“David answered the P’lishti, ‘You’re coming at me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. But I’m coming at you in the name of Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have challenged.'”-1 Samuel 17:45
In terms of religious belief, wanna know what the difference is between the modern world and the ancient world?
The modern world debates whether God exists or not.
We live in an age when atheism and secular humanism are strong competing forces in our society.
However, that wasn’t an issue in the ancient world.
They never argued about whether God or gods existed or not.
They knew they did.
Their big thing had to do with what territories their gods had authority over.
In a sense, that’s really what David and Goliath were fighting about.
David was saying my God holds power over this land and that’s why you’re gonna lose this battle.
On the other hand, Goliath was arrogantly denying that reality.
David’s main concern was to establish His God, YAHWEH’s reputation in the land of Canaan.
He knew he’d be able to prove that if he was successful in slaying Goliath.
Here’s another thing a lot of folks don’t realize.
During the Biblical era, the Hebrews were NOT monotheists.
Does that surprise you?
Well, it’s true.
Both the pagans and the Hebrews believed in the existence of many gods.
The Hebrews believed the other nations had their many gods and goddesses, while they had their one God whose name was YAHWEH.
In fact, the Gentiles made fun of the Hebrews for having only one god.
They were considered god poor.
All the other nations were swimming in an abundance of deities while Israel had to go through life with only one god.
Furthermore, since each nation had its own gods, it was believed their powers were restricted to that nation’s territory.
However, there was one exception to this rule.
If one nation’s god was more powerful than another nation’s god, then perhaps it would be able to conquer another territory not their own.
If that happened, then the victorious god would take over and gain authority over another nation’s territory.
That’s what was going on in this battle between David and Goliath.
Can you see how this was a spiritual war?
It was a battle of one nation’s gods against another for territory or land.
So what’s the takeaway?
The lesson is the same type of battle is happening today on many fronts.
The only difference is the gods we’re battling are different than the deities of ancient times.
Today we’re battling the gods of the new age, the worship of money, sex, and societal status.
And we’re also battling atheistic philosophies such as secular humanism.
But having said that, as in ancient times, the same battle for the land of Israel is happening today between the Palestinians and Israel.
The atrocities Hamas committed against Israel on October 7th, 2023 is a perfect example of this.
Need I remind you that the word “Palestinian” is simply the Greek word for “Philistine”?
Nothing’s changed, folks.
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