Honey In Life's Most Bitter Water

Introduction:

In John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” Christian and Hopeful have finally made it closer to the kingdom than ever before, however one more trial laid before their eyes and it is that they must cross the great river before them. Questioning whether there was some other way, they were assured that this is the only means by which they would reach the kingdom and so they ask whether there are shallow spots in the river to which they are told, “You shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the King of the place." It is with this in mind that they step forward into the river and there we find Christian crying out, “ I sink in deep waters; the waves go over my head, all his waves go over me!” To which Hopeful replies, “Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good.” Through this trial of death, Christian struggles deeply until, “Hopeful said,  "Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; and with that Christian breaks out with a loud voice, Oh, I see Him again! and He tells me, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee."

I was nineteen years old when I preached my first funeral. It was my mother’s dad, or “Papa” as I called him and unfortunately, I have had the privilege of preaching many funerals since. Among them are the funerals of two grandparents, counting my mother’s dad, and one great grandparent in the last few years. I can remember becoming aware of the thought that I am a finite being with a limited amount of time on this earth sometime during high school. However, the busyness of life allowed it to remain tucked away nicely and neatly where it wouldn’t disturb me too deeply. It’s not that I was ignorant of biology, I knew that all people died and that I was included in that number, but it wasn’t until the loss of my mother’s mother, or my “Nanny,” that the weight of it knocked that neatly stored box off the dusty shelf in the back of my mind and allowed the contents of this reality to spill out and plague my thoughts.

This was not a bad thing, it is Solomon, afterall, who writes in Ecclesiastes 7 that it is better to go to funerals than to parties because death is the end of all men and the living should take it to heart. Well, I did. And again, it’s not that I was ignorant of the fact that one day I would leave this world to be with the Lord. Rather, it was the jolting fact that I had not pictured the reality of it happening to me and this fact churned in my mind deeply. The brevity of it all, the ferocity in which the efforts of my hands will be so easily erased from this world’s remembrance, that my life is but a vapor struck me and stirred me deeply as though my emotions were that of a stormy sea. Though I have obviously not found myself swimming in death’s dark waters, it is almost as though within my conscience I could cry out with Christian that I too am being swallowed up in the thought of life’s darkest waters.

Well, if that is you today, if you share those same feelings, I pray that the truths that I might preach would minister to your heart and that I would be as brother Hopeful to his dear friend Christian. And I hope to do that as we look in 1 Samuel 17, it is here that we will find a pesky little brother wandering into the heat of battle and taking down the terror of the town and I want to break this up into three bite sized pieces for us like so: First, we will see a dismal reality. Second, we will see a delivering champion, and lastly we will find some contemplations for discouraged souls.

First, A Dismal Reality

Ill: In 2016, NBC news released a story that a company called Alcor, based in Arizona will freeze your body after you die for $200,000 dollars so that if the science ever became available, they would be able to bring you back to life. At the time of that article, there were 147 people frozen in their facilities.

The reality is that death is a brutal, unforgiving and towering tyrant that strikes fear into the hearts of those whom it stares in the face. And as we look here in 1 Samuel 17, we will find the armies of the Living God hiding in fear as the giant Goliath plagues them with fear. What we find here in verse 1 of chapter 17 is that the Philistines have come up the Aijalon Valley (13:23). And in Samson’s time  (Jdg 13–16), they had come up the Sorek Valley. Now they were coming up the Valley of Elah and already controlled Socoh and Azekah. If they got much farther up the valley, they could come up the ridge route into the hill country and threaten Bethlehem, Hebron, and Saul’s capital, Gibeah. The situation was desperate for Saul and his army. (Beyer, 435) There is nowhere for them to go, if these men give up, their hometowns will be exposed to the wrath of the enemy, but if they fight, fear has so gripped them that they believe it will be certain death. There is no man to stand up against the massive Goliath. And as he steps out in verse 8, he calls for a man to come and fight him. This is a battle of representatives, if Israel’s man loses, it’s over for them. And if Goliath loses, it’s over for the Philistines. Now, I want you to notice something about Goliath that’s important to this story, and it’s in verse 5. Notice that phrase, “coat of mail?” Well, in Hebrew it is the word “qasqasim” or literally “scales.” This gives connection to passages like Ezekiel 29:4, 12 passages throughout Revelation, and most significantly is the imagery that ties it to Genesis 3. This is an enemy cloaked in scales who has trespassed into the promised land to defy God and attack His people. And here’s the thing, Goliath is a giant and the only man in Israel that, physically speaking, should be chosen to fight is their king Saul. But Saul is just as ineffective as they are.

It’s a hopeless case. The leader is stunned, the men are terrified, and this group of paralyzed soldiers is the only thing standing between the enemy and everything they hold dear. It’s not looking good for them, and this dismal reality has no desire to remove itself from the equation. Beloved, is this not also our situation? Were we not also exposed to the one who prowls like a lion seeking whom he may devour? Were we not also enslaved to fear and bound in sin and shame? Did not the serpent of death have a sting which struck terror into our own hearts? Romans 6:23 teaches us “the wages of sin is death.” It stands before us, the reminders of all the wrongs that we have done and it taunts us, reminding us that it will soon fully consume us and destroy us. Behold the tyrant of sin and death, he isn’t just in this story. He’s standing in front of you now. The CSB study Bible notes that the language of verse 23 where it says, “coming up” denotes the boldness of Goliath and he is now even coming up the side of the valley that Israel is on. He is coming. It is coming. Every tick of the clock's hand rings out the approaching steps of the great tyrant, every outburst of anger, every time we indulge in sin testifies to us being slaves to his bondage. We all have sinned, it is a snare wherein we have fallen by birth and by will. And the wages of sin is death both physical and spiritual and oh, it’s terrifying reality, the effects of our sin, this tyrant of physical death is approaching. But here we find a rather unexpected character. A rudy little man whose presence gives no comfort, yet he is the delivering champion. This is our second point.

Second, A Delivering Champion

In verse 22, David finally arrives at the scene. He is the little brother of three soldiers and he’s there by his dad’s orders to give them something to eat and to get an update on the battle. However, Eliab is not in favor of his brother's presence. Yet it is David, not the professional soldiers, who upon hearing the blasphemies of Goliath against his God, decides to do something about it. Remember how in verse 8 I told you that Goliath is wanting a battle of the representatives? Truly it is not just a battle between to men, but a battle of the gods because it is as David steps out in v43 that Goliath curses him by the names of his idols to which David responds in verses 45-47 that it is the Lord God of Israel that will deliver him. I also want you to recall in 1 Samuel 16:12-13 that it is David who, after the sin of Saul, is anointed to be the King of Israel.

So, what we see here is Goliath, who is the offspring of the Serpent, is now gearing up to fight against he who is anointed and comes in the name of the Lord of Hosts. Let’s see how this plays out in verses 48-51:

So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

Notice how it is the head of the offspring of the Serpent that is hit. Does this not remind us of Genesis 3:15 where God prophecies, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” This, beloved, is a real historical event, but it is also a foreshadowing, a picture, a typology of Jesus Christ who has come for us. Jesus Christ is the anointed One of God, who, 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” He is the One that we see in Matthew 12 that binds the strongman, which may be an illusion to this very story, and plunders the house. This is Christ, this is our champion! This story isn’t about us overcoming our problems with 5 easy steps, this is about Christ. We are the cowards hiding, but He is our champion! Just as David removed the head of Goliath, so too has Christ removed the sting of death. It was Paul in 2 Timothy 1:10 who said, “...through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

Saul was once the man anointed for the task, where he failed the anointed David brought deliverance. In like manner, where Adam, who stood as the anointed prophet, priest and king in the Garden of Eden failed and doomed us to sin and death, likewise Christ, who is the second Adam, has come! He is the anointed of God, and where Adam failed binding us in fear and death, Christ has succeeded bringing life and liberty to His people.

And now, look at verses 52-53 as it reads, “Now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, even as far as Gath and Ekron. Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.” How is it that we can have such confidence? Because our champion won. Because Christ is our champion, death is not a tyrant wherein we are left paralyzed in fear. Because He is our champion, we may march forward into the Lord’s service knowing that at the moment we are absent from the body, we will be present with the Lord. This gives us confidence in all of life. It gives confidence in adversity, in daily tasks, in evangelistic confrontation, and a myriad of other events. We arise from our fear in confidence, because our feet have found themselves resting upon the rock of ages, and it is firm. Yes, physical death comes for us all, but through our Lord we are spiritually alive and we might say that just as David slew Goliath so too has Christ slain us in our sin yet we have been raised by the hand of grace and in this new life, we with Paul may cry out, “Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?”

This leads me to our last point which is some contemplations for discouraged souls.

When the waves of concern crash over your head, find your footing upon these foundations of truth for your troubled heart.

Recall His Word

It was David who remembered the Lord His God in the face of the enemy, it was Christian who was encouraged by the gentle reminder of God’s presence, and it was John the Baptist who, before being executed, was comforted, as my friend Cameron Dula puts it, “He received assurance from Christ’s Word, evidence from Christ’s Work, and love from Christ’s Person.” Was it not the sight of the Lord that comforted our brother Stephen as they stoned him to death and he said, “and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” and “Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Remember Your Baptism

I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. (Ps 88:3–5 NIV)

When it should seem that death is nigh unto us as though it were a black hole to which we shall find abandonment from what we hold dear. Let us remember our baptisms, for it is there we confessed the beginning of daily abandonments to the desires of the flesh and life unto Christ. Thus, with this in mind, we do not mourn, but look forward knowing that what was declared at our baptism will be fulfilled in our finality.

Rejoice In What’s To Come

It was Paul who said, “For me to live is Christ, to die is to gain.”

William Hewling said, “We have no cause to fear death, if the presence of God be with us. There is no evil in it; the sting being taken away. It is nothing but our ignorance of the glory which the saints pass into by death, that makes it appear dark for ourselves, or our relations.”

William’s sister wrote this to her mother about her brothers when they were executed, “God having wrought so glorious a work on both their souls, in revealing Christ to them, that death is become their friend.”