Wednesday 20 January 2010

Background

The story of David and Saul is a very complex one, as thischapter demonstrates. (In fact, if you read chapters 16 and 17 carefully you will seethat there are two slightly different 'legends' of David puttogether.)

At this stage Saul was still king of Israel, and David, alreadychosen by God as the next king (but Saul didn't know this, ofcourse) had become Saul's favourite as part-time court musician andarmour-bearer. His three oldest brothers had gone with Saul's armyto fight the Philistines and David had followed them.

As was sometimes the case in ancient warfare, the opposing tribeswould first test each other by sending out a champion to engage ina kind of tournament prior to the main, inevitably bloody, action.The Philistines, as is well known to all Sunday school children,had the huge and apparently indestructible Goliath as their secretweapon. Whoever could defeat him would no doubt be well rewardedand become the darling of Israel.

We are in familiar folk tale territory here - the victor would evenget to marry the king's beautiful daughter, as we would expect! SoDavid spoke up, much to the annoyance of his brothers, and(inevitably) was sent for by Saul. So today's passage begins withDavid's bold offer to fight Goliath, claiming that he had, as ashepherd boy, killed lions and bears with his bare hands. Saul,reluctantly, agreed that David should have a go. Rejecting Saul'scumbersome armour, David relied on his shepherding skillsinstead.

The rest, as they say, is history - or, at least the stuff of folktales. The jeering giant was defeated by the handsome, brave youth.The important thing of course was that David, as we know (but Sauldoesn't) had God on his side and was fighting in God's name. So theoutcome was really a foregone conclusion - Israel's god wasstronger than the Philistines', and David would inevitably destroyGoliath, beheading him with his own giant sword for good measure,leading to a bloody rout of the Philistine army.

One problem with such familiar stories is that we tend to read themin a rather superficial way, either treating them as though theyare straightforward historical narratives, or as sources oftimeless 'spiritual truths' - such as 'God helps us overcomeadversity'. Maybe we need to work a bit harder than that!

To Ponder

So, how are you goingto read this story? What, for you, is its purpose in the Bible?

In what ways, if any, would you think that Davidis a good role model for young people? Or for the Christianunderstanding of 'messiah'?

What do you make of the fact that there are twosomewhat conflicting stories of David in chapters 16 and 17?