When the Chips are Stacked Against Us - We Have to Keep Our Heads!

Osmar Schindler's David und Goliath

In several ways, the Western World seems to be losing its mind.  The culture is turning against its foundations in natural law and Judeo-Christian morality.  With the national news only a couple of hours behind us, Brennan (age 11) and I read the story of David and Goliath for the first time.  Brennan has known the story since childhood, from religious books for kids; but this was his first reading of the story from Scripture.  And there is so much there for an 11 year-old boy to love!

[David] took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine ...  David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.  So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.  David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. (1 Sam.17:40, 45-51)

What lesson do I take, do I want my son to take, from David?

1. Remember that the battles we are facing in our culture - battles which are sure to multiply in the years ahead - are not ours; they are the Lord's.
2. And because the battle is the Lord's we must engage in it always cognizant that we are His representatives.  We must avoid taking personal offense when we are attacked and misrepresented; these wrongs are ultimately done not to us, but to Jesus.  (What an honor for us to suffer for Him!)
3. Like David, we can go forward boldly, knowing that we are speaking the Truth.  It is logical; it makes sense.  (That doesn't mean it will be respected or recognized though.)
4. David did not go against Goliath using the giant's type of weaponry - sword, spear, javelin.  No, David approached him with a staff (symbolizing Christ's love, teaching, and authority) and a sling with five stones (Jesse Romero tells people they represent the Rosary with its five decades).

Christ has equipped us with more powerful weapons than David!  Because "the battle is the Lord's" we conduct ourselves, as St. Paul taught, "with innocence, knowledge, and patience, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love as men with the message of truth and the power of God; wielding the weapons of righteousness with right hand and left, whether honored or dishonored, spoken of well or ill” (2 Cor.6:6-8).  

In the heat of the moment, don't go "losing your head" - that's a Goliath thing to do, not a David/Jesus thing.
    

Cheating Spouses & God's Providence

A really good friend of mine was telling me about a Bible study for men that he attended, where they looked at King David's adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, as a cautionary tale.  David was the only man that Scripture ever refers to as "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22) and yet, he later succumbed to the sin of adultery.  His lust burned to the point that he had her husband placed in a dangerous situation in battle, an act that brought about his death.  David was punished for his sin; God removed his protective hand and let David experience what a life apart from Him was like.  (It got pretty ugly - for David, his family, and his kingdom.)  The lesson of course is not to presume on your own strength.  Do not place yourself in tempting situations, and when you feel a twinge of lust don't allow it to take root and grow.  Call out to God at that very instant to untangle the knots starting to work their way through your soul.  Ask for the grace to look at that beautiful woman the same way that God does.  

There is another lesson as well, and this is the kind of thing that can only be seen in hindsight ... how God weaves even our sins into His plan to bring about salvation, our ultimate good.  David and Bathsheba, you see, became the parents of Solomon and one of Solomon's descendants was ... that's right, Jesus!  David and Bathsheba came together in the darkest way imaginable and yet, their son Solomon had always been in God's mind, always intended as a blessing to Israel (within his own lifetime), and then the entire world (through his descendant, Jesus).

What am I trying to say - that God willed the sin of David and Bathsheba to bring about some greater good?  Of course not!  What David did was evil, the exact opposite of what God desired.  It was horrible and even though David repented and God forgave him, David was still required to pay a temporal price for his sin.  (You and I are for our sins as well.  See here and here, for more.)

What I am saying is that we have a God Who is bigger than our sin, Who is not limited by it.  He sees our sins, our free choices to go against His will; and then in His own utterly incredible way He weaves even those sinful choices into His plans.  He is never the author of the evils we perpetrate; but He is the author of the good He is able to create out of our atrocities - the child conceived through adultery, fornication, or even a sin as despicable as rape - that child that, no matter how he or she was conceived, has been woven into God's plan to bless the world.  Only God, only God, can do this.  He stands outside of space and time and meets our freedom to sin with His own freedom to bless.

So whatever you are dealing with, whatever frustration or injustice - a cheating spouse, an act of violence, an illness, whatever it is - remember that Your Father loves You and that beyond all of our understanding, He is able to weave even this into His eternal plan to save you and this world.  That is our Faith.  It's written right there in Jesus' family tree (Mt. 1:6-7).

"O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! ...We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose."  (Rom. 11:33; 8:28)