The Undefeatable Weapons of God’s Kingdom
The giant Goliath’s weapons were forged in the fires of hate!
As Saul and the Israelites stood at ready against the Philistine army, on opposing sides of a valley in Judah, this legendary warrior taunted Saul to send out one man worthy to challenge him in a “winner take all,” one-on-one battle. I find it remarkable that Samuel (and other possible authors of the book) was inspired to express such meticulous and intimidating details regarding Goliath’s armour and weaponry in 1 Samuel 17:4-7, except to point out the futility of such:
“A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armour of bronze weighing five thousand 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 six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him (NIV).”
Still today, man stands against man, threatening to wield death upon his enemies in order to fulfill the lust for power and his hatred for a righteous, sovereign God. He does so with, albeit considerably more sophisticated weaponry than the “ancients,” that which is derived from the very elements of the earth God created, and to this day, still commands. So the splitting of heads has evolved into the splitting of atoms.
Even Saul, the great king of Israel, when confronted with the faith of a young shepherd boy named David, followed his first and faithless instinct to dress David up in the king’s armour before sending him out to do battle with the giant. How ludicrous! David, by his great faith in God, abandoned the tunic and sword and picked up some very different weapons…five smooth stones from the stream and a sling. These, too, were made of the elements of creation which God Himself commanded. David’s arsenal was strapped to his waist, and he had already scoped out the target between the eyes of the giant. The targeting skills he needed had been honed over many years of guarding sheep from the attacks of lions and bears…much worse predators than an oversized Philistine warrior.
Another great “kingdom warrior,” Moses, by faith wielded God’s unspeakable power through a most peculiar God-weapon in the form of a common wooden staff. It seemed that God had imbued Moses’ “walking stick” with a measured amount of His celestial power. Having earlier abandoned all of his earthly powers as the son of Pharaoh, Moses was able to crush the otherwise undefeatable power of the kingdom of Egypt. The same staff, through which God had parted the waters of the Red Sea, had also commanded the waters to envelop and destroy the great army of ancient Egypt.
God’s instruments and principles of love form His invincible army.
Today we see images giving witness to the temporal power of humankind’s weaponry. Media idolizes the modern technology of war, to the point where we have come to believe that, by way of such, we are presently safe. It bears repeating, however, that the unlimited power of our living God – accessed by our faith in and through His Son Jesus Christ – is the only eternal assurance we have. We can access God’s attributes and limitless power by using the weapons of His Kingdom…those of love, mercy, grace, forgiveness and obedience (to name a few). Think of these five as smooth stones from a river of living water.
Such truths are included amongst those that have become real to many believers through the fires of persecution. It is in returning love for hate that those whom we serve on your behalf are experiencing God’s great victories over death itself. These persevering followers of Christ are overcomers bearing only God’s armour and weaponry, empowered by their faith.
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
Your love and prayerful selfless acts of compassion are constant reminders of these realities, serving as a ‘source of light’ in the darkest places of this fallen world.
- Doug
