In episode 16 of In Light of the Cross, we dig into David as a central Old Testament figure who powerfully points to Jesus. Using David and Goliath as our launching pad, we push back on the usual “be brave like David” take and instead read the story as salvation: Israel needs a substitute, and God wins through apparent weakness—foreshadowing Christ’s victory over sin and death at the cross, a victory shared with his people.

We also explore how the battle has a spiritual-warfare backdrop, including connections to the Nephilim and the “giants” tradition. From there we trace David’s kingdom as a glimpse of what could be, his great sin with Bathsheba, and God’s forgiveness, showing why we still need the true Anointed One and the everlasting kingdom fulfilled in Jesus.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

01:06 Why David Matters

02:14 David Points to Christ

02:57 Rethinking David and Goliath

03:47 Victory Through Weakness

05:36 Nephilim and Spiritual War

09:00 Cross as Cosmic Victory

10:14 Kingdom Glory and Fall

11:18 Promise Fulfilled in Jesus

12:20 Wrap Up and Prayer

Alright.

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Welcome to day 17 or episode 17 of.

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In light of the cross, our podcast where

we are trying to understand everything

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in light of the cross and in particular,

we've been focusing a lot the past three

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weeks on the Old Testament and how that

can be understood only in light of the

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cross of Jesus Christ and what he's doing.

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So today we're coming to one of the

highlights of the Old Testament,

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and that is the story of David.

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let's just begin with the word of

prayer praying that we'll be able to,

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to include the right things we will all

be able to receive them in the right way.

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so let's talk about David.

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Nathan.

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What's the one story everybody

knows about this guy?

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Oh, David and Goliath, baby.

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David and Goliath.

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Right.

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And we've heard that so

many times that I think.

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We may not get all that's

happening there with that story.

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And I'd like to use that kind of as

a launching pad to talk about David.

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Okay, sure.

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, Can I set us up with a little

bit of a canonical context?

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Yeah, go for it.

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So we left off with Ruth and then we

saw that her great grandson was David.

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And then after Ruth comes First

and Second Samuel and One Second

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Kings and One Second Chronicles.

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And really, um, in, in these books of the

Bible, God is telling the story of this

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kingdom that is emerging in the center.

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Central peace or person

of this is King David.

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No, yeah, that's good.

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Because David really is what everything

in a sense has been pointing towards.

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And then the rest of these stories

of the kings after this are.

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Kind of the follow up to that.

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Some lived up to David's

standards and most of them didn't.

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Uh, some lived up to them for a

while and then even when you get into

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the prophets, they talk about the

kingdom of David is still to come.

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So he's very much the central

figure of the Old Testament,

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maybe with the exception of Moses.

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but just like with Moses and the others,

he's still not the one who's gonna crush

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the, the, the head of the serpent, right?

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He has his own moral failings but

in this sense, he's an archetype

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who's pointing to the Christ.

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He is anointed by the prophet Samuel.

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Which is where we get that Greek

word, uh, christas, which means

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that the anointed one or the Hebrew

word macia, where we get Messiah.

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So he is this anointed one, but he

is not the anointed one, so to speak.

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Exactly.

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There is no figure in the Old Testament

that begins to come close to David

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in pointing towards Jesus Christ.

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He's the anointed, and again, the

Greek word is Christos or Christ.

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and there are so many parallels between.

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David and Jesus, we can't go into 'em all.

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But even the, the Psalms he writes,

so many of them find their fulfillment

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in Jesus, not just in David's life.

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Yeah.

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So one of the first things we see about

David though is his story of David and

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Goliath, and I've heard so many sermons.

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And seen so many kids' movies about

this, where the emphasis is on how

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great and brave David was and how

he's a model or an example to us.

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by trusting God you can face all the

giants in your life and all that.

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Wasn't that, uh, facing the Giants

movie kinda, uh, probably you

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remember that one football movie.

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And let me tell you, uh,

yeah, that's all bunk.

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That's not what the story is about.

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He is courageous, but

maybe he is courageous.

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Not the main point there.

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No.

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And the main point is not that we are

to follow David's example necessarily.

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Remember the, the scripture is a

story of God and what he is doing.

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God and not David is always

gonna be the hero of this story.

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I like what Tim Keller writes

here in his book, preaching.

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He said, if I read the story of David

and Goliath as basically giving me an

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example, then it's really about me.

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I must sum up the faith.

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Encouraged to fight the giants in my life.

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But if I think of the Bible as being

about the Lord and his salvation, and if

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I read the David and Goliath text in that

light, it throws many things into relief.

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The very point of the passage

was that the Israelites could

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not face the giants themselves.

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They needed a substitute who turned out

to be not a strong person, but a weak one.

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Remember, David is still a boy, and

God uses to deliver his weakness

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as the very means to bring about

the destruction of Goliath.

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David triumphs through weakness

and his victory is imputed

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To his people in his triumph.

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They triumph.

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How can one not recognize Jesus?

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In this story?

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Jesus faced the ultimate

giants sin and death.

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Not at the risk of his life, but at the

cost of his life, but a triumph through

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his weakness, and now his triumph is ours.

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His victory is imputed to us.

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Wow.

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Yeah, that's good stuff.

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I just had to include that.

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Again, that's from Timothy Keller

in his book called Preaching is

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a chapter there about preaching

Christ from every part of the Bible.

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That's good.

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That's good.

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I was reading David, uh, this story of

David and Goliath a few months ago and

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was just struck by even David's language.

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It's all attributed to God.

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I mean, David recognizes he doesn't

have any strength in and of himself.

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But my God.

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And you'll see Goliath, that

the God of Israel is stronger

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than you and your gods, right?

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Yeah.

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I mean, if you read it in context,

not only David's words, but kind

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of the whole background of this,

this is a spiritual warfare battle.

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This isn't just about some

kid facing a physical giant.

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Goliath is linked to.

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The Nephilim all the

way back to Genesis six.

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Ooh.

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Say more about that.

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What are those?

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Okay.

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Well, in Genesis six, you

have what I think is a story.

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I mean, there's different ways of

interpreting this of some sort of

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angelic being to fall, uh, into

sin and take human wives and says,

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the offspring of this are nephi.

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And the word means fallen ones.

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It describes them as somehow

being opposed to God's work.

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And part of what they're doing, brings

about the, the destruction of the flood.

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So God's judgment is part of this, but

then it says the Nephilim were on the

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earth in those days and also afterwards.

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So did this happen again or did some

of them survive the flood in some way?

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We're not told about that,

but there is still Nephilim.

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Afterwards, and they are

linked in one passage.

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I think it's, in, numbers to the, to

the giants in the land of Israel, the

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children of Rafa or the descendants

of Rafa, the Raphaelites and Goliath

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and his family are linked to that And

I think it's Second Chronicles one

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and are linked to that in one of the

descriptions in the Old Testament.

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it's not that the Philistines were

all giants, but some of those Nephilim

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giants, the children of Rafa or or

Anana Kites, children of Anec were

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still around and they apparently

assimilated into the Philistine army.

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So when you read it against that backdrop,

you've got this theological stream from

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the line of Seth and Noah and Abraham and

all this, all the way to David, right?

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And then you've got this other

lineage that comes really from um,

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half bred, how do you say this?

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Uh, children of fallen angels and humans.

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Yeah.

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And basically their sin was to

rebel against God by refusing

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their rightful place and creating

this, half breed between.

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Humans and angelic beings, which was

a violation of God's created order.

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So in a sense, they're doing

the same thing as Adam and Eve.

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They're just doing it in a

different and more cosmic sense.

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They're rejecting the place that God

put them in and reaching for more.

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And so, again, the main point is that

there is this spiritual battle between

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these often unseen forces against

God who influence human behavior.

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And, and God's plan and God's purpose.

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So the story of David and the

story of David and Goliath is

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really a story of salvation.

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Over God's enemies, which finds its

ultimate fulfillment in Jesus defeating

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the enemies of God at the cross.

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Hmm.

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I love this.

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It's, it's not that, um, redemption kind

of payment angle of what Christ is doing,

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um, or even that, imputed righteousness

onto humans as much as it's that.

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Victory, like God wins in the story.

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Yes.

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David knows it.

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He says it, he's like,

man, I'm gonna kill you.

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And, uh, you'll see that God,

our God is be bigger and better

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than yours and he does it.

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And then, uh, there's, there's

victory in Israel and that points

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to what Christ does and overcoming,

having victory over sin and death.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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If you remember.

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Way back at the beginning, we talked

about sin as breaking the commands,

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and so God justifies us through Christ.

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We talked about it.

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as betraying or breaking the relationship

between God and us, and you have words

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like redemption and the temple imagery

to talk about God restoring that.

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We talk about forfeiting the

life God, desire for us to have.

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And we see again that restoration or

redemption theme running through that.

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Mm-hmm.

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God's restoring us to that through

the price he pays of redemption.

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And then it's also siding with God's

enemies and becoming enslaved to them.

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And the cross is also the work by which

God defeats those enemies through apparent

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weakness and shares that victory with us.

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Hmm.

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So there is the, the victory of God.

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That's a beautiful and

hope giving statement.

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Yeah, it is.

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Even though we continue to experience

the effects of the fall, ultimately.

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God wins.

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Yep.

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And Revelation 21, right.

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There will be a day where no more pain

or tears or suffering, um, will occur

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because those things are associated

with sin and death, and that is undone

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by the victory of Christ in the cross.

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Right.

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So David defeats Goliath and then

goes on to establish a kingdom.

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Yeah, he does.

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And it's almost like a, a

small glimpse of what could be.

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Hmm.

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For a little while, it has such glory.

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You know, David is there.

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He's proven a true shepherd to his people.

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God is blessing his people.

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Giving them rest on every side from their

enemies for a little while is perfect.

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And then David Sins greatly by

taking Bathsheba, committing

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an adultery with her, arranging

for her husband to be murdered.

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And, eventually God forgives.

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Right.

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God is a God of forgiveness.

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Dave still points towards Christ,

but now he points to Christ more

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by contrast, because he was not

able to do all that he should do.

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He's still carrying this, uh, sin,

DNA, which is some point is gonna

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come out even in the best of people.

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That's why we need a new kind of humanity

through a new and second Adam Jesus.

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And when Jesus arrives on the scene,

the first words out of his mouth in

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the gospel of Matthew are repent for

the kingdom of heaven has come near.

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Yeah.

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So you see, even what Jesus is

doing, is framed in language of, in

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the language of the kingdom, right?

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Uh, that place where God rules and

all has come under the authority

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and perfection of King Jesus.

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So that's a really.

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Really strong connection there.

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Yeah, it is.

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It says that the promise that God

gave to David was that a descendant

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from your own body, so your own

biological lineage would sit on the

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throne forever, and that is fulfilled

in Jesus, a different kind of kingdom.

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But yeah, it is a kingdom and we are

saved to be brought into that kingdom

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and share his victory with him.

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So you've preached an entire

sermon series on the life of David.

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Yeah.

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There's so much more depth here.

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Yeah, there's like 14 weeks or something,

you know, but we are just tracing

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that theme that when you view these

stories in light of the cross, we

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see that God is continually faithful.

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moving all of creation toward a particular

point that is, consummated in Christ

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in his life and death and resurrection.

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And so, we hope you all as listeners have

been recognizing this and growing in your

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appreciation that the work of God doesn't

begin when Jesus of Nazareth comes on the

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scene, but has roots far deeper than that.

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And really it's, um, I love

the title of Egg Clown's book.

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That it is this unfolding mystery.

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Yeah.

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That through Abraham and Isaac and

Jacob and Joseph and, um, all, you

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know, the judges and their various

ways of comparison and contrast, and

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Ruth and now David, we see the work

of God at hand and it's, it's an

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image that is becoming clearer and

clearer and focus and points to Jesus.

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Yep.

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It's a story of God's redemptive

work within this world in cosmos, and

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it's centered around Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Yeah,

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I think for a word of application or

a time of reflection, maybe the only

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thing appropriate today is to simply

thank God, to think about the depth

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of his salvation, the breadth of what

it does, and to just thank him, to

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celebrate that, to claim it for your life.

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And to walk as someone who's

been redeemed or brought into

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his kingdom sharing his victory.

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So why don't I take a few minutes

right now, ask God to just show

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you what this means in your life.

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Let's conclude with the prayer that

our king Jesus taught us to pray.

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Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread

and forgive us our debts as we

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also have forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

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Amen.