Israel Defied by the Philistine Champion
When their king lost the special consciousness of God's presence and power, the whole kingdom became demoralized, and the Hebrews had the humiliation of hearing in silence a defiant challenge to “the armies of the living God.” It looked as if the answer would have to go by default-that Jehovah was a God that could not save. The impotence of the Israelites made Goliath still more defiant. At first he came down from the ranks of his own camp on the southern side of the valley and walked vaingloriously through the level plain between the two hosts; but after forty days had passed, he became bolder and came up the slopes where Israel stood. At his approach they fled in terror. Measuring nine feet, nine inches, covered with mail, and carrying a spear, the head of which weighed eighteen pounds, the giant must have seemed very formidable to the men of Israel. And are there not giants equally determined and terrible that threaten us, in national and individual experience, and find us unable to cope with them? We need David's God and David's faith!