Many of us have heard sermons on 1 Samuel 17 (David and Goliath) that finish with this question: Who or what are the Goliaths in your life? Followed by this application: God wants to defeat these giants for you just as He defeated the Goliath in David's life. Use the 5 smooth stones of Bible-reading, prayer, obedience, ? and ? to smash your giants and achieve victory. Or something like that.
It possibly seems 'wrong' to you, or you might think there's actually no problem with this application. Is there?
The answer to this is deduced from what Jesus himself said about the Old Testament in Luke 24:44-47 -
He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the [Old Testament] Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
That is, though the Old Testament is explicitly the story of Yahweh's (God's special OT name for Himself) relationship with His people Israel, it is also the story of a promised Messiah, Jesus - through whose death and resurrection salvation for the nations would come.
In other words, the Old Testament has a certain historical and theological context that we need to recognise and respect whenever we read and apply it.
Historical Context:
The one, true God chooses the nation of Israel to be His people, to dwell in His special place for them (Canaan, the promised land), and to live under His rule (as described for them in the Law).
Theological Context:
God covenants with Israel that He will be faithful to them as their God, and they must be faithful to Him as His people. Israel fails, repeatedly, in their side of the covenant. God never fails, repeatedly bestowing grace and favour on His disobedient and undeserving people.
The best is yet to come - a Messiah (Saviour) who will perfectly live as The Representative Par Excellence of faithful Israel - God's person, in God's place, under God's rule. His perfect faithfulness to God will be the means through which Israel - and the nations - can also truly be God's people (His church), in God's place (God's Kingdom), under God's rule (expressed through obedience to the New Covenant Scriptures).
It's all about me:
The problem then with the above application of 1 Samuel 17 is that it draws a straight line from David to me in 2008, and ignores the historical and theological context of the Old Testament as just outlined. It makes me the subject and the sub-hero of the story along with David (God is of course the Big Hero), and makes promises to me about victory and stones that the author of 1 Samuel didn't actually have in mind.
(Incidentally, when I draw straight lines of application from an OT passage to myself without regard for the OT context and significance, it's called Moralism. When I draw straight lines from a pre-conceived modern-day application back to symbolic elements in an OT account, it's called Allegory. The above example is probably Allegory; 'little boys should be brave like David' is Moralism. Chinese Christians tend very readily towards moralistic readings of Scripture, probably because Confucian teaching and culture is foundationally moralistic.)
So how should I read it?
Firstly, recognise and respect the historical and theological context of the passage. 1 Samuel 17 is actually about yet another instance of Yahweh's faithfulness to Israel, despite their (King Saul's) unfaithfulness to Him.
Not only that, but David is actually a representation (or 'type') of a Saviour-figure to Israel. In the same way that Yahweh raises up a lowly figure to save the entire nation, so in Jesus, God raises up a lowly figure to save the entire world. (There are 'types' or 'pointers' towards Jesus scattered throughout all the OT - when you start seeing them it's mind-blowing!)
And how should I apply it?
First, don't draw straight lines between the OT account and you, whether starting or finishing with yourself.
Determine first, how the OT account points forward to, or is fulfilled in Jesus (just like Luke 24!).
Work out whether the New Testament has anything explicitly or implicitly to say about the OT account.
Work out the points of correlation between God's people then and now, God's place then and now, and God's rule then and now.
Mostly, the OT will teach us something about the unbelievable Covenant faithfulness of Yahweh, in the face of the all-too-believable Covenant UNfaithfulness of Israel.
We should recognise that apart from Jesus, we're much more like Israel in her UNfaithfulness than like God (of course), but also than like the Saviour-figures God raises up to rescue Israel time and again. We're almost never to identify ourselves with the hero of OT accounts; Jesus gets that status, not us (except that he was a sinless hero, and often Israel's 'heroes' were pretty unlikely!).
We should recognise that like Israel, we too are desperately in need of a Saviour, who has been wonderfully provided in Jesus.
Through Jesus, we Gentiles have been made into God's chosen, Covenant people - so God's people are now no longer a political and geographical nation, but the body of believers in Christ through all time - the church.
We should recognise that God's plan for us, like His plan for Israel, is good. And that it comes about as we live faithfully obeying His rule, waiting for our Promised Land (heaven - not the physical land of Israel!).
We obey His rule not by obedience to the letter of the OT Law, but by obedience to the 'law' of the New Covenant - the new promise established between Jesus and his Father on our behalf, through the shedding of his blood. We follow in Jesus' perfect obedience by obeying his (and his apostles') teaching - the New Testament!
In short, work out how the OT passage has been fulfilled in Jesus, and how God wants us to live in response to this New Covenant-era fulfilment. It's not wrong to copy the righteous and faithful attitudes and actions of Old Covenant characters (the Character Study approach to reading the OT), but again, this needs to be done carefully recognising the original historical and theological context and for example, which aspects of Daniel's life and times in exile in a prestigious position in the Babylonian court are appropriate for me to claim identification with!
But back to the case of 1 Samuel 17. In application, I need to praise God for His faithfulness in raising up a Saviour-figure for Israel, and for raising up Jesus for us. I need to appreciate and copy the rightness of David's implicit trust in the LORD as Deliverer. I can praise God that He is for His people and works to defeat their enemies, like He was for Israel and is for His church. I need to recognise that unlike Israel's then, the Church's enemies now are not firstly political and geographical but spiritual (Satan and his army and his influence). And I can praise God that the history of His New Covenant people has already been written - Jesus is victor and in and through obedience to Jesus, I am on God's winning side.
Some controversial case studies to practise on:
1 Kings 18 ('Elijah' defeating the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel in miraculous circumstances) is about God's willingness to perform 'drought-breaking' miracles in our lives.
Joshua (God leads Israel into the luscious land of Canaan in victory over their enemies) is about God's desire for His people to possess riches and wealth.
Judges 6 (Gideon seeks God's confirmation of God's instruction to him by laying out wool fleeces in unusual conditions) teaches us a method of seeking God's guidance.
And to be clearly ridiculous (but why?!), Judges 3:12-30 (an obese Moab king is killed by a left-handed Israelite) is about the harmful effects of morbid obesity and an indictment of past generations' oppression of left-handers.
Happy Bible-reading!
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