Hey, I got his cape, but I did hit him.
Hey, I'm Chris from Kids' Club, and this is a real Israeli sling.
I got it as a gift and thought you might like to see it.
Today I'll show you how it's made, how it was used in Biblical times,
and how easy or not so easy it is to get accurate with this thing,
because the Bible is all about accuracy, historical and spiritual
and a slingshotual accuracy.
Now I'm gonna keep practicing so like and subscribe, and I'll see you again in a bit.
It's time for real or fake,
the game where you figure out which is real and which is made up.
Here are the names of three ancient battles.
Two of them are historically real, but one of them is completely fake.
Which of these is a real battle recorded in the Bible?
The Battle of Ephraim's Forest, the Fabian Conquest, the March on Jericho.
Think you know the answer?
Let's make it easier. We'll reveal one of the real battles.
The March on Jericho really happened at a place called, well, Jericho.
You can read about it in Joshua chapter 6,
or you can watch the Joshua and the Battle of Jericho video on the Kids' Club channel.
Now we're down to the battle of Ephraim's Forest and the Fabian Conquest.
Which is real, and which is fake?
The Battle of Ephraim's Forest is real.
This battle took place in Israel's history when David was king.
Read all about it in 2nd Samuel 18.
And if you said the Fabian Conquest was fake, you're right.
We made it up. Fabian was a famous singer in the 1950s.
So you've probably heard the story of David and Goliath before.
About how the little guy, the underdog David, defeats the giant, the warrior, the bully Goliath.
And you might think this story is a fable. It's a myth. It didn't really happen.
But there really was a David, and there really was a Goliath,
and they really did meet face to face in a real valley, the Valley of Elah in Israel.
Let's go.
I mean, look at this place.
There are hills for miles around.
There are some trees and shrubs,
but there are also some places where it's so rocky, it's hard to walk.
We're west of the Dead Sea, past Bethlehem and Jerusalem,
and it's kind of in the middle of nowhere.
There is a small creek that runs down the middle of this valley with two slopes on either side.
Picture this.
The Israelite army is on these slopes here.
The Philistine army is on the other side,
and their ranks split down the middle as the biggest, baddest soldier they have,
Goliath of Gath, strides to the front line in full battle armor.
And Goliath calls out, taunting them, making fun of them,
the sound bouncing off the hills.
"Choose one of your men. Have him come down and face me.
If he's able to fight and kill me, we'll become your slaves.
But if I win and kill him,
you will become our slaves and serve us."
Can you imagine how loud Goliath would have been for the
Israelites to hear him all the way across this huge valley
over on the Israelite side, it's silent.
Goliath keeps yelling across the valley,
"Give me a man, and let us do battle together."
But Goliath is nine feet tall, and his armor alone weighed 125 pounds.
Every Israelite soldier is thinking,
"Even if...if I was brave enough or dumb enough to face Goliath, what would I do?
How do you attack someone twice your size, covered in armor?
Should I go for the legs? He'll crush me.
I can't reach his chest or his head. It's hopeless."
That's when David shows up
a kid, a shepherd who was supposed to be with his sheep.
I mean I'd be thinking this job is for someone bigger, older and stronger than me.
You see, David has something the people bigger, older, stronger than him don't have.
He has faith and courage that come from God.
So David goes to the King, Saul, and says, "I will go and do battle with this Philistine."
And Saul takes one look at David and is like, "You're too small. Nope. You need my armor."
But it doesn't even fit. So David refuses to wear it.
Then he says, "The lord who rescued me from the lion and the bear
will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine."
David knew he could trust God because God had helped him fight battles with wild animals before.
While David was protecting his sheep, God was protecting David.
David runs down the hill into the Valley of Elah.
He grabs five smooth stones from the creek and gets out his slingshot.
And he faces Goliath, who's still trash-talking. David finally answers,
"You come at me with a sword and spear
but I come to you in the name of the lord, who you have insulted."
Then David ran straight at Goliath and the whole Philistine army.
He's running, and he grabs a stone from his pouch,
slings it and, pow, knocks Goliath right in the forehead.
Goliath falls on his face. David runs up, grabs the giant sword, and off comes Goliath's head.
The Philistines are freaking out. No one expected Goliath to lose.
And in a single moment everything changes. Immediately they flee.
They literally run for the hills, and the Israelites, who just a few minutes ago
were terrified, are now full of courage, and they follow David's lead and run after the enemy.
This isn't just a story about a battle though.
This is a story of courage and trust.
See, David had trust in God, and that trust gave him courage.
And not only did David have courage, but his example gave courage to the people around him.
He encouraged others. He put courage into them.
There might be giants in your life,
people who intimidate you, or maybe you're afraid something will happen to you.
And God wants you to know you can trust him.
God can give you courage to face those giants.
And not only does God want you to have courage, but he wants you to encourage other people.
That giant you're facing might be your first step in becoming the leader God wants you to be.
So what about you?
What giants are you facing?
How do you think that might be affecting you, your family, and your friends?
What's one way you can show God you trust him and be courageous?
You don't have to go to the Valley of a Elah to have trust or show courage.
God can give you courage today, right now.
And that's true wherever you are.
So the epic story of David and Goliath is real.
The place where it happened, the Valley of Elah, is real, too.
There are these details about how tall Goliath was, what his armor was made of,
the fact that David ran toward the enemy. These things really happened.
That's part of what we mean when we say the Bible is accurate.
It's reliable. You can trust it.
The Bible is a book of stories and promises.
Kind of like if you took your favorite story books
and combined them with letters from someone who loves you.
Except this is extra special, because these stories and promises are from God.
And your Bible might look different from someone else's Bible, and that's okay.
It has the same stuff in there.
But it's not like he picked up a pen and started writing on paper.
And he didn't pull out a laptop.
And you know he wasn't about to write this whole thing using a phone.
Instead, God told lots of different people what he wanted to say, and they wrote it down.
There are stories in there about how God did amazing things a long, long time ago.
There are promises in there that God made that he wants you to remember.
And God made this happen for you so that you could get to know him better and know his promises,
because you matter so much.
Stories in the Bible aren't just made up myths or legends.
They're historical events, and events are described in the Bible
accurately so they can be useful to whoever reads about them.
In second Timothy 3 16 to 17, the Bible says God has breathed life into all scripture.
It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes.
It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right.
By using scripture, the servant of God can be completely prepared to do every good thing.
The people who wrote the Bible cared about being accurate, because they wanted to
help their readers, you and me, to trust the Bible, have stronger faith and obey God more.
So, when you're reading the Bible and you come across a name of a person that seems
strange, like Dorcas or Jehoshaphat or Abimelech
or the names of places Beulah, Meribah, Uz, Ono
remember those are real places they're talking about.
That's a real person, goofy name maybe, but a real person.
And when the Bible talks about something God said or did, it's describing a real God,
a real God who can give you real courage to fight the real battles that are in your real life.
So the Bible is historically accurate, and spiritually accurate,
and if David really did hit a man named Goliath with a smooth stone
flung from a sling like this, that means David was slingshotually accurate, too.
Now I've been practicing,
and practicing,
trying to get as accurate as David.
Now some people believe David was at least 25 feet away from Goliath,
because he had to be out of reach of Goliath's sword and his spear,
so 25 feet and about nine feet high. That's where the target is today.
Let's practice.
Let's go put up a target.
Oh yeah.
Don't go anywhere.
So the goal today is to knock out our target.
I've got some stones in here. Some smooth stones from the creek.
But just in case we're having difficulty with that,
also got some golf balls for improved accuracy.
And if it comes to it, we'll take them out the good old-fashioned way.
So the Bible says that David picked up some smooth
stones from the river. They probably looked something like this.
Now why does it matter that they were smooth? Well, a smooth stone will fly straighter and
farther than like a flat stone or a stone that has a lot of cuts on it.
Those tend to go like a curveball.
This one should go straight at our target.
So I told you that I would show you how this thing is made. It's really, really simple. It's just
some pieces of string or cord, and there's a loop for your finger in one end.
And then the other end, you just kind of hold between your finger and your thumb, like so.
And what you're gonna do is - you're going to wind it up and then
release your finger in midair, and it's gonna go forward.
Now these two cords hold together this pouch, and you want to get a stone
or a golf ball or whatever that's just the right size to fit into the pouch.
Let's give this a shot.
The sling is loaded with the rock.
We are ready to go. Now here's how it works.
You're gonna plant your feet.
And then there's kind of like a wind-up. It's a little bit like being a baseball pitcher.
Now, true story, I was a little league pitcher once upon a time.
And I was a terrible little league pitcher.
So we'll see how this goes.
Oh man, all right. Keep trying.
Okay. Probably looks really wimpy.
I've been practicing for days and days, and there's no way I'm as good as David was.
I mean David was probably doing this every day as a shepherd.
This is harder than it looks.
I'm gonna get him.
Oh, if I had been David that day facing down Goliath, we've had to take a break.
Like, hey I'm out of stones. I'll be right back.
Hey, I got his cape, but I did hit him.
Hey, oh that went through him.
That went through his thigh.
Oh, did that get him?
I think I just barely got like the side of his head.
Took out your other knee, almost took out his kneecap.
Hey, got him right here.
All right, down to the last two stones.
If I can't do this, bringing out the golf balls.
Is that a threat or a promise? It's both.
Hey, oh yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I got his wrist.
He can't wear that watch no more.
Let's try some golf balls.
A golf ball is about the size of a smooth stone that would fit in this sling anyway.
So we'll see if it helps my accuracy.
I got his shin. That's gonna hurt.
I felt that. So having a smoother stone turns out does improve accuracy
sometimes
He can't throw anymore. Took out his arm.
This is actually kind of relaxing.
Right above the knee.
Ah.
He's gonna have no knee by the time I'm done.
I have one, two, three, four, five left. Five smooth stones. See if I can get the head.
Does not inspire confidence.
Defense.
I'm just working out some aggression issues.
Take that Goliath.
Ah, it like winged him. Last golf ball.
If this doesn't work, we're going modern day.
All right, bye Israeli sling.
Modern day slingshot. Itty bitty pellets. Let's see if this helps.
It hit somewhere.
Missed. Actually tougher to use than the, than the ancient one.
Oh, I think I, I think I got him like in the hip.
We've tried slingshots. It's time to go full-on dart gun.
Oh this is so much easier.
Got your lightsaber. Got your hand. Ah. Didn't get anything. Ah.
I'm out.
Let's see how well I did. Let's bring up the target.
All right. Let's see.
Definitely got a lot, a lot here, in the knee.
His cape is all holey. Sorry, buddy. Looks like there's a bunch of divots here and here.
Nothing on the head. I think the closest I got, I got one that kind of went in through here.
And then one kind of around his, his sternum or his chest plate.
I gotta say it's even more impressive to me that David could be so accurate.
That he could hit like the spot on Goliath's helmet that wasn't like covered.
That he actually hit his forehead.
Slingshot target practice sure is fun, but you know what else is fun?
The other videos on this same channel so be sure to like and subscribe.
Sweet, nice.
I'm so keeping this until Carrie makes me throw it away.