Regardless of the charges flying back and forth over the wisdom of attacking and occupying Iraq, the charge that American leadership chose to go to war “on the cheap” stings. It is one thing to declare your enemy needs chastisement but it is another thing to attempt to smite him hip and thigh with inferior weapons.  Thereupon lays a cautionary tale.

Now, the Hebrew people recently entered the land of the Philistines a land flowing with milk and honey that was quite valuable – filled with rare resources.  These Hebrews were lean and mean, having survived meager supplies in the desert for forty years. Unfortunately for them, they chose to put a king over themselves and this King made the mistake of agreeing to settle differences with the enemy by having champions, one from each side, do the fighting.  This is analogous to having the most powerful man in the U.S., say Steven Gates, go with his products against some international cartel to settle who will rule the world’s ledger books.

So, the Philistines, knowing that this was a one shot deal got their biggest and best fighter dressed in the heaviest armor they find and sent him off to brag and holler at the Hebrews to bring on their hero.  The witnesses to this seminal battle for control of all that milk and honey were surprised to see the little squirt who peeked out and then stood playing with what looked like a string.  Now, Goliath (for that was the Philistine hero’s name) laughed and laughed slapping his thighs and thought this was a piece of cake.  He had this huge sword that he could hardly lift but he was convinced he could squash the Hebrew (David was his name), with one hand tied behind his back.  It looked like the Hebrews were going to war “on the cheap”.  They sent a little kid with some pieces of (not string – it was leather) who was playing with some stones to do their fighting.  The whole world watching was laughing.

Then, the impossible thing happened.  While Goliath was roaring about what he was going to do to these interlopers and postured waving this huge sword around, the little kid, David, started to whirl his pieces of leather around his head and let fly with a stone that hit Goliath right in the middle of his forehead.  Goliath fell like a ton of bricks and David sauntered over and picked up the dropped sword and cut off Goliath’s head.

Going to war on the cheap is not a recommended thing to do.  But in this case, God was on the side of the Hebrews and they moved in and took over the Holy land for the first time. You are free to draw whatever contrasts you can think of.