More than Morality, Part 3
In my previous two articles, I have insisted that the David and Goliath story, like the rest of Scripture, contains much more than moralistic teaching. It's not Leave It To Beaver or Aesop's Fables. The whole Bible is a Gospel story. As for how to dig in to a passage to unearth its gospel gems, we have covered the following ground so far:
· What does the passage actually say?
· Does the passage have any purpose statements?
· What is repeated?
· Ask theological questions of the text. What does this teach us about God, etc.?
· What comes before your passage in the book itself?
What Comes After?
Next, we look to what comes after. The whole Bible has an overall storyline, and each part of it fits together to make up the whole. Likewise, each individual book of the Bible develops the author's intent. In this sense, each book stands on its own. (John's gospel can be read independently of Mark for example.) When studying the creation account of Genesis 1, it helps to know something about how sin entered the world and how God graciously promised the seed of the woman in response to man's sin in chapter 3. Imagine how off a sermon could be about the state of humanity if one did not know what came after Genesis 1 and 2! We need to consider what comes after our passage just like we looked at that which comes before.
No book of the Bible is a random collection of facts! The author of 1st Samuel has selectively included each part in order to develop his overall purpose in writing. David and Goliath fits on a train track leading to the place the author wants to take his audience and us. We must get more familiar with what his purpose is and where he is leading. The best way I know to do this is by reading the book multiple times. This requires us to take both 1st and 2nd Samuel as a whole since they are one work split into two volumes.
Bookends
As you read, ask yourself why this passage might be here in Samuel. I can only give the briefest sketch of how to do this at this time, however, pay particular emphasis to the bookends of this book. They act as fences to keep you from getting off in the weeds and guides to keep you on track.
Somewhere along the line, I was taught to look at how books begin and end. Like any good essay, novel, or speech, each book has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Simple, right? But we often forget to view Scripture as literature. How the author ties up his work at the end informs us about how the threads of storyline in the middle contribute to his goal. Take the Bible for example. It opens with God creating the heavens and the earth. Soon we have man, made in the image of God, placed in a garden. Everything that God made is "very good." At the end of Revelation, we read of a new heaven and a new earth. What happened to the first one? And where did the multitude of people come from? The threads in the middle help weave together the story of how sin entered the world but God saves sinners and makes all things new through Christ. Those bookends really help us have a framework for the Bible as a whole. The book of Joshua opens and closes with funerals of key figures, including Joshua himself, yet "not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised" (Josh 23:14). How many similarities can you find in the first and last paragraphs of Romans? Look at the bookends!
Now for 1st Samuel. Last week I noted Hannah's prayer in chapter 2 as part of the significant development that came before David and Goliath. Her prayer is a poem full of theology and prophecy. Among many other things that could be said about it, Hannah highlights the Lord's work that he alone can do: "The LORD kills and brings to life" (2:6). She reminds us that it's not by man's might that he prevails (2:9). And she prophecies about the future coming of the LORD in judgment and the coming exaltation of his king, his Christ (2:10). Then look at 2nd Samuel 22 (near the end of the book). There's another poem, David's song of deliverance. Comparisons between the two poems abound! Time does not permit me to search them out with you here. You do well to read them back to back, even now. Through all of the drama of 1st and 2nd Samuel, God has delivered king David!
Further comparison of how Samuel begins and ends shows that the book opens with a defunct priesthood in Shiloh that has profaned the altar of Yahweh. It ends with David's peculiar purchase of a threshing floor and the altar he builds there upon which he offers "burnt offerings and peace offerings" (2 Sam 24:25). But wait, didn't Saul forfeit the kingdom because he offered a burnt offering, among other sins? What's similar and what's different between Saul and David? Was this offering sinful or full of contrition and faith? David has certainly sinned in mighty ways, as his census illustrates right before he builds his altar (2 Sam 24:1-17), not to mention with the beautiful Bathsheba! Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22). But despite David's faults, he is a repentant man who continues to seek the LORD by faith; just read Psalm 51! Of course there is the glorious declaration of the prophet Nathan to David after his sin has been exposed. "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2 Sam 12:13). If the Lord put away David's sin, where did he put it? Ultimately, David's sins were all put on Christ! There's something much better than moralism going on in this book!
God thoroughly rejects the "house" of Eli and promises in response to "raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever (1 Sam 2:35)." Compare this with the covenant God makes with David in 2nd Samuel 7. It's here in the middle of Samuel itself that we come to the heart of the book. God promises David "your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam 7:16). But it is clear that the everlasting king is not David because God will bring this about after David is dead! "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son (2 Sam 7:12-14a)." The coming king will be both the Son of David and the Son of God. I bet you know someone who fits that description!
What does this have to do with David and Goliath? Much more could be said about what comes after the David and Goliath story but suffice it to say for now, that what we know of God's promise to build a sure house for David, the promise of a forever king, and an everlasting kingdom helps us see David in light of God's grand design. As Judges left us desiring a king and an end to sin, Samuel has moved us toward that goal. The destination is in much sharper focus. As for David before Goliath, God gave strength to his king; God exalted his anointed. But are we to see David as the ultimate focus of those promises? Not at all. In all of Samuel, we see David's faith and failures; we see him warts and all. But we are not to mistake David for the complete package. God told him as much. God's king would come through David's line after David was dead. We are left waiting for David's better son, God's ultimate Anointed. David is but a link in the chain to bring us to Christ!
Until next time, my beloved, keep looking unto Jesus.
