Why Did David Have Five Stones Going Into Battle With Goliath?
One of the most famous stories in the Bible is the battle to the death between David and Goliath. The story has crossed over the cultural bridge to the point that one can reference it without actually talking about it. In this way, it is much like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” or the “Ugly Duckling.” “David and Goliath” in the US commonly refers to a storyline where a individual person— often a ‘man of the people’ is able to go up against a big juggernaut (often a soulless, corrupt corporation or government, or a person representing those entities). Of course, the original story had NOTHING to do with it. BOTH David are Goliath were representing soulless corrupt governments in the actual story. Malcolm Gladwell does make the point that David actually had an advantage over Goliath and so we can actually look at the story in a completely different light.
It is interesting that even though the story is very short, we often are shockingly unfamiliar with the details. It is in 1 Samuel 17 (or 1 Kings 17, if you are of the Orthodox faith tradition).
How did David actually kill Goliath? Probably, he killed him by cutting off his head. It is possible that Goliath was already dead, but unlikely. In the story David hit him with a river stone in the forehead with such force that it embedded itself in his forehead. Is that enough to kill him? Maybe… eventually. But we are never given the chance to find out. David comes over and takes Goliath’s sword out of its sheath (apparently Goliath wasn’t even prepared to fight yet) and cuts off his head. This is not even a trivial point. Earlier, David predicted he would cut off his head. Later, when David met King Saul, he was still carrying the head of Goliath.Goliath was not by himself. Even though pictures tend to show David and Goliath alone on the battle filed, Goliath had his shield bearer with him. It kind of makes you wonder what happened to that guy when David came over to cut of Goliath’s head. Perhaps he pulled a “not in my job description” and ran off. David came out to meet Goliath with two weapons, not one. David brought a sling, but also had a staff. In fact, that was the weapon that Goliath acknowledged with the crack about David coming out to him with “with sticks.”But the first big question that I have is “Why did David have five stones with him when he went to meet Goliath?”
Verse 40 of I Samuel 17. says that David took 5 smooth stones from the stream bed and put it in his shepherd’s pouch. Why 5?
I remember hearing a sermon that said that David had specifically chosen 5 because one was for Goliath and one was each of four member’s of Goliath’s family. That’s pretty dark if you think about it. It is like the preacher is implying that David is thinking, “I am going to kill this person I don’t and never met that I have no reason to have anything against except that we are on different sides of a political and (to a lesser extent) religious conflict— and then I am going to go kill his relatives for no clear reason.” Frankly, this seems pretty dubious. Also, even though David predicted that he would cut off Goliath’s head, there seems little evidence that David was particularly gifted at foretelling the future. Not only do we have no reason to think that David had any knowledge about Goliath’s family, but David would have no reason to think that one stone would be enough for each.
Another theory that comes up sometimes is from “Christian numerology.” Many have noted that the Bible often uses numbers in repeating and symbolic ways. Numbers like 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, and 40 show up a lot, even when there seems no good reason for it. Some like to look at these symbolic uses and then stretch them out, coming up with symbolic meanings for many numbers, and all of the small numbers. One website I saw said that 5 is the number of God’s grace to mankind. I struggle to see how that would apply to the five stones taken by David… except in the most general sense that God favored David in giving him victory. I tend not to appreciate “Christian numerology” because of the temptation to take it into esoteric mysticism for finding secret messages in the text of the Bible. Of course, the fact that some people take things too far does not mean that there might not be a less extreme position that is good. That being said, I doubt that David chose 5 stones to ensure some symbolic standard is being met.
I have another theory on why David took five smooth stones from the stream. My, admittedly controversial theory is that If the first stone misses, he would use a second. If that one failed he would use a third… and so on.
That sounds like a trivial conclusion but I don’t think it is. David placed his faith in God that he would give David victory, not because he was so special in God’s eyes, but because this was a battle between the God’s chosen people, and the enemies of God. I am not sure I would be so confident that God always picks sides in battles, but that is not the point here. David believed God would give him victory, but not necessarily know how that victory would come to pass. He had his staff with him and 5 stones. I have used a sling before. They would surprisingly well, but they are a bit of a challenge to aim. I am sure that David was much more practiced in it than I was, but even so, it is hard to be sure that one will hit one’s target every time. He brought four extra stones to be sure that he could try again. These stones were fairly smooth so they would fly with little resistance. They were also presumably round so that the air would not push the stones off course. Smooth round stones are best found in a stream bed, so that is where he got them. Why only five? I don’t know but he needed large enough stones to be impactful, but he did not want to overflow the pouch he had with him, or slow him down unnecessarily. I suppose five stones was a thoughtful balance.
This all leads to a second question: Why did the Bible tell us how many stones there were?
The numerologists would of course speak up to tell us that there is secret info in this. I doubt this is the case. Others could be quite prosaic and say that the writer mentioned the number because he or she knew the actual number (much like the recording of the number of fish caught in a story from the gospels— 153). However, in 1 Samuel 17, it lists “Israel and Judah” going up against the Philistines (verse 52). This suggests, to me at least, that the story was recorded long after when Judah and Israel were separate nations. Therefore, the number five had to have been passed on for quite awhile in oral form. (Some may not see it that way, and that is fine. But this seems reasonable to me at least.) Why would they add this detail. The length of David’s staff was not mentioned. What type of sandals he had on. Frankly, a lot of details are missing in the story. Why mention how many stones he had with him?
I will again add my controversial take. I suggest that God wanted us to know that David did not know how he would win the battle with Goliath.
Good faith is based on knowing who God is. Bad faith is believing one knows what God will do in things he has not told us. This faith is bad because it is not faith in God, but faith in oneself. It is like if David had taken only one rock thinking, “I know based one who God is, He will glorify His name by giving us victory… AND I know I will only need one rock since I know exactly how He will do it.”
When we read the life of David, he was wrong a LOT. God was with him and blessed him, but he messed up many times… including how God would respond to things. For example, David started to execute plans to build a temple only to be told (by a prophet) that this was not something he wanted David to do. David guessed wrong on this. We sometimes forget that David was wrong sometimes (often). It is a helpful reminder that in perhaps David’s greatest story, his faith proved true about God even while uncertain about how that faith would be proven true.
In this manner, David was like Abraham who obeyed God in going through the steps to sacrifice his own son even though not totally certain how to reconcile this act with who God is and with what God promised. It reminds me of the three friends of Daniel who were willing to go into the fiery furnace as an act of faithfulness to God even though they were not entirely sure whether God would decide to protect them or not.
I think that the five stones of David here is a great thing to reflect on without having to delve into esoterica, or clever interpretations. Sometimes simple interpretations are good enough.