November 2000

[Part Twenty-eight]

            Continuing our thoughts on STONES and ROCKS, the OT  often depicts these as weapons as in the unlikely duel between little David and giant Goliath! Many lessons have been learned from this heroic event, but we would offer added enlightenment.  It is well-known that David"s implement of warfare was a sling he had deftly used against lions and bears that threatened his father"s flocks when he was a shepherd. So when this lad of faith confronted the titanic"uncircumcised Philistine" he drew strength from "remembering" those times when God had let him prevail over wild beasts.    Here is an important Truth! Scripture often admonishes God"s people to "REMEMBER" His past works as a source of strength when the must stand in the evil day! But there is something far more exciting being revealed here.  The Heb root 2142 for "remember" is used in all but three places as "MALE"; and in one place as "MANCHILD"! (Lev 12:2)  God has only One Manchild and that is His CHRIST!  To be part of this many-membered Son means to "Remember the Lord"as our true Father of Spirit; and cast our sonship- relationship with our fallen father of flesh into the "Land of forgetfulness"(Ps 88:12) from whence Christ has since emerged triumphant to say to us- as God surely must have whispered to little David as he stood looking up at the titanic Goliath- "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth"!  (Ec 12:1)
                 When God cast Adam into a deep sleep of death, his posterity was also cast into that sleep!! This means all men were born amnesiacs of their former life of spirit and so cannot draw strength from memories of it.   But divine purpose dictated this; for "While we were yet without strength, [i.e., unable to help ourselves being "dead in our sins", Col 2:13] Christ, in a foreordained time, died for the ungodly...and because He laid down His Life for us while we were still sinners, God could demonstrate and extend His unconditional, perfect Love for us!" Not only this, but He was ensuring that no mortal man could claim His Gift of Salvation by any human endeavor!! (Ro 5:6)  This does not mean a natural man cannot "say" he is saved because "he chose" to accept this gift - any more than I can "say" I own a gold mine in Alaska! But just as I would be turned away from a mining claims office if I tried to stake a claim in a mine I did not own, so all counterfeit Christians shall be turned away as Christ confronts them saying, "Depart from Me, your workers of iniquity, I NEVER KNEW YOU!!" (Lk 13:27)
                 David used his staff to draw out "five smooth stones" (1 Sam 17:36-40) as the ammunition for his sling.  Of these, one stone became embedded in the beast"s forehead! The reason he got five stones is that 5 = grace, and "By grace we are saved". (Eph 2:5) He only used one stone to defeat the giant! (1 = Unity; and "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit! " 1 Co 6:17)  The word "Smooth" (Heb 2512) is used once as "SEPARATE SELF"! (Jer 37:12) The word "church" (Gk 40) means: "Called out".  God foresaw the time of the great "falling away" when His people would be "cast into a deep sleep" under the spell of Mystery Babylon"s "devilish doctrines" (1 Ti 4:1);  so when He calls out to her, "Babylon (spiritual confusion) is fallen, so come out of her, My people!" (Re 18:4) He means to "separate our soulish self" from this world"s counterfeit religious systems and be "Joined to Him in one Spiritual Self"!
                 The hour is now upon us when His Christ Manchild is soon to be sent out into the world to slay the Antichrist; but they must be well-armed and well-trained for this high calling! Our merciful God did not surrender David as a defenseless boy to the unmerciful might of a skilled warrior! He secretly trained up this youth for years in the sheep pastures and watched him slay two of the most ferocious beasts on earth with stones from his sling- before He subjected him to such an unprecedented challenge.  This typifies how He would secretly train up the Son of David to engage in spiritual warfare with the spirit of Antichrist! Natural weapons of slings and stones are ineffective and useless in a conflict of spirit!  Only spiritual weapons defeat spiritual enemies so God has been raising up a mighty Warrior of Spirit in a Christed body of surrendered people that He has taught, tried and tested in shepherding skills to overcome their own antichrist natures so as to save their blessed Lamb of God Natures from the ferocious beasts of their carnal-minds!!      But understand this great Truth, beloveds, the key of both these David"s successes in battle is their names! "David" (Heb 1732) means: "LOVE" and as"GOD IS LOVE" (1 Jn 4:8) His Manchild must be the "Son of Love"!  Jesus Christ came to earth to supplant our "carnal weapons of warfare" (2 Co 10:4) with His powerful spiritual weapon of LOVE!  That is why He tells us, "LOVE YOUR ENEMIES; bless all who curse you; do good to all who hate you; pray for all who despitefully use and persecute you; this will prove you are children of your heavenly Father! (Mt 5:44)  The reason God used young David against giant Goliath was to teach His sons that even THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF LOVE DEFEATS THE GREATEST GIANTS OF EVIL! 

[TO BE CONTINUED]