who were a group of 37 men who fought with King David?
To answer this question we must journey back to a confrontation recorded in:
1 Samuel 4:6 On hearing the noise of the shout, the Philistines asked, “What is this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” And when they realized that the ark of the LORD had entered the camp,
I Samuel 4:7: And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp and they said Woe unto us
And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe to us! for there has not been such a thing heretofore.
JPS Tanakh 1917 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said: ‘God is come into the camp.’ And they said: ‘Woe unto us! for there was not such a thing yesterday and the day before.
What the Philistines knew but the Hebrew Israelites didn’t realize was that the Hebrews had with them
joined the ranks of the Israelites and the Philistines recognized when He did and they cried out in terror!
The Philistines were in fact saying that:
They were standing before the Third/Ultimate Warrior.
The use of the feminine pronoun, SHE, gives a picture of a mother fighting to protect her young.
This is a picture of an
ultimate warrior,
one who will fight to the death for someone or something,
and was the same in ancient times as it is today.
This is how the Philistines saw the Hebrew God; as a mother protectively wrapping her young in her arms and glaring at them and threatening that, if you touched her little ones you will have to deal with her, and the Philistines did not want to deal with “Her.”
This account is more than just the Philistines fear of the Israelites Hebrew God; it is about taking the physical ark they could see and touch in the natural to give them victory and not trusting in God and His spiritual power to intervene.
They were relying on
the power of an object,
instead of Who and Whom it represented.
Here it is interesting to note that it was the Philistines who recognized the difference; they said
GOD has come into the camp
not
the ark has come into our camp!!
The fact that the Philistines declared that God had come into the camp is profound because in verse 3, the children of Israel declared that “it”, referring to the ark, would save them.
And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, {c} Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.
(c) Before we fought against men, and now God has come to fight against us.
Israel was defeated before the Philistines.
Why?
Because sin, was in the camp, and it gave their enemies all the advantage they could desire.
The hand of God was there for them but, instead of submitting, they spoke in anger, as if they were not aware of any action they had done to provoke Him.
The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord, Proverbs 19:3, and finds fault with him.
They supposed that they could compel God to appear and help them, by bringing the ark into the camp.
Those who have gone back into a life of religious doctrine and men’s traditions, sometimes end up loving and preferring all the outward observances, thinking these things will save them.
The Israelites thought that by bringing the Ark, God’s throne, into the camp, it would bring heavens help to them.
Whatever we place our trust in, whether it’s our Heavenly Father or the world and the flesh, this is what is really on the throne of the heart. This is what we have faith in.
The people of Israel said
the ark would save them
and the enemy, the Philistines, their godless, pagan enemies, said
“God” would save Israel!
There are occasions when the people of the world have greater clarity and can see things that we just don’t see.
The Parable of the Unjust Steward in
Luke 16:1–13 is referring to this.
Israel represented a strong and notable faith, one that was feared and respected by the Philistines, yet as events unfolded, it was shown that they may have represented a true faith, but in action, they had no faith at all.
They did not walk the walk, or talk the talk, and were defeated. Their failing was a lack of trust in the Lord which was caused by a lack of knowledge of Who He is, usually as a result of having no intimate relationship with the One they said they represented.
That last phrase: “Woe to us for there has not been such a thing heretofore” is a very strange statement. Most translations will render this phrase in a similar fashion, however, in Hebrew, it says literally:
“Woe to us for she has not come as this yesterday three days.” and it doesn’t seem to make sense.
Possibly what we are reading is a combination of the thoughts and feelings of all the Philistines? There is no single translation to this phrase.
The word yesterday is really an adverb which means before or heretofore.
The word thing is also very interesting.
As already noted, it’s the word
shaleshim
used in extra-Biblical literature for the
third warrior or the ultimate warrior.
The Philistines are saying that
they stand before the ultimate warrior.
The next time we are challenged or confronted by a spiritual Philistine, as they stand there laughing at us, they will see something behind us that we may not really be paying attention to, and they will run in terror because our Heavenly Father is right behind us; just like the mother bear, ready to rip that Philistine to shreds if they try to touch a hair on our heads.
Each translation renders this phrase a little differently but with much the same meaning, this is because its a difficult passage to translate and there aren’t appropriate words in the English language suitable to insert in here.
However it could read:
nothing like this has happened before.
But something like that had happened before… because in the Hebrew it literally says:
“Woe to us for she has not come as this yesterday three days.”
Yesterdayis an adverb and is correctly translated as
Heretofore …this three days.
Ancient Jewish literature provides insight into this phrase, as this is an ancient Semitic expression/ an idiom.
This Semitic idiom has its roots in the picture of picking up a chick/baby bird /equivalent to the first warrior; and then facing the wrath of the male/father bird /equivalent to the second warrior.
It is easy to deal with a baby bird, and the male father bird may show some increased resistance, but is not overwhelming. It is the reaction of the female mother bird that will be the problem, because she will fight to the death to protect her little chick/equivalent to the third warrior.
As already noted as an interesting point, that the Philistines used she, a feminine pronoun, to represent God and maybe the use of the feminine pronoun would be appropriate because this idiomatic expression pictures this ultimate warrior as a mother fighting to protect her young.
As ancient Semitic languages had only two genders, male and female and there was no neuter gender this was not unusual in those times.
However scholars note that in ancient pagan religions, many of these pagan gods and goddesses demanded an end to gender identity and the Priests of goddess religions had to be castrated and therefore rendered gender-neutral and homosexuality was also encouraged. It is clear that the enemy, unclean and fallen spirits were at the root of these pagan religions and were trying to destroy humanity; and there are certainly similarities to the gender-neutral movement we have today, to that of ancient paganism. Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun!
The word thing in this verse, which in Hebrew is the word
shaleshim and really means three days,
also carries the idea of a
third element.
Thing, third day, third warrior, ultimate warrior.
The Philistines are saying is that this is the first time
the third warrior or the ultimate warrior
has appeared or joined the Hebrew armies.
We could look at it in this way:
When Israel faced their enemy the first time, they were nothing more than a mere baby chick /first warrior, and were easily defeated by their attackers.
God later raised up judges who would lead a powerful army /second warrior.
The point to remember is what the Israelites didn’t fully comprehend but what the enemy knew, was that the Hebrews had a Shaleshim,
a Third or Ultimate Warrior
join their army and the Philistines recognized when He did; and this is why they cried out in terror because they knew that the equivalent of a ferocious mother bear had shown up to protect her cubs!
Everyone of us face difficult situations alone, and in the times when we face the enemy and are defeated/first warrior, we run to the local assembly and join forces with other believers/ second warriors, but sometimes the enemy will still attack and defeat us. However, when the appearance of that third warrior, Shaleshim, Who is Jesus/Yeshua, the more than equal of any ferocious mother defending her young, then the enemy flees in terror.
Resist the devil and he will flee.. James 4:7-8 and only when we submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father.
However, our complete and ultimate victory comes when we allow the Shaleshim, the Third Warrior, Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach to join us, that our victory is absolutely assured. The truth is that we can call upon that Third Warrior anytime we need Him. We may not always see the spiritual power behind our Shaleshim, but the enemy certainly does and flees in terror at the very sound of the Name of this Third Warrior.
Messiah Jesus/Yeshua crushed demonic power continually throughout His ministry. Our real enemy is the spirit behind the attack, our fight is not against flesh and blood.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, the rulers, against powers, the authorities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12
This is referring to the enemies that confront us in the spiritual realm. This present dark kingdom could be using a co-worker who is always difficult to deal with and causes us to constantly lose our peace and joy and then we react to them in an ungodly way. Another example could be someone reacting rudely to us while driving in traffic simply provoking us to react back at them. The dark kingdom continually uses people, situations and circumstances to attack us in the spiritual realm. It is at these times that Messiah teaches us how to connect and stay joined with Him, and deny ourselves and our fleshly, carnal, old man ways. Even when it’s painful, we are to daily carry our cross, deny those ways,
follow Him, think, speak and do as He would.
When we surrender our will to the Lord’s will within ourselves, He will come in power and demonstration in and through us as the Third Warrior. When He does, then His love flows through us to that unkind co-worker and begins a transformation in them too, because that change begins when we allow Yeshua/Jesus to first change us by the power of His Spirit of Holiness.
Only when our will is surrendered to His will can He use us as His vessel to flow in us, and through us, to affect and influence our circumstances in a powerful way as the Third Warrior.
All that Messiah imparted to His disciples includes entering the ongoing battle against the demonic powers, and in His name we are to set free those in bondage, He is our Deliverer, the Liberating King.
This is the truth that strengthens us to face the attack and enter the battle without fear.
Mark 16:15-20
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.
In ancient warfare,
Goliath was known as
the 3rd Warrior
the best of the best – the elite!
OurHeavenly Father/Yeshua/Jesus is
the 3rd and ultimate warrior.
We can appear to the devil to be easy prey and seemingly powerless at times; but the Lord is NOT powerless and we should remember that when we trust in Him …
Who is it that the adversary sees coming? us?
or the shaleshim we serve??
Remember!
There is nothing wrong with a first warrior attempt to defeat the enemy, nor with that of a second warrior. God expects us to confront our enemies, but our ultimate victory comes when we are joined with the Shaleshim, the Third Warrior, Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach, then victory is really assured.
Also remember the fact that we can call upon that third warrior anytime we need Him; and though we may not see the power behind our Shaleshim, the enemy certainly does and he will flee in terror at the very sound of the Name of the Third Warrior.
Whatever we do, let us do it as unto the third warrior,
the Shaleshim, Messiah, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha Mashiach.
שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם,
Shalom aleikhem
chaverim and mishpachah!
Peace to friends and family.
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week.
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
Not sure ..you can be…
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute,
SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
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