David - episode 4

In the last post we told about Saul and his three sons’ death in the battle of Gilboa, against the Philistines. We now begin the second Book of Samuel to read the rest of the story. David has not participated to the fight and, knowing its result, he does not exult for his opponent’s end and cries for his sad fate. «Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. In their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet delicately, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places. I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!». David is anointed king by the tribe of Judah and, years later, also by Israel northern tribes that remained faithful to Abner, Saul’s captain, and to Ishbosheth, another of Saul’s sons who was still alive. Both Abner and Ishbosheth will be killed by treachery, without David’s approval. David cries for them as he did for Saul. Now the kingdom reunites under the son of Jesse’s authority; it needs a new capital, which David conquers: the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. David brings there God’s ark with dancing and music. He himself, clothed with a priestly linen ephod, leaps and dances before the Lord. Michal, Saul’s daughter and David’s wife, was returned to him by Abner some time before. She despises her husband for that behavior, in her opinion not suitable for a king. «David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of the LORD, over Israel. therefore I will celebrate before the LORD. I will be yet more vile than this, and will be base in my own sight. [...]”. Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death».

 

 

«It happened, when the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies all around, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with you.” It happened the same night, that the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Shall you build me a house for me to dwell in? For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”‘ Now therefore you shall tell my servant David this, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people, over Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth. I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first, and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD tells you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”’”». The Lord’s promise overturns the king’s intention; he will not build a house for God, but God will provide a household to David. This will be achieved in part with Solomon’s reign: he will build the great Temple of Jerusalem. The prophecy, however, will become the cue for the expectation of a definitive consecrated person from God: the Messiah. For the Christians that promise was fulfilled with Jesus’ coming, for he belongs to David’s offspring through Joseph his father. The Hebrews are still awaiting the Lord’s Messiah.

David’s kingdom grows stronger as «The LORD gave victory to David wherever he went». The king decides to honor his friend Jonathan’s memory admitting his crippled son at his own table and giving him back Saul’s properties. To spoil that time of prosperity comes David’s great sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. We will discuss it in the next posts.