Sanctified! One Sling and Five Stones—The Favorite Won! │ 1 Samuel 17:36
How God Sanctifies His Soldiers!
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living God. 1 Samuel 17: 36
Do the favorites always win? Well, yes, most of the time, they do. The Bible is full of favorites, Moses, Joshua, Paul, and Noah, to name a few, and who could forget the Twelve Disciples? These biblical icons are all considered powerful, mighty heroes whose crowns in God's Kingdom are many. In God’s domain, the favorites are chosen by God. Why? Because He sanctified them. "Sanctification" comes from two Latin words: Sanctus, which means holy, and “fiacre, “meaning make. As John Piper once said: "Sanctification is a very irrelevant word, but it is not an irrelevant reality.” Besides salvation, sanctification is the most crucial entity in our lives as Christians. It’s who we are In Christ!
Indeed, favorites are chosen by God and sanctified by God. But in many instances, the God-sanctified favorites look like the underdog! If you were to compare the biblical sanctified icons to today's standards, they would often have been written off as two-time losers. None of them would have been considered a favorite even in their prime. Consider Moses; he was old and stuttered. Joshua? Could he lead an Army? He had no self-confidence or self-esteem, not a likely trait of a four-star general. And Noah? Yep, that boy Noah all the time, "drankin." In my younger days, when I had a penchant for the gambling life in Las Vegas, I was always amazed at how accurately the casinos, bookies, and oddsmakers could pick the favorites, from horse racing to boxing to basketball. The House could always select the favorites. They had the edge, and they won most of the time! Vegas' abilities to research the likely outcomes are unmatched, and they know every detail and all the analytics.
In our culture, we relish the role of underdogs; remember the 1980 hockey game when the U.S. Olympic team defeated Russia? Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson, Boise State, defeating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But a critical examination of God's word would reveal the most remarkable underdog story ever in the history of the Bible, the favorite was not the favorite, and the favorite was the underdog. The favorite was sanctified! Undoubtedly, the story of David and Goliath is the most extraordinary underdog story of all time, for all the wrong reasons. The stakes were more significant than any boxing match; the recompenses of this fight would affect generations to come. Now before you accuse me of debauchery and blasphemy, hear me out! The story is a fact; the myth is who we perceived was the favorite. David was undeniably the most significant favorite of all time in this fight; yes, David, not Goliath. Goliath was the most considerable underdog of all time, and in this fight, the favorite routed the underdog. Not as you remember that story, right? Yes, Goliath didn't have a chance. Have you ever brought a sword to a gunfight? It reminds me of a famous maxim—"Those who live by the Sword tend to get shot by those who don't." Here's the deal: what we think we see is not reality; this dynamic is so true in God's domain when fighting for the Army of the Lord. Many times in our lives, things are not as they seem, especially when fighting our Giants.
In 2009, author Malcomb Gladwell published "What the Dog Saw." Gladwell contends that this was probably one of the most unfair fights in history, and he writes this story from a secular context; Gladwell is not a Christian author. He lays out the arguments like a Vegas bookie handicapping a championship fight. The question becomes, why is it that we have always considered David the underdog? Because he's a little kid, and Goliath is this big, strong giant, right? Goliath is an experienced warrior, and David is a little nasty Shepherd boy. Goliath sports his modern weaponry, his glittering coat of armor, a sword, a javelin, and a spear, and all David has is this one sling and five stones. That is where the MythBusters that Goliath was the favorite come in.
Most researchers believe David was a Shepard since he was about seven. Shepherds were highly fit and mobile, and they castrated their animals with their teeth. David was tough, fast, agile, and athletic. He would be considered a Pentathlete by today's standards. Scientists suggest if humans practice a skill for ten thousand hours, they become experts. David had been practicing slinging that stone for years, killing lions, bears, and probably even birds. The size and mobility of lions and bears were far superior to that of Goliath. The most important aspect of the story between David and Goliath is—David was “Sanctified”!
Our biblical text says, "All David has is this sling." That's the first mistake that we make, poor little David. It's important to understand that that sling is not a slingshot, like a kid's toy. The sling is an incredibly devastating weapon. When David rolls his sling around, he's turning the sling at six or seven revolutions per second, and that means that when the rock is released, it's going forward really fast, probably 40 meters per second. That's substantially faster than an even baseball thrown by Nolan Ryan. The Israeli defense force did a ballistics test on this weapon, and they surmised the power of the rock fired from David's sling was roughly equal to the stopping power of a [.45 caliber] handgun. Think of a Colt 45 on my side. Another devastating fact that Gladwell points out in his book is in the Valley of Elah, where the fight took place. The rocks were barium sulfate, which has twice the density of ordinary stones. They are some of the hardest rocks in the world. We know from historical records that experienced slingers could hit and maim or even kill a target at distances of up to 200 yards. From medieval tapestries, slingers were capable of hitting birds in flight. David's weapon was accurate, deadly, and devastating.
What about Goliath?
He was big and slow; some medical researchers believe he suffered from acromegaly. Acromegaly is typically a disease in very tall people or giants. The side effect is poor vision, evident in God's word: Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. (1 Samuel 17:41) A shield barrier was typically a small boy. Why would a little boy escort a giant by the hand to a fight?
Further, Goliath fought as heavy infantry, armed with body armor, a helmet, a sword, a shield, a spear, and a knife. This array of weaponry made Goliath extremely slow and severely limited his mobility. Goliath and the rest of the Armies assumed David would fight as heavy infantry—hand-to-hand combat. Typically, bad things happen in fights when you assume. David had no illusions about fighting Goliath hand-to-hand. Evident in the fact that he refused to take King Saul's shield when offered.
So, let's get this straight. David, a mobile, extremely fit, and fast pentathlete, one of the world's best slingers (sharpshooters), relishes the chance to fight Goliath. Why? Because the fight is unfair, and in one quick blow, the war between Israel and the Philistines is over. Goliath is slow, blind, bogged down with excess equipment thinking he's going to an MMA match in close quarters when in actuality, he is fighting a dual, you know, an old west gunfight, and he's fighting the best gunslinger in the world, and he's not armed. Hello! Most scholars surmise that Goliath was instantly dead from the shot to the head. The favorite won and the underdog had no chance.
As in all athletic competitions and warfare, it often comes down to training. Doing "routine things routinely." David's training was unmatched; this was just another day at the office. Why? Because God was training him for much more significant events. We in Christendom have a term for this—sanctified. As Disciples of Jesus, we owe our salvation to God's sanctification. The holy spirit sanctified a mean wretched man named Saul--sanctified him as Paul. Paul said in the book of Romans: He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Romans 15: 16. Favorites typically win. In contrast, it may not always feel like it, but in God's domain, the favorites always win!