Your Servant Will Go

Introduction

One of the most fascinating moments of any combat sports event is the walk out.

Today, it is highly choreographed and intentionally extravagant. Many fighters use it as a psychological tactic to get in their opponent’s heads.

The more bigger the deal you are, the more an opponent has to think about who he is stepping into the ring with.

But for all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the entrance of a fighter into the arena, the fact remains that they are walking into combat. Their reality in the next ten minutes or so is that they are going to have to fight another man until he knocks him out or makes him quit, and the other guy is going to try to do the same.

I always wonder what that feels like. While I’m sure most are confident in their skills, there must be some lingering doubts. Once the bell rings, that’s it. There is no hiding, no avoiding it, you must fight.

For all the preparation that a fighter goes through, it could prove to have been inadequate. Then you’re in trouble. What if the opponent’s preparation was better? What if he has better training partners and better equipment?

All of it comes to light in the cage. And all a fighter can hope to do is bring his best and hope it’s better than what the other guy brings.

For King Saul, making that walk was terrifying. Seeing his opponent, he didn’t need to ponder the adequacy of his training and equipment: he knew it was not enough.

So for 40 days, he and the men of Israel, laid in wait on a mountainside in the Valley Elah. The author doesn’t detail what plans they may have had or didn’t have.

Perhaps they were anticipating that Goliath would get frustrated and give up on his proposition and the two sides could fight it out traditionally - army against army.

Perhaps he was hoping someone would just step up and lose so it could all be over. Samuel has already rained on his royal parade, so maybe being slaves to the Philistines wouldn’t be such a bad alternative.

But one thing we can be certain - Saul did not pray to the Lord his God for help. And so Saul does indeed have every reason to fear this giant.

—> Whatever is going through Saul’s mind however could not have prepared him for what he would hear on this day: or rather, by whom he would hear these words.