VICTORY

C. S. Elliott

2 Samuel 23: 8 (first phrase), 11, 12

I have been affected by the thought of victory. It came in in our first hymn and continued through our brother’s prayer, and the sense of victory is in the passage I have read. I have often wondered how it was that David was able to get and to retain men and to make them mighty. What a ruler David was! What a Ruler Christ is! So there were men who were with David at a time of rejection, and towards the end of his life he brings them forward, and what a long list of names it is; mighty men. I believe it would be fair to regard our brother whom the Lord has taken as one of the mighties of our own time. Our brother stood in the breach for many years and fulfilled his obligations here in this city; he was a mighty man.

So it says, “The Philistines were gathered into a troop, and there was there a plot of ground full

of lentils”, The Philistine mind, the natural mind of man, is always intruding to turn aside the people of God from the line of food. Satisfaction comes in as the food supply is set on and is maintained, as Christ in all His attractiveness is brought before our hearts. The enemy is against that. It says, “the people had fled before the Philistines; and he (Shammah) stood in the midst of the plot and delivered it”. Our brother has done that time and time again in this city. There was a critical time when he stood for what was right, and God honoured him. And I believe God would have us just to stand for what is right and make way for Him to come in and act. One of the things which I gained from our brother was that we are all to be intelligent in the things of God. Diligence is needed for this, but it is necessary in order that we might stand here for the Lord in the scene of His rejection.

So this man, Shammah, stood in the midst of the plot and delivered it, and smote the Philistines, and Jehovah wrought a great deliverance. Our brother was a warrior, but in a far greater sense what a mighty Warrior Jesus was. The Lord Jesus, coming into this scene where the enemy has sway, stood in the breach and delivered souls. How full the gospels are of persons who were delivered as they came into contact with Jesus, and there are many in this room who can attest to the strength and the power of Jesus coming by faith into their souls and bringing deliverance. Have you the assurance that the Lord Jesus went into death for you; delivered up Himself for you; gave His all for you in order to secure you for Himself? What a Warrior Jesus is!—the Lion of the tribe of Judah who turned not aside for any. One’s desire is that we might have a deeper sense of the great Victor, the great Overcomer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who He is. Do you know Him by faith in

your; soul? Do you really know Jesus as the great Overcomer, the One who overcame in order that we might live, and in order that the counsels and the purposes of God might be secured? Shammah was a great warrior; our brother was a warrior for the truth; but Jesus is incomparably mightiest of all. What a Victor is Jesus!

May a sense of His victory over death and the grave and all the forces of the enemy be known in power and reality in a greater way in all our souls, for His name’s sake.