numbers and the prophetic forecast of Rev. 13: 18: "Six hundred, threescore and six"

seems irresistible.

David's exclamation: "What have I now done?" (I Sam. 17: 29) will need no

explanation to any reader who has been one of a large family, particularly if he has been

the youngest of a number of brothers.

There is a further point in connection with Jesse's family that may perhaps present a

difficulty. While I Sam. 17: 12 states that Jesse had "eight sons" and 16: 10 that

"seven of his sons" passed before Samuel before David was called, yet I Chron. 2: 13-15

gives the names of Jesse's sons, ending with "David, the seventh". In I Samuel we have

the historical record, whereas in I Chron. 2: we have the genealogy, and for some reason

unexplained, one of Jesse's sons could not be reckoned in the genealogy, either because

he was the son of a concubine, or because he had died young. It is, however, no accident

that David should be both seventh and eighth. We have a corresponding problem in

Rev. 17: 10, 11, where we read that there are "seven kings", and yet there is an

"eighth", who is of "the seven". For an explanation of this problem the reader should

refer to Volume XIII, page 91.

The fact that Goliath had presented himself for forty days before David took up the

challenge, is also suggestive. The number 40 is the symbol of test and probation. It was

after the forty days' fast that the Saviour, Who had just been anointed, met the temptation

of the Devil (Matt. 4: 2).

Why does the record so particularly explain that the instrument of Goliath's overthrow

was one of the five "smooth stones out of the brook"? If we think for a moment of these

stones, and of the fact that they were not fashioned by hand, we at once recall the passage

in Dan. 2:, where the colossus seen by Nebuchadnezzar was destroyed by "a stone cut

out without hands" (Dan. 2: 34, 44, 45). David was enacting on the battle-field in

Ephas-dammin (which, according to Aaron Pick, means "Nothing but blood") what

Christ Himself will accomplish in reality by the blood of His cross.

It is pitiable to see Saul's response to David's simple faith. Saul was concerned with

the fact that Goliath had been a man of war from his youth, but David was relying on the

fact that the Lord, Who had delivered him from the paw of the lion and of the bear, could

and would deliver him out of the hand of the Philistine. In reply to this challenge of faith,

Saul says: "Go, and the Lord be with you" (I Sam. 17: 37), but he immediately spoils it

by dressing young David up in the armour of a man who stood head and shoulders above

his fellows! How ridiculous any of us look when we stand up in second-hand armour--

relying on second-hand faith, or preaching second-hand sermons. We are glad that

David had the sense to say: "I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them"

(I Sam. 17: 39).

When the champion of the Philistines was slain, Saul remembered that he had

promised to give his daughter to the victor (I Sam. 17: 25). He therefore enquires of

Abner: "Whose son is the youth?" and Abner replies that he cannot tell. Saul then asks