1 Sam 17:29 Is There Not A Cause CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
When David came to the valley of Elah to check on the progress of the battle against the Philistines, he saw Goliath and he saw the men of Israel flee from him when he came out and offered his challenge. David knew that Goliath had defied the armies of the living God. And so he was ready to take him on. However, when Eliab, David’s older brother, heard that David was inquiring about Goliath, Eliab got mad at him and accused him of being proud. That’s when David raised the question, “Is there not a cause?”
There was a cause. The Philistines were enemies, God had delivered Israel from them after Jonathan and his armor bearer attacked the first garrison, they were enemies of the Lord with their hatred of Israel and their worship of Dagon, and David couldn’t see why any true soldier should back down from this giant just because he was big. God is bigger! And so David was ready to fight and he didn’t need any other incentive but the cause!
Is there not a cause for you and me to fight. My friend, for us today there is a cause. Our God has an enemy – he is the devil – and we need to fight just to stay ahead of him – sure he is a defeated foe but he is still working in full swing until he is finally bound in the bottomless pit – we have to fight him – we have to fight against the areas of his attack. He wants to keep us from preaching the gospel to the lost. We need to fight against:
Corruption – 1 Cor 2:17; Gen 3:1-5 you fight this by holding forth the truth of God’s words as preserved in the King James Bible [Ps 12:6-7, Jn 17:17; Heb 4:12-13] and by pointing out the corruptions in the modern translations
Blindness – 2 Cor 4:4; Matt 23:16, 17, 19, 24, 26; Matt 15:14 you fight this by exposing sin and sinners to the light [Eph 5:11-14; Ps 119:130]
Deception – Matt 24:4; Col 2:8 you fight this by exposing the deceivers Rom 16:17-18
Falsehood – Jn 8:44; contrast Jn 14:6, Jn 17:17 you fight this by telling the truth and pointing out the lie [see 1 Tim 6:20, for example]
Tradition – Mk 7:5-13 this is usually in the form of religious tradition, so you fight this by preaching the liberty [2 Cor 3:17] that we have in Christ and by preaching against the tradition of men, which is not scriptural
Worldliness – Jas 4:4; 1 Jn 2:15-17, you fight this with godliness and holiness, by getting as close as you can to God and as far away from the world as possible without becoming a kook
Discord – Prov 6:19 you fight against this with God’s love Rom 5:5, Col 3:14
Conclusion: Don’t think for a minute that these are benign weapons of the enemy. He has very skillfully used them to bring down churches and families and he is very skillfully keeping the body of Christ very divided so that it is much less effective in the fight. Be a David, not an Eliab!!