Reflections on David but Mostly on God
We continue to move through the Old Testament at something that feels like the speed of light.
Last week, we got a glimpse of Samuel, born to Hannah as God’s response to her fervent prayer. Hannah dedicated her son to God, and Samuel served as Israel’s last judge, and also served in a prophetic role – anointing, at God’s direction, its first kings, both Saul and David, and serving as intercessor and guide.
It turns out that Saul was not a great success as king. While Saul was still king, God chose David as a replacement. David was a different kind of “favored one” from the get-go. He was the youngest of eight boys, called out of the pasture where he was tending sheep. The text tells us that “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David” from the point of his anointing forward. But because Saul still occupied the throne, David did not claim the kingship right away.
You probably have Sunday school memories of young David slaying the giant Philistine Goliath. From that point forward in this story of kingship, Saul is portrayed as a leader. further and further from God while David experiences political victories and signs of God’s blessing.
When we arrive at the text read today, Saul is dead and David has consolidated power in the region and joined the kingdoms of Judah and Israel under his leadership.
The text says he’s been given rest from his enemies. He’s home from battles with time on his hands.
Sitting around in this time of rest David observes (kind of out of the blue) to a new character, Nathan, “I live in a house but God lives in a tent.”
Note that he doesn’t say at this point that he’s going to build a house for God. But that is implied by the prophet Nathan’s response.
Nathan, we will discover, is a prophet who, just like Samuel served Saul, will serve David with guidance and intercession. In this first interaction, it seems Nathan responded directly to David without seeking God’s word. Basically he says to David…good point…do what you feel you should. God seems to be in favor of most things you do.
But that night, the text says the word of the Lord came to Nathan. And there is a deliberateness in how this is narrated.
The word of the Lord comes to Nathan, go tell my servant David, thus says the Lord. It seems vitally important that the reader AND David understand that the Lord is telling Nathan something that Nathan needs to tell David, and David needs to understand it is a word from the Lord.
The counsel that follows involves a wordplay around the word “house.”
You can almost hear God’s eyebrows raised: are you the one to build me a house? I have been moving about with the Israelites for generations, no house needed. Have I ever asked for a house? The Hebrew word for house here is “bayith” (bye-eet) and it is a word that has a concreteness to it, a physical dwelling.
God goes on to remind David, through Nathan, that it was GOD who brought David out of the pasture to make him royalty. God has been with David in his battles, cutting off the enemy. It is God who has made David’s name great among the powers of the day.
And so, God declares, it is GOD, not David, who will make a place for God’s people Israel. Not a house per se – a PLACE. A makom in Hebrew rather than a bayith. The word here is less about a building and more about a status or a standing. It is also a word that tends to be used in association with a holy spot – like the location where the Ark would dwell.
Can you feel the verbal sparring that God engages?
As you, David, sit in your house of cedar, you think you’ll do something for me, for God?
By building me a house of my own?
As if I can be contained by you in a grand palace or Temple?
How quaint. I am uncontainable.
It is I, the LORD who will make a place …not for you, David, but for my people.
Not a house. A whole relationship, a whole status.
The text goes on from there – God promises not just a standing for the people Israel but also a “house” (back to the word “bayith”) for David’s descendants. As God goes on, God describes not a physical house, but a dynasty - a kingdom in David’s line that will last forever. And while David’s descendants will be punished by God when they are not obedient or righteous, God will not withdraw from them like God withdrew from Saul.
This is God’s unconditional commitment to love, to grace that is without condition.
This feels like a big promise.
It is important to remember when we are in the depths of these Hebrew scriptures that one’s faith, social standing, politics and economic reality were mingled and mixed as inseparable parts of one’s identity in this ancient context. It is true, as a result, that texts we read as religious were probably edited, redacted and expanded over time to provide justification or clarification for events and circumstances, to include political events and economic truths. In this portion of 2 Samuel, the lines about David’s heir being the one who would build the temple are quite possibly a later insertion by another author, perhaps to justify Solomon’s actions in retrospect.
This promise of David’s eternal dynasty gave rise to a Jewish Messianic tradition – a worldview into which Jesus was eventually born centuries later. The people expected the return of David’s heir to the throne. Their expectation of that return included a return to political power and might, an end to domination. It is this promise to David in 2 Samuel that is the backdrop that brings to life the Christmas story and the Palm Sunday text about Jesus riding into Jerusalem surrounded by expectant throngs.
David is a big character and his story is central to a particular understanding of God, a particular theology. When we revisit an ancient story, when we revisit a major character from the Bible, when we revisit a character whose story we’ve heard retold in bits and pieces over time, I think it is always wise to make sure we are checking in about the big picture.
David is a really flawed character. God demonstrates great love and grace toward David, and David does some pretty awful things. He also does brave and savvy things. Both can be true. How very human.
David consistently stayed in relationship to God. And God has a relationship with David. Sometimes David acts out of that relationship, and other times he does not. In spite of that mixed bag, God makes a covenant promise to David that is without condition. God will bless the people with a place and will establish for David a dynasty. “Your house and Your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”
And to be clear, David goes on, continues to be, a flawed character. God’s commitment doesn’t do much to change David.
At this point in the big canon of Hebrew scriptures, God has made multiple covenants with individuals to benefit the people. His first is with Abram, and through Abram, God promises that all the families of the earth will be blessed.
One way to read God’s promise to David is through God’s promise to Abram, as a continuation of sorts. The people who have longed for an identity and power will have it through David’s line of descendants. And still, all the families of earth will be blessed through Abram.
That’s a big promise. It’s a promise through leaders to bless the greater good; it is a promise that through leadership that is rooted in relationship to God, the people will have a place in the world, a place to grow and be blessed.
It is a reminder that leadership is not intended to benefit the leader. Leadership is a gift from God. Leadership is intended to benefit the whole. Especially if you are going to claim God’s blessing on that leadership.
That’ll preach right now, won’t it?
It’s funny. Or maybe not.
In 2010 I took a graduate level course on 1 and 2 Samuel with a biblical scholar noted to be an expert on those texts. I went back to my course notes and to a final project that I had created for class – a slide show that began with David’s story but ended with images of conflicted leadership – President Bill Clinton beside Monica Lewinsky, President George W. Bush under a mission accomplished banner.
The impacts of flawed characters in leadership have impacted the people through history and continue to impact the people today.
As I sat with this story this week, I wrestled with all that I had been taught about this being about leadership. You see, I think sometimes we can look at this story and say…ah. So there is much about David’s leadership here, and I’m not a leader so…. But three truths about God that land for all of us bubbled around for me this week.
First, God is uncontainable.
We can have big ideas about how we will honor God, how we will take God out into the world, how we will frankly “use” God to reach people. And God will have none of that. I think that is the beauty of the Holy Spirit. We can make all the plans, and then the Holy Spirit shows up and turns our expectations and our aspirations upside down.
Second, God seeks relationship with us.
Not just with those of us who identify as leaders. God seeks relationship, good, fruitful relationship, with all of us, the people of God. God expects to join our rejoicing in the beautiful and good things. And God expects to join us in the weeping. And God expects us to make grave mistakes. God will keep showing up to us.
Finally, God is concerned with humanity.
That is key to the promise made to Abram that undergirds all the next promises. Not with those that follow a specific path. Sometimes we tell the stories of God to draw a line about who is in and who is out, but in the bigger swath of stories, God is concerned with all people. Jesus promises life and life abundantly…a promise I connect directly to God’s promise to bless all the people through Abram.
We are nearing the end of our stewardship season, and we are all asked to consider how we will share from the gifts we receive from God to support Faith’s mission to nurture disciples who are transformed and transforming.
Part of what you are asked to consider is how you will share your time and talent. I think that for some folks, they hear that as a question about serving on a committee. And that is one way we share our time and talent. But I wonder how you will share your time and talent for the good of the whole – for the bigness of God’s people.
I have two things very much on my mind this week – one is funerals and the other is youth group. Odd pairing, I know. But what if every person in this church said yes to help with one funeral and one youth group event in the year to come? Holy cow. We would touch lives so far beyond our membership.
This week, I hope you will sit with God who is uncontainable, relational and deeply concerned with the thriving of the whole world. And I hope you will feel the ways you are called to share in God’s work.
May it be so.
Amen.
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