This week we will turn our attention to the most famous military engagement of the ancient Israelite kingdom: David and Goliath, the young Hebrew boy going toe-to-toe with the giant Philistine warrior.
This story is familiar to many people, with the giant taunting the young boy who then hurls a stone from a slingshot that catches Goliath right between the eyes. Over the years, it has been most often told as an illustration of appropriate faith. With God, all things are possible. So in the face of insurmountable odds, and defying all logic, the young boy, who wears no armor and carries no sword or shield, but confident in his trust in God's power, faces down the great Philistine champion, who lets down his guard and gets defeated.
To some extent there's a lot of wisdom in this interpretation. We should always be aware that God acts in strange ways sometimes, choosing unlikely representatives and unlikely places and times. If we have faith in God, we should be eager to see God's hand in our lives, and we should pay special attention to the unconventional ways God may reach out to us.
But sometimes this reading of the story can get us into problems, when we fail to see God's hand in the world -- or specifically, when we fail to see God's hand in our lives when we face challenges. And then we sometimes chastise ourselves, and think that we must have no faith because God does not act for us.
That could be true, but I think that's a rather limited understanding of faith. In fact, there's a deeper faith at work in this story, one man's great faith, that I think is the more important lesson of this story. This man's faith, which represents an entire nation's faith, suggests important lessons not only for our personal faith, but for our shared faith.
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2 comments:
Might the moral also be that of leverage and including important but less obvious factors into the analysis? Random chance certainly has a role - viz, Neville Chamberlain's analysis was wrong, but led to the right actions at the right time when viewed in retrospect. I wonder if God's "intervention" isn't more subtle than filling David with some sort of supernatural strength and resolve. Perhaps He gave David a lever and the heart to use it, and let physics and physiology do the rest.
Or, to cite Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger Code (who here remembers that?), God put the firewood there, but Man has to gather it and start the fire himself.
Roger-the-Heretic
Welcome back !! I am so glad to be able to read what is going on at CCC again. I really missed it. See you Sunday
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