Preparation by God
07-13-2022
connecting details of our past
You may be wondering how the understanding of art and the process by which archeology is conducted aids in helping us relate to the preparation and study of God’s Word. Well, I believe John Calvin summed it up best in his writings, Institutes of the Christian Religion, when he quoted St. Augustine, “There is no goodwill in man unless it is prepared by the Lord; not but that we ought to will and to run, but because God works in us both the one and the other.”
Preparation by God is the key to the fulfillment of our transition into His calling. Therefore, we must investigate how persons were prepared by the Lord to understand how they fulfilled their unique mission when God called them to service.
I’m making the assumption; that we’ve often read and heard the story taught of David and Goliath. Often repeated approaches are taken while teaching the key facts and core lessons regarding stories like this held with such great importance.
What do you think of when you hear David and Goliath mentioned?
A young man who was faithful to God?
A boy who had no fear?
A teenager standing up to unsurmountable odds?
A kid ill-prepared, but God worked a miracle?
All perspectives reveal partial truth, but is it possible we are focusing on the wrong aspects of the story?
As we pull back the layers of one of the most preached, taught, and retold stories in scripture, we uncover a deeper meaning compared to the typical exposited values gleaned from this true story. If we only account for the written portion within this brief slice of time written in the Bible, as understanding the whole story, I believe we strip God of the full credit He truly deserves. If God were the coach of a Super Bowl champion football team, we could overlook the months of practice, four pre-season games, sixteen regular season games, and three playoff games and simply expect the team wins because of a miracle, but it would disenfranchise the blood, sweat, and tears of the practices, drilling, training, film analysis, play calling, and playwriting leading up to the Super Bowl. Why then does the Church, more often than not, gloss over the time and preparation going into these key Godly men in the Bible, whose preparation built the groundwork which provided their skills necessary for what God had given them to do, encompassed by their unrelenting faith in God to accomplish the task at hand?
Before directly diving into David’s story, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the cultural phenomenon, “The Moment of Glory” by using a related story from an incredibly exclusive and distinguished group of individuals across the United States.
Since 1863 there have only been 3,505 members of this group, to date, of which, only 74 are living as of this writing. More than 700 of the members have been immigrants who distinguished themselves by their actions, granting them access to this group.
Who might this group be?
If you said Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, you are correct! According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, “These figures reflect the total number of Medals of Honor awarded. Nineteen (19) men received a second award; fourteen (14) of these men received two separate Medals for two separate actions; five (5) received both the Navy and the Army Medals of Honor for the same action” (Society, 2019).
You may be asking, what does this have to do with the David and Goliath story? The connection is in the preparation. Preparation, which lead to the moment where the Medal of Honor Recipients "[distinguished] themselves by their gallantry in action and other seamanlike qualities during the present war above and beyond the call of duty."
In 2012, Army Captain Florent Roberg was honored at the White House as a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions while working a security detail in Afghanistan. Captain Groberg jumped on a man wearing a suicide vest to dampen the detonation of the blast, attempting to prevent the death of his team members by sacrificing himself in the line of duty. The attack killed four men in the patrol and wounded many others. Groberg’s left calf was blown away and he also suffered traumatic brain injuries. The following is a statement Captain Groberg made after receiving his medal.
"You know, it's more than the medal, I'm receiving an award for actions that resulted in four men not coming home. And that's the tough part. And I don't believe I deserve the medal because I believe I acted like [any soldier] would act in that situation. I was the closest man to the threat, and I had to react to the threat. That's what we're trained to do, that's what we believe in doing. That's the mentality and our mindset that is necessary to go serve your country in hostile environments.
But in this case, I received the Medal of Honor for actions on my worst day, on the worst day of my life. And so, I didn't want it, but I realize the Medal of Honor doesn't belong to me, absolutely not. It's a symbol and in this case, it's specifically representing the four men, Commander Sergeant Griffin, Major Gray, Major Kennedy, and Ragaei Abdelfattah and their families. So, I decided, in my own head, that I would accept this medal with the idea that I would be a courier and I would earn the right to wear it every single day by my actions on [and] in my life. And I just hope that one day I get the opportunity to go meet my friends in heaven and they have a beer waiting for me and they say you did all right” (Dukakis, 2016).
It’s difficult for us, as a society, to comprehend that if you ask many of these recipients, they will probably tell you in a similar fashion, that what they did wasn’t extraordinary. They were doing exactly what they were trained to do at the very moment they were called into action. They were in the wrong place at the right time and anyone of their team members would have done the exact same thing for them if put in their position.
In their book, By Honor Bound: Two Navy SEALs, the Medal of Honor, and a Story of Extraordinary Courage, authors Tom Norris and Mike Thornton share their first-hand accounts of how their stories and others like them found themselves surrounded by darkness and insurmountable challenges, yet their training and preparation (and by God’s love and grace) carried them through and out the other side.
“In April of 1972, SEAL Lieutenant Tom Norris risked his life in an unprecedented ground rescue of two American airmen who were shot down behind enemy lines in North Vietnam, a feat for which he would be awarded the Medal of Honor--an award that represents the pinnacle of heroism and courage.”
Just six months later, Norris was sent on a dangerous special reconnaissance mission that would take his team deep into enemy territory. On that mission, they engaged a vastly superior force. In the running gun battle that ensued, Lieutenant Norris was severely wounded; a bullet entered his left eye and exited the left side of his head. SEAL Petty Officer Mike Thornton, under heavy fire, fought his way back onto a North Vietnamese beach to rescue his officer. This was the first time Tom and Mike had been on a combat mission together. Mike's act of courage and loyalty marks the only time in modern history that the Medal of Honor has been awarded in a combat action where one recipient received the Medal for saving the life of another.
“By Honor Bound is the story of Tom Norris and Mike Thornton, two living American heroes, who grew up very differently, entered military service and the Navy SEAL teams for vastly different reasons, and were thrown together for a single combat mission--a mission that would define their lives from that day forward.”
I believe the real story lies in the past - the history, leading up to the moment God calls us into His divine plan. The plan is to look at David’s story and eventually come to the same conclusion: We overlook what God plans in preparation for His purpose. We miss the true essence of the stories in the Bible, because we go straight to the moment of glory.