Except By Prayer and Fasting

Just One Story VI: It’s Not About David

Let’s wrap up this series about David and Goliath. The message to this point has been important, but the final lesson is more important yet. The most important lesson from the story of David and Goliath for the church is that this story is not about David, but about God. We are naturally self-centered and try to make everything about ourselves, but that is not what our faith is all about. Our focus cannot be on us, but on God.

Several years ago I was at a family gathering in the home of a relative who had small children. I was having a hard time participating in the family festivities because I had lost my voice to fall allergies, so I was simply watching the children do what children do when in the house–watch television. Mom of the house had put a “Christian” children’s video on and the children were enthraled. It wasn’t quite Barney the Dinosaur, but almost. The video was loosely about David and Goliath. The video did a credible job of teaching the raw events of the story, but when it came time for the “moral of the story” it missed the point completely. For the sake of family harmony, it was probably a good thing I had lost my voice. My relatives are good people but probably would not have appreciated my response.

The video taught that the moral of the story of David and Goliath was that God could use them no matter how small they were. That is backward. It made David the hero of the story rather than God. It effectively said that David killed Goliath for God rather than God killed Goliath for David. Sadly, the video reflects current theological thought. It focuses on us rather than on God. God always works to glorify himself. That is why he works in the way he does, so that all will know it is he doing the great works, so the focus will be on him. God used a small boy to defeat Goliath so that all would know it was the Lord at work not the Israelite army. Compare this to the story of Gideon. Gideon had assembled an army of approximately 32,000 men, but God told him, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” (Judges 7:2) Ultimately, God defeated the Midianites with a mere 300 men using torches, jars, and trumpets. Again, God’s lesson was that the victory came from him and that he does not save with sword and spear.

We are naturally self-centered and make everything about ourselves. That usually gives us too much credit. The story of David and Goliath and of many, if not most, of the stories in the Scripture teach that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. They are not about our service, but about God’s gracious provision for his people. We cannot save ourselves. Only God can do that. We cannot change lives. Only God can do that. Furthermore, God will do that in ways we can neither understand nor duplicate. In the events surround David and Goliath, God was teaching King Saul and his army to get their eyes off of themselves and put them on him. The Israelite army did not need more training in order to defeat Goliath. They needed a God that was bigger than Goliath.

A self-focused faith can only result in a shallow, insipid practice of that faith. As James would ask, “Can such a faith save him?” Of course not. In his book Christless Christianity, Michael Horton begins by saying,

It is easy to become distracted from Christ as the only hope for sinners. Where everything is measured by our happiness rather than by God’s holiness, the sense of our being sinners becomes secondary, if not offensive. If we are good people who have lost our way but with the proper instructions and motivation can become a better person, we need only a life coach, not a redeemer. We can still give our assent to a high view of Christ and the centrality of his person and work, but in actual practice we are being distracted from “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). A lot of the things that distract us from Christ these days are even good things. In order to push us off-point, all that Satan has to do is throw several spiritual fads, moral and political crusades, and other “relevance” operations into our field of vision. Focusing the conversation on us—our desires, needs, feelings, experience, activity, and aspirations—energizes us. At last, now we’re talking about something practical and relevant. ¹

He goes on to say,

I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups.²

Horton is correct. We need more than just good teaching. We need a savior to save us from the righteous wrath of God, and that can only come by focusing on God rather than on ourselves.

May “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:11)

Notes
1. Michael Horton, Christless Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), pp. 15-16.
2. Horton, pp. 16-17.

Just One Story V: Can You Hear Me Now?

What was God trying to say when he used a boy with a sling to defeat Goliath? I am reluctant to speculate about God’s motives because his thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. To believe I can discern what was in God’s mind at that time would be the height of arrogance, but there are at least three lessons in this story that were relevant for King Saul’s constituents and are important for us as well. The lessons are clear. The only question is whether we can hear them.

First, God’s people can trust God to fight their battles. First Samuel 17:47 says, “. . .that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s . . .” The word ‘assembly’ refers to King Saul and the Israelite army. Israel’s military record against the Philistines had been a mixture of success and failure. King Saul was a capable military leader, but obviously did not understand the concept of trusting in God and obeying him completely. By the time God defeated Goliath, Saul had already demonstrated his lack of faith in God’s power over the enemies of Israel. (See 1 Samuel 15.) This is a lesson that must be learned by every generation of God’s people. Unfortunately, like Saul, we often miss God’s glory because we trust in ourselves rather than him. God’s promise is sure. He promised to be our God if we would be his people, and that promise includes defeating our greatest enemies. May we learn this lesson before it is too late.

Second, God’s purpose was less military and more spiritual; less physical or carnal and more a purpose of faith. Were God’s purpose solely military or political, using the sword would be appropriate. God’s purpose, however, was spiritual. His goal was the faith and holiness of his people. The battle was not against a giant soldier, but against “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Wisely, he did not use a military solution on a spiritual problem. This is another lesson we often miss. Just as the disciples could not see past the earthy kingdom they believed the Messiah would establish, the church often can only see its current social and political circumstances and fails to see that the battle is the Lord’s and he does not save with sword and spear. Our battles are spiritual battles against the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places, not against politicians, judges, and activists. God will not defeat them by the human means of the ballot box and the court system, but by defeating the enemy on a higher level and in the hearts of his people. (See John 6 and Acts 1:1-6-8.)

Third, God works so that he is glorified. First Samuel 17:46 says that God would defeat Goliath so “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” In their culture a nation won a battle because it had the strongest god. By defeating Goliath in the way he did even the Philistines knew the God of Israel was indeed a mighty God. This has been the theme throughout this story. Our God is a mighty God that works to glorify himself because he is worthy of all glory. God is glorified when all see that he is greater than we.

May “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:11)
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Just One Story IV: Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

    We have all heard the expression, “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” Again, I am not sure of its origin but it was very popular after the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark came out. In that movie one of the bad guys prepares to fight Indiana Jones, the “good guy,” with a large, curved sword. The crowd becomes very quiet because it is evident that the bad guy knows how to use this sword and everyone expects things to go badly for the good guy. Then, in a humorous twist, Indiana Jones nonchalantly pulls out a pistol and shoots the guy wielding the sword. So much for the bad guy. God’s people often make the same mistake. We take the wrong weapons to the battle. (In fact, we usually fight the wrong battle altogether, but that is another topic for another day.)

    After David volunteered to accept Goliath’s challenge, King Saul dressed David in his own armor and weapons. This was a natural thing to do. It was even a wise thing to do from a strictly military point-of-view. At first, David went along with the idea for just that reason—it was logical and what one did when getting ready to fight a formidable enemy. Saul and David were simply doing what was natural, what anyone else would have done in the same situation. It was such a common thing to do they did not think twice about it. In later battles in David’s life it may have been the correct thing to do, but not that time. David quickly realized that Saul’s armor and weapons we not appropriate for this battle. First of all, how effective could it have been in the face of such a large and strong enemy? Were armor alone sufficient Saul would have already taken care of the problem of the giant Philistine. More importantly, David could hardly walk in the armor; he had not “tested” it. In other words, he had no experience with the armor and did not know if he could trust it. It was more a burden than a tool. He did, however, have experience with God and knew that he could trust God and that God was sufficient for any enemy.

    David understood that God does not do things the way we do things. God does things in order to glorify himself. He does things in such a way that all will know that it is an act of God, not an act of men. Isaiah said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) God doesn’t do things the way we would do things. When we need water, we dig wells or build dams. God gave his people water from a rock. When we need food we either plant and harvest crops or hunt animals. God sent his people bread with the dew of the morning and made the quail simply show up in camp and surrender on their doorsteps. When we fight an enemy, we use armor and weapons. God used a boy with a sling and a rock.

    David knew that this battle was a battle of faith and that it could not be won with conventional weapons. So, he took off the armor, collected a few stones, put his faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and went to do battle with a man many times his size. This is a lesson the church must learn. God promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, but as long as the church goes to battle with the weapons of the world, which do not fit and only weight her down, Satan does not even bother to close the gates. He knows we will not defeat him with our church activities, marketing techniques, superficial Bible studies, mission boards, political activism, trite sayings and slogans, nor any other means except by the power of God working through his holy and sanctified people. As long as his people are indistinguishable from the people of the world—thinking like them and doing what they would do—Satan will continue to challenge God’s people with virtual impunity.

May “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:11)