Death Conquered

 By, Benjamin H. Liles

          I'm just going to get to the point quickly tonight. We all know the story of David and Goliath within the pages of the Bible. Goliath was a giant the Philistines used to scare and scatter the armies of Saul's people of Israel. The story goes that this young man comes to see his brothers, David, and gets tired of hearing Goliath tormenting and harassing the people under Saul's command. He cannot wear the armor that Saul gave to him, so he goes to a stream, picks out certain pebbles, and goes to fight Goliath.

          At the close of this story, David not only kills the giant Goliath with a simple sling and stone, but he cuts of Goliath's head (see 1 Samuel 17:45-47). In like manner, so has Jesus, the Nazarene, who came to Israel in the 1st Century, under severe Roman occupation. Everyone thought this Jesus, this learned Jesus who was a carpenter's son would liberate them from such foreign rule.



         Just as David slew the giant Goliath, Jesus did to death and hell. When He wept in the garden of Gethsemane He knew the bitterness he was feeling was being cut off from the Father, God, even if for a brief instant (see Luke 22:39-46). Yes, it lasted a day, from sunup to close to sunset, but even before sunset on the day of His death, Jesus was already in the presence of God. They only laid His body in the tomb meant possibly for Joseph of Arimathaea (Matthew 27:57-60; fulfilling Isaiah 53:9). It was the tomb of a rich man, and Joseph gave it to house the body of Jesus.

          The point is that Jesus, at the time and moment of His death, He lobbed such a stone at sin and death, that He neatly decapitated both in the same breath when He declared, "It is finished!" on Calvary's cross (see John 19:30). The thing is sin is our master in this life. Unless we trade it away for God's righteousness, meaning we have to long, to desire for God's righteousness that only He can do something about it. That was why Jesus came on our behalf. It was to put sin and death on notice: that it is conquerable, like Goliath, and we no longer have to be afraid or held hostage by it.

          All we have to do is take a look at the faith of our forefathers found within Israel's history, from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all the way to Hosea and Micah, the prophets. All of them point to Jesus fulfilling the words, laws, and the prophets so that we can live life in a new and living way. All it takes is seeing how scripture works together, giving us our faith. A living substantiated faith that says, "My Christ slew death! He did it by putting Himself on a cross and dying in my place!" Amen!?