God is in the Valley, where are you?

1Samuel 17  While Saul is assembling his army and camping in the valley of Elah the Philistines are doing the same. In the meantime, a giant named Goliath taunts them for  40 days!  While this is going on, David is busy tending sheep many miles away until one day his father sends him on an errand to take food to his brothers in Saul’s camp. It was there that David learned about the one who defied the Lord of Israel.

He also learns about the reward to be given to the man who takes Goliath down but so far there are no takers. David’s brothers want to send him packing but King Saul is intrigued. David boldly says to a discouraged king “I will go and fight the Philistine.” Can you hear the guffaws and see the shaking of heads. To humor David, the king says all right, put on my armor and go see what you can do. Yet, David only needs his slingshot and 5 little stones because he knows that God is not just on the mountain but He is in the valley below. As he tended the sheep he knew God was beside him, behind him, before him when the lions came to steal the sheep. That is a truth Gideon learned, Jonathan learned and David learned.

End of story, Goliath the taunter became Goliath the corpse as David’s slingshot sent a stone flying right in the spot to fell him. The sword that he was going to lop off David’s head became the sword that David used to cut off Goliath’s head.

God is on the mountain as well as in the valley. He is with you when the lions attack and when there is peace.  The question is:  Where are you?  

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The Time is Now!!!

Clara Scott authored the hymn “Open my eyes that I May See”. The first stanza reads as : “Open my eyes, that I may see, glimpses of truth thou hast for me…” As we read Revelation 6 more than ever we need to see with spiritual eyes for the truth within is almost more than one can digest. In reading this chapter one verse keeps coming back to mind: John 3:16 “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” It is when we view God’s love in sharp contrast to the hate of Satan, which is sovereignly allowed upon men in this chapter, that we bow the knee and are overwhelmed with gratitude of God’s gift of His Son’s sacrifice on the cross and our salvation.

John 3:16 says that the gift God has for those who will bow the knee is eternal life. However, in this chapter we find that just as the Israel and the religious leaders during the time of Jesus rejected the evidence: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news proclaimed to them, so too men in the last stages of the clock of time, men will not cry out to God for His peace, love and salvation but will continue to reject.  That is a frightening thought which should drive us to share the good news of salvation to everyone who is divinely brought across our path that they may not have to face the judgment of God. 

In Chapter 6, John shows us what God revealed. It will not be His grace but horror upon horror to show men the power of evil and hate in the form of war, famine, death, disease. They respond by calling out  to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?” In reading this another verse came flooding back to this author: Rom  1:32 “Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die..” Isn’t it ironic that these men fully understand God’s judgment and his wrath but choose mountains and rocks to  the path of goodness, love and peace which only God can provide? We stop and ask “why?” Why do men reject God? Again we turn to the words of John: John 3:19 “people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.”

Beloved, if you have not done so I implore you now to open your eyes and allow the Holy Spirit to illumine you and bring God’s love and peace to your heart. It is not too late—but do not delay, we do not know when God will choose to allow the events of chapter 6 to unfold in all of their reality. Keep in mind God’s clock is running down; have you called upon Him?