Life's Inanities and Ironies

 In the turbulent days of the Judges, when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” Israel once again turned from the Lord and fell under cruel oppression. For twenty years, Jabin king of Canaan and his ruthless commander Sisera—with 900 iron chariots—terrorized God’s people. In that dark hour, the Lord raised up Deborah, a prophetess and judge, to call His people back to faith and freedom. Her story in Judges 4:1-24 stands as a powerful testimony to what God can do through a woman who walks in unwavering conviction and courageous obedience. Deborah sat under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel, where the people of Israel came to her for judgment. She was not seeking power or prestige; she was simply faithful where God had placed her. When the Lord commanded her to summon Barak to lead 10,000 men of Naphtali and Zebulun against Sisera at Mount Tabor, she delivered God’s word without hesitation: “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you…? I will draw out Sis...

We live in Giant Country. The giants are bigger than ever — government overreach, cultural decay, moral confusion, family breakdown, and open defiance of the living God. They strut across the valley and shout their taunts just like Goliath of Gath. Most of God’s people stand on the hill, dismayed and greatly afraid. But the infallible, inerrant Word of God shows us exactly how one young man survived Giant Country — and how we can too. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 17:32-40. The armies are arrayed. Goliath has defied Israel for forty days. Then David steps forward. David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (v. 32). Saul protested: David was just a youth; Goliath was a man of war from his youth. But David answered with the testimony of a man who had already walked with God in the hidden places: “Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after hi...

We live in a day when bullies seem to grow larger by the hour. They mock the people of God. They defy the living God Himself. They strut across the cultural battlefield with weapons of intimidation, media, academia, and government power, demanding that we bow or be crushed. But the infallible, inerrant Word of God in 1 Samuel 17:1-54 gives us the clear, timeless answer: **the big bad bully always falls before a heart that trusts the living God.** The scene is set in the Valley of Elah. The Philistines have gathered their armies against Israel. Their champion is Goliath of Gath — nearly ten feet tall, clad in 125 pounds of bronze armor, with a spear like a weaver’s beam and a voice like thunder. For forty days this giant taunted the armies of Israel: “Choose you a man, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.” (v. 8-9) Not one man in...