David the Conquering Hero

Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle... And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span [9’9”]. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

David’s response:

“who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” ... And David said to Saul, “Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” ... 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.”

- 1 Samuel 17

Why does David fight? He fights to defend the people of God. But even more importantly, David fights to defend the name of the Lord. What really irks David is that this foreigner--this "uncircumcised Philistine"--has the gall to challenge and belittle the LORD himself.

How does David fight? He fights with full confidence in the LORD: "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." He also fights convincingly: "I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air." This is a take-no-prisoners battle, and David intends to win.

Christ our Conquering King

Let’s switch gears a bit and think about a different question. What happened when Christ died on the cross? What was it that made it more than just someone dying? Theologians talk about a few different “theories of the atonement” – theories about how Jesus’ death actually saved us. These are called theories of the atonement, but more accurately these should be called perspectives on the atonement, since they all describe an aspect of what happened when Christ died on the cross. In other words, they aren’t competing theories; they’re just different perspectives on the same reality. It’s like holding up a diamond to the light and rotating it to watch it reflect and refract the light in different ways. It’s the same diamond, but you can rightly view it in different ways.

So the perspective we talk about most in our circles is what theologians called Penal Substitutionary Atonement: “penal” as in legal penalty, “substitutionary” as in “substitute,” and “atonement,” meaning it addressed our sin problem. This is the idea that Christ died in our place—as our substitute—to take the penalty that we deserved and make us right with God.

Now let’s rotate the diamond a bit and look at another perspective that’s usually referred to as Christus Victor. Christus Victor – this is the idea that Christ has won a victory for us in battle. Last week Sid talked about the offices of Christ: Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king. One famous description of Christ as our king is found in the WSC and puts it this way:

“Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.”

In other words, Christ as our king does the same thing that David did for Israel: he conquers our enemies. The story of David and Goliath is often told as if we were David, and we should stand up and face our giants. But that completely misses the point that God is making in this story.

Let’s ask this question: who was David? David was the anointed king of the people of God. Who is the anointed king of the people of God today? That’s not us—that’s Jesus. Jesus is the king who conquers our enemies. So who are we in the story of David and Goliath then? We’re either the warriors of Israel who weren’t strong enough to defeat Goliath or we’re the ordinary people of Israel just going about their daily life back home. Jesus is the one who goes out to fight our enemies.

So who are our enemies? Ephesians 6 tells us that we battle against spiritual forces of evil. Or it also calls them the cosmic powers of darkness. That’s not a battle we can win. That’s not a battle we can even fight. Where would we even start, trying to fight the cosmic powers of darkness? That’s like something from a Marvel movie—the cosmic powers of darkness. I’m not Captain America—I can’t take on the cosmic powers of darkness. But thanks be to God that we have a king who rules and defends us, restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

When I was a kid I often found myself bored in church. Maybe you can relate. (Maybe some of you can relate right now). I also loved to read as a kid, and I especially loved to read sci-fi and fantasy books. I never understood why people would want to read boring books that sounded like real life. Give me dragons and castles and swords and magic! Anyway, I wasn’t allowed to bring those books to church. But what I could bring to church was my Bible. And lucky for me, the Bible has dragons in it. Let me share with you my childhood favorite Bible story, which also happens to be the greatest story in the Bible of Jesus acting as our king to conquer all his and our enemies.

And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron...
Rev 12:3-6

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men...” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet... These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
Rev 19:11-21

And you thought David and Goliath was a good story! How about our King Jesus??

Paul uses a vivid illustration of this in Colossians 2:15, talking about Jesus on the cross:

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.

When Paul wrote this, the Roman Empire ruled something like half the known world and had the most dominant military the world had ever seen. If Rome wanted it, Rome got it. If you’ve ever seen the movie Gladiator with Russel Crowe, you might remember the opening scene where Rome just plows over the enemy like a grown man fighting a 3rd grader. After Rome defeated an enemy, they would make an example out of him publicly. They would capture the commanding officer of the opposing army and take him back to Rome and throw a parade—not the good kind. What Rome would do is strip the enemy general naked and put him in chains, and then march him through the streets of Rome while Roman citizens lined the streets, cheering for the Roman army and jeering at the defeated enemy. And the Romans loved it. This was the power of their empire on display. Even the strongest enemy general was reduced to this embarrassed pansy to be paraded naked around Rome. And the Romans had a name for this spectacle—they called it a triumph. That’s what they called this parade—a triumph. When Rome defeated an enemy, they would host a triumph and shame the enemy by marching him naked through the streets.

Why the history lesson? Let’s read Colossians 2:15 again. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them. When Paul says Christ triumphed over his enemies, he’s not just saying that Jesus was the winner—he’s talking about a Roman triumph. He’s saying that when Jesus was hanging naked on the cross—the very moment that the Devil thought he had won—the truth was that Jesus had beaten the Devil so badly that he might as well have been marching him naked through the streets in chains.

“Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.”

Jesus our King beat the Devil, and it wasn’t even close.