There is a film called, “In the Valley of Elah.” Tommy Lee Jones is a retired army sergeant, Hank, who is looking for his son, Mike. Mike has recently returned home from his tour in Iraq, and then disappeared. The film is about Hank’s search for Mike and the things he finds along the way. I had to watch it a couple of times before I understood the title.
I know it was in the valley of Elah that the army of Israel faced off against a monster, their worst nightmare. In the valley of Elah, the people of God faced Goliath and found they had nothing, no one to match, and they were paralyzed by fear. At the valley of Elah, Israel looked at their weapons, their armor, themselves, and saw that they came up short in a particular, fatal way. Both armies had bows and arrows. Both armies had spears and swords. Both armies had armor. But only one army had a giant, and the giant was challenging Israel to a duel.
They had no match for Goliath and, therefore, they could not defeat the army of the Philistines. These were the terms that had been set. They had all the conventional weapons, but without a giant of their own, Israel knew the battle was lost before it even began.
Because the challenge had been made. The terms had been set.
It wasn’t in the realm of the expected for the boy David to step forward and volunteer to fight Goliath. It wasn’t in the realm of possibility that David could win this battle against Goliath. When he presented himself as the one who would go out to meet this “uncircumcised Philistine,” King Saul dismissed him. He said, “You can’t. It’s not possible.” But David persisted, and invoked his experience fighting off lions and bears; Goliath was just another predator like the lions and bears. With God’s help, David could strike him down too.
It still didn’t seem possible. But David was the only volunteer they had.
So they tried to prepare David for battle. Saul put his own bronze helmet and coat of mail on him. But David was just a boy, and the armor of a grown man weighed him down.
What could they do?
I think the problem the army of Israel had is the same problem we often have: we have trouble seeing anything other than the terms that have been set before us. The Philistines declared war on Israel and they saw no other option than to go to war against them. The Philistines put up a giant with a sword, and the Israelites saw no other option that to put up their own giant with a sword. What else can you do but follow suit?
In the film called “In the Valley of Elah,” while Hank is searching for Mike, he finds photos and videos Mike took while he was in Iraq. He is a seasoned soldier, himself, but what he sees in these videos is hard to watch. He sees good boys growing cruel and hard hearts in the face of the monster of war.
Our old Book of Common Worship has a prayer for our military in which we ask God to “keep our sons and daughters from hate that hardens.” We know this is a danger of war, and we pray that when they return they will not have grown into monsters, themselves.
This is a risk not only in war, though. It is a risk of living in this world. When faced with atrocities we are at risk of becoming an atrocity ourselves. Being overwhelmed by it, we may respond in kind.
The army of Israel took that little boy David and tried to outfit him in the armor of war. But David took off the armor. He walked down into the valley to meet Goliath with nothing but his sling and a pouch full of smooth stones.
David stood before the giant, the monster who wanted to destroy them, in the belief that God would protect him. An unconventional weapon, indeed.
David shrugged off Saul’s armor that day because he had the presence of mind to know that it just didn’t fit him. He had the clarity to see that the armor was not his, that to armor up was not him. He knew in his heart that he would not find his strength and security in chain mail and swords, but in the God who had always been with him. David trusted that God would be with him in the darkest places, even in the valley of Elah.
David knew that he did not need to accept the terms that had been set. There was a better way.
In the valley of Elah, when there appears to be no other way, this is where we have the chance to see God’s way.
There is a scene in the film where Hank tells this story about David and Goliath to a little boy. Then he tells him what he believes is the moral of the story: that you fight monsters by conquering your own fear and standing up against them. This is what he has always done – shove down your fear and go toe to toe with the monsters – and what he has always believed in. But by the end of the film, he knows different. He knows that there are times when we have to admit the inadequacies of our conventional weapons. We have to confess that we are unable to defeat evil on our own power. We need to call on the living God.
Paul writes, in his letter to the Corinthians, that by the power of God we have weapons of righteousness, and these weapons look nothing like the conventional weapons. They are revealed in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech. This is the power of God.
This is the power of God. This is the armor that is available to us always.
David walked into the valley of Elah with the weapons of righteousness. And the battle was won before it had begun.
