1 Samuel 17:38-40 – The weapon of our warfare

The Bible explicitly tells us that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. The instrument He uses for His work is very often different from what we expect. Comparing David with Goliath, if we are not aware of the ending, no one would conclude that David would be the victor. What seems like foolishness was precisely what defeated the menacing war-machine. Logic itself indicates that much more would be needed to defeat Goliath. That was probably Saul’s thinking. So logically Saul armed David with what he thought he needed. In 1 Samuel 17:38 we read, “Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor.” Besides, David also girded his sword over his armor. But he was not accustomed to all these gears and hence was hampered in his movement. Turning to Saul, he told him that he was not used to them. So he took them off.

David’s disarming himself of the king’s armor speaks volumes. He was not willing to go the natural way. To win spiritual battles, it is not so much about what we know but who we know. When we know God, we can do great exploits with Him. Yes, even with just five stones. Our failure is often a failure to see who we have with us. Furthermore, the enemy we need to overcome first is often in our thought life. There is a tendency to over-estimate our enemy and under-estimate the ability of our God. This is precisely what Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 reminds us, that we cannot depend on carnal weapons to battle our spiritual enemy. We need to be armed with the wisdom of God. He said,  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ….”  

Instead of depending on the weaponry of man, David, relying on God took what he was accustomed to in defeating the lion and the bear. Then he went and faced Goliath. Verse 40 tells us that “He (David) took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine.” Who would have thought of fighting Goliath only with stones? No one makes too much about sling and stones. But one stone was all that David needed. One was enough to sink goliath. Are there goliaths we are battling today?  God can still help. All He needs to help us through may be a very simple thing. That’s the wisdom of God. We can depend on Him!