What can we say about
David? Goliath, the arrogant, blasphemous
champion of the Philistines, the great enemy of God’s people Israel, is no more. This terrible warrior, who struck fear into
all the peoples’ hearts, lies dead.
Young David has taken the giant’s own sword, and cut off his head. And so, a question: Does this victory make
David the greatest hero, the greatest champion that ancient Israel ever had?
He’s got some competition. There’s Moses, the plague-bringer, the
sea-separator, the Law-giver. Or Joshua,
who fought the battle of Jericho, and dozens more. And there were some great judges, like doubt-filled
Gideon, who nevertheless led Israel to great military victories. And Samson, the strongman who killed enemies
by the dozens with the jawbone of a donkey.
In the end, blinded and brought out to be mocked by his Philistine
captors, Samson prefigured Christ, sacrificing himself to destroy them. He used one last gift of strength to topple the
stone columns of the place where they tortured him, bringing tons of stone crashing
down on them all. After David came
Elijah and Elisha, prophets with an edge, who slew false prophets and pagan
priests. It’s quite a list of
champions. So, where does David
rank? Is he the GOAT, the Greatest of
All Time, of Hebrew heroes?
Hard to say. But, at the time of David’s victory over
Goliath, pound for pound he had to be the greatest champion of Israel. All these other heroes were mature men when
they fought. David was just a youth; did he even weigh 100
lbs?
David’s faith in YHWH, his trust
in the LORD God of Israel, and the bravery which this faith created in him,
made him an ideal warrior for the Almighty.
David’s heart dwelt in the LORD Most High, no evil would befall
him. The shepherd boy did not fear
opposing Goliath, who was mocking Israel and denigrating the LORD. Though armed with just a slingshot, he knew
he would be victorious, because the LORD would fight for him. David’s battle speech is epic: 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.”
David believes he can defeat any
external enemy, any foe who speaks ill of God, or opposes his people, Israel,
because the LORD will fight on his side.
And he’s right. David will go on
from this battle to win many, many more.
David will defeat enemy after enemy.
Under his bold military leadership, Israel gains safety from her foes, is
united under David’s reign, and becomes a great power.
But there was one enemy that
David could not defeat. The enemy
within. David performed marvelously
against countless external enemies. But
within his heart there lie an enemy that was his master. As when David saw Bathsheba, the beautiful wife
of Uriah, one of his most loyal warriors.
To want to steal Uriah’s wife was wicked. No matter, the lust of David’s heart led him
to take her for himself. When she became
pregnant, instead of confessing, David sought to cover up his sin, more and
more desperately. Finally he involved
his general Joab in a plot to abandon Uriah on the battlefield, murdering him
through the weapons of the enemy.
Later, David’s pride led him to
take a census of his warriors, to measure the greatness of his power, an
arrogant project which led to God severely punishing all of Israel. David’s heart tripped him up again and
again. His sinful weakness kept him from
properly disciplining his children; as a result, hateful rivalries tore his
family apart, and led to civil war in Israel.
When the enemy was out there,
threatening from the outside, David was as great a champion as any. But David could not defeat the enemy that was
his own sinful heart. To defeat the
enemy within, a very different champion would be needed, and a very different
battle would have to be fought.
David’s victory over Goliath is
certainly a foreshadowing of Jesus’ victory over Satan. Goliath represents Satan, who mocks God and
God’s people, and is too strong for any man to face. David, a youth, without armor, armed only
with a sling and five stones, does not appear capable of the victory. And yet David wins.
Jesus, the promised Son of David,
is mild-mannered and gentle. He doesn’t
seem the type to defeat the Devil. But
in fact, beating the Devil was the easy part.
The Gospel for this first Sunday
in Lent recounts that victory. Adam and
Eve in the Garden easily gave in to temptation.
They gave in to tempting but forbidden food, gave in to doubts about
God’s promises and provision, gave in to the temptation to make themselves like
God. The New Adam, the New Man, Jesus of
Nazareth, heads out into the wilderness to avenge this defeat. After weakening Himself with a 40 day fast,
Jesus quickly defeated Satan’s attack. For
this New Adam trusts in His Father completely.
Instead of doubting like the woman, Jesus uses God’s Word to reject
temptations to sin with food, to test God’s protection, and to gain worldly
power by worshiping someone other than God, namely the Devil. Jesus, the Son of God now entered into human
flesh, easily rejected and defeated Satan.
This was not that hard for Him. Indeed,
Jesus could have easily annihilated Satan when he first rebelled.
The much harder battle was
saving David, and all the rest of us, from the enemy within. Ever since we fell into sin and so became
enslaved to Satan, destroying the Evil One would also have meant destroying us,
destroying all men, women and children.
So long as our sin left us bound in Satan’s chains, defeating him would
have also cast us into the outer darkness with the Evil One, to suffer there, forever.
This defeat God would not
accept. His whole objective was always
to have us as His holy and beloved people, forever. So, the real challenge of Jesus’ mission was
overcoming our internal problem, our problem with sin, in order to set us free
from the Devil’s power.
And so the confrontation with
Satan in the wilderness was just the first skirmish in the war. The hard part to come was submitting to evil,
to give in to Satan and his human minions.
The hard part was volunteering to load up all our sin on His own back
and carry it to the altar of the Cross.
There Jesus offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice, to redeem sinners,
to buy back David and you and me and all the rest of humanity. Jesus has freed us from the power of Satan,
by destroying the power of our sin to accuse us. Now that Jesus has paid the full price, in
Him, sin and its threats are finished, once and for all, forever.
Jesus could face and win this
immense battle only because He was more than just a man. He was and is a man, a true human being,
drawing his humanity from David, through his descendent, the Virgin Mary. But Jesus is also the eternal Son of
God. Truly a man, but having no sin of
His own, Jesus could both suffer and die for our sins. Truly God, the eternal Son of the Father was
great enough and strong enough to take into Himself all human sin, and bury it
forever. Jesus Christ, Son of Mary and
Son of God, could and did accept the full price that God’s Justice, His perfect
Righteousness, demands. Once and for
all. One Savior, one sacrifice, one
time, sufficient for all people, and all our sins. So, Jesus is the true GOAT. He is by far the greatest Hero of all time,
the Champion of Champions, without equal.
Do you struggle with the enemy
within? Do you have a desire to flee
from sin, but find yourself still falling?
Of course you do. As do I. Even St. Paul did. Every human being, indeed every Christian in
this world, still struggles with the sin of the heart, from which also flow
outward, visible sins. We cannot conquer
our inner enemy on our own, anymore than David could. And so we need our Hero, our Champion, to be
with us, every day. We need to be
reminded of His great victory for us, on the Cross, every day. We need to turn to Him, confessing our sins
and asking His pardon, every day.
Many people, Christian and
non-Christian, do a pretty decent job with outward sins. We can usually avoid murder and violence and
terrible crimes. We can see the benefits
of appearing to be a good person. So
most of us do pretty well maintaining this image, most of the time. But we know how we are on the inside. We know how we are when we think no one can
observe us. This is the harder problem,
that plagues us all, the inner problem we cannot solve.
The blood of Jesus is the only
medicine to heal this inward weakness, the stumbling block that is our sinful
hearts. The victory of our Champion is
the only thing that can defeat the enemy that is within us all.
Since you need Him so much, your
Champion does not leave you. You may
feel small and alone on the battlefield, a puny David facing the Giant Goliath
of sin. But you are not alone. Christ who claimed you in Holy Baptism has
given you His Spirit, the Spirit who prompts you to cry out Abba, Father,
forgive me my sin, wash me clean. And so
you are clean, forgiven, and washed, a beloved child of the Father.
Do you want to do better, to sin
less? Would you like to avoid some of
the terrible consequences our sins still inflict on us, and on our loved
ones? Then confess your sins daily and seek
the forgiveness of the Lord; make this your daily habit. For we daily sin much. But, whenever we come to Him with contrite
and repentant hearts, seeking forgiveness for the wrongs we have done, God
renews our hearts. By the blood-bought
forgiveness of Jesus, God the Holy Spirit renews our hearts, and we begin again
to pursue a Christ-like life. Forgiven
and restored to God’s family, we pursue holiness, not from compulsion or
threat, but from joy, the joy of Christ’s holiness, poured out upon us. This is the source and rhythm of true
Christian living.
Satan has no true power over you. Jesus has totally disarmed him. He can only lie, whispering in your ear when
you sin, whispering that God will not forgive you, God will not love you, you
should run and hide. But you have the
answer for the Evil One: Be gone, Satan,
for Christ is my champion. The Risen
Savior has claimed me, and so your lies mean nothing to me. I trust in the voice of the One who has won
the battle for me, today, and forever and ever, Amen.
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