There were only a few things that were at least historically accurate in the Veggie Tales film, "David and the Giant Pickle." They were accurate with David being a shepherd. In the film, it said that David only had three brothers, but the film did not give their names (they were Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah). David actually had seven brothers (Jesse had eight sons including David), and the three aforementioned brothers were the oldest (I Samuel 17:12b-14a). They also remained accurate with David's father's name being Jesse. Another way in which the film was not accurate was that in it, Jesse had informed his sons that the Philistines were attacking. However, all we know is that Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul into battle (I Samuel 17:14b), so we are left to assume that they were either already enlisted in Saul's army or that they followed Saul to battle on their own accord.
In the film, while the Israelite and Philistine armies were in their battle formations, a Philistine soldier had proposed the idea that one of Israel's champions should battle their champion, and whoever loses becomes the winner's slaves. In the text, it was Goliath himself who proposed the idea (I Samuel 17:3-4, 8-9), not a random Philistine soldier. However, I was surprised that the film was accurate with Goliath doing this routine for 40 days (I Samuel 17:16). They were also accurate with David arriving just in time of Goliath enacting his usual routine when David arrived to give the field commander and his brothers food, setting him up to hearing Goliath's outbursts (I Samuel 17:17-19, 20b). In the film David reminds the Israelites that they're children of God, but in the text he simply says, " 'What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God' " (I Samuel 17:26)? While it would be nice to read in the text that David reminded the Israelites that they're children of God, it is not scripturally accurate, and we must remain faithful to the text.
Continuing on with the plot of the film, David tells King Saul that he'll fight Goliath. Although the wording in the film differs widely from the text, the confidence portrayed from David in both sources, I believe, are equal. King Saul then says that David can't fight Goliath because he's too small. However, in the text, Saul simply comments on David's youth and that Goliath has been a warrior since he was young (I Samuel 17:33). So we can conclude from this statement in the text that Saul doubted David simply because of his inexperience as a soldier, not because of his size. We must also remember that an unnamed individual described David to Saul as "a warrior" (I Samuel 16:18). David obviously had inner characteristics of a warrior, even though Saul (and everybody else) couldn't see it. Then again, an evil spirit was sent upon Saul (I Samuel 16:14), so Saul's judgement and spiritual vision was probably extremely minimal at this point. Next, in the film, Saul had David put his own armour on so that people would think it was King Saul out there and David took the armour off because it was too big, but we don't read that in the text. In the text we simply read that Saul put his own military clothes on David and that David couldn't walk in them because he wasn't used to them (I Samuel 17:38-39), and the text never says Saul did this so David would be mistaken for him. We are left to assume from this that David was actually in similar size to King Saul. However, because of his inexperience as a soldier, he was not used to wearing heavy armour, so he preferred to go out in his shepherds clothing.
A few more things in the film are accurate with the text where David goes down to the ravine and picks five smooth stones, comes against Goliath in the name of the God of Israel, and takes out Goliath with one smooth stone, but the accuracy ends there, and with good reason. I'll explain: In the film the rock hits Goliath's head and he gets knocked out. In the text, the rock sinks into Goliath's forehead; David kills Goliath with his own sword, and then cuts off his head (I Samuel 17:50-51). This detail of Goliath's death is inaccurate with good reason because Veggie Tales is a children's film; kids don't need to know the gory details of Goliath's death and see the violence on film. At this point in a child's life, it is simply important for them to know that David defeated Goliath because God was with him.
The film concludes with their message, Matthew 19:26, " '…with God all things are possible.' " The character, Bob the Tomato, said that this means that anything God wants us to do, we can do it through Him. This is true to an extent, but that's not the message of David and Goliath. The message is not, "little people can do big things too" (that was the message the creators of Veggie Tales wanted to portray, verbatim from their synopsis of the film). I understand how they got that message, but that was not the point of David's existence and it was certainly not the reason why God was with David. The film is not very faithful to the text, and it is definitely not faithful to the message in any regard. When you examine the text, you can see a Christology (esp. I Samuel 17:34-37). This Christology is explained in the prior blog entry, "David Points Toward Christ," but I will conclude by saying that this event of David's life points to Christ and the film never mentioned Christ once, which is odd since they quoted from Jesus in the book of Matthew. Now that I think about it, I don't think any Veggie Tales film ever mentions Christ.
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