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Sermon:"God is Our General" |
1 Samuel 17:32-50
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| This past May, we celebrated Memorial Day. This is a holiday that began almost
150 years ago to honor the soldiers who fought in our Civil War, which killed over 600,000 people.
In these last 150 years, over a million more men and women have died for our country. It is important to honor their sacrifice
and to remember the pain and suffering that war has caused for all those who lost loved ones.
But that pain and sacrifice in not just in the past. On this Memorial Day, we are honoring the 4,000 men and women who died in Iraq these last five years. The Iraq war has lasted longer than our Civil War, World War I or World War II. What is worse is that no end is in sight. No one seems to even know how the war could end without a bloodbath and things being worse in Iraq than they originally were under Saddam Hussein. The Bible is not just a guide for our personal lives. It is also God’s word for our country. Like us the Israelites were in many wars, one of the worst lasted over 200 years. They were fighting for their survival against their neighbors, the Philistines. One of the most decisive battles ended in a way that no one ever expected. The Philistines and the Israelites had gathered their armies on the opposite edges of a valley, just 12 miles west of Bethlehem. Instead of attacking one another, the Philistines offered the Israelites a quick and rather bloodless way to end the war. Their strongest man would fight the strongest Jewish soldier. If the Philistine won, then the Israelites would become their slaves. If the Israelite won, then the Philistines would become their slaves. The Philistine champion was a man named Goliath, who was at least a foot taller than any Israelite and weighed about 100 lbs more. None of the Jews wanted to face him in combat. None, except a young boy, who had come to the battlefield to bring some food to his older brothers. When David heard Goliath mocking the Jews and their God for being cowards, without thinking, David found himself volunteering to do the impossible. We read in 1 Samuel 17: 34 “David said to Saul, ‘Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ Saul said to David, ‘ You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ David was only 12 years old and had never even learned to throw a spear or wield a sword. He was a farm kid, who played the harp and took care of the sheep. He was short, thin and knew nothing about fighting. But David was not thinking of his own strength when he volunteered to fight Goliath. He was thinking about the power of God that had been with him whenever he fought those who would try to kill his father’s sheep. David was not afraid. He knew that God was with him. “But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.’ David said, ‘The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.’” David put his trust not in himself, but in God. Just as God had saved him from the enemies of the past, God would save him from this giant of an enemy. During the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean Battle and even Vietnam War, our country prayed constantly to God for to end the war and bring our soldiers home. Our country had regular days of National Prayer for Peace. The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which we just sang, was written in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War and has been sung for every war since. It is a plea for the Lord to bring victory and end the war. There is not a word about how strong we are or how righteous we are. What matters is not our strength, but God’s. Julia Ward Howe was inspired by David’s confidence in God’s power to overcome our enemies. Even King Saul is moved by David’s absolute trust in God. “ So Saul said to David, ‘Go, and may the Lord be with you!’ Then Saul tried to help David win the war in the same way that so many leaders have tried to win wars. Saul provided David with all the armor and weapons he had. “We read, 38 Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, ‘I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them. So David removed them’ Many nations have made the same mistake Saul did. They put their trust in their fire power. But you cannot win a war with just weapons of mass destruction. We had superior weapons in Korea and in Vietnam. We could and did destroy many villages and cities. But we could not win the war with our weapons, just as we cannot win the war now in Iraq with our superior fire power. What matters is not how powerful we are, but how much we depend upon God. David had very little fire power. We read, “Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.” David did not need to have a heavy sword or a long spear. All he needed was his old sling shot and the Lord. “ The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.’ Goliath ridiculed David for depending on God. He tried to intimidate David, but David knew that God was with him. He stood his ground. “But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. his very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’ When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, striking down the Philistine and killing him; there was no sword in David’s hand.” David did not fight Goliath to show that he was strong or superior. He fought Goliath for God’s sake and with God’s power. And God saved the Israelites from becoming slaves of the Philistines because they trusted in a young boy who trusted in God. In 1986, the people of the Philippines were struggling under the 20 years of Ferdinand Marcos’ bloody control of their country. Marcos and his glamorous wife, Imelda, had stolen million of dollars from the country and killed anyone who opposed them. One of the people they murdered was Ninoy Aquino, who had returned from exile to try to work out a peaceful solution to the growing call for a civil war. Marcos had him gunned down at the airport as he got off the plane. Aquino’s wife, Corazon, and his supporters refused to take up guns against the Marcos followers. Instead they began nonviolent prayer vigils and demonstrations throughout the country. Over 200,000 Filipino civilians as well as several political, military, and religious leaders joined in the prayer services. Marcos ordered the army to fire at the people as they knelt in the streets before the tanks. But the soldiers refused. Finally in desperation, Ferdinand and Imelda fled the country, leaving behind Imelda’s 3,000 pairs of shoes. The Filipino people did not depend on their own strength to win their freedom. They did not try to buy the most powerful weapons of mass destruction to defeat Marcos’ army. They trusted in God and God defeated one of the cruelest and longest dictators in the modern world, just as God defeated the ruling class in South Africa and tore down the Berlin Wall without anyone firing a shot. Perhaps what we need to end the war in Iraq is not another surge of men and women who will die in that far off land. What we need is to depend on God to end that war and every war. We need to be praying daily for the end of the war. It is our war, even if it does not seem to affect us personally. Those brave men and women are dying for us. We need to be praying for them and for God to bring peace in God’s own way. Not by our might or power, but by the power of the Lord. Let us pray…. |
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The New Beginnings Christian Community
An American Baptist Church Worship Site: Clark School, 1000 Belmont Ave. Office: 1515 Stoney Creek Drive Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 872-0800 Contact Us |
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