Where Jesus was Foreshadowed

Tell a story of something that happened that you didn’t expect?

Welcome Back Everybody, hopefully it has been a good year so far. Today we are going to talk about the Story of David, but before we get into that i want us to take a quick look at the story that leads into the story of David and challenge us with some of the tough concepts in it.

The Perfect King

English Standard Version Chapter 9

9 There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. 2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.

This is Saul, he is handsome, popular among the people, tall and athletic. He comes from a very wealthy family, so he was set up from the beginning for success. He even became the King of Israel.

But then Saul Sins against God in a big way, by disobeying the law that God has laid out to protect His holiness, Saul made a sacrifice instead of the priest and Prophet of the time Samuel, as well as defying God’s clear commands for what He wanted him to do directly.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

10 The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night

Did God make a Mistake?

English Standard Version Chapter 15

24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 28 And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”

God is going to rip from Saul the kingdom of Israel and give it to someone who is better, who is this talking about? David.

The Glory of Israel is another name for God in the Old Testament. So what do we make of this? Is this a contradiction and the Bible is wrong?

How do we reconcile these two conflicting verses?

When interpreting scripture, you let scripture interpret scripture, you let what is clear interpret the unclear and you let one statement draw sharper context to the other statement.

For Example, Paul says your saved by faith alone, but James says that faith without works is dead. How do we reconcile the 2? They are both right, You are saved and Justified by grace through faith alone, but to James point, genuine saving faith is never truly alone and is always accompanied by good works brought about by the Holy Spirit.

Now lets look at these conflicting verses. God regretted or repented that He had made Saul King. Not, however, in the way that man repents or regret. We regret maybe because we did not know that a particular outcome would happen because of our actions, or because we had done something with malicious or evil intent and we later regret and apologize for it. This is not God, God knows what is going to happen, He also is not evil, So He is incapable of repenting like a man because He is completely different from man.

We are going to take a quick detour from the story of David and look at the story of God challenging and calling out the Idols of Babylon to shine more light on this.

English Standard Version Chapter 46

“Remember this and stand firm,

recall it to mind, you transgressors,

9  remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me,

10  declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

11  calling a bird of prey from the east,

the man of my counsel from a far country.

I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;

I have purposed, and I will do it.

God is not some idol that sits on a shelf and collects dust, He is not some therapeutic moralistic deity that exists just to tell us how to live a good life and that is it, He is not just a God who created us, wants us to do our best and we will go to heaven no matter what. He is the one true God. He does as He pleases. He demands self sacrificing love from us. He demands repentance and obedience. Or in the words of a dead Guy.

A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol.

He is not God at all. God has declared the end from the beginning and all of it is to His ultimate Glory. God is for God.

I want to do a little experiment with you all, this is an experiment that I had read about and was done actually by R.C. Sproul, but I want to try it here because it was very influential to me and my understanding of God.

I am going to read this quote from a popular confession:

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition Chapter III. Of God’s Eternal Decree

GOD from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass:

How many of you agree with this statement? Raise your hand.

Now how many disagree? Raise your hand?

Those of you with your hands raised, how many would say that you are an atheist?

I don’t know why if you said that if you disagree with this you didn’t raise your hand to say you were an atheist?

There is nothing about this statement that is aggressively one denomination of Christianity, it’s not even exclusively Christian. This is a statement that distinguishes between Theism and Atheism.

What is important to understand in this example is that if God is not sovereign, then God is not God. We often want to get God off the hook for certain things, but if there is just one tiny speck, one as R.C. would say, maverick molecule, one singular insignificant aspect of Creation that God did not have full control over, then God is not God. And we cannot take any hope in any of the promises that He has made.

But friends, God is sovereign. we see this plan of redemption unfolding, everything that God says is going to happen He brings to pass. All for His ultimate Glory.

This is a point that i felt had to be made so that we wouldn’t confuse what it means for God to repent, God made Saul King, and meant for it to be so just like He knew He would reject Him. And he can regret making Saul King but continued to do it with His ultimate Glory in mind.

Alright. We aren’t even to David yet. We just finished Saul. God willing these words, these verses and learning a little about the teaching from Church History shines new light into knowing just how powerful God is, and you can love Him for for that. Without further ado, lets get to David.

The Foreshadow

God chose for Himself a new King, a boy from the tribe of Jesse from Bethlehem. He was the youngest and smallest of His brothers and nobody suspected this to happen, When Samuel told Jesse to gather His boys he didn’t even bring David, David was out tending to the sheep of the field. But, David was chosen, from His humble beginnings and anointed to be the next king to replace Saul. This is now where we find ourselves, Saul still king, David next up, and we stumble across this story, probably one of the most well known stories in the Bible.

David and Goliath.

The Philistines and the Israelites were both on the tops of mountains with a Valley between them. Then this happens,

Goliath is described as this dominant, both unstoppable force and immovable object. Just an imposing beast of a man, He walks out from His camp and this happens.

English Standard Version Chapter 17

8 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. 9 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.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

The Israelite are afraid, they have seen and heard of what all the God that they serve has done against their enemies, but seeing this imposing man standing before them challenging Israel to a mono y mono fight to the death, nobody wants to take it on, except 1.

David. This boy, the youngest of Jesse. He was running food and supplies up to His brothers and overheard Goliath spewing this blasphemy against the Lord. David could not believe what he was hearing. He was asking his brothers and fellow Israelite why no one is going out to challenge this philistine. They just point to David and say Look at Him, His spear alone weighs more than you. There is not a man brave enough, let alone strong enough to go and fight him. What do you expect us to do?

David looks at them with disgust and says I don’t expect you to do anything, I’ll go.

So he goes, into this valley to challenge Goliath, and this happens.

English Standard Version Chapter 17

41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 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. 46 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, 47 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.”

Those are some fighting words.

Lets see what happens:

English Standard Version Chapter 17

48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

From there David runs over to Goliath, pulls out his sword and cuts off his head, and when the philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

If i was your stereotypical pastor living here in the 21st century, i’d go out to elaborate how you are David in this story and if you just swing your sling hard enough then you will strike your giant, weather that is anxiety, depression, loneliness, with theses stones of faith and he will fall.

My friends that is not the story. You are not David, and your struggles are not Goliath. This story is foreshadowing Jesus. Goliath is sin, and guess what, you muster up the strength to swing that stone of faith and you miss. You miss every time, because you're not strong enough, or wise enough, or smart enough, you don’t have the free will to overcome this sin. You are Israel, I am Israel, cowering in fear over this unstoppable force in our lives, this immovable stronghold that will stay rooted in your heart because it is your heart. You are sinful to the bone. To your core.

But we know who David is in this story. He is Jesus. Satan looked at Jesus pinned up on the cross and probably mumbled the same words as Goliath, am i a dog that you come at me with sticks?

Indeed that is what was needed. The Son of God, brutally murdered on a cross and the wrath of God poured out onto Him. That was the fatal. With that, death where is your sting? After being born again and coming to Christ, we have been given a spirit of boldness and need to not live in fear. In fact, we can honestly retweet what Paul says:

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

If I am living, i am living for Christ, i am living in Christ and the victory He has won. Glorifying Him and honoring Him with all my actions. If I am persecuted and die for my faith , then that is so much more that i gain as I get to be one with Christ.

So let us go out, living life knowing that our God is Sovereign, our Savior is Victorious, and we have been given a spirit of bravery and boldness to go out and proclaim this truth. This good news that is revealed to us in Scripture.

Lets Pray.