The Lion of War Podcast

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 Phil...

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 Dav...

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 chi...

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 b...

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 passa...

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....

“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...

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 wres...

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 a...

We return to the tense days before the Battle of Michmash, when Israel stands outmatched, underarmed, and spiritually unstable beneath the shadow of Philistine power. Saul has been rebuked by Samuel. His army has dwindled to six hundred frightened men. The Philistines control the heights and all of the roads. But in the early morning darkness, Jonathan son of Saul begins to move. This episode exam...

In this episode, we slow down and step away from the battlefield for a moment to meet Jonathan. Before he is David’s friend, he is Saul’s son, the crown prince of a brand-new kingdom, raised in the shadow of a father who once seemed larger than life.  This episode explores what Jonathan may have seen, learned, and loved in those early years, and why his loyalty to Saul later in the story is so muc...

In this episode, the early promise of Saul begins to darken. After Israel’s first taste of victory under its new king, Samuel delivers a solemn address reminding the nation that even now, both king and people remain under the authority of Yahweh. Grace is still present, but so is warning. Eventually, the period of peace between Israel and Philistia ends. The Philistines gather in terrifying streng...

In this episode, Cliff sits down with retired Navy SEAL Neil Dyer to talk about why men follow strength, competence, and courage when danger is near. Drawing from Saul’s victory over the Ammonites, they explore what makes a leader trustworthy in extreme situations, why visible strength can be so compelling, and how quickly men rally around someone who proves he can keep them alive. Neil also share...

In this episode, we move through the early rise of Saul, Israel’s first king. From a private anointing and Spirit-empowered signs to his public selection at Mizpah, Saul begins with real promise. He looks the part, wins a decisive victory over the Ammonites, and briefly appears to be exactly what Israel hoped for. He is tall, striking, and publicly impressive, the kind of man a frightened nation w...

Israel finally does the right thing. Under Samuel’s leadership, the people repent, put away their idols, and cry out to Yahweh alone. Yahweh answers with thunder, driving back the Philistines and giving the nation peace. For one brief, shining moment, it seems like Israel has learned the lesson. But it does not last. When Samuel grows old and his sons prove corrupt, the elders demand a king. They...

After the ark of God is captured, Israel staggers under judgment, Eli dies in horror, and the old order at Shiloh collapses. But the Philistines soon learn that they have not captured a powerless trophy. When they place the ark beside Dagon in Ashdod, Yahweh begins to move against them with terrifying force, humiliating their god, striking their cities, and turning their victory into dread. This e...

We enter the dark world of the Philistines, Israel’s most relentless enemy, a people of iron, fortified cities, military discipline, and gods that sanctify cruelty.  As Israel faces them at Aphek, a first defeat turns into panic, and the elders make a disastrous choice: they bring the ark of the covenant into battle, treating the presence of Yahweh like a weapon rather than approaching Him with re...

In this episode, we walk into the darkened sanctuary where a boy named Samuel lies down to sleep near the ark of God, and hears his name called in the night. At first he thinks it is Eli, the aging high priest, calling for him. It is not. After years of silence, Yahweh is speaking again. But the first word He gives is not a word of comfort. It is a word of judgment against Eli’s house, against cor...

Israel is drifting. By the opening of 1 Samuel, the sanctuary still stands at Shiloh, sacrifices are still offered, and pilgrims still make their yearly journeys to worship. But beneath the surface something vital has begun to deteriorate. The priesthood has grown corrupt, leadership has grown dull, and the voice of God has become rare. Into this weary moment steps a woman named Hannah. Childless...

Before David ever appears in Scripture, a long story has already been unfolding. In this episode, we step back to trace the history that leads to Israel’s greatest king. From the Garden of Eden to the flood, from the Tower of Babel to the call of Abraham, the Old Testament tells a repeating story: humanity rebels, God judges, God shows mercy, and the cycle begins again. God forms a covenant people...

Long before David ever set foot on a battlefield, the land of Israel was already one of the most contested pieces of ground on earth. Sitting between the great powers of Egypt and Mesopotamia, it formed a narrow strip of territory historians often call the Corridor of Empires—a land bridge armies had marched across for centuries. Every invading force, trade caravan, and migrating people moving bet...

At the bottom of a quiet valley in Israel, there is no monument—just a farm, a dry creek bed, and a gas station beside the highway. At first glance, it looks like nothing at all. But if you stand there long enough and begin to peel away the modern world in your imagination, the ground starts to tell a different story. In this opening episode, author and former soldier Cliff Graham brings listeners...

In “The Lion of War” Podcast, author and former soldier Cliff Graham invites listeners into the world behind the Lion of War novels—an immersive journey into the life of King David, the warriors who fought beside him, and the brutal, beautiful reality of the biblical world they lived in. Through Scripture, archaeology, battlefield geography, and hard-won human experience, this series explores the...