A Possible Addition to Your Story of David and Goliath

-
I have set through many talks on the story of David and Goliath. I thought you might be interested to hear some facts from a talk I heard given by Edmund P. Clowney on the White Horse Inn radio broadcast a few months ago. I have “jazzed up” the presentation a bit to make it more interesting. Clowney was a seminary professor at Westminster Theological Seminary before he passed away and did not have a dramatic flair.

The story is in 1 Samuel 17:1-58. Do not stop reading the story at verse 50. Everybody does that. It keeps the story G-rated, but makes it dull. Go ahead and read at least verses 51-54. It won’t hurt; it’s in the R-rated Bible that we have been given.

Here we see David stand over the dead body of Goliath of Gath, reach down, and remove Goliath’s sword from the scabbard at his belt. He grabs Goliath’s hair, lifts his head, and cuts his head off at the neck.

Verse 54 says he took the severed head to Jerusalem. We suspect from 2 Samuel 5:6 that Jerusalem was in the hands of the Jebusites at the time. It was not liberated until sometime later.

I rely on assumptions here, but I can just see the young David, soon to become the Warrior King of Israel, who would throw off the oppression of the Philistines and conquer a kingdom. I see him standing on a hill outside Jerusalem with the bloody, severed head in his hand shouting to the Jebusites on the city wall, “This is what the Lord God of Israel did to Goliath, and you are next.”

Tradition goes on to say that David buried Goliath’s head on that hill outside Jerusalem, a hill that would become known as the place of the skull: Golgotha. Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33, and John 19:17 testify that this hill was the one Jesus Christ was crucified on.

Get it: Jesus Christ tread underfoot the greatest enemy of Israel as He walked up Calvary’s hill to die for us. And He will tread underfoot all of our enemies as we turn to Him in faith. Colossians 2 says, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

All the guilt, shame, pain, and temptation faced by those who have faith in Christ were made powerless by Christ’s victory on the cross! All the enemies Satan can bring to bear have been not merely defeated, but put to shame by Christ. Turn to Him in faith for your deliverance.

Comments

LPC said…
Good post JK.

Lito
July 05, 2007
Ryan Jones said…
This is pretty cool. Thanks for the info!

Ryan
July 12, 2007
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Face of Terror

-
Osama Bin laden is dead. Since the rest of the internet is buzzing with opinions on that death, I thought I would weigh in. First, this is not the end of global terrorism. Like the Hydra of old, when one head is chopped off, two more take its place. We still need diligence in our fight against global terror. U. S. and allied Armed Forces still need our prayers. We still need a strong military and intelligence community. We have not yet cut off the Hydra’s immortal head. Second, the way to get to the ‘heart of the matter’ is with Christian missionary efforts. We must reach the people who make up those societies and population segments that produce terrorists . To tell a story I have told here before : Early in the twentieth century, Baptist evangelists preached through rural Mississippi and Alabama with such effectiveness that moonshiners could no longer sell their whiskey: All their customers were getting converted! In desperation, the whiskey sellers hired two men to murder on
Read more

The Canons of Dort

-
I believe that the Canons of Dort are true. This is a statement that came out the Synod of Dort, held from 1618-1619. The Canons of Dort outline the system of theology known today as the “five points of Calvinism.” The problem I have with most “five-point Calvinists” is that the Canons of Dort contain much more than five points. Many explanations of the TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints) are gross simplifications of the Canons of Dort. [This is especially true of explanations given by those who oppose Calvinism. It is easier to knock down a straw man than it is to knock down a real man, and so it is easier to criticize an oversimplified Calvinism that the more robust form.] Some of those who teach the “five points” leave out some of the quotes below: This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than
Read more

Intelligent Design

-
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement makes much of the argument from irreducible complexity. Dr. Michael Behe has become famous for a simple example, the mousetrap. He points out that the mousetrap will not perform its function without all of its parts. The wooden base, the metal hammer, a spring, a catch and a metal bar to hold back the hammer are all necessary parts. One component by itself will not catch a mouse. Mainstream evolutionary science has a counter-argument. To paraphrase Dr. Kenneth Miller, if you disassemble the mousetrap, each component can serve as something useful on its own. If we take away the catch and metal bar, we have something left that can serve as a paper clip. The spring could make a simple two-section key chain. The wooden base makes a paperweight. Evolutionary processes like random mutation and natural selection can combine and retain the useful parts as the complicated evolves to perform the complex function. The useful parts are combined into the mousetr
Read more