“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts’” (1 Sam 17:45).
THE NAME OF THE LORD
So Goliath came against David with a sword, spear and javelin, all of which would have most probably contained some metal. We know that Goliath’s sword was impressive David later said, “There is none like it”.
Men, put in quite a lot of work to form these weapons of war. Digging some way into the earth to follow a vein of copper.
Over time, people discovered that mixing copper with tin created bronze, a stronger and more reliable material for tools and weapons.
Iron was harder to work with but worth the effort, because it was stronger than copper. Men worked underground to extract ore from veins within the rock. Then began the process of “smelting”.
A furnace was needed for smelting, and in those days the heat sometimes didn’t reach a high enough temperature to melt the iron, resulting in a spongy mass of metal called a "bloom" mixed with impurities. Workers then hammered, beat, and folded the bloom to remove the impurities and consolidate the iron into wrought iron, a softer but usable form of metal.
We read in the Bible that Cain’s descendent Tubal-Cain, forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.
So by the time of David came along, in 1000 BC there were a variety of metals available for warfare. In fact, King “Saul armed David with his armour, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail” (1 Sam 17:38).
King Saul automatically wanted to arm David with the best his country had to offer., forgetting that “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor 10:4).
And to highlight this point David picked up five smooth stones from a stream. No big preparation, no massive armoury, not weapons forged by men’s hands, just a simple stone. And it was the simple stone that proved effective.
God ways are not our ways. This is a big lesson for us all to learn. For it’s “’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of Hosts” (Zech 4:6).
And as Simon taught us on Sunday the “hosts” not only include created beings but also the natural clouds, wind, rain and, as David points out, stones. The Lord is Lord of all.
Let’s also remember that “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet” (Nahum 1:3).
Our trust should never be in men but in the Lord God who made men. We move forward in the name of the Lord.