Mon.’s Devo - The Battle is the Lord’s

Read: 1 Samuel 17:1-18:4; John 8:21-30; Pslam 111:1-10; Proverbs 15:11 The story of David and Goliath is a favorite! Who couldn’t love this story? Goliath means “stripped as a captive” and David means “beloved” so, of course David will win. But we are God’s beloved standing against our enemy, Satan, who is God’s adversary and even with all the promises God gives us in his Word - we still sometimes fear. *** Israel found themselves standing against the Philistine army who had a giant as a champion. They sent out their giant, Goliath to taunt the Israelites soldiers every day. Whoever fought him, the fate of their country would be in their hands. The winner would rule the loser. *** David had been sent to the battle with food for his three oldest brothers who were in Saul’s army. When David saw Goliath come out and taunt Israel and heard what would be given to the one who fought him, he was ready to fight. He couldn’t believe that Israel was allowing this to happen. In David’s words, “Who is this pagan Philistine that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?” David pegged who Goliath was and who they were. *** David got his chance since he was the only one with enough courage to face Goliath. Saul was willing to put his future kingdom into the hands of a teenage boy who was not even a part of his army. David convinced Saul with his stories of lions and bears. He was also Saul’s only volunteer. *** David met Goliath with no physical armor, only the shield of faith. Goliath had all the physical armor, sword, strength and taunting words. He cursed David using the names of his god and David told him about his God whose name was the Lord of Heaven’s Army. David told him exactly what he was going to do in detail. He was going to conquer him, kill him and cut off his head. Then he was going to give the dead body of his men to the birds and wild animals and the whole world would know that there was a God in Israel who rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This was the Lord’s battle and he would win. *** David ran toward him and hurled his sling and hit Goliath in the head and the giant fell face first! He took Goliath’s own sword and killed him and cut off his head just like he had said he would. *** Then the army of Israel chased the Philistines leaving their dead soldiers for the birds and wild animals to eat… just like David had said. *** Saul watched all of this in awe and had to find out who David was. His son, Jonathan met David and was immediately bonded to him. They became soul brothers and made a solemn pact with each other. Jonathan sealed the pact by giving David his robe, tunic, sword, bow and belt. This was symbolic of Jonathan giving David his right to the throne. *** As a reward for fighting Goliath, David would be given one of Saul’s daughter in marriage and his family would be tax exempt. *** In John, Jesus was still talking about heavenly things which they could not understand. He told them that they would die in their sin unless they believed that he was the I AM. When they couldn’t understand what he was talking about, he told them that when he is lifted on the cross, they would understand that he was the I AM and that God had sent him. *** Lord, help us to identify our enemy and have courage to stand against him with our armor on. May the Sword of the Spirit be in our hearts and in our mouths that we would speak your truth and believe with our hearts.