Like many of us who grew up in the Church, one of my favourite stories as a child was David and Goliath. It’s a story that feels tailor-made for a young audience, pitting as it does the faith of a small boy against the cowardice of his older brothers and a giant enemy. But it’s a story set in war time, and in which God’s great triumph is manifest in slaughter. So, it’s a story that often gets ignored, explained away, or opposed in progressive circles. In fact, one my go-to resources for inspiration for these Sunday reflections spends the entire post for this story talking about it as an example of religion gone wrong and something to be set aside once we come to the more enlightened teachings of the Gospels! I’m not comfortable with either an uncritical celebration of this story and its violence, or being so critical of it that we are incapable of engaging with it in a meaningful way. So today I’d like to give some thought to what it really says and how it fits into the broader program of 1 Samuel.
Let’s take the second of these first, to help set the context for the story. 1 Samuel covers the establishment of monarchy in Israel. It begins with Samuel’s call as a prophet and a judge — which was not a ‘judge’ as we think of it, but a kind of charismatic leader sent by God to deliver the tribes of Israel in times of need. But by chapter 8, the people have had enough of this ancient arrangement, and demand Samuel appoint a king. The rest of the book covers the disastrous reign of King Saul, and the slow rise of David to be his logical successor. The book is a central piece of what is known as the Deuteronomistic History, the books from Joshua through 2 Kings, which share a common theological and political agenda: namely that things go well when the people follow the Law and badly when they don’t. Within this context, the story of David and Goliath is designed to to set up a contrast between King Saul and the future king David, and to reinforce the understanding that in order for monarchy to work, its leader must trust in God more than in the ‘ways of this world’.
Looking at the story itself, it begins with Israel’s army being cowed by the Philistine Goliath’s imposing stature, impressive armour, and brash confidence. They see him as an impossible barrier, and any attempt to meet him in combat a path to certain death. When the boy David arrives in camp to deliver provisions to his older brothers, he doesn’t see what the fuss is about. Who is this heathen who dares to threaten God’s people? And why isn’t anyone doing anything about it? In a scene familiar to anyone with brothers, David’s question is met with scorn and he’s basically told to mind his own business and let the real men deal with things. This sets up an interesting parallel with the story of the patriarch Joseph, another situation where older brothers — the natural leaders according to the ways of the world — shut down a younger brother who is not only right but has the keys to solve an otherwise intractable problem.
But David doesn’t give up, eventually addressing King Saul himself and volunteering to take Goliath on, since no one else is willing to do it. The interaction between the present and future kings is classic:
David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”
So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!” (1 Samuel 17.32-37)
There’s a great combination in David’s attitude of self-confidence and trust in God. He understands the risks, but is no stranger to danger. He’s faced such threats before and knows he has the skills to survive. But at the same time, he knows that he did not succeed based on those skills alone, but because he trusted in God to help him. As much as Israel may understand itself to be God’s own people, in this story, no one mentions God until David does, first in his interactions with his brothers: “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (17.26), and now in his speech to King Saul: “The LORD, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” As Walter Brueggemann paraphrases David’s challenging question: “Is there a working power and a governance outside the scope of the armies that relativizes the power and danger noticed at first glance?”
Saul only kind of gets it. As moved as he is by David’s speech, he still shows he’s thinking in the ways of ‘this world’, going so far as to deck David up in the fanciest armour he can find. This is cumbersome to say the least on the boy’s small frame, and is far from the ‘whole armor of God’ David brings with him to the fight.
The rest as they say is the stuff of legend. David faces Goliath with his slingshot and takes him down instantly. The Israelite army is inspired out of its fear and routs the Philistines, leaving Saul’s forces with a memorable victory.
So then, the story does a very effective job in setting up a stark contrast between King Saul and his future successor. Where Saul is hapless and sloppy, David is intelligent and wily. Where Saul tries to fight power with power, David fights power through his own very different strengths and skills. And most importantly for the Deuteronomistic History, where God is absent from Saul’s perspective of the battle, God is front and centre in David’s mind and heart. And, far from being in opposition to the spirit of the New Testament, this story reinforces the theme that God doesn’t play by the rules of human society. Might does not equal right, and God chooses the small and insignificant for greatness. As I put it in last week’s message, God’s Kingdom is a kingdom of small beginnings. And, as Paul put it, God chooses what the world considers foolish to shame the world’s wisdom.
And that’s something we can all celebrate.
Matthew Root 