David, Goliath and Advent

Dr. Michael Browder, Pastor
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I Samuel 17:4-11,40-51

How can you prove that the Bible is true? One hundred and fifty years ago, the majority of the secular scholars of the Bible believed that most of the names and places in the Old Testament were fiction, that the Bible authors had made up these names as a kind of religious allegory.

What do I mean when I say “secular” Bible scholars? I mean those professors who study and teach the Bible, but who treat it like any other book. They do not believe that anything miraculous can be true. Therefore, any miraculous event in the Bible must be made up. I am sorry to say that most of the Bible scholars in the world today are secular scholars. Certainly not all, but most.

How can we answer the claim that the Bible is not true? How can we prove that the places and people mentioned in the Old Testament really existed? You answer: “Well it says so right there in the Bible.” The secular scholar answers: “You can’t use that as proof, because that is the very thing we are debating. You need some external proof - some witness besides the Bible to back up what it says if you want us to accept it as history.”

Fortunately, such proof does exist. It comes in the form of archeology. Archeology is the answer to that first generation of secular scholars. During the past 150 years, archeologists have dug up hundreds of cities and thousands of original documents from Bible times.

I am proud to say that I was trained as a Biblical archeologist. I actually participated in the excavation of a New Testament site: the City of Caesarea Maritima where the Apostle Paul was imprisoned on his way to be sent to Rome. We discovered the very buildings where Paul would have stayed. We also discovered Christian catacombs in a church that had taken over a pagan temple that had belonged to an ancient god called Mithra.

Nowadays, as a United Methodist pastor, I am required to receive continuing education each year. And so, every year, I attend the annual convention of Bible scholars. I hear papers read on the very latest topics in Biblical studies and theology. That is where I was last Sunday. And so, today, I want to tell you about the very latest in Bible study.

In the past, the hot topics at the Bible scholars’ conference have included: the burial box of Jesus’ brother James, the Hebrew alphabet, the Da Vinci code, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. This year the hot topic is King David.

A couple of weeks ago, there was an announcement made by an archeologist in Israel. He had been digging at Elah, where David fought Goliath. The announcement said that a young volunteer had found a broken piece of pottery, a shard that contains the oldest Hebrew writing ever found. It is nearly a thousand years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. [Books get lost.] The script is so old that it comes from a time when you couldn’t tell the difference between Hebrew and Canaanite writing. We can tell that it is Hebrew, however, because of the vocabulary. [Show Canaanite writing.]

The fragment they found recently is very hard to translate, but they have identified a couple of words. One is the word “king.” We know that David was actually the king of Israel at the time when this artifact was written. So it’s very exciting. We know that our scripture today in I Samuel was written by an eyewitness to the life of King David. Now we know what the writing looked like at the time it was written. Also, the recent discovery adds to the proof that David built and ruled over major cities. The description of his vast kingdom was not something made up by the author. As a matter of fact, the oldest example of Hebrew that we had prior to this discovery was a fragment that mentioned “The House of David.”

The David story has been enhanced by another archeological discovery recently. An expedition in nearby Gath, the home of the Philistine giant Goliath, actually found a text with the name Goliath. This was the first time we had discovered that name written outside the Bible. Once again it proves, from an external source, that what the Bible said was true.

One more note of interest: You know about the Dead Sea Scrolls (a copy of the Bible from the time of Jesus, discovered 60 years ago)? Did you know that in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the Book of Psalms, there are not just 150 Psalms, as there are in our Bible? The Dead Sea Scrolls actually add one psalm: the 151 st Psalm. (We talked about this when we learned about the Apocrypha.) Get this: the 151 st Psalm is about David and Goliath. (I’m telling you: This is the hottest topic in Biblical studies right now.)

Now, you ask me: What has all this got to do with Advent? Isn’t this the first Sunday in Advent? Didn’t we move communion up to November because Advent starts today? Didn’t we light the Advent candle? What do David and Goliath have to do with Advent?

My answer is: Plenty! In Advent, we look forward to the coming of Jesus. In fact, the word “advent” means “coming.” In this season, we look at the prophesies in the Old Testament, which point to the coming of Jesus. One of the most important prophesies is: Jesus will be a king descended from the royal line of David. The “House of David” and the kingship of David are two of the most important themes of Advent. As a descendent of the Davidic line, Jesus, the Messiah, is sometimes called the “Son of David.”

David is the Old Testament type of a king who points the way to Jesus. Christ is our “King of kings” and “Lord of lords.” When we read the ancient documents about the “servant of the King,” we remember that we, too, as followers of Christ are servants of the King.

Goliath also offers a lesson for Advent. God’s people were being killed by Goliath and his army. They were being defeated. They lacked hope. Hope is the foremost message from God to us during Advent. Jesus came to bring hope to a world lost in darkness. Because of Christ, who came to us during Advent, we have hope. Even our worst enemy cannot defeat us! Because Jesus Christ, from the House of David, has overcome our enemy and given us the victory of his salvation.

David was the unexpected boy who saved and delivered his people. Jesus, the baby boy born in Bethlehem, also saved and delivered his people. And we are the ones who are saved by the King of the House of David. Advent is about salvation.

David was able to overcome Goliath because God was with him. Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” Because Christ is with us, we can overcome the problems we face – even if they are giants.

Advent is the season of preparation. We prepare for the coming of Jesus. Here David also sets an example for us. David has God with him because he has prepared himself to have God with him. He prepared himself physically – he put his life in order. And he prepared himself spiritually to totally trust God and to walk close to the Lord without fear.

Advent is the time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. Let us put our lives in order to receive the Christ. Today we are receiving Holy Communion. What better time could you find to prepare your heart and life to receive Jesus Christ, to let him come into your life?

This is the season of hope. Hope! Here we are in the center of Hopewell. I don’t know how our city got its name, but I love it. Jesus Christ is about hope. And we can hope well because of him. Let us proclaim that message this season. There is hope and there is hope in Hopewell because of Jesus Christ . . . prophesied by the Old Testament, who came to us in this season long ago, and who still comes into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Let us worship him in this season. May we pray together:

Dear God, thank you for the Coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Thank you for the season of Advent when we prepare for his coming. May we be inspired by the people and the prophesies of the Old Testament. Just as David trusted God, and the Lord was with him, so may we trust in Jesus Christ and know him as our Savior, Immanuel, God-with-us. Amen.