Our David

“Then said David to the Philistine, 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. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand;...that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:45–47

Here were the armies of God on one side, the Philistines on the other. The defiant champion of the Philistines was Goliath, that brawny son whose spear was so great that the very shadow of it would have been enough to have withered his opponent if he had not been supernaturally endowed and endued of God.

The little rosy cheeked shepherd boy, David, when he came into the presence of Saul and pled for an opportunity to meet Goliath, when he had convinced Saul that he had the courage to meet the giant, was prevailed upon by the king to put on his armor; but he had sense enough to throw it off. By all means, friends, be natural. Don’t be a monkey and imitate others. In Christian work the very worst thing that a man could possibly do is to imitate another.

I heard it stated that after Billy Sunday had been holding a meeting for some weeks in a city where many were converted, that half a dozen preachers could be seen any Sunday, taking off their collars, standing up on chairs and doing all kinds of stunts that were unbecoming to them and made them just as ridiculous as David looked in that great armor of Saul’s.

David knew that God had helped him before. David was sure in his soul that God was going to help him again; so he took his sling, selected five smooth stones out of the brook, and went out to meet the giant in the name of his God. The giant hardly deigned to draw his sword, but finally enraged, he came upon David with his weapon thinking to smash him to “smithereens” and wipe him off the face of the earth. David, who had been chosen of God for the high position of king of Judah and Israel, let go his sling, striking the giant in the forehead. The giant fell, and David with Goliath’s own sword decapitated him.

Now that is a picture of the conflict our David had with Goliath, the devil, and it is a picture of the ultimate victory that is coming to this Earth when the stone cut out of the mountain without hands (Daniel 2) smashes the feet of the ten-toed image representing world government. Jesus is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. He is going to fill the whole world that is His by right of creation and by right of that awful battle that He waged on Calvary with Satan and all the hosts of hell.

When Jesus died on the cross Satan and his retinue in all probability thought they had gained the victory, that Jesus was defeated, and in their domain there was great rejoicing when the news was signaled that Christ, the Son of God, had been slain upon Calvary; but through death (Satan’s trusty sword), Jesus had won the victory that affects us and affects the whole universe of God, “That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Death has no terror for the true child of God. Every child of God coming into the presence of death knows (because the Spirit of God will show such a one) that the time has come and the work is done, their mission upon Earth is finished, and death is but the entry into the great mansion with its many chambers of delight beyond.

The sting of death is sin, and Jesus Christ has robbed death of its sting. There upon Calvary when He died He took death, the very sword of Goliath, with which to cut off Goliath’s head. Ever since Calvary Satan has been a defeated foe. He is your defeated foe today if you just claim victory in the name of Jesus, look Satan in the face when he comes with his temptations, with his awful oppression, his impositions, and plead the name of Jesus, referring him back to Calvary and to the blood that was shed there upon the cross. Jesus Christ through death destroyed him that had the power of death,—the devil, that He might “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15).

Here we have three pictures. There a weak boy killing a giant; there a man voluntarily given over into the hands of the hosts of hell to do what they will with him, Jesus meeting every test, every strain that is put upon Him, coming away from Calvary gloriously victor over every attack of the enemy. Here we are, His people, pleading the name of Jesus, talking about the blood of His dear Son,—and thank God, He is using some of us, no matter how weak we might be, to manifest the power of the Son of God through our lives.

It is so contrary to the natural,—this boy overcoming the giant; the man, emaciated, brutally beaten, at the point of exhaustion becoming victor over the enemy, the weak children of God, the weaklings of the flock becoming more than conquerors and doing the work here in the world that God left them to do. Did you ever read that first chapter of First Corinthians, that wonderful Scripture that talks about the weak things and how God uses the weak things, the base things, and even the things that are not to bring to nought the things that are mighty. “You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” This is all God.

God does not need your strength, and you cannot serve God in your own poor weak way. The only thing you are fit for is burial, and the only way out for you, if you want to live in victory with Jesus every day in this world,—the only way for you is to be buried with Christ and to reckon yourself dead and buried, but alive again, thank God, by the power of the Spirit. Not reckoning upon your good points, or upon your bad points, but reckoning upon Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and the wonderful grace of God. I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, but O Hallelujah for the Victor who dwells within,—our David.

Thank God, our David is coming back some day to take possession of the earth that belongs to Him; and then there will not be anything on this Earth too good for us. He has gone to prepare a place for us, and because of the victory He gained on Calvary He is going to take us through every attack of the enemy, and bring us more than conquerors into that wonderful place.

I wonder what it will be like. He has mansions up there now, but those mansions are not good enough for us,—“In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.” O what a wonderful place it must be that Jesus is preparing for us: that great city—that holy city—that new Jerusalem—lighted by the glory of God with our David, our Lamb, in the midst, and we dwelling and reigning with Him. Have you taken Jesus as your Victor? Do you know experimentally the power of the blood? Are you “more than conqueror” through His wonderful work?