"David and Goliath"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

1 Samuel 17. Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Soko in Judah. They pitched camp at FS Diamond between Soko and Azakar. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the valley of Eilar and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied 1 hill, and the Israelites another with the valley between them.

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was 6 cubits on a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing 5000 shekels On his legs, he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shackles. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel. Why do you come out and line up a battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and let him come down to me.

If he's able to fight and kill me, we will become your subject. But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subject and serve us. Then the Philistine said, this day, I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other on hearing the Philistine's words, saul, and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah.

Jesse had 8 sons and in Seoul's time, he was very old. Jesse's 3 eldest sons had followed saul to the war. The first was Elias, the second of Inadab, the third shamar. David was the youngest. The 3 l eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Seoul to tempt his father, sheep, at Bethlehem.

For 40 days, the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. Now Jesse said to his son, to his son, David, to take this e 4 of roasted grain, and these 10 loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these 10 cheese cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They're with Soul and all the men of Israel in the valley of Eli fighting against the Philistines.

Early in the morning, David left the flock in the care of a shepherd loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philsteins were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies ran to the battle lines, and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath's decked out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.

Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. Now the Israelites had been saying, do you see this man who keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel? The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.

David asked the men standing near him. What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumstine, uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living god? They repeated to him what they'd been what they had been saying and told him this is what will be done for the man who kills him. When a lie of David's eldest brother heard him speaking with the many, burned with anger at him and asked, why have you come down here?

And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle. Now what have I done, said David? Can't I even speak?

He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter and the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, let no 1 lose heart on account of this Palestine. Your servant will go out and fight him. Saul replied, you are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him.

You're already a young man, and he's been a warrior from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep, When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from his mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like 1 of them because he has defied the armies of the living God.

The lord who rescued me from the poor of the lion and the poor of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, go, and the lord be with you. Then saw dressed, David, in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet's on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to them.

I cannot go in these. He said to saw because I'm not used to them. So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose 5 smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand approached the Philistine. Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield bearer in front of him kept coming closer to David.

He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks and the Philistine cursed David by his gods? Come here, he said, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals. David said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the lord almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day, the lord will deliver you into my hands, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.

This very day, I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the lord saves. For the battle is the lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands. As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him, reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground.

So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with a sword.

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judith surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Charain road to Gath and Ekron. When the illustrate when the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. David took the Philistines head and brought it to Jerusalem.

He put the Philistines weapons in his own tent. As Saul watched David, going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abna, commander of the armor, play the army. Abna, whose son is that young man? Abna replied as surely as you live your man as the majesty, I don't know. The king said, find out who's son this young man is.

As soon as David returned from killing the Palestine, Abna took him and brought him before Seoul with David still holding the Palestine's head. Whose son are you, young man? Saw asked him. David said, I am the son of your servant, Jesse of Bethlehem. Great stuff.

I'm surprised you didn't cheer at the end. Both. For Jackie for reading such a long passage. You can tell it's gonna be long when the person coming up brings a water bottle with them. It'd be even worse if they brought a snack up with them as well.

But, well, dad, thank you for reading that so well, really good. But Yeah. Wonderful story, isn't it? Let's keep it open in front of us. Once Samuel 17, I wanna turn back the page, and, let me pray for us.

Emily father, we, thank you for this wonderful story. Thank you. It's great to read, but we know it's not just here for our entertainment, but it is here to teach us and to grip our hearts and to change our lives. And so we pray that you would do a work in each 1 of us this morning by your spirit. Our men.

Well, I wonder, what the things are that you fear Things that you dread happening. Just take a moment and just think. We've all got them. We things that, frighten us, things that scare us, things that maybe give us nightmares. What are the things for you?

Just have a think for a moment. You don't have to shout them out, of course. But just have a think. Well, this story of David and Goliath is often applied to our fears. Very often when you hear teaching on it, you'll hear someone say something along the lines of what are the goliaths in your life.

And how can you maybe be David like and defeat them? Well, we are gonna come back to our fears. So those things that you've just thought about, hold on to them. Keep them in mind. But we need first to get into the story and to understand the story.

And in a sense, what I'm gonna show you is that actually using the passage like that, saying, what are the goliaths in your life isn't really what this passage is about. It's not really about that, but we will at the end come back to our fears and say, well, how does this passage apply to those fears? So hold on to them. Keep them in your mind, and we will come back to them. Now we're not gonna be dealing with the whole passage.

We're not gonna work our way through the entire thing. That would be too long. I'm thinking about whether we'll see, but we we might in the summer when we get into August. We sometimes have a couple of, I say, sometimes we've done it once before, but in August last year, we had a couple of Sundays where we did all aid services when Hope kids wasn't happening because the leaders were having a break. And we might come back to David Engala and take a little bit longer in it.

Because there's plenty in here. So we're but for today, we're gonna kinda skim our way through. We'll we'll stop at different points, but we'll skim our way through. Now the battle is set up for us in the opening verses. You would have heard it as it was read.

You've got the Philistine army, who are again attacking the Israelites, and you've got the Israelite army, and they are on different mountains. 1 on 1, 1 on the other, and you've got the valley in between. And the first thing that we find is first thing we come across is the great enemy. The great enemy. Outcomes Goliath.

And, we're given quite a lot of description of Goliath as it was read. I'm sure you noticed that. Verse 4 onwards, if you've got your pass the passage open, you'll see that there is the description there. A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. His height was 6 cubits and a span.

Now if you're not that familiar with the scale of cubits and spans, that is big. It's very tall. He is 9 and a half feet tall. The tallest guy on record that can resist looking this up is a guy called Robert Wodlow, and here's a photo of him. There he is.

I know. He's big, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Easy to spot with me.

8 and a half feet tall he was, and Goliath was bigger than him. 9 and a half feet tall. He is a a terrifying enemy. That's how he's portrayed, isn't he? And he's kitted out with the latest high-tech armor, kidded out in bronze.

And it says, he he had a bronze helmet and bronze armor weighing 5000 shekels. Which again, if you're not familiar with that, that's about 58 kilograms. That doesn't do much for me. I had to look up things that are that kind of weight. It's about the weight of a dishwasher.

Alright? So he's carrying around a dishwasher's worth of, of armor. It is heavy, it is strong. He has a javelin and a spear, what the significance of the spear being like a weaver's rod, it's a bit unclear. Could refer to a leather thong attached to it, apparently, which is used for throwing, which gives it power and accuracy.

And you're given the weight of the head of the spear, which is, what was it? Well, I know I continue it in other things. It's the weight of a bowling ball or a large George foreman grill. So there he is with this heavy, powerful armor and and, weapons. He is as, 1 of the books on this passage says, a colossal powerful, apparently indestructible menacing figure, and he shouts his defiance to the ranks of the Israelites.

Verse 8 to 10, he shouts at them. He says, why do you come out? Why do you line up for battle? I mean, literally, why are you coming out for battle? Because you're not doing anything.

He says, am I not a Philistine, or it could be, am I not the Philistine? The ultimate Philistine, the 1 who represents all Philistines, and he says choose a man to fight me. Who will be the 1 who will go out to fight Goliath? Well, it should have been king saul. He's the 1 that the people had wanted to be their king, the 1 they wanted to lead them out into battle.

It should have been king saul, and king saul is the most goliath like Israelite there is. If you remember when he was chosen as king, when he was announced as king, his description was he was head and shoulders above everyone else. He is the most Goliath like person Israel have, but he doesn't come out. And so Goliath says verse 10. I defy the armies of Israel.

It's that which apparently is a weak translation. It should be icecoring them. I mock them. Now let's just pause with Goliath for a moment. An uncomfortable person to pause with, but we'll pause with him anyway.

As I said at the start, people will often ask, what are the goliaths in your life? But I'd like to suggest that if we go down that line of application too quickly, then, we're going down a line, which is is not really an appropriate way to go. We're approaching it the wrong way. We're trying to make the David and Goliath story fit into our lives, if we go that way, rather than seeing really how the David and Goliath story fits into the story line of the Bible. First of all, Ra, before we apply it to us, let's just see where it fits in the big storyline of the Bible, because this will really, really help us.

We have here an enormous, overwhelmingly powerful enemy. And importantly, he is opposing God and opposing god's people. Now that fits in the big story line of the Bible, right back in the garden of Eden, and right through to the very last story of the Bible in the in the book of the Bible in Revelation. There is an enemy who opposes god, who is powerful. Satan, the devil, described in Genesis, or in the form of a serpent and in the book of Revelation as a dragon who hates God defies God and hates god's people.

And here in the story, we have Goliath coming out opposing God's people, and as Peter Lifehart says, points out in his book, in Scale Armor. He's got scaly armor. That's what it says. It's scale armor. He looks a lot like the big enemy.

Satan Now I'm not saying he is the devil. I'm not saying he is Satan, but he looks a lot like him, doesn't he? Opposing God and opposing god's people. And Satan in the Bible in Genesis, his great tactic in opposing God was to tempt people to sin against god, to join him in rebellion against god, and the result of that was death. Satan sin, death.

That the Bible says is the great enemy, the great goliath. Goliath is, as it were, the embodiment of the great enemy. I'm not saying it it's a myth. I'm not saying it's just a story. No.

This really happened, but that's what he looks like, doesn't it? And he is overwhelmingly powerful. The Israelites stand and look at him and think there is no way they can defeat him. This isn't like, you know, how sometimes when there's a a real mismatch in a football match or something like that, people say, oh, it's a David and Goliath story. Like, you've got 1 of the premier league clubs against 1 of the real, you know, minute, 1 of the really small club.

As it is kind of when it's just unlikely they'll win. It's not this is not just unlikely. This is impossible. This is this isn't like that. This is more like a puppy versus a lion.

This is it's just absolutely impossible that they're gonna defeat this this enemy. He's just so big. He's so powerful. So too with us, against Satan, sin, and death. It is just overwhelmingly powerful.

Now maybe you aren't a Christian today. Great that you're here. Maybe you're looking into Christianity, and maybe you would say maybe if you're coming at this, you're going, oh, I'm a bit skeptical about the idea of Aitan, although I I hope you would agree that there is great evil in the world. And maybe you're not so sure even about sin, although I would hope that in your life, you would see that you don't match up to your stand's let alone god's standard. But I think we would all agree that death is a monster that we cannot defeat.

However, great, our advances in medical science, death is a great enemy. And the Bible is saying, look, all these things are connected together. You could talk about that more afterwards. Satan, sin, and death. It all lumps together, and he's all a great enemy that we cannot defeat.

It looks like here we have the great bible storyline, the big bible storyline, sort of in miniature, although with a giant in it, but in miniature, in this chapter. The great enemy. Okay. The great enemy, now we wanna see the great hero. First 12 comes with great relief.

First 12, now David was the son of an Afrother. Now this is odd, isn't it? David is being introduced to us, like we've not heard of him before. But in the previous chapter, we've been introduced to David. But there we go.

He's being introduced again. Now we know from the previous chapter, which the Israelite army didn't know, that David has been chosen by God to be the next king of Israel to replace Saul Saul is rejected because he's rejected god's word, and therefore God has rejected him. And David has been chosen to become the new king of Israel. He's been chosen by god, anointed with oil, and God has put his spirit in him. We know that.

But where is this 1 that we are looking for? This king that we're excited about? Well, at this point, he's looking after the sheep. He's not at the battle line. He's traveling to and from the battle line, bringing supplies from his dad to to his brothers, but he's not there.

Well, now we're gonna skim over the bit about how he ends up getting there. He does end up getting there. Obviously, his dad sends him with supplies, and he arrives before Goliath comes forward. Then Goliath comes forward and issues his challenge shouts again his defiance of god's people. And David is outraged at this.

First 26, just have a look. David asked the men standing near him, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and remove this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living god? David is outraged. And Saul hears about this and calls David in, and we're just gonna pause a little bit on this conversation between Saul, the rejected King, and David The 1 who Saul doesn't know has been anointed to be his success.

And the first thing David saw David says to Saul is really significant. Would you have a look at it? Verse 32? David said to saul, let no 1 lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him.

Now this John Woodhouse in his book on on this, he says, this is the gospel, the gospel to saul. Just these this this little bit this 1 verse is the gospel because it so parallels what Jesus says to us. David says, let no 1 lose heart. Do not fear. Don't be afraid of this Philistine.

And he isn't saying that, but he's not saying, oh, come on. He's not that big. And he's not saying, come on. You go out there. You'll be fine.

No. He says, don't be afraid. I will fight for you. I'll fight you. I'll do it.

And that's what Jesus says to us. The great enemy sin, satan, and death, Jesus says to you and me, don't be afraid of them because I'll fight them for you. And yet, it seems so ridiculous. He's so small. He's so young.

He can't do this. That's what Saul says. Verse 33. He says, you're not able to go out against this Filacine and fighting. You're only a young man.

He's been a warrior from his youth. And so David then says, here are my credentials as it went. This is what qualifies me. First 34, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. I've been a shepherd, and I've been a very good shepherd.

Because when something came to attack, the flock, I defended it. When a lion or bear came out, I tackled it, funny. Actually, like Sue, fighting a bear earlier, Sue gulled like he goes out to fight the bear. Don't have loud image in your mind. It's David going to fight the the the bear.

He goes. He says, that's what I did. When it took a lap, when it took a sheep, I went and rescued it. I risked my life. I took on that lion and that or that bear.

I defeated it. I tackled it. When it turned on me, I killed it. And he says, and this Philistine will be just like them because he's defied the armies of the living God. First 37, the lord who rescued me from the poor of the lion, the poor of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.

Nice image, isn't it? The poor of the lion, the poor of the bear says, God rescue me from the bow, the hand of this Philistine. God will rescue me from that. To. And so we before he goes out, Saul tries to dress him up in his armor.

Now there's a lot going on here. There's a bit of symbolism going on here. You've got the king, the old king giving over his royal armor unknowingly to the next king. And David puts it on and tries it out. And it's like Saul's saying, well, look, if you're gonna go and fight Goliath, You've gotta be Goliath like.

You've gotta out Goliath Goliath. You've gotta put on the armor. You've gotta have the right equipment. And David says, I can't do that. I I I'm not just not used to it.

I can't wear this. And what does he do? He picks up his staff, takes some stones, and his sling, and he goes dressed as a shepherd. And he goes, and he meets the Philistine. The Philistine dressed in his armor, terrifying.

Against this weak looking shepherd. And the Philistine mocks David and threatens him and curses him by his gods. A David replies verse 45 You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the lord almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This is the battle. It is goliath and his god's versus God.

Outward size and strength versus apparent weakness, but in the name of the lord. And verse 46 and 47 show us David's hearts. He says, this day, the lord will deliver you into my hands. I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day, I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

Remember Saul a couple of chapters back? His his motivation in fighting was for my vengeance, not so with David. David says, my motivation is the glory, the fame of god, that the whole world will know. This is a global desire. This is so that we will know that there is a God.

And he says for those gathered there, verse 47, that they will know. It is not by sword or spear that the lord saves for the battle is the lord's, and it'll give you into our hands. Force is not gonna be the way that God wins this battle. And so we come to the actual fight Here is the moment. The Philistine armor, moving forward, mighty force, powerful ruthless opponent of god, David, shepard, running forward to the battle line.

And he takes a stone, puts it in his sling, and slings it towards Goliath. And the stone goes forward hits Goliath in the head, and his head is crushed. And he falls down debt. The promise back in Genesis. When Satan opposing God tempting Adam and Eve, they fall, and God says 1 day there will be someone who will come, who will crush.

The serpent's head. And David takes the Philistine sword and cuts his head off. Here is the hero. I hope you've seen the many ways that David points us to Jesus It's just all over the place. David foreshadows Jesus.

And David isn't isn't the great hero Jesus is. But he shows us what Jesus is gonna be like. He shows us how God he's gonna win ultimately the great victory over satan's sin and death because Jesus is the 1 who comes in the name of the lord. As David did. He too looked weak.

He was god's anointed 1 filled with the spirit. He called himself the good shepherd. He rescued us in apparent weakness not just by risking his life, but by giving his life. And when he died on the cross and rose again, he won the great victory, actually crushing Satan's head and defeating sin and death. The enemies we could not defeat Jesus defeat it when he died and rose again.

And he says to you and me, Don't be afraid. I will fight for you. In the story of David Engiliath, we see not only the great enemy, but we see the great hero. And now we're just gonna think about the great victory. After David has defeated Goliath, the Philistines conveniently forget the terms that Goliath laid out, and they leg it.

And now that David has won the victory, the Israelite army is transformed, no longer fearful. They pursue and kill the Philistines. So verse 51, second half of verse 51, top of page 290. Says when the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah searched forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath.

And to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the showering road to Gath and Ekron. When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. Now as we've been hinting at throughout, if we are anyone in this story, we are the Israelite army, terrified, unable to defeat the enemy ourselves, needing a a shepherd king to come and fight for us. And as we've said at the cross, that victory was won.

And therefore, if we are Jesus' people, his victory is our victory. And yet. And yet, don't we still sin? Don't we still die? And isn't Satan still around after all in our reading we're gonna have in a bit?

In 1 Peter, we're gonna read, he prowls around, like a roaring lion. Well, we need to know that the victory has been won. Jesus has won the victory at the cross. The decisive moment, the killer blow has been struck on satan's sin and death. But the full realization of that is yet to come.

There is still, in a sense, some conflict before the full carrying out of the victory. But nevertheless, we are like that army, standing on the hill, watching their champion win the victory. Now how does that fit with our fears? We need to remember that this story of David and Goliath takes us into the great bible storyline and says if Jesus won the victory at the cross, we are looking forward to a day when it will be fully realized where there will be no more sin or death or mourning or crying or pain, and we look forward. That's the trajectory that we're heading to.

What difference does knowing that victory make to our fears now? It makes a huge difference. We just need to con join the dots as it were, and we need to help 1 another join the dots between our fears and Jesus's victory. Because Jesus' victory doesn't necessarily take away the things that we fear. It doesn't take them away in that sense that we do still suffer.

We do still lose our jobs. We do still get ill. We still die. So Jesus being the victim doesn't mean that that he just takes them away, and he doesn't just say to you right now, you can go out and defeat them. What would that mean?

If your greatest fear is your boss, what does that mean? You go in tomorrow, like David with a sling? No. It doesn't work like that. That's why this doesn't quite work to say, just what are the glass in your life?

And go and be like David? No. No. No. Doesn't work like that.

But it does work like this. You've gotta know Jesus's victory and see how that does apply to your fears. Now we could think about that in terms of a number of fears. Let me just give you a few just to finish it off. But we could talk more about others.

What are our great fears? I looked it up on the internet. It must be right. Here are our great fears. Some of them, to it did not all of them.

First 1, death. How does Jesus's victory help us with our fear of death? Because we do fear death. How does it deal with that? Well, you say, well, that's a more obvious 1.

Yeah. Jesus on the cross and rising to life again defeats death. We know death is not the end. Gloria waits. Death is not the final final final act of the play.

There is something more beyond As, George Herbert Walsh said, death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener. So we still go through death, but we do not need to fear it. Next 1, suffering or loss. Physical suffering. We fear that.

We fear loss. That covers a whole load of things. And let's face it. If we live long enough, we will all face suffering and loss. If you've not yet, you just gotta hang around a bit longer.

How does Jesus' victory make a difference? It means however bad things get joy awaits. Some 30 says weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Yes.

We may weep. We may struggle, but there is always joy to come. Jesus won that for us. But, actually, we also note through looking at some things like 1 Peter, there is also purpose in our sufferings now. That the lord uses them to refine our faith.

So we have joy to come and our sufferings even now are used by God to refine faith. What about fear of rejection and abandonment? Jesus's victory means God says to you and me, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you? That's in Hebrews. Why?

Why can we be sure that he won't leave us, that he won't abandon us? Because the 1 thing that means he should abandon us, our sin, was dealt with at the cross, and Jesus won victory over that. Therefore, he promises I will never leave you. So that fear of rejection and abandonment is dealt with at the cross. Last 1, fear of failure and inadequacy that we won't measure up or that we'll be a disappointment.

Interesting. The Bible says, our sin means we don't measure up. None of us measure up. Sin stands against us, says you don't measure up. But Jesus's victory means our sin has been taken.

But more than that, not only does Jesus get our sin, we get his righteousness. Which means the verdict on you from God is that is the same as his verdict on Jesus. When he said to him, when God said to Jesus, this is my son, whom I love, With him, I am well pleased, and that is god's verdict on you as well because of Jesus' victory at the cross. And in the end, it's god's verdict that matters. And it is with him, we will spend eternity.

So you see, what we need to do with our fears is connect Jesus' victory at the cross to them and see what difference his victory makes. And what we find is like the army on that hillside. We actually don't need to live in fear. Though bad things may happen, we can live in the joy of the victory that Jesus won and look forward to the full enjoyment of it. Let me pray for us.

Herman father, we praise you that though we see the great enemy in this story, who is far more powerful than us, though we see that he represents for us as it were Satan and sin and death that we cannot destroy yet. This also points us to the great hero, the lord Jesus, the Shepard King who came and said, don't be afraid. I'll fight for you. Father, please help us to rejoice in Jesus and help us to see how his victory shapes our lives now and can change us and change the way, we so often are afraid of things in this life. Ah, man.