The Battle

THE BATTLE
(1st Samuel 17)
I could not believe my eyes. 
There in front of me was a scene 
I never imagined I would see in 
my life.
In that moment, my mind raced back 
to my early years…
I remembered when I was a freshman 
in high school. I was a privileged 
student—I never got bullied. 
Not because there were no bullies 
in school, but because I had an older 
brother who always had my back. 
I was 12 years old; he was 16—and 7 feet tall! 
My brother was huge. 
Nobody dared bully me because they 
knew what would happen if they did. 
I walked around school with a swagger.
When I was finished with school, 
I enlisted in the army just as my 
brother had done a few years earlier. 
When I joined, he had already earned 
a reputation for gallantry and bravery. 
He was sent on the most difficult 
assignments and he was always successful. 
When my brother was 25, he had grown 
to 10 feet. He was one big, bad guy! 
Everybody feared him. 
I used to wonder if the military chiefs 
sent him on those dangerous missions 
because they thought he was the 
best man for the job or because they 
feared him too and hoped he would 
be killed on one of the missions? 
We will never know…  
As the years rolled by, my brother’s 
reputation grew. He took me under his 
wing and appointed me as his armour 
bearer. 
That way, I would always be with him 
and would not need to engage in much 
fighting. 
I did not really have much battle 
experience—my brother had enough experience 
for 10 people. 
My job was to simply carry his shield and 
go in front of him. 
He would walk behind, all 12 feet of him, 
a giant of a man. His physical presence 
sent shivers down the spines of the most 
valiant of men. Well, until today…
We had a battle to fight with our 
Noisy Neighbours. 
They had a formidable army, but we knew 
we could take them out. My brother came 
up with a novel idea: there would be no 
need to go into battle and lose lives on 
both sides. To make it simple, either 
army was to bring out a man from their 
ranks to fight the other. Whoever lost 
would become subservient to the winner. 
The military spokesman passed the message 
to the enemy camp. 
They accepted the proposition. 
How I laughed when I heard that they 
had accepted! 
Apparently, they had never heard about or 
seen my brother.
 When he showed up, I could sense fear in 
their camp. How I enjoyed the moment! 
I walked out towards them, 
carrying my brother’s shield. 
He walked behind me, his spear in his hand, 
his footsteps shaking the ground. 
His voice was loud and intimidating. 
He needed no microphone or public 
address system: “Choose a man to come 
and fight me! If he kills me, we will 
become your servants. If I kill him, 
you will serve us!”
 As we moved towards the battle line, 
they would retreat. I sensed fear in 
their midst. I was sure they would 
have still been afraid even if I 
were the only one taunting them! 
We continued like this every day for 
a while. By the fortieth day, I was 
bored and tired. We can’t continue 
like this! These lily-livered guys 
should just surrender, please! 
Do they have any idea how much this 
shield weighs? Carrying it every day 
for 40 days is not a joke. 
As I was about to turn back to our camp 
like I had done the last 39 days, I froze: 
out of the enemy camp walked a boy. 
A BOY. 
He was dressed in a t-shirt, a pair of jeans 
and sandals, holding a stick and a catapult. 
I could not believe what I was seeing. 
Does this idiot think he’s coming to 
hunt birds? A CATAPULT! 
Somebody obviously has a death wish. 
I turned to look at my brother. 
Apparently he had not seen the boy. 
He was still taunting the enemy army. 
The boy was that small—his presence 
escaped my brother’s line of sight. 
When he eventually realized the boy 
had actually come out to fight him, 
he got angry! 
“Boy, are you insane? 
Am I a dog that you come to fight me 
with sticks?” 
My brother was too angry to notice 
the catapult. 
The boy simply smiled, 
“You come to fight me with all 
these military hardware. 
I come to you in the Name of the 
Lord God Almighty…” 
My brother looked at me in shock. 
I was sure I could take out this 
scrawny boy myself. 
My brother fighting him would be an 
overkill. 
As these thoughts were passing 
through my mind, I saw the boy 
bring out the catapult and put a 
stone in it. My brother and I stood 
there, watching and amused by the 
scene before us. 
Just as I was about to explode with 
laughter, the boy ran towards us and 
fired the stone from his catapult. 
My brother was well kitted for war; 
he wore full body armour. 
As I was wondering what the boy 
thought a stone would do to him, 
I saw my brother’s legs buckle.
 Then he fell. 
The boy walked over with a swagger, 
drew out my brother’s sword and cut 
off his head.
As he held up my brother’s severed head, 
I heard a shout. No, two shouts: a 
shout of victory from the enemy camp 
and a shout of defeat from my army.
I turned around and saw my army 
running away from the battlefield, 
filled with terror. 
How quickly can the mood change in 
a military camp! 
Just five minutes earlier, these 
soldiers were brimming with confidence. 
I dropped my brother’s shield and fled too… 

- Haruna Daniels