HEADSHOT: Defeating the minds of Giants
1 Samuel 17:1-51
Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between
HEADSHOT: Defeating the minds of Giants
1 Samuel 17:1-51
Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim.
2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
The valley of Leah is named after the the valley of Elah trees or terebinth trees. Also known as Philistine oak or Palestinian Oak.
Terebinths are also found in Isaiah in possible reference to idolatry associated with the trees, although in the Septuagint and Vulgate the word is translated ‘idols,’ as the plural of el.
For you will be ashamed of the terebinths that you have taken pleasure in. — Isaiah 1:29
The best known clear reference to a terebinth (elah) in the Hebrew Scriptures is that of the Valley of Elah or ‘Valley of the Terebinth’ (עמק האלה), where David fought Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2, 17:19).
Later in 2 Samuel 18:9, David’s rebellious son Absalom is caught in the terebinth tree and is killed by Joab’s men, David’s army.
4 And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
Goliath of Gath: 9 foot 6 inches
Andre the Giant: 7 foot 2 inches
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca): 7 foot 2 or 3 inches
Robert Wadlow – 8 foot 11inches
Weighed 439 pounds when he died at age 22 in 1940
Wore a size 36 AA shoe
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.
6 And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.
Goliath was a height of 6 cubits. The head of his spear weighed 600 shekels of iron and he also wore 6 pieces of armor ( I Samuel 17:4-7). 666
8 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.
9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”
Single combat is a duel between two single warriors which takes place in the context of a battle between two armies.
Captain John Smith of Jamestown is reputed in his earlier career as a mercenary in Eastern Europe to have defeated, killed and beheaded Turkish commanders in three single combats, for which he was knighted by the Transylvanian Prince Sigismund Báthory. He was given a horse and Coat of Arms showing three Turks’ heads.
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
1 Samuel 9:2
He had a son, Saul, a most handsome young man. There was none finer—he literally stood head and shoulders above the crowd!
1 Samuel 17:12-51
Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul. 13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle.
The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. 15 But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16 And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening.
17 Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp. 18 And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare, and bring back news of them.”
19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20 So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jes