Tim Keller on Courage:
The coming of the Spirit is almost always associated with courage. Keller shows how the story of David points to true courage. He does so by subverting the majority reading of the text. Real courage, he claims, is not based on mustering enough confidence in oneself. Rather, it is the presence of joy. Real courage, Keller notes, is slowly kindled, not based in adrenaline, and is borne from wonder. His message is based in three sections: Saul (missing courage), Goliath (counterfeit courage), and David (true courage).
Like the rest of Israel, Saul had lost courage in the face of Goliath. Courage, notes Keller, is being able to do the right thing regardless of the danger and regardless of the consequences. Saul buckled in fear. Some say that our day is not in need of courage. Keller disagrees. Do you want to know about fear? Look at your nightmares. Courage is facing your greatest nightmare. Some are scared of death. Others are scared of loosing face and of humiliation. Some are people-pleasers based in their fear that they will not be loved. Our cowardness is everywhere. Fear, thus makes us self-absorbed and is the opposite of love.
Next, Keller outlines Goliath. He begins by overturning the majority interpretation. Most, says Keller, try to say that David is the example of courage and that if we just muster up enough faith in God, then we can beat him. No, he says. If you are really dealing with fear, and someone says, ‘Be like David’, you know it is a way too simplistic reading.
Modern readers, says Keller, have a problem with this text, because we expect the detail-filled genre of the modern novel. Ancient Hebrew literature was quite the opposite; it worked hard to be narrativaly sparse. Yet, Goliath is given a very detailed description. Goliath, says Keller, moves into battle armored and as a mechanical definition of power. Thus the author of I Samuel outlines two different approaches to courage and dealing with fear in order to help the reader know the right way to be courageous. Goliath shows the world’s standards: he has physical strength, he is high tech, and he has self-esteem. Banishing fearful thoughts, like Goliath, and looking at yourself with confidence, is the example of what not to do. But this is defiantly the way the world does it. Visualize success. Think positively. But this type of thinking, says Keller is out of touch with reality and does not perceive danger well. Furthermore, he says, this type of adrenaline courage will not get anyone through a long-term experience that takes courage to make it through. We need something that overwhelms our fears, offsets our fears, and gets us to do things well in the swift moments of decisions.
Thus Keller lifts up David, as the author’s good example of true courage. David says, ‘I come against you in the name of the Lord almighty. It is true that we must have a David-like faith, but this is unhelpful. To choose this route, says Keller, would actually be a spiritualized version of Goliath’s faith.
Keller advises that we enter the story at the right place: not as David but as the cowardly Saul and all Israel. We are the cowards. Thus, God does not send an example for the cowards, but God sends a savior. In this way, the story is totally subversive from the usual interpretation. And this story lays the foundation for the future messiah. A savior is weak, and he is successful not in spite of his weaknesses but through it. He saves us through his weaknesses. Furthermore, the savior is representative fighting as them not for them.
The author of Hebrews points out that we should remember David, but we should fix our eyes on Christ (the champion). Jesus went to the ultimate valley of death and faced the nightmare beyond nightmares: having to face God with all the sinfulness and selfishness of humanity. Some would say, ‘If I’m brave, God will save me’. No, says Keller. This is the opposite of what the story is trying to tell us. Courage is not the absence of fear but the presence of Joy. If Jesus can face the ultimate fear, then we can face our tiny ones. Thus, Real courage is slowly kindled, not based in adrenaline but is borne from wonder.
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