God's Word is a gold mine! A look at how to mine it and apply it, using one word from a very familiar story...

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My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.   - Proverbs 4: 1-5 (NIV)

David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" -- 1Samuel 17: 26 (NIV)

I often hear the lament from Christians about not hearing from God or being unable to discern His will in their lives. This is particularly unsettling during times of great trial when the enemy is attacking and we are more challenged to be able to separate out his lies from God's promises. We often remember the direction of pastors and fellow Christians to read our Bibles but so often I have spoken to people who feel equally left in the dark even when they do read. I am afraid sometimes that we approach the Word of God as an academic exercise instead of a Spiritual one. I want to liken this today to an earthly endeavor we should all be familiar with -- mining. There are essentially two types of mining -- surface and sub-surface. When we traditionally think about mining we probably envision the deep dark caverns and caves filled with men with pickaxes toiling away to find the precious gems and ores they are seeking. That is sub-surface; below the surface, mining. Surface mining however is conducted without having to excavate and dig deep down. When we think of people straining a river bed with tin pans, that is surface mining. It turns out that 85% of all minerals and 98% of all metallic ores are actually found through surface mining.

Hold onto those percentages as we turn to God's Word. The Bible is a mine filled with precious gems and valuable deposits from God Himself. The first set of key verses today from Proverbs is dealing with the words and commands of God. We see that God says we must turn our ears and hearts to wisdom and cry aloud for understanding. But in order to find the knowledge of God we must search for it as for silver and hidden treasure. The true depth of the knowledge of God requires sub-surface mining beloved. It requires that we dig a little. Unfortunately, I think that 85% of the time we read the Bible we do so in an academic or sub surface pursuit. Please, I am not suggesting that God is difficult to understand. I think that we make Him out to be more difficult than we need to most times. The Bible however is not a text book designed to impart knowledge as much as it is an insight into who God is, so he can impart His wisdom unto us. As I said, it is a Spiritual matter:

There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, "The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.' -- John 16: 12-15 (NLT)

It is the Holy Spirit that guides us into all truth. He is the miner and we are the pickaxe! Too often however, we are merely scratching the surface of what God wants to say. Too often we are surface mining. I can read a passage ten different times and have God say something different to me each time if I am listening. I have done devotionals on the same verse but different subjects. God's Word is only limited by the boundaries we erect in our own minds. Also, I am not talking about trying to deplete the mine every time! I am talking about finding those nuggets from God that we can feast on in His Word. Nuggets that feed our soul and Spirit. Nuggets that help us through the hard times, remind us of who God is, and expose the lies of the enemy. They are there for the mining if we would dig a little bit and reflect to the Spirit of God who lives within us. You must realize today that the Bible says the things of God, including His Word, are utter foolishness to those in the world.

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. -- 1Corinthians 2: 10-14 (NIV)

That is because the spirit of this world does not understand the Spirit of God. We however should understand the Spirit that is from God because He lives inside of us. Now, the world can read the Bible. They can appreciate the stories as being grand and the poetry as being beautiful. But they will not hear God speak to them through it because it is the Spirit that leads us into the deeper things of God. It is the Spirit that leads us to mine the nuggets. The second key verse contains one such example of a nugget God revealed to me one day.

Who is the uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? This of course comes from the story of David and Goliath. I must have read this story ten different times before God isolated this nugget for me. The truth is that I initially heard the point while listening to a sermon at a Men's Convention. This is why you should always go to any church service expecting to hear from God. Expecting to meet God. The same goes for when you sit down to open His Word. It is not an academic exercise but a Spiritual one. There are 58 verses in the chapter that contains the story of David and Goliath but God boiled it down to one verse for me and even further -- to one word. One nugget. That word is "uncircumcised." Remember, God does not waste a single letter in His Word. The Apostle Paul says that all Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. So why then does David refer to Goliath as uncircumcised? I always remember reading that verse and finding it odd that he would refer to him as such. In order to find the answer, we must go back to where circumcision was introduced in the Bible:

I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. " Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. -- Genesis 17: 7-13 (NIV)

This was the Abrahamic Covenant. It was the covenant that established that the people of Israel were God's chosen people. Circumcision then, was the sign that the person belonged to God. Now fast forward to that day in the Valley of Elah. All of the fighting men of Israel were cowering in fear. Goliath was an imposing sight to behold:

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. -- 1Samuel 17: 4-7 (NIV)

We have a tendency sometimes to turn stories like this in veggie-tales in our mind. We lose sight of the fact that this really occurred in history. There was a man named Goliath who stood nine feet tall and he was terrorizing the fighting men of Israel. David was only a shepherd boy at that time who was only there to deliver cheese to his older brothers who were "fighting." David surveys the scene and the first thing from his mouth was -- who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? The Bible tells us that his brothers thought he was conceited! The King thought he was nuts! Yet for David the only thing that mattered is one word -- uncircumcised. You see, David understood that the giant was not under covenant with God. Furthermore, David knew that he was. David had seen God deliver him from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion when he was defending the sheep. The only thing that mattered to David was that he was under the protection of Almighty God and Goliath was not. Remember, this is not the first time Israel encountered giants and tucked tail to run:

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." -- Numbers 13: 31-33 (NIV)

When Israel first had a chance to possess the Promised Land they sent 12 spies out to scout the land. Ten of the spies brought back the report above. Giants were in the land. The Sons of Anak. Goliath himself was a descendent of these giants. Only Joshua and Caleb brought back a report that like David centuries later, acknowledged God as being bigger than the giants they were facing. God sends Israel into the wilderness until the entire faithless generation except Joshua and Caleb are dead.

Now David stands within the boundaries of that same Promised Land. He sees the mighty men of Israel again forgetting the covenant agreement God has made with His people. When he sees the giant he only sees nine feet of pagan. Nine feet of someone who is not under covenant with God. Nine feet of an uncircumcised Philistine. No problem, God's got this. Scared in his humanity? Absolutely; but confident in his God. He picks up his slingshot and goes down to the stream. There he picks five smooth stones, not because he was worried about needing more than one but because according to 2Samuel 21, Goliath had four sons. David takes five stones just in case they wanted a piece of the living God too! As we know, while all the fighting men of Israel were trembling in fear, David slew Goliath. All because of one word -- uncircumcised.

That is a heck of a nugget sitting there in the middle of a grand story. Not only does it give us insight into David and the nature of Israel but the Spirit can speak it into our lives if we let Him. Whatever it is that is facing you today you need to properly assess what it is and who you are. You are a child of the living God and you are under covenant with Him, just as David was that day in the Valley of Elah. Too often we act like the fighting men of Israel and we cower in fear of the circumstances we are facing. I am sure they appear like nine foot giants in front of our eyes. Like the 10 negative spies we speak life into the giants that they do not deserve. We need to speak life into our dead situations as Joshua tried to with Israel:

If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them." -- Numbers 14: 8-9 (NIV)

The Lord is with you -- do not be afraid of what stands before you. No matter how big it may appear. This is what Bible mining 101 can do for us. We can look at one word, tucked away in the middle of a huge story and allow God to use that one word to take us on a grander adventure. We travelled thousands of years in the past to when Israel stood just outside of their promised land. We travelled thousands of years into the future to see the Apostle Paul explain to us the difference between understanding the things of this world versus the things of God. We gained an insight into the Shepherd boy David and the recurring failure of Israel to see God for who He should be to them. Most importantly, we were able to apply it directly to our own lives. As we stand just outside of our Promised Land and we spy out those giants that appear insurmountable to us. As we stand in our own Valley of Elah and see the giant Goliath bellowing before us. We now know that it doesn't matter how big and bad Goliath thinks he is. It doesn't matter if all the faithless people around me are hiding under their desks. All I need is a slingshot and smooth stone and quite honestly, I do not even need that. All I need is God.

Who is this Philistine that stands before you today and defies the armies of the living God, of which you are a soldier? I'll tell you who he is -- he is uncircumcised.

Happy mining!

Reverend Anthony Wade -- August 27, 2012

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.