Thursday, April 08, 2004
2 Samuel 1 - David's Dirge
The poem in 2 Samuel 1:19-27 is our introduction to David's poetry. It is passionate, and constructed with the strength of parallelism and rich simile. I find it a moving poem; though it is not religious and I do not share David's feeling for war. But I do respond to the depth of love David reveals. This love was for his greatest enemy, the king, and his greatest friend, the king's son. Here is nobility and pathos.
Your glory, O Israel,
lies slain upon your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!
.............................
Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!
In life and in death they were not divided;
they were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.
.........................
How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
greatly beloved were you to me;
your love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.
How the mighty have fallen,
and the weapons of war perished!
Your glory, O Israel,
lies slain upon your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!
.............................
Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!
In life and in death they were not divided;
they were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.
.........................
How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
greatly beloved were you to me;
your love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.
How the mighty have fallen,
and the weapons of war perished!
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
1 Samuel 29–31 – Amalekites and the Will of God
The last three chapters of 1 Samuel and the first chapter of 2 Samuel, chronicle the outworking of the word of doom given by Samuel's spirit to Saul. Intertwined were the circumstances of David's deceitful refuge with the Philistines and the long-time enmity of the Amelakites against Israel. The scripture only claims God's direct hand at one minor point -- when David consulted God about attacking the Amelakites -- and yet in the end we see God's purposes fulfilled through events that are altogether unlovely.
Chapter 29. David is caught between a rock (his fear of Saul) and a hard place (the necessity of deceiving his protector, the Philistine king, about his loyalty). When the Philistines muster an army to fight Israel, David has to pretend to be eager to join them. The problem is resolved when factions among the Philistines declare their distrust of David and he is not allowed to join their army. Another resolution would have been possible: he could have joined their army and then betrayed them; but here circumstances intervene to allow David an "out" without further treachery. The circumstances also set in motion a sub-plot about David and the Amalekites.
Chapter 30. David and his men return to their home in Ziklag only to find that the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag, burned it down, and taken their wives captive. David is in danger of loosing the loyalty of the malcontents who had joined him (they are talking of stoning him). He consults the priest Abiathar who casts lots and gains a positive answer from God to the question "Shall I pursue this band?" (1 Samuel 30:6). YHWH has been against the Amalekites since they interfered with Israel’s exodus wanderings (Exodus 17:8ff). With the help of an Egyptian, David finds the Amalekite raiding party:
1 Samuel 30:16 spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of the great amount of spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. 18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives.
Aside from the good news about his wives, this episode provides a contrast to (?), or balance (?) or continuity (?) with, Saul's war against the Amalekites. It was, of course, Saul's failure to kill the Amalekite's king that resulted in God displeasure and revocation of the kingdom. Nevertheless, like David, Saul had fought and killed many of them:
1 Samuel 15:7 Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He took King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
Chapter 31. Now, with the context laid of David out of the way fighting Amalekites, we return to the final battle between the Philistines and Saul. In this battle, Saul's sons, including Jonathan are killed, and Saul was wounded. Saul, not wanting to be captured and "made sport of" asks his armor-bearer to kill him. He refuses, so Saul falls on his own sword and dies.
1 Samuel 31:5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him.
Chapter 1. Oddly enough, it is an Amalekite who brings word of Saul's death to David. He claims that he was, by chance, on Mt. Gilboa at the time of the battle. He tells David that Saul, wounded, turned and saw him, and asked him to kill him.
2 Samuel 1:10 So I stood over him, and killed him, for I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord."
In retribution for killing "the Lord's anointed," David had him killed. (2 Samuel 1:13) It is possible to conflate the two stories of Saul’s death, if the Amalekite saw Saul after he had fallen on his own sword but before his armor bearer saw him die. It is also possible that the Amalekite made up his story, and -- knowing there was enmity between Saul and David -- sought in this way to curry favor with David. If so, his effort failed. Either way, the circumstances are filled with irony.
What is important is that, in the end, David never had to lift his hand against Saul. It was the enemies of Israel who became the unwitting instruments of God's will and removed Saul from the throne as God had declared should happen long before through the prophet Samuel. If there is a lesson in all this, it is that we do not have to do evil to accomplish God’s will.
Chapter 29. David is caught between a rock (his fear of Saul) and a hard place (the necessity of deceiving his protector, the Philistine king, about his loyalty). When the Philistines muster an army to fight Israel, David has to pretend to be eager to join them. The problem is resolved when factions among the Philistines declare their distrust of David and he is not allowed to join their army. Another resolution would have been possible: he could have joined their army and then betrayed them; but here circumstances intervene to allow David an "out" without further treachery. The circumstances also set in motion a sub-plot about David and the Amalekites.
Chapter 30. David and his men return to their home in Ziklag only to find that the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag, burned it down, and taken their wives captive. David is in danger of loosing the loyalty of the malcontents who had joined him (they are talking of stoning him). He consults the priest Abiathar who casts lots and gains a positive answer from God to the question "Shall I pursue this band?" (1 Samuel 30:6). YHWH has been against the Amalekites since they interfered with Israel’s exodus wanderings (Exodus 17:8ff). With the help of an Egyptian, David finds the Amalekite raiding party:
1 Samuel 30:16 spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of the great amount of spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. 18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives.
Aside from the good news about his wives, this episode provides a contrast to (?), or balance (?) or continuity (?) with, Saul's war against the Amalekites. It was, of course, Saul's failure to kill the Amalekite's king that resulted in God displeasure and revocation of the kingdom. Nevertheless, like David, Saul had fought and killed many of them:
1 Samuel 15:7 Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He took King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
Chapter 31. Now, with the context laid of David out of the way fighting Amalekites, we return to the final battle between the Philistines and Saul. In this battle, Saul's sons, including Jonathan are killed, and Saul was wounded. Saul, not wanting to be captured and "made sport of" asks his armor-bearer to kill him. He refuses, so Saul falls on his own sword and dies.
1 Samuel 31:5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him.
Chapter 1. Oddly enough, it is an Amalekite who brings word of Saul's death to David. He claims that he was, by chance, on Mt. Gilboa at the time of the battle. He tells David that Saul, wounded, turned and saw him, and asked him to kill him.
2 Samuel 1:10 So I stood over him, and killed him, for I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord."
In retribution for killing "the Lord's anointed," David had him killed. (2 Samuel 1:13) It is possible to conflate the two stories of Saul’s death, if the Amalekite saw Saul after he had fallen on his own sword but before his armor bearer saw him die. It is also possible that the Amalekite made up his story, and -- knowing there was enmity between Saul and David -- sought in this way to curry favor with David. If so, his effort failed. Either way, the circumstances are filled with irony.
What is important is that, in the end, David never had to lift his hand against Saul. It was the enemies of Israel who became the unwitting instruments of God's will and removed Saul from the throne as God had declared should happen long before through the prophet Samuel. If there is a lesson in all this, it is that we do not have to do evil to accomplish God’s will.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
I Samuel 28 - The Mistress of Ghosts
In this chapter, Saul consults a medium and hears Samuel return from the dead to utter the final words of Saul's doom:
1 Samuel 28:19 "...tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me"
Why?
1 Samuel 28:18 Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek,
As always, the key to relationship with God is to obey the qol YHWH, the voice of the Lord. As we saw in Chapter 15, Saul did not slaughter the king ... and this has "come back to haunt him."
Three things stand out to me in this peculiar chapter. The first is that Saul continues to be activated by fear.
1 Samuel 28:5 When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
The second is that, nevertheless, Saul tried to do the right thing. At various points throughout his story, Saul has seemed to me to be a sympathetic, if weak, character. This chapter offers another proffer of Saul's good intentions:
1 Samuel 28:3 Saul had expelled the mediums and the wizards from the land.
This is the sort of thing that the Josiah, the reformer of great renown in Jeremiah's time, did:
2 Kings 23:24 Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah...
Saul knew that the right thing to do was to listen to the voice of God. He knew that the way to "hear" God was through dream, prophet, or the priest casting lots -- not through divination or mediums. Saul tried to do the right thing:
1 Samuel 28:6 When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, not by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
God wasn't speaking to him. The scary possibility that this raises is that there may come a time when "it is too late" -- or in the language of the early Quakers, "the day of the Lord's visitation" is past. Saul's resort to the medium was the act of desperation of a frightened man.
The third thing to strike me is that the medium he finally does consult in his fear (literally, the mistress of 'ob ghosts) is, like Saul, rather nice. She only calls up the ghost after Saul invokes God's name in assuring her that she will not be punished, and at the end, when she sees Saul fainting from hunger, she kills her "fatted calf" and "baked unleavened cakes" for Saul and his party. (1 Samuel 28:24)
I read a book several years ago with the intriguing title, "The Beautiful Side of Evil." The medium of En Dor has such beauty. The scripture does not doubt that, in her own way, she had compassion on Saul, nor that she had the power to call forth the spirits of the dead. This was not trickery; she was as shocked as Saul by Samuel's appearance and words. She and Saul were dealing with spiritual realities; but realities that YHWH has forbidden to us. They are spiritual realities associated with the spirituality of desperation and fear.
May God protect us from coming to such an end as Saul, where such desperate acts seem necessary.
1 Samuel 28:19 "...tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me"
Why?
1 Samuel 28:18 Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek,
As always, the key to relationship with God is to obey the qol YHWH, the voice of the Lord. As we saw in Chapter 15, Saul did not slaughter the king ... and this has "come back to haunt him."
Three things stand out to me in this peculiar chapter. The first is that Saul continues to be activated by fear.
1 Samuel 28:5 When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
The second is that, nevertheless, Saul tried to do the right thing. At various points throughout his story, Saul has seemed to me to be a sympathetic, if weak, character. This chapter offers another proffer of Saul's good intentions:
1 Samuel 28:3 Saul had expelled the mediums and the wizards from the land.
This is the sort of thing that the Josiah, the reformer of great renown in Jeremiah's time, did:
2 Kings 23:24 Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah...
Saul knew that the right thing to do was to listen to the voice of God. He knew that the way to "hear" God was through dream, prophet, or the priest casting lots -- not through divination or mediums. Saul tried to do the right thing:
1 Samuel 28:6 When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, not by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
God wasn't speaking to him. The scary possibility that this raises is that there may come a time when "it is too late" -- or in the language of the early Quakers, "the day of the Lord's visitation" is past. Saul's resort to the medium was the act of desperation of a frightened man.
The third thing to strike me is that the medium he finally does consult in his fear (literally, the mistress of 'ob ghosts) is, like Saul, rather nice. She only calls up the ghost after Saul invokes God's name in assuring her that she will not be punished, and at the end, when she sees Saul fainting from hunger, she kills her "fatted calf" and "baked unleavened cakes" for Saul and his party. (1 Samuel 28:24)
I read a book several years ago with the intriguing title, "The Beautiful Side of Evil." The medium of En Dor has such beauty. The scripture does not doubt that, in her own way, she had compassion on Saul, nor that she had the power to call forth the spirits of the dead. This was not trickery; she was as shocked as Saul by Samuel's appearance and words. She and Saul were dealing with spiritual realities; but realities that YHWH has forbidden to us. They are spiritual realities associated with the spirituality of desperation and fear.
May God protect us from coming to such an end as Saul, where such desperate acts seem necessary.
