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Mano-a-mano.

It means "Hand to hand," or fist against fist.

My guy against your guy. My dad can beat up your dad. Or even the other way around as seen on some bumper stickers, "My kid can whip your honor roll kid." The idea is just to duke it out and winner take all. This is the troglodyte method. Power wins.

Goliath was the Philistine bouncer, an enormous warrior. He challenged Israel to send somebody out to go mano-a-mano. "Give me a man that we may fight."

There is dispute over Goliath's size. The Samuel text of the Dead Sea Scrolls gives his height as "four cubits and a span," (approximately six feet seven inches), but Septuagint manuscripts and the oldest Masoretic texts read "six cubits and a span," which would make him over nine feet tall. Either way he was frightening.

He had all the other accoutrements too; a bronze helmet, full body armor, and a lethal javelin with spear head weighing six hundred shekels of iron, roughly the weight of a man-size bowling ball.

Goliath also had a big mouth.

Had we been Philistine, we'd have rolled out this guy too. How do I know? Because we all have an instinct to count on big guns, big names, big shots, big bats, and big budgets. Common adages confirm this: "bigger is better," or "the majority rules," or "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Simply be louder, tougher, and pushier. Then you'll win.

It is not simply to contradict these beliefs that we are given the rest of the story.

A young shepherd boy named David was appalled. But was it the man's size or his glower or his threats that scandalized David? Apparently not. David wasn't afraid of Goliath. What appalled and offended David was Israel "buying" Goliath's interpretation of the church.

Goliath presumed Israel would succeed or fail based on the same criteria as his own Philistines. Might makes right. Power and glory are supreme. Goliath supposed the only way to know who should survive was to go mano-a-mano. It horrified David to realize his own brothers and countrymen, and even Israel's king agreed to this interpretation. Israel had become secular in its thinking and practice.

If Israel had had in its ranks some colossal gorilla another cubit taller than this Philistine braggart, they would have armored him as Saul tried to armor David, and the rest would have lined up behind him. But they didn't have their own Goliath, so they cowered in fear not knowing that a Jewish leviathan would have been the worst thing for them. Better artillery, more reserves, and superior numbers were not the answer.

David said it, " -- that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's."

And how does the Lord save? Not with numbers, not with big budgets, not with impressive crowds or louder and tougher foot soldiers. He saves through the boyish and uncomplicated simplicity of the cross. He saves by grace through faith. David's faith is what conquered Goliath. He told Goliath, "I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts."

David didn't buy the idea that for God's people to thrive they must adopt market strategies and design their mission according to surveys and social analysis. David didn't take his cue from the Philistines any more than the church today should measure its success in terms of attendance figures, fiscal stability, reputation, or being cutting-edge.

Goliath had a cutting-edge on the very sword that severed his own head.

It was really God who saved Israel. It was God who came in the "weakness" of a young boy, with every apparent disadvantage. But David knew where real strength was to be found - in the Name of the God of Israel and His saving ways, not ours.