Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
Can you say no when someone offers you what works for them?
David was unafraid of the enormous Philistine shouting insults at King Saul’s army. Since he was too little to join his brothers in the army, he visited them with a load of supplies. Hearing the insults from nine-foot-tall Goliath, David wondered why no one had put a stop to it. King Saul found out David was insisting he could kill Goliath and sent for him. After David explained that God had helped him kill a lion and a bear, he persuaded King Saul to let him shut the giant up.
Goliath had come to the battlefield in a full coat of armor weighing 125 pounds. That’s not too much extra weight for a nine-foot warrior. So King Saul tried to put armor on David to protect God’s little warrior. It was a nice thought, but not a good idea. Goliath had a bronze helmet, so David tried on a bronze helmet. He walked around in the rest of it, but it just wasn’t working for him.
With an opponent towering over him, David knew he needed protection much bigger than the armor Saul gave him. He knew he needed God.
David took off Saul’s armor and picked up stones as his weapon of choice. I’m sure his brothers were skeptical of David’s ability to get the stone aimed well enough to hit Goliath in a place that would not be covered in armor and to go fast enough that the blow would kill him.
David decided to “go with what you know”. He’d been with God in his fight against the lion and the bear, and he’d be with God in the fight against Goliath. It wasn’t the stone that killed Goliath. It was the faith in God David valued so highly. It was God’s hand making that stone crush into the skull of the giant. No one expected David to make a dent in the battle against the giant who had kept Saul’s army terrified for forty days. No one, but David.
If David had tried to do battle in the ill-fitting armor, not only would he have lost to Goliath, but the Israelites would have been servants to the Philistines. King Saul was taking a huge risk letting a little guy fight for them.
David knew that God’s armor is always better than Saul’s armor. He was dressed for success.
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