David the beast killer

The Presbyteer has written several times about the role of beasts in the Bible. Specifically, he has commented on the relationship between beasts and mankind. A quick summary:

• Adam was obedient to a beast, lost his dominion, and then was clothed like a beast and had to toil in the fields like a beast.
• Having lost his dominion over beasts, in his idolatry man worships images of beasts.
• When kings exalt themselves instead of submitting themselves to God's kingship, they become like beasts (e.g. Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel).
• When the Israelites were entering Caanan, God's people drove out (or were at least supposed to drive out) the beastly people that were there. However, they were to do this gradually so the land wouldn't be filled with wild beasts (i.e. replacing beasts with beasts instead of replacing beasts with men).
• When they are unfaithful in the land, they are re-subjected to beasts in the form of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
• Christ came to crush the head of the beast (i.e. the serpent) to restore, among other things obviously, man's dominion over beasts. Through Christ's work, man is re-humanized and restored to what he was created to be, including a ruler over beasts.

OK, so with that in mind, listen to what David says in 1 Samuel 17:34-37:

³⁴But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. ³⁶Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God." ³⁷And David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you!"

While it is cool to imagine David grabbing a bear by the beard and then killing it with primitive weaponry, I think God may be including these details for reasons greater than that. Keep reading…

When David came on the scene, Goliath was, in a sense, a king ruling over the armies of God. In the description found in vv. 5-7, we learn that he is arrayed like a king, with bronze and iron for his garments. He called the Israelites to send a man to be defeated by the king/beast, that the Israelites might become his servants (vv. 8-10). By killing one man, sent from God's people, Goliath the king/beast expected that he would have dominion over God's chosen race.

Enter David. Seeing the king/beast for the first time, he asks "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" God's anointed servant (1 Sam 16:13) overcomes the beast, even using Goliath's own sword to cut his head off. The beast/king is destroyed. God's people are freed from his tyranny, and they worship David and sing praises to him (1 Sam 18:6-7).

Christ, the beast killer foretold in Genesis 3, comes onto the scene many years later. From the house of David, named as God's anointed, he overcomes the beast. In fact, he even kills it with its own weapon; namely, death. Through the death of one man, God's people are freed from the beast's tyranny. Thus, they will praise the beast killer forever.