By: Jeff Bayard
Right Side News

Today’s edition contains:

  • 1. Daniel Fast
  • 2. David and Goliath: Five Smooth Stones
  • 3. Listen: Letter By Christian Pastor Being Brutalized In Iranian Jail, Ignored By Obama, Smuggled Out, video below

“The power of fasting has less to do with food than setting yourself apart for a specific period of time to focus more on the Lord, prayer, and worship”…Susan Gregory, The Daniel Fast

On February 9th, my wife and I began the Daniel Fast, which is a partial fast, to focus more on our spiritual lives and to “feed our souls, strengthen our spirits and renew our bodies.” These 16 days also brought weight loss and strengthened discipline. Day 4 in Ms, Gregory’s daily devotion section in her book made a wonderful impression on me and is titled Five Smooth Stones. Do you believe that the Biblical account of David and Goliath to be true? Read on, and the History Channel provides some keen insight in their video below.

Verse: 1 Samuel 17:39-40

Then Saul outfitted David as a soldier in armor. He put his bronze helmet on his head and belted his sword on him over the armor. David tried to walk but he could hardly budge. David told Saul, “I can’t even move with all this stuff on me. I’m not used to this.” And he took it all off. Then David took his shepherd’s staff, selected five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s pack and with his sling in his hand approached Goliath.

We know the rest, as David killed Goliath with his first shot. She goes on to write how she selected five smooth stones of her own, scripture verses to use during her own fast, which was 7 weeks. She would memorize them, study and learn them, and wield them against her own giants that beset her. My first one is 2nd Corinthians 10:4-5.

I enjoyed reading the historical account of David and Goliath again, and went deeper into David’s weapon of choice, the sling and the stones.

First, the stones… five of them, and they were smooth. Every word in scripture has significance. Why did David choose five smooth stones before going to fight Goliath? Was David doubting God? Was it because Goliath had five brothers? Or, was David simply being prepared? Read answers here.

What is the biblical significance of the number FIVE. This is the number of power and Divine grace.

  • Five kinds of animals were sacrificed under the Old Covenant Law of sacrifice: goats, sheep, cattle, pigeons and doves [Genesis 15:9; Exodus 29:38; Leviticus 1:1-17; 3:1; 4:3, 14, 23, 28; 5:6-7]
  • God changed Abram’s name to Abraham by adding the letter/number five to his name [Genesis 17:5]. He changed Sarai’s name by adding the same letter/number with the value of “grace” to form the name Sarah [Genesis 17:15]. Abraham and Sarah were transformed by grace to become the parents of a family from which the Messiah would be born
  • The Tabernacle was measured in multiples of five [Exodus 25 – 27]
  • There are five books of the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament)
  • Matthew’s Gospel is divided into five “books” composed of five narratives and five discourses.
  • Jesus bled from five wounds on the altar of the Cross: His two hands, his two feet and His head.
  • Daniel proclaimed the Fifth Kingdom to be an Everlasting Kingdom [Daniel 2:37-44].

Five Greek words form the acrostic phrase “Jesus Christ, God’s Son Savior,” taking the first letter in Greek from each word forms the Greek word for “fish”: Iota, Chi, Theta, Epsilon, Sigma = (ichthys) “FISH”, which became a symbol for Christ and a secret symbol for identifying Christians.

I know there is more to the significance of David picking FIVE stones than mentioned here.

Why SMOOTH stones?

First, they were smooth river stones, washed and slowly smoothed by the running water, as we are also slowly transformed by God’s word, His living water.

1. Had they been rough or angular, they would not have passed easily through the air, and their asperities would, in the course of their passage, have given them a false direction.

2. Had they not been smooth, they could not have been readily despatched from the sling. (Clarke’s commentary)

Finally,

Those that do not believe the Bible to be an historical account due to perhaps a lack of knowledge and the description of Goliath being of David and Goliath due to the description of Goliath’s immense size and wearing over 100 pounds of armor.

1 Samuel 17:4 states Goliath was 6 cubits and a span tall, or at least 9 feet. Six cubits – At least, nine feet, nine inches high. And this is not strange; for besides the giants mentioned in Scripture, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny, make mention of persons seven cubits high. Archeology supports human skeletons as tall as 30 feet. http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/giants.htm

The next verse describes Goliath’s helmet being five thousand shekels made one thousand two hundred and fifty ounces, or seventy – eight pounds: which weight is not unsuitable to a man of such vast strength as his height speaks him to be.

was it possible for a mere boy to use a sling and a stone to kill Goliath?
The History Channel provides the following………

What can we take away from this? When facing our giants, doing so on the solid ground of our faith in the Lord, and when I read the reply David gave Goliath.

LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

1Sa 17:46 This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

But, as we all know, we will be persecuted when we step out of our comfort zone, either at work or elsewhere.

FOX NEWS: American pastor Saeed Abedini, jailed in a notoriously brutal Iranian prison for his Christian faith, is facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors demanding he renounce his beliefs, according to supporters.

The 32-year-old married father of two, who left his home in Boise, Idaho, to help start an orphanage in his latest country, detailed “horrific pressures” and “death threats,” is a letter to family members, according to his U.S.-based attorneys……………. more on Pat Dollards site.

Jeff Bayard
Publisher of Right side News
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