Armor Bearer Mentality

In 1 Samuel 14:6-15 - Jonathan says to his young armor-bearer, “Come let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”
“Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
Jonathan said, “Come, then; we will cross over toward the men and let them see us. If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands”.
So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines. “The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.”
So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.”
Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.
I have often heard this scripture in the context of describing the heart of a learner. The emphasis on the response of the young armor bearer, “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” Truly this is the response that Jesus wants from us. He wants us to put more than trust in him, he wants our faith. He wants us to be ready to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. So too our leaders want this attitude. We can cite this type of heart among the great relationships in the Bible.
Consider the role of the second in command. There was a John the Baptist for Jesus (the one to prepare the way). There was Timothy to Paul, (the man trained to strengthen and encourage). We see the power of having two people fighting side by side (Ecclesiastes 3:9). We also walk away considering the blessings associated with taking the humble road. We idealize the victories that come from submitting yourself to be second in command to someone.
However consider this, Johnathan’s armor bearer is not second in command. In fact, he isn’t in command of anything. We are familiar with the practice of midievil knights that hired stable hands called pages. These were young men. In fact the New Living Translation of 1 Samuel uses the word ‘youth’ instead of armour-bearer. Historians descibe the page as a boy of 7 or 8. It is likely that Jonathans armor bearer was not much older than 12 or 13. Now consider how much command was given to 12 year olds? How much command do we give to today’s 12 year olds? Certainly exceptions exist, the Bible describes the righteousness of young kings (Joash was 7 and Josiah was 8 years old at their respective coronations;2 Kings 12:1 and 2 Kings 22:1 respectively). However, the fact remains most young men started their military career as armor-bearers.
Today the role of Private is the lowest in the Marines. In the civilian world, we commonly joke with one another at work or on the bastketball court, “Drop and give me twenty, Private!!”. The bottom ranks are everywhere in life and all of us have to go through them. Whether we cleaned the French fry grease at the local Mickey-D’s or we actually wore the “slick-sleeve”uniform.[1]
I was a private in the Marines for 6 months. It sucked! You spent the whole time doing everything that everyone told you to do. You hardly get to think freely, or at least that is how it felt. Jobs are menial, trivial and monotonous. There is no one below you so you end up with all of the rotten jobs. Ever clean a backed up toilet? How about when that toilet was on a boat rocking back and forth, while standing in inches of bio-effluent? Gross, right? Have you ever had to give up your seat because there weren't enough seats and someone who outranked you wanted to sit? Pretty messed up, but it happens. You get the idea.
A better way to describe the relationship between Jonathan and his armor-bearer is that of a General and a Private, or the CEO and the fresh-from-college new-hire. Notice that this is vastly different from the glorious role of “second in command.” The “second in command” to a general is another general or a colonel, not a private. The second in command is able fill the role of the leader. Notice that the knight- armor-bearer relationship is also different than the teacher-mentor relationship of Paul and Timothy. Although certainly Jonathan could have been training the armor-bearer, it was more akin to a master-servant relationship. In this situation, there was one person who was the prince and one who was the peon. As I stated earlier, the armor-bearer has no power. His only job in life is to carry the armor around for the general (Johnathan), the prince of Israel .
This role lends itself to some awkward interactions, trust me. I spent the majority of my time in the Marines as a crewchief of an amphibious tractor (Amtrack)[2] As the crewchief I was responsible for the maintenance and operation of the vehicle. My two crewmen and I kept the vehicle working and supported the infantrymen (“grunts”) that rode inside. Whether by blessing or a curse, our platoon’s officer, Lieutenant Larry chose me as his crewchief. Without going into too much detail this meant that my vehicle became the command tractor for our platoon of 12 vehicles. Wow! All of a sudden I am a part of the leadership of our entire 40 man platoon. At that time I was in the rank of Lance Corporeal (2 ranks above private). All of this meant that I drove the vehicle and saw, heard and understood all of the decisions that were made by my lieutenant and the infantry commander (a captain). Occasionally the commader for our entire Marine Expeditionary Force (a lieutenant colonel) would arrive and speak to the infantry commander and my lieutenant. In addition to these people our vehicle was filled with radio operators who communicated with all of the artillery and air support. The gist of it all; I knew everything that the leaders knew. The knowledge gave me a sense of responsibility. I felt responsible for the entire platoon. The problem was that I had none of the power that comes with that responsibility. I couldn’t affect the decisions.
Imagine Jonathan’s armor-bearer. As he sits at Jonathan’s side polishing the breastplate or something, one of the Israel’s generals is conversing with Jonathan about the next day’s battle plans. The armor-bearer sits within earshot of huge decisions. He has all of the knowledge but none of the power. He sees the evidence but doesn’t sit in judgement.
Unfortunately, I know from first hand experience that knowledge of events is nothing without the power to act on the information. You only fill up with anxiety and anguish. At all times you clearly see how small and insignificant you are. You also become critical of the leaders. The worst part of your criticism is that you have all of the information whereas your peers might be critical without understanding the big picture.
Consider now the armor-bearer’s tasks are done for the day and he is eating dinner in the company of other armor-bearers. They tell jokes and share stories about being back on the farm at home. They idealize the one-day when they are in charge. Much of what they say sounds sarcastic and accusatory toward the current leadership. “If I was in charge we wouldn’t… That was the stupidest decision when…” Among them sits Jonathan’s armor-bearer. He sits quietly smiling and laughing in comradeship. He listens to them complain and feels the pain of their confusion. He desperately wants to tell them that they are wrong. He desperately wishes to defend the Johnathan’s decisions. He wants to tell them how the Johnathan cried and prayed before he sent out those who died in that day’s battle. He wants them to see it from the view of those on top. However he knows that they can’t understand. He knows that they won’t be able to understand all of the events and how it has all come together over several months. Jonathan’s armor bearer knows that the unity of the army and the friendships he has with the others will be jeopardized by his divulging the information that was not intended for their ears. The young armor bearer fills with anxiety, tortured by the knowledge of the prince while having to endure the criticism of the soldiers.
At the same time the other armor-bearers joke with him and poke fun at his ‘easy’ job. They lament how they ‘wish’ they were in his shoes and could have the opportunity to be around the army’s leaders. They don’t know that he bears all of the responsibility with none of the authority. So the young armor bearer feels distant, removed from the group of peers by his position and the responsibility. Yet unlike the prince he has no group of peers that share his position. He feels overwhelmed, anxious, and alone.
All military units have callsigns that help to distinguish them from one another. Our unit was ‘Rhino’. From this name the various ranks are given numbers. The commander is always the number 6. Therefore the Lieutenant Savarese’s call sign was “Rhino 6”. One night around dinner I was sitting with a group of my friends (most were crewmen on other vehicles, while I was a crew-chief on my vehicle). One of my friends says, “You know what you are Harris, you are the little bird that rides on the back of the rhino and picks the poop out of his butt-crack. (or something like that).” Another chimed in, “Yeah you are a Woodstock!” I am not sure if the character in the Peanuts cartoon is the same species as those that appear on PBS specials about the African Savanna but any ornithological indiscretions were ignored and the name stuck. From that point on my ‘official callsign’ and nickname was “Woodstock.”
How humiliating and unfair! If they only knew all of the things that I had done behind the scenes that had benefited them! If they only knew how their comments hurt me. How what they said made me feel more isolated and alone. How their comments made me feel more anxious about all of the information that I kept from them and how much more I felt the weight of responsibility upon my heart.
The comments that they made were inevitably harmless and the group of friends that I had in that platoon were a true band of brothers (as I will talk about later in another chapter). The fact was, the insults hurt. Having them poke fun at me because of my position hurt my feelings. It made me feel isolated on two sides. At work I was allowed to hear and understand all of the information but not able to provide input to the decision. On the other hand my peers ostracized me in small degrees because they were jealous and ignorant about how much their comments hurt and how much I needed their friendship.
The challenge is for each and every one of us to become armor-bearers for the Kingdom of God. Do you feel like your talents aren’t being utilized because you aren’t in the church structured lay leadership? Are you going to refuse to fight the spiritual fight until you are asked to lead? If this is the case, you are looking at leadership with the wrong motives. You must follow before you lead. No social organization can exist for long if there are more leaders than there are followers. Additionally despite the good intentions every organization has social politics. Will you refuse to carry someone else’s armor because you don’t like them? Because they don’t lead the way that you would? Be an armor bearer! Revel in that role. Pray to be used.
The Marine for God will take on the role of armor-bearer. It takes a great deal of strength and courage to withstand the challenges of being an armor bearer. You have to keep your mouth shut about the leadership information. In a church bible study group this isn’t for reasons of security like it was for us in the Marines, in a bible study group the reason that the armor bearer stays quiet is simply out of respect for the leader. They are the leader let them lead! Let them give the plan of action to the group. Let the leader decide when inform the group that their group has been asked to host a canned food drive or that the pastor has asked them to prepare the children’s Christmas pagent. Even if you were at the meeting with the leader and the pastor! The armor-bearer must also listen to the comments of the group without becoming defensive. Your role is to listen. Don’t agree with the bitterness of others. Don’t affirm a bad attitude in one of the members of the group. But don’t argue either. Don’t judge at all. Your reply should be that of the servant or slave, “I don’t know about what you are saying but I am going to follow the leader.” Rather simply listen to the feelings of the group members.

Recall these two things:

1 Samuel 16:21 “David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers.” - If you revere the heart of David, as God does. Inspect the path of his life. He started out at the bottom. He knew the role of servant.

Phillipians 2:6-7 “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.” - Christ came to serve. Christ humbled himself to service despite the talents for leading that he possessed. Our attitude should be the same.

[1] “Slick-sleeves” was a derogatory term in the Marines that refered to the dress uniform with an absence of insignia. We are used to seeing a corporal or sergeant with stipes on the upper arm of their uniform. Privates have nothing on their upper arms, thus the sleeves are barren or “slick”
[2] Amtrack or Tracks, are the amphibious vehicle used by the Marines for beach assaults. They consist of a crew of 3-4, carry a squad of infantrymen. Together the infantry and the tracks are a “mechanized infantry company”