Bully’s Blog

or The Holy Headbutt - 2

How smart is this Book?

As discussed, if we begin with Saul’s anointing by Samuel, subsequent events follow the Feasts outline. Saul’s failure to kill Amalek is at Pentecost and his failure to defeat Goliath is at Atonement.

BUT… if we begin with David’s secret anointing by Samuel, subsequent events also follow the Feasts. This time, however, David’s slaying of Goliath is at Pentecost (the serpent/beast in the wilderness). Guess what’s at Atonement?

GENESIS/SABBATH
Jesse’s seven eldest sons are rejected.
David, the eighth, is anointed by Samuel
(David glorified) 

EXODUS/PASSOVER
David receives the Spirit, but Saul receives an evil spirit
(Substitutionary death)

LEVITICUS/FIRSTFRUITS
David shepherds Jesse’s sheep, and feeds his brothers in the “wilderness”.
Riches, the king’s daughter and a house of freedom are promised [1]
(Tabernacle and Covenant)

NUMBERS/PENTECOST
Saul’s army is paralysed by fear in the “wilderness”.
After 40 days of taunts, David kills Goliath, the serpent
(The first generation’s failure in the wilderness) 

DEUTERONOMY/TRUMPETS
The Land is reclaimed and the Philistines are plundered.
David lives permanently in the king’s house.
Jonathan becomes his brother by Covenant.
Jonathan gives David his robe. David is set over the men of war
(The next generation summoned/offertory) 

JOSHUA/ATONEMENT
David escapes Saul’s spear (resurrection).
He misses out on Saul’s elder daughter.
David kills two hundred Philistines and marries
Saul’s younger daughter, Michal
(Substitutionary death)

JUDGES/TABERNACLES
David has more success than Saul against
the Philistines, and his name is highly esteemed.
Saul is publicly rejected.
(David glorified) 

I’m not sure of the significance of David’s double payment. There are a number of instances where double payment was required under the Law, including the cost of freeing a faithful slave. Perhaps that was part of David’s message.

But there is also this “High Priest” image as well. David slaughtered the head of the Philistines, and now he symbolically slaughtered the body. The gruesome “plunder” was actually counted out, a substitutionary payment of Philistine flesh for Michal, but in reality a substitution for the life of David himself by the power of the Lord.

David’s gruesome action is a payback for Saul’s gruesome (and intentionally murderous) request. Perhaps it is similar to the taunts that Ezekiel hurls at the rulers of Judah, calling them names like Tyre, Sidon, Egypt (Jordan observes that the “King of Tyre” covered in gems in the garden of God is the apostate High Priest). Each of Ezekiel’s taunts ends with the curse upon the offenders to lie with the uncircumcised in Sheol — hardly a curse for uncircumcised Gentiles. Saul was now enthroned amongst forty-by-five filthy Philistine foreskins.

The substitution of David for Saul occurs at Tabernacles. David is presented as the true High Priest/King of Israel, and Saul for his double failure is condemned to die the death of the uncircumcised, in a double payback for his “service”.[2] Gentile sojourners were not allowed to celebrate Passover, but they were invited to celebrate Tabernacles with the Israelites. This passage perhaps makes Saul a very tall, spear-throwing Gentile sojourner, for his failure to judge God’s enemies. This was David’s party in many ways. As a righteous and wise judge, David was (ominously for Saul) lifted up as the head of Israel. And Saul, like Eglon king of Sodom, was symbolically enthroned over his own uncleanness.

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[1] And again, marriage is promised at Ascension and fulfilled at the final Sabbath. In the seven elected Judges we see the same thing: Deborah’s prayer (elected Judge #3) is fulfilled by Samson (sunrise), the mighty bridegroom (#7). See Marriage as a Promise of Wine.

[2] Revelation similarly has a dual feast at the destruction of Herodian worship: the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the feast of the dirty birds. I guess that’s also the picture here. Ew.  ”You want foreskins? I’ll give you foreskins!” reminds me of ”You want meat? I’ll give you meat!”

“…you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. ’You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, ’but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” (from Numbers 11).

If you are interested in how the Feast pattern structures the Bible, you can see it in detail in Totus Christus, and in an introductory format hopefully soon in Bible Matrix.