Bringing Down Goliath

 

The story of David and Goliath has become somewhat of a children's classic. But let’s go back to something a little more accurate. Let’s take the cute little cartoon characters and flesh them out until they look like real people. Let’s stack a very large, muscular warrior against a young teenage boy. Let’s
add the tension of battle. Peek into the camp of Philistine warriors ready to annihilate a people group. They are eating and drinking. They are discussing how the battle is all but won and mocking the men that are on the other side of the battle lines. Where is King Saul? Hiding in his tent, cloaked in shame. Chosen as king because he was one of the tallest among them, and now he is pitted against a man even taller than him.

David walks into the scene and can smell the stench of cowardice on his people. He can hear the mockery of Goliath, not only against his people, his nation, but also against his God. His God, who he loves more than anything else.

He doesn’t get it. “Why aren’t we doing anything?”

The accusations fly at him…,

“You are arrogant and small, and you don’t know what you are talking about.”

“You are too small. You are too young. You are too inexperienced.”

We love that part, right? The underdog takes on the enemy and wins. Yay! Everyone is happy.

Oh, wait, what is our sweet little David character doing now? Wait. What? He’s decapitating his enemy?! He’s leading the charge into a bloody battle. He is keeping his promise to leave the bodies of the army to the birds.

Wow. That got graphic really quickly.

What? Did we forget that this was real? Did we forget that our God is no joke?

Yeah. Yeah I think we did. We picture Him [GOD] as a plushy little cartoon character sitting in white, among clouds covered with little kids. Let me explain something to you. Why is it that children love Him so much? Because they know that He is strong enough to protect them. Those kids…they feel safe. Something that I promise we know nothing about. We fear everything, always. That’s why He is constantly reminding us, “Do not fear. Have no fear. Do not be afraid. You do not have a spirit of fear.”

Our God is not some timid little people-pleaser. He is fierce and dangerous. He is REAL. We say we believe it, but we don't act like we do. We are willing to die on the stance that he is all-knowing, but then we attempt to hide our sin. Do you really believe that he knows it all, or do you just say that?

So maybe the story of David and Goliath isn’t so kid-friendly, after all. Maybe it’s a story about war and death. It’s about the defiance of a young man who refused to stand down, even in the face of older men who told him to “sit down and shut up.” He did the right thing, not because it was easy or because it was going to look good on his resume. 

He did it because the Spirit in him wouldn’t let him stand down.

We see this same behavior again, but to a greater extent in a man who is a descendant of David’s. He is the last of a decimated legacy. He is a spark of hope to a destroyed people. He stands up and refuses to shut up.

Goliath reappears, only this time, he is represented by a group of powerful religious leaders. This son of David stands up to them, refusing to go down. They, the new Goliaths, think that if they take Him out, then they can silence this voice of dissension that is splitting the people. The people are rising up, inspired by this man to believe that God is still out there and hasn’t forgotten them. The leaders worry about the effect that He has on the people and decide that He needs to go. They think that, if they kill Him, they can shut him up. But He comes back, and his friends are emboldened to do as He did.

Well, shoot. Now what? You’ve gotta shut them all up. They start going after his friends and followers, trying to get them to stop this madness. They are accused of blasphemy. They are accused of creating dissidence. They are accused of leading the people away from the truth. They are accused of not being obedient.

Hold on! I’ve seen this recently. Yes, I have seen it in the Christian church today! Wow, Goliath didn’t
actually go away, did he? Changed his outfit again, maybe. He isn’t just wearing prayer shawls and walking among the people. Now he wears a suit or some cool, hip outfit. He stands on stages all over the world speaking to people.

Yeshua warned about this. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees.”

His poor disciples don’t understand, “Golly, do you think that he’s talking about the fact that we didn’t pack bread?” (I’m paraphrasing. Leave me alone.)

“No!” (Yeshua apparently has stellar hearing.) “You don’t
understand? I’m not talking about bread.”

Then they get it. “Oh, you are talking about the teaching of the Pharisees.” (Matt. 16:5-12)

Yeah, so we didn’t quite get it, either. Surprise, surprise. That thing that he said, “Watch out for this, don’t do that.” Yeah, we didn’t. We were not only NOT on guard, but we embraced it with open arms, took it home, loved it, and made it a part of us.

Goliath was reborn into the next generation and the next, each time getting bigger and bigger. He blasphemes all over the place, slandering the character of God. The spirit of Goliath and the Anti-Christ are embodied by these mega-Christian movements. Huge churches with massive funds…They are large movements with huge followings, all pointing to some man who likes the sound of his own voice a little too much.

Yes. Yes, sweet child, I am. I have been to many churches, all claiming to be different, and they are ALL the same. Might be a different flavor of bullsh-t. But they all serve it up hot and hope it is palatable. Maybe yours lifts hands in worship, maybe they don’t. Maybe they like hymns, maybe a full band. Maybe you dress up, maybe not. Doesn’t matter. It's all Goliath.

Some of us, and I do mean a few, are taking-on Goliath. You won’t see us on your stages. You won’t hear us as contributors on Fox News. You probably don’t even know that we are among you.

His people have been forced underground, and we fight against Goliath as often as we can. It’s not over yet. Each time God reveals the corruption of another megachurch, or even a small-town one with a congregation of less than 200, he is saying, “Hey, remember me? Follow me, not them. Be on guard against the yeast of the religious leaders.”

So few get it. So few see it. It breaks my heart when churches fall and I see the sheep scatter. They don’t understand. They put their faith in a man or a handful of men, and then when he falls short of the god-pedestal on which they themselves place him, they don’t know what to do with themselves. They don’t realize that they can know the real Goliath-Slayer, and can follow Him and have faith that, no matter what happens, He is the one they are falling for, not this guy in a suit with the lights and the smoke machine. Not this guy with the thousands of podcast listeners.

Look, I’m not saying that everyone who is successful is not following God. What I am saying is that, when we are afraid to speak the truth before pastors and leaders because they might tell us that we are wrong and that we are blasphemous (been there, done that), then we join the camp of Israel with their knees knocking in cowardice. We who are sick and tired of hearing the name of the One we love more than anything being slandered from pulpits all over the world can smell the stink of fear. Some of you join us and some of you mock us for even trying.

As for me and my brothers and sisters, we will keep fighting. We will keep standing up. We will face being pushed out of our churches and communities. We will take on the lawsuits for calling you on your bull-ogna. We will fight twice as hard, work twice as hard, to keep speaking Truth.