TWO mighty armies were face to face in battle array— the Israelites and the Philistines. The army of the Philistines, in their pride, were bent on destroying the Israelites. For forty days had their champion, the haughty Goliath, paced up and down in the sight of both armies, and had defied not only Israel, but Israel's God.
Day after day passed without the challenge being accepted, the war spirit with the Philistines had reached fever heat, whilst Israel was depressed and cowed, when from the solitude of the wilderness there arrived on the scene a shepherd lad, a stripling— David. With bitter jealousy his eldest brother, Eliab, upbraided him for having neglected his duty for sight-seeing. "I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart," he said, "for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle." (1 Sam. 17:28.) How little did he know that he was chiding the future deliverer of Israel. David, divinely taught, answered, "Is THERE NOT A CAUSE"?
Yes! indeed there was a cause. And that cause was the deliverance of God's people. From the humblest surroundings, there stood in their midst one who, although unknown, could wield the very power of God, and thereby utterly demolish the power of the enemy. Well might David say, "Is there not a. cause"?
Let me ask you to think of a more terrible battle than that which was waged in the valley of Elah.
See! on yonder hill of Calvary, under the blackened heavens, and lifted upon a malefactor's gibbet, there hangs the holy form of the Son of God. Not merely from Bethlehem's manger had He come, but from the heights of glory, from the very heart of God. Surely a greater than David is here.
Well might we ask as we view Him thus face to face with the power of the enemy, and forsaken, too, by God Himself, "Is there not a cause"? Yes! indeed there is. With one mighty stroke He overthrew the foe, and delivered His people from eternal bondage. Now in the triumph of an accomplished victory, and amid the shouts of the redeemed, there is proclaimed deliverance for the captive, salvation for the lost!
Oh! was there not a cause? Indeed there was. If Jesus had not died, if He had not destroyed the enemy's power, there could have been no "glad and glorious gospel" for sinners like you and me, nor deliverance from the thralldom of sin; no peace with God and no heaven hereafter.
But, thanks be unto God, Jesus has died, the work is finished, atonement is made, God is righteously satisfied, and now there echoes the triumphant song that JESUS LIVES!
“And if He lives, why not for thee?”
Why not trust Him? “Behold, now is the accepted time behold, now is the day of salvation."
A. E. M.