A leader of giant slayers: Part 5 (Final)

David chose liberty over conformity

King Saul finally consented and permitted David to go fight with Goliath. But before David left, Saul insisted in clothing David with his own armor. “Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor.” (1 Samuel 17:38) Yet David was not used to the armor nor the sword that King Saul gave him, so he refused to wear them into battle. “So David said to Saul, ‘I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.’ And David took them off.” (1 Samuel 17:39) Instead, David chose his own weapons, weapons that were familiar to him, and went to face Goliath.

In almost every area of our lives, there is an incredible pressure to conform. King Saul wanted David to conform to how he thought a battle should be fought. From the King’s perspective, you had to have armor and a sword. Even in our churches today, we place a premium on conformity. Someone once said that the eight most deadly words that can be spoken in church are, “We have never done it that way before.” Unfortunately, when people live under the conformity of traditions, rituals, and religion, they almost never seize the opportunity to slay a giant. Instead of victory, they settle for status quo.

The pressure to conform is so that the rest of us can feel better about ourselves. In the first century church, there were those who were insisting that the gentiles be circumcised. Paul writes of their motives, “Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.” (Galatians 6:12-13) As long as no one else is willing to fight a giant then we don’t feel so bad about our own fear and unwillingness to fight, but when someone steps forward and accepts the challenge, then it makes us question our own heart and motives. When David stepped forward to fight Goliath, his actions exposed the faithlessness and ineptness of the rest to trust God and to win against His enemies. I always wondered why the Jewish elite were so offended when Jesus healed on the Sabbath. There was the case where Jesus healed the man with the withered hand. “But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, ‘There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” (Luke 13:14) Their offense was not due to it being the Sabbath but because the works of Jesus exposed their own powerlessness and their own faithlessness before God. They were the religious leaders and yet here was an ordinary man doing what they themselves could not do.

Of all the forces trying to get us to conform, the most oppressive is that of dead religion. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, even though he had been warned by the Holy Spirit not to go (Acts 21:4). A prophet named Agabus warned Paul of what was waiting him in Jerusalem. “And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says: “In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.”’” (Acts 21:11) Agabus said that it would be the Jews that would bind Paul, yet when Paul was arrested in the temple, it was the Romans who bound him (Acts 21:33). What the Holy Spirit was saying was that, while the Romans would bind Paul physically, the Jews would bind him in his heart. Why was Paul in the temple that day? It was because of the counsel of James,

“You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.” (Acts 21:20-24)

Paul yielded to James’ wish that he portray himself as a law abiding Jew, even to the point of offering sacrifices in the temple, even though he knew that Jesus was the final sacrifice for our sins, that we are the temple of God, and that man can never be justified by the law. Paul allowed his heart to be bound by men and accepted conformity over liberty. We have been called to liberty. Paul reminds us, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) We can never lead people into freedom and victory if we are unwilling to leave the confines of conformity. We must step out, try something others say is impossible, trust the Lord, and give it all we got. And in our victory, other will see that they too can live free and victorious lives in Christ. They will realize that they too are called to be giant slayers.

David Robison