Let us now become a little more acquainted with the various links in this chain. First

and foremost comes the record of David's anointing (16: 1-23).  There are seven

occurrences of the verb "to anoint" in this first book of Samuel, four having reference to

Saul (9: 16; 10: 1; 15: 1 & 17), and three to David (16: 3, 12, 13). It is noticeable

that whereas Saul is said to be anointed captain twice, and king twice, neither of these

titles is used of David in connection with this initial anointing. The words are simply:

While it was the purpose of the Lord that David should be both king (16: 1) and

captain (13: 14), that purpose was not made known at the beginning either to Jesse, or to

his sons, or to David himself. David simply knew that, for some reason, Samuel had

been sent, and that he had been selected. Not until the death of Saul do we find David

actually anointed "King" (II Sam. 2: 4). In the series of articles entitled "Light for the

Last Days", Volume XXVII, page 61, we have drawn attention to the principle found in

Rev. 11: 15, that the Lord can only reign as King, when the usurping kingdoms are no

more. We shall also see, when considering the section relating to Goliath, that David's

action portrayed the prophecy which was made later by Daniel as recorded in Dan. 2:

We must leave to the reader the pleasure and profit of a personal study of the narrative

of David's first anointing, and pass on to his first great act. Just as the Lord passed from

the anointing at Jordan (Matt. 3:) to the conflict in the wilderness (Matt. 4:), so we find

David passing from his anointing by Samuel to the conflict with Goliath. In passing,

mention is made of the fact that, upon his anointing "the spirit of the Lord came upon

David from that day forward", while "the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an

evil spirit from the Lord troubled him". There is every likelihood that the incident

described in I Sam. 16: 14-23 did not take place before the events of chapter 17:, but

that it is inserted here as a concrete illustration of the change that came over Saul. (See

The Companion Bible here and in the margin of 17: 1).

In 17: 4 Goliath is called "The champion". The Hebrew here is Ish-habbenayim or

"The man between the two". We may compare this with Psalm 8:, which concludes

with the word "Muth-labben"* (* - In the A.V. this appears in the super-scription of

Psalm 9:  For further explanation, see The Companion Bible, Appendixes 64 and 65),

meaning "The death of the man between". In this psalm, having overcome the enemy,

David looks back to the dominion forfeited by Adam and forward to the Lord Himself, of

Whom he was so wonderful a type.

In I Sam. 17:, the various pieces of Goliath's armour are enumerated: helmet, coat,

greaves, target, spear and shield--six pieces in all. His height is given as six cubits and a

span, and his spear-head as weighing 600 shekels of iron. In a later record, where the

brother of Goliath of Gath is mentioned, and another giant of the same place, he is said to

have had on both hands and feet, six fingers and six toes. The connection between these