Zeal Of The Lord Of Hosts

David with the Head of Goliath (1599-1600) by Caravaggio

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n the Old Testament, there was a time when Israel stood paralyzed with fear when the great Philistine army was at their doorstep. However, it wasn't the size or strength of the adversary that paralyzed them. Israel had been outnumbered before, except that this time one soldier stood between Israel and victory. But he was no ordinary soldier. The Book of Chronicles describes this enemy like a monster “who had six fingers to each hand and six toes to each foot; twenty-four in all” (1 Chr 20:6). The most terrifying of all was that this monster was a giant with the name Goliath. This monster was trash-talking and said blasphemous curses about Israel’s God with the intention of annoying and angering the Israelites especially King Saul. But to no avail, the King and his Israelite army had been just too cowardly and afraid and any moment they could have run away for their lives already. It was a shameful moment for Israelite nation who prided themselves on being on the side of a powerful Yahweh, their God. They soon forgot and chickened out at the sight of one monster—Goliath. But the embarrassment and the tension were put to an end when among the Israelite army came a young shepherd boy carrying just a stick and a sling band. Let us recall to mind the drama like watching "Braveheart" or "Troy." David enters. Goliath gave him a cold stare and said, “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?” Goliath curses the shepherd boy by his gods. Without batting an eyelid, confident David responded with a kind of trash-talk with a twist that raised the heat and the tension. David said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" In the Hebrew Bible, the names Yahweh and God (Elohim literally 'gods', usually rendered as 'God' in English translations) most often occur together with the word tzevaot or sabaoth—"hosts" or "armies." In Isaiah the Lord of Hosts is full of zeal. This zeal of the Lord of Hosts is so powerful and it worked through the person of a young and unsuspecting and foolish shepherd boy who, at first, did not know the great danger he was facing then (Is 9:6).

This brings me to my second point. What did David do first as a strategy? David cried out in prayer as he would always do even later on when he would already be crowned king. He said, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand." It sets David so far apart from the slugger Saul and from the rest of the two armies at war. Everyone was looking at the same reality and hearing the same insults from the monstrous enemy, but David interpreted these things so differently—with his secret weapon, i.e., his devout prayer to God. Because of this disposition of David’s heart the zeal of the Lord of Hosts was upon him. Even before David could figure out a way to defeat the enemy who was already before him, he found time to pray. That was the reason why fear did not paralyze and overcome him as it had overcome King Saul and his men. This might be a familiar scene to us these days because we are also facing a monster and its name is COVID and its brothers DELTA and OMICRON. When we are faced with a monster like this we need a David in our midst who could face COVID and say with confidence, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand."

Or we can choose to be like Saul and the rest of Israel's army who were imprisoned in their tormenting self-talk ”We cannot defeat the monster.” It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when we start saying things like this to ourselves. The same could be said about allowing the current pandemic to take the better side of us. This virus is changing us more than it is changing the world. We could get self-absorbed ruminating on the pain, the difficulties, entirely pessimistic over the hopelessness of the surrounding circumstances. What must happen is for us to recognize what we have inside us, to wake up, turn around, and cross the Rubicon from negativity to positivity. The virus is here as a challenge. We can rise to it or cower in fear. This is precisely the same Rubicon that David embraced when he finally stepped forward to face Goliath.

My third and last point. Was it just David alone who fought? It is always a temptation to think that whenever we take up an action plan we think of ourselves. Worst, that we have to do it with our own hands. Scholars today believe that the original listed killer of Goliath was Elhanan, son of Jair, and that the authors of the Deuteronomic history changed the original text to credit the victory to the more famous character, David. David did not have to in the first place. But that is not the point. Victory is victory. At least we can credit David for his little God-talk which blew the horn. For that is how all victories are commenced in the battlefield. A prayer warrior, to me, is always a frontliner in the line of battle. That person carries the baton or plays the drum to keep alive the zeal in each warrior's heart. The prayer warrior fights with one heart's trust and confidence to go against the javelin of put-downs and agitations first hurled by the enemy straight into the heart. Before we decide to do anything at all, first pray and discern and this is the tool that David used. With discernment we will be imbued with the zeal of the Lord of Hosts. David affirmed in faith what he believed in his heart to be true about the God of his ancestors. There were circumstances when Israel stood the slimmest chance of even remaining alive. However, the fervor in David's discerning heart was utterly unshakeable and that tipped the balance in their favor. Slim chance, yes, by their own nearsighted valuation of themselves, but with God on their side, who could not win. We have been praying since day one when the pandemic struck, but pray some more in order to protect that little flame, or that "innermost movement" which was present in young David's heart. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do the rest, but only if we trust and believe like David did. David was little in the eyes of King Saul, but he became so much more when David placed his trust in God's promise of victory. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ