Puritan Corner - Untrod Prayer Closet

Do not let your way to your prayer closet be untrod. He that holds his
acquaintance in heaven by being often with God, will be the most likely to prevail with God in the most pressing and difficult cases. 

by Richard Alleine (1611-1681)

I will therefore that men pray every where... 1 Timothy 2:8

MEMORIAL DAY 2021

 Joab scolds David for disrespecting his military men

And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants,
which this day have saved thy life,
and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters,
and the lives of thy wives,

In that thou lovest thine enemies,

and hatest thy friends.

For thou hast declared this day,

that thou regardest neither princes nor servants:

for this day I perceive, that if Absalom had lived,

and all we had died this day,

then it had pleased thee well. 

 Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy servants:

for I swear by the LORD, if thou go not forth, 

there will not tarry one with thee this night:

and that will be worse unto thee than all the evil

 that befell thee from thy youth until now.

 

Then the king arose, and sat in the gate.

And they told unto all the people, saying,

Behold, the king doth sit in the gate. 

And all the people came before the king:

2 Samuel 19:5-8

God 10 / Egyptian deities 0 - SERIES: 2nd Plague

And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; 

and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 

And the magicians did so with their enchantments, 

and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

Exodus 8:6,7 

 

"The 2^nd plague, of an immense number of frogs, attacked the Egyptian goddess Heqet, symbol of good crops (derived from the Nile waters) and childbirth, usually depicted as a woman with a frog’s head; as well as Isis, another fertility goddess. 

Frogs were sacred to the Egyptians. However, these goddesses were powerless to prevent these symbols of life from becoming rotting piles of death. 

 

Interestingly, the Egyptian magicians mimicked the plagues of blood and frogs with their enchantments (Exodus 7:22; 8:7). These could have been simulations, but more likely were demonic miracles, as miracles are evidence of supernatural power, not just of God’s power.

 

God allowed the magicians to add to these two plagues, but not to reverse them!" CMI

Wonder if they had Watermelon at that b-day party?

And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants... Genesis 40:20

"Using DNA from greenhouse-grown plants representing all species and hundreds of varieties of watermelon, scientists discovered that watermelons most likely came from wild crop progenitors in

northeast Africa.

The genetic research is consistent with newly interpreted Egyptian tomb paintings that suggest the watermelon may have been consumed in the Nile Valley as a dessert more than 4,000 years ago.

“Today’s watermelon comes from a very small genetic stock and is highly susceptible to diseases and insect pests, including various mildews, other fungi, viruses, and nematodes [worms],” Renner said. “So far, we found variation in three disease resistance genes between the Kordofan melon and the domesticated watermelon."

But some of the greatest takeaways from this study, Renner said, are related to the mobility of people and their cultural connections.

“It was the Egyptian tomb paintings that convinced me that the Egyptians were eating cold watermelon pulp,” Renner said. “Otherwise, why place those huge fruits on flat trays next to grapes and other sweet fruits?” SciTechDaily

Simple Lesson from His Life

"That life 

---was the light of the world, 

---and revealed the hidden depravity in the hearts of men. 

 

---It was the holiness of Christ that stirred up against Him the fiercest passions of falsehearted professors of godliness. 

The Jews looked for the Messiah to break the oppressor's yoke, yet they cherished the sins that had bound it upon their necks. 

 

The loveliness of a character in which benevolence, purity, and

holiness reigned supreme, which entertained no hatred except for sin, they despised. 

Thus it has been in every age of the world.--- When rebuked by the example of those who hate sin, hypocrites will become agents of Satan to harass and persecute the faithful. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12."

E.G.W.

IN the NEWS - Fingerprints of the Prince of Persia Everywhere

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; Daniel 10:13

I. Prince of Persia's Fingerprints showing up in aftermath of extreme lockdowns that don't work as he led world governments into over reactions to the pandemic... now the backlash is unleashed by the same spirit...

"German and Dutch special forces today joined the hunt for an ‘anti-lockdown Rambo’ who vanished into a Belgian forest after vowing to fight to the death against virologists who have ‘taken everything away from us.’

Corporal Jurgen Conings, 46, deserted from his barracks on Monday armed with four rocket launchers, a machine gun and a pistol after threatening Marc Van Ranst, the medic who led Belgian’s response to the coronavirus crisis.  

A force of 400 Belgian soldiers and police officers armed with assault rifles have deployed to the Hoge Kempen forest in the far northeast of the country close to the Dutch border.

German and Dutch security forces have joined them as helicopters and armored vehicles were deployed to hunt for Conings in the 12,000-hectare national park made up of heath and woodland.  

The war veteran left several notes, writing in one to his family that he ‘could no longer live in a society where politicians and virologists have taken everything away from us.’  

NW 

II. Now the Fingerprints of the Prince of Persia can be seen with killer robots who have the ability to go rogue on mankind...what China and greeding "scientists" have unleashed upon the earth...

"A UN report found that autonomous drones armed with explosive devices may have “hunted down” fleeing rebel fighters in Libya last year. If true, the report chronicles the world’s first true robot-on-human attack.

According to the report, anti-government Libyan National Army fighters, under military commander Khalifa Haftar, were retreating last March following an unsuccessful attack on Tripoli, when they ran into a swarm of terrifying aerial opponents.

They were “hunted down” by unmanned drones, as well as “lethal autonomous weapons systems,” the latter of which can be programmed by controllers to seek out and attack targets, and carry out these instructions even if communications with the controllers are severed.

Haftar’s fighters “were neither trained nor motivated to defend against the effective use of this new technology and usually retreated in disarray,” the report continues. The devices identified in Libya were ‘Kargu-2’ loitering munitions, deployed on the Libyan battlefield by Turkish forces allied with the UN-backed and Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.

The move to autonomous weapons has been predicted by analysts for years now, and calls have mounted for a ban on such devices. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of scientists, academics and politicians, is lobbying the UN to adopt an international ban. 

“Current machine learning-based systems cannot effectively distinguish a farmer from a soldier,” security analyst Zachary Kallenborn wrote in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists last week. “Farmers might hold a rifle to defend their land, while soldiers might use a rake to knock over a gun turret… various factors may inhibit an accurate decision.” 

NW

III. The Prince of Persia's Fingerprints can be seen from the souls of men who, in the name of either fame or money, will sell out their fellow humans with extremely dangerous research even when their government stops funding it.

"Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, allegedly justified experimenting on contagious viruses as worth the risk of a laboratory accident, such as a global pandemic, outlining his view in an American Society for Microbiology analysis in October 2012, according to a report from The Australian. 

Fauci, whose alleged remarks were highlighted by The Australian, “argued that the benefits of experimenting on contagious viruses – manipulating and heightening their infectious potency – was worth the risk of a laboratory accident sparking a pandemic.”

“In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?” the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director reportedly wrote in the October 2012 piece.“Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario – however remote – should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?” he reportedly asked.

Dr Fauci has led the US response to the outbreak but is now facing serious questions about his role in funding the radical experiments being conducted inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

....the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) - headed by Fauci, "had funded a number of projects that involved WIV scientists, including much of the Wuhan lab's work with bat coronaviruses."

 In 2017, Fauci's agency resumed funding a controversial grant without the approval of a government oversight body, according to the Daily Caller. For context, in 2014, the Obama administration temporarily suspended federal funding for gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses. Four months prior to that decision, the NIH effectively shifted this research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) via a grant to nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Peter Daszak.

 The NIH's first $666,442 installment of EcoHealth's $3.7 million grant was paid in June 2014, with similar annual payments through May 2019 under the "Understanding The Risk Of Bat Coronavirus Emergence" project. Meanwhile, Fauci 'rammed through' gain-of-function research in December of 2017 without approval.

Gain-of-function experiments – often with bat-derived coronaviruses – center on manipulating, splicing and recombining viruses potentially into strands of highly infectious and little understood diseases. -The Australian."

NW/ZeroHedge

 

IV. Now the Fingerprints of the Prince of Persia can be seen dragging "Man's best Friend" into the chaotic mix...

"Researchers have now found a new type of coronavirus that they believe has originated from canines. For the study, researchers tested nasal swab samples from 301 pneumonia patients at a hospital in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. Eight of the samples belonging to children under the age of 5 were found to be positive for a canine

coronavirus. Additional genomic sequencing revealed that the new strain (dubbed CCOV-HuPn-2018) had characteristics similar to other coronaviruses that were seen to infect cats and pigs. However, they found one that was known to have infected dogs.  

This specific strain also contained a genetic deletion or mutation and was not seen in any other known canine coronaviruses, but in fact, was seen in human strains like SARS-COV and SARS-COV-2. 

Researchers, in the study state, that these findings reveal that the virus seems to have jumped from animals to humans."

IndiaTimes

Creation Moment 5/31/2021 - Titan’s South Belet Region Regolith

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6

"Geomorphological map of the South Belet Region of Titan (Icarus). This paper describes varieties of terrain on Saturn’s largest moon,

Titan, focusing on the South Belet Region that stretches “from longitude 60°E to 120°E and from latitude 60°S to 0°, encompassing both equatorial and southern mid-latitude regions.” The last bullet point says, “Only one crater has been identified with confidence.” Over billions of years, this massive moon should have the most craters, but it does not. Why?

They make up a story that buries the evidence: “Complete burial of craters, especially in and around the Belet Sand Sea, may explain the dramatic lack of craters in this region.” They can’t even find secondary craters with confidence. “The general lack of a large primary impactor is likewise problematic.” They offer five possibilities for what might have buried the craters. Perhaps some crescent-shaped features are scars of impacts, they suggest. Whatever happened, their explanation is a story requiring evidence, not founded on evidence.

Regardless of origin, the preponderance of pseudo-circular features, whether as pits or crescents, on the surface of Titan suggest a complex erosional process that necessitates a more developed understanding of atmosphere/surface interactions, of the role of fluids in Titan’s icy substrate and organic regolith, ....

— They also admit, “Evidence for impact processes have also been identified, but their relative scarcity attest to a geologically young surface.” Bingo. That’s the science. They refer to earlier papers saying the same thing going back to 2007 when Cassini took its first images of Titan. Scientists were baffled then; they are baffled now." CEH

IN the NEWS - Trying to Escape Death

Behold, all souls are mine; 

as the soul of the father, 

so also the soul of the son is mine: 

the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 

Ezekiel 18:4

"Ray Kurzweil, an outspoken futurist and the director of engineering at Google, computers will soon match the capabilities of the human brain. At that point, our consciousness will become intimately mingled with machine intelligence, leading to a kind of immortality.

Kurzweil thinks we’ll follow a similar path to the Singularity, the hypothetical time (around 2029, by his estimate) when the great blurring between humans and computers will occur. If he’s right, questions about what to do with the body at death will then become largely irrelevant.

“We can create bodies with nanotechnology, we can create virtual bodies in virtual reality,” Kurzweil says. “I think we’ll have a choice of bodies; we’ll certainly be routinely changing our parent body in virtual reality.”

 

Many scoff at Kurzweil’s vision, questioning not only its technological feasibility but also its philosophical desirability. Fantasizing about immortality keeps people from living their best lives right now, Rosenbloom argues. “It feeds into death denial. When there's no longer a deadline on your life, it takes away a lot of the motivations that we have in our life.”

Like it or not, some forms of digital afterlife are here already, and more elaborate ones are on the way. Just as today’s kids have never laid hands on a VHS cassette, so they may soon find it strange that anyone ever traveled to a distant graveyard rather than activating a virtual memorial experience they can call up anywhere, anytime.

Indeed, for Kurzweil, the singularity, if it happens, won’t be a machine takeover. Instead, he predicts it to become more like a co-existence, where machines reinforce human abilities. Kurzweil predicts that a hybrid AI would become available by the 2030s. This hybrid AI, he explained, would allow human beings to tap directly into the cloud with just their brains, using what he called a neocortex connection." NBC

God 10 / Egyptian deities 0 - SERIES: 1st Plague

Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. 

And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 

  And the fish that was in the river died; 

and the river stank, 

and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; 

and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 

And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments....

Exodus 7:20-22

 

"The 1^st plague was directed against the Nile itself, which the

Egyptians worshiped as their source of life. 

 

This plague confronted the numerous river deities, including Khnum (guardian of the Nile), Hapi (spirit of the Nile and god of fertility) and Osiris (god of the underworld, whose blood the Nile was considered to be). 

 

By turning the Nile into blood and killing the fish (supposedly protected by Hathor and Neith), Moses was not only shaming all these Egyptian objects of worship, but also showing that sustenance comes only from the hand of Yahweh." CMI

The Scripture that Disposes of the idea that man is Immortal by nature

“A wide-open door for spiritualism is afforded by the teaching that man has life in himself—immortality by nature; and that death is not really death, but another form of life.

 

The Scriptures close this door of false hope, teaching us that man is mortal, that death is really death, and that immortality is the gift of God through Christ by the resurrection from the dead.

Clearly and definitely the Bible teaches that God only has immortality, styling Him the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality.  

1 Timothy 6:15, 16.

 

This Scripture disposes of every idea that man is immortal by nature." W.A. Spicer

Creation Moment 5/30/2021 - Serpentinization on Enceladus undermines Long Age Chronology

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6

 

"Serpentinization is a process of converting olivine rock that produces hydrogen and methane. Six planetary scientists in France figure that it can only be sustained in the rocky core of Enceladus for less than 100 million years, 1/45th the assumed age of the moon. To keep Enceladus old, they propose that serpentinization started recently! What cheaters.

At least 100 geysers erupt from the south polar terrain of Enceladus, a tiny moon that should not be active.

The annual global H₂ production rate in all model cases (> 1 × 10¹² mol yr⁻¹) is several orders of magnitude greater than the minimum H₂ release rate calculated from the observed H₂ in Enceladus’ plume (1 × 10⁹ mol yr⁻¹), suggesting that any ongoing active serpentinization processes in the core are likely nearing completion. The longest timescales indicate the potential for olivine alteration and H₂ production for up to ~75 Myr [million years], consistent with weathering rates of terrestrial peridotite massifs. If the H₂ produced from Enceladus is sourced from primary mineral alteration, these results suggest that hydrothermal activity in the core of Enceladus may have developed only very recently – even as recent as within the past 100 Myr." CEH

The word "Immortal"

"The Bible does not once testify that the soul is immortal, neither does it speak of immortal spirits. 

 The word immortal is found in the Bible only once, and is then applied to God. 

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.  

1 Tim. i. 17 .

When the Bible states, "The wages of sin is death," the immortal soul theory says, No, it is eternal life; that is, eternal conscious misery. 

 If immortal in the Bible be allowed the meaning given it by Webster, ("Exempt from death; having life or being that shall never end,") then it cannot be applied to the soul; for, "The soul that sinneth it shall die;" Eze. xviii, 4."  

J.N. Loughborough

Urgent

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shalt be delivered. Joel 2:32

 

"Why do I not call on His name? 

 Straightforward is the best runner—why do I not run at once to the living God?

---I will therefore follow the leading of the text and at once call upon the glorious Lord who had made so large a promise.

My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. ......It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels.

 

I am His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver me." Charles Spurgeon

SDA History: Mr. & Mrs. A&B and sisters C&D's visit

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. Luke 12:33

"We are all well this morning. Last night, Mr. and Mrs. A called. We had a good visit. The conversation ran on bank stock, how many were getting rich from investing their means. Some also were meeting with loss. Thus losses and gains were discussed by Mr.

and Mrs. A and Sister B and C.

“Now,” Mrs. A said, “Mrs. White must say something. She must tell us what she thinks. She has not said a word yet.”

“Well,” said I, slowly, “I have been many years investing in bank stock, and met with no loss. It has yielded me back all the principal and heavy interest.”

All looked up with surprise. C smiled. Mr. A asked, “Where have you invested?”

“In heavenly stock. I have been sending my treasure before me into heaven. .. ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.’ This investment is certain, and will yield immense profits.” E.G.W.

Creation Moment 5/29/2021 - Blurk

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; Proverbs 24:30

"Make up a nonsense word. It conveys just as much understanding as saying, “It evolved.”

“Blurk” is a new word, just made up. Let us substitute it into sentences typically found in papers about evolution:

• 
  Scientists determine how the hippopotamus blurked a thick skin.
  
• Blurky medicine finds reasons for human diseases like diabetes.
• Unrelated species arrived at similar leaf shapes by convergent blurkification.
• The new research sheds light on how the process was orchestrated by blurk to its present optimum.
• The investigators feel their work brings us closer to understanding how life originally blurked.

Now, teach this word to students K through 12 and on into college and grad school. 

Tell them all scientists believe in blurk. Those minority anti-blurkers are a stain on science and an embarrassment to their country. Unless students learn how blurk works, their country will fall behind in scientific leadership. 

What is blurk? Whatever it means, it implies change over time, which can be up, down, or sideways, and it comes about by the Stuff Happens Law. The goal for all science majors is to shloop their way to becoming reputable blurkists. Then they will gain “understanding.”CEH

The symbolism of the Foreheads

"Rev. vii the servants of God are said to be sealed in their
foreheads. Some translations say signed. 

In Eze. ix they are said to receive a mark in their foreheads. 

 

--As Ezekiel's vision is of the time when utter destruction without mercy or pity is impending, and Rev. vii when the four winds are about to blow on the earth, which denotes the battle of the great day, they must refer to the same time and the same work. 

 

In the Third Angel's Message of Rev. xiv, 9-12, which warns against the mark of the beast, and which denounces such fearful judgment against all who receive it, the opposite or contrast is presented in "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." 

 Ex. xxxi, 16, 17, the Lord says His Sabbath is His sign, because he made all things in six days and rested the seventh day. For this reason the Sabbath is the seal of his law.Now as God's Sabbath is His sign or mark, expressive of his power or authority as creator, and as the Third Angel's Message calls attention to the mark of the beast, and also to the commandments of God wherein His mark is found,we are necessarily led to conclude that, when the mark of the beast is enforced it will stand in direct opposition to God's mark or sign; that is to say, that as God's sign, of power is His Sabbath as commemorating his creative work, the sign or mark of the beast will be an opposition or counterfeit Sabbath, resting on Papal authority, and offered as evidence of Papal power and rule." Joseph Waggoner

1 Samuel 17 SERIES Page

 1 Samuel 17 SERIES Page

  And David put his hand in his bag, 

and took thence a stone, and slang it, 

and smote the Philistine in his forehead,

 that the stone sunk into his forehead; 

and he fell upon his face to the earth.

1 Samuel 17:49

 

Vs.1-3 

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-vs1-3.html

Vs.4-7

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-vs4-7.html

Vs.8-10

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-vs8-10.html

Vs.11-18

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-vs11-18.html

Vs.19-25

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-vs19-25.html

Vs.26-30 

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-26-30.html

Vs.31-39

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-31-39.html  

Vs.40-47

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-40-47.html

Vs.48-58

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-48-58.html

SUMMARY 

http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2021/05/1-samuel-17-series-summary.html

SDA News - "The Crowning Act" to be released Summer 2021

Then if any man shall say unto you, 

Lo, here is Christ, or there; 

believe it not.

Matthew 24:23

“As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Savior’s advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. Revelation 1:13-15” (The Great Controversy, p. 624).

“The Crowning Act” is a short film, produced and directed by Art Humphrey, dramatizing a discussion between a husband and wife about the manner of Christ’s coming. As the husband watches

television, suddenly the news cuts to a story of the appearance of Christ in Jerusalem. The husband looks up as the camera moves in slowly to his startled face. The images on the TV screen show in an indirect way the brightness and manner of the false “Christ.” The news is repeating, “Christ has come, Christ has come!” The expression on the husband’s face changes as he is drawn into admiration of this dazzling being.

 As suddenly as it started the TV is turned off. The wife has come in from the other room, picked up the controller and switched off the TV. The husband turns around and says, “Hey, I was watching that!” 

This is the beginning of an in-depth Bible study. The subject is Matthew 24 and the return of Christ. The wife insists that the Bible and only the Bible must be our support behind everything that we see, hear, and do. The husband says that the Protestant reformation has long been over, and that his church leaders have proved it to be so. The husband offers non-biblical arguments that what he has seen on television is truly Christ. The wife patiently turns from text to text and explains in detail the manner of Christ’s coming. After much debate and seemingly hours of study, a ray of light breaks through the husband’s insistent presentation. His manner, his attitude, his character soften and he recognizes that the Bible is God’s Word and must be used as the only standard of faith and practice. 

This short film will inform, teach, and warn the world of the last great deception before the Second Coming of Jesus.  As Seventh-day Adventists we have the most coherent, compelling message to deliver to the world. The means to deliver this story to the whole planet are available to us. We must use the Internet to warn far and wide of the approaching storm.

 In cooperation with White Horse Media and Pastor Steve Wohlberg, “The Crowning Act” will be released in the summer of 2021." Fulcrum7

Creation Moment 5/27/2021 - Extrapolations from the Creation

"The Lord is Creator (For by him were all things created, that arein heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,....Colossians 1:16), and as Creator He is the rightful owner of His creation. He created all things, and everything belongs to Him.

While some search for life beyond our solar system, our finite minds still haven’t completely fathomed the intricate designs found on our own planet....

--The Lord who created all things—humanity being His special creation, made in His image 

--is the same Lord who became one of us and died in our place. 

--The Lord who created earthly life is the Savior who freely offers us eternal life." MH/DaysOfPraise

1 Samuel 17 SERIES: SUMMARY

"God was teaching David lessons of trust. 

 

Goliath trusted in his armor.

Saul had his own kingly armor placed upon David. 

But he would not consent to wear it. 

He did not mean that any credit be given to the armor of Saul, for his trust was in the Lord God of Israel. 

Choosing five smooth stones out of the brook, he put them in his bag, and, with his sling in his hand, drew near to the Philistine.

Those who bear the most solemn message ever given to our world must lay off the pugilistic armor, and put on the armor of Christ’s righteousness.

 

Amazement spread along the lines of the two armies. 

David's countenance was ruddy with health, and his well-knit form, unprotected by armor, was displayed to advantage; yet between its youthful outline and the massive proportions of the Philistine, there was a marked contrast.

Goliath was filled with amazement and anger. "Am I a dog," he exclaimed, "that thou comest to me with staves?" He cried in derision, "Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field."

They had been confident that David would be slain; but when the

stone went whizzing through the air, straight to the mark, they saw the mighty warrior tremble, and reach forth his hands, as if he were struck with sudden blindness. 

The giant reeled, and staggered, and fell prostrate to the ground. David did not wait an instant. He knew not that life was extinct. He sprang upon the prostrate form of the Philistine, and with both hands he laid hold of Goliath's heavy sword.  

A moment before, the giant had boasted that with it he would sever the youth's head from his shoulders and give his body to the fowls of the air. Now it was lifted in the air.

 

David did not weaken before the champion of the Philistines. Stepping forward, he said to his antagonist: 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. 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 carcasses 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. 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." E.G.W.