WEBVTT 00:00:00.536 --> 00:00:01.819 So I wanted to tell a story 00:00:01.819 --> 00:00:05.291 that really obsessed me when I was writing my new book, 00:00:05.291 --> 00:00:08.838 and it's a story of something that happened 00:00:08.838 --> 00:00:10.411 3,000 years ago, 00:00:10.411 --> 00:00:13.638 when the Kingdom of Israel was in its infancy. 00:00:13.638 --> 00:00:16.370 And it takes place in an area called the Shephelah 00:00:16.370 --> 00:00:18.700 in what is now Israel. 00:00:18.700 --> 00:00:20.948 And the reason the story obsessed me is that 00:00:20.948 --> 00:00:24.034 I thought I understood it, and then I went back over it 00:00:24.034 --> 00:00:28.140 and I realized that I didn't understand it at all. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:32.957 Ancient Palestine had a -- along its eastern border, 00:00:32.957 --> 00:00:34.273 there's a mountain range. 00:00:34.273 --> 00:00:36.132 Still same is true of Israel today. 00:00:36.132 --> 00:00:39.065 And in the mountain range are all of the ancient cities 00:00:39.065 --> 00:00:43.523 of that region, so Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron. 00:00:43.523 --> 00:00:45.748 And then there's a coastal plain 00:00:45.748 --> 00:00:49.103 along the Mediterranean, where Tel Aviv is now. 00:00:49.103 --> 00:00:52.503 And connecting the mountain range with the coastal plain 00:00:52.503 --> 00:00:54.436 is an area called the Shephelah, 00:00:54.436 --> 00:00:58.855 which is a series of valleys and ridges that run east to west, 00:00:58.855 --> 00:01:02.034 and you can follow the Shephelah, go through the Shephelah 00:01:02.034 --> 00:01:04.787 to get from the coastal plain to the mountains. 00:01:04.787 --> 00:01:06.481 And the Shephelah, if you've been to Israel, you'll know 00:01:06.481 --> 00:01:08.889 it's just about the most beautiful part of Israel. 00:01:08.889 --> 00:01:11.807 It's gorgeous, with forests of oak 00:01:11.807 --> 00:01:14.222 and wheat fields and vineyards. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:14.222 --> 00:01:17.601 But more importantly, though, in the history of that region, 00:01:17.601 --> 00:01:21.366 it's served, it's had a real strategic function, 00:01:21.366 --> 00:01:24.279 and that is, it is the means by which hostile armies 00:01:24.279 --> 00:01:26.862 on the coastal plain find their way, 00:01:26.862 --> 00:01:30.484 get up into the mountains and threaten those living in the mountains. 00:01:30.484 --> 00:01:33.511 And 3,000 years ago, that's exactly what happens. 00:01:33.511 --> 00:01:37.788 The Philistines, who are the biggest of enemies 00:01:37.788 --> 00:01:39.290 of the Kingdom of Israel, 00:01:39.290 --> 00:01:41.002 are living in the coastal plain. 00:01:41.002 --> 00:01:44.298 They're originally from Crete. They're a seafaring people. 00:01:44.298 --> 00:01:46.721 And they may start to make their way 00:01:46.721 --> 00:01:48.961 through one of the valleys of the Shephelah 00:01:48.961 --> 00:01:50.128 up into the mountains, 00:01:50.128 --> 00:01:52.384 because what they want to do is occupy the highland area 00:01:52.384 --> 00:01:56.385 right by Bethlehem and split the Kingdom of Israel in two. 00:01:56.385 --> 00:01:59.650 And the Kingdom of Israel, which is headed by King Saul, 00:01:59.650 --> 00:02:01.383 obviously catches wind of this, 00:02:01.383 --> 00:02:04.252 and Saul brings his army down from the mountains 00:02:04.252 --> 00:02:07.907 and he confronts the Philistines in the Valley of Elah, 00:02:07.907 --> 00:02:10.365 one of the most beautiful of the valleys of the Shephelah. 00:02:10.365 --> 00:02:13.233 And the Israelites dig in along the northern ridge, 00:02:13.233 --> 00:02:17.490 and the Philistines dig in along the southern ridge, 00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:20.225 and the two armies just sit there for weeks 00:02:20.225 --> 00:02:22.347 and stare at each other, because they're deadlocked. 00:02:22.347 --> 00:02:24.820 Neither can attack the other, because to attack the other side 00:02:24.820 --> 00:02:28.076 you've got to come down the mountain into the valley 00:02:28.076 --> 00:02:30.593 and then up the other side, and you're completely exposed. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:30.593 --> 00:02:32.785 So finally, to break the deadlock, 00:02:32.785 --> 00:02:35.999 the Philistines send their mightiest warrior 00:02:35.999 --> 00:02:38.476 down into the valley floor, and he calls out 00:02:38.476 --> 00:02:39.932 and he says to the Israelites, 00:02:39.932 --> 00:02:42.560 "Send your mightiest warrior down, 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:44.567 and we'll have this out, just the two of us." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:44.567 --> 00:02:48.402 This was a tradition in ancient warfare called single combat. 00:02:48.402 --> 00:02:50.197 It was a way of settling disputes 00:02:50.197 --> 00:02:54.321 without incurring the bloodshed of a major battle. 00:02:54.321 --> 00:02:57.281 And the Philistine who is sent down, 00:02:57.281 --> 00:02:59.448 their mighty warrior, is a giant. 00:02:59.448 --> 00:03:01.223 He's 6 foot 9. 00:03:01.223 --> 00:03:05.936 He's outfitted head to toe in this glittering bronze armor, 00:03:05.936 --> 00:03:08.995 and he's got a sword and he's got a javelin 00:03:08.995 --> 00:03:11.723 and he's got his spear. He is absolutely terrifying. 00:03:11.723 --> 00:03:16.213 And he's so terrifying that none of the Israelite soldiers want to fight him. 00:03:16.213 --> 00:03:20.848 It's a death wish, right? There's no way they think they can take him. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:20.848 --> 00:03:23.141 And finally the only person who will come forward 00:03:23.141 --> 00:03:25.652 is this young shepherd boy, 00:03:25.652 --> 00:03:28.330 and he goes up to Saul and he says, "I'll fight him." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:28.330 --> 00:03:31.448 And Saul says, "You can't fight him. That's ridiculous. 00:03:31.448 --> 00:03:33.770 You're this kid. This is this mighty warrior." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:36.193 But the shepherd is adamant. He says, "No, no, no, 00:03:36.193 --> 00:03:39.186 you don't understand, I have been defending my flock 00:03:39.186 --> 00:03:43.355 against lions and wolves for years. I think I can do it." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:43.355 --> 00:03:46.569 And Saul has no choice. He's got no one else who's come forward. 00:03:46.569 --> 00:03:47.910 So he says, "All right." 00:03:47.910 --> 00:03:49.122 And then he turns to the kid, and he says, 00:03:49.122 --> 00:03:52.816 "But you've got to wear this armor. You can't go as you are." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:52.816 --> 00:03:55.219 So he tries to give the shepherd his armor, 00:03:55.219 --> 00:03:56.470 and the shepherd says, "No." 00:03:56.470 --> 00:03:58.883 He says, "I can't wear this stuff." 00:03:58.883 --> 00:04:02.957 The Biblical verse is, "I cannot wear this for I have not proved it," 00:04:02.957 --> 00:04:06.134 meaning, "I've never worn armor before. You've got to be crazy." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:06.134 --> 00:04:08.740 So he reaches down instead on the ground 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:10.495 and picks up five stones 00:04:10.495 --> 00:04:12.956 and puts them in his shepherd's bag 00:04:12.956 --> 00:04:17.468 and starts to walk down the mountainside to meet the giant. 00:04:17.468 --> 00:04:19.674 And the giant sees this figure approaching, 00:04:19.674 --> 00:04:22.817 and calls out, "Come to me so I can feed your flesh 00:04:22.817 --> 00:04:26.794 to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field." 00:04:26.794 --> 00:04:30.229 He issues this kind of taunt towards this person 00:04:30.229 --> 00:04:31.964 coming to fight him. 00:04:31.964 --> 00:04:35.310 And the shepherd draws closer and closer, 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:38.298 and the giant sees that he's carrying a staff. 00:04:38.298 --> 00:04:39.470 That's all he's carrying. 00:04:39.470 --> 00:04:41.338 Instead of a weapon, just this shepherd's staff, 00:04:41.338 --> 00:04:43.910 and he says -- he's insulted -- 00:04:43.910 --> 00:04:47.267 "Am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks?" NOTE Paragraph 00:04:47.267 --> 00:04:50.330 And the shepherd boy takes one of his stones 00:04:50.330 --> 00:04:53.570 out of his pocket, puts it in his sling 00:04:53.570 --> 00:04:55.865 and rolls it around and lets it fly 00:04:55.865 --> 00:04:58.266 and it hits the giant right between the eyes -- 00:04:58.266 --> 00:05:00.364 right here, in his most vulnerable spot -- 00:05:00.364 --> 00:05:03.685 and he falls down either dead or unconscious, 00:05:03.685 --> 00:05:06.179 and the shepherd boy runs up and takes his sword 00:05:06.179 --> 00:05:07.865 and cuts off his head, 00:05:07.865 --> 00:05:13.416 and the Philistines see this and they turn and they just run. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:13.416 --> 00:05:17.777 And of course, the name of the giant is Goliath 00:05:17.777 --> 00:05:20.306 and the name of the shepherd boy is David, 00:05:20.306 --> 00:05:23.436 and the reason that story has obsessed me 00:05:23.436 --> 00:05:24.874 over the course of writing my book 00:05:24.874 --> 00:05:27.966 is that everything I thought I knew about that story 00:05:27.966 --> 00:05:30.717 turned out to be wrong. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:30.717 --> 00:05:34.505 So David, in that story, is supposed to be the underdog, right? 00:05:34.505 --> 00:05:36.642 In fact, that term, David and Goliath, 00:05:36.642 --> 00:05:39.623 has entered our language as a metaphor for 00:05:39.623 --> 00:05:41.161 improbable victories 00:05:41.161 --> 00:05:44.272 by some weak party over someone far stronger. 00:05:44.272 --> 00:05:46.462 Now why do we call David an underdog? 00:05:46.462 --> 00:05:49.937 Well, we call him an underdog because he's a kid, 00:05:49.937 --> 00:05:53.473 a little kid, and Goliath is this big, strong giant. 00:05:53.473 --> 00:05:55.128 We also call him an underdog 00:05:55.128 --> 00:05:59.050 because Goliath is an experienced warrior, 00:05:59.050 --> 00:06:00.986 and David is just a shepherd. 00:06:00.986 --> 00:06:03.336 But most importantly, we call him an underdog 00:06:03.336 --> 00:06:08.346 because all he has is -- it's that Goliath is outfitted with 00:06:08.346 --> 00:06:10.351 all of this modern weaponry, 00:06:10.351 --> 00:06:12.127 this glittering coat of armor 00:06:12.127 --> 00:06:15.962 and a sword and a javelin and a spear, 00:06:15.962 --> 00:06:19.792 and all David has is this sling. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:19.792 --> 00:06:21.490 Well, let's start there with the phrase 00:06:21.490 --> 00:06:23.934 "All David has is this sling," 00:06:23.934 --> 00:06:26.801 because that's the first mistake that we make. 00:06:26.801 --> 00:06:30.358 In ancient warfare, there are three kinds of warriors. 00:06:30.358 --> 00:06:33.789 There's cavalry, men on horseback and with chariots. 00:06:33.789 --> 00:06:36.915 There's heavy infantry, which are foot soldiers, 00:06:36.915 --> 00:06:39.805 armed foot soldiers with swords and shields 00:06:39.805 --> 00:06:41.305 and some kind of armor. 00:06:41.305 --> 00:06:44.533 And there's artillery, and artillery are archers, 00:06:44.533 --> 00:06:46.705 but, more importantly, slingers. 00:06:46.705 --> 00:06:49.766 And a slinger is someone who has a leather pouch 00:06:49.766 --> 00:06:52.563 with two long cords attached to it, 00:06:52.563 --> 00:06:55.765 and they put a projectile, either a rock or a lead ball, 00:06:55.765 --> 00:06:58.886 inside the pouch, and they whirl it around like this 00:06:58.886 --> 00:07:01.529 and they let one of the cords go, 00:07:01.529 --> 00:07:05.399 and the effect is to send the projectile forward 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:08.704 towards its target. 00:07:08.704 --> 00:07:11.439 That's what David has, and it's important to understand 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.286 that that sling is not a slingshot. 00:07:14.286 --> 00:07:16.905 It's not this, right? It's not a child's toy. 00:07:16.905 --> 00:07:20.730 It's in fact an incredibly devastating weapon. 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:23.706 When David rolls it around like this, 00:07:23.706 --> 00:07:26.935 he's turning the sling around probably 00:07:26.935 --> 00:07:29.607 at six or seven revolutions per second, 00:07:29.607 --> 00:07:33.452 and that means that when the rock is released, 00:07:33.452 --> 00:07:35.652 it's going forward really fast, 00:07:35.652 --> 00:07:37.425 probably 35 meters per second. 00:07:37.425 --> 00:07:40.990 That's substantially faster than a baseball 00:07:40.990 --> 00:07:44.623 thrown by even the finest of baseball pitchers. 00:07:44.623 --> 00:07:48.506 More than that, the stones in the Valley of Elah 00:07:48.506 --> 00:07:51.162 were not normal rocks. They were barium sulphate, 00:07:51.162 --> 00:07:54.481 which are rocks twice the density of normal stones. 00:07:54.481 --> 00:07:57.118 If you do the calculations on the ballistics, 00:07:57.118 --> 00:08:01.002 on the stopping power of the rock fired from David's sling, 00:08:01.002 --> 00:08:03.323 it's roughly equal to the stopping power 00:08:03.323 --> 00:08:06.880 of a [.45 caliber] handgun. 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:09.874 This is an incredibly devastating weapon. 00:08:09.874 --> 00:08:14.472 Accuracy, we know from historical records 00:08:14.472 --> 00:08:18.970 that slingers -- experienced slingers could hit 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:24.993 and maim or even kill a target at distances of up to 200 yards. 00:08:24.993 --> 00:08:27.963 From medieval tapestries, we know that slingers 00:08:27.963 --> 00:08:30.321 were capable of hitting birds in flight. 00:08:30.321 --> 00:08:32.755 They were incredibly accurate. 00:08:32.755 --> 00:08:36.312 When David lines up -- and he's not 200 yards away from Goliath, 00:08:36.312 --> 00:08:37.921 he's quite close to Goliath -- 00:08:37.921 --> 00:08:41.336 when he lines up and fires that thing at Goliath, 00:08:41.336 --> 00:08:44.398 he has every intention and every expectation 00:08:44.398 --> 00:08:47.101 of being able to hit Goliath at his most vulnerable spot 00:08:47.101 --> 00:08:48.429 between his eyes. 00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:50.445 If you go back over the history of ancient warfare, 00:08:50.445 --> 00:08:53.257 you will find time and time again 00:08:53.257 --> 00:08:57.260 that slingers were the decisive factor against infantry 00:08:57.260 --> 00:09:02.285 in one kind of battle or another. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:02.285 --> 00:09:06.181 So what's Goliath? He's heavy infantry, 00:09:06.181 --> 00:09:11.380 and his expectation when he challenges the Israelites to a duel 00:09:11.380 --> 00:09:15.235 is that he's going to be fighting another heavy infantryman. 00:09:15.235 --> 00:09:17.406 When he says, "Come to me that I might 00:09:17.406 --> 00:09:20.358 feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," 00:09:20.358 --> 00:09:22.358 the key phrase is "Come to me." 00:09:22.358 --> 00:09:24.496 Come up to me because we're going to fight, 00:09:24.496 --> 00:09:26.207 hand to hand, like this. 00:09:26.207 --> 00:09:28.335 Saul has the same expectation. 00:09:28.335 --> 00:09:30.694 David says, "I want to fight Goliath," 00:09:30.694 --> 00:09:32.515 and Saul tries to give him his armor, 00:09:32.515 --> 00:09:35.242 because Saul is thinking, "Oh, when you say 'fight Goliath,' 00:09:35.242 --> 00:09:38.509 you mean 'fight him in hand-to-hand combat,' 00:09:38.509 --> 00:09:40.697 infantry on infantry." NOTE Paragraph 00:09:40.697 --> 00:09:43.671 But David has absolutely no expectation. 00:09:43.671 --> 00:09:46.222 He's not going to fight him that way. Why would he? 00:09:46.222 --> 00:09:49.230 He's a shepherd. He's spent his entire career 00:09:49.230 --> 00:09:53.443 using a sling to defend his flock against lions and wolves. 00:09:53.443 --> 00:09:55.193 That's where his strength lies. 00:09:55.193 --> 00:09:57.725 So here he is, this shepherd, experienced 00:09:57.725 --> 00:09:59.764 in the use of a devastating weapon, 00:09:59.764 --> 00:10:02.158 up against this lumbering giant 00:10:02.158 --> 00:10:05.458 weighed down by a hundred pounds of armor 00:10:05.458 --> 00:10:06.959 and these incredibly heavy weapons 00:10:06.959 --> 00:10:10.056 that are useful only in short-range combat. 00:10:10.056 --> 00:10:14.793 Goliath is a sitting duck. He doesn't have a chance. 00:10:14.793 --> 00:10:17.599 So why do we keep calling David an underdog, 00:10:17.599 --> 00:10:23.423 and why do we keep referring to his victory as improbable? NOTE Paragraph 00:10:23.423 --> 00:10:26.263 There's a second piece of this that's important. 00:10:26.263 --> 00:10:29.661 It's not just that we misunderstand David 00:10:29.661 --> 00:10:31.566 and his choice of weaponry. 00:10:31.566 --> 00:10:34.905 It's also that we profoundly misunderstand Goliath. 00:10:34.905 --> 00:10:38.139 Goliath is not what he seems to be. 00:10:38.139 --> 00:10:42.127 There's all kinds of hints of this in the Biblical text, 00:10:42.127 --> 00:10:44.932 things that are in retrospect quite puzzling 00:10:44.932 --> 00:10:48.709 and don't square with his image as this mighty warrior. 00:10:48.709 --> 00:10:52.086 So to begin with, the Bible says that Goliath 00:10:52.086 --> 00:10:56.051 is led onto the valley floor by an attendant. 00:10:56.051 --> 00:10:58.260 Now that is weird, right? 00:10:58.260 --> 00:11:00.390 Here is this mighty warrior 00:11:00.390 --> 00:11:03.197 challenging the Israelites to one-on-one combat. 00:11:03.197 --> 00:11:05.909 Why is he being led by the hand 00:11:05.909 --> 00:11:08.959 by some young boy, presumably, 00:11:08.959 --> 00:11:11.421 to the point of combat? 00:11:11.421 --> 00:11:15.775 Secondly, the Bible story makes special note 00:11:15.775 --> 00:11:18.864 of how slowly Goliath moves, 00:11:18.864 --> 00:11:20.890 another odd thing to say when you're describing 00:11:20.890 --> 00:11:24.940 the mightiest warrior known to man at that point. 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:26.763 And then there's this whole weird thing 00:11:26.763 --> 00:11:30.575 about how long it takes Goliath to react 00:11:30.575 --> 00:11:32.571 to the sight of David. 00:11:32.571 --> 00:11:35.349 So David's coming down the mountain, 00:11:35.349 --> 00:11:39.286 and he's clearly not preparing for hand-to-hand combat. 00:11:39.286 --> 00:11:41.254 There is nothing about him that says, 00:11:41.254 --> 00:11:43.288 "I am about to fight you like this." 00:11:43.288 --> 00:11:45.019 He's not even carrying a sword. 00:11:45.019 --> 00:11:47.701 Why does Goliath not react to that? 00:11:47.701 --> 00:11:51.929 It's as if he's oblivious to what's going on that day. 00:11:51.929 --> 00:11:55.876 And then there's that strange comment he makes to David: 00:11:55.876 --> 00:12:00.171 "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" 00:12:00.171 --> 00:12:03.994 Sticks? David only has one stick. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:03.994 --> 00:12:06.253 Well, it turns out that there's been a great deal 00:12:06.253 --> 00:12:09.294 of speculation within the medical community over the years 00:12:09.294 --> 00:12:11.820 about whether there is something 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:14.709 fundamentally wrong with Goliath, 00:12:14.709 --> 00:12:18.118 an attempt to make sense of all of those apparent anomalies. 00:12:18.118 --> 00:12:19.280 There have been many articles written. 00:12:19.280 --> 00:12:23.274 The first one was in 1960 in the Indiana Medical Journal, 00:12:23.274 --> 00:12:25.629 and it started a chain of speculation 00:12:25.629 --> 00:12:28.752 that starts with an explanation for Goliath's height. 00:12:28.752 --> 00:12:31.675 So Goliath is head and shoulders above 00:12:31.675 --> 00:12:33.837 all of his peers in that era, 00:12:33.837 --> 00:12:37.819 and usually when someone is that far out of the norm, 00:12:37.819 --> 00:12:39.416 there's an explanation for it. 00:12:39.416 --> 00:12:42.649 So the most common form of giantism 00:12:42.649 --> 00:12:45.384 is a condition called acromegaly, 00:12:45.384 --> 00:12:48.287 and acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor 00:12:48.287 --> 00:12:50.790 on your pituitary gland 00:12:50.790 --> 00:12:53.506 that causes an overproduction of human growth hormone. 00:12:53.506 --> 00:12:57.065 And throughout history, many of the most famous giants 00:12:57.065 --> 00:12:58.834 have all had acromegaly. 00:12:58.834 --> 00:13:00.898 So the tallest person of all time 00:13:00.898 --> 00:13:02.465 was a guy named Robert Wadlow 00:13:02.465 --> 00:13:05.516 who was still growing when he died at the age of 24 00:13:05.516 --> 00:13:08.405 and he was 8 foot 11. 00:13:08.405 --> 00:13:09.819 He had acromegaly. 00:13:09.819 --> 00:13:12.354 Do you remember the wrestler André the Giant? 00:13:12.354 --> 00:13:14.037 Famous. He had acromegaly. 00:13:14.037 --> 00:13:18.576 There's even speculation that Abraham Lincoln had acromegaly. 00:13:18.576 --> 00:13:19.654 Anyone who's unusually tall, 00:13:19.654 --> 00:13:22.407 that's the first explanation we come up with. 00:13:22.407 --> 00:13:26.402 And acromegaly has a very distinct set of side effects 00:13:26.402 --> 00:13:27.627 associated with it, 00:13:27.627 --> 00:13:31.189 principally having to do with vision. 00:13:31.189 --> 00:13:34.485 The pituitary tumor, as it grows, 00:13:34.485 --> 00:13:38.533 often starts to compress the visual nerves in your brain, 00:13:38.533 --> 00:13:41.037 with the result that people with acromegaly 00:13:41.037 --> 00:13:46.508 have either double vision or they are profoundly nearsighted. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:46.508 --> 00:13:49.101 So when people have started to speculate 00:13:49.101 --> 00:13:52.332 about what might have been wrong with Goliath, 00:13:52.332 --> 00:13:53.243 they've said, "Wait a minute, 00:13:53.243 --> 00:13:56.433 he looks and sounds an awful lot like someone 00:13:56.433 --> 00:13:58.006 who has acromegaly." 00:13:58.006 --> 00:14:00.990 And that would also explain so much of what was strange 00:14:00.990 --> 00:14:03.117 about his behavior that day. 00:14:03.117 --> 00:14:04.938 Why does he move so slowly 00:14:04.938 --> 00:14:08.466 and have to be escorted down into the valley floor 00:14:08.466 --> 00:14:09.825 by an attendant? 00:14:09.825 --> 00:14:12.813 Because he can't make his way on his own. 00:14:12.813 --> 00:14:16.070 Why is he so strangely oblivious to David 00:14:16.070 --> 00:14:18.719 that he doesn't understand that David's not going to fight him 00:14:18.719 --> 00:14:20.866 until the very last moment? 00:14:20.866 --> 00:14:23.375 Because he can't see him. 00:14:23.375 --> 00:14:26.692 When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh 00:14:26.692 --> 00:14:29.188 to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," 00:14:29.188 --> 00:14:33.832 the phrase "come to me" is a hint also of his vulnerability. 00:14:33.832 --> 00:14:36.816 Come to me because I can't see you. 00:14:36.816 --> 00:14:42.030 And then there's, "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" 00:14:42.030 --> 00:14:47.360 He sees two sticks when David has only one. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:50.324 So the Israelites up on the mountain ridge 00:14:50.324 --> 00:14:52.521 looking down on him thought he was 00:14:52.521 --> 00:14:55.632 this extraordinarily powerful foe. 00:14:55.632 --> 00:14:57.608 What they didn't understand was that 00:14:57.608 --> 00:15:00.905 the very thing that was the source of his apparent strength 00:15:00.905 --> 00:15:04.660 was also the source of his greatest weakness. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:04.660 --> 00:15:06.617 And there is, I think, in that, 00:15:06.617 --> 00:15:09.822 a very important lesson for all of us. 00:15:09.822 --> 00:15:13.684 Giants are not as strong and powerful as they seem. 00:15:13.684 --> 00:15:17.173 And sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:17.173 --> 00:15:18.960 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:23.345 (Applause)