Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 16-17.

There is one aspect of the account of David and Goliath that I can not quite decipher.  The account reads to me as if David was trying to shame one of the warriors into fighting Goliath.  Certainly, the account makes it clear that his brother thought that was what he was doing.  Yet, as soon as he was brought before King Saul, he volunteered to fight Goliath himself.  The conclusion I have always reached is that David tried to instigate someone else in to fighting Goliath because, since he was not a member of King Saul’s army, he could not volunteer to do so himself.  Or, perhaps, he felt that, also since he was not a member of King Saul’s army, it would be inappropriate to volunteer himself.  In either case, that changed when King Saul summoned him to an audience.

What is clear from the account is that David did not believe it required a mighty warrior to defeat Goliath.  He was convinced that God would be on the side of whoever confronted Goliath on behalf of Israel.  David was cocky and arrogant, but he was not conceited.  He thought that, with God on his side, he could defeat Goliath, but he also thought that just about anybody else could do so, with the same qualifier.   And he was right.  The lesson here is not that David was a great hero of God, although he was.  David was confident that he could defeat Goliath because Goliath had defied God.  In the same way, we can be confident that we can defeat those who defy God today.

I want to make one more point about David’s confidence.  He was confident that he could defeat Goliath, but he did not depend on doing it with just one stone.  He prepared for the possibility that he might fail on his first attempt, or even on his second, third, or fourth attempt.  When David armed himself to go out against Goliath, he did not just grab one stone.  He gathered five stones.  David planned for this battle. He did not just stand there and sling a stone at Goliath.  He ran towards him.  As I read the story, I imagined David running towards Goliath with the intent of ducking and running past him if the first stone missed.  David had faith in God, but he also had a plan.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.