Why Five Stones?

Thinking about David and Goliath and about the effectiveness of a sling as a weapon, I remembered a time when I was taught this story as a young boy. The teacher told us that David gathered five stones for his encounter with Goliath, and she (I think I remember the teacher being a woman) asked us why we thought David gathered that amount. As I recall, I answered that it was because he knew he wouldn't need that many. I believe "that" was the word I used. The word I should have used instead was "very." I didn't know how many stones it would take to take down a giant, but I assumed that it would take more than five, and I certainly thought it would take more than one. Even if I only needed one lucky hit, I think I would have carried more than five stones with me, just to make sure I wouldn't run out of stones before I landed that hit. I thought that David was showing great faith in the Lord by only bringing five stones to the battle.

The teacher probably didn't understand that that was what I meant. Literally, my answer meant that David gathered five stones because he knew he wouldn't need as many as five stones. As it turned out, he had only needed one. The teacher explained that one possible reason David gathered five stones is because he knew he might need that many. David knew that he was going against Goliath in the strength of the Lord and that God would help him win the fight, but he didn't expect God to hand him a victory on a silver platter. He carried five stones because he knew that, even with the blessings of the Lord, he might still miss a few times.

As we face our challenges and try to do what's right, we know that God will be with us, but that doesn't mean He's going to make it easy for us. Because struggling and failing build character and make us stronger, God sometimes lets us struggle and fail, even when we're trying do His will. Of course, when it really matters and we do our best, God won't let us fail. He'll take what we can do and either make it good enough or make up the difference. But even when victory is assured, that doesn't mean we can lie down and stop fighting. We still need to sling a stone, and we may even need more than one.

David went into the battle knowing that he was going to win it, but also knowing that it might not be easy. He carried five stones, few enough to show his faith in God, but also enough to account for the fact that he might still miss once or twice, or even three or four times. We can follow his example by trusting that God will never make it impossible for us to do His will, but also by remembering that He probably won't make it too easy, either.