On a Battlefield
We stepped off the bus, and walked down a littered, unkempt, pathway towards a wide open field. Road noise distracted, the pathway was far from smooth. But our guide was eager, we could feel it in his quick words, strong accent, and fast pace. He had something to share —something he knew we would never forget.
He paused often to share details. So many details, I would be in err if I tried to convey them all. But there were pieces I could retain. We stepped downward, into what I’d describe as a “gully” — a dry creek bed. A creek bed that will come to life when the rains come again. Walking up the dusty gully, we heard his words… “This is where David gathered 5 smooth stones…” My feet stopped moving, my breathing paused.
The field in front of us — the Valley of Elah.
The hill to the north of where we stood, the Mountain of Elah. Named Elah because of the green bushes growing on its hard rocky slopes.
The hill across the valley, southward, to our right — had long ago endured the feet of a massive Philistine army, and the imposing presence of their champion, Goliath.
To the west was the way to the Mediterranean Sea. In those long-gone days, this was the direction the Philistines always came from. To the east was Jerusalem. This would have been the direction Saul’s army would have traversed.
We stood in history. Silent history. Unable to tell its stories, but holding much in the dirt we stood on. Blood. Courage. Violence. Threats. Death. Yelling voices under blue skies surrounded by trembling men. Men who hid behind the Elah bushes and looked across the valley at a giant.
The scriptures tell it best in 1 Samuel 17:
V. 1-4 - Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh … Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. A champion named Goliath,… came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. (about 9ft, 9inches or 3 meters)
It took my breath away to realize — we were standing on the ground where this Biblical story had unfolded. Sokoh was a town, now long gone, but once it stood on the hill “just over there”. I closed my eyes to picture the Israelite army camped “there”, and the Philistine army camped “there”. And I could almost here the sound of a nine foot barbaric giant yelling in the open field where I now stood. His voice would have carried well and been amplified on this stony ground.
V.8-11 - Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. (This daily threat come for 40 days…)
But then… a boy lifts his head and listens m-o-r-e to the voice of the One inside him than the voice of the giant yelling in the field.
If ever there’s been an example of “reaching for more” of God and less of all else — it was the boy David.
The stones around us had witnessed it. They laid silent under our feet, just as they had that day over 3,000 years ago. But the stones have a story.
Verses 11 through 42 tell the details of how a boy named David came to the camp of the Israelite army, obeying his father Jesse and delivering supplies to his brothers. David being the youngest of 8 brothers, was considered more a shepherd than a warrior. And yet bravery and courage had grown inside him in the wilds beside the flock he guarded. He had stood against both bear and lion, to protect and defend what was his to guard.
For 31 verses the clarifications and explanations are made.
“Who are you?”
“Where did you come from?”
“With whom have you left the sheep?”
“Why is this Philistine being allowed to speak this way?”
“I will fight him…”
“Wear this…”
“Carry this…”
“ I can not go in these…”
A boy of maybe 15 years at best, not yet a man, steps above the frenzied fray and the roaring threats, the questioning and pressuring — and reaches for God. In verse 42 it says that, “Goliath looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him."
The brutal, threatening, huge giant despised the glowing, healthy, handsome young man.
Have you ever felt the glaring eye of an enemy, piercing you with their hatred? Was it because you love God — because you trust God — because you choose God — because you do not choose the world, but you choose more of the healing robes of the Holy One who you know and trust will carry you through the valleys where giants yell and people tremble? Oh friend. When I stood in the Valley of Elah and closed my eyes, I no longer heard the voice of our guide or the people around me. Instead I heard the breeze, felt the air, imagined the boy-becoming-a-man bending down to choose smooth stones from the dry bed where I stood. I could almost imagine the sound of an angry, giant worm-of-a-man — threatening and yet weak beside the glow of God being carried in the vessel of a shepherd boy with no armor and no sword.
I wanted to run wildly through the valley with arms spread wide and sing to the top of my lungs of a Savior who is a King who died and rose and lives inside us. Who looks throughout the land for those willing to carry His Light and stand before giants.
“Having done all this… to stand.” Ephesians 6:13
The fullness of the words say: “Therefore put on the full armor of GOD, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
And the full armor of God has nothing to do with what we’re wearing, how bold our words are, how much we strut about or even how well trained we think we are. The full armor of God has everything to do with how humbly we trust and believe HE IS GOD and HE WILL DO IT.
We know the rest of the story from the Valley of Elah. Goliath looked at a boy-becoming-a-man and brazenly said, “Come here”…and he threatened him intensely. David responded with clarity, “…I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty… This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel…”(he also threw in a few threats as well, words about carcasses and wild animals and cutting off a head … well, he was still a boy stepping onto a battlefield after all.)
Six days after I stood in the Valley of Elah, terrorist would attack Israel. Six days after we stood where David had gathered 5 smooth stones and defeated a giant — Israel declared war against a threatening enemy who used bombs and blades instead of a giant from Gath.
And I wonder if we can allow ourselves to hear the stones crying out — from the Valley of Elah? That valley is still there, and it has much to “say”. It speaks of a day when evil was defeated through the obedience of a boy who loved God.
Our journey to Israel began with a visit to the Valley of Elah, and ended with a country at war. The stones know the outcome…our God wins.
