“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David.”—1 Samuel 17:50.
A careful perusal of the whole chapter will well repay your pains. I have selected a verse for convenience, but I want the entire narrative for a text. If you are well versed in the history, we shall have no need of any preface or exordium. So we shall proceed at once to regard David, in his conflict with Goliath, and his victory over him, first, as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, secondly, as an example for ourselves. As that which is a type of the head always bears a relationship to the members, and as the members of Christ’s mystical body now are, and shall yet more fully be, like unto himself, it is but one thought, after all, that we shall be following out, in the meditation that lies before us.
I. Let us begin by calling your attention to the fact that David in this matter WAS A TYPE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
The early fathers of the Church were very great in opening up typical analogies. So full, indeed, were they in their expositions, and so minute in their details, that at length they went too far, and degenerated into trifling. Origen, for example, very notably exceeded what can be regarded as wise interpretation in giving spiritual meanings to literal records. And others who essayed to go yet farther than that great master of mysticism, very soon did much damage to the Church of God, bringing precious truths into serious discredit. The study of the types of the Old Testament has scarcely regained its proper place in the Christian Church since the days in which those gracious men, by their imprudent zeal, perverted it. We cannot, however, bring ourselves to think that a good thing ceases to be good because it has at some time been turned to an ill account. We think it can still be used properly and profitably. Within certain limits, then—limits, we suppose, which there is little danger of transgressing in these mechanical, unpoetic times—the types and the allegories of Holy Scripture may be used as a handbook of instruction—a vade mecum of sound doctrine.
By the common consent of Evangelical Christians, David is seen to be an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. With regard to this particular transaction let us note, at the outset, that before he fought with Goliath, David was anointed of God. Samuel had gone down to Bethlehem and poured a horn of oil upon his head. The parallel will readily occur to you. Thus hath the Lord found out for himself one whom he has chosen out of the people. With his holy oil hath he anointed him. Upon Saul’s head a phial of oil was poured—upon David’s head a full horn of oil. This may perhaps be designed to contrast the brevity and scant renown of Saul’s reign, with the length, and power, and excellence of the reign of David. Or, being interpreted spiritually, it may denote that the law, the old Judaism of which Saul is the type, had but a limited measure of blessing, while that of the gospel, which David represents, is characterized by its abounding fullness. Jesus, the antitype of David, is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Spirit was not given by measure unto him. David was anointed several times; he was anointed, as you read in the chapter preceding our text, “in the midst of his brethren;”—anointed, as you find in 2 Samuel 2:4, by his brethren, the men of Judah;—and anointed again, as you will observe in 2 Samuel 5:3, by all the elders of Israel. We will not go into that now, but it will suffice us to note that so our Lord was anointed of God, is anointed of his saints, and shall be anointed of the whole Church. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and it was in the power of that Spirit with which he was anointed of the Father, that he went forth to fight the great battles of his Church. At his baptism, coming up out of the Jordan, he was anointed by the Spirit as it rested upon him, descending out of heaven like a dove; and straightway he went, as he was driven, into the wilderness, and held that notable forty-days’ conflict with the arch-fiend, the great adversary of souls. His battles were in the spirit and power of the Highest, for the might and majesty of the Eternal Spirit rested upon him.
See how the correspondence goes on. Our Lord was sent by his Father to his brethren. As David was sent by Jesse to his brethren with suitable presents and comfortable words, in order to commune with them, even so in the fullness of time was our Lord commissioned to visit his brethren. He remained concealed for a while in the house of his reputed father, but afterwards he came forth, and was distinctly recognized as the sent One of God, bearing countless gifts in his hands, coming on an embassage of mercy and of love from God to those whom he was not ashamed to call his brethren. We have read how David was treated. His brethren did not receive him lovingly. They answered his unaffected kindness with unprovoked rudeness: bitter things did they lay to his charge. How truly does this answer to the manner in which our Lord, the Son of David, was abused. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Though he came to them with words of tenderness, they replied to him with words of scorn. For his blessings they gave him curses; for the bread of heaven they gave him stones; and for the benedictions of heaven they gave him the spite of earth, the maledictions of hell! Never was a brother, “the firstborn among many brethren,” so ill-used by the rest of the household. Surely that parable of the wicked husbandmen was fulfilled toward him. We know it is written that the owner of the vineyard said, “They will reverence my son;” but, contrariwise, they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.” Jesus was roughly handled by his brethren, whom he came to bless. David, you will remember, answered his brethren with great gentleness. He did not return railing for railing, but with much gentleness he endured their churlishness. In this he supplied us with but a faint picture of our beloved Master, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. “Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.” His only reply, even to the strokes which were to effect his death, was, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” “We hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Yet for all that, no word of anger dropped from his lips. He might have said, “Is there not a cause?” Little spake he, however, in his own defense; he rather went about his life-work as zealously as if all who saw him had approved him. So David, being thus rejected of his brethren, became a type of Christ.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
