David & Goliath: A Battle With Death (part 7 of 7)

Goliath, employing his training, methodically marched toward David.  The story of the encounter says that he “drew steadily closer to David to attack him” (17:48a).  On the other hand, “David,” with what was apparently complete trust in His God to deliver his enemy into His hand, “quickly ran toward the battle line to attack the Philistine” (17:48b).  This was bold, perhaps even foolhardy.  He embraced the confrontation.  Thinking forward to the great conflict of the Christ-event, Jesus could have put off His confrontation with death.  He could have delayed it.  At His “trial,” He could have asserted His rights, defended Himself, demanded witnesses, or engaged in any number of procedural technicalities in order to push back the time of confrontation.  However, He did not answer His accusers.  He did not attempt to defend Himself or explain Himself.  He merely said all that needed to be said in order to hasten the inevitable.  Yes, He “quickly ran toward the battle line to attack” the enemy force that had been arrayed against Him. 

When David dropped his enemy to the ground, he “did not even have a sword in his hand” (17:50b).  Having felled his opponent, “David ran and stood over the Philistine.  He grabbed Goliath’s sword, drew it from its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it” (17:51).  How does this fit with what it was that Jesus did?  Well, just as David utilized Goliath’s own weapon against him, by cutting off his head with his own sword---the very weapon that Goliath had planned to use to strike down David and thereby bring the Creator God’s people into subjection---Jesus defeated death by going down into death.   

In that, He gained all power by being subject to the weapon of death that had been used to strike fear and terror into the hearts of people throughout the world.  He conquered that which was designed to foster subjection and subservience to the claims of power.  Jesus used the very cross of Caesar---the great symbol of the world’s power and Caesar’s power of death over life---as the means by which He would enter into the conflict from which He would ultimately emerge victorious via the Resurrection. 

With their champion defeated and dead, the Philistines ran away.  How did Israel respond?  How did the Creator God’s covenant people respond to the defeat of their enemy?  Before David’s victory, Israel saw Goliath and the Philistines as a curse, very much in line with that promised by their God as recorded in the Deuteronomical narrative.  Had David been defeated, Israel would have been subject to the Philistines and therefore under their God’s curse, in exile from their God’s promises.  Trembling in fear before that enemy, the men of Israel had no hope.  Figuratively, they saw themselves as dead men.  Now, with Goliath’s defeat and the enemy’s retreat, they were able to walk into the realm of their God’s blessing.  They were not going to be in subjection.  Death was not going to come to overcome them.  They were resurrected! 

“Then the men of Israel and Judah charged forward, shouting a battle cry” (17:52a).  Likewise, when Jesus defeated His enemy, being raised from the dead, all those in union with Him through believing in Him (the new mark of the Creator God’s covenant people) were moved from the state of cursing and exile and death and hopelessness in the face of its relentless march, into being the place of the overlap of heaven and earth, as the life of the age to come is brought to bear through the power of the Resurrection, with no more fear.  As did Israel, those that now find themselves as the Creator God’s covenant people charge forward, with a battle cry.  What is that cry?  The cry is the proclamation of the Gospel.  The cry is Jesus is Lord, for He has won the battle!    

David & Goliath: A Battle With Death (part 4)

Seemingly un-intimidated by the imposing warrior that stood before him, young David boldly is said to have boldly declared, “This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand!  I will strike you down and cut off your head” (1 Samuel 17:46a).  Answering Goliath’s assertion that he would feed David’s lifeless body to the birds and the beasts, David adds, “This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land” (17:46b). 

Jesus too, more than one thousand years later, would fling Himself headlong into battle.  With what appeared to have been a supreme trust in the faithfulness of His God, He too would confront His enemy, brushing off the multiplied attempts at intimidation from a variety of directions, and saying “The Lord will deliver you into My hand.”  Because He is shown to have trusted that He would be resurrected, with that resurrection according to that which He had most likely come to believe concerning what had come to be considered as the promises about Israel’s messiah, and that His Resurrection would signal the defeat of death and its decapitation, He could confidently insist, not unlike David, that He would strike death down and cut off its head.

David would go on to add that his defeat of Goliath would not only be a temporary victory for the covenant people of the Creator God, but that it would prove to one and all that “Israel has a God” (17:46c).  Why would that be the case?  Frankly, because it would be inconceivable to any observer that this young man, vastly inexperienced in battle and in the art of war, could actually topple this proven warrior.  Yet the report of the story is that that is exactly what happened.  Similarly, as nobody had ever been able to overcome death or gain victory over the grim reality that all life would eventually come to an end, Jesus’ defeat of death would be just as inconceivable.  Death’s track record, undoubtedly, was even better than that of Goliath.  However, that which was and is inconceivable by any reasonable standard, would be proven by a physical Resurrection. 

Then, as now, all people were more than well aware that people do not come back to life.  This was especially true of those subjected to crucifixion.  Not only was crucifixion fatal, the shaming experienced by the one crucified (as well as those close to the crucified individual) would be so great that, even if one was somehow able to survive the ordeal, the shame that would now be attached to that person would be so intense that they might as well be dead. 

So when Jesus returned to life, demonstrating death’s defeat, it was taken to be the manifestation of the Creator God’s victory over death.  It was taken to be a reversal of the honor and shame cultural paradigm, now informing one and all that the place of suffering, perhaps unjustly, on behalf of others in an act of self-sacrifice, was that which should be afforded honor.  Because Jesus’ Resurrection showed Him forth as the Son of God in power---borrowing a well-known title from the liturgy surround the Caesar and his cult of worship, with Jesus now looked upon as the Son of God and King of Israel who rules in the inaugurated kingdom of heaven on earth---all observers that were willing to be honest with themselves would know and understand, as David had said to Goliath so many centuries prior (with that statement definite for Israel’s defining narrative), that Israel has a God.  

David & Goliath: A Battle With Death (part 3)

Eventually, young David, castigated by his brothers though unfazed by their criticisms, is brought before Saul.  There, he recounts events in his life concerning the killing of a lion and a bear by his own hands,  insisting that he is ready, willing, and more than able to engage the one he considers to be not only an enemy of Israel, but also of Israel’s God.  David expressed confidence that “The Lord Who delivered me from the lion and the bear will also deliver me from the hand of this Philistine!” (17:37a) 

Once again, these words of David could cause one to hearken to the life and voice of the one called Savior, as through the numerous instances in which He spoke of His impending and inescapable death and what He hoped to be His Resurrection, Jesus seemed to express a supreme confidence that His Lord would deliver Him from the grip of the enemy with which He intended to do battle on behalf of all of those that would come to believe upon Him, and on behalf of the whole of the creation.

With this said, David set out to face the enemy.  As he did, “The Philistine kept coming closer to David, with his shield bearer walking in front of him” (17:41).  Though his enemy approached, it is to be imagined that David did not waver.  So too can it be imagined of Jesus, in His final days, as He marched forth boldly toward His cross.  His enemy came closer and closer, holding forth the accursed and shameful and humiliating cross as the instrument with which Jesus would be engaged in the battle.  Jesus, of course, did not waver.  He never once faltered, and thankfully, He did not fail, nor did the One in Whom He placed His trust.

“The Philistine said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you are coming after me with sticks?’” (17:43a)  As this analogy has been developed, it is ironic that it is the enemy of the Creator God’s people and that God’s man that could utter these words, as when Jesus would set His face against His enemy and its chosen weapon (the cross), He is the One that could rightly take up the same question and ask, “Am I a dog, that you are coming after Me with sticks?” 

In addition, “The Philistine said to David, ‘Come here to me, so I can give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the field’.” (17:44)  To Jesus, death also could have been presumed to have said, “Come here to me.”  With this, it is interesting that death and the powers that stand behind it would be employing crucifixion against Jesus, as on many occasions the bodies of the crucified victims were left on the cross, to be picked over by scavenger birds.  Along with that, the traditional conception of crucifixion has the body set several feet above the ground, whereas in actuality, the victim was set just a few inches off the ground, so that the victims were left exposed to scavenging animals as well. 

David’s reply is that “You are coming against me with sword and spear and javelin.  But I am coming against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel’s armies, Whom you have defied” (17:45b).  Indeed, death thought that it had weapons that would serve to defeat and destroy, but ultimately, its weapons lacked power.  Jesus also stood in the face of His adversary, and just as David reminded Goliath that he was attempting to defy the Lord God of Israel, so too would Jesus remind death that it was an illegitimate and unintended usurper inside the created order of the God of Israel.  Death had defied and the Creator God and His plans long enough, and that God, through His Messiah, was going to deal death its mortal blow.  

David & Goliath: A Battle With Death (part 1)

Goliath stood and called to Israel’s troops, “Why do you come out to prepare for battle?  Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul?  Choose for yourselves a man so he may come down to me!” – 1 Samuel 17:8  (NET)

“There is no need for the entirety of our armies to go to war,” says Goliath.  Continuing, he is reported to have said, “All that is necessary if for one man from each side, representative of our respective peoples, to do battle.  The peoples of the winning side will be served by the peoples of the losing side.”  Though the story informs the reader that David would here take up the challenge and face Goliath in battle, there would come a time at which another man, the one that would come to be called the Son of David, would also go forth in battle as a representative of His people.  Yes, Jesus would willingly engage in a battle against the curse of death, and of course, He would emerge victorious.  The people for which He stood as representative would be victorious, while death and the grave would be defeated. 

The story of David and Goliath---the story of a faithful Israelite doing battle against the enemy of the Creator God’s covenant people---could certainly be perceived to be but a foreshadowing of the great and decisive battle that would be waged and won by the faithful Israelite to come, stripping the power of death from off of the chosen people of the covenant God.  No, His people would not be ruled by death.  They would not be participants in the dissemination of corruption.  They would not serve death.    

Just as Goliath stepped forward to the battle line saying, “I defy Israel’s troops this day!  Give me a man so we can fight each other” (17:10), so too did death step forward with a similar proclamation.  Death can be presumed to have made this figurative proclamation when confronted with the claims of Israel, and the Creator God’s purpose to use this people (beginning with Abraham) to bless all the world, to deal with the problem of evil, to set His world to rights, and to ultimately be the people through which He would send His promised deliverer into His fallen creation. 

In response to Goliath, just two verses later beyond those previously referenced, young David is introduced into this story as a potential deliverer.  Immediately, it can be surmised that David is the one that is going to respond on behalf of the people of the covenant God.  As David is going to stand against Israel’s enemy, Goliath, so too will Jesus stand against mankind’s undefeated mortal foe, that being death. 

Corruption and death seemed to defy all of the Creator God’s plans and purposes for His creation, just as Goliath would defy Israel.  As Goliath was the Philistine champion, so too death had reigned undefeated from the fall of man until the moment that Jesus stepped forth from His tomb.  As the story goes, Goliath was supremely confident in his ability to withstand any challenge.  Similarly, one could presume that death was not the least bit lacking in confidence when presented with the person of Jesus. 

With much boldness, Goliath said, “Give me a man so we can fight each other,” though the narrative reports that it was the very first one that answered the challenge that would prove the foolishness of this challenge.  Unchallenged and undefeated, with its own foolish and unsuspecting (though well-earned) boldness, death presumptuously shook its fist at the Creator God and exclaimed, “Give me a man so we can fight each other.”  That God’s answer to this was Jesus; and yes, a bloody and decisive battle would have to be waged.