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David Part 7
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
The image of warrior king was always meant to move all the way over into the category of peaceful shepherd. Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad you're here and we hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Hit the commons.church for more information. Welcome today.
Speaker 1:My name is Jeremy and I get the privilege of leading our team here at Commons. As I mentioned last week, I was away for some of the summer, but I got back last week and I jumped back in. And I'll be honest here, it was a little rough in the middle of last week remembering how to write sermons. But halfway through, I wasn't sure if I knew how to do it anymore. We did survive that.
Speaker 1:We're back in the flow now, and I'm really getting excited for the fall. I know Bobby mentioned this earlier, but our fall launch is coming up on September 10. Mark that in your calendar. Because every year, we head back into the fall season with a lot of energy and excitement that people will be back from summer breaks, and the place will be packed at all of the services. And so you have some special things in store that weekend to make this a really exciting celebration of our third birthday here at Commons because that's what this September is.
Speaker 1:Now that's not even to mention the fact that this year is the year we finally launch our Inglewood Parish. And this fall, the team will be gathering and meeting together to pull those final pieces into place for the public launch, and so it's a really exciting time for us as a community. That said, I do have a couple weeks left in David, and I hope you're enjoying this series as much as I have been, particularly the chance to hear from a lot of these different voices in community. As we get ready to launch that second parish on the East Side of the city, one of the things that we knew we really needed to do, especially this year, was develop a really strong team of teachers. People who can share the Jesus story in their own voice, but do that in a way that still breathes with the intellectually honest, spiritually passionate Jesus centered values that we have here at Commons.
Speaker 1:And I think one of the really remarkable strengths of this community, especially for a young church, is this deep bench of incredible voices that we have both on staff and in community who can speak about the Jesus story in really compelling ways. I love that. However, before we jump in today, two things quickly here. Our our comments on Charlottesville are up on our Facebook page, facebook.com/commonschurch. If you missed them last week, go and watch them because I think it's important that we continue to reflect on systems of white supremacy even as they begin to fade from the media spotlight, which they inevitably will.
Speaker 1:However, also last week, on a lighter note, I showed you a video of my son walking our dog, Cedar, and people seem to enjoy that, and he was very excited about that. So thank you because that motivated him this week, and so he's actually been practicing this week walking our dog through the house, and he asked me this week if I would quote show quote the people and him walking Cedar. So here we go. Never let it be said that I am unwilling to abuse my position to please my son. Here's a video of my son as he calls himself, the walker master round two.
Speaker 1:Here he is walking our dog through our house practicing preparing. And so for all of you who have dogs and need them walked, please let me know. We will send Eaton over. You occupy him for a little time. He walks your dog.
Speaker 1:I think that's a win win for everyone. Alright. Last week, we looked at the people who gathered to David in the desert. And there's this really neat little moment in first Samuel chapter 22 where David is on the run from Saul, and he's worried about the king of Gath, and he ends up on the border with the Philistines who are also out to get him for revenge for the battle with Goliath. And he hides out in this cave of Adulam, which in Hebrew actually means the cave of closed in space.
Speaker 1:And this is something we have seen all throughout the David story, that these are very literary texts. When the writer describes this Cave Of Adullam between the king of Gath and the Philistines and Saul who all represent threats to David, and he calls it the cave of closed in space. The primary point here is not geography. The writer is trying to help us move into the experience frustration and the fear that David is facing in this moment. However, what happens is that while he's hiding in this cave, the text says that the distressed and the indebted and the discontented came to him there.
Speaker 1:And so we spent some time last week trying to understand what these categories represent in their Hebrew context. That's distressed. Those who have been stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn. The indebted, these are the poorest of the poor who have fallen into debt as a last resort. The discontented or the in Hebrew, those of marred spirits or broken hearts.
Speaker 1:All of these people come to David in this space. And for me, this is a really important part of the David story. To recognize that even as we have this imagination of David as warrior king who fought battles and waged wars and expanded the territory of his kingdom, he was also this very tender leader who allowed his life to be woven together with those he might not have been expected to. I mean, the image here is the future king hanging out with the brokenhearted in the cave of closed in space, and that's important to notice. However, it's not only that.
Speaker 1:Because if we turn to the very end of David's life, all the way to second Samuel chapter 23 where David is eulogized, we find that it's actually the stories of these same brokenhearted humans that are celebrated there. So they go on to do amazing things and they experience these great stories, but the best moments of David's reign when his eulogizer looks back and decides what stories to tell. The writer decides that it's actually the stories of those that David lifted up and brought with him. These are worth recounting now. And so one of the questions from last week was, is there room for the hard pressed and the in debt and the brokenhearted to draw near to us?
Speaker 1:Because if not, then that's a problem. And we need to realize that just as we learn as much about David from the people that he brings near to himself as we do from looking directly at him, sometimes looking in the mirror will say less about us than the people that we allow to come near to us. So that was David and his company. Today, we wanna talk about David and his kingdom. But first, let's pray.
Speaker 1:Truly amazing God, we rejoice that none of your story has lost its edge and that the great words and realities of the gospel are freedom, light, and love, grace, and cross, and crown. As we read today of king David and the political intrigue and the national instability, would you remind us that you are and always have been the true king we long for? That when we worry, you are steady. And that when we fear, you are strong. That when we begin to look to violence to protect us from evil, you stand in self giving sacrifice for us, reminding us that love will change the world.
Speaker 1:And so as we pray for healing today, perhaps inside of us, maybe for a world caught in tension and conflict, for all those who are distressed and in debt and discontent today. As we stand up to injustice through the peace of Christ, would you be our shepherd and guide us even as we learn to name your kingdom among us? In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Okay.
Speaker 1:There is a lot of ground for us to cover today because I wanna look at where David actually becomes king in Israel, and there is a whole lot of political intrigue to get us there. However, I do think there's something for us to wrestle with as well. However, before that, we also have to start with this question. Well, how do you become king? Because one of the really important pieces in the story of the rise of David is that David will not depose of Saul himself.
Speaker 1:Joel looked at the section where David has this perfect opportunity to kill Saul while he is alone in a cave relieving himself. And if I was 12 years old, would think that was pretty funny to find in the Bible. And at 39, I still think it's a little bit funny. But the point is that David refuses to do it. And even as his men encourage him to off the otherwise occupied king, David says no.
Speaker 1:And so the story continues to unfold with David waiting for the Lord to open the right doors for him. However, at the same time, Saul is still king, and the tensions between Israel and the Philistines are continuing to rise. Unfortunately, the war did not end with Goliath, and so eventually we read in the final chapter of first Samuel that the Philistines fought against Israel and the Israelites fled before them and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons, Jonathan Abinadab and Melkishuah. Now as a reader, we have come to see Saul as the bad guy in the story.
Speaker 1:We want to see David become king. However, we've also learned to love Jonathan the way that David has. And so the way this has been put together, the way the story is constructed is meant to make sure we realize that we are about to read a tragic moment here. Yes. David needs to become king.
Speaker 1:And, yes, that means Saul will need to go, but the death of anyone, even our enemy, this is not a moment to rejoice. It is a sad and somber moment even when it is a necessary last resort. I remember watching the news years ago when it came out that Osama bin Laden had been killed. And I will admit, I remember feeling a sense of relief in that knowing that at least one source of violence and hatred had been removed from the world. But I also remember watching the news and seeing the celebrations and the cheers and the revelry, and I remember thinking this is wrong.
Speaker 1:Not saying Bin Laden didn't need to be stopped somehow. I'm not saying he didn't get what he drew to himself, but death even when someone brings it on themself, this is a time to mourn. And the writer here wants us to know that the death of the bad guy is not a reason to celebrate. The bad guy was a father who had a son who he loved, and that son was a good guy who was loyal to David who we love. And the writer wants you to feel all of that here in this moment.
Speaker 1:So Jonathan and Abinadab and Melkishuah are killed, and the fighting grew fierce around Saul. And when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically. Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and run me through or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer was terrified and he would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
Speaker 1:When the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. And so Saul and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men died together that same day. And as strange as it might seem to us, in an ancient world, this is meant to be a heroic death for Saul. At least in the end, he dies on his own terms with his men. However, this creates an obvious power vacuum in the kingdom.
Speaker 1:Remember, the Israelites have just been routed by the Philistines in battle. And if you keep reading, you realize that the Philistines have actually taken over and occupied a number of cities that were once controlled by the Hebrews. And so what happens next is that David and his men returned from their own battle with the Amalekites, and they go to a city called Hebron in the southern part of Israel. Well, news of Saul's death eventually reaches them. And when the city finds out about this, they come to David and they anoint him king over Judah.
Speaker 1:Second Samuel chapter two, we read that the men of Judah came to Hebron and they anointed David king over the tribe of Judah. And we have to pause here because this is where things start to get complicated. If you remember all the way back to Abraham, who we spent a few months with a couple years ago, He had a son named Isaac, and Isaac had a son named Jacob. Jacob changed his name to Israel, and that's where the country gets its namesake. But Israel had 11 sons, and one of those sons, Joseph, had two sons.
Speaker 1:And those two sons took their dad's place alongside their 10 uncles, and that gives us 12 tribes of Israel. Now one of those tribes, the largest was called Judah, and they occupied the southern part of the Hebrew Kingdom. That's the group where a lot of David's support initially comes from. And so last week when we read about the distressed and the in debt and the discontent, those were largely drawn from that more economically depressed South and from the tribe of Judah. Now later on, after the reign of David's son Solomon, the kingdom actually splits into two.
Speaker 1:And at first, it's Judah that breaks away, but then eventually, a smaller tribe of Benjamin defects and they join them. And so you end up with a Southern kingdom called Judah and a Northern kingdom called Israel. And they exist parallel to each other for quite a while. But that split between south and north doesn't just come out of nowhere. It's actually deeply embedded in the history that we're looking at right now.
Speaker 1:David is from the South. Saul is from the North. Judah accepts David as king. The North tries to continue on with the line of Saul. And so there is actually a period of seven and a half years where David is king in Judah, but not in the North.
Speaker 1:In fact, in second Samuel two, we read that a man named Abner, who was the commander of Saul's armies, actually has one of Saul's sons, a man named Ishbosheth, made king over Israel. And so when we talk about the two kingdoms, we are usually talking about the period a couple generations after David. But right here, there is actually this seven and a half year period where there are essentially two different kingdoms, and that does not go well. You can read the entire section from second Samuel two through to the end of chapter four, but it's characterized pretty well in chapter three where it says that the war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time. David grew stronger and stronger while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.
Speaker 1:And so to summarize it, what ultimately happens is that Ishbosheth accuses Abner of sleeping with one of his late father's wives. Abner is offended. And so he's like, dude, I supported you all this time. I was loyal to your dad to the end. I made you the king.
Speaker 1:How can you accuse me of something like this? I'm out. He leaves. He goes to David, promises to negotiate for David with the northern tribes and deliver Israel to him. David says, great.
Speaker 1:We've got a deal. Go in peace. But just then, one of David's generals returns from battle, sees Abner, who is the commander of Israel's armies, doesn't trust him, and so he kills him. David is like, dude, what are you doing? We had a truce.
Speaker 1:Ishbothesh hears about what's happened, thinks to himself, my goodness, David is ruthless. There's no way I can possibly take this guy on. He panics and runs away. That loses the confidence of his generals. Two of them sneak in while he's sleeping.
Speaker 1:They murder him. They cut off his head and they bring it to David in some kind of gruesome gesture of fealty. But remember David didn't want to start a war. He had a truce with Abner after all and so he's not impressed with these guys. He has them executed, then he takes Ish Bosheth's head and buries it in Abner's tomb.
Speaker 1:If you watch Game of Thrones, it has got nothing on second Samuel here. I mean seriously, reading through this you kind of get the feeling that George r r Martin just sat down one day and started taking notes. That said, there is something here about the folly of naked ambition. One of the things that David is consistently set against in the narrative, at least in the lead up to his reign, is the desire to manipulate circumstances to his advantage. And that is a notoriously difficult thing to evaluate internally.
Speaker 1:Most of us get that just passively hoping things will turn out our way is not going to get us very far. And at the same time, we know that scheming and manipulating, coercing, trying to pull the strings behind the scenes, this inevitably leads to shady outcomes. And I don't have a great solution for how to evaluate yourself. But what I do see in David is a consistent willingness to listen to the people around him, to ask questions of those who know him, and at least to try to make sure that his public persona matches up with the things we see him do in darker places like caves. And there's something to learn from that.
Speaker 1:But all of this leads to second Samuel chapter five where we read that all of the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, we are your own flesh and blood. In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on her military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, you will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler. When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. Now there's a couple important things here to notice because the language that's employed in this pivotal moment seems to have been chosen very deliberately.
Speaker 1:And so I wanna show you a couple things here in the Hebrew language, and I wanna talk about why I think they might be important for us. So first of all, the text says that all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, we are your flesh and blood. And when we read flesh and blood, that is an English idiom. We use it to mean we're relatives or we're family. And it's not necessarily a bad translation depending on what you think the text is trying to get at, but it's not actually what the text says.
Speaker 1:What the Hebrew says here is we are your meat and bone or perhaps flesh and bone. And it's possible that this is meant as a reference to biological unity the way we use it in English. After all, David did marry one of Saul's daughters, and they have been reunited in the turmoil of this last couple years. However, most scholars would argue that in this context, this is not about family. It's more about experience.
Speaker 1:Walter Brueggemann writes that the formula of meat and bone is probably not a statement about biological kinship, but instead recognizes that the two parties have long stood together in strength, bone, and weakness, flesh. And that's important because one of the emphases of the David story is that a king needs to be more than just next in line. A king needs to be the kind of person worth following. And so the union of north and south is not just about flesh and blood here. The point here is that David has felt and he's experienced.
Speaker 1:He's been part of the weakness and the strength of what it means to be Hebrew. Remember last week, George Mendenhall said that David is shown to be a true Hebrew, one whose social standing and social power are not there to lean on. And so, the fact that David comes out of that obscurity, This is part of the story. And ironically, it's part of what qualifies him to be king. And you actually see that in the next statement.
Speaker 1:The text says that in the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel. Saul didn't really experience the meat and bone of what it meant to be Hebrew because he didn't go to war. He wasn't with the people the way that David was. But the Hebrew here is emphatic in the way it says it. In Hebrew, what this line reads is, you it was you who led Israel.
Speaker 1:And so the writer here is really making a point. David has always been the true leader because David was the one who was experiencing and participating in the joy and the pain and the suffering and the celebration of his people. But where this gets really interesting for me is that the people then say, the Lord said to you, you will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler. Now part of what's interesting here is that God has never actually said any of this anywhere in the text up to this point. That's not really a problem.
Speaker 1:The the point is not so much that they are quoting God as much as they are interpreting what they see God orchestrating in the nation. But there are two really important things in what these elders interpret God to be doing. First is the word ruler, which is actually the word Nagid in Hebrew and specifically that means prince. And second, you will shepherd my people. This is actually the first time that David is referenced as shepherding the nation.
Speaker 1:Now both of these are very interesting images to associate with a king, and both of them are specific callbacks to moments earlier in the story of David. So let's start with Nagid. Do you remember all the way back to the first week of this series when we read about where the people ask for a king in the first place? So they're dissatisfied with Samuel, more particularly the way that Samuel's sons are running the joint. And so they call out and they say, listen, every other nation has a king.
Speaker 1:We want one too. And it sounds a little childish when you say it that way, but essentially that's what happens in the story. And if you remember, God actually says to Samuel, listen to what the people are saying. It's not you they've rejected. It's me they have rejected as their king.
Speaker 1:That's first Samuel eight seven. So God tries to warn them. They say they want it anyway. God relents, and he gives them their king. But here, after things have gone badly, when the northern tribes come to David, they use very interesting language when they anoint him.
Speaker 1:Now they do anoint David king, so they don't abandon that language completely. But it seems like they want to acknowledge the mistakes that have been made earlier in the story. And so it's almost like they're struggling to find royal language, the son of the king, that still somehow leaves some space for Yahweh to return to his kingship in Israel. One scholar writes that Nagid is an attempt out of the vexed notion that human kingship is a rejection of the kingship of Yahweh. There's tension here in the language, no doubt.
Speaker 1:But I think the point is you can learn from the mistakes of the past. And you can see that in the text in verse three when it says that they made a covenant with David at Hebron. Now covenant is this super important idea in the Hebrew culture, but what it boils down to at the end of the day is an agreement, a contract. You lead well and we will follow you. But that is a radically different reinterpretation of what king meant from what we've seen earlier in this story.
Speaker 1:David will not be fiat king forever in Israel regardless of what he does. That is not what is being promised here. The agreement is that his authority will come from his leadership. I'll quote Brueggemann again here. He says, the elders of Israel are acutely aware of the dangers of creating yet another royal monster who will override the notion of covenant and operate just as Samuel had warned them.
Speaker 1:And perhaps the place that all of this is most clearly articulated is this newly introduced image of king as shepherd. Now this is a literary device, and it is very clearly a callback to the introduction of David way back in first Samuel. Samuel goes up and down the line of Jesse's boys looking for the one who would be king, but he can't find them. So he's like, well, what's going on here? He says to Jesse, do you have any other sons?
Speaker 1:And dad says, well, there is the youngest, but he's out tending sheep. So David is actually first introduced as the shepherd boy. Here, he's installed as the shepherd king. There's clearly a symmetry in the language. This is a literary device.
Speaker 1:It's quite beautiful actually. And as Christians, I think it's almost as if king and shepherd go together in our mind. So we jump to the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. That's John ten eleven. And so when we read back through the lens of Jesus, we kind of say, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, of course, that's what leadership should be. But when we read up to Jesus and when we read this in the context of an ancient world that had only ever imagined warrior kings, Now we begin to see what the text is doing and why the progression of the text is so important for us. You see, this moment here introduces in the words of Brueggemann an entire theory of governance and power. David will live up to that promise in moments, and he will most certainly fall short of it at other times. But in the long scope of history, what the text is doing is setting the stage for the one who would eventually come and bring these images of king and shepherd fully into alignment with each other.
Speaker 1:But what is truly remarkable for us as followers of Jesus is that we realize that king and shepherd were never meant to meet in the middle. What's truly remarkable about the long slow arc of the biblical narrative over time is that beginning in David and into the prophets and then finally fulfilled in Jesus, what we learn is that the image of warrior king was always meant to move all the way over into the category of peaceful shepherd. So when we witness Jesus on his knees washing his disciples' feet, What we are witnessing is the culmination of a story that began with the shepherd king who came from outside the halls of power, but we are watching it change and evolve and grow until it finally becomes the peaceful grace of Christ. See, this is not just a fun story that provides some interesting moments of political intrigue. David is part of the story that ultimately and inevitably orients us towards the life of Jesus in all the ways that he became what David couldn't.
Speaker 1:So we learn from David, and we enjoy his story. We watch his success and we digest his failures. But as followers of Jesus, all the while that we read, we are looking for how the long arc of the narrative points us to Jesus and to what the true kingdom of God was actually always meant to look like, and this story points us there. Let's pray. God, as we continue to look at the story of David, to read closely and deeply, to look between the lines to see what's happening.
Speaker 1:Would you help us to see ourselves in this person, to see our courage and strength come to the surface, and also to see the ways that our weaknesses and our failures are brought to light in the David story. And yet, God, in the midst of that, would we also begin to become aware of the long slow arc of your revelation? The way that you are putting pieces in place that will build and compound and evolve until eventually we see Jesus. And the full expression of what a king was always meant to look like. The servant shepherd who lays down his life, who lives peacefully and gives himself for others.
Speaker 1:God, might our imagination of warrior king be replaced by the shepherd Jesus. And in our conversations, in our words, in our relationships, in our transactions, in the ways that we move through your world, might we also be transformed into the likeness of your son so that we can see your kingdom the way it was always meant to be. Grace and peace. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.