Where are God’s warriors today?
People who will stand up and say, “Hey! What are you doing!?” Or, “Hey! Why are you just sitting there!?”
Most church people are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. An often overlooked part of the narrative is not the actual slaying of Goliath but David’s comments when he arrived in the camp of the army of Israel as Goliath was spouting forth his daily vitriol. All the trained “soldiers” were looking down at their feet while Goliath mocked them and their God. David, who had only come to bring some food for his brothers who were in the army, looked around after Goliath’s challenge went unanswered another day and said, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26).
Somebody needed to say what everyone was already thinking but too embarrassed to vocalize. In essence what David the shepherd boy was saying was, “All of you hear that slander against our God every day and no one does anything about it?” Shamed by David’s willingness to say what was obvious, his brothers told him to shut up and go home to the flocks.
It is really important to bear in mind that David was not a war hero yet when he looked around and said what he did to all the trained servicemen. As a matter of fact he wasn’t even in the army at that point! He was just an observer willing to state the obvious in a hostile environment. And look what happened (if you don’t know, pick up your Bible and read 1 Samuel chapter 17).
Where are God’s warriors today?
Like David’s brothers, many of them are looking at their shoes while the LGBT crowd is screaming at them in defiance. Many others are actually joining in with the Philistine army mocking and ostracizing those that oppose their champion. And, of course, David’s brothers are still among us telling the one who actually has the temerity to speak what is blatantly obvious to go back home and tend the sheep leaving the real work to them (which they know they are not doing nor will do).
Where are God’s warriors today?
Can you imagine how awkward it was for David to say what he said in the middle of an army of men who were ashamed of their own cowardice? “What are you doing?!” “Why isn’t anyone taking his challenge?!” “He doesn’t even know God!” “He’s cursing our God and everyone just stands there?”
That is really what the problem is isn’t it? Evil is rising up greeting the men and women of God at dawn every single day shouting insults, issuing challenges, and daring any of us step forward to do something about it. And we’ve become so narcissistic, so self-absorbed, and so ashamed of our cowardice we won’t even stand up to support the few voices out there that are actually confronting the enemies of God.
The LGBT voice is so evil and livid we have Christians who have joined in the chorus of catcalls over states that are trying to legally protect little girls from grown men who believe it is their right to relieve themselves in the presence of children. We have Christians standing outside state capitols protesting legislation designed to protect Christian businesses that do not want to be fined or punished for declining to participate in homosexual unions.
Where are God’s warriors today?
Atheists and secularists threaten the people of God every day with lawsuits and even arrests for nativity scenes, crosses in public venues, and prayers prayed on school grounds or city council meetings.
Where are God’s warriors today?
University professors call for “some muscle” to limit free speech and take pleasure in calling out and intimidating Christian students for their religious convictions.
Where are God’s warriors today?
Television shows routinely mock and ridicule Christianity. Hardly any of these shows ever make the networks any money. Yet season after season they roll them out for laughs. You can’t even watch a sports event or a newscast with your children anymore without being assaulted by commercials hawking pills to create a desire for sex or remedy a sexual dysfunction.
Where are God’s warriors today?
We have become King Saul’s army. Today’s American church gets up every morning listening to the profanity, threats, and crude humor directed at the Christ of God and His disciples…and does nothing.
Basically, the American church seems set on stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that anyone or anything is against her. The first sentence of 1 Samuel 17 states very simply: “Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle.” Hey churchgoer…have you looked around lately? We’re surrounded by venomous LGBT activists, antagonistic atheists, vitriolic academics, Christian bashers, God haters, Muslim sympathizers, BlackLivesMatter hate groups, and government officials who are hell bent on stripping away every last vestige of Christian heritage and religious freedom from us.
God didn’t send an archangel or His Son to do battle with Goliath. He waited for someone, anyone, to stand up and say, “What are we doing? Why are we just sitting here listening to this garbage?” And after all the jeers and ridicule David had to endure from both sides, there he stood face to face with Goliath and what did he say to him? “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, who you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand…” (1 Samuel 17:45-46).
David did not wake up that morning with a strategy for becoming famous or killing Goliath. But he was a warrior. And God’s warriors don’t look down at their feet while His enemies insult Him and seek to destroy that which He loves.
You know how you can be a champion for God? Years later as David reflected on his life in the Psalms he told us. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2). God’s champions often start off the same way. They simply say, without fear of the consequence, what everyone else already knows but is afraid to say. Are you a member of Saul’s army? Or the army of the Lord of hosts?
