Cheese and Crackers

David vs. Goliath.

Almost everyone has heard of the story, even if they have never actually read the written account in 1Samuel 17. Every Sunday School teacher has taught the story to their class. Even sports analysts use it every once in a while to try to suck people in to a big game between a heavily favored team vs. an obvious "underdog."

It's the story of a young shepherd boy, who stumbles on to the battlefield with a sling and a stone killing a giant warrior. It's a great story, and if you hadn't heard it before, I just spoiled the end of the "movie" for you. Sorry, but you should still read the story anyway.

There is so much more history and background packed in to this story, of which I won't go in to all those details here, but there are a couple things to note. David is a shepherd boy in Bethlehem. His brothers and the rest of the Israelite army are fighting a battle against the Philistines in the Shephelah (western foothills), which is midway between Bethlehem and the Coast (where the Philistines lived). Then, in 1Sam 17:17 - Jesse, David's father, tells him to take about 22 liters of roasted grain, 10 loaves of bread and 10 cheeses to his brothers who are fighting in the Elah Valley. The distance from Bethlehem to the city of Azekah in the Elah Valley is about 17 miles.

Sometimes I wonder, What would it have been like to be bringing cheese and crackers to your brothers in the middle of a war zone? Was he nervous or just doing what his dad told him to do? Did he have a donkey or something to help carry the food? Were the cheeses different kinds? Did his feet hurt by the time he got there? Was he practicing slinging stones along the way?

Being intrigued by David's life story, which enters the biblical scene with this journey carrying cheese and crackers to his brothers, we decided to explore the Elah Valley ourselves. Now we did not follow David's footsteps entirely with a walk from Bethlehem to Azekah (partly because of political reasons) but a few of us did hike from Azekah, along a ridge above the Valley and then back through it, for a solid 5 walk. Just trying to get a better "feel" for what it would have been to walk in David's sandals.

Hayley, Ben and Steve overlooking the Elah Valley

The Elah Valley, with the Tel Socoh (brown hill) in the background

A shepherd boy with his flock we met along the way

Steve and Ben walking through the Elah Valley along wheat fields

"Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
- 1Samuel 17:45-47