Curious King

Reflections on 1 Sam. 17:55-18:1

Saul asked the same question of two different people at two different times. First, he asked Abner while watching David going out to meet Goliath, “Whose son is this youth?” Second, he asked David when he returned from striking down the Philistine, “Whose son are you, young man?” He may not have been asking for the same reason each time.

FOOLISH. The first time, he may have been thinking, “This is crazy. He’s only a kid, and he’s going to get slaughtered by that veteran Philistine (see 17:33). I’m going to have to notify his dad that he got killed.” Then he turned and asked, “Abner, whose kid is this?”

NAÏVE. Or he may have been thinking something like this the first time. “This kid is naïve, but I like his pluck. If he harasses the Philistine and somehow survives to grow into a suit of armor and to learn to wield a sword, he’d make a good recruit” (see 17:38-39). Turning to Abner, he asked, “Whose kid is this?”

VALIANT. The second time Saul asked the question, David was returning with Goliath’s head in his hand. Then Saul may have been thinking, “He isn’t just plucky. He’s valiant and lucky too. I’m going to have to make his dad’s family free from taxation” (see 17:24). Then Saul said to David, “Young man, whose son are you?”

What kind of faith do people see in you? Do they think it nothing more than foolish talk? Do they think that you are merely naïve and that experience of real life will destroy your idealism? Or do they see that you live your faith even in difficult circumstances and that you come through those trials even stronger in faith?

(I place the killing of Goliath before David is introduced to Saul as a “man of valor, a man of war” (1 Sam. 16:18), before Saul sent to Jesse to ask that he be relieved of his duties with the sheep and be sent to him (1 Sam. 16:19-20), and before he had become familiar with armor and weapons as Saul’s armor-bearer (1 Sam. 16:21).)