1 Samuel 17:38
And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.
Saul dressed David for his fight with the giant in the king's own battle clothing, with metal covering for head and body and with his sword. The outfit was too large and heavy and untried, so David could not move freely in it and laid it aside for the simple shepherd weapons he had already proved. In this he showed that victory depends not on human equipment, strength or appearance but on humble trust in God whose help had given past deliverances. Therefore God's workers must not fight in borrowed armor by copying another's methods, plans and mind, but are to keep their own individuality and serve in their own calling with the abilities God has given them. They are to put on every piece of God's prepared armor from heaven and meet opposition clothed only in Christ's righteousness, with a meek, lowly and loving heart rather than a harsh, dictating spirit of wrath.
David Refuses Saul's Armor
Before the fight with Goliath, Saul clothed David in his own royal armor, putting a brass helmet on his head and a coat of mail on him, together with the king's sword. The equipping was Saul's own armor placed on David for facing Goliath, and wearing it would have suggested that victory depended on Saul's equipment. The armor was heavy and unfamiliar and too large for David, so he could not move or fight effectively in it. Because he had not tested it, he would not wear it but laid the armor aside. He went instead with the simple, familiar weapons he had proved, his staff, sling and stones. With sling and stone he slew the Philistine who defied Israel, defeating Goliath the champion. That same victory is recalled later when David sought refuge in Gath, where he is identified as the man who had slain that champion years earlier.
Trust God Not Man
David laid aside the royal armor and chose sling and stones instead, relying on God rather than on military equipment and outward strength. He refused the king's armor because he had not tested it, trusting in God rather than in human weapons or appearances. To have worn it would have suggested that victory depended on Saul's equipment, making it seem that his strength came from human weapons rather than from the Lord. He trusted instead the God whose help had already brought him victories, and went out with the simple, familiar weapons he had proved, relying on the Lord.
Like David, ministers and God's servants are not to trust prepared human means and arguments rather than God, nor to boast in themselves. They are not to rely on equipment or methods they have not proved, but are to rely humbly and trust wholly in God as their strength. When God's cause requires someone to face a defier of Israel, God can carry that person through and give truth the victory.
Those called and prepared for battle in the name of the Lord must not fight in borrowed armor, for David could not put on Saul's armor because it was too large for him. They must have every piece of God's prepared armor from heaven's armory, not Saul's armor but the whole armor of God. With that armor they can go forth through Christ and through the Spirit of God and not through themselves to places still in darkness, with hearts full of Christlike tenderness, compassion, and love. For youth this means understanding God's plan for work in every stage of the upward march, knowing for themselves the reasons of the faith and making it their experience, obtaining teaching through work, and feeding on the divine Word until it is brought into the current that circulates through mind, heart, and soul.
Serve in Own Calling
A life consecrated to God keeps its own individuality and is developed and beautified in it, grafted into one parent stock with unity in diversity and not sunk into another person's individuality and mold. No one is to be forced into another person's pattern, but each is to be left free to serve God with the abilities and capabilities God has given and to work in the way suited to them, since David could not wear Saul's armor but dropped it and took the familiar sling and stone and slew the Philistine who defied Israel. All characters are to be fashioned not after man's pattern but after the Lord's ideal under the molding of the Holy Spirit, each acting the assigned part with the fragrance of Christ's character. None is at liberty to demerit and belittle God's workmanship because fellow workers do not bear his likeness.
Ministers should not imitate another person's methods or rely on another's prepared work, but should labor in their own harness with the abilities God has given them and seek His guidance for themselves. To consent to wear Saul's armor means to lean upon man and make flesh his arm. It means to become the transcript of another man's mind, to let another fashion and shape the mind after his own mind and teach him to voice his sentiments, to refuse to impart instruction unless first learning the mind of some minister or trusted person, and to seek to pattern after any man's character. That course makes an utter failure and works detriment and harm. Instead each person is to lean upon God, look to God for himself, and breathe out the soul to God, acting in his own capacity according to the ability God has given him and trading with conscientious fidelity upon his own talents. Each is to have an individual experience with rejoicing in himself and not in another, and to work in the armor which God has provided while growing up under God's supervision to his own individual measurement.
Workers for God cannot all labor in the same armor or in the same manner, for Saul's armor stands for one man's plans, ideas, and ways of carrying forward the work. Different workers have different strengths and weaknesses, and the work is best done when they cooperate so that one can supply what another lacks. No worker succeeds merely by following exactly another man's order. It is therefore wrong for a leader to lift all the burdens himself, to insist that others copy his plans exactly, and to believe that his ideas and ways are the only right way.
Saul's armor also stands for a war garment of wrath and contention that none of God's servants are to put on. It means a strong spirit that is not meek and contrite, an inherited and cultivated contentious spirit, a strong, dictating attitude expressed in harsh and severe words, contention, criticism, and readiness for battle in council meetings. That armor must not be worn but must be laid aside, disrobed, and stripped off, because vehemence and bringing charges against brethren only wounds the speaker and separates him from God's work. The heart must be broken in tenderness before God and become as a little child. Opposition must then be met clad only in the robe of Christ's righteousness, with a meek, lowly, contrite, humble, and childlike heart, with words subdued by the Spirit of God, with trust in Christ in severe trials, and with work as an example in preparing the way of the Lord and removing stumbling blocks rather than dictating to others.