“The Past Isn’t Past: The Rise of King David

This sermon is the part of a nine-month series in which we will tell the story of Scripture from Creation to the early Church, using the Narrative Lectionary readings.

2 Samuel 7:1-17

It seems fitting that our lectionary texts right now are dealing with politics. That they are wrestling with what makes for a good leader, but even moreso, that they are wrestling with what kind of political structure is most likely to produce a just society.  The same questions are up for us.  We are at a time of political reorganization. We seem to be moving away from democracy and toward something more frightening and less just. It’s a crucial moment in our history. Similarly, Israel is in the same place in our story for today. They are at a crucial hinge point in their history, on the cusp of reorganizing themselves politically — and not for the better.

Of course this reorganization has happened before for Israel.  In the arc of our story thus far, Israel has gone from being one aged childless couple promised descendants and land to a large dysfunctional clan to a quite large population of people enslaved by an Empire to a liberated group of nomadic people trying to live in covenant with a just God (and failing), to an even larger group of settled folks organized into tribes led by judges, often poorly.  However, the transition point Israel is at right now is probably the most important one in their already long history.

Israel has kind of been a hot mess for awhile. Not only are they experiencing poor leadership, corruption and infighting (which sounds like something ripped from the headlines of today’s Israel), they are also threatened externally by the Philistines, who they have been at war with throughout this entire period of the judges. The Philistines are Israel’s paradigmatic enemy, the ones with whom they seem to be in constant war.  In one of those cruel ironies of history, I found out during my research on the Philistines that even though they have disappeared from history, the name “Palestine” remains as a reminder of their existence — the word etymologically means the “land of the Philistines.” Just one more way in which these stories are not really about the past at all.

Due to all these threats, the people of Israel ask for a king, like other nations have. Such a king, they believe, will rein in the internal infighting and corruption and squash the Philistines. But neither God nor Samuel want a king; both see this request as the people of Israel rejecting their leadership. God tells Samuel to warn them of what having a king will really mean. The king, Samuel says, will conscript your sons into the military, and give your best fields, vineyards and olive groves to his servants. The king will impose a heavy tax on you and force your sons into labor on his farms and your daughters into service in his household.  In fact, the king will enslave you. 

In short, as Mennonite Biblical scholar Ted Grimsrud says, the monarchy will be the exact opposite of God’s political economy. The monarchy will result in wealth concentrating in only a few hands with poverty for the many (in contrast to the idea of each family having its own land on which it can sustain itself). The monarchy will result in the establishment of a permanent standing army and a warrior class — the beginnings of a military industrial complex, you might say (in contrast to a society that trusts in God for its security). The monarchy will result in general conformity with the social patterns of the surrounding nations (instead of being the alternative society God had created from the freed slaves to be a blessing to other nations of the earth).

But the people refuse to listen to Samuel and God. “No!” they say. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles: (I Samuel 8:19-20). When people are afraid, when the world seems threatening, tyranny doesn’t look so bad.  Sound familiar?

God, respecting the free will of the people, allows them to have a king.  The first king, Saul, falls out of favor with God. And then there is David. David, the handsome shepherd with beautiful eyes, according to the Biblical text. David, the underdog warrior with moxie to spare — remember the David v. Goliath story, where this shepherd with no military experience defeats the Philistine champion with his slingshot? Isn’t that every kid’s favorite Bible story? David, who is in love with his God, who is zealous for the Eternal One. David, the gifted poet — the psalms are attributed to him. David and Jonathan — who doesn’t love that story?  And, perhaps most importantly to Israel, David, the military champion. He ends up decisively defeating the Philistines, and soon the are singing his praises. Which brings us to our story for today. Read 2 Samuel 7:1-7.

This passage begins with David finally at rest and settled in his house after his military conquest, and one can imagine much of Israel is feeling the same way. The wars are over, they have won, let peace and prosperity prevail. Perhaps casting about for something to do and perhaps a bit full of himself at this point, David decides that he wants to serve as a kind of benefactor for God. He will build God a house — a real house, not a tent, but a beautiful, grand temple. 

Throughout history, rulers have embarked on epic building projects as a way of inflating their ego, or publicly marking their territory — a kind of concrete PR campaign. “See how great I am, that I can build this incredible edifice?” In fact, the phrase “edifice complex” was coined in the 1970s to describe Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos’ practice of using publicly funded construction projects as political and election propaganda.  She used foreign loans to build these edifices, and it ended up putting the people of the Philippines through a series of debt crisis. 

God offers a gentle but firm rebuke of “David’s assertion of his own agenda and his own ego,” as one Scripture scholar puts it. “Have I ever asked for a house?” God says to David. “Why do you just invent this idea that I want something other than my tent dwelling and why do you think you are the one to build it?” 

Instead, as we will soon hear, God will build David a different kind of house — God will create through David’s lineage, a succession of leaders who will guide God’s people faithfully.  In fact, God makes a crucial covenant with David based on that promise.This is a covenant that will have profound implications for both Judaism and Christianity. Read 2 Samuel 7:8-17

From here on out, the idea that God will raise up a ruler in the line of David will become very important to the people of Israel. It becomes the “taproot of messianic thought.” It implants in the people of Israel this hope, this longing, for the ideal Davidic king who is yet to come —- the messiah. The one who will bring peace, who will bring justice, who will make everything right — forever. This hope and longing is expressed in a passage from Isaiah 9 that will likely sound very familiar to some of us:

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

That hope and longing at the heart of Judaism is then transferred into the heart of the Christian tradition. The unbreakable covenant that God forms with the house of David is at the root of the messianic promise that Christians believe Jesus fulfills. For them, Jesus is the child born to reign on David’s throne forever and ever.  (More on that during Advent.) That’s why the author of the gospel of Mathew will go to great pains to show how Jesus descends from the house of David.  For Jews, of course, the messiah has not yet come, which is obvious because clearly the reign of peace and justice is not yet come.

God makes it clear in this covenant with David and his house that there will be consequences for unfaithfulness. It’s not just anything goes. The faithful ruler will be characterized by his ability to (go back to drawings) observe sacred limits, to remember that they are blessed to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, to forgive enemies, to trust in God to bring about liberation, to observe the divine law that provides the political, economic, and ritual structures so that that liberation could be sustained over the long haul, to remember that their God upends the status quo, especially when it does violence to the most vulnerable.

It turns out that it is going to be very difficult for any king to rule in this way. Even Israel’s greatest king, the golden one, David, will end up looking more like the Pharaoh than like this kind of leader. Next week we’ll hear more from Joanna about how badly this experiment with monarchy turns out.

But God gives us the free will to choose. We have the moral agency — the power — to make political choices, even if they are bad ones, and then to hopefully learn from those bad choices and make different choices. May God’s steadfast love guide us as a nation though our time of choosing. Amen.