By whose rules are you playing II?

I Samuel 17 8-9

“Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, ‘Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.“

In any contest, the rules have to be agreed upon by both sides before the contest starts. In athletic competitions, there are rulebooks and regulations to ensure that everyone starts off on a level playing field. No coach or player is allowed to change the rules mid-game to benefit their own team. We see this enforced from the professional level all the way down to pre-school. If a game of tag is initiated on the playground and no tag-backs are called as a rule and agreed upon by all contestants; that rule stands as law for the duration of the game. There are organizations that exist solely to enforce the rules of college and professional competitions.

War is a whole different animal. Circumventing the “rules” is often what decides a winner or loser in a war. There have always been people or societies that have tried to normalize or regulate the rules of engagement, but innovation and desperation have always been the keys to victory. The atom bomb, the submarine, the tank, sneak attacks, surprise allies; all of these things have changed the direction and outcome of wars throughout history.

This same dynamic was playing out in the Israelites impending battle with the Philistines in I Samuel 17. Both armies were encamped on adjacent mountains with the valley of Elah between them. Neither army was willing to commit their forces to an uphill battle on the opposite mountain. The Philistines’ solution to this was to send their combat champion, Goliath into the valley to challenge any single fighter from Israel. The terms of this one-on-one battle, while not unheard of in this time, were certainly not advantageous to Israel.  Why would Israel choose to submit to rules that are heavily skewed toward the enemy?  Goliath was a giant from the land of Gath. He stood nearly 10 feet tall and wore armor that would weigh a normal man to the ground. Intimidation was the name of the game for Goliath. He was very confident in his hand to hand combat skills. He also had perfected the art of blistering insults and scathing curses. By his speech alone, he was capable of a ferocity that wounded the ego of every soldier in the Israel camp. In addition, His immensity and prowess left little room in the imagination for what would happen to any soldier that tried to go toe-to-toe with him. The result was an entire army that was immobilized with fear, wounded pride, and visions of slavery to the Philistines. So why would the Israelites submit to these rules. The same reason we choose to play by our enemy’s rules day after day; fear, pride, and lack of vision.

It is very easy for us to judge the Israelites knowing how the story ended. However, don’t we do the same kind of thing every day? We simply roll over and let our enemy dictate the rules and we just take it. David was outraged when he heard the things Goliath was saying about his people and especially about his God. He demanded to know why everyone was allowing this enemy soldier to blaspheme God and His armies. His brothers became angry with him for calling their cowardice and lack of faith into the light. We tend to get irritated too when someone tries to speak life and faith to us because we don’t want to upset the status quo or have our fear called out and recognized. The Israelites became so focused on playing the enemy’s game by the enemy’s rules that they forgot to trust in God. Goliath was a big man, but what is any man compared to God? Their vision had been directed at what their enemy wanted them to see. We also let the enemy narrow our vision down to a small point that he is able to direct at any distraction in which he desires us to focus. We then meekly accept any trial or problem that enters our life because that is all we can see. We even mask our fear as hyper spirituality.

We have our go-to phrases like “Everything happens for a reason”, or “This is my cross to bear”, or my favorite “God works in mysterious ways”. Those phrases reveal one of two things about us: either we don’t know what the Word says about our authority as sons and daughters of the King, or we are afraid to evoke our authority because we don’t trust in God to be faithful to His Word. Either scenario isn’t a good representation of what a Christian is supposed to look like. God doesn’t promise us perfect lives, but He does promise us victory over every obstacle that is in our path. Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Don’t water down the Word of God to match your experiences! Let’s elevate our experiences to match the Word!

David did not play by Goliath’s rules. He had no intention of fighting him hand-to-hand. David was a slinger (that was the Hebrew term for one who was proficient with a slingshot). This was no kid’s toy David was wielding, but a greatly feared weapon in the right hands. Goliath’s confidence was towering when he first saw David coming out to meet him, but I’m quite positive that confidence was quickly shattered when David started running and spinning his sling. Goliath probably knew at that point, if David was even slightly proficient as a slinger, he was as good as dead. When the enemy sees that we refuse to play by the rules that he has set forth, and we are using God’s word as a weapon against him, he loses his swagger.

God has promised us triumph over everything the devil can possibly throw at us. There is no disease, no financial setback, and no attack of despair or depression that is part of God’s will for us. We should never just “sit back and take it.” Rules created and enforced by the enemy are never good rules by which to play. So by whose rules are you playing?