The giant, and five smooth stones

Two armies face each other across a valley for forty days while a Philistine champion offers single combat and nobody accepts. David arrives with bread for his brothers, hears Goliath, and asks a question that irritates everyone: who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? His oldest brother accuses him of showing off. Saul offers his own armour, which does not fit, and David takes it off. Five stones from a stream, a sling, and a sentence: the battle is the LORD's. Read carelessly it becomes a story about plucky underdogs. Read as written, it is about a boy who had already killed lion and bear alone in the fields, and who could not see why a giant should be more frightening than a lion if God is the same God.