Presented to Swift Current Corps on May 2, 2010
Presented to Warehouse Mission Corps, Toronto on July 17, 2016
Presented to 614 Warehouse Regent Park, Toronto, June 11, 2017
By Captain Michael Ramsay
I played a bit of sports growing up. I won a few soccer trophies. I tried baseball – my team won a trophy in that once for winning the season. I tried curling – my family won some competitions in curling: I never played on any of their teams. I tried basketball too. Now given my great height and size in general (5’7”), one would think that by rights I really shouldn’t be any good at basketball. But you know what? … I’m not. I tried out however for the grade six team…and I was one of ONLY two kids in my whole class - NOT to make the team (and that was my best ever year at basketball). Not only can I not block shots with my height, I also have difficulties making them. My basketball skills never improved.
One day when I was in university, we went down to the park to play some basketball. Now my friends – they were really good at basketball. Some of them actually made the teams growing up. Now because they were all good sports and had a certain degree of patience, they would actually take the time to explain to me that hip checks, slide checks and nose tweaking were not acceptable defensive manoeuvres. Who knew?
After most of guys had gone home, I was left with a few of the more serious players and they decided to have a bit of a competition to see who was the best shot. So how this would work was that one player would try to pick a tricky shot and if he could make it, all the rest of us would have to make it too – or we would be knocked out of the competition. So they would be doing these reverse lay-ups, shots from the three-point line and the like and due to the grace of God, I was actually able to keep up but then came my turn…
So for my turn - I clarified that I could do any shot that I wanted – I clarified that if I made the shot that they would have to do exactly the same thing – so I would make up the most elaborate shooting routine that I could think of: I would do things like roll on the ground eight times, while singing a children’s song and then throw the ball with my back to the net. Or at one point I think I bounced the ball in off another player after tripping and falling over myself. And – guess what - by the grace of God, the ball actually found the net; so here were all these too serious, too skilled players trying to concentrate on these shots while laughing and not being able to concentrate at all and - at the end of the competition - I was indeed the last man standing. It was weird but in life there are times when we can’t really rely on our own skills and abilities to carry us through. After all is said and done we must confess that the battle is not to the strong and the race is not to the swift (Eccl. 9:11). The battle -as 17:47 says- the battle belongs to the Lord.
Now we all know the story of David and Goliath[1] that we read about today (1 Samuel 17), about how a young inexperienced soldier toppled a professional fighter and we know that the battle belongs to the Lord but instead of this – the fact that the battle belongs to the Lord - we often concentrate, when retelling this story, on how a person with just a sling can topple a well-armed soldier.
While it is true that Goliath is painted as a giant of a man, somewhere between 6’9” and 9’9” tall (depending on your translation: MT or LXX, 1 Samuel 17:4)[2] and it is true that he is portrayed as having the most advanced weaponry of his day and age. Remember that the Israelites did not have any iron technology at all (1 Samuel 13:19). Remember that the Philistines forbade them from defending themselves– and remember that after they disarmed them then they attacked them - much like the USA before the second Iraq war or today with some countries and nuclear technology (or even some conventional weaponry) where they are doing their best to make sure that they are the only ones who will use these weapons for war. Here in our text today, Goliath has his century’s version of the depleted uranium bombs NATO dropped on Yugoslavia: Goliath has an iron spearhead that ways about 600 sheckles of iron (17:7). He is a formidable foe, with superior technology but…nonetheless the battle belongs to the Lord.
Now, that being said, sometimes in playing up Goliath we play down David a little too much – remember that David is already referred to as a warrior in 1 Samuel 16:18[3] and, as a shepherd, he has a lot of experience with his weapon of choice – the sling. And you’ll note also that his weapon of choice is a real weapon that real soldiers really did use in battle. They could fire a rock from a sling at over 100 miles an hour and an expert could be deadly accurate (2 Ki 3:25, 1 Chr 12:2, 2 Chr 26:14)[3.5]: Judges 20:16 says that some men who were left-handed could even sling a stone at a hair at a distance and not miss. This is not a child’s toy; it is a pretty powerful weapon that David chooses to bring into the battle.
David is not just a child; he is a pretty powerful tool that the Lord chooses to bring into battle. So then part of the miracle of the Lord’s victory in this battle here is NOT the fact that David is good with a sling but part of the miracle could be that the Lord apparently conceals this sling from Goliath’s sight until the contest begins (notice that in his taunts of 16:43 there is no mention of the sling – only of the David’s rod)[4] so it appears then that Goliath and his shield-bearer – even with their superior superpower class technology - are ill-prepared to face their opponent and why? … Why? Because the battle belongs to the Lord. Goliath and David’s speeches make that quite clear (17:43-47). This isn’t a contest of two men who serve different gods; this is a contest of two gods (one real and one imagined), who have chosen as their weapons/armour different men. This is a significant difference (repeat). The battle belongs to the Lord.
In our own lives, this is true too and I think that we too often forget that indeed the battles we have before us actually do belong to the Lord as well. I have been involved with a couple of different AA (alcoholics anonymous) / NA (narcotics anonymous) groups here in town. We have even been blessed with the opportunity to begin a group for youth here so as to be used as a tool for their deliverance.
You should hear some of the testimonies in these different AA / NA groups. I cannot share any specifics with you in this context given the anonymous nature of the groups but I can tell you that steps 1-3 of AA’s 12 step programme confess that we are powerless over our foe, that only a power greater then ourselves can restore us, and that we need to turn our will and our lives over to God.[5] This is true. When they forget that in group it is not pleasant. When we forget that in our life it is not pleasant but when we remember it…when we remember it, all of a sudden the seemingly insurmountable can be surmounted because really life’s battles do belong to the Lord. They are not ours to fight.
Myself, I remember reflecting on Bonhoeffer…Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a great man: he was head and shoulders above the rest (cf. 1 Samuel 9:2). He was a Lutheran pastor, a theologian, and a person of great fame whose writings are well known - some of this is due to political and religious propaganda of the time but some of it is due to the fact that he truly was and is still used -albeit post-mortem- as an instrument of God. Susan and I, we even have a couple of books that he wrote on our shelves at home.
Bonhoeffer was a man who worked for the Lord and the Church in Europe before and during the conflict known now as WWII. His writings are still being used to affect much good in the world. His last grandiose act, as far as we know, was to be complicit in the cold-blooded murder of three or four men and an attempt to assassinate his Head of State during a time of national crisis. We know that hundreds of more people died very much because of the plot in which he was directly involved.
So what about Bonhoeffer's last act: an act of hate? Bonhoeffer was rightly executed for treason and conspiracy to commit murder. Did he decide not to remain in the vine (cf. John 15)? Did Bonhoeffer, as educated as he was and as influential as he still is in Christianity, did Bonhoeffer forget that the battle belongs to the Lord? We, of course, do not –any of us – we do not know the answer to this question [6] but that does not mean that we should not ask it and that does not mean that we should not ask that same question of ourselves.
We do know from looking at Chapter 15 of 1 Samuel last week, that there was another hero who was head and shoulders above the rest (1 Samuel 9:2), Israel’s first messiah, (Messiah means anointed ones and Saul was the first one anointed king over Israel), Israel’s first king whom God chose and commanded be anointed. God’s handpicked leader for his people, Saul rejected the LORD (1 Samuel 15) and indeed the new king forgot that the battle belongs to the Lord. Remember that instead of following YHWH’s orders, he instead did what he thought was best in his own eyes (cf. Judges 21:25). Remember that set up a monument to himself (1 Samuel 15:12) after the battle. Remember that Saul forgets that this battle belongs to the Lord; and remember that as Saul rejects God, God, it says in 15:26, God too rejects Saul.
What about us here? What do we do when we are faced with life’s conflicts? Are we any better than Saul? Do we set up monuments for ourselves by taking credit for what God does through us? Do we set up monuments to ourselves in our minds by thinking that we are the reason we have a good job and good home and a family? Do we think that we have anything to do with the price of grain or the price of gas or do we remember that the battle belongs to the Lord?
When we are faced with life’s battles, do we just strap on the amour that society offers us - our education and experience - like the amour that Saul offered David in 17:38,39 and try to fight on our own strength? When we are faced with life’s battles, when we are deciding what to tell a friend, what classes to take, what crops to plant, what jobs to take; when we are faced with the battle of deciding what to do with the time and money we have been entrusted with– do we ask God? (really) Do we pray? Do we read the Bible when we are faced with challenges (like this one from Goliath)? Do we, like David, realise that the battle belongs to the Lord. Or, instead, like Saul, do we try to face life’s challenges purely on our own strength (cf. 1 Samuel 15)? God has given us our experiences, and our education and they are indeed as formidable as a stone in David’s sling but only if we remember that it is the Lord’s battle. We need to seek Him because, indeed, life’s battles do belong to the Lord.
In our text today that is made very clear in verses 46 and 47. David says to his foe, “This day the LORD will hand you over to me…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
It is not by the sword or the spear that the Lord saves. So this is the same in our world. We can have an education that is the equivalent of the king’s armour. If we don’t use it for God it really is useless. We can have as much money as a superpower spends on weapons. It means nothing if we don’t submit to the Lord.
So I know that life sends us many struggles. Everyday, some are facing a new Goliath. I know many people who are struggling with addiction in these parts. I know many friends who are struggling with serious health and family concerns. I know that there are those here that have real decisions to make about their children and real decisions to make about their life.
As this is true, as this is all true, I invite you. I implore you to remember that the battle belongs to the Lord. So then let us load up our slings with the stones of our crops, education, wealth of experience but let’s do so in faith. Remember, no matter how difficult life’s challenges are; no matter how big are the Goliaths in front of us; no matter what seemingly insurmountable difficulty we are facing today – as we turn to Him, as we turn to our Lord, through prayer and Bible study – as we turn to Him and He will be successful for indeed the battle belongs to the Lord.
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[1] Ronald F. Youngblood. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Pradis CD-ROM:1 and 2 Samuel. The death of Goliath (17:1-58), Book Version: 4.0.2: The purpose of such contests was "to obviate the necessity of a general engagement of troops which would spill more blood than necessary to resolve the dispute" (Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., "A Hittite Analogue to the David and Goliath Contest of Champions?" CBQ 30 [1968]: 220). Whether this kind of radical limitation on warfare is ever sincerely accepted by either side remains in itself a matter of dispute (for a nuanced treatment of the issue, cf. George I. Mavrodes, "David, Goliath, and Limited War," Reformed Journal 33, 8 [1983]: 6-8). It is clear, however, that contests of champions (to be carefully distinguished from duels, which are individual combats not representing larger groups) such as that between David and Goliath or between Menelaus and Paris (Homer Iliad bk. 3) were not uncommon in ancient times (for additional examples, see Hoffner, "A Hittite Analogue," pp. 220-25).
[2] Ibid.: By any standard of measure, the Philistine champion was a giant of a man (v.4). Some LXX MSS give his height as "four cubits and a span" (so also 1QSama; Jos. Antiq. VI, 171 [ix. 1]), others "five cubits and a span." The MT reads "six cubits and a span" (thus NIV mg.), making him "over nine feet tall." Other comparable heights in the OT are those of "an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet tall" (1 Chronicles 11:23) and Og king of Bashan, whose size is not specified but whose bed/sarcophagus was "more than thirteen feet long" (Deut 3:11). The MT account of Goliath's height is paralleled in modern times by reports concerning Robert Pershing Wadlow, who was eight feet eleven inches tall at the time of his death on July 15, 1940, at the age of twenty-two (Insight [18, 1985]: 51).
[3] There is much debate as to whether chapters 16 and 17 are placed chronologically in order or even if they both originate from the same source or were both originally about the same people for that matter.David was the light infantry as it were.
[3.5] John J. Davis and Herbert Wolf, note in Judges 20:16 in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan: 2002), p. 361. When I preach from the same text more than once I usually post only the original text. I added this one sentence because I think it is important.
[4] This may have contributed as well to David’s great speed in battle as he was not as encumbered with defensive amour as was Goliath.
[5] AA 12 Steps: http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/
[6] http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
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