Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 323 · November 19
All This Assembly
“And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.”
Picture a dry streambed at the bottom of a valley, with a ridge rising on each side. "The Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them." The two armies look down on it like crowds in their seats. For forty days one man has walked out, morning and evening, and nobody has gone down to meet him.
Today's verse is part of a speech. David says it out loud, for everyone on both hills to hear: "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear." The people listening include the soldiers behind him, who have stood there for six weeks holding their weapons. They also include the army across the valley, who have watched Israel hang back day after day.
Now look at what David is holding while he says it. He has his staff, five smooth stones and a sling, so he is not empty-handed. Afterwards he takes the giant's own sword and finishes the job with it. So David's claim is about where saving comes from, and he still uses the tools in his hand. Israel kept saying the same thing long afterwards, in songs and in speeches, even when they had armies of their own. One psalm says, "For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me." Years later, King Hezekiah had an Assyrian army outside Jerusalem and his own troops gathered in the street, and he told them the same truth: "With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles."
That takes you back to the two ridges and to the reason for the duel. A fair fight between two champions would have taught those hills nothing. That was the deal Goliath had offered, and it would only have proved that one man was stronger than another. What they got was a result no crowd could explain by looking at the weapons. The death of the giant was the smallest part of that day. The real point was that both armies came to know there is a God in Israel. He still works that way, so that when He saves His people, everyone watching can see that it was Him.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 323 is Refuge and Fortress (Psalm 91:2).