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
Picture it. Two of the greatest armies standing face to face with only a valley separating them. The Philistine army against Israel. The Philistine's champion, Goliath, came out every morning and evening for forty days to challenge the men of Israel. His words in verses eight and nine of this same chapter are- " . . .Choose you a man for you, and let him come to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then we will be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us." The Philistines' strategy for battle was this: the victor of the war would be decided with one duel. Two men, one from each side, fight to the death and whoever wins, triumphs. Good plan, right? Especially when your champion is categorized as a giant and a great man of war. Needless to say, Saul, Israel's king, and the men of his army were scared. And for forty days the challenge went on.
David, a young man barely out of adolescence and a shepherd, was told by his father to go to the camp of Israel's army and bring his brothers, who were fighting in the war, some food. David, as the obedient son, did as he was told, and while he came to the army, Goliath issued the challenge again, as he did every day, twice a day. The men of Israel fled from the man and wouldn't fight him for fear. David saw this and said to the men beside him-"What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
Let me give you some background before we go further. In Genesis chapters 15-17, we read the account of God cutting a blood covenant with a man called Abraham. And the sign of this covenant between the two was the circumcising of every man child in Abraham's house. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob, who was later renamed Israel by God, was the father of twelve men, who we now know as the twelve tribes of Israel, the very ones who were at war with the Philistines in this seventeenth chapter of First Samuel. Now a blood covenant is the strongest agreement that you can have and this covenant with Abraham that God enforced includes, according to Deuteronomy 28, victory over your enemies.
So you see, David was the only one in that entire camp who was thinking straight and wasn't allowing his fear to cloud his senses. With these words, he was saying to those listening, This man is uncircumcised. He doesn't have a covenant with God. It's not already promised to him that he would triumph over us. No! We have a covenant with God! It's been promised to us to triumph over him! Who does that Philistine think he is standing up and challenging an army of covenant men? (It's almost like David is insinuating, What a stupid man!) David knew and believed that part of his covenant with God was his enemies fleeing from before him seven ways. Apparently, since all the other Israelites were so afraid, David was the only one who really understood the covenant that nation had with God. Why? Most surely because of all his time spent shepherding his father's sheep and talking to the One Who made the covenant.
That's an important key. Unless we spend time with God, in prayer and in His Word, we won't understand what is available to us through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Like David, we also have a covenant with Almighty God. Galatians 3 states that the Blessing of Abraham has come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. If you don't know what this blessing consists of, I urge you to take out your Bible and read Deuteronomy 28:1-14; these are the promises of the blessing. But we have an even greater covenant than David. Our covenant is established on great promises, and because of this covenant, everything God has belongs to the believer. It's our right, it's our inheritance as a born again child of God to live in victory. The next time something big comes up in your life, trying to take you down, be like David and remember the covenant you have with God. Go to the promises and stand strong on that covenant.
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