blaspheming the God in Whose Name David was about to fight. But David also must speak. To the carnal
confidence in his own strength which Goliath expressed, David opposed the Name - that is, the
manifestation - of Jehovah Zevaoth, the God of heaven's hosts, the God also of the armies of Israel. That
God, Whom Goliath had blasphemed and defied, would presently take up the challenge. He would fight, and
deliver the giant into the hand of one even so unequal to such contest as an unarmed shepherd. Thus
would "all the earth" - all Gentile nations - see that there was a God in Israel; thus also would "all this
assembly" (the kahal, the called) - all Israel -learn that too long forgotten lesson which must underlie all their
history, that "not by sword or spear, saith Jehovah: for Jehovah's is the war, and He gives you into our
hands."
Words ceased. Slowly the Philistine giant advanced to what seemed easy victory. He had not even drawn
the sword, nor apparently let down the visor of his helmet, - for was not his opponent unarmed? and a well-
directed thrust of his spear would lay him bleeding at his feet. Swiftly the shepherd ran to the encounter. A
well-aimed stone from his sling - and the gigantic form of the Philistine, encased in its unwieldy armor,
mortally stricken, fell heavily to the ground, and lay helpless in sight of his dismayed countrymen, while the
unarmed David, drawing the sword from the sheath of his fallen opponent, cut off his head, and returned to
the king with the gory trophy. All this probably within less time than it has taken to write it down. And now
a sudden dismay seized on the Philistines. Their champion and pride so suddenly swept down, they fled in
wild disorder. It was true, then, that there was a God in Israel! It was true that the war was Jehovah's, and
that He had given them into Israel's hand! Israel and Judah raised a shout, and pursued the Philistines up
that ravine, through that wady, to Shaarim, and beyond it to the gates of Gath, and up that other wady to
Ekron. But while the people returned to take the spoil of the Philistine tents, David had given a modest
account of himself to the jealous king and his chief general; had won the generous heart of Jonathan; and
had gone to lay up the armor of the Philistine as his part of the spoil in his home. But the head of the
Philistine he nailed on the gates of Jerusalem, right over in sight of the fort which the heathen Jebusites still
held in the heart of the land.