And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts,the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and 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 into our hand.” 1 Samuel 17: 41-47

How was that for a punchy line from the future King David: “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

Step back. And Goliath does stepped back. In fact he falls to his face on the ground. Even more than that, because he’s dealing with Jehovah Sabaoth: The God of Armies.

In this passage we see a very unlikely victory performed in a very unlikely manner. At least unlikely, or unorthodox to our way of thinking. Here a young man with no battle history, just time spent looking after sheep, comes to face a giant, a literal giant, called Goliath.

The rest of Israel will not stand up against Goliath. They are literally shaking in their boots. Then along comes David. He tries on the armour but it’s too big , so he gets rid of it. He won’t need it anyway because he has a different battle strategy.

So David rocks up to the giant and boldly shouts: “My God will destroy you” And God does.

Thinking about personal experience, I know there are times in my life where David’s battle strategy has proved to be true. David’s battle strategy being to do this the unorthodox way. There have been times when I’ve sensed God asking me to do something in a way that seemed a little odd or unusual to me. Yet when I’ve followed through on it. I’ve discovered that unorthodoxy was exactly what was needed.

And then when I’ve seen God’s plan come to fruition, I’ve stepped back and thought “Wow. Genius idea.”

And I can say that, because it was God’s idea, not mine. It may have looked to people around me like it was my idea, like it might have looked to people around David that it was his idea just to throw a pebble. But the idea is always God’s. The genius battle strategies always come from God.

So I think the encouragement in this passage is to keep listening to God because his ways are better than ours. His battle strategies are genius. And so it is His ways, that will bring victory.

“I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.”

Now that is better than any pep talk we could ever give ourselves.