Showing posts with label Philistines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philistines. Show all posts

Sunday, February 7, 2016

The People God Uses Part 1

  I am sure at one point in all of our lives we felt God tell us we had to do something, but the people around us, our family and friends, said we should not do it because they did not feel it was right; or we were just trying to get something for ourselves.
  Here is a story that most of you probably know where God used the person people did think much about, the person people ridiculed to do the job nobody wanted to do. 
  I am sure felt when he went out to the battle field to give his brothers food. 
  David's father sent him to the battle field to give his brothers food and to see how the battle was going. When David arrived, Goliath, the giant and champion Gath, proclaimed his challenge to Israel as he had done for forty days. When David saw Goliath defy the army of Israel and defy God, he knew he had to vindicate God's name and the army of Israel. David told the people around him that he was going to fight Goliath, but when his brother heard it, he basically told David to get lost. The people relayed what David said to King Saul. Even King Saul and the rest of the people could not believe what David was saying and that he could really do it. David told the king how he had killed a lion and a bear because God had helped him and that the Philistine would be just like a lion or bear. David thought-how could some one who blasphemes God's name live? Saul relented and gave David his armor to fight Goliath. David could not use the armor because he was not used to it; instead, he picked up some smooth stones from a nearby brook and went to fight Goliath.
When he went up to fight Goliath, Goliath mocked and cursed David by his (Goliath) gods. David told Goliath that he and everyone standing there would see that God is God, and it was He who was going to fight the battle.  David put a stone in his sling and thew it. The stone sank into Goliath's head. David went and cut off Goliath's head with Goliath's own sword.
When the Philistines saw that Goliath, their champion, was dead they fled, and Israel pursued them. The Lord saved Israel yet again that day from the hand of the Philistines.
  The Bible says that David was a youth meaning that he was younger than thirteen years old. (According to Jewish tradition, a boy becomes a man when he turns thirteen.) 
  This fact makes this story even more miraculous.
  When the Lord sees able people not do the job He wants them to, He decides to give the job to another person who they believe is incapable.


This story is found in 1 Samuel 17.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Michmash, God's Repeated Deliverance

     Do you remember the story in the Bible when God allowed Jonathan and his armor bearer to kill about twenty men?and the uproar it caused in the Philistine camp?
    We can only imagine what the commanders of the whole garrison thought after they heard the garrison was in an uproar and the earth was shaking because two men killed about twenty men.
   The Philistines were so confused by the earthquake and the noise that they began to kill each other with the sword. God allowed Israel to chase the Philistines away from were they were, and Israel was able to defeat the Philistines in this battle.
   This same tactic that Jonathan used was used in the same place, Mishmash, in the first World War.
   Major Gilbert was reading his Bible and saw that the place were he was was the exact same place were Jonathan was used by God to defeat the Philistines centuries before. When he saw this in his Bible, he woke up his general, General Allenby, and he and General Allenby re-read the passage. The General sent scouts and found out that the land was still the same as in Bible times. General Watson changed his battle plan and used the tactic that Jonathan used centuries before. Just as in Bible times, the people who were on top, the Turks, dispersed.*

"So the Lord saved Israel that day."

This story is found in 1 Samuel chapter 14 and if you google Battle of Mishmash World War 1 you will be able to find many sites with this story.


*P.S. I believe this was necessary for Israel to become a nation so on that day also in World War 1 the Lord saved Israel.