Sunday 5Jul09: 1 Samuel 17: 1 - 58 HCSB
More than twenty years ago, when I was an English Teacher in a small village school in Pahang, my Senior Assistant, Cikgu Mat Din, told me about his experience with the Japanese Army during the Japanese occupation of Malaya in the early 1940s. He and a few friends from his village were ordered to teach Bahasa Melayu to a high ranking Japanese Army officer, who offered to teach them Karate in return.
On the first day of Karate training, Cikgu Mat Din and his friends were told to bring a dog to the training centre. Very reluctantly, as it was against their religion to touch dogs, they were forced on pain of death to obey their Japanese commander and brought a hungry looking dog with a rather bad temper. The lesson for that day was simple:
They just watched their Japanese commander kill the dog . . . with his bare hands!
When I heared Cikgu Mat Din's story, I had a better idea of how well-trained the Japanese army were. This reminded me of an OT character who had similar training as a young man. He is David, the man who defeated Goliath.
"Why did you come down here? Who did you leave the sheep with?"
David's eldest brother, Eliab, scolded him for coming to the front line and asking questions about Goliath. For the past 40 days, nobody had dared to step forward to accept Goliath's challenge. It appeared that Israel was headed for defeat and disgrace.
Then came David. He offered to fight Goliath, the daunting giant.
"Don't let anyone be discouraged by him; your servant will go and fight this Philistine!" v.32
He was just a youth. A ruddy and good looking "young boy". His father had merely sent him to the frontline to bring some grain and bread for his brothers who were fighting in the Israelite army, not to fight the Philistines. Nobody was convinced that he could be THE one to step forward and take on the fearsome giant.
King Saul was sceptical. David was "just a youth" while giant Goliath had been a warrior since he was young.
Goliath despised and cursed David, and perhaps felt somewhat insulted that Israel sent a young boy to fight him.
When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a youth, healthy and handsome. He said to David, "Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?" Then he cursed David by his gods. "Come here," the Philistine called to David, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!"
v. 42 - 44
David eventually killed Goliath with just one sling shot. The stone sank into Goliath's forehead and he fell forward, facedown to the ground.
What was the secret behind David's courage? It was combat training: a special type of elite commando training which none of his brothers in the regular army had undergone before. Verses 34 - 36 tells us that David ran after lions and bears that came to attack his flock. He would strike them down and rescue his sheep. He would grab them by their fur, strike and kill them.
"The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." v37
None of his brothers were aware of this. There was probably no other soldier nor officer in the Israelite army that day who had undergone such elite combat training. And when David stepped forward to face Goliath, he had the capability, and the presence of the LORD, to kill the giant.
Dear Christians, sometimes God puts us through difficult combat training. We may have to undergo similar training like David, to learn to rescue sheep and lambs from the mouth of lions and bears, running after them, striking them down, pulling their whiskers and neutralising them. The difficulties and struggles we face in life can be likened to "lions and bears'', which are meant to prepare us for some final showdown with a Goliath later on.
Let us take our combat training seriously. God who rescues us from the paws of lions and bears will one day rescue us from the hand of giants!
