At a very young age most of us were told about one of the greatest battles in the Old Testament; David and Goliath. We all hold the picture of Goliath’s end in our mind’s eye as he crumpled to the ground with David’s rock buried in his forehead; God’s victory over sin. But most stop reading at that point and in so doing they miss one of God’s key lessons regarding spiritual warfare:
1 Sam 17:49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
But the job was not done …
1 Sam 17:50-51 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
David made sure that Goliath was not going to get up; he finished the job. He put his enemy right where he was supposed to be… Under his feet …
Ps 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
And David finished the job by cutting off his head and silencing his voice. That was a critical step because it was not until the Philistines were sure that Goliath was dead that they would flee the battlefield. We need to remember that when we have engaged the enemy and he seems to be defeated. We cannot afford to let our guard down and let him get up again. Our job is to continue the fight until the Holy Spirit tells us to stop and “all” the enemy has fled in terror of His presence.