Friday, April 30, 2004
2 Samuel 8 - Mishpat and Tsedaqah?
This chapter reveals the extent of David’s reign and the brutality (or strength) of it. While God is not implicated in David’s specific acts, there is a refrain in this chapter:
2 Samuel 8:6 and 8:14 The LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.
This is where he went:
v. 1 David subdued the Philistines (who earlier had been expelled from Israel proper) -- in Gaza to the southwest.
v. 2 He defeated the Moabites, killing two-thirds of them, and subjugating the rest. -- to the east of the Dead Sea.
[[The Jewish Study Bible notes the cruelty and recalls 1 Samuel 22:4 when David left his parents in the care of the king of Moab, and says that there is a talmudic tradition that the Moabites killed them.]]
v. 3 David struck down King Hadadezer of the Aramaic kingdom of Zobah (when he was repairing a monument at the Euphrates) which places David's reach far into the northeast of what is now Syria.
v. 4 David captured thousands of Hadadezer’s soldiers and hamstrung all but a hundred of his chariot horses. This counts as a form of disarmament, I suppose (chariots being the cruise missiles of the day) -- the sort of disarmament that a victor imposes on the defeated enemy.
v. 5 As part of this action, he also killed 22,000 Aramean men who were trying to help Hadadezer.
Where David went, he plundered his enemies:
v. 7 gold sheilds from Hadadezer’s servants
v. 8 bronze from his towns:
2 Samuel 8:11-12 these also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, 12 from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah.
David was not in this for personal gain, but he did not shy from the brutality of conquest:
v. 13 He killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and garrisoned their towns.
There is a concluding note:
2 Samuel 8:15 and David administered justice and equity to all his people
Justice and equity are the famous twins: mishpat and tsedaqah. The TNK translate them together as "true justice." It appears that was just and right was limited to "his people" and no others. This vision of a “Greater Israel” built on the blood and terror of conquered nations has an eerie ring today. I yearn for David’s royal son, the prince of peace, whose mishpat and tsedaqah extend to the ends of the earth, and encompass us all.
2 Samuel 8:6 and 8:14 The LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.
This is where he went:
v. 1 David subdued the Philistines (who earlier had been expelled from Israel proper) -- in Gaza to the southwest.
v. 2 He defeated the Moabites, killing two-thirds of them, and subjugating the rest. -- to the east of the Dead Sea.
[[The Jewish Study Bible notes the cruelty and recalls 1 Samuel 22:4 when David left his parents in the care of the king of Moab, and says that there is a talmudic tradition that the Moabites killed them.]]
v. 3 David struck down King Hadadezer of the Aramaic kingdom of Zobah (when he was repairing a monument at the Euphrates) which places David's reach far into the northeast of what is now Syria.
v. 4 David captured thousands of Hadadezer’s soldiers and hamstrung all but a hundred of his chariot horses. This counts as a form of disarmament, I suppose (chariots being the cruise missiles of the day) -- the sort of disarmament that a victor imposes on the defeated enemy.
v. 5 As part of this action, he also killed 22,000 Aramean men who were trying to help Hadadezer.
Where David went, he plundered his enemies:
v. 7 gold sheilds from Hadadezer’s servants
v. 8 bronze from his towns:
2 Samuel 8:11-12 these also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, 12 from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah.
David was not in this for personal gain, but he did not shy from the brutality of conquest:
v. 13 He killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and garrisoned their towns.
There is a concluding note:
2 Samuel 8:15 and David administered justice and equity to all his people
Justice and equity are the famous twins: mishpat and tsedaqah. The TNK translate them together as "true justice." It appears that was just and right was limited to "his people" and no others. This vision of a “Greater Israel” built on the blood and terror of conquered nations has an eerie ring today. I yearn for David’s royal son, the prince of peace, whose mishpat and tsedaqah extend to the ends of the earth, and encompass us all.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
2 Samuel 7 - The Everlasting Kingdom
Here is the great promise by God to David that God will build for David an everlasting “house”. This is God’s response to David’s wish to build a “house” for God. David had his own cedar house in Jerusalem, built with the help of the King of Tyre (2 Sam. 5:11), and it is his pious wish to do as much for God. The prophet Nathan confirms this wish, but during the night, the word of God comes and we learn that Nathan had spoken too hastily.
First of all, it seems to me that God finds David’s offer impertinent. Is David trying to domesticate God, to trap God into one place – to become an adjunct of the kingdom David has just established? God makes three points:
1. Over all these years since the Exodus I have never asked for a "house" -- I am a traveling God, which is to say that I like my freedom.
2. If you didn’t notice, it was I that raised David up from shepherd to prince.
3. David may think he is a great warrior, but it was I who cut off Israel's enemies, and it is I who will make Israel a place a safety (where "evildoers shall afflict them no more"). (2 Samuel 7:10)
God is setting the record straight: God is the actor, David is just God’s implement.
And lest David get the wrong idea about the relationship between God and the kingdom, the answer is “No, David should not make me a ‘house.’” God says, but I will raise up one of your offspring and he will build a house "for my name." (7:12)
Why is Solomon to build God "a house" rather than David? From other texts, we discover the tradition that God considered David too war-like:
1 Chronicles 22:7 David said to Solomon, "My son, I had planned to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. 8 But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars; you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood in my sight on the earth. 9 See, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 He shall build a house for my name. (c.f., 1 Kings 5:2 –5)
God’s “No” to David is, of course, the occasion for the even greater “Yes”:
2 Samuel 7:13 ... I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.
Built into God’s promise of the everlasting kingdom is the forecast that Solomon and his “house” will act with immorality and injustice and need to be punished. The biblical story is that the kings of Israel and Judah did break covenant with God, and God did use Israel’s enemies to punish them, destroying the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But the promise of an everlasting kingdom was never forgotten. Thus was born the incredible Jewish hope, which we see fulfilled in Christ, of a Messiah who will inherit the promise.
Luke 1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
That this promise accomplishes the impossible -- the tying together of the rigorous demand of righteousness with the unmerited grace of an everlasting kingdom -- is at the heart of Judeo-Christian faith. We see sin and judgment around us; we live by faith in the all-encompassing mercy and justice of God.
The prophet Amos, seeing destruction at hand, spoke:
Amos 9:8 The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth -- except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD. 9 For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground. 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, "Evil shall not overtake or meet us." 11 On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this.
In Acts 15:16, James quoted this prophecy applying it to the mystery that in Christ God’s saving promise of an everlasting kingdom was opened to all of us Gentiles who by faith accept God’s rigorous, unmerited love.
We return to the beginning of God’s speech: God’s salvation can not be bound by a Temple made with hands, nor can God be domesticated on behalf of human politics or ideology. God’s freedom is perfect, and God’s love is everlasting.
First of all, it seems to me that God finds David’s offer impertinent. Is David trying to domesticate God, to trap God into one place – to become an adjunct of the kingdom David has just established? God makes three points:
1. Over all these years since the Exodus I have never asked for a "house" -- I am a traveling God, which is to say that I like my freedom.
2. If you didn’t notice, it was I that raised David up from shepherd to prince.
3. David may think he is a great warrior, but it was I who cut off Israel's enemies, and it is I who will make Israel a place a safety (where "evildoers shall afflict them no more"). (2 Samuel 7:10)
God is setting the record straight: God is the actor, David is just God’s implement.
And lest David get the wrong idea about the relationship between God and the kingdom, the answer is “No, David should not make me a ‘house.’” God says, but I will raise up one of your offspring and he will build a house "for my name." (7:12)
Why is Solomon to build God "a house" rather than David? From other texts, we discover the tradition that God considered David too war-like:
1 Chronicles 22:7 David said to Solomon, "My son, I had planned to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. 8 But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars; you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood in my sight on the earth. 9 See, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 He shall build a house for my name. (c.f., 1 Kings 5:2 –5)
God’s “No” to David is, of course, the occasion for the even greater “Yes”:
2 Samuel 7:13 ... I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.
Built into God’s promise of the everlasting kingdom is the forecast that Solomon and his “house” will act with immorality and injustice and need to be punished. The biblical story is that the kings of Israel and Judah did break covenant with God, and God did use Israel’s enemies to punish them, destroying the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But the promise of an everlasting kingdom was never forgotten. Thus was born the incredible Jewish hope, which we see fulfilled in Christ, of a Messiah who will inherit the promise.
Luke 1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
That this promise accomplishes the impossible -- the tying together of the rigorous demand of righteousness with the unmerited grace of an everlasting kingdom -- is at the heart of Judeo-Christian faith. We see sin and judgment around us; we live by faith in the all-encompassing mercy and justice of God.
The prophet Amos, seeing destruction at hand, spoke:
Amos 9:8 The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth -- except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD. 9 For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground. 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, "Evil shall not overtake or meet us." 11 On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this.
In Acts 15:16, James quoted this prophecy applying it to the mystery that in Christ God’s saving promise of an everlasting kingdom was opened to all of us Gentiles who by faith accept God’s rigorous, unmerited love.
We return to the beginning of God’s speech: God’s salvation can not be bound by a Temple made with hands, nor can God be domesticated on behalf of human politics or ideology. God’s freedom is perfect, and God’s love is everlasting.
