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On how we read the OT: I have been thoroughly drilled to avoid seeing myself in OT characters, and to avoid preaching them as moral exemplars for us to imitate (or not) and no episode is more often used to explain this approach than David slaying Goliath. I am not David, and 1/
I miss out on the Gospel in the text when I read myself in, majoring on aspects of David's zeal and courage as something for me to imitate. Now, obviously, there is great treasure that comes from seeing David as foreshadowing Christ, and I wouldn't quibble with that as primary 2/
but I'm sure this worthy insight has been over-extended in a totalising fashion. For one thing, the NT is unafraid of the 'moralising' we quickly decry. For another, there hints in the wider text that this isn't sufficient. When we head towards the end of David's reign, in 3/
2 Samuel 21, we read of four Goliath figures slain by David's soldiers. 2 Sam 21:22 emphasises that they 'fell at the hands of David and his men'. In other words, the Goliath-killing feat which sets David apart in his youth is something that his people under Him replicate. 4/
If we only read 1 Sam 17, we can be persuaded never to see David as exemplary. There, the soldiers of Israel merely cower. But by the end of David's reign, 2 Sam 21:15-22 signals the transformation of God's people into the likeness of their King. 5/
This is a potent Gospel picture too! For the Church is not merely saved by Christ and then held at arm's length; as we are redeemed by Him (in an act to which we contribute nothing) we are then formed into His likeness, and become a prophetic/priestly/kingly people under Him. 6/
The Goliath-slaying acts of power now characterise Israel more widely than just David--and this reflects the empowering reality of the Messiah's rule. Of course they imitate their King! I realise that this thread is basically saying 'both/and', but I couldn't resist: 7/
It seems a supreme irony that the episode most routinely touted as 'not being about us' (1 Sam 17) is, in the logic of whole of 1-2 Samuel, seen in the end as foreshadowing the transformation of God's people under their King into the image of their King. 8/
It strikes me that the NT equivalent is the language of Christ's body growing up into the Head. In other words, the 'totus Christus' way of reading that e.g. Augustine so favours better enables us to read the text than totalising statements so often thrown around. 9/
(Like all my thoughts on 1-2 Samuel, this ponderous thread is dedicated to @petejleach. I hesitate to say 'inspired by' just in case it's outrageously wrong)
