Fragment adapted from “”. Edmund Clowney. .
The drama of God is not a fiction that gradually unfolds, nor is it a legend that surprisingly unfolds. The story of the Bible is a true story, forged in the lives of hundreds and thousands of human beings. In a world where death reigned, they endured trusting in the fidelity of God’s promise. If we forget the Old Testament story line, we will also miss their testimony of faith. That omission removes the heart of the Bible. Sunday school stories are therefore told as polite versions of Sunday comics, with Samson substituting for Superman. For this reason David’s encounter with Goliath languishes into an ancient Hebrew version of Jack the Giant Killer.
No, David is not a brave boy who is not afraid of the huge evil giant. He is the Lord’s anointed, chosen by God to be king and deliver Israel. God chose David as a king after his own heart in order to prepare the way for the wonderful Son of David, our Deliverer and Champion. David’s response to Goliath’s taunts shows us that David was a warrior of faith: “You come against me armed with sword, spear, and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have provoked” (1 Sa. 17:45).
Since David fought in the name of the Lord, his fight and his victory had meaning beyond the immediate battle. He was sure of victory because he knew that God had called Israel to be his people. He was the God of the heavenly hosts, but also the God of the armies of Israel.
The prophet Samuel had anointed David. He knew that the Lord had called him to care for his father’s sheep so that he would become Israel’s shepherd. David fulfilled a role. Through him God granted deliverance, not because he was brave or because of the killing blow with the sling, but because he was chosen and filled with the Spirit of God. When God later promised to give eternal dominion to the Son of David, he made it clear that David’s kingship was not an end in itself, but rather served as a preparation for the coming of the great King.
In this way the Old Testament gives us types that prefigure the fulfillment of the New Testament. A type is a form of analogy that is characteristic of the Bible. Like all analogies, a type combines identity and difference. Both David and Christ were given royal power and dominion. Despite the enormous differences between the kingship of David and that of Christ, there are points of formal identity that make the comparison worthwhile.
But it is exactly this degree of difference that characterizes the biblical types. God’s promises in the Bible do not offer us to return to a golden age of the past. The coming Son of David is not just another David. Rather, since He is so much older, David can speak of Him as Lord (Ps. 110:1).
The scriptural scholars of Jesus’ day did not understand this. They could not answer Jesus’ question: “If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can she then be his Son?” (Matt 22:45). Both Jesus and his adversaries knew that the promised Messiah had to be the Son of David. But only Jesus understood why David in the Spirit had called him “Lord.”
The story of Jesus, then, does not begin with the fulfillment of the promise, but with the promise itself and with the acts of God that accompanied his Word.
Image: