David is presented as a king who upholds the law, defeats God’s enemies, rules with justice, shows grace to sinners, and speaks to God. He is a king who walks in God’s ways. Jesus indeed spoke truthfully when he said that the Old Testament Scriptures pointed forward to him (Luke 24:25–27, Luke 24:44–47). The apostle Peter spoke truthfully when he said that David wrote and spoke of the Christ (Acts 2:25–36). David prefigured Christ in his actions and in the life that he lived. Christ who would come to restore and reclaim what was lost and share his spoil.
Exiled from the Garden, Adam had lost his home. He lost his original righteousness and holiness. He lost the ability to keep God’s commandments. He lost access to God and the right to live in God’s presence. Death and suffering was his future and that of all his descendants. But then came the King, the Bruiser who was promised in Genesis 3:15, the One who would bind the strong man and plunder his house (Mark 3:27), the Servant who sets the captives free (Luke 4:18). Willingly the Son took on our flesh and entered our world. He who was rich became poor (2 Corinthians 8:9), giving his life to rescue God’s people, and bearing the burden of God’s wrath—he came to ensure that we do not have to pay the penalty we deserve for our sins by delivering us from eternal suffering.
Like David, Jesus did not come to simply reclaim what was lost. No, he also brings spoil, he brings new gifts and riches. In other words, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection take us beyond Eden. As Christians, we are not merely restored to a place where we are merely given another chance to obey and do the work that Adam failed to do. Our slates are not wiped clean so that we can now earn our way to heaven. No, in Jesus there is spoil—the plunder of his active obedience and the perfect life that he lived which is imputed to us through faith. It is deemed to be our life, as if we had lived it ourselves, and it is a life that brings us into the new creation. We receive the reward that was offered to Adam: eternal life in God’s presence without any trials or any possibility of death. in the new creation we will have an imperishable body, a body like that of our Saviour. This is what our King has done for us. He restores what was lost and gives us a share in the spoil. He is beautiful and lovely, and we rejoice to be his bride.
1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire