1 Samuel 17

1 Samuel 17 (The Message)

- v33 Saul answered David, "You can't go and fight this Philistine. You're too young and inexperienced—and he's been at this fighting business since before you were born."

- v34-37 David said, "I've been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I'd go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I'd grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference—I killed it. And I'll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine."

---------------------------------------------

- v45-47 David answered, "You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel's troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I'm about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there's an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn't save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he's handing you to us on a platter!"

- v48-49 That roused the Philistine, and he started toward David. David took off from the front line, running toward the Philistine. David reached into his pocket for a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine hard in the forehead, embedding the stone deeply. The Philistine crashed, facedown in the dirt.

---------------------------------------------

You will always be seen as inexperienced in the eyes of people who do not know what you have gone through. I always get warnings / sincere advice from people who care, who tell me things that I already know, and advise me to reconsider what I intend to do. They always tell me of the stories of people who failed and you start to think that if you do try and end up failing, you prove them right that God can't be with you.

I used to see these warnings/advice as signs from God telling me that I'm not ready yet, that I must have the approval of the people around me before I can deemed "fit" to go out and do what I wanna do.

But I guess it takes a certain amt of discernment to know how "experienced" you really are, and the realisation that you can never be fully ready. David did have some prior experience killing animals, but does all that experience really qualify him to be able to kill a walking, thinking, murdering giant? No, but the fact that he knows the battle belongs to God, that makes all the difference.

And as long as he got the go-ahead by the king (i.e. the person whose opinion mattered the most, e.g. mummy), that was all he needed. You can imagine more than 90% of the army thinking who is this young punk to take on Goliath, who has never even gone through formal army training, who can't even walk while wearing the full body armour. How unqualified in the natural is that?

And even facing the giant, David knew there was a chance he would turn back and run away. But he didn't think twice. He ran towards his giant, and the rest was in God's hands.