This is a reflection on a previous post I wrote about David and Goliath. If you want to see the first one, you can CLICK HERE>

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

… 48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. <I Samuel 17: 38-40, 48-49>

Good morning. The passage read a moment ago is from a larger story in the Bible commonly known simply as David and Goliath.

Our part of the story has David trying on the armor of King Saul, putting on the helmet, and fastening the sword over his tunic. He tries them out. They feel awkward… uncomfortable. Instead he takes his sling and his staff, and gathers five stones from a stream. He runs out to the battle, takes a stone out of his pouch, launches it at Goliath, and kills him. Later David goes over and cuts off his head because… well, why not?

This is an amazing story of how a pretty ordinary guy, with a sling and five stones, and don’t forget the staff, killed a giant of a soldier. And he did it with only one stone. But here is a question… a question the Bible leaves unanswered—Which stone was it? Was it the first? Second? Third… fourth? Maybe it was the fifth one. We don’t know. But let’s speculate on this a bit. Let’s think about some possibilities.

1. We can try logic or experience to figure this out. I have used a sling before. In the artwork in Bible story books, they always show David using a sling over-head. Maybe that is the way he did it. I don’t know.

From personal experience, that it is extremely difficult to aim that way. I would do it underhand… which works great, by the way. Doing it this way, it is easy to control azimuth— moving towards the right or the left. But it is still hard to control height.

Letting go of the strap even a fraction of a second early or late will affect the angle of release and the height it achieves. The overhead method I find even harder because you don’t have good control of either height or azimuth.

Whatever method David used, I am sure he was very very good. But clearly he knew he wasn’t perfect. That’s why he chose five stones… not just one. As David took each shot he was likely to get more accurate as he adjusted to the terrain, the distance, and the wind.

On the other hand, each subsequent stone was likely to be worse and more likely to veer off course. The first one would probably be his best— very round and smooth… likely to fly straight and true. The last stone… probably more flattened and rough likely to go on an unintended path. So each time David shot a stone he was likely to become more accurate with practice and less accurate due to stone selection. I feel that logic and experience may not give us the answer.

2. From a ballistics standpoint, the ideal stone would be the third stone. One of the odd jobs I had long ago was gunnery director officer. Our ship had a Mark 42 gun. This gun used shells that weighed about 30 kilograms. We would fire at a target. My job was to spot where the shell hit and give guidance to the gunnery crew on how to adjust the gun so that we would eventually hit the target. I did this by bracketing. So if the first shell was long, I would intentionally adjust so that the next one would be short. Now the target was bracketed, and it was relatively easy to then adjust and hit it on the third shot. So maybe what David did was bracket his shots to hit Goliath with the third stone. Possible.

3. But let’s also look at it from a storyteller’s point of view. David and Goliath is History… but it also is a story. If the storyteller says David collects five stones and then says that David killed Goliath with the very first stone… well, the storyteller just wasted four stones. Good storytellers don’t do that. Making it the fifth stone adds dramatic tension. It also provides structure in the story where one can add details, build drama… and teach.

Consider a different example from the Bible— In the Book the Judges, Samson has his hair cut by some Philistines while he slept. The story said that Samson had seven braids. Imagine a storyteller sharing with a group. He may say, “Now Samson was sleeping, and the Philistines snuck into his room. They were so quiet because the Spirit of the Lord was mighty upon him. Samson’s long hair was gathered into seven braids. Carefully, so carefully they began to cut his hair.

Samson took light his Nazarite vow—SNIP, the first braid was gone. Samson used God’s empowerment for selfish and fickle purposes— SNIP goes the second braid.” The story continues and builds until “Samson was unfaithful to Adonai, the God of Israel— SNIP the final braid was gone and the Power of the Spirit of the Lord left him.”

Perhaps with David and Goliath, the storyteller used the stones to build a similar tension. “David ran into the field of battle. 15 meters from the mighty warrior he stopped— just beyond the range of Goliath’s spear. He put down his staff and reached into his shepherd’s pouch and pulled out a smooth round stone. He placed the stone in his sling, Plants His Feet Firmly, SWINGS HIS SLING OVERHEAD AND AS THE MOMENT ARRIVES DAVID RELEASES THE STRAP AND…

Oh wait… I need to talk about Goliath. We know he is big… but how big? That’s important to the story. Some texts state that he was about 9 ft 9 in. Others state that Goliath was about 6 feet 9 inches. Now I don’t know which is correct. But from a storytelling standpoint, the shorter height, 6 foot 9 inches, is much better. Why? Well, the immediate conflict here is David versus Goliath, but in the broader narrative the conflict is David versus Saul. And what do we know about Saul? We know he was a warrior king. He did not direct his armies from the palace, but fom the battlefield. He had armor, helmet, and sword and knew how to use them. We also know from an earlier story that Saul was described as the most impressive man, physically, in all of Israel. And it states that Saul was shoulder and head taller than other men of Israel. So if the average man in Israel is 5 foot 6 inches, for example, Saul was definitely over 6 feet… maybe 6 foot 3 inches. So if Goliath was 6 foot 9 inches, then King Saul was probably the only person in all Israel who had the physical size and strength and military skills to challenge Goliath. But what does he do. He gives his sword, armor, and helmet to a teenager who was much smaller, and untrained in hand-to-hand combat. The story works better if Goliath was shorter.

Also, if he was really 9 ft 9, he was probably slow, clumsy, and in poor physical health. So there’s that. Sorry… back to the story.

DAVID SWINGS HIS SLING OVERHEAD AND AS THE MOMENT ARRIVES HE RELEASES THE STRAP AND… his timing was off. The stone hit the ground, skittering across the rocks and settling near the feet of his enemy. The rumbling sound of laughter and jeering wafted across the battlefield from behind Goliath. Even from David’s camp could be heard some stifled laughter and nervous sighs. Goliath waved his shield bearer away. This will be even easier than he thought.

David quickly reached into his bag and found another stone… not as good as the first stone— but still good. Again he set his feet and launched it. This one drifted right missing the giant man by inches. The third stone was far from the mark, but the fourth hit Goliath straight in the middle of his chest. It made a harmless dent in Goliath’s armor. He laughed and bellowed, “Is that the best you got, boy?!” He started to move forward. David imagined that he felt the earth shake with every step, as he reached into his bag and pulled out the last stone.

It was the worst of the five, flattened on one side, likely to fly off-course. Still David put it into his sling, whispered an impassioned plea to God and launched it at the giant with all of his strength. The stone flew true and embedded itself in Goliath’s forehead.The great man stood there for a couple of seconds like nothing significant happened. But then dismay showed on the faces of the Philistine army as their champion, Goliath, crumpled to the ground— never to rise again.”

That would be one way… I like the story that way… but I am just speculating. I can’t know for sure, and neither can you. Still, I can come up with a few personal reflections.

#1. I am not able to know which stone will work.

I have to wonder if not knowing which stone in the story does the job is actually important in itself.

David trusted God that He is benevolent and will care for His people, but David did not know which stone would hit its mark. In fact, he did not even know if any of the stones would work. That was why he also brought his staff out there with him. He was prepared to go against Goliath’s spear and sword with a stick. Even before this, he tried on King Saul’s armor, helmet and sword. According to the text, he rejected them… not because of faith that they were not needed, but because he was unpracticed with them. They were tools he was unfamiliar with.

You don’t know which stone will work for you either. You don’t really know what God has for you. Perhaps you think you do… but you probably don’t. At seminary, you don’t know what experiences or what courses will prove key in preparing you for your future. When I was a student at PBTS long long ago, I took all of the missions courses that were available in the schedule… and even two that weren’t in the schedule. My final term before graduating, I was supposed to take one more elective. I was excited but there were no missions classes offered that I had not taken— no theology electives or history electives or CE electives. There were music electives, but I wasn’t going to take those. The only elective that I could take was Individual Counseling… a PC course. I did not want to take that. Yet it is one of the most valuable classes I took at seminary as I serve as I now serve as administrator for Bukal Life Care— a pastoral counseling and chaplaincy ministry. Expect to be surprised.

If you have your life all planned out. Wonderful. But be prepared to follow God to Ninevah… even if you already booked your tickets to Tarshish.

#2 God rarely gives me success with the first stone—

2A. Success with the first stone may lead me to think it is all about ME. We are prone to hubris— or ungodly pride. Christian ministers can fall for the trap of thinking that our success is all about us.

Maybe we start collecting titles and awards, and begin putting our name on every ministry we are involved in. Go around as celebrity ministers, speakers, and consultants. Or perhaps run for president of the Philippines, or start calling ourselves the owner of the universe. We ALL need a few failures in life for our moral, psychoemotional, and spiritual health.

2B. Success with the first stone may lead me to think it is all about the STONE. Stones are not all the same.

A good stone for a sling should be as close to spherical as possible a certain size and weight… as smooth as possible, and lacking defects that might cause it to shatter. I am sure that David would choose the best stone as his first stone. If that worked, David might think that it was that stone that brought him success. Perhaps after the fight, he might collect that stone, put it in a display… or wear it around his neck as an amulet or talisman.

In Christian ministry, we can also fall in love with the first stone and think that it was the secret of our success. Write books and lead seminars how we have found the key to exponential ministry and blame others for not being as visionary as we are. The Bible is full of Plan A failures, starting in Genesis 3 and continuing through Scripture.

2C. Success with the first stone will give me less opportunity to learn and grow. When things go well the first time, we tend to believe we have nothing more to learn. It’s our nature. But… when things go wrong… we are fully focused on learning and improving. 17 years ago, the first time I was the team leader for a medical mission trip we were in Kapangan, Benguet. The first mission day, I had managed to schedule the medical mission the same day as a wedding… reducing greatly how many patients we had. On day two, at a second village, I managed to leave one quarter of our team in the first village almost sabotaging that mission event. In the end, things came together and it was a fairly successful trip.

I can assure you, however, that I did not come back from the trip thinking I had nothing to learn. Expect some failures, and recognize them as opportunities to learn and grow.

2D. Failing with the first stone helps me rely on God more. I am sure that David prayed as he prepared to use his first stone. But I am confident in saying that he was REALLY praying by the time he got to the fourth or fifth stone. He understood that he could not depend on his skill… he could not depend on the stone he chose. He could only depend on God.

#3. It is not a lack of faith for me to have multiple stones. God knows the mind of God. We don’t. God knows His plans for us. We don’t. I like the term “Proactive Availability.” This means we are ready to serve even though we don’t know what we will be called to do. So we prepare for different things. This is not a lack of faith…. It is an ACT OF FAITH. Having faith in God is not the same as believing that you know the full will of God, or believe that you can control God. David had faith that God would give him victory over Goliath… but he did not know how that victory would come about. He was prepared for what God would bring.

#4. God will give me a chance to use the second stone. God wants me to learn and grow so He gives me a chance with a second stone. Because of this, it is wise to always have a second stone with me. If I do fail, I mess up with the first one, I shouldn’t worry. God will give me another chance. God, I believe, will give you another chance too. God is the God of the second stone, God is the God of the third stone… and the fourth. Maybe even the fifth stone. So be prepared.

As I said, I don’t know how you feel about my reflections to this question that the Bible does not answer. Regardless, here is some reflecting you can do this week.

— Do I have faith in God… or faith in myself that I can control or predict God?

— Am I prepared to be surprised by what God has planned for me? Can my faith handle uncertainty??

— What stones am I gathering here in seminary to prepare me for the spiritual battles?

Now is the time to prepare for the giants that will come into your life.