And David put his hand into the bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead; and he fell on his face to the earth.
David closes the last few yards toward Goliath with a sling in his hand. One stone ends the fight — and the question is why God chose that weapon instead of a sword.
The hand goes into a bag, not into an armoury. One commentator marks the kind of means God chooses, and whose faith won the day:
God loves to do great things by the simplest means... Israel won the victory according to the faith of David.
The sling and the stone owed nothing to David's skill or to Israel's armoury. One writer draws out where David's real power lay:
David's power did not lie in the weapons that Saul offered, nor in anything that would attract the mighty of this world. The sling and the stone testified as clearly as anything could that "the Lord was with him," for they were not the weapons of man's warfare.
No one forged the stone that killed Goliath. It had been lying in the brook between the two armies all along, and one writer draws a principle from that which reaches far past this battlefield:
The weapon needed was not far off. David found the stone in the brook that ran between the two armies. It laid the champion of the uncircumcised low and silenced his boasting for ever. All his armour proved useless against the death-blow. Even the shield his armour-bearer carried in front of him did not stop the stone. God provided what was needed, and it proved to be all-sufficient. This is a principle of wide application. God does provide the weapons with which, if called upon, His people may meet those opposed to Him. The Lord promised to provide them (Luke 21:15). Stephen proved the Lord faithful to His word: his enemies could not resist the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke (Acts 6:10).
Goliath went into battle in full armour, with a man in front of him carrying his shield. He had guarded himself against the weapons he expected:
He never thought of such a weapon as a sling. He was looking for arrows. He had protected himself with a great big shield. But the stone slung by David went up in a curve and struck the giant on the forehead — on the spot he least expected it. Satan never thought that the death of Jesus would annul death. He never thought that sin would be put away by Jesus being made sin. Had he known, he would not have plotted His death.
David does not stall at the decisive moment. One writer traces that boldness back to what David had learned alone with God:
Living before God in secret will always make us act, if I may put it that way, on the offensive. This is remarkable in David... David did not delay and did not falter; he instantly used his simple weapons and struck his enemy to the ground.
Commentators do not stop at the duel. They read the sunken stone as the outline of something later:
The stone that sinks into Goliath's forehead deprives him of strength and of life. David cuts off Goliath's head with his own sword, like Him who by death destroyed the one who had the power of death.
One writer carries it to the cross, where the victory first looked like defeat:
Five smooth stones and a simple sling brought that huge mass of boasting flesh down to the dust... The Lord was crucified in weakness. He went out against the powers of darkness and the devil for us. As He hung rejected and exposed on a criminal's cross, it seemed as though He had met with complete defeat, beyond all recovery.
- Small means. God loves to do great things by the simplest means — a hand in a bag, one stone, one throw.
- Supplied means. The stone was lying in the brook before the battle began; God provides the weapon His people need, and it proves all-sufficient.
- Unguarded point. Armour, spear and shield were all useless, because the blow landed where the giant never expected it.
- Forward motion. Faith that has lived before God in secret does not hesitate in public; David did not delay and did not falter.
- The pattern fulfilled. The stone took away Goliath's strength, and his own sword finished him. Christ too was crucified in weakness, and by death He destroyed the one who had the power of death.
So David overcame the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and smote the Philistine and killed him; and there was no sword in the hand of David.
One throw from a shepherd's sling ended a duel that had frozen two armies for forty days. Then the verse adds a detail that seems unnecessary once the giant is down: the hand that killed him held no sword. Commentators return to that short clause again and again.
The verse credits a sling and a stone. One writer looks behind the throw, to the man who had already put himself in God's hands.
Faith always honours God, and God always honours faith. David put himself into the hands of God, and the happy result of doing so was victory — full, glorious victory. Magnificent triumph! Precious fruit of simple faith in God! This should encourage the heart to throw away every human confidence, and to cling to the only true source of power.
No army movement contributed to it. The whole crisis turned on a single moment.
It was a wonderful deliverance, gained by a single blow — no manoeuvring of armies, no skill of generals, no bravery of soldiers. No; a stone from the brook, slung by a shepherd's hand, settled the whole matter. It was the victory of faith.
Nobody manufactured David's weapons. A brook shaped them, and one writer sees God's usual way of working in that.
No human skill or invention made this armour. The running brook had given these stones their smoothness. But faith is always armed like this. So the armour of faith always looks weak and foolish in the eyes of men. God has won His mightiest victories with instruments men most despised. Men treat preaching with scorn: a foolish thing in itself, with a foolish subject, Christ crucified. Yet it is "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Preaching has always been as foolish as David's sling. But what we need is far more of this simplicity, remembering that we have the truth of God to bring to people's consciences. We have weapons made mighty by God, if only we had simple faith to trust them alone, and to reject the armour of human energy, wisdom, and authority.
David moved fast, but there was no panic in his hands. One writer traces that steadiness back to the lion and the bear David faced with nobody watching.
Notice how calmly and deliberately David took the stone, though he acted at once. There was no show of effort. He did it just as though he were in the wilderness with no eye on him but God's. And the Lord directed that stone, just as He had enabled him to overcome both the lion and the bear! So David prevailed; and so faith always prevails.
The last clause is where commentators turn to Christ. The winner looked weak, and so did He.
"There was no sword in the hand of David" when he won the victory. A sling and stone are not the weapons of a mighty warrior. David himself looked weak in the eyes of men; "he was but a youth." And the apostle Paul says of the Lord Jesus: "He was crucified in weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4). To the religious Jew, "Christ crucified" was "a stumbling block." To the learned Greek it was "foolishness." Through death, by apparent weakness and defeat, Christ conquered Satan.
One writer turns that empty hand toward the reader's own rescue.
Notice this: the Lord saves. You cannot save yourself; I cannot save myself. It is the Lord alone who can save me. God alone can meet the need and ruin of man as a sinner, and I am left with no choice but to accept God's Saviour.
Goliath had prepared for arrows and carried a shield. The stone came from an angle he had not covered, and one writer sees a bigger surprise behind it.
He did not expect a weapon like a sling. He was looking for arrows, and had protected himself with a great big shield. But the stone slung by David went up in a curve and struck the giant on the forehead — on the spot he least expected. Satan never thought that the death of Jesus would put an end to death, or that sin would be put away by His being made sin. If he had known, he would not have plotted His death.
Israel added nothing to the fight.
The giant's head off, his army "fled," and all Israel had to do was to "plunder their camp" (v. 53). So with us — we only have to enjoy the spoil of Jesus' victory. He has done it all. We enjoy it all.
- Faith — David put himself into God's hands before he put a stone in his sling; the win was the fruit of that, not of technique.
- Weakness — a brook smoothed the stones; no forge did. God's greatest victories come through instruments men despise.
- Secrecy — the calm of the throw came from the lion and the bear, faced where no eye but God's was watching.
- Emptiness — "no sword in the hand of David" is the heart of the verse. It points to the One crucified in weakness, who conquered by apparent defeat.
- Spoil — one man fought alone, and an army that risked nothing collected the plunder; we only have to enjoy what Jesus won.