Give Me a Man!

Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other” (1 Samuel 17:10 NIV).

The challenge of evil is what you find here in this verse. It began in the garden of Eden when God created man and woman. Through deception Satan was able to make them sin against God. By that disobedience Satan gained entry into the human world.

He had defeated man whom God had created. Just when he thought that it was a final victory, God promised, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15 NIV). God accepted Satan’s challenge and promised a Man!

When Goliath challenged the Israelites, he wanted one man to fight him. David was the man. If you would look at the challenge, he continued to do so for forty days (1 Samuel 17:16). Only then did David come into the scene.

Even so, God waited many hundred years before He sent His Son Jesus to meet Satan’s challenge, “Give me a man!”

During the trial of Jesus, Pilate not knowing the depth of meaning of what he was saying said, “Here is the man!” In Romans 5:12-19, Paul developed this idea of Jesus the Man whom God provided in place of Adam, who had failed.

One Man, whose image and likeness others would bear, was always God’s plan. In Jesus that is fulfilled today (Read 1 Corinthians 15:49, 1 John 3:1).

Jesus not only met the challenge but also won crushing Satan’s head as originally promised . That happened on the cross (Hebrews 2:11-15). Goliath’s challenge, “Give me a man!” was thus fully met in Jesus as He is the son of David.

Even as Goliath despised David because he came with his staff, sling and smooth stones (see 17:42, 43); so also Satan might have despised the foolishness of the cross.

But he did not know that this foolishness of God would cost him his head. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV).

Even though Satan was defeated on the cross he still continues to roar like a lion and be filled with fury because he knows that his time is short (see 1 Peter 5:8 and Revelation 12:12). The world continues to be influenced by men and women (spiritual gurus and false prophets) whom he is manipulating to deceive people in large numbers.

But, you would never find such a unique person as Jesus in their ranks because He is the God-Man, the Savior of the world!

More Manna:

Does Not Thresh Forever

One Who Breaks Open the Way

Those Who Hope in the Lord

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