The Winepress Giant

"And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, 'Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.' And the Philistine said, 'I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.'"-(2 Samuel 17:4-10)

While traveling recently, I was praying and distinctly heard in my spirit "Champion". Now immediately, I began to pray broadly for my dear friend's infant son, whose surname is Champion. In the midst of focusing on my contemporary's progeny, I felt a tug of correction and then almost involuntarily turned my eyes toward the newspaper in the hands of the man diagonally across the aisle from me, and the first thing I saw was the word "CHAMPION" in bold capital letters. There it was again. Stark and bare to my gaze in a newsprint black and white. At that point, my prayer became a request for revelation. I was quickened to my bible, where I went directly to the concordance to find in both the King James and the New King James Versions, only ONE entry for the word "Champion". It is the mention of the Philistine Giant who has became the proverbial picture of the adage "The BIGGER they are... The harder they fall". The use of the word is singularly assigned to the mammoth brute who held the self-same role of "champion" for Philistia. It can be deduced through the description in the text that, Goliath stood at a great height. By way of Hebrew measurement, he stood six cubits and a span tall, with a Hebrew cubit equalling roughly 18 inches and a span being the equivalent of about 9 inches, that would set his height roughly at an impressive 9.5 feet. His armor, weighing in at an anthropologically estimated 125-194 pounds and his spear's head at 20-30 pounds, indicates that he was not merely a giant in stature, but rather a hulking beast of physical strength and stamina. Goliath was built for destroying his opposition.

But the physical description of the "champion" of the pagan Philistines is not what pulled me deeper into the Word. His name simply means "Great" or "Very Large" in most translations, and such has the legend given value to his name and size, coining in itself a descriptive quality of massive men and challenges. We see that his name is followed immediately by the disclosure of his birthplace. "Goliath, of Gath". Gath (or in Hebrew "Geth") of the Philistines' was one of the five Philistine city-states, established in northwestern Philistia. It was a city about midway between Bethlehem and the Mediterranean Sea. It means "Winepress". What an amazing God we serve that He allows us to glean immense revelation from even a detail such as this. The "Winepress" is such a vital place of metaphorical and practical significance throughout the scripture and in God's Plans. After all, it is in the winepress that the grapes of wrath are stored... "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."-(Revelation 19:15) And it is the winepress which serves Jesus' parable of the wicked vinedressers or tenants as the metaphor for the "fruit of the Kingdom". "And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it."-(Matthew 21:34) It also sets a vivid vision in one's mind of the wine or spirit being pushed, crushed or transformed under the pressure of change and challenge of transfiguration that the process of making wine is often defined by. A great wine must be crushed into juice at the correct time, and with the appropriate pressure, or it will spoil the outcome of the fermentation, thus destroying the destiny of the grape itself. The beautiful use of Wine as sacrament in the eucharist and symbol of the Blood of our Lord is deserving of an individual encounter, and must be focused upon with consecrated attention; however, we do recognize the importance of the foreshadowing. Jesus is of course, from the line of David. And so, we come to it. David was fighting the Champion of The Winepress. I imagine that at that particular moment, no one identified the immensely symbolic meaning of it all, but rather with great trepidation, saw a nine foot tall madman who ate Hebrews for lunch. But David did not.

David saw only his destiny. It was a challenge that he had been training for. He had slain a bear. He had killed a Lion. He was faithful and willing to die for the God of his fathers. He was so whole-heartedly committed to being the willing hand of the Lord, that I believe heaven and the earth and it's fullness stopped for that moment and peered upon the occasion with awe. Prior to this dynamic milestone, David had been anointed by the Prophet Samuel upon the command of the Lord, out of the sons of Jesse. The Spirit of the Lord came upon David and left Saul that day, creating an opportunity for the young shepherd to minister to the now demon-plagued King with his renowned musical skills. I find it poetic that the presence that was removed from Saul was the only thing that could soothe his trouble. It was through this union that God divinely prepared the opportunity for David to step forward and volunteer to smite the giant on behalf of Israel. The Lord God was most certainly with him. David also recognized the great reward awaiting any who slew the beast. The divine time had arrived. Goliath had come day and night for forty days to taunt the armies of Israel. No man was of the mettle to meet the challenge and face their champion. By appearances no man was the clearly chosen "Champion" of Israel. But appearances were never what God had in mind with David. "Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to."-(1 Samuel 16:12) But the Lord was not concerned with his outward visage. "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."-(1 Samuel 16:7) And his heart was ready.

The fullness of the showdown is marvelous and rich. David is given Saul's armor which is too heavy and "unproved" by him and so discarded. Instead, he takes only his sling and five smooth stones with him. The giant mocks him and he rebukes the Philistine. "Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 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."-(1 Samuel 17:45-46) And he does just that. The renown of David grows, built upon his victory against the impossible through the intercession and hand of God upon him. David becomes great. David, the musician and shepherd boy, becomes the CHAMPION of the God of Israel.

He faced the Winepress Giant and utterly defeated him. But the purpose behind this meditation is not to merely revel in David's victory and profess that "we all have giants to face and conquer through preparation and a heart that is after God". While that is absolutely true, it is incomplete. For you see, David did become great, King and perhaps the most feared King-General that Palestine and the Middle-East had ever seen, but he had great human error. His failures teach us more than his successes ever could. It speaks to me that we all learn more from our failings than the moments of greatness, as the moments of greatness often are borne out of the training we receive falling on our faces. David would be known as an adulterer, a murderer, and the ruler of a reign of blood. But this day, I was drawn to the mistake he made in fleeing from Saul to the land of the Philistines. Ironically, he not only returned to Philistia, David went to the winepress itself. "But David thought to himself, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand." So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him."-(1 Samuel 27:1-4) While Saul discontinued his search for David, it was to be, in broad perspective and in my opinion, a poor decision on David's behalf. Before this, he actually attempts to flee there and upon arrival at the city gates acts as a madman. "That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'? David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard."-(1 Samuel 21:10-12)

It was FEAR that drove David to Gath, and FEAR which made him to feign insanity. It was also FEAR of Saul that leads him there again 6 chapters later to hide under the cover of Achish thus making David and his men into raiders for that season. Do not misunderstand my tone; I do realize that God made the best of all of his shortcomings and failures. However, FEAR is never of God's will. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."-(1 Timothy 1:7) Fear is a spirit, and it is a contagious disease. I have witnessed fear destroy men and women's lives. I have unfortunately also witnessed the enemy use fear to destroy entire churches and labors of the Kingdom. It was not to condemn that God brought me circuitously to this re-revelation. You see, we all must face fear and either fight or fly. Fear is inevitable in our walk. But it is not final. We have been delivered from fear from the very stripes and crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."-(Matthew 8:17)
FEAR IS A DISEASE. If you do not believe me, look into the fruit of fearful leaders. Look into the Word and witness what fruit comes of fear. David's examples of failure root inevitably out of fear and insecurity. Yes, he lusted for Bathsheba, but is not lust a condition and sympton of insecurity, and thereby fear itself? I believe it is a sister spirit to that of fear, and that perhaps, all sin roots from our vanity. Fear is a spirit that roots like a tick into the fabric of a person's insecurities and vanity. When we are entirely committed to seeing the assignment of the Lord completed, we fear nothing. Rather, we embrace everything, counting it ALL JOY. "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;"-(James 1:2)

Fear is a disease. Insecurity is a condition wrought out of selfishness. Jesus bore our grief, our fear, our doubt- Do not re-crucify Him. Whatever befalls you, do not return to dwell in the land of the evil that you previously defeat. Do not remove that same mantle that God bestowed unto you as "Champion" over a challenge by delivering yourself to the birthplace of the enemy's weapons. Although the Lord uses all things together for good, it is preferable that we get, attain and use WISDOM. With wisdom, we can avoid "failure-based learning" altogether. When you go to the battlefield and face and through the favor and anointing of the God of Israel, decimate your "Winepress Giant", keep his head as David did. I assure you that the souvenir of victory will bar you from falling into the hands of the enemy as easily as forgetting it would. Above all else, seek the Lord when you are tempted to run out of the spirit of fear from that which He allowed to stretch you and make you a "Champion".