Not long after this, David’s old father sent out to the hills for him. When the youth came down to the house, he found Samuel, Prophet of God and Judge of Israel, waiting for him. David’s seven older brothers stood around eyeing him strangely, as the prophet said, “This is he,” and baptized him by pouring oil on his head. “What did the prophet anoint me for?” David asked his father. “To be king of Israel instead of Saul.” “But I am only a boy, and King Saul is so big and strong--head and shoulders taller than other men. Why did not the prophet anoint our Eliab? He is almost as tall as the king himself.” “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” After that David went back and herded his father’s sheep, but his brothers were jealous of him because he had been anointed to be king. As had often happened in the days of the Judges, the heathen Philistines came up and made war against the people of Israel, and the eldest three of David’s brothers were in the king’s army. Many weeks went by, but no word came from the camp. So the father sent David down with provisions for the brothers and a present for their captain. The shepherd boy found the two armies in camps opposite each other, across a narrow valley. Every one was excited over Goliath, a giant who came down every day into the valley from the army of the Philistines and challenged the king of Israel and all his men. Goliath was nearly eleven feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet about as big as a bushel measure, and his spear was like a weaver’s beam. Even King Saul and David’s tall brother Eliab were much too small to fight with the Philistine giant. David could not bear to hear Goliath calling the king and his soldiers cowards and repeating wicked words about the God of Israel. So he went and told Saul he would like the chance to go down and fight the insulting giant. The soldiers laughed at this, and Eliab told his young brother to go home and mind his “few sheep in the wilderness.” But David would not be put off. He told how God had helped him kill a lion and a bear in one night. The lad was so earnest that the king consented to let him try. The only weapons David took were his staff and his sling. On his way to meet the giant he stopped at the brook and picked up five smooth pebbles. Both armies looked on breathless at the strange combat. Great Goliath laughed at little David, as if the king of Israel were playing a joke on him. He cursed David by all the gods of the Philistines, and yelled: “Am I a dog, that thou shouldst come to fight me with a stick? For this I will feed thy little carcass to the birds.” Then David shouted back to Goliath, “I come in the name of the God of Israel whom thou hast defied.”