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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.
(^)