Read Lessons from David: How to Be a Giant Killer for Free Online Page B

you will be a man (or woman) after God’s heart too!

Chapter 6
Seeing Through the Covenant
    David was anointed to be king in secret. Nobody knew he was king yet except his family and Samuel, and they were hiding it. If the present king, Saul, had heard this news, he would have killed them all. Samuel acknowledged this in 1 Samuel 16:2.
    David had been playing the harp in the court of Saul, however Saul didn’t know who David was. When the Philistines came down to fight, Saul went off to battle and sent David home. While he was home, David went back to keeping his father’s sheep. A proud person wouldn’t have been able to do this. David was the anointed and rightful king, but he was tending his father’s sheep just like he had done before all this happened. Another characteristic of humility is patience, while impatience is a sure sign of arrogance and self-reliance.
    Jesse’s three oldest sons, Eliab, Shammah, and Abinadab, were in the army, so they went with Saul to battle. But as they went out to battle, a champion of the Philistines, a giant named Goliath, came out and challenged the armies of Israel.
    The Philistine Champion
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

1 Samuel 17:4
    Most scholars believe that Goliath stood at least nine feet nine inches tall. Some even say he may have been as tall as thirteen feet!
And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

1 Samuel 17:5
    Scholars estimate that the coat of mail that Goliath wore weighed about 125 pounds! The giant’s armor alone probably weighed more than David!
And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

1 Samuel 17:6-7
    These scholars also estimate that Goliath’s spearhead weighed fifteen pounds. The actual shaft of his spear must have looked like a rounded off 4x4 post. It had to have quite a bit of weight in order to balance out the heavy spearhead. If the head was fifteen pounds and the shaft was another fifteen pounds to balance it out, then his spear weighed about thirty pounds. Can you imagine how hard it would be to throw a thirty-pound spear?
    This is an indication of Goliath’s size and strength. He wasn’t tall and skinny. He was a well-proportioned, muscular giant of a man. In the natural realm, nobody could compete with him because he was easily their superior.
    “What Is the Reward?”
And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

1 Samuel 17:8-11
    The Israelites actually hid themselves behind rocks and in dens and caves. Among the entire nation of Israel, there wasn’t a single person willing to go up against this giant Goliath.
    David’s father called him while he was keeping the sheep. He gave him some bread and cheese, and said, “Take this to your brothers and to the captain over them in the army. Find out how they’re doing and bring me back word” (1 Samuel 17:17-18). Back then, they didn’t have newspapers, radio, television, or Internet for news broadcasts. If you wanted to find out what was happening to your children who were out fighting in a battle, you had to send someone to get a first-hand