We love an UNDERDOG but we are drawn to SUPERHEROES. The PROBLEM with reading David vs. Goliath as an Underdog story:

  • We always cast ourselves as David
  • We love underdogs until they win
  • We turn it into a self-salvation story

It isn't an underdog story, because David isn't the point. It isn't a superhero story either, because David isn't the source of the power.

1 Samuel 17 BACKGROUND: For Israel’s audience, the narrative’s significance lay in its CONTRAST: a young, inexperienced shepherd defeating a battle-hardened warrior MIRRORED Israel’s own position… young and inexperienced, surrounded by militarily superior enemies who despised them.

David never saw himself as the hero of the story. He only ever saw himself as in need of God’s salvation.

In the valley, David credits the LORD every time. He says, "the LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the bear will rescue me" (17:37), and he tells Goliath, "I come in the name of the LORD" and "the battle is the LORD's" (17:45-47). He never claims the win as his own.

His own psalms confess dependence. Psalm 27 calls the LORD his "light and salvation" (v. 1), and he asks not to be forsaken (vv. 9-10).

David’s heart and his story would be REALIZED in CHRIST Jesus — The fulfillment of David’s words; "I come in the name of the LORD" and "the battle is the LORD's" (17:45-47).

  • Jesus is man IN-BETWEEN the two - The substitutionary representation: one man fights, and everyone else receives the victory without lifting a sword.
  • Jesus CRUSHED the Head - The enemy's head is crushed (17:49-51), which echoes Gen 3:15 and the promise of the seed who will crush the serpent's head.
  • Jesus obtained victory through WEAKNESS - David refuses Saul's armor and wins looking foolish. Jesus wins in apparent defeat.
  • Jesus was FORSAKEN so that we wouldn’t be - Ps 27:9-10 asks God not to hide his face or abandon.
  • Jesus is the house in the land of the living. The "one thing" of Ps 27:4 (dwelling in God's house and gazing on his beauty) finds its fulfillment in Christ as the true temple (John 2:19-21). "We have beheld his glory" (John 1:14).

ASSESS:

  1. Are you STANDING like someone fighting for a victory, or like someone standing in one?
  2. What is FEAR telling you to do, and what changes if you are not forsaken?

APPLY

  1. Stand where God has placed you.
  2. Stand with a heart God strengthens, not one you manufacture.