So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 1 Samuel 17:50-51
A Symbol of Victory
Brother Van has been preaching about giants the past two weeks. The story of David and Goliath is familiar to most of us, but one particular part of the story that we don’t ever pay any attention to is very important in defeating our giants. After David killed the giant, he cut off his head
There are many different opinions on why David cut off Goliath’s head. Some commentators believe that the head represented the seat of wisdom and power for a person or group of people. By cutting off Goliath’s head, David was striking a blow at the Philistine belief of paganism, and more importantly, at anyone who would defy and God and His armies.
And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers and ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well and bring some token from them. — 1 Samuel 17:12-18
Some commentators believe David brought the head of the Philistine giant to his father as a token. What son would not want to show his father what he had done? After all, his father was not there to see what was the greatest victory David had known so far. I am sure the first thing he might have thought of, after thanking God for saving him, was that he wished his father had seen him kill that giant. He might have wanted his father to know he could be proud of him and that his other sons were safe.
Maybe David cut off Goliath’s head as an extra measure of security. He had killed the giant and he wanted to make sure he was dead. In fighting our own battles, I think we need to take this same measure of extra caution in making sure our giants are dead for good by cutting off the head.
We fight our giants and defeat them with God’s help but sometimes we secretly have them hooked up to life support because we don’t really want to let them go for good.
Maybe your giant is an addiction that you know you need to kill, but it makes you very happy. Or maybe your giant is a person that is not a godly influence in your life or someone that encourages you to do things that do not line up with a life surrendered to God. We want to rid our lives of the giants that are holding us back, but often we don’t want to give them up for good.
We will never know victory in our lives unless we allow our giants to be defeated for good. We need to cut the life support and make sure that they are gone for good. Some giants will always be there and we have to learn to live among them, but some need to go for good. If they linger somewhere in the background of our lives, an arm’s reach away, they will hold us captive and we will never be free. God gave us freedom so that we can know His victory in our lives and against our giants.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit
again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
