Exile is his name… the stripper of dignity. He wants to banish the citizens of the
Heavenly city to a land of intimidation and shame. He wants to strip them of their robe of
righteousness, put on in the waters of baptism (“for as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ”. (Galatians 3:27) His efforts are calculated
to conceal the Child of God’s true spiritual potential in Christ and to exile him
to the land that sees all through eyes of worldly assumptions. He is the enemy of faith and his name is
Goliath.
He asserts his superior size, his larger weapons, and his
more fearsome look in an effort to cause faith to diminish within the heart of
the believer. His booming voice echoes
across the separating valley pronouncing his supposed superior position. It would appear that he is going to attack
for the battle is set in array, but he will not attack, he only bellows his
intimidation… his attempt to dissuade the believer’s resolve to fight the fight
of faith.
His appearance is frightening; his voice chills the soul; the
thought of him in battle is terrorizing… but he is a loser. He is a loser by design… he is playing the
part of the overpowering herald who must shortly be silenced by the still small
voice of God.
Indeed the Word of God is a still small voice in comparison
to the world’s lie dispensing megaphone.
The men of God who voice the word seem insignificant in comparison to
the giants of the world’s media; movies, internet, radio, print and TV. But these ministers of the word are the “giant
slayers” of our day and they carry, as did David, five smooth stones… one for
Goliath and each of his four brothers.
Swoosh… swoosh… whizzz... a stone is propelled through the
air at a seemingly supernatural speed.
Smack… the sound of a rock, splitting forehead flesh and crushing bone
of a giant’s skull quickly made its journey through the space separating the
giant and a boy. The unbelieving ears of
God’s cowering army were shocked into awareness. From the vantage point of the fearful army of
Israel, the rattling sound of armor, sword, shield and spear followed both the
sight of the falling enemy and the sound of the rock reaching its tiny target. A small spot between the eyes of a bellowing,
intimidating man was the one vulnerable mark that would bring this giant
down. A shepherd boy with a stone
yielded to a God with a plan had accomplished the impossible and now the
stunned army of God was feeling the effects of the faith of a grain of mustard
seed and another sound began to rise in the valley that separated two armies…
it was the sound of victory… the sound of praise and soon it would become the
sound of battle as the space of separation diminished to nothing… as did a
Philistine army and its champion of intimidation.
The streets were full of shouts of joy. A new name was on the lips of the people of
Israel and new songs were being sung.
Jubilation, joy and… jealousy were in the city that day. And four more stones were in a bag that hung
by the side of a young shepherd boy named David. The following pages are a consideration of
those smooth stones… and the one that was still lodged in the rotting forehead
of a giant whose name means “exile… to strip”.
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