The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 7

Episode 4 years ago

The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 7

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“He is well, my lord,” David said, his head bowed. He raised his head to address the king. “My lord, the Philistine, let no one lose heart because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Abner frowned, and the king shook his head.
“You are not able to fight with this Philistine, for you are but a boy, and he has been a soldier from his youth.”

“I know you want to help, boy,” Abner said, “but to accept Goliath’s challenge is suicide. For forty days he has made these taunts, and none of the seasoned men under my command has given it a thought. Let it rest. Jesse is an old man. Give your brothers their supplies and go back home to him.”
David looked from Abner to Saul and back. No. He couldn’t let the chance go. Something had to be done about this. . .Goliath. And David knew who was the one to do it. He faced the king squarely.
“Your servant has been a sherpherd of his father’s flock, and a lion came, and also a bear, and each carried off a sheep from the flock. I went out after it and struck it down and rescued it from its mouth. When it rose up against me, I grabbed it by its fur and struck it down and put it to death.

“Your servant struck down the lion and the bear, and this Philistine will become like one of them, for he has taunted the battle lines of the living God.”

David spoke from the depth of his heart. Goliath’s taunts angered him just as it did the rest of the men, perhaps even more.
“Jehovah who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear,” he continued, “he is the one who will rescue me from the hands of this Philistine.”

There was a heavy silence in the tent. The wind blew the tent flap, and from all around them came the muted sounds of the camp. The king stared at him with a mixture of shock and weariness. Abner was staring at him too, and the army commander did something that made David question the credibility of his own senses: he looked at the king and nodded.
The king looked even more sad at that. But he nodded, looking right into David’s eyes. David felt for him, for the man who had been like a second father to him. His offered reward of riches and his daughter had been spurned because his men were too afraid to fight.

All the more reason to take away the reproach of the army of the king.

The army of the living God.
“Go, and may Jehovah be with you,” King Saul said finally.

Throughout the next few minutes Abner looked as if he had been imbued with a new spirit. The king decided David would go in his own personal armour. Goliath was wearing a shirt of copper mail, so Abner sent one of the guards for the silver one. The same one David had spent months polishing with the special silver polish.

David put his shepherd’s bag on the table and began to suit up. It was when he wore the chain mail that David doubted wearing the shiny silver armour. The shirt was made to be short-sleeved, but on David it ended about halfway between his elbow and his palm. David had held it more times than he could count, but he’d had no idea it was this big. Or heavy.

Abner continued suiting him up nontheless.
When David was finally dressed, it seemed like he could barely stand. Abner placed the king’s copper helmet on his head, and the rim of the helmet blocked his eyes almost completely.
“Try taking a step,” Abner said. He was trying to sound optimistic, as though he thought it less of an insult now that someone had accepted Goliath’s challenge, no matter if that someone was a young boy whose only experience with weapons was slinging stones.

David took a step, anyway, and his knees buckled under the weight of the armour. He held the side of the table for support.
“Oh, David. . . ” The king said, trailing off the rest.

“My lord, I am unable to go in these things,” David said, taking off the helmet and keeping it beside Abner’s on the table, “for I am not used to them.”

The king motioned for him to take them off, but Abner proceeded to undress him personally. After a while, David was back in his inner garments again. He picked his outer garment off a camp stool, and Abner excused himself from the tent. The king looked at him.

“You are a handsome young man, David, do you know that?” the king said. David did not know what to say. He looked down at his sandals. The king sighed heavily. “It would be unfair for your father to lose you today. Perhaps Jehovah feels the same way about you.”

“Jehovah will be with me,” David said simply. The king stood up and came around the table to where he stood. He placed both of his hands on David’s shoulders. The king stood a whole head taller than him, so he looked down into his eyes.
“Return back to this camp when you’re finished, you hear me?” David tried his best to look determined. He nodded. “Return.”