Rising Darkness (18 page)

“There is Rugio,” said an angel.

“That proud spirit,” said another. “Lord Michael! Why don’t you go down and talk a bit with Rugio? Send him back with a little humility.”

“Quiet!” shouted Michael. “I want no nonsense in the ranks!”

“Michael! Michael!”

Michael looked down and saw Bakka coming toward him.

“What are you doing here!?” Michael demanded. “You are supposed to remain with David at all times!”

Bakka was taken aback at Michael’s temper.

“But I am with David, my lord,” said Bakka. “Jesse has sent David here with some food for his brothers and their officers.”

Michael scanned the field until he saw David talking with his brothers. He pointed them out to Bakka.

“Very well,” the archangel said. “Stay with him until he delivers the food. And then accompany him back to his father. He is the anointed one, Bakka. This war is meaningless if the enemy gets to him.”

“Yes, my lord,” said Bakka, who immediately turned to find David.

Bakka found David just as he had emptied his sack of its contents. The brothers greedily devoured the bread their brother had brought them and inquired about their father. As David spoke to them the air was suddenly filled with a booming voice coming from the valley. David turned and listened:

“Why will nobody come out and fight with me? Is there not a man in Israel? Choose a man! I am a Philistine and you are servants of Saul, your king. Send a man out to fight me. If your man kills me, then we will give way and you shall win the battle. If I win, then you will give ground to us.”

David waited for someone from Israel to respond to the Philistine champion. He looked around at the men, whose eyes were locked upon the giant and whose hearts were sunken. Even his own brothers made no move to respond.

“Why is he getting away with this?” David asked innocently.

“Quiet,” said Shammah, his brother. “You are a boy. This is man’s work. Now be still and stop asking stupid questions.”

Goliath was angry that nobody would take up the challenge. He spoke again, this time in a much louder tone: “I defy Israel today! I defy your worthless God! Give me a man to fight! I shall wait your answer!”

David again waited for someone from Israel to stand and oppose this man. He even heard among the ranks that the king would reward anyone who killed this menace with marriage to his daughter and no more taxes for his family. And yet nobody took up the challenge! Not yet, anyway.

“What are you all sitting around for?” said David anxiously. “Here is this uncircumcised dog defying our holy God! Will nobody fight this man?”

Eliab, the oldest brother of David, angrily denounced David in front of the others. “Listen to me, David,” he said. “You are only here because you wanted to see the fight. These are warriors here. We will deal with this when the time comes. Now get back to your few sheep, little boy!”

David rose up, disgusted and amazed at the behavior of the army, and began walking toward the tent of Saul.

Where is he going?
Bakka wondered.

Saul was seated on a small couch in his tent. From time to time Goliath’s voice echoed through the air, causing many uncomfortable looks among the generals and officers with him.

“Perhaps one of our archers could get close enough to…”

“No!” said Saul, cutting off the officer. “That would be craven. I need a man who will oppose this man. I don’t even care if he lives as long as he upholds our honor.”

A guard entered the tent and whispered to one of the officers. Saul looked up as the officer glanced at Saul and then nodded his head to the man, telling him to wait outside.

“Well?” asked Saul, reaching for a cup of wine poured by his steward.

“It seems there is a man who seems willing to fight the Philistine,” said the officer. “He is newly arrived at the camp and was quite offended by the giant’s defiant challenge.”

“We are all offended by him,” said Saul. He then thought about it for a moment. “But of course we are not newly arrived. Perhaps there is something to be said for a fresh perspective. Send for him!”

The officer nodded and left the tent.

“At least we will field
somebody
and finish this miserable business,” Saul said.

Bakka watched as Saul’s officer walked over to where David stood near his brothers. The angel had suspected something like this might happen. Ever since fighting had broken out and his brothers had left, David had spoken of little else to Jesse than of joining his brothers in the war against the Philistines.

The officer approached David and took him aside. David’s brothers all watched the scene, wondering what was happening. David looked at Eliab nervously. Eliab walked over to the officer and addressed him.

“May I ask, sir, what is going on with my brother?” Eliab asked.

“King’s business,” came the gruff reply. “Come on, boy!”

David walked off with the man and they headed toward the tent of Saul. Some of the men who had heard David boasting were now snickering among themselves.

“That will teach him to come up here and question our honor!” said one of the men. The other laughed and nodded his head in agreement.

Just as the man said this, Goliath railed once more, issuing his challenge. The two men looked at each other with the same frightened look that had been in so many eyes for the past 40 days.

“Anyway, that will teach him,” the man said, his voice trailing off.

“Not you!” said Saul, as David walked into the tent.

“This is the lad who plays music for me,” he continued. “David, what are you doing here?”

“I am here to fight the Philistine,” said David.

The officers in the room smiled among themselves at this boy’s audacity. Saul looked at them and shared in their humor. He then turned back to David.

“Go on back to your sheep, David,” he said. “I need a man. A warrior. Someone who is skilled in war. You cannot go up against this beast.” He stood up and brushed his hand against David’s cheek. “Although I must say it is refreshing to see one among my ranks willing to fight.” The men in the room all looked to the ground or in other embarrassed directions as he said this.

Bakka arrived and stood next to David, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder. He was proud of David but could only wonder if perhaps he would soon be assigned to someone else. Suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David. Bakka backed away and bowed low before the Lord’s Presence in the room. David began to speak under the Lord’s anointing:

“My king,” he began, “you are right that I am a shepherd. I have tended my father’s sheep. But when one of the sheep was in danger I acted. Majesty, when a lion or a bear attacked and took one of the sheep, I chased it down. One time I killed a lion after it turned on me.”

He began acting out his duel with the lion.

“I grabbed the animal by his hair and I killed him and took the lamb from his mouth. I also killed a bear.”

He looked up at Saul with a holy intensity.

“King Saul, the Lord Most High, who protected me from the lion and the bear, will now deliver me from the hand of this Philistine dog!”

Saul looked at the boy, tears in his eyes. He ordered his armor brought in so that David could be outfitted. But David grimaced at Saul’s equipment.

“You expect me to wear these things?” he asked.

“This is the king’s personal armor,” said one of the men. “It would be an honor.”

“Yes, and heavy,” said David. “I don’t need these things.”

“The Lord be with you,” said Saul as David exited the tent.

Abner, Saul’s chief commander, added, “And the Lord be with all of us when this boy is laid out.”

Bakka had never been so proud of a human as he was of David at that very moment. And he knew, like David, that the Lord was with him. Now he understood the significance of Samuel’s anointing of David. He truly was destined to become king over Israel.

Bakka followed David down to a nearby stream, where the younger man carefully selected five stones from the bed. He placed them in his bag and then prayed for a few minutes.

“Now you will see the Lord’s deliverance of Israel,” came a voice.

It was Michael.

“He will kill the giant then?” said Bakka hopefully.

Michael looked at David praying.

“The Lord is with him, Bakka,” he said. “What more does he need? If only humans realized that their faith in God’s ability makes all the difference!”

“Shall I go with him on the field of battle?” Bakka asked.

“We shall both accompany David,” said Michael, smiling. “Goliath is not the only one out there needing humbling.”