge; I believe it was much deeper than just a fight.  I believe the armies saw something much more profound in the outcome. 

As far as the armies were concerned, it was a question of whose god was superior.  Why else would the Philistines run when Goliath was killed?  They still held their high ground after David killed the ‘rapha’.  It still would have been physically daunting for the Israelites to attack up the slope to the Philistine position. 

The reason the Philistines ran is because they believed that the God of Israel was going to crush them.  Everyone on both sides heard David declare what God was going to do.  Remember, David said, “that all this assembly may know”! 

After Goliath bellowed his trash talk, David loudly proclaimed his prophesy.  In the valley, his voice would have carried nicely up the mountain slopes.  The acoustics were ideal.  It was a natural amphitheater.  His bold prediction makes Joe Namath’s super bowl guarantee look like child’s play.  And when it happened just as David had shouted, the Philistine army scattered like cockroaches. 

When David held up the decapitated head of Goliath, the Philistines hearts melted!  It happened exactly as David had declared.

David was not an underdog…Goliath never had a chance.  But it wasn’t because Goliath was physically impaired.