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1 Samuel 17:32-58 (JDV)

1 Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged by him; your servant will go and fight this Philistine!”
1 Samuel 17:33 But Saul replied, “You can’t go fight this Philistine. You’re just a youth, and he’s been a warrior since he was young.”
1 Samuel 17:34 David answered Saul: “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock,
1 Samuel 17:35 I went after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it.
1 Samuel 17:36 Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living God.”
1 Samuel 17:37 Then David said, “Yahveh who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and may Yahveh be with you.”
1 Samuel 17:38 Then Saul had his own clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor.
1 Samuel 17:39 David strapped his sword over the 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.
1 Samuel 17:40 Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.
1 Samuel 17:41 The Philistine came closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him.
1 Samuel 17:42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a boy, healthy and handsome.
1 Samuel 17:43 He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” Then he cursed David by his gods.
1 Samuel 17:44 “Come here,” the Philistine called to David, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!”
1 Samuel 17:45 David said to the Philistine: “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of Yahveh of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel — you have defied him.
1 Samuel 17:46 Today, Yahveh will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the land. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God,
1 Samuel 17:47 and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that Yahveh saves, for the battle is Yahveh’s. He will hand you over to us.”
1 Samuel 17:48 When the Philistine started forward to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine.
1 Samuel 17:49 David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground.
1 Samuel 17:50 David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. David overpowered the Philistine and killed him without having a sword.
1 Samuel 17:51 David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword, pulled it from its sheath, and used it to kill him. Then he cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they ran.
1 Samuel 17:52 The men of Israel and Judah rallied, shouting their battle cry, and chased the Philistines to the valley’s entrance and to the gates of Ekron. Philistine bodies were strewn all along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.
1 Samuel 17:53 When the Israelites returned from the pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps.
1 Samuel 17:54 David took Goliath’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.
1 Samuel 17:55 When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this boy, Abner?” Abner said, “Your Majesty, as surely as your throat lives, I don’t know.”
1 Samuel 17:56 The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is!”
1 Samuel 17:57 When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand.
1 Samuel 17:58 Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, boy?” “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.

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David refused to use Saul’s armor and weapon, not just because they didn’t fit, but because he had not tested them in combat. He had already seen violent confrontations and was described as a man of war in the previous chapter. But he had to use the tools he was familiar with. Often we think that if we could afford the latest technology we could make a difference. The LORD is more interested in what we are doing with what he has already provided us. God used a rock at the hands of a skilled marksman with rocks. He can use us.

LORD, give us the courage to do what you call us to do, and the wisdom to use our tested tools to do it.