Most people
know the basic story of “David and Goliath”, but do you remember one of the
most important lessons from that event?
When David
volunteers to take on the giant, King Saul states, “You are not able to go out
against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a
fighting man since his youth” (1 Samuel 17:33).
David admits
his youth, but he argues that he has experience and help. “[I have] been keeping my father’s sheep.
When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after
it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I
seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it…The Lord who delivered me from
the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of
this Philistine” (verses 34-37a).
Eventually,
Saul agrees and says, “Go, and the Lord be with you” (37b). However, before he sends David out, he does
one more thing. “Saul dressed David in
his own tunic. He put a coat of armour on him and a bronze helmet on his head”
(38). That seems like a good idea. Who goes out to fight without armour, right?
“David
fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around… ‘I cannot go in
these,’ he said to Saul, ‘because I am not used to them’. So he took them off.
Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream,
put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand,
approached the Philistine” (39-40).
Did you get
that?
Saul
thought he was being helpful by giving David his armour, but David cannot wear
Saul’s armour. It is not his. He is not used to it. In fact, for David to be successful he has to
make sure that he does things his own way, so he sheds the armour, grabs his
sling, 5 smooth stones from the river and the rest, as they say, is history.
The
point: You cannot be someone else. You cannot do what others do. In fact, you should not even try to be
someone else. You have to be you. You cannot wear someone else’s armour.
Too often
we miss the good that we could do because we are trying to do what others
do. David could not be Saul, but he
could be a good and faithful David. He
could do the things that God uniquely prepared him to do.
You do not
have to be like everyone else to be useful in the kingdom.
In fact, it
is best that way (See 1 Corinthians 12:12-30).
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