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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

All right, guys, I'm just going to tell you right from the beginning, this might be my favorite the Daily Blade episode that I've written, because I just really, really enjoy the content. And, guys, if you're just finding us, this week we've been digging into some Puritan prayers from the book the Valley of Vision. So we've hit themes of God seeing us through our valley, what man's purpose ultimately is and how to be patient as God is patient. Well, today we're going to take a bit of a turn to the dark side. So let's look at a prayer called the dark guest.

Speaker 2: 0:46

I'll read it here oh Lord, bend my hands and cut them off, for I have often struck thee with a wayward will with these fingers should embrace thee by faith. I am not yet weaned from all created glory, honor, wisdom and esteem of others, for I have a secret motive to eye my name in all I do. Let me not only speak the word sin, but see the thing itself. Give me to view a discovered sinfulness, to know that though my sins are crucified, they are never wholly mortified. Hatred, malice, ill will, vain glory that hungers for and hunts for man's approval and applause, vain glory that hungers for and hunts for man's approval and applause. All are crucified, forgiven, but they rise again in my sinful heart. Oh my crucified but never wholly mortified sinfulness. Oh my lifelong damage and daily shame. Oh my indwelling and besetting sins. Oh the tormenting slavery of a sinful heart. Destroy, o God, the dark guest within whose hidden presence makes my life a hell. Yet thou hast not left me here without grace. The cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul. I thank thee for my remembrance of. It is like David's sight of Goliath's sword which preached for thy deliverance. The memory of my great sins, my many temptations, my falls bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of thy great help, of thy support from heaven, of the great grace that saves such a wretch as I am. There is no treasure so wonderful as the continuous experience of thy grace toward me, which alone can subdue the risings of sin within.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Give me more of it. I mean, well, I mean, guys, let's go. I'm telling you I love this stuff, I love this. So, so, very much. So here we go. Yes, I realize that it's weird to get so jacked, you know, jacked up and excited by the darker side of things, but it just does something to me. So I was put on this planet to equipment to push back darkness, and that's why we do day in and day out what we do on Undaunted Life, and we can't push back darkness if we refuse to see it or experience it or recognize it, whether that's outside of us or inside of us.

Speaker 2: 2:58

So let's dig into this prayer a little bit further. Throughout this prayer you can just feel the soul level tug of war going on inside of this guy. So it's a fight between the light and the dark. And implicit in these words is the guy's recognition that his sins have been crucified with Christ but that his fleshly desires are still alive and well. And you can feel his torment. I mean, here's a line destroy, oh God, the dark guest within. But inside this prayer there is also a refrain. I'll read it here the cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul. I thank thee for my remembrance of. It is like David's sight of Goliath's sword which preached for thy deliverance.

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So if we go back to 1 Samuel 17, we see the battle of David and Goliath. And, guys, even if you've never read the Bible or anything like that, you know about this story. But there are some nuggets in this story that you only get from a closer reading of scripture, and then you can get into a little bit of conjecture. So in 1 Samuel 17, verse 46, I'll read it here this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head. Okay, so that's little boy David talking to the mighty Goliath. Then in verses 50 and 51, we see this so David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. Now, that's awesome, like that's cool. It makes a great tattoo.

Speaker 2: 4:33

But people generally lose the thread of the story from there. But we need to go ahead and pick back up here in verse 54. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. Okay, so the this was common in that day. So the leader of the winning side would behead the leader of the losing side and then take that head and put it on display somewhere as a sign of their own power and just as a reminder or a threat to you, know, to other people, that you know, if you run up you might get done up, right.

Speaker 2: 5:01

But the text doesn't tell us what David did with Goliath's head after he took it to Jerusalem. So I'm going to be doing my best Matt Chandler impression here to say, okay, the Bible's over here, so I'm going to go over there, right? So essentially, let me try to read between the lines a little bit and get into the world of conjecture. So at this time in history, jerusalem was not the city of David yet okay, it was a Jebusite fortress. So David would not have gone inside of the city walls with the head of Goliath. But again, remember, he killed Goliath, he was the victor and in this time period the victor would need to do something important and meaningful with the head of the conquered.

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So some Jewish and Christian traditions maintain that Jesus buried Goliath's head on a high place just outside the city walls of Jerusalem, that high place, mount Moriah. Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because that is where Abraham was tested to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis 22. This place would go on to be colloquially known as Golgotha, which means the place of a skull. Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because we see in Matthew 27, mark 15, luke 23, and John 19, that Jesus would go on to be crucified outside of the walls of Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, at a place called Golgotha, the place of a skull. So you see, david's victory over Goliath foreshadows Christ's victory over sin and death at Calvary.

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So when the Puritan prayer says this the cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul, I thank thee for my remembrance of. It is like David's side of Goliath's sword which preached for thy deliverance. The deliverance spoken of is Jesus, the Lamb of God, taking our place on the cross at Golgotha, shouldering our sins on his back, so that we can be delivered from those sins, in the same way that God delivered Goliath into the hands of young David. And if you have never accepted that reality before, today is the day. And if you've already accepted it, walk in that power today.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.