God Armet fter the terrorist attacks of September 11, men who risked their lives to rescue others were lauded as heroes. Tales of their self-sacrifice brought tears to our eyes. Why do hero stories move us like no others?
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For people raised in the Church, the answer must be, at least in part, because they remind us of our first and best Hero, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To rescue us from sin and death, He willingly laid down His life and then took it up again, that He might continue to serve us. The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter is a hero story if ever there was one.The novel brings to life the brave deeds of Sir William Wallace, a Scottish knight who lived and died to free his homeland from English invaders between A.D.1296 and 1305.You may know the story of Wallace from the 1995 film Braveheart. There are important differences between the book and the movie, but both show us a young man who sets aside any hope for private happiness in this life in order to free his countrymen from murdering, plundering usurpers. “God armeth the patriot”is the unabashed theme of The Scottish Chiefs.These brave words were first spoken by Wallace as encouragement to the loyal Scots he would muster to the cause of freedom.His message was that, though small in numbers and bereft of wealth and fortress by their enemies, yet they could trust God to supply them with strength for their just cause. “God armeth the patriot” sounds very much like
Psalm 18:32,“It is God who arms me with strength.” Remember the Psalmist David, who in his youth slew Goliath, the Philistine giant who defied the army of Israel? David could not bear the heavy armor King Saul lent him for his battle with Goliath; instead he trusted God to give him victory through his sling and a stone. While the situations of patriots David and Wallace are similar, there is an important difference. Out of His unfathomable wisdom and ineffable love, God chose the Israelites, from all the peoples on earth, to be His own. God promised these descendents of Abraham that from their seed the Savior of the world would be born. Because God had thus chosen Israel, when Goliath defied Israel’s army, he was actually defying the living God (1 Samuel 17:25, 36, 45-47). God was bound to defend His people, and He graciously chose to do so through David. Wallace’s Scotland was not God’s chosen nation. The same is true for 21st-century Scotland, and England, and America, and Germany, and France, and
