The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand…”
1 Samuel 17:44-46
Single combat provided a way for ancient nations to settle conflicts with minimal bloodshed. It also created a climate like our modern pro-wrestling where the fighters made dramatic and elaborate boasts before the fight began. Goliath the Philistine taunted the whole nation of Israel, seeking to provoke them into the single combat arrangement. He boasted that there was no one in all of Israel who could stand up to him, the champion of Philistia.
When David (probably still a young man of 16 or so) heard this boast, he was furious that no one in Israel (including his older brothers) would answer the taunt. The key point to notice in this exchange is where the confidence is located. Goliath boasts entirely in himself. David boasts entirely in his God. “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.”
David knew he would win not because of his skill in battle, but because of the God he had come to know.
And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
1 Samuel 17:37
David had experienced the faithfulness of God in smaller issues in his life, which prepared him for this larger confrontation. David learned to boast in the Lord, not in himself.
“Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Romans 3:27-28
The New Testament frequently references the concept of boasting. It is very much tied to the topic of faith. If you boast in yourself you are not really trusting in Christ. James applies the matter of boasting to much more practical issues of day to day life.
“As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
James 4:16
What is this evil form of boasting James so strongly warns against?
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-15
The thinking described here seems very harmless, and even pretty responsible to our modern American ears. So what is James getting at? What is wrong with making plans about where you plan to do business and how you hope to turn a profit?
The problem is a mindset and life that makes no reference to God or eternity. In this way our reasoning can be more like that of Goliath than that of David. We can “boast in our arrogance.” We can place our trust in ourselves instead of God, making plans with no reference to God’s purposes or priorities. “All such boasting is evil.”
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, learned this lesson the hard way.
At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
Daniel 4:29-30
The king had been warned, exactly one year before, through a vivid dream of a great tree that was chopped down. Daniel explained the dream and urgently warned the king to repent and honor God. But a year later Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten the warning and uttered his boast while overlooking his kingdom: “which I have built by my mighty power… for the glory of my majesty.”
While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”
Daniel 4:31-32
Seven years living like a wild animal was a steep price to pay for one boast. But the king summarized the lesson well:
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
Daniel 4:37
There is the summary. God exalts the humble and opposes the proud. Will we boast in ourselves and make plans with no reference to God? Or will we humble ourselves and submit our plans and our lives completely to the Lord who is sovereign over all things? Will you live as your own king or will you truly surrender to Jesus as your King in all things?
The calling of James (and the whole Bible) is to just submit.