Heavenly Armor
“Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.” – 1 Samuel 17:41,42 There’s usually something about villains that compels them to behave badly. Whether it’s bitterness, hurt, or even physical pain, most people who choose a life of violence, crime, or deception have traveled a rough road. Surprisingly, this may have been the case for Goliath. Historians believe that the fabled “bad guy” was afflicted by a condition called acromegaly, which is the result of a tumor on the pituitary gland that causes the body to release too much human growth hormone. As a result, though he was huge in size, his health was actually frail and brittle. In fact, it’s likely that he suffered from chronic pain and
