I watched a film on David and Goliath. Preparatory to the
encounter King Saul clad the young David with his metal armour. On attempting
to take a step the boy fell. This elicited laughter from Saul’s soldiers. The
armour obviously weighed more than the boy and naturally pulled him down. David
could not use what was not his. He preferred to be what God made him, and he went
in that capacity – with a mere sling and five smooth stones. We know
the story
and the rest is history.
One night that story flashed through my mind and the Spirit
of God ministered to me what I now write to you. Why did Saul think to dress
David in an armour with which he had failed? For over forty days Goliath
threatened the army of God led by Saul, a challenge to which Saul, with all his
armour and armour bearer and soldiers had no answer. When David volunteered to
fight the giant, Saul thought David would be better protected with the same
armour that failed him. Was Saul expecting a different result with the same
method?
When David gave the king his testimony of victory over the
lion and the bear, he certainly did not tell him he wore any such armament, as
indeed he did not. Saul may have meant well, thinking to protect the lad from
the deadliness of Goliath’s weapons, but better reason would have informed him
otherwise. He should have known that what failed him could not have helped
another. Saul’s armour was a pack of carnal defences and was unfit in spiritual
battle, though veiled as physical.
Two things gave David the victory that eluded Saul’s army.
First, David aligned with God. His boast was in the LORD. He told the king “The
LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will
deliver me from this Philistine” (1
Samuel 17: 37). Though Saul saw faith in the lad and told him “Go,
and the LORD be with you”, he appeared not too convinced of that simple
solution being the answer to a complex problem, and so he went ahead to clad
the boy with his armour which David rejected. On meeting the Philistine David
expressed the same confidence in the LORD. He said, “You come against me with sword
and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty,
the God of the armies of Israel” (1
Samuel 17: 45). David’s primary source of confidence was not the lion and
the bear he killed but the LORD who enabled him to kill them. Those who make
the Lord their confidence have nothing to fear. If you seek to overcome your
present challenges, the best and enduring way out is faith in the living God. “Trust
in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In
all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3: 5 – 6).
Second, David was himself. He did not want to be another
Saul. He was content being David. “I cannot go in these, because I am not used
to them” was David’s position when Saul clothed him with his armour. Saul’s
idea of David impersonating him would have been the easiest way to Goliath’s
victory. People fail when they try to impersonate. They seek to talk, pray or
behave like someone they admire, but such impersonation eventually give itself
away, and the individual end up failing. Be yourself and you will succeed. God
who made you knows you will do better as you are than in trying to be another whom
He never intended you to be.
We all have challenges and seek to overcome them. If you must
succeed, you have to identify with God and be yourself. Don’t try to cut
corners, as that may end up exposing you to the enemy to strike down. Victory
is yours in Christ, and certain as you align with Him who loved you so much as
to die for you on the Cross of Calvary. Align with God today and all will be
well. Peace be with you!
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