One Stone, and Four More

I want you to reflect for a moment on the story of David when he stands up to Goliath. The short summary of what took place before the battle is that Goliath presents himself before the Israelites and begins to mock the God of Israel. The giant challenges a single man to stand against him, but Israel presents no champion. Then a young David arrives, a mere teen, come to deliver food to his brothers, and when he hears the insults slung by the giant to the great God of Israel we see the young boy stirred up. David goes to the King Saul, gets permission to fight, then he picks up five stones from the dried up river bed. With a single stone David knocks out the giant, then the young boy takes the sword of the giant and separates the pagan's head from his body.

A great story, yes? A true classic from Scripture, something many of us will be familiar with. But why the five stones, oh David ye with little faith? How many would it take to down the giant? Luckily for David it was only one, but he was prepared for the worst, in case it took more.

Or... perhaps not. In truth I am misleading you and this is not at all why David gathered five stones from the dried river. But I cannot spoil that part yet, first I wish to tell you another story.

There is a Jewish tradition that David was the one ordained by God to hunt down the remnants of the Nephilim and finally purge them from the earth. What are the Nephilim, you wonder? We see them in Genesis 6:4 mentioned for the first time, and we see them again in Numbers 13:32-33 but we will get to that second passage in a moment. The ancient Hebrews understood the Nephilim as half-breeds, with angels as their fathers and humans as their mothers, creating abominations which look like giant men. In my research for this I discovered many interesting things, but I will rather use someone else's words on this since they spoke so well of it.

It is important to note that Genesis 6:4 never explicitly calls the Nephilim “giants.” However, the Nephilim have often been considered giants because of the description of the giants in the land as those who come from the Nephilim in Numbers 13:32-33. Also, the Septuagint translates both the Hebrew נְּפִלִ֞ים (Nephilim) and גִּבֹּרִ֛ים (gibborim, “mighty men” or “men of renown”) in Genesis 6:4 as γίγαντες (gigantes, “giants”).[1] (It may be that the Septuagint translated Nephilim as “giants” because of the account in Numbers 13, though some think Nephilim comes from the Aramaic word naphiyla for giant.[2])

So, at the least these men were pretty big, called giants by some. Back to David and Goliath, I want to point something out, just to make things clear. In Numbers 13 it interprets Nephilim to be giant men. Numbers 13 also says that the Nephilim were the sons of Anak. If you go to Joshua 11 you will see that Anak (also called Anakim) settled in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. And finally, in 1 Samuel 17 we see that Goliath was from Gath, and he was described as a giant. The throughline of all this is that Goliath would have been, in the eyes of the Hebrews, a Nephilim, and so when David presented himself to battle the man called Goliath he was not just getting ready to fight a big guy - no, David was preparing to fight what the Hebrews essentially saw to be a demigod. It is not surprising to me that the other Israelites were hesitant to challenge a god in a fight, and it is perhaps foolish for David to challenge such a man. It is a good thing he brought the extra stones, then.

But no, it is still untrue that he brought "extra" stones. But I will be patient a moment longer before spoiling the story. I wish to quickly address a loose end that you may have wondered - if the Nephilim were from before the flood, how did they survive being wiped out? There are a lot of theories for why this may be, but none of them are anything to make a fuss over. Perhaps Ham's wife "carried the gene" of the Nephilim because she was a descendant of one. Or perhaps the fallen angels mated with women again after the flood. Or perhaps there were some mountain peaks that were not covered by the flood and some giants took refuge up there. Or, it could be what some of the Church Fathers believed which was that fallen angels did not actually mate with women, and instead the Nephilim were just "mighty men". Whatever it is does not matter so much for this article, I just felt it needed to be mentioned. In the context of this story the Israelites did see Goliath as a demigod of sorts, and I wish you to be aware of that. The intricacies of what was reality do not matter in this story as much as what the Hebrew people perceived to be true in the moment, and that is what speaks to David's courage in facing Goliath.

I don't believe I need to address the bravery of David in this moment, as we've established he was facing off against impossible odds - against a god. But David did not fear, he knew he had the Lord as his helper. The following are taken from 1 Samuel 17, and I wish you to reflect on them.

45 But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’

This was in response to the insults thrown by the giant, David having none of it. His God was not to be disrespected. David came to put an end to the giant's blasphemy. And I want you to take note of the part I emphasize in these next verses.

48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

When the giant walked towards David, the young boy ran to meet his enemy, the enemy of the Lord. With one stone the giant was toppled, then his head severed from his body by the teenage boy moments later.

And now the true purpose of this article, which is the faith of this young David. King David has the reputation for being the one to finally purge the land from the Nephilim scourge, and I am going to lean into that now. There is a reason why David took five stones, and that is because he was ready to kill five gods that day.

We see in Joshua 13:3 that there are five lords of the Philistines, listed as the places where there is a Nephilim bloodline, and we see in the end that David does eventually kill them all (2 Samuel 21:22), but David was ready to end that bloodline on the day of the battle. David, the man of great faith, the one who as a young man consulted God before any one of his actions, took five stones in his hand, just in case the Lord wanted to slay all the giants that very day.

Five stones for five brother giants. One stone, and four more. Five stones to knock down five gods, and slay them in the name of the one true God. David had no fear, he charged into battle, he had faith the Lord would carry His will through the young man David, and he made himself ready for the Lord to call more from him if necessary.

Now I turn to you, reader. How many stones do you have with you? Is it just enough? I hope that you are ready for the battles that lie ahead. Have you prepared for them? David spent his whole life in preparation for this fight - not with the sword, but with his heart, seeking after the favor of God, striving to be like Him, seeking out His advice.

On the big day that the Lord called David to action he killed the god in front of him, and he was ready to kill the others as well if God allowed him. Are you ready to have your gods slain? Have you brought the proper weapons to the fight? Not the sword and armor of Saul which did not fit David, no - the thing unique to you, the thing which God made you strong in. Are you utilizing these for God's glory?

This is the challenge we have all been given in this life, to cower or to fight the gods which call over us, insulting us and our God. Will you allow these giants to continue to rule over you? The reason the Israelites did not send anyone else to fight Goliath was because they were too afraid, and rightfully so. They were afraid, because their strength could not match that of the giant's. The reason David was not afraid was because he did not trust in his own strength, but trusted in God. He knew that he could not defeat this god alone, and so he sought the help of his God and was strengthened by our Lord. He did not rely on his own strength, he relied on the Lord.

And so, we speak of your gods. What are the idols which you have in your life? These small idols, if we allow them, will grow as we dedicated our time to them, and when we wish to toss them aside we will find that they are no longer a small thing, but have grown into a giant. You, a small man, cannot overcome a giant, and you need the help of God.

"There are two wolves inside you; one is for good, and the other is for evil, and they are fighting each other to become dominant over the other. Which one will win? The one that you feed." In your battle between lust and purity, which do you give more time and effort, more resources towards? In your struggle between prayer and slothfulness, which do you give more time? Between self-mastery and apathy, which do you exercise the most? Between the Lord God and the comforts of this world, who do you spend more time with? The wolf that you feed is the one that will win out in the end, and only one wolf will protect you, while the other seeks to devour you.

You are in a battle, and it is a battle for your soul. Invisible powers are seeking to win you over, and in the end it is up to you which side gets you. You just happen to be on the battlefield, you are fleeing from the enemy, and whether or not you make it to the other side is determined by your perseverance and your will to shed the weights which drag you down, trying to hold you in place. Your enemy wants you to be stagnant, standing behind the battle lines, afraid to approach the god in front of you.

Charge forth, instead. Tell me again, how many stones do you carry with you? Do not carry just one, because there is more than one god of yours that needs to be slain. Your selfish desires, the things that draw you away from God, these things which have a hold of you, it is time for them to die. And perhaps not all of them will be conquered in a day, perhaps it will take years as it did for David, but you should keep those stones on you. David's faith in God was so great that he was ready to do away with all that the Israelites feared right then, he was ready to go as far as the Lord wished him to. How far are you willing to go to slay your false gods? How far will you allow our God to take you? Will you let Him use you to slay these gods? He will not force you to do anything, it is up to you to take that step and go forth, allowing Him to use you, to save you.

Written for VME Catholic, by Ethan Hall