1 SAMUEL 17:41-47 – “And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with 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 defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to 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 saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.””
THEME OF THE DAY: THE WARRIOR OF THE LORD. I keep a quote from one of my “heroes in the faith”, Jonathan Edwards, close in my thinking to remind me, and now us, just what the Christian life is all about. The great 17th century giant of the faith wrote, “God has appointed this whole of life to be all of a race or a battle; the state of rest, wherein we shall be so out of danger as to have no need of watching and fighting, is for another world.”
Never forget each day of the Christian life is lived on a battlefield not a playground. The moment we forget the whole of life is one of constant heart warfare, we suffer defeat. So, with that said, today’s scripture and the example of David shows us what a warrior of the Lord is like. The story is familiar – David, five stones, a sling, a nine foot godless, arrogant Philistine named Goliath, and the Lord’s intervention in battle. From David, we see three things marking a good warrior of the Lord both in the physical battle he fought and our daily spiritual conflicts.
First, David was motivated to do battle against Israel’s enemy by the honor and glory of God – “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with 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 defied.”” All of life is about God, even our spiritual battles and victories. We fight our foes for His glory not just victory. If we think this way, then the next quality of a good warrior of the Lord will be in us.
Second, David exhibited great courage. Everyone else was afraid. Rightly so, humanly speaking. This was a giant, a towering man of great height, and a seasoned military man. Yet, David confronts him with boldness, not arrogance, and that because of the strength provided by God to David who was moved to battle by desiring God’s honor above self preservation.
A final quality in the good warrior of the Lord is reliance upon the Captain of our salvation to ultimately fight our battles. David shouts to Goliath, “For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”. That is the posture of faithful dependency upon the Lord during the battles we fight. And God will be true to His promise to lead us into victory over our spiritual foes as we model David – a warrior for the Lord motivated by God’s honor, courageous in the battles, and faithfully dependent on the Lord.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for making Jesus not only my Savior, but my Warrior God in all my battles.”
QUOTE: “We are in a constant spiritual battle, but remember, we are led into battle by our conquering Jesus.”