You Are Not David!

From 1 Samuel 17

"And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You 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. 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, 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.” When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. 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. 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."

When I was in Jr. high and high school, I used to go nearly every year to a Christian week-end retreat camp called Sky Ranch. It happened every March. I have many fond memories of this place. Water slides, canoeing, rope swings...it was pretty fun.
 Of course, this Christian camp was not all fun and games, right? We had "services" in the afternoon and at night. And after the Saturday night service (the last one), we would all walk down to this big fire pit and sit around discussing our weekend.

 One year, the Saturday service must have had a sermon on 1 Samuel 17. I don't remember the sermon at all. Not a word. I don't even remember if 1 Samuel 17 was the text. What I do remember is that when we all walked down to the fire pit, we walked with a piece of paper in our hands that contained a word or two about some "giant" we were facing. In a word or two, we wrote down some thing, some Goliath in our lives, some situation or sin that was causing us to have a difficult time at home or at school. Once around the fire, we were given the chance to get up in front of everybody (if we wanted to, or better yet, if we "felt led" to) and (tastefully) talk about our "giant" and how, with God's help, we would slay the mighty beast. For a bunch of ninth and tenth graders, this type of thing is generally a mention of a boyfriend/girlfriend we needed to dump for God's Glory, or how we needed to be a better Christian at school, or how we needed better friends because bad character corrupts badly (or something). Of course there were some truly heart breaking stories of abuse, illness, busted families. I do not want to make light of sad situations so I'll move on...
 The point was that in this story, we play the part of David and our troubles play the part of a formidable foe named Goliath.

That story is not this story.

About a month ago I read a wonderfully titled article in a favorite magazine of mine called, "You're So Vain You Probably Think This Text Is About You". That idea was the theme of the issue. I read it and was reminded of a sermon I heard (and remembered!) from 2007. This sermon came fully 10 years after the Camp experience. My pastor was preaching through 1 Samuel. When he got to chapter 17, we all got to hear another sermon about David and Goliath. But what he said was quite the opposite of what we learned(?) at camp. I can summarize in 4 words.

YOU ARE NOT DAVID!

This was a mind blower for me. He said if we must compare ourselves to anyone in this passage we must compare ourselves to the fearful and unable Israelites. I learned that the story of David and Goliath is a story of rescue and redemption. David plays the part of Christ who fights and wins for us. We do nothing to contribute to the victory. Christ alone is victorious. Goliath doesn't represent a promotion we seek, or a brake job we can't afford, or even a broken family. He played a part in a story that demonstrates the power and effectiveness of our Lord's salvation for His people. If a lesson must be found, let it be this lesson.

When we read old testament narratives we are tempted to look for the "moral lesson". What can we learn from this? How can we apply this to our lives in a modern way? Keith Mathison said,

"However well intentioned such preachers may be, handling the Scriptures in this manner conditions people to treat the stories of the Bible in a way not unlike Aesop's Fables."

To be sure, there are "moral lessons" to be learned from Scripture and I don't mean to take away from that. But injecting life application where it isn't takes away from the greater purpose of Scripture. That purpose is to teach Christ and Him crucified. The salvation for God's people.

 Sometimes God is not saying "Here's a lesson for you." Sometimes God is showing His great love for for us that while we were still sinners He sent His son to die for us.


P.S. If you've never read the old testament looking for the types and shadows of Christ, I encourage you to do that. For example, Abraham and his son Isaac is less about how we need to be faithful to God even to the point of killing our own children. Abraham learned that God provides the sacrifice our sins. Abraham's son would never be able to pay the debt. The story is a shadow of Christ. How God sends His own Son, a spotless Lamb to die in our place. Try  reading the Bible this way. I think you'll like it.