The writer quoted in Isaiah 25 promises that an unlikely victory will occur. An unlikely victory had already occurred in his tradition when Goliath, the hero of the Philistine army confronted David, a young sheepherder. It didn't look like an even match. Goliath was a seasoned warrior, six cubits and a span tall, covered with a coat of mail and bronze helmet, and armed with a shaft with an iron spearhead that weighted six hundred shekels. He taunted the Israelites for forty days before David asked Saul to let him give it a try. Saul didn't have any better idea so he said to David, "Go for it!" David's first, smooth stone, launched from a sling, sank into Goliath's forehead, and Goliath fell face down dead (1 Samuel 17).

David was lucky. A comedian who thought that wrestling was a hoax las…