King David and the Last Crusade

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 19:18-24 or 1 Samuel 19:1-24 (the whole story)

One of my favorite movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Aside from the awesomeness of having Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in the same movie, the Last Crusade does a good job reminding people that Jesus was a carpenter and not some rich guy who lived in a palace surrounded by luxury. Sean Connery's character, Dr. Jones the elder, is an academic who is appalled when his son uses violence to free him from his prison and shocked when Indy has to engage in impromptu acts of "daring do" in order to save them. A turning point for Dr. Jones the elder comes when he and Indy, on the run from the Nazis, are exposed on a beach with a jet bearing down on their position. Indy is out of ideas. Suddenly, the elder Dr. Jones pulls out his umbrella and begins stirring up a flock of gulls on the beach. The birds take to the sky, blocking the jet pilot's vision and ultimately causing the jet to crash into the side of a mountain.  Indy looks at his dad in shock while the older gentleman quotes Charlemagne: "Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky."

The Bible is full of very interesting escape situations like that scene on the beach, scenes where rescue comes in some very unexpected forms.  In 1 Samuel 19, King Saul begins his quest to kill David before the young man can ascend to his throne. David's wife, Saul's daughter Michal, helps David escape in the middle of the night, and David flees to Ramah where Samuel is living. When Saul finds out about it, Saul sends men to capture David. "But when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also began to prophesy" (1 Samuel 19: 20, NLT).  When Saul heard what had happened, Saul sent another set of troops who were also stopped by a fit of prophesying. Finally, Saul himself went to get David and Saul, too, was overcome by the Spirit of God and began prophesying, allowing David to escape.

This particular story isn't as well known as the time when David spared Saul's life in the cave or the time when David snuck into Saul's camp and took Saul's spear to demonstrate that, while he had the opportunity to kill Saul, David had no desire to kill Saul and was no threat to him. This particular story isn't as suspenseful as either of those two. David isn't the hero of the story. In fact, David appears almost helpless. Whereas the other two accounts are tense and exciting, this account is almost comical. David is saved because the Spirit of God causes Saul and his men to have an uncontrollable fit of prophesying. I mean, that's not the most exciting story I've ever heard.

But, in spite of its comedy and its less dramatic elements, I like this story more than the other two. You see, in this story, there is no moral choice for David to make. There is no false resolution where Saul pretends to change his mind in order to save his reputation. God stops Saul from killing David. Period. And he does it by causing Saul and his men to prophesy?

Sometimes, when we find ourselves in really tough situations, when we are scared more than we have ever been, when we are out of options and see no way of escape, God can use the most unexpected and extraordinary things to rescue us. God doesn't need an act of bravery or heroics.  God doesn't have to use powerful weapons or great feats of skill. God can use anything or nothing at all and still accomplish God's purposes.  God can provide a means of escape out of the weakest, most insignificant events or circumstances.

When we find ourselves in impossible situations, when it feels like there is no way out and nothing left that we can do, just remember that God can save us with absolutely nothing. Sometimes, God does exactly that just to remind us that He is God. God can rescue us whether we have any strength or not, whether we can help ourselves or not. Impossible situations are never impossible with God. 

Kindergartners and Falling Giants

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 17:20-49 or 1 Samuel 17:1-58 (the whole story)

In 1990, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a movie called Kindergarten Cop. A hardened, tough guy cop with no room for family and no sense of humor who, through a series of twists, ends up undercover, teaching a class full of kindergartners. If you've seen the movie, you can probably hear Arnold right now saying, "Eet's not a toomah!" At first, Arnold's character gets run over by the kids, he doesn't know how to handle their energy, their questions, or their unique outlook. At the end of the first day he falls onto his bed, face down, lamenting, "They're terrible!" It is only after the cop decides to handle the situation like a cop that he manages to get things under control. He turns the kindergarten class into a police academy, and structures things in a way that works for him. Soon, the kids love Arnold's tough guy character and Arnold ends up loving kindergarten, but only when he finally decides to use his own gifts and strengths and not try to teach kindergarten like everybody else.

In 1 Samuel 17, we find the story of David and Goliath, with which many of us are familiar. After David began asking around about what would happen for the person who fought Goliath (assuming that person survived), King Saul heard about David and had David brought before him. Once David convinced Saul to let him fight the Giant, Saul put David into his own battle suit (maybe he was hoping people would mistake David for himself) and gave David his own sword.  When David tried to move, he realized that going into battle dressed in Saul's armor would only get him killed and he told Saul, "I cannot go in these because I am not used to them"  (1 Samuel 17:39, NIV). David took off Saul's armor and then armed himself with the tools he knew he could use, his shepherd's staff, a sling, and five smooth stones.  Most of us know the story from there, how David went out to face Goliath, proclaiming that God would win the fight for him and then slung a stone into Goliath's forehead, knocking him out and allowing David to chop off Goliath's head with the giant's own sword.

What David and Arnold's cop/teacher have in common is that they both accomplished the task that was given to them, and they did so by using their own unique gifts and talents. We could learn a thing or two from that.

Far too often, we fall into the mindset that tasks can only be accomplished a particular way. We allow other people to tell us how to do what God has called us to do or, worse yet, we try to tell other people how to do what God has called them to do. The problem is, when God calls a person, he calls that person, with all of their strengths and weaknesses,  flaws and gifts. If God has called you to something, God has called you. God wants you to use the gifts and abilities that have been given to you.

When you feel like you're being pushed into a corner because people are putting their own armor on you, have the guts to say, "I can't go in these because I am not used to them." God may have called you because your own unique way of doing things is exactly what the situation requires. A normal soldier with a sword and shield would never have gotten close enough to Goliath to take him down. David wasn't a normal soldier, but he knew what he was good at.

Are you trying to wear someone else's armor? Try accomplishing the task you've been given as if it was designed specifically for you. It probably was. 

Moral and Ethical Subroutines

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 28:3-18

In the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, there is a very interesting contrast between one of the Enterprise crew members and a Starfleet Admiral. Data, the android second officer of the Enterprise is injured and his moral and ethical subroutines kick-in. In essence, these subroutines cause Data to have a hyper-sensitivity to right and wrong so that no one can take advantage of him in his injured state. Another crew member described his condition as, in essence, being able only to act on the difference between right and wrong. Data is foiled against a Starfleet Admiral who, because he thinks it is necessary for the survival of the Federation, violates the Federation's most sacred law. I don't know that the writers set up this comparison on purpose but they effectively posed the question, "When circumstances get tough, do you abandon your morals for the sake of survival or cling to them even more?"

Toward the end of 1 Samuel, we see a similar choice made by King Saul. Saul and the prophet Samuel have not gotten along well since early in the king's reign. Now Samuel has died and the king is facing a significant battle against the Philistines and is terrified at his prospects. In the middle of the story, the narrator informs us that Saul had gotten rid of all of the mediums and spiritists in the land. Now, whatever Saul's reasons were for doing so, removing those who practiced the occult from the land  was the right thing to do according to the law of Moses. But facing this important battle against the Philistines, Saul's nerves are rattled. Saul has tried consulting the Lord about what to do but God is not answering. Even with Samuel's hostility toward the king, Saul would gladly have consulted with Samuel but the prophet is dead. So, Saul decides he has only one option: Saul disguises himself and tracks down a medium so that she can speak to Samuel in the grave and ask the prophet what to do. When Samuel actually appears, Saul complains, "The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He doesn't answer me anymore, either through the prophets or in dreams. So I've called on you to tell me what I should do" (1 Samuel 28:15, HCSB). Samuel essentially responds by asking what Saul expects Samuel to do if God has abandoned him.

Saul's reign was never one marked by righteousness. In many ways, removing the mediums and spiritists from the land was the moral highlight of Saul's reign. But when things got tough, Saul abandoned the single moral achievement of his reign and turned to the very occult he tried to remove from the land.  Saul did not lose his kingship because of this decision but this kind of decision reinforced the reasons for why God had already chosen to remove Saul as king.

When things get tough in our own lives, how often does doing the right thing become a casualty of survival? Money is tight at home and so we hold back our tithe or decide its ok to "borrow" something from the office or "modify" our tax return. We realize that a personal mistake could harm our relationship with our spouse or with our parents so we choose to lie and hide the truth rather than deal with it. We discover we simply don't have enough time to do all the things we need to so we steal time from our family, hoping that they will forgive us down the road. We fear that our status at the workplace may suffer if people find out about our faith, so we choose not to tell people about the hope that we have in Christ. When times get tough, doing the right thing gets tossed out the window.

What tough decisions are you facing today? Are you considering abandoning what is right because you are more likely to get through your circumstances without suffering? Are you considering cheating, just this once, because you know that doing the right thing might cost you or make things very uncomfortable for you? Character isn't measured by how often we do the right thing, but by how often we do the right thing when it might hurt us to do so.

When Saul got scared, he abandoned what was right and he died anyway. What about you? When things get tough, will you compromise, hoping it will make things better? Or will you choose to do the right thing and trust God with the consequences?  When circumstances scare you, will you abandon biblical morals for the sake of survival or cling to them even more?