SDfAOaWOP: Goliath

Day Nineteen

I Samuel 17: 38-39

Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.

Saul has already been busy clothing himself with his own plans and priorities for all these many chapters. God hasn't come through for him, hasn't done things in the way Saul has foreseen for them to go. David comes into the camp and is shocked that everyone is standing around biting their fingernails and wondering what to do about Goliath. You know, like when you walk into a room that's been completely trashed and all your kids are standing there, not sure what to do. The obvious thing, cleaning up, or in this case, killing Goliath, seems to have escaped them.

Saul is sitting in his tent. And Saul clothes David. The clothing of inadequacy, futility, laziness, rebellion. But David's heart is not the heart of Saul. His heart is after God. He is impatient and frustrated. The armor, the clothing, has not been tested, has not been proven to be worth anything. Why is it sitting there? Next to Saul. Sitting. David puts it off. Plunks it down. Stalks out with his five smooth stones and his staff. Don't clothe yourself with futility and vanity and fear, obscuring the obvious thing–that God is powerful and real and that he has real plans to destroy all the evil in your life, even the evil you love.