The Flesh is a Strange Armor

Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor. David strapped his sword over the military clothes and tried to walk but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul. “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off. Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in his pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. -- 1 Samuel 17:38-40

Leading up to this point, the Israelite king Saul had disobeyed God and been rejected. The Lord had sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a successor and He had selected the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, David. As it typically fell to the youngest son to look after a family’s flock of sheep, David was the shepherd. Generally it was not too demanding an occupation but there were many predators in those days and so the shepherd had to defend his flock. The shepherd’s staff was not only helpful in herding, it served as a weapon as well. In addition to his staff, however, David had perfected his prowess with the sling.

Saul’s army was camped on one side of a wadi and the Philistine army was on the other side. The Philistines had a champion, Goliath, who was somewhere around nine feet tall and made quite an impression. He came daily and challenged the Israelites to send someone out for single combat against him. No one was willing to go. It is worth noting that Saul himself was the tallest man in Israel yet chose not to meet the giant on the battlefield.

David is sent up to the encampment by his father with food for his older brothers and the leader of their regiment. While there he witnesses the Philistine’s challenge and asks why somebody doesn’t go out and kill the big guy. He keeps asking questions and irritating those around him until he is finally taken to see Saul. When Saul has doubts about David’s fitness to take on the giant, David assures him that he has killed both lions and bears in defense of his flock – not, by the way, with his sling. “If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down and kill it.” (1 Samuel 17:35). Saul finally agrees to allow David to take up the challenge and even offers the youth his own armor and equipment.

David goes along with trying on the king’s outfit but finds it strange. In some translations he says, “I haven’t proven them.” He had proven the sling and the staff. He had confidence in his own tools and equipment but not in the strange armor of Saul. Moreover David’s trust and confidence were not, ultimately, in his weaponry but in his God. It was God, he said, that delivered him from the lion and the bear.

When I face a challenge it is tempting to say that I’m not really up to it; it is beyond me. I look at my meager abilities and think they are insufficient. David had to face an armored giant with spear and sword. David had a stick and a handful of rocks.

I need to remind myself, and sometimes those around me, that I have faced difficult situations before this. David rehearsed his victories over dangerous predators. He knew that he had gotten through those trials, and he had learned that God was with him.

Smaller trials and tests ready us for bigger trials and tests. They give us confidence. Lao-tzu speaks of the fighting rooster that does not even look at his opponent. That is the champion, so supremely confident that nothing can break his calm. So, too, David paid no attention to the giant; he did not dwell on his size, his strength, or his skills. He kept his attention on God.

Rather than look at the giant and what it against me, I will look to God. Instead of being worried about what I am lacking, I will remind myself that those who trust in the Lord lack nothing they need. What God has given me, I will use. I will not be seduced by the world’s strange armor. I have no need of it and it is unproven. I will carry into this battle what I know is mine and I will go in the power of God.

Finally, David did pick up fresh ammunition. He chose five smooth stones from the bottom of that dry gulch. He placed them in his shepherd’s bag, all five apparently. When he approached the giant, he put his hand in the bag and drew out one to load his sling. It is a little like the priest drawing the sacred lots, the Urim and Thummim, to determine God’s will.

We make our best preparations based on our experience. The Lord expects us to do that. But in the end we allow the Lord to choose the stone that will fly perfectly true.