(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 17:31–39, “And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee. And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.”
Before long, someone told King Saul was saying that the unbelieving giant should not be able to defy the armies of the living God. Deep in his heart, Saul knew that he should be Israel’s champion but he was too afraid to fight against Goliath. He knew that the Lord had rejected him as king of Israel and, perhaps, he wondered if the Lord would allow the giant to kill him. When he heard that someone was angry that the giant was defying the Lord he called for David. Even though David had worked for Saul before, Saul didn’t recognise him because the context was different and David was dressed as a shepherd rather than a musician or an armour bearer. Saul was also troubled by his depression when he had seen David before. We saw earlier that Saul and his son, Jonathan, were the only people who had proper armour and weapons. When Saul saw David he questioned him about his confidence to fight the giant. After all, the giant had been trained as a warrior from his earliest years while David was still just a child. David told Saul that he had been a shepherd for a long time and during that time he had to protect the sheep from wild animals, including lions and bears. David had killed these wild animals when they tried to take the sheep. He trusted in the Lord and the Lord gave him strength to kill these large, fearsome wild animals. If the Lord was able to save him from large, fearsome wild animals then the Lord would easily be able to deliver him from this unbelieving giant. Saul offered David his battle armour so that he would have some protection when he fought the giant. After putting the armour on, David felt uneasy, he had never used armour before and didn’t really know how to fight that way. He would really need to spend some time practicing before he could go to war in that armour. He took the armour off and went to meet the giant dressed as he had gone to meet the lion and the bear.
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