The Davidic Kingdom - Essay Example

The Davidic Kingdom The story of King David is one of the most inspiring, yet tragic one, of all the Old Testament. Reading it, the believers see bythemselves how the great glory and devotion may be superseded by haughtiness and fall, if the necessary checks on one’s self-confidence and power are not properly instituted. The coming to power of David is intrinsically connected with the fall of his predecessor, the first King of Israel, Saul. Having angered God with his impiety, Saul was killed in a battle with the Amalekites (1 Samuel 31 The New International Version), and his crown as a vestige of authority was delivered to David by one of his soldiers (2 Samuel 1 The New International Version).

At that time, David, who was exiled by Saul due to a perceived threat to the former’s royal authority, fought with the Amalekites after being disqualified by the Philistine commanders from going together with them into the battle against Saul’s Israelites (1 Samuel 29:11 The New International Version). Nevertheless, as he heard of Saul and his son Jonathan’s demise, David took to a real mourning for these two great warriors and statesmen, for Saul was the first God’s anointed in the history of Israel, and Jonathan was his ‘brother’ (2 Samuel 1:26 The New International Version).

The death of Saul opened the way to David to return from his exile, so that he and his loyal adherents descended from the mountains they used to hide in, and settled the towns of Hebron and surrounding areas. The tribe of Judah became David’s power basis, as its members supported him as a new king – as opposed to the majority of Israeli tribes (such as Gilead, Ashuri, Jezreel, and Benjamin) that came in favor of Ish-Bosheth, son of Saul. The latter was forty year old at the time of his ascension, and reigned for two years over all of Israel (2 Samuel 2:8 The New International Version).

The war thus began between the houses of David and Saul, with the power general Abner, who was Ish-Bosheth’s kingmaker, eventually switching sides, as Ish-Bosheth objected to the former’s love affairs with the concubines of late Saul (2 Samuel 3:8 The New International Version). Abner came to understanding with David in order to deliver all the land of Israel to him as a king, but he was killed due to David’s followers fearing his strength and prestige (2 Samuel 3:27 The New International Version).

Ish-Bosheth himself was killed in some time by his treacherous retinue, and thus David became a king over all the Israelite tribes (2 Samuel 4 The New International Version). The rule of David as a king may be considered both different and similar to that of his predecessor. Like Saul, David organized a number of military campaigns against the enemies of the Israelites. It was he who conquered the city of Jerusalem, at that time populated by the Jebusites, and made it the capital of his kingdom (2 Samuel 5:6-10 The New International Version).

Later on, with the help of God, David successfully repelled the Philistine invasion, being more able military commander than the late king Saul (Arnold & Beyer, 2008). The victories of David brought him a respect of even distant lands’ rulers, such as Hiram king of Tyre, who provided him with his personal stonemasons to build a royal palace in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:11 The New International Version). Finally, David managed to overcome the resistance of many kings of surrounding lands, such as the ones of Arameans in Damascus, the Moabites, the Ammonites, etc.

Some of these peoples, e.g. the Moabites and the Amalekites, were forced to pay tribute to the king of Israel (2 Samuel 8:1-14 The New International Version). These victories gave rise to observation that “the Lord gave David victory wherever he went” (2 Samuel 8:14 The New International Version). Nonetheless, David differed sharply from Saul in that he put the interests of God above the earthly pleasures of his royal authority, at least, in the beginning of his reign. The story of the Ark of God being brought to Jerusalem may be an example thereof: though being a mighty king, David participated in the ceremony of delivering the Ark to the City of David, “wearing a linen ephod” and “dancing before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14 The New International Version).

When Michal, daughter of Saul, who was in his harem, expressed her displeasure at David’s acting as a “vulgar fellow” (2 Samuel 6:20 The New International Version), she was punished by God with childlessness, showing that David’s humility was more appreciated by Lord than the royal haughtiness of Saul. The revelation of Nathan the Prophet with respect to David and his progeny’s future greatness is likewise important for the scholars of the Old Testament and its relationship with Christian message.

After David decided to build a ‘house’ (i.e. the Temple) for Lord God in Jerusalem, Nathan, who was one of David’s followers and receive the prophetic visions, told the king of a revelation provided to him by God. In this vision, God promised David to protect the people of Israel, so that “wicked people will not oppress them anymore” (2 Samuel 7:11 The New International Version), and to deliver David from all his enemies. More importantly, though, Lord God promised to David, in Nathan’s vision, that when the days of David are over, He will raise one of his progeny to the throne of Israel, and this successor of David would establish the “a house for [God’s] Name” and his throne “will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:13-16).

While this prophecy may refer directly to Solomon, son of David, who built the First Temple in Jerusalem, the mentioning of idea of “forever” kingdom would probably refer to the future Eternal Rule of Lord Jesus Christ as a spiritual ‘heir’ to the House of David, being the true king and “the true Israel” (Clowney, 1991, p.76). On hearing the prophesy rendered to him by Nathan, David exclaimed the words of deep praise for God’s magnanimity that became enshrined as ‘David’s Prayer’ verses in 2 Samuel.

Here David expresses his immense gratitude to God for bringing him and his family to such greatness, for choosing the people of Israel as His own, and for giving promise of a future eternal rule of the House of David that God transmitted to David himself through Nathan’s words (2 Samuel 7:18-27 The New International Version). In the end, David asks God that His promise to the House of David and the people of Israel itself may be kept forever. Despite all his achievements, David was still fallible, as all humans are, and the story of his fall from Divine grace is a testimony thereto.

After David took the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his retainers, and murdered her husband with the sword taken from the Ammonites, God sent Nathan to rebuke David for the wrong he committed. Even though David repented and Nathan observed that “the Lord has taken away your sin” (2 Samuel 12:13 The New International Version), David was still struck with God-sent calamities when his child from the wife of late Uriah died, and his sons Amnon and Absalom gave him great grief by their actions against each other and their sisters (2 Samuel 13).

And that may be the most important spiritual lesson to take from David: the past righteousness does not create full-scale guarantees against future wrongdoing. References Arnold, B.T., & Beyer, B.E. (2008). Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian survey (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. Clowney, E.P. (1991). The unfolding mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (2nd ed.). Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing.