Why was Goliath David’s enemy?

Photo by Igor Ferreira on Unsplash

This article is the third part of a series on King David. In my previous articles, I asked, ‘Who were King David’s enemies?’ My question was triggered when I read Psalm 3, which begins with, ‘Lord, how many are my foes?’

I was intrigued because I always pictured King David as a mighty warrior. Wasn’t he the one who killed a giant with a single slingshot? Even if there were numerous enemies, shouldn’t he be confident that God would give him the strength to defeat them?

Upon closer inspection, I found that David indeed had many enemies. I categorized them into eight: Goliath, Absalom, Saul, Joab, Shimei, Bathsheba, Nathan, and David. They are historical figures in the Bible but also represent the types of enemies everyone has to deal with. Other than Goliath, they were all what I call ‘internal’ enemies, and David could not fight and kill them as he did with Goliath.

In this article, I want to start probing these characters in depth. Doing so will allow us to understand David’s socio-historical context better and thereby give us new insights into how to handle our enemies. Let’s start with David’s first enemy, Goliath.

I. Reasons to fight

1. Ethnic Identity

The famous duel between David and Goliath tells us a few things about Goliath. In 1…