2 Samuel 21:15–22

When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint. Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”

Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant. Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.

These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

David has lost a step. He goes into battle and almost collapses. One of the Philistines is about to kill him, when he’s saved by Abishai.

It dawns on David’s men that he shouldn’t be there; so they force him to retire from battle. Curiously, the text makes no mention of any further discussion.

David has to concede that his career as a warrior is finished.

The Philistines think they’re hot stuff because they have a bunch of extra-large soldiers. The text is unclear as to whether they are relatives of the Goliath whom David killed, or just called goliaths as a colloquialism.

In any case, they aren’t all that effective in battle, and they drop like flies. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

There are four notable omissions in this passage. One is the afore mentioned lack of discussion about keeping David out of battle. We also don’t hear how these giants were killed, only who killed them. There’s also no mention of any of the rest of the Philistine army. Finally, there’s no hint of the LORD’s intervention anywhere. Everything that happened was the natural, normal, expected result.

So, this is all a lesson about overconfidence in celebrity. The great warrior David isn’t as great anymore as his reputation. The Philistines counted on a group of celebrity champions to fight for them, but they aren’t as tough as they look.

The big loser in all this is hype.

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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays' by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.