“And that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” - 1 Sam 17:47
These are the words of the young David just before he took out that stone and slung it into Goliath's head. And we all know the outcome, right? Pow! The rock nails its target and the giant is defeated. The little guy takes down the big guy. David and Goliath has become synonymous with the underdog story, and who doesn't love an underdog story? But are we sure that we're getting the point of this Biblical narrative?
We often look at this story and see ourselves or our cause as David and whatever we're up against is Goliath. Maybe it's the battle with a government agency or big business. Or is it the battle that we have within our own circle? Do we get into conflicts between, say, Tech and Music? Lights and Sound? Do the conflicts heat up under the added stress of preparing for our Christmas productions? These are not David and Goliath battles. It's time that we shift our perspective and see the real battlefield.
We get a clue when we go to the beginning of David's words in this passage:
“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a 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.” - 1 Samuel 17:45
The problem was not that this guy was big and the men of Israel were small. The problem, as David points out, is that this guy has defied God. The original word specifically means to taunt or blaspheme. In other words, Goliath was speaking against God and not just once. This big dude was doing it day after day. That's what got David riled up. It was David's perspective on the battle that we need to focus on. He said the “battle is the Lord's.”
What if we began to see our conflicts that way? Without crossing the line into becoming a holier-than-thou zealot, we start thinking of our conflicts as the Lord's. First, that would change our attitude of what was worth fighting for. I mean, is that conflict that I have with the sound guy a “Lord's battle” kind of thing? Chances are good that we're both believers and this is just something that we need to compromise on.
Second, and this is important, we need to stop seeing people as an enemy. We often find ourselves becoming engaged in the “us vs. them” thinking. For example, it's soon to be the holiday season and our church is going to put on some special presentation. We get into a beef with the worship leader because he “just doesn't understand” what the tech team does. That does not mean that we are on opposite sides of a battle. The worship leader has not become Goliath.
The chances are real good that we all are envisioning the same outcome - to magnify the Birth of the Savior. We each come from different perspectives but don't make this a battle of good and evil. Think about the words of Paul from the New Testament:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6:12
Paul says that there is a conflict and there is an enemy, but it's not the worship leader, the sound tech or the technical director. The battle that we are engaged in is a spiritual one, just like David saw. Our enemy is clearly defined and it is not “flesh and blood.” In other words, our adversary is not a human being. So maybe it's time to drop our fists and stop fighting with each other.
And since we're going there, what did Jesus says about how to engage our enemy:
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” - Matthew 5:44
If you are in the middle of a conflict, have you tried praying for that person? I don't mean the “smash the teeth of my enemy” kind of prayer either. I mean have you asked God to open your eyes to this person? Have you asked God to help you love them? How about asking simply that you become a blessing to this person? I know those are all counter-intuitive statements in today's culture, but that is what Jesus was saying to His disciples.
I can assure you that everyone of us is either just coming out of a conflict, right now in a conflict, or about to enter one. Let's begin today to start putting everything in the proper perspective: Every battle as the Lord's; Every person as not a Goliath; And our first reaction should be to pray.
