Tested for God

1 Samuel 17:38-40

38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39 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. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

Through the past two sermons I dealt with what the will of God is and what the reference point of sin is. The will of God is not anything kept in mystery that you have to spend your whole life to search. It is, according to the Bible, clearly revealed in the Bible for us and our descendants. Sin is the failure to obey the will of God not merely the violation of the law simply because it is the law. The incident of Tower of Babel illustrates how the rebellion of mankind becomes a sin. They went against the will of God that they should have spread and subdued the earth, which was revealed since the beginning of the creation in Genesis 1:28. They did not particularly break any law per se but did not obey the divine will with the creation. It is still sin. Adam and Eve ended up sinning when they began to see the tree from a viewpoint that was foreign to the divine will for the trees in general (Gen. 2:9). It was not an unfortunate violation of the law but the denial of the will of God intended with the trees in general and particularly with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What I would like to do today is to illustrate my past messages with a famous biblical account of David and Goliath. There are numerous accounts in the Bible that would support how we ought to obey and practice the will of God. But I choose this account simply for own convenience, and hopefully it with ease delivers the points for you as well. I would just go over the whole chapter seventeen and elaborate where deemed necessary.

The chapter seventeen typically illustrates the warfare between the two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The confrontation of the two kingdoms is symbolically depicted through the way that the two armies of Philistines and Israel formed a line of battle facing each other with a valley between them. However, the intense air between two sides was easily broken by the appearance of Goliath to the favor of the Philistines. Goliath was simply everything that epitomizes the kingdom of Satan. Goliath was from Gath, Philistines, a notorious name for Israelites. The Ark of the Covenant was once kept there after taken captive by the Philistines until it was later brought back to Jerusalem by King David. The whole ordeal was a humiliation to Israelites, and the appearance of Goliath at this juncture was certainly a reminder for them as a people of God. 

The Bible continues with the detailed descriptions about Goliath, which hurt the pride of Israelites. He was almost 3 meters in height, had a bronze helmet on his head, covered his body with a scaled armor which weighed more than 120 pounds, had a bronze protection on his legs and bronze javelins between his shoulders, for which the spear’s iron head alone weighed almost 15 pounds, and He had to have a shield-bearer before himself. His appearance alone was terrifying enough in size and scale. The Bible account depicts the story in such a way that the readers of the Bible would not fail to grasp it. 

Now, we have verbal abuses from Goliath. He first undermined the justification of the war. “Why have you come out to draw up for battle?” (v. 8), as if there was no chance for Israel. Then, he took liberty to define the nature of the game that was to be one between “a Philistine” himself and the whole Israel namely, the “servants of Saul” (v. 8). He just pronounced that he represents his kingdom and the Israelites the other and that the two kingdoms cannot be in peace side by side. “If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us” (v. 9). One must be defeated and serve the other. Goliath loaded his insults by saying that he did indeed defy the army of Israel (v. 10). He even decided the rule of the game himself that it would be a match between two representatives of each kingdom. However, he questioned if there could possibly be anyone that come on behalf of the Israelites. The degree of mockery by Goliath is substantiated in v. 16, “For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.” In other words the Israelites had to stomach all that humiliation for forty days.

Now, the reaction by the Israelites draws the readers’ attention. “They were dismayed and greatly afraid” (v. 11). The Bible repeatedly confirms in the subsequent story that Israel had no hero that could save herself. Instead, the Bible with wit prepares the very savior who would rescue Israel from the despair. However, that savior was not much a savior. He was a shepherd boy. He was not even a man who could answer to the call of the country to the war. Instead, he tended his dad’s sheep on a green pasture. And, interesting enough this boy is introduced to the stage as a counterpart of Goliath, which occasioned embarrassment to King Saul the chief commander of Israel. 

Meantime, the Bible carefully reminds the readers of what was going on with the story, that is, the face-off between two kingdoms. Saul and his army were fighting with the Philistines (v. 19), and “Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army” (v. 21). 

Now, David makes an appearance to the scene as a boy sent for his dad’s mission which was to deliver the care-packages to his brothers who were in service to defend the country (v. 17-18, 20). The first thing that the Bible mentions, also making David’s first appearance, is that David heard the mockery by Goliath that had continued for forty days. The forty days seems to coincide with the forty days of Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness before he took on the public ministry, but we will not get into that now. What the Bible focuses on instead is that David saw how the army of Israel was being ridiculed and terrified by Goliath. “All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid” (v. 24); “Surely he has come up to defy Israel” (v. 25). 

David knew precisely who the enemy was and thus what to do with him. He was, for David, an uncircumcised Philistine waging the war against the living God (vv. 26, 36) and had to be killed for the reproach to stop for God. The Bible stages David in contrast to Saul’s army including his brothers. The soldiers hastened to brag about the reward (v. 25), and David’s brothers showed off their pride by rebuking him (v. 28). The soldiers and brothers all failed to grasp the nature of the battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil.

Finally, the word reached to Saul, and here David a shepherd boy was brought before him. How interesting the way the Bible portrays who David was! David, though he was young, now comforted Saul the king of Israel by saying not to lose his heart because he would fight this monstrous enemy and save Israel (v. 32). Of course, Saul saw only the external appearance that David was a shepherd boy and Goliath was a seasoned warrior.  It was no match in the eyes of Saul. The Bible once pointed out that it was precisely the reason why David was chosen over his brothers. “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (16: 7). 

David’s curriculum vitae is rather fascinating; he currently works for his father; he watches the sheep that belong to his father; he occasionally rescues them from the mouths of lions or bears and even kills them, if the situation demands it (v. 34-35). He is now ready to save Israel from the bad mouth of Goliath. “Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them” (v. 36). David did not fail to attribute his success to the Lord and demonstrated his unwavering confidence in the Lord on this occasion as well against Goliath. “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (v. 37). The Bible does an excellent job in depicting how David precisely fitted with the will of God; his confidence came only from God who was, for David, always faithful. 

Now, Saul had no other recourses but to try with David. The Bible sets David at the middle of the stage as a savior to be. Saul in his disbelief loaned his armors to David (v. 38). It should have been such honor for David, but the Bible displays a totally unexpected response from him. He did not wear them because “he had not tested them” (v. 39). “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” Wow! To the king he really said that?  Instead, his choice was his staff and five stones fetched from a brook. The armors that he was rather accustomed to. However, the Bible reveals that his secret weapon was the Lord of hosts, the Lord of military and army. “I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel” (v. 45). The objective for David in this battle, discloses the Bible, was that “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” by killing Goliath just as he used to with lions and bears (v. 46). The Bible pronounces that “all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you [Philistines] into our hand” (v. 47).

The way the battle was decided seems to have come down to a rather personal preference of David; that is, Saul’s armors were not tested for David. “not tested”? You mean it was first time for David to try them, but he was not sure with them, so he refused to use them? The Bible selects an uncommon expression to deliver the point, that is, as to how David lived in accordance with God. 

Here, I have a little bit of explanation to do because the modern day readers are not familiar with such a usage of the word of the Bible. “to test” (nsh) is used in the sense of, for example, “testing faith” like “God tested Abraham” (Gen. 22:1) and also for “to try,” “to attempt,” “to prove” or “to go through a trial.”  When a person is tested, he is tried and goes through a trial for the higher purpose like the refinement of his character or his true nature to come out. Sometimes, the word is used for God as well like “they tested the Lord” (Ex. 17:2; Num. 14:22; Deut. 6:16). To test God does not mean to test his faith, to have him to go through some refinement of his character or to check him out. To test God is to attempt and try God essentially in a way that is not His way, that is, in reality to push God through or to get Him used to the way of man. Here, it is what is meant, when David says, “I have not tested them” (v. 39). He is saying he is not accustomed to this way, or it is not the way he goes about in his life. 

The entire account of story has in fact illustrated that, as we have seen thus far. It portrays what David is accustomed to and what he is not in symbolic ways, though the account itself is, no doubt, a historical account. And for us I would like to relate it to our understanding of the will of God. The will of God for David is typically the way of life for him. In a symbolic way the Bible demonstrated for us in this account how David carried himself through each and every turn of life that he encountered. He did not proceed if he did not test it, meaning if he was not trained or accustomed to that.

When it comes to the will of God for many Christians, they tend to take it as Do’s and Don’ts for themselves. For David it was different. The will of God was not that way, meaning it was not Do’s and Don’ts for him. The will of God was more like the way he was tested, tried, and used to. In other words, his whole life was tested to the will of God, and he rather felt comfortable and justified when his whole life was in line with the ways of God. It was the will of God for David.

As I finish off a series of sermons on the will of God, I picked this account of David and Goliath as a way of illustration for the whole point. Once again, I would like to emphasize that the will of God is not anything secret or hidden away from us but that it is clearly revealed in the Bible. God’s will for us is for us to be tested for Him and accustomed to His ways of holiness and righteousness at all situations regardless of the challenges that we might come across. The will of God for us is once again that God’s way is what we are tested for. May God’s Spirit be with you and you may boldly manifest before this world that you are tested for God than being intimidated by the demands from the world like the Israelites once did in the Bible. May God bless your walk before Him.