I Samuel 17:9
“If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.”
This taunt terrified the armies of Israel. This happened twice a day for over a month. What mystifies me is why did they accept these terms? Why not do a full army attack, ignoring the person to person challenge? But they didn't. They felt bound by Goliath's words and were frozen in fear.
When I hear Goliath, I'm reminded of the devil's lies to us. He speaks distorted words that have a hint of truth. Because of this we accept them as all true. Fear grips our hearts and we to are frozen in fear.
Ephesians 6:16 gives us some insight into the devil's lies. It says "In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one". His lies that come to us are those missiles. We receive them with pain. We are wounded. It's natural to stagger around from this. This passage tells us to put out the fire and move on. How do we do that? First, we don't accept the lie. It would be nice to have the answers to explain it away. Sometimes we can get that. Usually not right away and sometimes never. If that's not accessible, we have to ignore it and know that God loves us and will bring us through.
Knowing, experiencing and relying on the character of God is the key. The tendency is to panic. However, He's brought us through before. This experience of delivery validates scripture. Psalm 37:39 is one of the many rescue scriptures in the bible, "The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble". The lie may be shocking, but we learn not to accept them.
Philippians 4:7 tells us more what the Lord does in this process, "And the peace of God, surpassing all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". While we may be shocked by the lie, God's peace is still there inviting us back to it's refuge. The temptation is to believe the lie and attempt to follow it's lead. We are to ignore it and rest in God's peace. Answers may come, but sometimes not. We can rest in His peace.
Goliath's will come. We don't have to accept their premise. We can ignore and it move on. They are loud and seek to shatter our world. We aren't to let them lure us out of the refuge the Lord has for us. The devil will shout lies at us for doing this. "You can't stay in away from the truth and reality. You are sheltered and ignoring facts that will cause growth." He's very crafty. Ignore him.
Lord, thank You for Your wise words and the peace You provide. Help us to stay there. Help us to ignore the devil's taunts.