Scripture Daily

Context No. 1446 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 17:38-44: in context

38Saul dressed David with his clothing. He put a helmet of bronze on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail. 39David strapped his sword on his clothing and he tried to move, for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these, for I have not tested them.” Then David took them off. 40He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag which he had. His sling was in his hand; and he came near to the Philistine. 41The Philistine walked and came near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42When the Philistine looked around and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and had a good looking face. 43The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the field.”

Before David goes out against Goliath, Saul dresses him in his own armor, a bronze helmet, a coat of mail, a sword. David tries to walk in it and cannot: I cannot go with these, he says, for I have not tested them. So he takes them off. Instead he takes his shepherd's staff, chooses five smooth stones from the brook, puts them in his bag, and goes out with his sling in his hand. Goliath, seeing only a ruddy youth coming with a staff, is contemptuous: am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? And he curses David and threatens to feed his flesh to the birds.

The moment worth noticing is David's refusal of Saul's armor. It was fine equipment, the king's own, and it must have seemed foolish to face a giant without it. But David could not fight in it: I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. The armor was not his; he had not proven it, did not know how to move in it, and to wear it would have been to fight in a way that was not his own. So he set it aside and took up what God had already tested in his own hands, the sling and the stones and the skill he had honed protecting his sheep from the lion and the bear. He would face the giant with what God had proven in his own experience, not with borrowed equipment that did not fit him. There is wisdom in that for how we serve God and face our own battles. We are often tempted to fight in someone else's armor, to imitate another person's methods, gifts, or style, thinking their way must be better than our own humble means. But God rarely calls us to fight in borrowed armor; he calls us to use the gifts and means he has actually given and tested in us, however modest they look beside the king's bronze. David's sling seemed absurd next to Saul's armor, but it was his, tested and proven, and God used it. To know what God has given us, and to use that rather than straining to fight in equipment that was never ours, is part of the wisdom of serving him.

Am I straining to fight my battles or serve God in borrowed armor, imitating methods and gifts that are not mine, or will I use, like David, the humble means God has actually given and tested in my own hands, however modest they look beside another's?

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