The Lord of Heaven's Armies

Often I think....why read the Old Testament?  There really isn't much in it to help me with what I am facing today!  And then the Lord lets me see that yes....really there is!  Just look at this passage from the story about David and Goliath....

1 Samuel 17:45-47New Living Translation (NLT)

⁴¹ Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, ⁴² sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. ⁴³ “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. ⁴⁴ “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled.
 ⁴⁵ David replied to the Philistine, —“You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! ⁴⁷ And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

When remembering this story....from my days as a child....in my mind all I could see was the flannel graph board with a Sunday School teacher slapping some little paper figures on it telling us about David slaying Goliath with his sling and a stone.  While that is a good story that's really all it ever was to me....just a good story.  I have to admit that even to this day....even though I believe it to be true....I have only thought of it as a good kids story.

Side note....I'm thinking I still have a lot of old thoughts and feelings that I need to let the Lord help me with if I want to really grow in my walk with Him.  Yes?!

But this morning I saw so clearly that in just this one little passage there is so much more!  My first thoughts when I read this were....Goliath was in the lives of the Israelites what Satan is in our life at times.  Big....burly and intimidating!  He comes at us instilling fear and intimidation with everything he has.  Jabbing us with his spear....slicing at us with his sword....throwing darts at us that seem as big as a javelin....yelling things into our ears so we will back down from what we know to be right.  In effect....beating us down until we go whimpering off....defeated and no good to ourselves or anyone else.  Then just when you think you are done....something happens.  Yep....GOD steps in and leads you to read something from His Word that kind of kicks you out of your frozen state.  This story of David and the....in God's eyes...."little giant" Goliath....

Immediately the words that got my attention this morning were....

....I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  Today the Lord will conquer you...

I have got to tell you that these verses changed my day today!  What I knew was going to be an awful day turned out to be a good day.  I am confident that things changed only because of the Lord. 

We need to realize that as long as we have the Lord we really can face anything.  We might have multiple giants going on in our life but it's okay because we have the Lord of Heaven's Armies standing with us and fighting for us!  We will make it through whatever our challenges are and we will still be on one piece when we get to the other side!

"until we see JESUS....face to face"