Spirit Led (1 Samuel 17: 26-47, Romans 8: 14-17) 5/19/13

Spirit Led

 1 Samuel 17: 26-47, Romans 8: 14-17

            In ancient, biblical Near Eastern literature, a champion is a man who steps out to fight between the two battle lines. Sometimes a champion would fight on behalf of his entire people. It was a gamble. It was winner take all, so you had to have a lot of confidence in your champion’s ability. Such was the case for the Philistine army encamped at the Valley of Elah in the time of King Saul of Israel. The Philistines had a champion. His name was Goliath. He was six cubits and a span tall. In today’s measurements, that’s 9 feet 9 inches tall. His armor was made of bronze and weighed 125 pounds. His shield was 10 feet tall and he had an extra man just to carry it. Just the tip of his spear weighed 15 pounds. It was mounted on a shaft described as like a weaver’s beam. This guy had some serious size and some serious armor and weapons.

          Goliath came out from the ranks of the Philistines and shouted to the army of Israel, challenging them to send their champion to do battle with him. Scripture tells us that Saul and all Israel were dismayed and greatly afraid. One might ask at this point what the big deal is. Just say no and go to war with your army. Well, we are not told the numbers, but I’m thinking this was not really a good option for Saul. He must have been outnumbered and out weaponed and he probably knew it. He also was out of favor with God. The previous passage tells us that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. He even sent for this teenage shepherd, the youngest son of Jesse. The kid was pretty good on the lyre, a musical instrument sort of like today’s flute. When he played the lyre, it soothed Saul. The kid’s name was David.

          Goliath came out every day for forty days and made his challenge to the Israelites. As God would have it, Jesse sent young David to the front lines to take cheese and grain to his older brothers in Saul’s army. Apparently, the armies were about to go to war when David showed and heard the challenge of Goliath. The teenager speaks up: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Word travels fast about the young man. David is sent to King Saul, where he volunteers to be Israel’s champion. Saul is unimpressed, but David does a little resume building. He has killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands. That is, says David, the Lord delivered him from the paw of both the bear and the lion.  And Saul said to David: “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

Now Saul himself is a seasoned warrior with lots of notches in his war belt. But Saul has broken faith with God and he isn’t feeling all that good about his chances. Was Saul impressed with David? Did Saul hear God’s voice again?  It’s really hard to tell from the text. Maybe he just didn’t want to be responsible for all that death about to happen to his people.

So Saul tries to equip David with his own helmet and armor and sword. David tried them on, but they just didn’t feel right. He ended up swapping them out for five smooth stones and a sling. Now David still carried his staff, and might have been lucky for him that he did. That’s what Goliath focused on, and maybe he didn’t notice the sling that David carried in his other hand. The Philistine hurls some insults at David and David responds. David says “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts…This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand…For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

You know the rest. Even Goliath’s size and his bronze armor could not protect him. The Scripture says that the Philistine was struck on the forehead. Surely his helmet was on. Did David hit the one square inch exposed? Did the power of his sling throw cause the stone to penetrate the bronze helmet? It hardly matters, for David was right. The battle belonged to the Lord. David, already secretly God’s anointed, was just the messenger.

In the eighth chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul writes the Church in Rome, probably while he is in Corinth during his third missionary journey. Paul wants the church to know of God’s saving mercy. He says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  Yes, if we are his God’s children, then we will suffer as Christ did. But we will also be glorified with him. You can almost hear the sound of David in the background saying “the Lord will deliver you.”

There is no other glory. Christians understand that there is the glory of God, and there is death. David said to the Philistines: you have defiled God’s army and you cannot stand. Paul said to the Romans and to us as Christians: Don’t fall back into the fear and slavery of sin. You are adopted. You are in the family. You are fellow heirs with Christ. Dare to let yourselves be led by the Spirit. There is no need to fear, for glory awaits.

In the old story of David and Goliath, we learn of a champion that would act for his people. The Philistine’s champion is Goliath. Israel’s champion is….no…not David. It is God himself. God is the champion of Israel. God is the champion of his people. From time to time, people are called upon to act as God’s messengers to a task or an event. David was one of those people. He, like Paul, was led by the Spirit of God.

David had the good sense to realize the source of his power. It didn’t come from armor or man made weapons. David’s power came from the courage to follow God’s will and to trust in the Lord to equip him with the tools to both do the task at hand and to deliver him from danger.

All of the time, people are called upon to be led by the Spirit of God. But we have to come to the task in humility and obedience. We have to recognize the source of our power. God will give us the tools we need to do the task at hand. We just celebrated Mother’s Day. Ask any Christian mother about the source of her power. This next week, we will celebrate Memorial Day and honor those among our number who gave all they had for our country. They gave that last full measure of devotion out of duty and a love of country. For those who now live with God, they also acted with the trust that God would deliver them. And he did. Ask any Christian soldier the source of his or her power. They too are Spirit led.

Never, ever fear to follow where God leads. Every one of us can be God’s champion. If we believe, we are adopted. If we are adopted, we are heirs. If we are heirs, God will deliver us. He promised.