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After enduring Eliab’s contempt and Saul’s doubts, David leaves the king’s tent and is finally able to kill Goliath. This episode explores the deadly power of the ancient sling, the possible meaning of David’s five stones, Goliath’s curses, and David’s taunts. He is giving a declaration that all the earth will know there is a God in Israel. In this season 1 finale of the Lion of War podcast, Cliff also reflects on the joy of the fight: the moment when waiting ends and obedience can finally become action. This podcast is offered as a free resource from Kavod Family Ministries. The ministry needs sponsors for the work to continue, so if you are interested in learning more about making tax-deductible contributions toward the work, please email [email protected].

David is summoned before Saul after his words about Goliath spread through the camp.  This is not David’s first time before the king. Saul already knows him as the young musician from Bethlehem, the shepherd boy whose music drove back the darkness when the harmful spirit tormented him. But now David stands before him with a different purpose entirely. Cliff explores the layered tension of this moment as David enters Saul’s tent, speaks with boldness and humility, and gives the hidden résumé of a shepherd-warrior who has already faced many terrors in the wilderness. Yahweh delivered him before, and Yahweh will deliver him again.

David’s first confrontation in the Valley of Elah is not with Goliath, but with his own older brother. After David asks what will be done for the man who kills the Philistine, Eliab hears him and lashes out, accusing David of arrogance, wicked motives, and neglecting his sheep in the wilderness. This episode looks back to David’s anointing in 1 Samuel 16, where Eliab was the first son of Jesse passed over by Yahweh before David was anointed in the midst of his brothers. Cliff explores the older-brother resentment beneath Eliab’s anger, the burden of family roles, and the sting of being overlooked. Before David can face the giant, he must endure the accusation of someone close to him, and he does something every man needs to learn: he keeps moving toward obedience.

Brad Geary is a distinguished 24-year veteran in Naval Special Warfare. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2000 and served in many positions in the SEAL teams, including as a DEVGRU operator, commonly known as SEAL Team Six. Brad shares his testimony, the spiritual turning points of his career, and the difficult final season of his Navy service, when he confronted senior leadership over what he believed was unethical conduct surrounding a tragic training death. This conversation explores the tension at the heart of David’s life: how a man can walk tenderly before Christ while also doing dark and violent work in a fallen world. Brad speaks with rare honesty about command, loss, brotherhood, the idols that can form around elite military service, and what it means for Christian men to keep fighting faithfully after the uniform comes off. For listeners new to the Lion of War Podcast, this episode also introduces the premise of the show: a long-form narrative journey through the life of King David and the Mighty Men, mixed with interviews from warriors, leaders, and thinkers who help us understand David’s world more deeply. Audio note: We had some internet connectivity issues during the interview, so the sound quality is audible but not always crystal clear. Join Brad Geary's email list at: https://www.hardmindsoftheart.com/ Check out his interview with Shawn Ryan at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/177-captain-brad-geary-the-sinister-games-the/id1492492083?i=1000696774546

David hears Goliath’s defiance and responds with something far beyond ordinary courage. This episode challenges the familiar “underdog story” version of David and Goliath. David is not stepping into the Valley of Elah hoping for a lucky upset. He is the only man present carrying the active Spirit of Yahweh, and from the moment he hears the giant curse the living God, the outcome is already certain. Cliff explores David’s warrior mindset, righteous hatred, holy confidence, and the reward offered to the man who kills Goliath: freedom from taxes and marriage to the king’s daughter. In the ancient world, that meant a permanent change in destiny. David is already counting the reward before the fight begins.

David wakes before dawn and begins another day of ordinary work tending sheep. While Israel’s army stands paralyzed in the Valley of Elah, David has been composing music for a tormented king and doing the dirty work of a shepherd. But Yahweh is arranging every ordinary detail with exact precision. This episode explores the burden of mundane faithfulness, the logistics and family realities behind ancient warfare, and the way Yahweh turned a normal day into the hinge of history. David arrives at the battle line expecting to check on his brothers. Instead, he hears a giant curse the living God. And the ordinary day is over.

In Episode 22, “A Challenge of Gods,” the Philistine champion steps into the Valley of Elah and turns a military standoff into something far greater than a contest of strength. Cliff begins with the old tradition of trial by combat, where a champion carried the honor, reputation, and fate of those he represented. That same idea stands behind Goliath’s challenge. He is the living embodiment of Philistine power. This episode examines Goliath’s armor in vivid detail, the possible connection between Gath and the ancient giant clans, and the deeper reason the Philistine army waits for weeks instead of simply advancing. For forty days, Goliath stands in the valley, cursing Israel and demanding an answer. And somewhere on the road from Bethlehem, the answer is coming.

In this episode, Cliff sits down with Justin Hughes, a former Navy SEAL who is now a professional painter, for a conversation about the difficulty of making art in order to gain insight into how David the artist might have viewed his craft. As the narrative portion of the podcast approaches the Valley of Elah, David is about to demonstrate extreme faith and deadly proficiency with weapons. But David’s public courage was formed long before the battlefield, in the quiet isolation of the shepherd fields, where he learned to worship Yahweh with music, words, and wonder. David was the all-time warrior poet: a fighter, writer, musician, and composer whose artistic heart toward the Lord shaped the courage he carried into battle. Cliff and Justin explore the connection between martial discipline and artistic creation, the tension between violence and beauty, and why modern culture often misunderstands both warriors and artists. This is a different kind of conversation: two artists trying to articulate the vague and often painful process of creating something true. Before David faces Goliath, we consider the hidden formation of the man who wrote songs before he won battles, and whose worship may have been his most formidable weapon. Justin’s website:https://www.justinhughesart.com/ Justin’s Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/justin_hughes_art/ Link to the Canon Press documentary about Justin:https://canonplus.com/tabs/discover/videos/68905

In Episode 20, we arrive at the beginning of one of the most famous stories in all of world history: David and Goliath. The Philistines have gathered for war at Ephes-dammim, “the Boundary of Blood,” a contested place between Israel and her most dangerous enemy. Saul’s army stands across the valley, frightened but present, knowing that failure could mean devastation for their homes, wives, and children. It is a desperate national crisis. Along the way, Cliff reflects on how certain people or places become symbols of national pride and resistance, such as Nolan Ryan and the Alamo (Texans will love this episode). The stage is set: two armies, one trembling king, a valley between them, and a monster emerging from the Philistine ranks. The Boundary of Blood has been drawn.

We enter one of the darkest scenes in David’s early story: the moment when the Spirit of Yahweh has rushed upon David, the Spirit has departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit begins tormenting the rejected king. Before David ever faces Goliath, he is brought into Saul’s house as a musician. Cliff explores the difficult timeline questions surrounding 1 Samuel 16 and 17, the ancient textual issues behind David’s introduction to Saul, and the serious spiritual reality of Saul’s torment.  At the center of the episode is a striking providence: Saul receives relief from the young man Yahweh has chosen to replace him. David arrives from Bethlehem with a lyre in his hands, carrying gifts formed in obscurity, and the future psalmist of Israel plays worshipful music in the troubled house of the king.

After David’s anointing in Bethlehem, the story seems ready to rush toward Goliath, but the biblical narrative takes a more complicated path. In this bridge episode, Cliff prepares listeners for the way David’s story unfolds through Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles: not as a modern biography arranged in strict chronological order, but as prophetic history told with theological purpose. The next passage, 1 Samuel 16:14–23, introduces David entering Saul’s service as a musician, yet the following chapter seems to reintroduce David at the Valley of Elah as though Saul hardly knows him. This apparent tension becomes the first major example of a recurring challenge in studying David’s story. Cliff explains his commitment to the inspired Word of God while also honestly acknowledging that faithful Bible study requires wrestling with difficult passages, narrative gaps, and ancient storytelling patterns. Using the image of an old man by the fire telling true stories from the old days, this episode invites listeners to receive the biblical text as Yahweh gave it: selective, purposeful, inspired, and true.

In this special interview episode of the Lion of War Podcast, Cliff talks with Rich Froning, one of the most accomplished athletes in CrossFit history and the founder of CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, Tennessee. As the podcast moves into the early years of David, this conversation explores the physical, mental, and spiritual formation of a young man who would one day become Israel’s warrior king. Before David faced Goliath or led the Mighty Men, he was a shepherd, learning responsibility, endurance, courage, and skill in the hidden years. Cliff and Rich discuss competition, discipline, stewardship of the body, holy contentment versus holy discontentment, and how a Christian man can pursue excellence with intensity while remaining humble before Yahweh. They also talk about confidence, meekness, physical readiness, and the private preparation that forms a man before public pressure reveals him. Rich brings the perspective of a champion athlete, business leader, and follower of Jesus who has spent years learning what it means to compete at the highest level while trying to faithfully steward the platform the Lord has given him.

“The Shepherd of Bethlehem” finally introduces David. We begin in the hills outside Bethlehem, imagining the hidden life of the youngest son of Jesse as he tends the family flock, learning responsibility, danger, and worship in the lonely school of the sheepfold. We also look at the Tel Dan Stele, the strongest extra-biblical evidence for David’s historical existence, before tracing Jesse’s family line through Judah, Tamar, Boaz, and Ruth. Then the story turns to Samuel, still grieving over Saul, as Yahweh sends him to Bethlehem to anoint a new king. One by one, Jesse’s older sons pass before the prophet, but Yahweh sees what man does not. The forgotten shepherd boy is summoned from the fields, anointed in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of Yahweh rushes upon him from that day forward. Check out: lionofwarseries.com

We walk through one of the darkest and most decisive chapters in Saul’s tragic reign: 1 Samuel 15. Yahweh sends Saul against the Amalekites, the ancient enemies of Israel, with a clear command to devote them to destruction. Saul wins the battle, but spares Agag the king and keeps the best of the spoil, disguising disobedience as religious sacrifice. This episode introduces the Amalekites, and wrestles honestly with the moral weight of divine judgment. It also follows Samuel’s grief, Yahweh’s sorrow over Saul, the famous rebuke that “to obey is better than sacrifice,” and the final tearing away of the kingdom from Saul himself. FREE - LISTEN TO DAY OF WAR

In this episode, we climb the cliffs of Michmash with Jonathan and his armor-bearer as one of the great acts of faith and courage in Scripture explodes into battle. Israel is outmatched, underarmed, and trembling beneath Philistine power, but Jonathan believes what the frightened nation has nearly forgotten: nothing can hinder Yahweh from saving by many or by few. This episode follows the sudden assault on the Philistine outpost, the panic of God that sweeps through the enemy camp, Saul’s delayed response, and the rallying of Israel’s scattered fighters. It also traces the darker turn of the day, as Saul’s rash oath weakens his men, Jonathan unknowingly violates it by tasting honey, and the people are forced to ransom the very prince through whom God has worked salvation. The Battle of Michmash becomes both triumph and warning: Jonathan shines, Saul darkens, and Israel learns again that victory belongs to Yahweh.