By: Henry Knapp
The biblical story of David and Goliath is a classic example. Most of us know the general outline of the event—young David faces off against the giant professional soldier, and, in the name of the Lord is victorious. But, what exactly does the text mean? What are we supposed to learn from the story? How does this passage connect to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ?
I recently finished teaching a class on interpreting the Scripture where we looked at the different kinds of writings in the Bible, and some basic principles to keep in mind while reading it. While there are a lot of important things to keep in mind, one key point stands out: the necessity of grasping the overall message of the Bible. If you don’t connect each individual text to the overarching storyline of Christ, you’ve missed the point.
This is not as simplistic as it sounds. For eighteen hundred years the importance of understanding the overall message was assumed by biblical readers—each individual verse helps build the whole story. But, today, modern scholars take just the opposite approach. They assume that each story stands alone; that the only way to truly understand what a biblical passage is saying is to separate it from the theological “baggage” of the rest of the Bible, and view it on its own. For instance, the Old Testament sacrificial system teaches us about the early worship practices of the Israelites, but says nothing about the eventual sacrifice of Christ. Or, the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite people by the will of God in the book of Joshua speaks simply of the Israelite belief that their God was more powerful than other gods, and says nothing about the holiness and sanctification of the people of God in heaven.
I would like to encourage you to read the Bible differently. Though a trustworthy testimony to history, the Bible is not intended to give us a history of the Israelite people or of the life of Christ or of the beginnings of the church. Rather, it is intended to speak to us of the history of salvation, i.e., Redemptive History. The overall message of the Bible is that God is glorifying Himself by bringing about the salvation of humanity through history. It’s all about the plan of Jesus being our Savior! The reason God chose to communicate with us in the Scripture is to reveal His holy character and deep love to us. Every passage in the Bible, no matter how obscure, speaks of the majesty of God, the breadth of His love, the joy of His creation, the destruction and depravity of sin, the self-sacrificing nature of the Lord’s grace, and the blessedness of our communion with Him as redeemed people. It is only by keeping this over-riding plan in mind that we can properly understand the teachings of the books of the Old Testament or the Epistles of Paul or of Revelation and the Old Testament prophets.
The point of David and Goliath is not to teach us that little people matter or that we can be victorious in God or that we should “kill the giants (of sin) who stand in our way” or even about one’s trust in God—David’s victory over Goliath is one part of an overall message which speaks of God saving His people from sin, despair and destruction. We need to learn how to read and how to teach the Scripture so that the message of God’s love, our sinful rejection of Him, and yet His saving, self-sacrificing grace is clearly shown in each and every passage; that is the gospel message we believe. The Gospel that changes everything.
To the Praise of His Glory, Henry
