David and Goliath

With a primal scream, Goliath blurred into motion.

David and Goliath by Michelangelo,
on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
(public domain)

The point of his spear never wavered from its intended victim. He could already feel the soft jolt he knew was coming, he could fell the heavy point gouging through skin, muscle and then punching out through David’s back.  The Philistine army let out a monstrous roar and the Israelite army was soundless. Everyone knew what was coming. Everyone knew how this ended, with Goliath screaming in triumph while holding David aloft on the end of his spear.

This is how we should visualize the story of David and Goliath. Because this is what should have happened. This is how the story should have ended. 

But it didn’t. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I’ve always been fascinated by David and how he is referred to and treated by the biblical writers. He is the centerpiece of Sunday School lessons and VBS sermons, but beyond those two things, in general, we don’t really study David very much. He’s really not a part of the rotation of things we study in Adult Sunday School classes or Wednesday night Bible studies.
   
There are a few reasons why this doesn’t make much sense.

The first is that David is defined as a “man after God’s own heart.” This is a powerful statement, full of meaning that I don’t really want to get into for this meditation. It’s enough to say that as a man after God’s own heart, David wanted the same exact things that God wanted. I don’t think I can say that with complete sincerity about myself. Yes, for the most part, it is true, but of course, in my life there are qualifiers. But there are no qualifiers about David.

The second reason why we should study David is that he took responsibility for his sins. If it wasn’t so serious, the way David seems to make every bad decision he could during his days as a king would make for a good black comedy. (I was surprised to figure out recently that the bad stories about David almost always took place after he became king—Bathsheba, his sons, the census.) Every time David has a moral or ethical choice to make as king, he makes the wrong choice. Every time it seems. But then a pattern imposes itself on the rest of the narrative--David sins, a prophet shows up and directly shows him what he did wrong and then David confesses his sin. There isn’t any finger pointing or blame sharing. David confesses his sin and accepts the consequences. He doesn’t always like them, but he accepts them. But the key concept here is, David always confesses.

In reality, David was a normal person like we are, (OK he was a king but look past that part), he was someone trying to live in a fallen world surrounded by sin and opportunities to sin. But unlike me, maybe unlike you, David knew his God well and had the same heart as his God. And he confessed his sins.

But that is not the part of the David story I want to look at today. I want to return to a very familiar Bible story and try and find something new in it. Here is a link to 1 Sam 17, you might want to read the text before continuing. (If you aren't reading this on carreraliving.blogspot.com there is no link, you'll have to look it up on your own.)

Let’s begin by looking at the details provided at the beginning of the story. There is a lot the Bible doesn’t tell us and most importantly we don’t know how old David was. The fact that he wasn’t called or conscripted into King Saul’s army could mean he was young, maybe late teens. Yet soon after this David is being extolled in song as a great warrior. I’ve been taught that if the Bible doesn’t mention it, it isn’t important. But I think it is safe to assume David is somewhere between 17 and 25 years old.

On the other hand, the details about Goliath are staggering. Modern translations try to translate the ancient measurements into contemporary measurements and even if they are off by more than a little, they are still amazing. Goliath was 9 feet, 9 inches tall. His armor weighed 125 pounds, and the point, just the point of his spear weighed 15 pounds. The shaft of the spear was compared to a weaver’s rod. Without going into much detail, some sources suggest that his spear was over 8 feet long. This guy was really a giant.

Keeping those things in mind, let’s look at the rest of the story. The story opens with the two armies on two hills, separated by a plain. This would be fairly normal, the idea being that you wanted the enemy to advance on your hill, so you could charge downhill at them. Eventually, most battles ended up taking place on the open fields between the hills. 

But before that happened, the champions would appear. Historical records show that kings and armies had champions. These were great warriors who had displayed exceptional ability and courage and who would walk out and challenge the other army to send out their champion for a one on one fight. Often, the winner would take the armor and weapons of the loser. If you read the story of the Trojan War, before the final battle the champions on each side fought each other, in attempts to discourage and demoralize the other side.

So what Goliath is doing here is nothing unique. Every day he marches out and roars for someone to come out and fight him. He even changes the rules a little and says the people of the loser will have to serve the people of the winner. But no one steps out to fight him. Saul’s army, Israel’s army is too scared and too afraid to face him.

This is the scene when David arrives with food for his brothers. He brings the food, decides to stick around for a while and he hears the challenge from the giant. Needless to say, it doesn’t go over too well with him. He reacts with outrage and eventually ends up before King Saul where David declares his desire to go out and confront the giant in the name of the Lord.

Of course, King Saul doesn’t think this is a good plan and in David’s response, we see something.

David, replying to Saul, states God rescued him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. Yet in the verse right before that one, David also maintains he went after the lion and the bear and grabbing them by their hair, he killed them and saved his sheep. So what was going on? It’s this, David knowing that God would rescue him, showed the courage and conviction of his faith and turned his faith into action. He knew God would deliver him from the lion and from the bear, so he went after them.

When you study the Old Testament stories you learn to see two things. First of all, God is the main character in every story and secondly, every story hinges on God’s intervention or his direction, either directly or indirectly. We see this clearly as David talks to Saul.

It applies to us because today, the main character in our story is not ourselves, it is God. It is his direction and his intervention in our lives that has brought us to where we are today. As we recognize this, and I admit that I still have a ways to go as I work this into my life, we can step forward in the courage and the conviction of our faith.

So let’s go back to our story. Saul tries to outfit David in his armor but David realizes this isn't going to work and he goes out to meet Goliath in his street clothes. He takes his staff and as he goes out to the battlefield he picks up five smooth stones for his sling from a brook running through the field.

Goliath explodes in anger at the sight of David coming toward him. Of course, he does. He is a champion, the biggest, baddest warrior in well everywhere. And who comes out to meet him? A boy, a teen—and as far as Goliath can tell, armed with just a stick. He curses David and David answers.

“Today, the Lord you defied will give you into my hands and I will strike you down and cut off your head.”

To get to the second and last point of the message, we need to repicture the scene. I believe that it is permissible to use our imaginations to fill in details that the Bible record leaves out as long as we don’t go overboard. So here it is…

Goliath roars in anger at David’s words and begins running forward. He is holding a giant spear and without mincing words, he is going to jam that spear through David’s body. It’s something he has undoubtedly done before. He’s a warrior, he knows his strength, his weapons and he is anticipating what is going to happen next. He knows what is about to happen, his friends know what is about to happen, King Saul knows what is about to happen, everyone knows what is about to happen. Everyone is holding their breath for different reasons. No one can look away. Everyone is expecting this “fight” to end pretty quickly.

But David calmly runs toward him, reaches into his bag, places a stone in his sling and launches it at the giant. Everyone sees this; it’s just that no one believes it’s going to change the outcome.

But God takes that stone and hits Goliath right in the forehead with it.

This is the second thing we can take away from the story and apply it to our lives. When we step forward in the courage and conviction of our faith God can do the unexpected. It happened every single time. David doesn’t know it but Elisha, Elijah, Hezekiah, Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo and many, many others will do the same thing. They allow God to do the unexpected.

So that stone flew through the air. Goliath has been in many battles and won many fights. We must remember he is a champion. He’s seen, heard and felt arrows fly past and maybe even hit him. He’s had stones from slings (which were common weapons in those days) thrown at him before. He has been there and done that. But this time, God does the unexpected. The stone hits him right in the middle of his forehead and he falls down. Why? Because God knocked him down. (Some people need to understand the physics here, but for me, the miracle is ruined by the attempt to explain it. If I define a miracle as God acting against the rules of the universe, then God knocked Goliath down, not a rock thrown by a seventeen-year-old teen, no matter how good he is with a sling.) David rushes over, seizes Goliath’s sword and ends the contest. The rest of the chapter tells how Saul’s army then defeats a completely demoralized Philistine army.

So what just happened? David, by putting his faith in action, allowed God to do the unexpected. I’m not saying God is limited by my actions or by your actions. I’m stating that acting in faith results in the consequences of God doing the unexpected. It’s not an if-then type thing, it’s not a cause and effect, it’s not step one and then step two. It’s just a person with faith in action and God doing the unexpected.

I think the Bible is clear here and in other passages that when we act, God acts. And God always acts unexpectedly, even when nothing exceptional happens. In my life, when I said that I would follow his leading, God moved me to Brazil and then Peru. This was only exceptional to me, God has acted on thousands of people before me and moved them around the world according to his will, but to me, God did the unexpected in my life. I’m sure that many of us can point to similar events in our lives.

But why does God acting and doing the unexpected have to be a singular event? David goes on from this field and experiences God doing the unexpected many more times in his life. And we can have the same experience. It just takes that one first step, leading out in faith and letting God do the unexpected.

Hosea

By 18 century icon painter [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

When I was younger I read the Bible looking for gold. But I don’t do that anymore.

Maybe I should explain. One of my favorite Bible teachers at Moody Bible Institute was Dr. Sims. Among the things he tried to teach me was attention to detail in my scholarship (this did not take root) and clarity of thought in my communication (this also did not take root.) During a class on the Psalms, after the background work on Hebrew poetry and the authorship, Dr. Sims selected various Psalms for deeper study and discussion. During this part of the class, he would analyze a phrase or even a word and pull out what someone called nuggets of gold. For example, perhaps by showing the meaning of a phrase in its ancient Middle Eastern culture, a verse was clarified or a thought became deeper. He never implied you needed an advanced theological degree or knowledge of an ancient Biblical language to find these nuggets. These nuggets could be uncovered through hard work and he would give us clues and point us toward commentaries and journals to find our own which we were encouraged to share in class.

(As an aside, Dr. Sims liked to start class by signing a hymn and literally every classroom at Moody seemed to have a piano in it. Naturally, someone told him I played the piano, so almost every class I took with him on Psalms and Romans began with…”Brother Carrera, could you pick a hymn for us to sing?” I was and remain a very reluctant piano player, which surprises some people but really what choice did I have in that situation.  Luckily for me, I was still in the piano rotation at my church so I could replay the hymns I had learned for Sunday past.)

Anyway, after I left Moody and moved into my post-college life, I still read and studied the Bible looking for the nuggets. It was a worthwhile pursuit and I learned many things I could use to add interest or insight to a devotional or sermon. But I don’t do that anymore.

It’s not that I don’t have the time. I have all the time I need, especially after I check my email, facebook sports news, political news, and then the sports news again just to make sure that nothing new was written in the ten minutes since I last checked the Chicago Bears forum I belong to. It has nothing to do with time.

It’s just that now I’m looking for something different.

These days, in my older years, I’m more interested in the people. I read and reread looking for clues about who Abraham really was and what he was like. I hold my breath during the David stories hoping he makes better decisions this time, but he doesn’t, and I’m amazed that the Kings of Israel and Judah don’t get it. Why can’t they see!

Well, that was all the introduction. Recently while I was teaching an abbreviated Old Testament survey class to my junior-highers, I found myself talking more about the people than the nuggets. I retold the stories trying to use modern concepts and words. I needed my kids to understand the people, to understand why they made the choices they made, and that choices have consequences, and that Jesus and God were/are in all the stories.

So we were all together, me teaching and them learning (cross my fingers) when we arrived at the book of Hosea and I had to explain Hosea. Here is what I told them. Hosea was a prophet, and prophets did what God told them to do (well Jonah didn’t, but that’s something for a different day) and God told Hosea to do something strange. God told Hosea to marry a woman who was going to be unfaithful to him. She would sell herself to men and have children whose father was not Hosea. Of course, Hosea did this. Hosea loved her, and he brought her home, and he went after her when she left. And the junior highers wondered why he did this.

“Well,” I said, “It is because we are the wife and God is Hosea. And we spent all of our time trying to have a relationship with God but also with all the other things we want to have a relationship with. And all those other things pull us away from God and God comes and pulls us back.”

Of course, they looked at me like I was crazy because after all they are only twelve years old and I’m fifty and sometimes we just don’t connect on any kind of level because I’m trying to share a deep truth and they want to make latex gloves out of white glue during class.

But every now and then during class I think of something out of the blue and I stun myself with the clarity of my thought (thank you Dr. Sims.) And here is what I thought.

I know why Hosea didn’t give up but why didn’t the wife give up? Just move out, it’s obvious she didn’t want to be there. But then I realized she was trying to do exactly that, but Hosea wouldn’t let her and I almost wept in front of the class. I try really hard not to do that too often because they are junior highers and well, you remember junior highers.

I almost wept because of the picture. The Bible only mentions God telling Hosea to go get his wife once, but I like this was a daily thing. Every morning Hosea would roll over and reach for his wife and she wouldn’t be there. So he would get up and go looking for her and bring her home. She was disheveled and drunk, and the neighbors would shake their heads. He’d make coffee and breakfast, clean her up, put her to bed, and spend the day taking care of kids that were not his. Then the next day he would do it again. And the neighbors never realized they were the ones he was doing this for. Because the lesson was for them.

They never realized, or maybe they did, that God never gives up. Every day he chases us down, brings us home, wipes off the world, feeds us, and puts us to bed. This is the picture. I’m not trying to say that we are terrible people, sinners running from God every chance we get and generally raising havoc around us. Because most of us aren’t. But sometimes, we just want to get away and flirt a little with something else and God does his Hosea act and brings us back. And in the end, the wife turned and she loved Hosea back and everything was right in the world. The neighbors had Hosea and his family over for bbq and they told him how their marriage relationship had changed because of his example and now they loved each other like Hosea loved his wife. And that was actually the whole point anyway.

This is what I need these days, to know and to see that God won’t give up, even when I want something else. The junior highers? They want to hear about when that one guy was chasing that other guy on foot and the guy in front told the guy chasing him to stop or else, and then he jammed the butt of his spear through the guy’s stomach and out his back. I hope they never grow old.