STICKS & STONES

Sticks & Stones

As the giant Goliath saw the youth David approach him, he said to him, ‘“Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.’ 1 Samuel 17:43. David stood there with his staff in one hand, a sling in the other, and five smooth stones in his shepherd’s pouch. ‘Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, 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.”’ 1 Samuel 17:45.

Everyone knows that David planted a stone from his sling between the eyes of Goliath, and, having no sword of his own, he cut off Goliath’s head with Goliath’s own sword. But does everyone know that these two men represented two different and opposing kingdoms, viz, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness? You see, after the prince of darkness, the devil, had utilized a serpent to cajole Adam and Eve into sinning against God, the LORD addressed the serpent in the Garden, saying, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”’ Genesis 3:15. Whereas Goliath was of the seed of the serpent/devil, David was of the Seed of the woman.Not long before the great Flood in Noah’s day the two seed-lines started mixing, for, ‘the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all they chose.’ Genesis 6:2. Scripture says, ‘Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?’ 2 Corinthians 6:14-15. Belial has to do with being worthless, without profit, fit for destruction (see e.g., Deut. 13:13; Judg. 19:22; 20:13; 1 Sam. 1:16; 2:12; 10:27; 25:17, 25; 30:22 KJV). Those of the Seed of the woman were not to marry the seed of Belial. At the time of Ezra and Nehemiah those of the Seed of the woman divorced their pagan wives (Nehemiah 13:23-27; Ezra 9:10-2-44). Jesus called Judas Iscariot ‘the son of destruction’ John 17:12.

Meanwhile back to David and Goliath. We don’t have to guess which of the two seed-lines was represented by whom. The Seed that was to fatally bruise the serpent’s head (while having His heel bruised) is none other than Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16). Therefore David’s slaying of Goliath typifies Christ’s dealing the fatal blow to the devil’s head. It was a picture of the kingdom of darkness being overcome by the kingdom of light. It was the foolishness of God overcoming the wisdom of the world! As David said to Goliath before he slew him, ‘This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword or spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.’ 1 Samuel 17:46-47.

Like Goliath seeing David approach, the devil must have laughed derisively when he saw Jesus, ‘the son of David,’ with a stick heading up Calvary’s hill just outside the city of David’s walls. However, it was by being nailed to that tree that ‘the stone the builders rejected’ would crush the devil’s skull at Golgotha, the place of the skull. All the powers of darkness were gathered around the Light of the World in order to try to extinguish the light on the hill. Before He died darkness covered the earth for three hours as Christ hung there. But on the third day the kingdom of darkness was beaten back forever with the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Dear Christian, it may seem that at times that all we have are a few sticks and stones to fight an enemy armed with weapons of mass destruction. But remember who you are. Like David you are a soldier in the army of the LORD of hosts. You are of the Seed of the woman. Yes, there are those of the seed of the serpent who hissed at Jesus. They will hiss at us. But fear not, the One who called them ‘a brood of vipers’ is the One who by His Spirit is with us. ‘“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts.’ Zechariah 4:6b.

At the sign of triumph / Satan’s legions flee / on then Christian soldiers / on to victory! / Hell’s foundations quiver / at the shout of praise / brothers, lift your voices / loud your anthem raise. (Sabine Baring-Gould).