Today's Inspiration: Moses assured Joshua that no man will be able to stand against him. The Lord their God as He promised will put terror and fear of Him on the whole land wherever Joshua goes. Deuteronomy 11:25. Every place where he set foot on will be his. v24. God reinforced these scriptures to Joshua when Moses was dead in Joshua 1:3, 5. Therefore the three insignificant areas Joshua should have no difficulty to conquer. It was merely incomplete obedience that terrified Israel generations to come.
Today we will discuss on the impact unconquered Gath, another Anakims community, had in the history of Israel. The second seed Gath eventually grew into a monster of oppression and in this case it was a physical monster but today the spirit of oppression is still hovering over His people.
1 Samuel 17:4 begins with Israeli army frozen and terrified when they were faced with a champion named Goliath of Gath whose height was 6 cubic and a span of generations later, Gath was supposed to have disappeared but in Joshua's eyes harmless and too insignificant to conquer. This was an act of incomplete obedience to the Lord to possess the whole land.
King Saul being the tallest man in Israel as in 1 Samuel 10:23 could easily conquer Goliath with Israel's army but was terrified instead. You can't fight your Goliath when you are discouraged and dispirited. Just when Israel's hopes were at their lowest, God answered the challenge to Goliath's defiance v11 by sending a teenager. V20 onwards. To fight your Goliath, you need to be always abiding in the presence of the Lord to reveal the Lord's glory to a broken dispirited people.
David's heart and lips were filled with praises of the Lord as seen in the glorious psalms he wrote. As he watched over his sheep, he was consistently communing with the Lord and drawing close to his Shepherd. It's the knowledge of God and the nearness of God who is able to deal with Goliath of Gath. Hence, it's not only David's skillfulness in the catapult but David's nearness to God that brought him wisdom to battle against Goliath. V24 we saw Goliath's 80th appearance causing Israel to fear and flee from him. Whilst Saul and Israel saw Goliath as super powerful David considers Goliath much smaller than God. David with Saul's permission went to battle Goliath with an invisible weapon 'the name of the Lord of hosts.' V45. David's words in v46 & 47 denotes the highest quality of faith. He had the promise and God's power with him. With that he ran to confront Goliath. V47 is the key to victory. The battle is the Lord's and He will give Goliath into their hands. He did not claim credit for himself. He represents Israel and he is God's man. The victory brought enthusiasm to the army of Israel and God the glory.
Lessons learnt here is the difference between the powers of one who abide with God Almighty's presence against one who depend on weapons and man. Secondly was the price Israel has to pay for Joshua's incomplete obedience over Gath. David had also to tackle Goliath's four brothers' descendants all of great stature 2 Samuel 21:18-22. David on the day of battle with Goliath had brought five stones because Goliath had four brothers in the Philistines ranks who might avenge Goliath. God always provides us with sufficient resources to deal with any eventuality. All of our resources are in Christ but out failure to appropriate them will cause us to be like Saul and his army. We are God's people and we must be able to gain victory in every situation. 1 Corinthians 15:57 thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Unless we spend our time communing with God, we will not be strong enough to take on Goliath for our life. Let's be like David spending more time communing with God that we might be able to easily overcome every battle in life. Do not ignore developing your close relationship with God that all maybe well with you irrespective of the storms you are facing. God be praised.
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart O God and let me be in Your presence always wherever I am that I may overcome every storm of life to bring glory to Your name. In Jesus’ name, Amen.