1 Samuel 17:38 Commentary and Bible Study

David we note, is offered Saul's armour, but rejects it because he is not familiar with it. He is going to fight with what he is familiar with. He is not interested in trusting in something which is probably quite tempting for protection, but which he cannot cope with. He is going to take what he is good at, what he can do, and go. ‘For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: ⁴ (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) ⁵ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). The church has no use for the weapons of this world. The gospel is not preached ‘with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power’ (1 Corinthians 2:4). The world is impressed by noise, show, doing things on a grand and impressive scale, but God’s power is in the still, small voice of the Spirit.‘He took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook.’ The experts say they might have been about two inches in diameter, that the slingers of olden times, used very large stones, and could so project them that they would reach a speed of a hundred, a hundred and fifty miles an hour. But the general consensus is that this was not the best weapon to take into a battle upon which so much depended. Back in the Book of Judges we read of an elite force of seven hundred Israelites who could sling a shot to a hair's breadth, nevertheless it was never the weapon of choice and of greatest accuracy, though it may well have been in the hands of some. It is a primitive, rural type of instrument to take into such a vital battle. So he took his staff and these five smooth stones, and drew near to the Philistine.