In a society which increasingly seeks to follow after pagan ways and does not order itself after God’s ways, it is easy to think the answer is political. Capture power and influence, whether in the media or the Beehive, and the nation will be influenced for the better. While this might be true in the sense of moral governance, Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world. We should not seek earthly means to victory.
Ultimately, it is God that delivers, not us. David understood this, and refused King Saul’s armour for that reason. Saul believed it was a physical battle, to be fought in a physical way. David understood that the conflict was a spiritual one playing out on earth, and that it was God who would deliver him. This event prefigured Christ’s victory over sin, not through earthly means but through his own victory on the Cross.
When David visited the Israelite camp and saw Goliath’s challenge, he understood that the issue was defiance against the only living and true God. His zeal for someone to stand up to Goliath for God may not have been appreciated by his brother, but word reached King Saul’s ear (v.31). David was quickly summoned before Saul.
Nobody else in the Israelite camp, including Saul himself, was willing to go up against Goliath. But David was. “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (v.32).
Yet Saul was not convinced David was the right man for the job. Where David saw a spiritual conflict with physical overtones, Saul saw a physical battle. And Goliath was big. So Saul questioned David’s ability, given that Goliath had trained for battle from youth, and David himself was still a youth (v.33).
David’s reply showed his recognition that the fight was spiritual, and that victory would come from God’s hand, not David’s might. David pointed out his background as a shepherd, which required going after a lion or bear which sought to steal his father’s sheep (v.34). If the beast turned on him, then he had to strike down the beast too (v.35).
In other words, just because David had no military experience, it did not mean he was inexperienced at combat. He had fought wild animals, not men, but Goliath had lowered himself to animal status by his words and so “this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God” (v.36).
But ultimately, David’s skill with a weapon against animals was not what would save him. It was God’s protection. “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (v.37). God had delivered him from wild animals. David trusted God would deliver him from Goliath.
To this, secular Saul offered an appropriately pious platitude wishing God’s presence with him (v.37) and accepted David was the man to fight the human-beast.
Yet one further example of David’s faith remained. Saul got out his armour, and dressed David in helmet and mail to protect his body, and sword (vv.38-9). This was Saul’s earthly thinking again. David was confident that God would protect and deliver him; Saul thought David needed all the help he could get.
It is unclear what David thought of wearing Saul’s kit, but it did not fit (v.39). David knew he could not fight in Saul’s armour, so he laid it aside.
David would not fight according to Saul’s earthly ways, but according to the way in which God had prepared him. He took up his shepherd’s weapons, selected five stones for his sling, and stepped forward in faith to fight the Philistine (v.40).
There is a clear contrast here between the secular, worldly way of Saul, and the way of David. Saul sought to mould David into a champion after his ideals, David rested in God’s moulding of him in the fields looking after his sheep.
Years later the Jews impatiently waited for the Messiah, and sought to mould Jesus into that image. They wanted a warrior king, not a suffering servant. They wanted a kingdom on earth, but Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).
Jesus understood, because he was God himself, that only God delivers. Not through worldly means, but through the victory over sin and death at the Cross and Christ’s resurrection.
It is in this victory that we, in Christ, are victorious. Not through arms. Not through laws. Not through a ballot box. But through the victory of God’s Son, Jesus, who trusted in God and his plan, not in human strength.
As believers, God will deliver us from our enemies through Christ. We wear the armour God has given us (Eph. 6) to wage war against sin, not worldly armour. We fight spiritual enemies, not physical ones. We trust God will deliver us from trials and tribulations, because God has delivered us from sin and death through Christ.
