"And it came to
pass after this, that there was again a battle with the
Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew
Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. And there was
again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan
the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother
of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like
a weaver's beam. And there was yet a battle in Gath,
where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand
six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty
in number; and he also was born to the giant. And when he
defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of
David slew him. These four were born to the giant in
Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of
his servants" (2 Sam. 21:18-22).
This is a
part of the recounting of the deeds of David's mighty
men. What I want you to note is that there were a number
of giants - apparently of the family of the original
giant, Goliath - who were dealt with by these men of
David; and alongside of that, in order to get us into our
right and proper and up-to-date position, I recall to
your minds the familiar words of Ephesians 6:10-12.
"Finally, be strong in the Lord... Our wrestling is
not against flesh and blood, but against the
principalities,... against the world-rulers of this
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in
the heavenlies". It is upon the relationship of
these giants to the original giant, Goliath, that I want
you to focus your attention.
A
Corporate Answer To The Enemy's Challenge
You know
that David himself first came into view in relation to
the throne in connection with this original (and what we
might call, inclusive) giant. It was in his victorious
combat with Goliath that David was first taken account of
publicly, and this marked his first step toward the
throne of Israel, in relation to which he had been
anointed. Now we have moved on some considerable
distance, and the security of that throne is seen to be
the issue at the time of these mighty deeds. When these
mighty men come into view, they, as in the case of David,
are seen in relation to the throne and to him who is
destined to occupy it. But the movement is one from the
personal to the corporate. In David's case, it was
personal. He fought a lone battle with Goliath; he was a
lone figure on that field. When the giant challenged, all
the people fled, but David moved out alone to accept that
challenge and to answer it. But here, in the portion of
the record with which we are now dealing, everything is
corporate; but it is the same issue. It is all gathered
up into a company. The one giant, the inclusive giant,
has been fully dealt with and beheaded, but he has left
some of his offspring, and they are all giants; and now
the giant in corporate expression is being met by the
corporate expression of the throne. That sets us very
clearly in 'Ephesians'. We know that in the beginning of
'Ephesians' it is declared that the Lord Jesus has been
raised up and set far above all rule and authority; the
personal and the individual is an accomplished thing. But
at the end of 'Ephesians' the Church comes into view in
exactly the same connection, the issue of the throne as
challenged by giants - principalities, authorities, world
rulers, the great ones in the spiritual realm - as well
as by the hosts of the lesser wicked spirits gathered
around. I think that is perfectly clear. So that it is
this company called David's mighty men who are brought in
to meet the residue of the giant, to take up the same
great issue of the throne and of him who is to occupy it.
These giants are to be dealt with by the company as the
giant was dealt with by the individual.
The
Embodiment Of A Spirit
David's mighty men are
not so much a class of people as they are the embodiment
of a spirit. They express a spiritual state, a spiritual
life. In Ephesians, it is the Spirit. "Be strong in
the Lord, and in the strength of His might"; and it
is so clearly, in that letter, by the Spirit that we are
strengthened with might into the inward man. Now there
are two things to be noted about these mighty men.
Committal In Love
To A Person
Firstly, they are
committed to David. You cannot fail to see how they loved
him, the devotion of these men to David himself. We shall
come upon that again before we are through, but you will
recall that some of their exploits were especially
related to some breathed desire of his heart. It was to
himself that they were devoted, and that was quite a
discriminating feature. You notice that when the giant
Goliath shouted, the people fled (1 Sam. 17:24).
Why? Because they were mainly there for the benefits that
they could get for themselves. It was a matter of how
things affected them. That is the thing that is found in
Israel's life so continually - when things were not
favourable to their interests, then they were anywhere
but in the right place and condition. They were all over
the place because personal interests were so much in the
ascendant. But these men were not at all concerned about
their personal interests and how things affected them. It
was David alone who mattered to them; and so when others
who had lesser interests would flee because of the
difficulty, because of the greatness of the adverse
conditions, these men saw the adversity as an opportunity
for proving their love for their lord. They were
committed to him. It was, in principle, love for the
Lord.
Committal To God's
King
And then,
of course, they were committed to his throne. Read
carefully the things that are said about them, and you
will find throughout that their loyalty was not just
because of David as a person, but because they knew God's
place for that person, because they had come to see that
he was the man chosen of God to occupy the throne. The
throne was for them the throne of the one of God's
choice. They had to come to that through discipline, and
to arrive at the point where Saul no longer held the
ground for them. They saw that David was God's man for
the throne. They were committed therefore to him on the
double ground of Divine destiny and of personal devotion.
I am sure that simple truth needs no emphasis; here. We
occupy ourselves much with the proclamation of those two
things - that the Lord Jesus in Himself personally has
won our hearts' allegiance, and also that we have come to
see that He is the One Whom God has chosen for the place
of supreme authority throughout this universe unto the
ages of the ages; and we are committed - to Christianity,
or to the Lord - not for merely personal reasons. If we
were, when a giant loomed up we should very quickly be
off the scene; the test, you see, is that. The Lord is
really working very hard with us to try and woo us from
our personal interests in Christianity and in our
relationship with Him, because when things which touch us
here on this earth and in our personal lives are
threatened, we very often lose faith. We go down, we
scatter spiritually, in the presence of an uprising
threat to our interests here, even though we are
Christians related to the Lord. We have to brush aside
the consideration of how it affects us, and take a
position in the interests of the Lord. It is a very
testing and very important thing. We must say, 'It does
not matter how it affects me, but how is the Lord going
to suffer over this? What does the Lord stand to lose if
I flee, or if this thing gains the ascendancy? How is it
going to affect my Lord and to touch the great fact of
His throne?' So these mighty men of David are
distinguished from the general company of those who very
largely are Christians for the sake of the blessings of
Christianity and who are driven from the field by the
enemy because their blessings are threatened. These
mighty men speak of those who have got beyond that point
of personal consideration and have seen the interests of
Christ and the purposes of God centered in Him for
universal dominion.
Corporate
Responsibility For Throne Interests
There was a
sense - and this gets very near to the heart of it - in
which David had to be saved and succoured by these men.
You notice in verses 16 and 17, one of these giants, in a
set of new armour, marked out David and made him his
object of destruction, and David was involved in very
great peril. The man who had slain the original giant was
now in peril from one of that giant's offspring, and one
of the mighty men came to David's rescue and succoured
him and slew the giant. Then David's men said to him, 'We
cannot afford to lose you; you keep back and let us deal
with this; we will come between you and this sort of
thing.' You will say it is a wrong interpretation to put
the Lord Jesus in David's place there - 'Lord Jesus, You
keep out of this, we are going to look after You!' Yet
there is a sense in which that is right where the Church
is concerned; the very interests and honour and glory and
throne of the Lord Jesus are bound up with the Church.
The matter is no longer His alone, and there is a sense
in which He stands to lose if the Church fails - in which
God would say about His Son, 'This is not the time for
you to come out personally; you have done that; this is
the time for the Church to take up your interests.'
David's life, David's throne, were put into the hands of
these men, and they saw their responsibility, and how
great it was, and what David stood to lose if they did
not take definite action about it. There must be a
company of the Lord's people who rise to that level, who
see that the tremendous significance of the throne of the
Lord Jesus is in their hands. In one way it sounds a
presumptuous thing to say, but you see what I mean. If we
do not take responsibility over this matter of these evil
forces in their assailing, if we are not strong in the
Lord and do not move out against the principalities and
powers, it is not only ourselves who are going to lose,
but our Lord also. His throne is going to be affected. He
has now, in a sense, made us responsible for the final
issue, which is not personal but collective and
corporate. So there must be a people (actual numbers are
mentioned in David's case but we must not take that
literally: they represent a specific inner company) who
have seen the mighty issues of what is presented in the
Letter to the Ephesians - those eternal counsels of God
concerning Jesus Christ, and the place of the Church in
those counsels as instrumental for their full realization
- and have got through all personal interest in the
matter of blessings, and are now committed to their Lord
and to God's intention concerning Him, and realize that
the responsibility is with them. That is what I feel is
the Lord's word to us at this time - not to be just
'ordinary' Christians, but to realize that God must have
a company of His Own, in the midst of the general rank
and file, who answer to David's mighty men, to take up
the ultimate issues of Christ's Lordship on His behalf.
The Lord is involved in these battles into which we are
precipitated, and they are not just our battles, they are
the battles of the Lord. There are situations and
propositions which present themselves which are gigantic;
they are paralysing if you can be paralysed. When Goliath
started to shout, the people were literally paralysed -
if that is in keeping with being able to run away! But
all their strength went in the presence of this man's
showing of himself. You can be petrified by some of the
situations that the enemy brings about as tests of faith.
And then what is it going to be? Well, one deciding
factor will be whether we consider ourselves or our Lord;
whether at once we begin to feel sorry for ourselves, get
down on to our own ground - which is just what the enemy
wants to bring about - or whether we say, 'Well, the
Lord's name and honour are involved in this; the real
issue here is the Lordship, the Sovereignty, the
Ascendancy of the Lord' - and, as they did, meet the
situation on that ground. They did not always wait for
these enemies to come and start the thing. When the
enemies loomed up before them, these men took the
initiative. I am the last to suggest that we should be
careless and frivolous over attacking spiritual forces.
We can do that to our undoing; and I also remind you that
this is a thing which it is very dangerous to do
individually. This is the business for the Church - the
corporate assault upon situations which loom up and which
could literally paralyse and put out of action. The Lord
must have people like this in whom there is the
initiative of His Lordship.
Suffering
For The Body's Sake
There must be some to
meet the situation - may I use the word? - in a vicarious
way. There are all the others, there is all Israel; but
so many cannot stand up, they have not got the spiritual
position, the spiritual measure; they are in spiritual
weakness, and for them anything in the way of severe or
extra trial or difficulty finds them at once paralysed
and helpless. Is the enemy going to create a universal
situation like that? No, for the sake of the Church there
must be those who take this position of the mighty men
vicariously for the sake of others, the strong to bear
the burdens of the weak, to take the initiative on behalf
of the Church for the Church's sake. I am sure that
amongst the mighty men of the Lord Jesus the Apostle Paul
has "attained unto the first three," and he was
one who said "for His body's sake, which is the
church" (Col. 1:24). He filled up that which was
lacking of the sufferings of Christ for His Body's sake -
vicarious suffering, not for sin, which is Christ's
alone, but for the Church's victory. You are not
unfamiliar with the large place in the New Testament
given to the matter of spiritual strength and courage. I
think that these stories are written in the Old Testament
about David and his mighty men not as nice little picture
book stories for the children, but as typifying what God
means by courage, spiritual boldness, being strong in the
Lord. There they are as great illustrations of these very
passages which we have read from Ephesians. The message
of the Lord to us is that He needs a company who, having
seen what is involved in the spiritual warfare, will
graduate out of the position of personal interests and
personal blessing, and for the Lord's sake and for His
people's sake take up the matter of the warfare with
spiritual forces, and break a way through for the Church.
First published in "A Witness
And A Testimony" magazine, July-August, 1949, Vol. 27-4.