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The Big vs the Small
The confrontation of David and Goliath is a favorite story. Size doesn’t always matter. Wisdom wins most of the time. Faith always is victorious. Parents might tell their children, or an advisor to a weak man: remember King David, how he killed the monster giant with one rock and a slingshot.
 It’s that usual story of the big muscular giant against the quick but vulnerable little guy. Every-one has a weak spot. It’s just finding where someone is vulnerable. Certainly this has been the basis of films from King Kong climbing towers to metallic action monsters and in some cases drastic power presidents against the penniless citizen with no place to go, no one to help. But one way or the other, the little insignificant component, the ones who believe in and trust God and himself, wins.
Short and quick. Large and fumbling. Sharp of brain, accurate, responsive, trusting minor weapons before frightening giants with feet banging the earth’s surface to make it shake - sort of like those Polynesian rugby players who cause the earth to move in their war dances prior to a competition. They remind me of Goliath even though they are good guys praising God or wishing well for all. Goliath, on the other hand, had no room for God in his extreme giant body.
It was Saul and Israelites vs Philistines in the Valley of Elah. Twice a day Goliath appeared be-tween the lines to challenge the Israelites to send someone worthy to fight him one on one. Was Goliath a killer? He really wanted to have at Saul, who no one liked. But Saul was a wimp and gave his gear to David, who refused to wear any gear other than his own daily robe.
In fact, Goliath’s mistake was He didn’t know or praise God. He and his masters were trying to prove David was not worthy, and not protected by this figure called GOD. Even Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck or Jerry who continually fooled Tom the giant cat proved that the smart one, the quick one, the wise one who uses his head is going to win the battle rather than monsters who may be overloaded with muscles, but aren’t so quick or soul smart. Each of us has a character that works one way or the other in a challenge. This is why we have quarter-backs and those huge linemen who protect the quarterback so he can throw the darn ball for a touchdown. Baseball, Golf and Soccer don’t have that type of extreme bodies and minds as American football is built on. But every one of us has a vulnerable place. Remember Samson who lost his powers when Delilah snipped it off? In Homer’s “The Iliad” (written 760 BC), Nes-tor fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion - an iron club for Ereuthalion, a bronze spear for Nestor.
Here is the scene. The Philistines were camped for battle, and the “weapon“ in their favor was a champion named Goliath of Gath, who was one big mother, we might say - whatever six cu-bits and a span meant. He protected his head with a bronze helmet and was dressed in a coat of mail which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze. He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. It’s not the kind of guy one would curse nor want to meet on a dark night. The head of his spear weighted 600 shekels of iron - and in fact he had to have a shield bearer who went before him. He was a Philistine but his fault was his ungodliness. He claimed to have captured the Ark of the Covenant and carried it to the temple of Dagon. And in the morning and evening he made a noise to irritate the Israel-ites in their time of prayer. and everyone else who were servants of Saul. He shouted out to choose someone, a real man to be his opponent. He can kill me, Goliath said, with a threat, then the Philistines would be their servants. But if I win and kill my opponent, so to speak, you are mine. You will be our servants, and that didn’t seem to be a good thing.
When Saul and Israel heard this, they were sorely afraid. They were already in battle with the Philistines in the valley of Elah. A young shepherd named David, rose at dawn on the day needed and, leaving his sheep behind, went to the encampment just as the army was shout-ing the war cry of battle. It was army against army. David found his brothers in that group and went to them. Goliath shouted out his claim again. Saul was a mess. So David volunteered to fight the monster. Saul, of course, pointed out that David was not a warrior and was still a boy.
David though was an outstanding shepherd and if a lion or bear stole one of his lambs, David would run after him, catch its jaw, strike it down and kill it. We are talking lions and bears and not friendly animals. David knew in his heart that Goliath, uncircumcised Philistine that he was, was an enemy of Israel and God. So David dressed in a coat of mail and a bronze helmet, but these things were cumbersome and heavy and limited his ability to move. So he tossed them and went as himself with a staff in one hand and five smooth stones from the Wadi in a shep-herd’s bag.
As it was, David was still a boy and so Goliath teased him and taunted him - that the birds would feed on his flesh. David responded that his weapon was the name of the Lord. That was all he needed. So when the fight began, David ran to Goliath, at the battle line, put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it with his sling shot and struck Goliath right in the middle of his forehead and Wow! It was perfect and the giant Goliath crumbled to the ground and neither spoke nor lived any more. From then on, David was the mastermind of the army of Saul. Saul was jealous, but in the long run, realized David was with the Lord and everyone loved him.
It’s like attacking the impossible, finding that with a bit of wisdom and patience, amazingly, the impossible becomes possible, and when the opponent isn’t paying attention or is moving his gear around, boom! The moment floats in the air - the weak small guy can zap the giant extra-large big guy. Today’s monsters or Goliaths are SOOOOO huge that they outsize the movie screens and are multi-dimensional - beyond reason. and they fold up into machines.
Then there is business or government vs people of the earth, Church vs state, police vs crimi-nals, scapegoat vs evil boss; Brady vs anybody! Mike Tyson vs Trevor Berbick; Shaq vs Lebron; Amazon vs Facebook vs Fedex, or even O.J. Simpson vs a jury. Oprah vs anyone negative. Who fights for us? We all do because we all believe in love and God and our weapon is kindness and prayer and taking a risk to help those in terrible circumstances.
in the Jewish tradition, Goliah was a son of Orpah, sister in law of Ruth, David’s great grand-mother. So it is a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of Book of Ruth. Goliath’s fault was un-godliness. He claimed to have captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to the temple of Dagon. And his challenges were shouted in the morning and evening just to disturb the Isra-elites in prayer. Why do people have to disturb people’s prayers and faith? Why do we have to dislike Muslims if we are Christians? I think they are amazing example of faith - more dedi-cated than we are, to the point of dressing their faith. Only priests and nuns do that in Christi-anity. But Muslims all of them dress their faith. We all need to respect each other no matter what our faith. God belongs to us all. Amen.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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