Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and slew him, and cut off his head there. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
Read Chapter 17
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
But our armor is Christ; it is that which the apostle Paul prescribes when, writing to the Ephesians, he says, “Take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day;” and again, “Stand, therefore, having your loins gird about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked: and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Armed with these weapons, king David went forth in his day to battle. Taking from the torrent’s bed five smooth rounded stones, he proved that, even amidst all the eddying currents of the world, his feelings were free both from roughness and from defilement. Drinking of the brook by the way, and therefore lifted up in spirit, he cut off the head of Goliath, using the proud enemy’s own sword as the fittest inst...
The only ministers of the Lord’s Word through whom the Lord might teach and so break the arrogance of the devil are individuals whom the Lord himself has victoriously snatched away from the devil, for all are by nature sons of wrath, conceived in iniquity and given birth by their mothers in sin. Since this is the case, he unexpectedly appeared and overcame the enemy. Just like a strong man strips the armor of his weaker opponent, so he took away all his weapons in which he had trusted. As the enemy had used people as his weapons to slaughter the souls of the wretched, so now the Savior has transformed these very same people into weapons of righteousness and uses them to cut off the head of iniquity from its body. That is to say, he compels sinners who have been converted to the faith to condemn Satan and to renounce all his works and all his evil ways. Moreover, it is correctly said that David took the sword first with his hand and then drew it from its sheath to kill the Philistine. F...
