Different Eyes

When David came to the front lines where the giant, Goliath, had kept the armies of Israel cowering in fear, he looked with different eyes than the others.  Unlike the armies amassed there or the people of Israel at edge of the Promised Land in the past, David looked at the giant as a defeated foe.  David understood that he and the armies of Israel were in covenant relationship with the living God. David had experienced the victorious power of this God at work on his behalf and through him in the sheepfolds.  When he encountered this enemy on the battle field, David looked unto His God as he had at times in the past and took the down the giant that had kept the armies of Israel paralyzed for way too long.  There are giants that have kept us from victory and from moving on for too long.  We need eyes to see as God sees and faith in our hearts to believe God is true to His Word.  We are victorious warriors needing to enforce the victory of our Lord so that people will know the true and living God.

1 Samuel 17:23, 24, 26, 45-47 And as he (David) talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them. ²⁴ And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid. ^{............26} And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, 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?...... Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. ⁴⁶ This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.

Small In Our Own Eyes

Numbers 13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Exodus 23:20, 27 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared...... I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

There is a place that God has prepared for us in Him.  As we progress toward it, He has promised to go before us and to keep us on the way to that place. 

When the Israelites got to the edge of the land that God had promised to them, they focused on the giants instead of God's promise and the good things in the land.  When they perceived the giants in the way they did, they became less in their own eyes than God said they were. They did not see themselves as the victorious warriors God said they were. God said that He would go before them and would defeat their enemies.  They had seen God's power demonstrated over and over again and yet, failed to believe God.

When we see ourselves as small compared to the giants God has said we are already victorious over, the enemy will pounce on that.  Then we come into agreement with our enemy and he is magnified in our minds until we are completely paralyzed and kept from moving into our promised land. 

We need to believe God and look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.  Much of our battle is within our own minds. 

2 Corinthians 10:4-5  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) ⁵ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;