FEAR, MAN’S ENEMY
Overcoming fear isn't easy, although most self help literature have unworkable and reckless solutions such as "Just do what you fear most." However, the greatest way of doing it is uncharacteristically demonstrated by David when he faced and defeated Goliath, the Philistine Giant.
One of the topics that has consistently had my attention in the story of David and Goliath are the symbols used, especially in the enlightening conversations between King Saul and David, and David and Goliath. I don't want to focus on the conversation between David and Eliab, his elder brother today, it's worth exploring (1 Samuel 17:28).
Let's open our eyes to some of these symbols.
Goliath wasn't just a warrior, he was a soldier of the devil. Many trustworthy Bible commentators and researchers strongly suggest that Goliath was a Nephilim, an offspring of forbidden sex between fallen angels and the daughters of men. These are the giants the Bible speaks of in the time before the flood (Genesis 6:4). I reserve my comments but don't rule that out as a possibility.
What we need to understand is that Goliath was a soldier of Satan, and the Philistines worshipped fallen angels as the multiplicity of their deities. I will never stop stating that all ungodly monotheistic and Polytheistic civilisations served and continue to serve fallen angels who demand sacrifice in exchange for wealth, secrets to power, often through knowledge and technology. This system is called Babylon and is the habitation of fallen angels, symbolically represented as birds:
"Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."
Revelation 18:2 (KJV).
Hence, Goliath did not represent Satan only metaphorically but also physically. What is Satan's greatest tool in warfare? Deception through false appearances and pretence to the throne of God. Goliath knew too well that the Israelites were the people of God. He, however, doesn't address them as God's people; instead, he addresses them as "the servants of Saul" to demean and obliterate their divine heritage and identity.
What this means is simple, if Saul was afraid to fight Goliath, then they would also be afraid and couldn't fight him. Every human being is led by someone, God or the enemy of souls, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Mathew 12:30 (KJV). By the time Saul faces Goliath, he has already been rejected by God and David has been anointed as the next King of Israel, God's people.
This then leads us to interrogate King Saul's mindset. What was in his mind then?
What did Saul think about Goliath? Saul thought that David, a mere youth couldn't defeat Goliath. Saul, like Goliath, viewed issues from a human perspective that removed God from the picture, unfortunately. David viewed life from a Godly perspective and saw himself as a soldier of God.
Goliath's reference to the Israelite army as "the servants of Saul" was mental warfare meant to psychologically intimidate the Israelites into slavish subservience to human might, "Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul?" 1 Samuel 17:8 (KJV). All warfare begins in the mind, and if the Israelites thought of themselves as the servants of a cowardly king, the battle was already won by the Philistines. Without God, we are NAUGHT:
The lesson here is simple but profound, unless and until we look at life from a Godly perspective, we are totally lost because only God has the right perspective. This is what David embodies, the man who sees himself as a means through which God exercises his power. Hence, he boldly writes that "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want" in Psalms 23:1. All human problems, such as death, disease, and want, began when man turned his eyes away from God through disobedience.
All LACK and WANT is the result of ungodliness. Unless sin is addressed, there is no help for man, "My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:2 (KJV). Notice how similar this sentiment is to Psalms 23:1. To see life as it truly is, we need Jesus, the son of David, who is also the "light of the world," for without God we must live in darkness. It is David who also makes reference to the beautiful relationship between the word of God and the ability to walk safely in a world darkened by sin, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" Psalm 119:105.
David saw Goliath for what he was, an evil creature of God challenging God's chosen people. What hurt David more was a mere being challenging His Creator, which is what Lucifer did in Heaven, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied." 1 Samuel 17:45 (KJV).
Before the Jews were formally rejected by Jesus in Mathew 23:37, they held the title of "God's chosen people," invincible through a covenant of obedience. Jesus emphasised this fact to the Samaritan woman, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22 (KJV). The whole Israelite army in the Valley of Elah, where Goliath, backed by the Philistine army, challenged the Israelites, believed in King Saul, just as Goliath mocked them for 40 days. David came in as a "REBEL" who believed that God could defeat Goliath, unlike Saul:
"And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."
1 Samuel 17:33 (KJV).
The Bible has several warnings that we never heed, about relying on the arm of flesh. My favourite injunction in this regard is Jeremiah 17:5, "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." The devil knows too well that if he can lead anyone to depend on themselves, their family, or friends, they are forever lost. Jesus therefore said, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." - Mathew 12:50 (KJV). We often forget that Jesus not only redefined the concept of family and friendship, but he also spoke these words in public in the presence of his mother and brothers who had at that moment sought him. Perhaps, they thought they had a better claim to him through blood, a mistake modern ZIONISTS today commit, with unimaginable impunity.
What do you think his mother and brothers felt?
God isn't a respecter of persons or nations but truth because it gives life while lies are innately destructive (Acts 10:34). No wrong idea is ever harmless, whichever way it is viewed. The originator of the worst idea is the devil because a lie is a purposeful misrepresentation of truth: "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and, the father, of it." John 8:44. Whenever a lie isn't deliberate, the wisdom of God overlooks it, especially when such ignorance has no malevolent intention, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: ..." Acts 17:30 (KJV). God isn't only infinitely wise, he wholeheartedly welcomes the truly sincere and readily sees those whose hearts are purposefully dark, for nothing is hidden from Him:
"For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."
1 John 3:20 (KJV).
Through focus on God, David’s thinking was clear. How do we develop clear thinking? By grasping important concepts such as, If God created me, he knows me better or since God created everything, he knows everything and I know nothing, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; ..." Jeremiah 1:5 (KJV). Meditating on that idea is so powerful. In the Bible, one of the ways through which God ensured that he would always be remembered as the Creator of all things is through the fourth commandment, which requires all men to observe the Seventh Day Sabbath. As men rested on the Seventh Day, their minds would be turned to God. There are few days that the devil hates as much as the Seventh Day because it turns the mind of man to God, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." - Exodus 20:11.
Going to church or the mosque on any other day of the week cannot be classed as "Keeping the Sabbath" because all these days aren't the Seventh day, which was specifically blessed by God. And for everything God creates, the devil has a false counterfeit, including the idea that men can choose their own days, when God has specifically prescribed a day he has blessed with a reason that can't be transferred to another day, "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." - Mathew 15:9 (KJV). Did you know that God kept the first sabbath in Eden (Genesis 2:2) and that this divinely inspired day will be kept throughout eternity in the recreated Earth?
"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord."
Isaiah 66:23 (KJV)
God kept the first Sabbath, "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made" - Genesis 2:2 (KJV). So did Adam and Eve, and both David and Jesus kept it. To emphasize how important the Sabbath would be even after his death, Jesus said, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:..." Mathew 24:20 (KJV). The Sabbath will persist in eternity. Of all the Ten commandments of God, none stamps His authority as the Creator compared to the fourth commandment. Symbolically, it implies resting in what God SAYS as opposed to what humans THINK and UNDERSTAND, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD." Isaiah 55:8. Whenever we rest in what God says about us as opposed to what human beings think, nothing can stand before us for "with God all things are possible." This is faith.
While King Saul is the man without God, David is the man with God, and the God - Man unity is invincible in every way because the complete man is the one who fully reflects God, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion..." Genesis 1:26. Hence, our dominion over all things depends on the extent to which we "think like God." Today, the devil has created all sorts of distractions whose aim is to prevent us from looking into the glory of God as expressed in His word. There can be no enlightenment without God, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6 (KJV). Unfortunately, the average man only seeks God as a last resort when their vanity fails and like a dog later returns to their vomit. Most people don't think of viewing life as God does as an exceptional privilege. Yet this is what Job did when God allowed Satan to tempt him. He never doubted God even when his wife asked him to curse God and die. He understood God:
"Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
Job 1:21(KJV).
Remembrance is what helped David defeat Goliath. David remembered how God has led him to defeat a lion and a Bear and he made it clear to Goliath that he would be like these animals, "Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God." 1 Samuel 17:36 (KJV). In rebelling against God in Heaven, Lucifer became the first beast and at the close of Earth's history, human beings will have to decide whether or not they recieve the mark of the beast (See Revelation 13). If you can relate everything to God, you have made it in life, "But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me..." - Jeremiah 9:24 (KJV). This is something that David excels at. Therefore, how we think is more important than what we do because our thinking rules our little worlds, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he ..." Proverbs 23:7.
The devil promised Adam and Eve power through wisdom that God had "withheld" from them in vain. His only intention was to turn their eyes away from God, by revealing unwholesome knowledge. He understood why he fell. The very moment our eyes are turned away from God, our end is nigh, "... for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." - Genesis 2:17 (KJV). Today, people are encouraged to develop "their truth" as opposed to the only truth as it is found in Jesus, "... I am the way, the truth, and the life..." John 14:6. Subjective truth is the surest path to eternal damnation. Any man who thinks that he knows life better than God is the same as the fool who misleads himself to think that God doesn't exist, "The fool says in his heart, “There is no God...” Psalms 14:1(KJV). Acting as if God doesn't exist and declaring that He doesn't exist is one and the same evil.
