We are going to read some Scriptures from Exodus 14. Before we do that, we can pray together.
Lord, we worship You. We confess Your mighty name over us and thank You for being our Lord. Thank You for saving us and washing us clean with the precious blood of Jesus.
We thank You that we can be here together, open Your Word together, and consider the things of God. We commit our time to You.
Lord, we pray that our hearts could be open to the heavens, open to the Lord Jesus. We pray that, as we look into these things, by Your Spirit You would apply them to our lives. We trust our time to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We are going to be sharing, God willing, a few times on the mighty men, especially when I get into David’s mighty men. Since I read their stories, they have been a favorite Bible story of mine. I have been studying them for years and thinking about them.
A number of times, I have done little conferences with middle school or high school students where we acted out some of the battles of the mighty men. I have almost thirty Nerf swords just because of this. I have really enjoyed studying the mighty men of the Bible.
Today we want to lay more of a foundation on the mighty men in the Bible. We are not actually going to focus on David’s mighty men. If the Lord wills and we live, we will hopefully get into that, which becomes very specific and includes many practices of overcoming.
Before that, I want to talk about David as the mighty man of God. I know recently Brother Kenny shared on David, so I am not going to cover the life of David, but rather the aspect of being a mighty man—especially the battle of David and Goliath.
To get into those things, there is a lot of information that is helpful to know ahead of time. There are concepts that will be extremely helpful in understanding the battle of David and Goliath. So today, we want to learn a little bit of this foundation.
We are talking about the mighty man in general. There are some things that are confusing in the battle of David and Goliath that will hinder our understanding if we do not know what a mighty man is.
Let us read in Exodus 14, beginning in verse 10. This is the story where the Israelites have left Egypt, come to the Red Sea, and are trapped. Pharaoh’s army is coming upon them, and they do not know what to do.
And Pharaoh approached, and the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them;
and the children of Israel were much afraid, and they cried out unto the Lord.
And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Why hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word that we spake unto thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?
For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.
This is the feeling of the Israelites as the Egyptians approached. Then Moses said to the people:
Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today:
for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
The Lord will fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
I want to read that last verse again. This is the main verse on my heart today:
The Lord will fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
With mighty men, I think it is a broad topic—more broad than we realize. For myself, I did not realize how big it was until I started to study the words and look at all the verses in the Bible. I only thought of David’s mighty men, but there are many mighty men in the Scriptures. Actually, the first mighty men were evil.
We do not call each other mighty men very much in English, except sometimes among people who read the Bible. More often, we use terms such as warrior or elite soldier.
The Hebrew term commonly translated “mighty man” is gibbor. Its plural is gibborim. The word comes from a root meaning might, power, strength, prevailing, overcoming, and being strong.
There is also a Hebrew word translated “man” or “person,” geber, from the same root as mighty man. It is one of the words for mankind. There are four main words for mankind in the Old Testament, and each tells us something unique about humanity.
One of these words is Adam. Many times in the Bible, when it says “man,” the actual word is Adam. Adam’s name has to do with how his body was built. His name means red clay or mud. So Adam means something like “mud man.”
When the word is used in the Bible, we not only remember that our bodies were built from dust—“dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”—but we also remember that we are born in Adam. We come from Adam’s race. Our lineage goes all the way back to Adam, so we are sons and daughters of Adam.
This can remind us of the failure of mankind: that we are born in sin and belong to this human race born from Adam. In the Bible, Adam is thought of as one great big person. All humanity is wrapped up in this person from whom everyone was born.
My grandmother used to see all the grandkids, and she would always call us her seed. Then she saw her great-grandkids and would say the same thing. Actually, if my grandmother did not exist, I would not exist.
However much we may not like our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents at times, we have to remember that we do not exist without them. We all come from Adam, however badly we may think of Adam and Eve. They are part of our blood. We are all really far-apart cousins.
Another word for man is ish. When Adam saw Eve for the first time, after he had named all the animals and God had put him to sleep, something was taken out of his side. God built the woman and brought her to him.
Adam said:
This is now bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.
He called her ishah because she came from ish. In modern Hebrew, ish can be used for husband, but in the Bible it is usually translated “man.” It gives us a good picture of humanity: man and woman brought together, ish and ishah.
There is nothing in this word itself about sin or failure. It is even used sometimes of God.
The word geber especially focuses on how men and women are built to fight and to be strong. In creation, we were given dominion over creation—over the land, to guard it and protect it. We were actually created to fight.
From the beginning, in the Garden of Eden before sin, Adam was given a charge to protect the land. In the whole biblical scope of the story, angels had been cast down to the earth. A third of them had fallen with Lucifer, the archangel who became Satan.
The earth had become desolate and destroyed, and God made a paradise garden there. Adam and Eve were placed there, and they had to protect it. Adam, this geber, this warrior man, was to protect the garden.
There was a special way God wanted him to do it. There was provision for him to fight, guard, and protect, even from evil more powerful than him naturally. There was a tree placed inside the garden: the tree of life.
If they had taken of that tree, they would have been strong and warriors supernaturally, able to guard and protect. Not only were they to protect the garden surrounded by four rivers, but God told them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the whole earth.
Adam lived to be 930 years old, and he had many sons and daughters. They were very fruitful even after the fall, but they had been called to take over the whole earth. This fight was part of Adam’s calling.
Another word for man is Enosh. This word means weak, frail, or mortal. Seth named his son Enosh—something like “weakling”—but this was actually a glorious name.
Cain was named “acquired,” because they thought he might be the savior, the deliverer, the man-child who would crush the serpent’s head and deliver them from the curse. But as Cain grew up, they realized he was not the deliverer.
Then they had another son, Abel, whose name means breath or vanity. At that point they realized that their children would be born in weakness and sin. It seemed almost hopeless.
After Cain killed Abel, Adam and Eve eventually had another son, Seth. Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. They were so excited about this third child; he was a replacement for Abel and brought joy back into their hearts.
Seth must have heard all these stories. He must have known about Abel’s better sacrifice, which God received. When Seth had his child, he named him Enosh.
The Bible says that at that point men began to call upon the name of the Lord. I think that is special. It was when he had this revelation and testimony: “We are mortal and frail. We need the Lord.”
Men began to rely on the Lord and call out to Him. In that lineage there were great men of God. Enoch arose from this lineage, and Noah eventually came from it as well.
We learn from the way Seth named his son that mankind is mortal, frail, and weak. It is helpful to know how God speaks about human beings in the Bible and how He uses these different words.
The word geber shows that mankind is called, even in the definition of a human being, to be strong. This is part of how we are built.
Gabriel’s name gives us a helpful picture. Gabriel is like gibbor, then an “i,” meaning “my,” and El, meaning God. So it can mean “a warrior of God,” “a mighty man of God,” or “God is my mighty man.”
With Hebrew names, it is not always exact which direction the meaning goes. We do not know whether Gabriel means a warrior of God or God is the mighty man. But it is perfect, because if you are to be a warrior of God, a mighty man of God, God has to be your mighty man. That is the only way it works.
This is how we are called as human beings to be mighty men. This is God’s original design. Even with the geber word for humans and the calling in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve could have been interested enough in God’s heart to ask about the tree He placed in the center of the garden.
We often think their problem was only that they fell into temptation. I think their problem was that they delayed as well. I think that is our problem many times.
We think of fighting only as stopping sinning, but the real push for fighting is to pursue the Lord. You are delivered from much worldliness if you are pursuing the Lord. If you are after knowing Christ, you are delivered from many sins automatically.
But if you just stand still, trying to maintain your paradise and not go forward—if you do not ask God, who walks in the midst of the garden, “What is this tree for? I have eaten these other trees for my body. This tree is of life. Can we eat of it? You did not say we could not eat of it. What happens if we eat of this?”—then you miss that pursuit.
This curiosity and pursuit of the Lord is needed to be real warriors of God, to be real mighty men. Mighty men are pursuing something. They are not simply standing still.
Even in real battles, there is a goal and something you are after. You are not always on the defense. I think the word Gabriel gives us a good picture of a mighty man of God: God is actually his mighty man.
Gabriel is not only the name of my son, but also the name of one of the archangels mentioned in the Bible.
When we look at the many Bible verses concerning mighty men, we can categorize them into four types:
Among natural mighty men, there are examples of good and godly human beings who are naturally mighty. We may even have naturally mighty men in this room—giantish guys who are strong, tall, and able to fight.
There are also naturally mighty women. I think every mom who keeps her kids alive is a mighty woman. If you think about it, to prevail over the kids and keep them from getting hurt too badly is really something.
There is something built into human beings, this geber aspect, in which we feel called to prevail, be strong, and overcome. Maybe not all of us think about stabbing somebody, but there is something about prevailing and being strong. We do not just want to sit back and be weak. We want to be strong in whatever circumstance we face.
Saul is one example. This is Saul before David—King Saul, whom the people selected. Saul’s father is described as a gibbor, a mighty man, and Saul himself is also called a mighty man.
When Saul and his father are described this way, it seems to refer to natural strength. Saul was a head taller than everyone else. He was very strong. When he tried to put his armor on David, it was too big for David. Saul looked like a man’s man, a warrior man.
Once Saul became king, he started gathering every mighty man in Israel to be part of his army. The same words, gibbor and gibborim, are used. He even brought mighty men in from outside the tribes of Israel, such as Doeg the Edomite.
Saul’s army must have been strong. Their fighting ability must have been great. These were not just normal soldiers; they were elite warriors. Just as America has special forces, Israel had mighty men—warriors among warriors.
There were different kinds: left-handed mighty men, mighty men who looked like lions, and many others. All of us can fight, wrestle, shoot a bow and arrow, or wield a sword to some degree, but some people are naturally born as warriors and can fight very well.
Boaz is another example. Strangely, he is called a mighty man. This is David’s ancestor in the story of Ruth and Boaz.
The description of Boaz is not about his fighting ability, but about his prestige, status, and wealth. This teaches us that a mighty man does not only have to do with physical fighting. Boaz had stature and strength among the people.
When he went to the town gate, where the elders sat to make decisions and discuss important matters, people respected what he said. He had people working for him and had much wealth. This is another example of a natural, good mighty man.
There are natural evil mighty men as well. Nimrod is one example. There is not much of his story in Scripture, apart from extra-biblical material that can take you all over the place. But he is called a mighty man, a warrior, and a hunter.
Most people understand him to have been an evil human being. From Scripture, we do not necessarily see that he was supernaturally mighty, but he was a warrior, hunter, and mighty man.
Another example appears in the battle connected with Jehoshaphat. The phrase, “Let the weak say, I am strong,” comes from a passage where the Lord speaks to people gathering to fight against Him.
Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning-hooks into spears:
let the weak say, I am strong.
The Lord is saying, in effect, “Go ahead and make your tools into weapons. Let the weak among you say that you are strong. Come and gather in this valley. Bring all the mighty men.” These are evil warriors, mighty men gathering against God.
When Israel and Judah were carried into captivity because of their sin, the Lord spoke through the prophets about the armies coming after them, and He called them gibborim—mighty men. These were evil armies full of naturally gifted warriors.
There are many naturally amazing fighters. I have always enjoyed watching fights, unfortunately. Kung fu fighting, ultimate fighting, battles, wars, superheroes—these things interest many people.
There is something in humanity that responds to strength and overcoming. That is part of this natural phenomenon. In the Bible, mighty men are often described among natural people.
There are also supernaturally evil mighty men. I want to focus on one kind because it relates to David’s battle with Goliath: the Nephilim.
In Genesis 6, the morality of mankind had greatly declined. Cain’s lineage became corrupt. By the seventh generation, Lamech was boasting of his multiple wives and of killing people. A few generations later, we come to Genesis 6, where people had forgotten what was good and what was evil.
Something strange happened:
The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair;
and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Then the Lord said He would stop this and destroy the earth. The Nephilim were produced—giants, in many translations. They were heroes of old, men of renown.
There is some dispute about this passage. Some people who want to explain away supernatural activity say that the sons of God were from the lineage of Seth and the daughters of men were from the lineage of Cain. But there are several reasons that does not work.
First, if the descendants of Seth and Cain married each other, why would they become giants? Why would they become something unique?
I know that if people move to America, their kids sometimes seem to become giants—but that is because of the hormones in the meat at McDonald’s. That was not going on then.
Second, “sons of God” is a description used for angels. In Job, especially from the first chapter, we see God’s council, where the sons of God gathered and Satan came among them. Angels are called sons of God in several places in Scripture.
Third, Genesis 6 says this happened in those days and afterward. If this only concerned Cain’s lineage and Seth’s lineage, Cain’s lineage died in the flood, since Noah alone survived from Seth’s line. Yet the giants appeared after the flood as well.
When Israel came to the border of Canaan and sent twelve spies into the land, the spies returned with enormous fruit and stories of giants. They said:
We saw the Nephilim there, the sons of Anak, which come of the Nephilim:
and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers,
and so we were in their sight.
The Nephilim are understood as a mixture of humans and angels, producing giants. Extra-biblical literature contains many stories of gods or angels mixing with humans, resulting in unusual offspring—large people or people with supernatural abilities. I am not saying all those stories are true, but the idea is there in the Scriptures.
The Anakim are associated with the Nephilim. Anakim were descendants of Anak, and the name may mean “long-necked ones.” I do not know whether these giants uniquely had long necks, but they were huge, and their descriptions emphasize their size.
Another name is the Rephaim. This name can mean dead ones or fallen ones. In Genesis 14, during the battle of the four kings against the five kings—the battle connected with Lot’s capture—these Rephaim, these giants, are mentioned.
The Moabites called them the Emim, meaning terrors. The Ammonites called them the Zamzummim, a name that carries the idea of thunder. Different peoples had different names for these same giants.
These supernatural beings had strength beyond human strength. If you try to fight a half-angel, half-human giant, it is not a fair fight at all.
Among these giants are families we recognize. King Og was one of the giants; Scripture describes the vast size of his bed. Goliath was also one of the giants. His father was a giant, and his brothers were giants.
We will get into this more in future messages, God willing, but David’s mighty men defeated Goliath’s brothers. They too were giants, great in size like Goliath.
Goliath, in the battle between David and Goliath, was a supernatural mighty man. I think this is important to realize. He was not just a big guy or an amazingly tall, strong warrior.
Goliath had strength beyond what is natural for human beings—beyond all naturally mighty men that we know today. He was a supernatural mighty man.
Joshua fought in a supernatural way. God was his mighty man. Joshua may have been naturally able to fight, but through spending so much time close to Moses in the secret place of the tent and in fellowship with the Lord, he discovered the strength of the Lord.
He discovered that the Lord is the mighty man, the warrior, and the One who fights. In the battle against Amalek, Joshua fought on the ground while Moses stood at a distance with his hands raised in prayer.
When Moses held up his hands, Joshua prevailed. When Moses’ hands grew tired and fell, Israel began to lose. Then Aaron and Hur held Moses’ arms up, and Israel won the battle.
This shows that Joshua’s fight with the Israelite army depended on the prayers of Moses. It was a supernatural fight, not merely a natural one.
Joshua carried this secret into the conquest of Canaan. When Israel entered the land, they did not begin by sharpening weapons for battle. They began by circumcising themselves. This made them physically weak, but spiritually strong because they consecrated themselves to God.
They said, in effect, “We belong to the Lord. We cut off our carnal ways. We are the Lord’s people.”
Then they came to Jericho. There were mighty men in the city, likely supernatural evil mighty men, like those associated with the Nephilim in the land. The wall was so tall and strong that it was not something humans could overcome naturally.
Joshua was outside the wall, scoping out the situation and perhaps making plans. Then the captain of the Lord’s host stood before him with His sword drawn.
Joshua asked:
Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
The captain answered:
Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
In effect, He was saying, “You are on My side.” The Lord is the warrior. The Lord is the mighty One. And He gave Israel the strangest battle plan: march around the city.
They marched around the city, gave a shout of victory, and the walls fell down. That is a supernatural fight. All the natural strength of Israel—pushing on walls, building ladders, trying to climb over—would likely have wiped out the nation. But because the Lord was fighting for them, the walls came down and they defeated the city.
There were other battles in which Israel lost because someone had ceased being consecrated. Achan kept things that should have been destroyed because he loved money and the appearance of the garments. Once the problem was dealt with, Israel was able to conquer.
If you are a natural mighty man fighting naturally, it depends on skill, physical condition, and circumstances. But if you are fighting a supernatural battle with God as your mighty man, everything depends upon your relationship with the Lord. If you are not consecrated, you lose.
Caleb is another example. He was with Joshua when the twelve spies returned from Canaan. Joshua and Caleb were the two who said, even though there were giants in the land, “Let us go up. The Lord is with us.”
They said, in effect, “It is true that we are like grasshoppers in our own sight, but we will eat them. They will be our food. Fighting them will strengthen us and make us mightier.”
Because of the report of the other ten spies and the attitude of Israel, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for almost forty years. Everyone died except Joshua and Caleb, and Moses was about to die as well.
Joshua and Caleb were now elderly, but Caleb said:
I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me:
as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in.
The hardest place was Hebron, the giant stronghold. There were three sons of Anak there. Caleb took that place on, and he and his descendants conquered the giants in that area.
This is important to notice: supernatural mighty men, strengthened by the Lord, are stronger than supernaturally evil mighty men. The might of God’s mighty man is God Himself.
The might of anything else, however supernatural it may be, is not God’s might. The Lord is the ultimate mighty man. He is stronger than anything possible.
The limit of God’s mighty men is the limit of God’s might. Their ability to conquer, fight, and prevail is limited only by God’s ability to conquer, fight, and prevail. They stand still, and the Lord fights the battle.
They may use their hands and weapons, but the whole thing is God’s grace. Sometimes they do not even use their weapons. Israel blew trumpets, and walls came down.
Gideon is another example. He had many volunteers for his army, but God gave him a system to narrow them down to a few hundred men. Out of thousands, they came down to three hundred.
Then the Lord said, “Here is how we are going to fight.” It was all supernatural. They took trumpets, torches, and jars, surrounded the enemy at night, smashed the jars, displayed the torches, and blew the trumpets. The enemies turned against one another.
Gideon is called a mighty man, a gibbor. But I think Gideon was a supernatural mighty man because he relied on the Lord for his battles.
David is another example, along with David’s mighty men, whom we will consider more another time. David was called a gibbor even in his youth. When Saul was looking for someone to play the harp, David was described as a mighty man and as someone skilled in music.
David’s mighty men learned from David.
Paul is another example. Technically, he is not called a mighty man using the Old Testament word because he is in the New Testament, although the New Testament does use words such as overcomer.
Paul spoke about fighting. He spoke about fighting the good fight. At the end of his life he said:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul said he was not fighting like someone boxing the air. He was not shadowboxing. He fought with purpose. He said he disciplined his body and made it his slave, so that after preaching to others, he himself would not be disqualified.
Proverbs 16:32 describes this kind of might:
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
It is better for someone to control himself than to fight with great skill. It is more skillful and more mighty to rule your own spirit than to take over a city. To rule your spirit means to be under control from the depths within, all the way to your body.
Paul was disciplined and under the control of God’s grace, led by the Holy Spirit. He said he was “in watchings often.” He might have stayed awake through the night praying, or he may have risen very early for prayer.
I do not know how many of you have tried to do an all-nighter for the Lord’s sake. Especially when I was in college, I tried this all the time and almost always failed. I would get up and say, “I am doing it”—with no coffee, right? No cheating.
Jesus told His disciples in the garden, “Watch with Me,” but when He came back, they were asleep. I am not saying we should stay up late. I think we should go to bed and wake up early. But Paul had control over his sleep.
A mighty man can rule from the inward part to the outward part. A spiritual, supernatural mighty man such as Paul has more strength than a physically mighty person in the Olympics.
Olympic athletes discipline their bodies from soul to body. But Paul could discipline his body from spirit to soul to body. He could fast when he needed to fast and endure watchings when he needed to watch.
Paul said:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds;
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God,
and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
This is how we fight. We submit thoughts to Christ and bring them into obedience. It is better to rule this way than merely to be physically mighty. This is a supernatural mighty man.
In Ephesians 6, Paul explained that the church’s struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness. We have spiritual armor and take our stand in the Lord. His fight was supernatural.
When we think about the New Testament, the age of grace, and fighting, I think we can get wimpy in our minds. We think it has nothing to do with physical things. But think of demon-possessed people in the Bible.
The seven sons of Sceva tried to copy Paul’s practice of casting out demons. They said, “In the name of Jesus whom Paul preacheth, I command you.” But the demon-possessed man answered:
Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
Then one man physically overpowered all seven of them. There is supernatural strength associated with demon possession. But there is no strength in demon-possessed people compared with someone like Paul. When Paul spoke, demons were cast out.
The spiritual realm overrules the physical realm. The spiritual realm is more real than the physical realm because it came first. Hebrews 11 teaches that the visible world was made from that which is not visible.
God, who is Spirit, created the physical world from nothing. The things unseen are more real than the things seen. We have to renew our minds with that truth.
One time I was walking my dog in Jerusalem at night while distributing tracts. This dog was a very wimpy dog. A man jumped out of the bushes.
He was a Muslim man, homosexual, and he began to threaten me. He was really big, at least to me. My dog, poor Gabby—her full name was Gabriella—just whimpered down to the ground. She did not understand her name at all. She cowered to nothing.
I had a tract in my hand and tried to give him one. He did not take it at first and began to say evil things about what he would do to me. He was approaching me.
I used to wrestle, but at that point I did not know whether my wrestling ability could handle him. He looked so evil and so big. Humanly, it was a very scary experience. It was dark, no one was around, and the dog was no help.
Then suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon me, and I remembered that Jesus is my Lord. I opened my mouth and said, “Actually, you cannot even touch me unless my God allows it. Jesus Christ conquered Satan and your god at the cross. Jesus rose from the grave, ascended on high, and He is alive today. He is in charge of everything. Unless He allows you to touch me, you cannot touch me at all.”
As I said this, I felt taller than him, though I did not really get taller. I did not float at all. But I felt like it. Gabby stayed whimpered down, but I felt this spiritual reality.
Then the man seemed stunned. I do not know whether he was shocked, but I felt that spiritually something broke. I handed him the tract, he took it and looked at it, and I walked away.
I did not have to fight him physically. But I felt that the spiritual realm is more real than the physical realm, and the Lord’s protection is more real than whatever protection I can get naturally. Our minds have to be renewed with this reality.
Another group is the overcomers, especially mentioned in Revelation. This is what we are talking about today. When we say mighty men, and when we look at David’s mighty men, we are talking about overcomers.
Mighty men are the strong ones, the prevailers, the overcomers. They actually win. In Revelation 2 and 3, and throughout the book of Revelation, we see their spiritual might: overcoming sin, overcoming the world, overcoming shameful things, and overcoming in churches where the church may be lacking while they still shine Christ.
The Lord looks for Himself. He may not find what He desires in an entire church, yet He calls Christians to overcome and shine Christ. This is a supernatural calling. The only way we can do what is impossible with man is to do it with God.
These are supernatural mighty men, and this is the calling upon all of us. There is a calling for overcoming. The overcomers are with the Lord, and they overcome through Him.
The Lord is the mighty man. I do not know whether you have caught this through the whole message, but the Lord is actually the mighty man. He is called a gibbor.
Psalm 24 says:
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
This speaks of the Lord’s return and can be understood as a description of the Lord Jesus coming back.
Exodus 15:3 says:
The Lord is a man of war:
the Lord is His name.
The title “Lord of hosts” means Lord of armies. He is the Lord of the heavenly armies.
Isaiah 9:6 says:
For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon His shoulder:
and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
One of the descriptions of the Lord Jesus, even in the prophecy of His birth, is that He is mighty—the mighty God.
The Lord Jesus is the ultimate mighty man. He came physically as a man. Even during His earthly ministry, His mightiness was beyond His own body.
One time, an angry crowd tried to throw Him off a cliff, but He passed through the midst of them and went His way. The spiritual is stronger than the physical.
Another time, soldiers came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas was there to betray Him. In John’s Gospel, they asked for Jesus, and He answered, “I am He.” Then they all fell backward to the ground.
That shows the hidden might within Him. He said, “I am,” echoing the name of God, and the soldiers fell down. I do not think those soldiers were proud as they took Jesus away. Even though one of them had his ear cut off and Jesus healed him, I think they were trembling. Here was a mighty man whom they were taking to the cross.
No one could have thought Jesus was weak when He went to the cross. He spoke two words, and they all fell to the ground. He was physically powerful because He was supernaturally powerful. He is God, the mighty man.
At the cross, Jesus defeated the enemy. In Ephesians 1, all powers in the spiritual realm are under Him. In Matthew 28, He said:
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.
In Philippians 2, we read that God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee must bow—in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. That is the authority of His name.
The Lord is not only called the Lamb of God; He is called the Lion of Judah.
When He comes back, the battles are beyond what we would imagine or write in a comic book. Revelation 19 describes the ultimate battle.
Imagine the whole world under one ruler, the Antichrist. Imagine all the armies, elite forces, weapons, and powers of the world gathered together. There will be no barriers of language or money. The world may become united under the Antichrist.
The rulers, presidents, diplomats, and kings of the earth will be under the Antichrist. He will have the world’s nuclear weapons and every kind of special weapon.
In Revelation 12, Satan and his angels are cast down to the earth after Michael and his angels defeat them in the heavenly realm. Imagine the Antichrist with Satan physically on the earth, and fallen angels able to give counsel about weapons and supernatural means of warfare.
During that time there are hunters and hunted. The hunters are the forces of the Antichrist. The hunted include faithful Christians and a remnant of Jews who seek to remain faithful to God’s commandments. God places His seal upon them.
If those days were not shortened, everyone would die because of the disasters and the fighting.
The best of all natural mighty men will be gathered together: every special force, every warrior, every weapon possible. The Christians will have been taken up, but a sealed remnant of Jews will remain. The Antichrist and Satan will come to destroy them.
The 144,000 will appear to have no means of defense. They will not be taking up weapons. They will not have nuclear weapons. They will simply be people who are hunted.
Then there will be a blast heard all over the world, and a sight seen like lightning across the sky.
The Lord Jesus will come down to the earth and land upon the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem, and the mountain will split in two. At the moment when the armies of the Antichrist are prepared to destroy the Jewish people, there will be an earthquake, a great noise, and brilliant light.
The King of kings and Lord of lords will come on a white horse, as Revelation 19 describes Him. Here comes the mighty man, and behind Him come all His mighty men—His armies, clothed in white, on horses, ready for battle.
Satan and his angels are only one third. With the Lord Jesus come the other two thirds of the angels, together with all the saints of God from every age. The army of God will be vast, filling the sky.
The armies of the Antichrist will see the mountain split. There will be a pause, and Israel will pass through the mountain to be saved. They will look upon Him whom they pierced. The Spirit of supplication and repentance will come upon the Jewish people.
They will recognize their Messiah. They will see the wounds in His hands and realize that Jesus is the Messiah. They will repent and believe on Jesus. All Israel will be saved.
Then the battle begins. But all the mighty men stand still.
The Lord will fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
They all know that God is the mighty One. The Lord is the warrior. The Lord is the mighty man. The angels stand still. The saints stand still. The Lord speaks.
Out of His mouth proceeds the word, and it destroys all the opposing armies. The Antichrist and the false prophet are taken alive and thrown into the lake of fire. Then all the armies are slain by the word that proceeds from the mouth of the Warrior.
Satan is bound by an angel and cast into the abyss for a thousand years.
The battle belongs to the Lord. You see the might of the mighty man. There is no fight that matches His might.
After a thousand years of peace, there is one final battle. Jesus rules the earth. The Jewish nation is above all nations. The leaders of every country and city are Christians—overcomers with resurrected bodies.
There will be perfect justice. No demons, no fallen angels, no Satan, no worldliness—no Facebook. No, not really. But there will be no problems with the things that distract and corrupt us. The whole earth will be beautiful and restored, and the animals will be wonderful.
After a thousand years, Satan is released for a short time. Even after all those generations of openly seeing the rule of God, he deceives multitudes as innumerable as the sand of the sea.
He gathers them like Gog and Magog and brings them against Jerusalem to wipe out the Jews. This is his final action.
But what happens? The Lord is the warrior. Fire comes down from heaven and devours them. There is no fight that matches the Lord.
Satan is thrown into the lake of fire with his angels. All those who gathered with him face judgment at the great white throne. Everyone whose name is in the book of life enters the joy of the Lord in eternity, where there are no more tears and no more sorrow.
At that time, there will be no weapons. None of us will need to fight. We will all stand in the realization that the only One who needs to fight is the Lord.
The Lord is the warrior. The Lord is the mighty man.
For us in this time, we need to stand still and see the might of our God. We need to see the deliverance of the Lord. I think this must be our way.
For us to become overcomers, to become mighty men, we have to be like those at the final battle against the Antichrist: sword in hand, perhaps, but watching what the Lord does through our own lives, through one another, and through everything that is going on.
Past ourselves, there is a glorious, wonderful, mighty man: the Lord Jesus.
Lord, we stand together in awe of Your glory, Your power, and Your honor, beholding the Lion of Judah, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We confess You as our Lord anew.
Lord, we bow down and give up. We stand still and cast off our striving. We do not want to naturally be overcomers or mighty. We know our many failures. We know where we are weak, we know where we come from, and we know where You are calling us.
Lord, we pray for ourselves today: do not let us give up or look around at all the other fights, attacks, and hardships and think that it is too much. We can cast ourselves on You and call upon You, knowing that there is no battle too great for You.
There is nothing beyond our God. We thank You and worship You, in Jesus’ name.