“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 host, 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.” 1 Samuel 17:45-46a
Promotional poster featuring Brock Lesnar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What if I told you that I have scheduled a cage match to the death with Brock Lesnar? Mr. Lesnar is 6 ft 3 in and weighs in at 267 lbs. He is NCAA wrestling champion and a former heavyweight champion in the UFC. I am 6 ft 1 in and weigh in at 200 lbs. I have not been in a fight since elementary school. I hope that I have people in my life that will pull me aside and say, “that is not a good idea”.
There is nothing about this match up that is a good idea. No one would buy this pay-per-view package to watch a competitive fight. They may buy it more for the value of the Roman spectacle of a person being fed to a lion. Yet, I stand a better chance against Mr. Lesnar than David had in his match up with Goliath.
I have heard many a message using this match-up as an example of how we should face the giants in our Christian lives. I struggle with some of those analogies because it seems like they are over-generalizing a very specific event by a person with a very specific role in God’s redemptive plan. If you are encouraged in your faith by those analogies to face seeming insurmountable challenges in your life, then I don’t want to dissuade you.
However, I believe there is a deeper meaning in this passage then an encouragement for me to face the equivalents of Brock Lesnar in my life. This passage is about David but there was a true and better David that followed him, who better embodied all that David stands for.
The reality is that David trusted God to deliver him; he was willing to sacrifice himself for the name of the Lord. Later on in his life, David, as the Psalmist, recognized that God does not delight in the sacrifice of animals but in the self-sacrifice of every person – God wants all of David and He wants all of you and I.
When David took the field against Goliath, he was foreshadowing the better David, Jesus, who would take on a much more important battle, against a seemingly more impossible foe. Look at the similarities in the events:
Goliath came at David with sword and spear and javelin.
They came at Jesus with swords and spears.
David came to the battle in the name of the Lord.
Jesus came to the battle as the Son of God.
David was not saved by sword and spear.
Jesus was not saved by sword and spear.
David struck down Goliath and cut his head off.
Jesus struck down death and crushed the head of the serpent.
John Piper said it better than I can:
“And so David, in his zeal to obey God, models for us faintly the kind of zeal to obey God that not only led Jesus to empty himself of divine prerogative, but humble “himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7–8), and in doing so, become the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).”
We need to realize that every person to have walked this planet has faced a foe much bigger and more dangerous than Goliath. Our greatest foe has never been a Goliath type figure of this world. It has been death and eternal punishment for our sin.
Jesus has already defeated our greatest foe.
He has already struck down our Goliath – he has cut the head off of death for you and I. Jesus has crushed the head of our greatest enemy and saved us to eternal life. There is no challenge that I will face today that has more significance to me than the battle that was won for me on a Roman cross by the perfect David – Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, my Savior and Lord.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for saving me. Thank you for defeating my greatest foe. Thank you for giving me a world in which I have nothing to fear. Lord, help me to live in that victory today. Help me to daily understand that there is no Goliath in this world that I have to fear. There is nothing that can separate me from you and you have already secured the victory for me. Thank you for loving me and being my heavenly Father. Amen
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- Psalm 40: Obedience Better Than David’s, John Piper
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