Hero Tales from History — David, The Giant-killer King
“So Moses the servant of the Lord died there.
And he buried him in a valley, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
” DAVID, THE GIANT-KILLER KING
Nearly three thousand years ago a bright, handsome Hebrew lad was playing a harp while watching his father’s sheep on the hills of Bethlehem.
One dark night there was a great stir among the sheep, and David saw a bear making off with one of the lambs.
There were no guns in those days, but David had a sling, and he could fling a pebble almost as swift and straight as a boy can shoot a bullet to-day.
So David ran and killed the bear by driving a stone through the big brute’s eye into its brain.
When he took the trembling lamb back to its mother, what should he see but a lion starting off with a sheep in his huge jaws.
There was no time to gather pebbles.
Grabbing a jagged rock in one hand, David seized the great beast by the mane with the other, and aimed quick blows at the lion’s eyes, breaking his skull before the lion could drop his prey and fight back.
That was a great night’s work for one lone lad.
After quieting his frightened flock, David took his harp and made up a song of thanks to the God of Israel for saving him alive from the jaws of the lion and the paws of the bear.
Not long after this, David’s old father sent out to the hills for him.
When the youth came down to the house, he found Samuel, Prophet of God and Judge of Israel, waiting for him.
David’s seven older brothers stood around eyeing him strangely, as the prophet said, “This is he,” and baptized him by pouring oil on his head.
“What did the prophet anoint me for?
” David asked his father.
“To be king of Israel instead of Saul.
” “But I am only a boy, and King Saul is so big and strong--head and shoulders taller than other men.
Why did not the prophet anoint our Eliab?
He is almost as tall as the king himself.
” “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
” After that David went back and herded his father’s sheep, but his brothers were jealous of him because he had been anointed to be king.
As had often happened in the days of the Judges, the heathen Philistines came up and made war against the people of Israel, and the eldest three of David’s brothers were in the king’s army.
Many weeks went by, but no word came from the camp.
So the father sent David down with provisions for the brothers and a present for their captain.
The shepherd boy found the two armies in camps opposite each other, across a narrow valley.
Every one was excited over Goliath, a giant who came down every day into the valley from the army of the Philistines and challenged the king of Israel and all his men.
Goliath was nearly eleven feet tall.
He wore a bronze helmet about as big as a bushel measure, and his spear was like a weaver’s beam.
Even King Saul and David’s tall brother Eliab were much too small to fight with the Philistine giant.
David could not bear to hear Goliath calling the king and his soldiers cowards and repeating wicked words about the God of Israel.
So he went and told Saul he would like the chance to go down and fight the insulting giant.
The soldiers laughed at this, and Eliab told his young brother to go home and mind his “few sheep in the wilderness.
” But David would not be put off.
He told how God had helped him kill a lion and a bear in one night.
The lad was so earnest that the king consented to let him try.
The only weapons David took were his staff and his sling.
On his way to meet the giant he stopped at the brook and picked up five smooth pebbles.
Both armies looked on breathless at the strange combat.
Great Goliath laughed at little David, as if the king of Israel were playing a joke on him.
He cursed David by all the gods of the Philistines, and yelled: “Am I a dog, that thou shouldst come to fight me with a stick?
For this I will feed thy little carcass to the birds.
” Then David shouted back to Goliath, “I come in the name of the God of Israel whom thou hast defied.
” All the Israelites and Philistines saw the boy make a quick motion with his sling, and heard a thud.
The giant dropped his heavy spear, threw up his huge hands and fell, with a groan and a great clatter of armor, face downward on the ground.
David’s first pebble had done the work.
It had gone swift and straight through the eye-hole in Goliath’s brass helmet and sunk deep into his low, brutal forehead, killing him almost instantly.
“And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead they arose and fled.
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled (looted) their tents.
” [Illustration: DAVID PLAYING HIS HARP BEFORE KING SAUL.
_From the painting by Schopin_] King Saul was so thankful that his own life had been saved, and that the people were spared from being slaves to the Philistines, that he made David come and live in his palace as a younger brother to his son, Jonathan.
This prince was not jealous like David’s own brothers.
David and Jonathan became such good friends that, though this happened nearly three thousand years ago, people say yet that two boys or men who are very friendly with each other are “like David and Jonathan.
” After a time Saul and Jonathan were both killed in a battle with the Philistines.
Then David became king of Israel.
He proved to be one of the best of rulers.
He wrote many of the Bible Psalms and played on his harp as he sang them.
He planned to build a great house of worship for the God of Israel in Jerusalem, but, because he had been a man of war, he felt unworthy to do such sacred work.
So he left the temple to be built by his son Solomon, the wisest king that ever ruled over Israel.
