1 Samuel 17 - David as Christ

[WrittenFromUtopia]

In Church this past Lord's Day, we discussed David and touched on his dealings with the Philistine named Goliath. Something that I always heard growing up was that the *main point* of this story is to show us something to the effect of "small people can do big things and defeat the biggest enemy with God's help."

Now, while I do believe this is true to a certain extent, we discussed something that I never really thought about until recently, especially having made the typological connection between David and Christ.

Most of the time, I have read this story and thought of myself as David, going out and doing battle with the enemy with confidence, knowing God is on my side. However, I have now seen the deeper and true meaning of this passage and would like to share (althought I'm sure many on this board are aware of this, I just think it is amazing and worth talking about or looking at for reflection).

We are not David, but we are the cheering Israelites on the sidelines. We are the people of Israel watching our King, Jesus Christ, go before us and *crush* the enemy with ease. With the final blow to our biggest enemy, Christ has paved the way for us to go into all the nations with the sword of the gospel and fulfill the Great Commission, with Christ having gone before us and also reigning as our King.

45 Then David said to the Philistine, "œYou come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand."


50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David.
51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.
53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

All the heros of the faith do a kind of "double-duty", spurring us on in our own faith, but more importantly pointing us to Christ, the archetype of all these types. Thank you for sharing your new insight with your friends here.

 

[RamistThomist]

Good points, Gabe,
In the old Testament, many of GOd's enemies have their heads crushed or wounded. I was thinking on this passage last week. I will write a book along the lines of
The Gospel as Giant-Killer

 

[Preach]

Jacob,
I was listening to a Gary Demar tape on eschatology and somewhere along the line he mentioned some of the times in Scripture where the enemies of God get their heads crushed. I tie events back to what I call the "Great Promise" (COG) at Gen. 3:15. But I never thopught about the many times in Scripture where the theme of God or God's people crushing the heads of the enemy.

"In Christ",
Bobby

 

[Scott]

Gabriel:

I think you have a great insight and think you are exactly right. I am posting some notes I made on this topic awhile back. They are from a series I did on Genesis and are excerpted from a longer set on the Tree of Life. This section likens the Tree of Life to the Cross and discusses hwo the story of David typified Christ. My interest was spurred when reading a patristic source that related the sword of David to the Cross of Christ. The irony is amazing. Goliath meant to use his sword to destroy David and yet David took the sword and chopped Goliath's head off. Satan meant to use the cross to destroy Christ. Yet, Christ desroyed Satan on the cross. It stirs the soul!

Jesus´ conquering Satan by the wood of a tree, the cross, is ironic. Satan deceived our first parents and brought death through a tree. Satan lied to Eve about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate of its fruit and died and brought death on all their descendants too. The irony is that it is by the wood of the cross that Satan himself was deceived and defeated. He intended to destroy God´s anointed by the cross. He planned and orchestrated the events, even entering Judas during the betrayal. Luke 22:3.

Yet, Satan himself was destroyed by the cross.
"¢ Hebrews 2:14-15. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
"¢ Col. 2:13-15. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This irony is prefigured in the Old Testament. One of the great mystical prophecies of the defeat of Satan by Jesus is the story of David and Goliath. David and Goliath were real people and their battle literally happened. In addition to the literal dimension, the story has a spiritual dimension that symbolizes the defeat of Satan. Goliath represents Satan. He is clearly evil. Although it may seem a minor detail, the Bible mentions that Goliath wore scale armor. Of course, no detail of the Bible is insignificant or present merely to satisfy curiosity. Scale armor is a clue that Goliath represents Satan, the scaled snake or dragon. Goliath appears strong because he is a giant. He has formidable fleshly weapons, an extraordinarily large spear and sword. But Goliath is really weak, because God opposes him.

David represents Jesus. David appeared weak, because he was small. He was but a boy. He had no armor. His weapons were puny. They were the type of thing any shepherd would used. In reality David strong because God was with Him. Jesus by all human appearances appeared weak. He did not use the weapons of the world. In spite of appearances, Jesus was omnipotent, because He was divine "“ a person of the Trinity.

Goliath taunted and harassed the people of God for 40 days. This parallels Jesus´ 40 days of testing in the wilderness in which he struggled against worldly temptations by fasting. The end of Goliath´s 40 days of taunting ended with a battle between David and Goliath. The end of Jesus´ 40 day period ended with a spiritual battle between Jesus and Satan. David slew Goliath with a blow to the head. God promised Eve that the messiah would defeat Satan with a blow to the head. Jesus defeated Satan and made him flee.

This story is obviously a shadow of the work of Christ. As David defeated Goliath, so Jesus would (and did) defeat Satan. The irony lies in Goliath´s sword. Goliath picked up his sword and intended to use this weapon to slay David. Yet, after he hit Goliath in the head with a sling stone, David went and picked up Goliath´s sword and chopped off his head. David used Goliath´s weapon against him.

Incidentally, the sword, if it had a hilt, formed the shape of a cross. Medieval Christian warriors perceived that the sword was a greater weapon than others because it formed the shape of a cross. You see this in the Song of Roland, for example. It may not have had a hilt. I am not sure about Philistine swords. Some swords had hilts and others did not. If it did have a hilt, it is simply one more clue to the spiritual meaning underlying the story. If not, it does not change anything.

Jesus used Satan´s weapon against him. Satan intended to destroy Jesus with the cross. Yet, Jesus destroyed Satan with the cross. Satan destroyed Adam by using a tree. Jesus destroyed Satan by using a tree "“ the cross.


[Edited on 5-9-2005 by Scott]

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

Thanks for sharing that, Scott. Really interesting and amazing parallels.

 

[turmeric]

And Saul, trying to dress David in his armor reminds me of the people of Jesus' day who kept expecting Him to set up His Kingdom in the way they envisioned. Saul never understood or accepted what God was doing with David.