In all five of the Rambo movies, they portray him as a loner, a one-man killing machine, as somebody who doesn’t need anyone else. But, in the first movie, they established that John Rambo had served with Special Forces, wearing the coveted green beret. More specifically, he was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group, based out of Ft. Bragg, N.C. I know a lot about this Group because that’s where I was stationed at, Ft. Bragg, on Smoke Bomb Hill right beside the 7th S.F. Group.
The problem with these movies portraying Rambo as this loner is the fact that no one can survive by themselves in prolonged combat, especially given the missions that S.F. conducts. And that is exactly why the U.S. Army has Special Forces set up to operate as twelve-man teams.
Then, to make it even more specific, there are two different levels of S.F. teams. The primary team is known as ODA’s, which stands for Operational Detachment Alpha or A-Teams. The secondary teams are known as ODB’s, which stands for Operational Detachment Bravo or B-Teams. This is very important because, just like the A-Teams, the B-Teams are set up in twelve-man teams, which support the A-Team while it is on a mission. If something happened to that A-Team, then the B-Team would step up and take over the mission, thus changing their identification from an ODB team to an ODS team.
Although each member of each Team has a specific MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) designation (ie. 18Z Operations Sergeant, 18F Operations & Intelligence NCO, 18B Weapon NCO, Engineer NCO, Medical NCO, 18E Communications NCO), all members are cross-trained in different skills, as well as being multilingual.
Now, why did I tell you all of that? And what does this have to do with overcoming the Rambo syndrome? And more specifically, what does all this have to do with the Bible? First, when one man thinks that he can do everything by himself and doesn’t need anyone else's help, that man is on his way for a fall. If a single solitary soldier gets all cocky and relies on their own strength, rather than the strength of the unit, the battle will not end well.
The person in the Bible that comes to mind is Samson. He’s a good comparison to Rambo. Everyone thinks of Samson’s strength, as being a strong muscular guy–and he was I’m sure. But eventually Samson began to think more highly of himself, and his strength, than he should have. He began to have that lone-wolf type of mentality, where he actually thought that no one could ever defeat him. That is, until Delilah.
Before Delilah, Samson sure enough was a physical specimen of greatness. He tore a lion in half with his bare hands (Judges 14:5-6). He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men and took their clothes off of them (Judges 14:19). He caught three hundred foxes, put torches in their tails, then let the foxes go and burned up all the Philistines grain, vineyards and olive groves (Judges 15:4-5). He took the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men with it (Judges 15:15). But in each of these cases, the difference between Samson and Rambo is crystal clear–when Samson did each of these mighty feats, the Word of God said that every time “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.” Although he was a loner, in the spiritual sense, and although, yes, he was physically strong, he wasn’t alone because it was the Spirit of Yahweh that gave him the power to do such things.
Sadly though, Samson began to think more and more about himself and less and less about God. Even though he was still spiritually mighty at times, on many occasions he gave in to carnal desires and appetites. Although he was strong in physical strength, he was weak in resisting temptation. And then–he met Delilah.
“Then she said to him, ‘How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.’ And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, that he told her all his heart, and said to her, ‘No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.’ When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines.” (Judges 16:15-18 NKJV)
Although a lion had not been able to kill him, and a thousand Philistine soldiers couldn’t defeat him, a single woman named Delilah defeated his spirit by pestering him to the point of vexing his soul, and was able to defeat him physically, mentally, and emotionally. Now, here is the great Samson, who had done mighty feats through his God, with his eyes having been gouged out, his head shaved, bound with bronze fetters. But then the Word of God tells us in verse 22 of Judges 16, “However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.” Isn’t that just like God? Just whenever you think that everything is over, God says, No it isn’t!
“Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!’ And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.” (Judges 16:28-30 NKJV)
In one fell swoop, God empowered Samson again with the strength of the Spirit of the Lord and he killed three-thousand Philistines with one mighty push. Do you see it now? Can you see how, unless a man overcomes the Rambo syndrome, all that is waiting for you at the end of the road is death. We are not lone warriors in this battle by ourselves. We are joined together with other fighting men and women of faith and, together, we will triumph mightily in the power of the Spirit!