Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2913
“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David.” 1 Samuel 17:50.
A CAREFUL reading of the whole chapter will well repay your pains. I have selected a verse for convenience, but I need the entire narrative for a text. If you are well versed in the history, we shall have no need of any preface or translation. So we shall proceed at once to regard David in his conflict with Goliath and his victory over him, first, as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, secondly, as an example for ourselves. As that which is a type of the head always bears a relationship to the members and, as the members of Christ’s mystical body now are and shall yet more fully be like Him, it is but one thought, after all, that we shall be following out in the meditation that lies before us.
I. Let us begin by calling your attention to the fact that David in this matter WAS A TYPE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
The early fathers of the Church were very great in opening up typical analogies. So full, indeed, were they in their expositions and so minute in their details, that at length they went too far and degenerated into trifling. Origen, for example, very notably exceeded what can be regarded as wise interpretation in giving spiritual meanings to literal records. And others who essayed to go yet farther than that great master of mysticism, very soon did much damage to the Church of God, bringing precious Truths of God into serious discredit. The study of the types of the Old Testament has scarcely regained its proper place in the Christian Church since the days in which those gracious men, by their imprudent zeal, perverted it. We cannot, however, bring ourselves to think that a good thing ceases to be good because it has, at some time, been turned to an ill account. We think it can still be used properly and profitably. Within certain limits, then— limits, we suppose, which there is little danger of transgressing in these mechanical, dry times—the types and the allegories of Holy Scripture may be used as a handbook of instruction—a vade mecum of sound Doctrine.
By the common consent of Evangelical Christians, David is seen to be an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. With regard to this particular transaction let us note, at the outset, that before he fought with Goliath, David was anointed of God. Samuel had gone down to Bethlehem and poured a horn of oil upon his head. The parallel will readily occur to you. Thus has the Lord found out for Himself one whom He has chosen out of the people. With His holy oil has He anointed him. Upon Saul’s head a small amount of oil was poured—upon David’s head a full horn of oil. This may, perhaps, be designed to contrast the brevity and scant renown of Saul’s reign with the length, power and excellence of the reign of David. Or, being interpreted spiritually, it may denote that the Law, the old Judaism of which Saul is the type, had but a limited measure of blessing, while that of the Gospel, which David represents, is characterized by its abounding fullness. Jesus, the antitype of David, is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows! Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. The Spirit was not given by measure to Him.
David was anointed several times. He was anointed, as you read in the chapter preceding our text, “in the midst of his brothers”—anointed, as you find in 2 Samuel 2:4, by his brethren, the men of Judah—and anointed again, as you will observe in 2 Samuel 5:3, by all the elders of Israel. We will not go into that, now, but it will suffice us to note that our Lord was anointed of God, is anointed of His saints and shall be anointed of the whole Church. The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and it was in the power of that Spirit with which He was anointed of the Father, that He went forth
to fight the great battles of His Church. At His Baptism, coming up out of the Jordan, He was anointed by the Spirit as it rested upon Him, descending out of Heaven like a dove—and straightway He went, as He was driven into the wilderness, and held that notable forty-days’ conflict with the arch-fiend, the great adversary of souls! His battles were in the spirit and power of the Highest, for the might and majesty of the Eternal Spirit rested upon Him.
See how the correspondence goes on. Our Lord was sent by His Father to His brethren. As David was sent by Jesse to his brethren with suitable presents and comfortable words in order to commune with them, even so, in the fullness of time, was our Lord commissioned to visit His brethren. He remained concealed for a while in the house of His reputed father, but afterwards He came forth and was distinctly recognized as the Sent One of God, bearing countless gifts in His hands, coming on an mission of mercy and of love from God to those whom He was not ashamed to call His brethren. We have read how David was treated. His brethren did not receive him lovingly. They answered his unaffected kindness with unprovoked rudeness—they laid bitter things to his charge. How truly does this answer to the manner in which our Lord, the Son of David, was abused! He came unto His own and His own received Him not. Though He came to them with words of tenderness, they replied to Him with words of scorn. For His blessings they gave Him curses. For the bread of Heaven they gave Him stones and for the benedictions of Heaven they gave Him the spite of earth, the maledictions of