If you want the teachers page then please click on the image for the pdf.
Today’s hero is Goliath because he shows us the gift of Size
Essential Teachers notes:
In order to remove this story from the fairytale like ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ this story is not written from the perspective of David but from the perspective of Goliath, and it’s Goliath who is our hero. A hero does not need to be the goodie in the story, but he does need to teach us. Have older children read the bible text to discover the story from the perspective of David. (There may be a possible future hero lesson on Eliab)
Main Passage : 1 Samuel 17
—————————————-
Today’s story is set on a battle field. Two armies were camping on opposite hills where they could see each other. On one side were the Israelite’s and on the other side were the Philistine’s. They both knew if the battle started many, many men would die.
In the philistine camp they came up with a plan. Everyone in the Philistine army knew about Goliath, Goliath could fight instead of them. Goliath was really really big. His legs were long and thick like tree trunks, his arms were wide and strong, and he was twice as tall as some other soldiers. His armour and javelin was so heavy some men couldn’t lift it. Even his friends were a little scared of him. Goliath believed he was so big and strong nothing could hurt him.
The plan was that each army could send their best fighter and whoever won the fight would win the war. The losing side would become slaves. When Goliath looked at all the small week soldiers in the army, he was sure that the Israelite army wouldn’t have anyone stronger, so he agreed to the plan.
Goliath and the person who carried his shield went down into the valley. Goliath took a deep breath and shouted the plan to the Israelite army. His voice echoed off the hills. Then he looked at the Israelite army and waited. Even though they were a long way off he could see they were scared, nobody came out to fight him. Eventually Goliath got bored, he kicked the man carrying his shield and they went back to the camp laughing. The next day Goliath went back down the hill with his shield man and shouted the challenge, again nobody came. For 40 days Goliath went down the hill and every evening he returned laughing to celebrate with the Palestine army.
Then one day he saw that something was going on. A young man called David had arrived in the camp as he was shouting the challenge. He had arrived carrying food but now he was being taken to the kings tent. Goliath kept watching closely and saw him walk out of the tent with no armour, no sword, no shield, just a stick in his hands. David went over to a small stream and then David started walking towards him.
Goliath couldn’t believe it, this David was so small even regular armour wouldn’t fit him, he looked almost like a child. He started to tease David laughing at him, until, in a loud clear voice, David started to shout.
“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel. This day the Lord will end your life and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s”
Goliath thought David was mad, should he really fight him? But then he noticed that in David’s hand was a sling, and as he had been talking David had been spinning the sling round his head. As Goliath watched a small round pebbled came flying through the air and hit him hard in the head. Everything went blurry, he tried to step forward but was already falling towards the ground, everything went black.
David, walked up to Goliath and pulled Goliath’s sword out of it’s holder. He could see the two armies watching him, so, he lifted the sword and cut off Goliath’s head. Then David lifted the head up to show he had won the battle. The Philistines panicked and ran. Goliath was huge, if just a boy and his sling could defeat their hero, how big was their God?
Today’s hero is Goliath because he shows us the gift of Size
Advertisment
Other posts for Goliath.
