Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and 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 taunted. This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:45-47 (NASB)
In the previous post The Attack On The Man of God I began this series by looking at how the world attacks men of God, drawing from the story of David and Goliath. In this second installment we look at the response of the man of God (David), his rebuke of his attacker. As I said in the previous post, we as men of God can learn from David’s battle with Goliath and apply it to our own battles.
Goliath was well armed with three weapons at his disposal, this is also the case with the enemies of the men of God today. They can attack us from many angles to ridicule and harm us. We can take heart from David’s response, “but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” This title for God (Jehovah Sabaoth) refers to “Lord of the armies,” God as Saviour and protector of His People. The hosts are the angelic armies at His command, available in the defence of David and also for us today. We can have the same confidence as David answering our enemies, knowing that the Lord of hosts is beside us.
As we move into verse 46, it is well to remember that these answers from David were not just what popped into his head in the moment. Remember brethren that David was God’s anointed and thus guided by the Holy Spirit. As men of God dedicated to Him in prayer and applying His Word to our daily lives, we too are anointed with the Holy Spirit in our trials. It was the Spirit that enabled David to know exactly how to answer and how he would defeat Goliath removing his head. He describes the victory in detail and attributes it 100% to God and to His Glory, let that be the case brethren in our battles.
David’s victory and that of the Israelite army were not won by any great military strength or tactics, the battle belonged to God Almighty – His might won the victory. This is not God showing off, but making Himself known to all men then and now. We see another example of this in 2 Chronicles 20:15c, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.”Judah was facing a huge invasion and King Jehoshaphat called out to God in prayer, the above-quoted text was God’s answer. Read the story and you will see how the Lord of Hosts delivered a great victory that day.
Dear reader, this is our Father God! We can stand firm in courage against our enemies, just like David and Jehoshaphat. In our own battles let us follow David in these three points: David depended on authority from God (verse 45). David’s victory came from God (verse 46). David gave all the praise and glory to God (verse 47). In this manner let us stand firm and answer our accusers today.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Devotional Treasures
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