A bald imposition

I haven’t mentioned Joab.  I looked him up in the Bible Dictionary.  He was “the second and most prominent son of David’s sister Jeruiah.”  He commanded David’s army.  We read of him as being a “skilled and courageous soldier and a shrewd politician, fiercely loyal to his king and people,” but also, “unscrupulous, calculating, and occasionally brutal.”  The dictionary says he and his brothers were “foils to the gentle, vacillating king.” That description of David’s nature came as a surprise to me.  I would be inclined to give him different qualities, though I wouldn’t classify “gentleness” as a negative.  Brave, compassionate, considerate, loving, above all – God-directed, but not without sensuality and other human failings.

And so on to Chapters 11 and 12 and the familiar story of David and Bathsheba.  What a convoluted way of providing David with his son and heir, Solomon!  Quite an example for future Soap Operas! More sensuality in Chapter 13: the rape of David’s son Absolom’s sister, Tamar, by another of his sons, Amnon.  Talk about convoluted.  David’s direct family line must be almost big enough for every other mortal to have descended from him -- a claim that was put forward about one of the recent subjects on television show “Who do you think you are?” (Andrew Denton, I think.)  It could not be proved.

So, I wondered what Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures has to say about sensuality. The concordance lists many references under "sensual" and its derivatives.  It occurs to me that this is a “bald imposition” on man.  Page 99 of Science and Health states:

    

 The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health,

     purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of

     material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give

     everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God’s

     spiritual, perfect man.

I think I am being given a clue here.  If I am not countering all the claims of sensualism that I am seeing in this Bible story and in my world, I am adding to its seeming influence.  How much of the bad news on television is related to the claim of sensuality and the effects thereof?

Many of the references to sensualism (et al) occur in the Glossary definitions in Science and Health, e.g. Angels, Canaan, Children, Ham, Jacob, Jerusalem, Levi, Pharisee, Red Dragon, Reuben, Rock, Shem. I seem to recall that the names represent types. 

It is pleasing to note that Shem (Noah’s son) represents “reproof of sensualism” (p. 594), while Noah's other two sons are defined this way:

Japhet (Noah’s son).  A type of spiritual peace, flowing from the understanding that God is the divine Principle of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child of His care (p. 589);

Ham (Noah’s son).  Corporeal belief; sensuality; slavery; tyranny (p. 587);

and interestingly 

Canaan (the son of Ham). A sensuous belief; ...the error which would make man mortal and would make mortal mind a slave to the body.(p. 582).

We can refer to Genesis 9:18-27 for the story which stands at the back of these definitions.  The account tells us that from these types the whole earth was believed to be peopled. Perhaps we can also turn to the Glossary to find types which counteract the degrading claims of sensualism.  Here is a good start: 

Angels. God's thoughts...counteracting all evil, sensuality and mortality (p. 581).

Asher (Jacob’s son). ...the ills of the flesh rebuked (p. 581).

Benjamin, Elias, Gad, Joseph, Judah, and Noah are all there teaching us that the real man of God’s creating is good.  

It is, however, the definitions of Jesus (p. 589) and of Christ (p. 583), which give us the highest teaching for our development as Christians and Christian Scientists.

Getting back to David.  His beloved Psalms tell us of the trials he endured (physically and mentally) and how he turned to God as the source of his salvation.  What a fine example he is for us and how he has blessed mankind and will continue to bless through the innate spirituality and humility of his recording of his communion with God through these hymns of praise.

Joyce Voysey

Ed.

I love this passage from Jude:24, 25 - 

Now unto him that is able to keep  you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty dominion and power, both now and ever.