Lessons in morality

It may seem that David, King of Israel, was a flawed leader. It may seem that all leaders have moral weaknesses, and that none can be perfect. After all, we may think, they are only human, just like us. 

But where does that leave us?

Strength in numbers?

The last chapter of II Samuel speaks of the census which David called to number the people, and for which a “pestilence” was sent.  There are two articles on JSH-Online (see http://jsh.christianscience.com/) which mention this census. They are by Floyd C Shank

David's Thanksgiving Psalm

What balm to come to II Samuel, Chapter 22!

Writing for posterity

I've been thinking about David (of course).  Would he have been famous as a king if he had not written the Psalms?  Many people are famous because of what they have written and set down for posterity. 

O my son Absolom!

Having read up to the end of Chapter 14, I was a bit tired of Absolom so I thought I would by-pass the rest of the Absolom story of his turning against the king by stealing the hearts of the men of Israel.  Then I recalled something David said about him – “O my son Absolom, my son, my son Absolom! 

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.

No need to steady the ark

What is going on in chapter six and how can we learn from it today?

I turned to www.BibleGateway.com; read from a couple of different translations there; then I had a look at Matthew Henry's commentary for a deeper explanation. It was very thorough and illuminating.

David finding his feet

Chapter 6.  David’s “sm[iting] of the Philistines” had freed the Ark of God from Philistine possession.  This ark seems to have been treated as somewhat of a magic thing.  I find its history rather blurry.  David’s wife Michal, Saul’s daughter,  seems to have been despised by him, and he believed that God had prevented his blood and Saul’s from being mingled because she was never to bear a child; a fact he cherished.

Jerusalem: The City of David

Chapter 4.  A case of “Here we go again!” Saul’s son Ishbosheth is killed and avenged in a similar fashion to Abner.

Chapter 5 finds David anointed to be king of Israel as well as Judah. 

A new book about King David

I didn’t expect II Samuel to be quite so interesting…and topical, but then, any Bible study always seems to end up being compellingly relevant.

Today I was reading SAM, the alumni magazine for Sydney University (my husband did his Master’s degree there), and came across a piece about Australian author and 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner (for fiction), Geraldine Brooks. It transpires that although she now resides in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, she is in Australia this month for her annual visit to family and to promote her latest historical novel ­The Secret Chord (published by Hachette).

And which famous Biblical character do you suspect is the central character in The Secret Chord? It’s none other than King David, who we’ve been getting to know in the course of our reading this month. I am sure readers of this blog will be interested to chase up a copy for themselves (and your editor hopes she can find a bookstore in Malaysia that might have a copy).

In the SAM interview, Ms Brooks is quoted as saying “I am bound to the facts as far as I can know them. In this case, I was surprised to discover that in 1000 BC they did not ride horses. It felt odd having a king like David ride a mule, but I couldn’t lie.”

I will be interested to hear from readers who manage to read the book.

In the meantime, I wonder why David took so many wives plus concubines. My internet is patchy here, so I haven’t been able to do any research. 

Julie Swannell

A good man dies (revenge killing)

I wonder what the time span is between Moses pronouncing the Ten Commandments and David’s time?  I seem to recall one of the ten was: Thou shalt not kill!!!  Somebody said the Israelites took it to mean, in practice, “Thou shalt not kill an Israelite.”

(Looked up the time thing – Moses c. 1250 BC; David in II Samuel c. 1000 BC.)

Chapter 3 has Joab and his brother Abishai slaying Abner (remember we thought he had a good attitude even though he was in Saul’s family’s camp?) because he had slain their brother.  Sounds like “A life for a life.”  The only probable Bible verse I found for the origin of this saying is Deut. 19:21, “And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”  The page heading for this is, “Laws which are to be observed in war.”  Like the Ten Commandments, these laws were given by Moses. 

We could get confused about the law/laws!

I wonder if the Israelis of to-day rely on Moses’ rules of war?

Anyway, David and “all the people” mourned for Abner.  For verses 33, 34, Moffatt's Bible translation offers: 

The king also sang this dirge for Abner:

    Was this how Abner had to die,

    as dies a godless wretch?

    Your hands no man did tie,

    more chained your feet!-and

      then,

    as godless wretch

    you fell to ruthless men!

The New Revised Standard Version also puts the words in to verse form, and notes, “The Hebrew term rendered fool in English Bibles refers to someone who commits a serious breach of society’s norms; ….David’s point is that Abner is a prince and a great man (v. 38) and should not have suffered the ignominious death of an outcast lacking the protection of society.”

NRSV of the dirge -

   Should Abner die as a fool dies?

   Your hands were not bound,

        your feet were not fettered;

   as one falls before the wicked

        you have fallen.

Joyce Voysey

Wives and daughters

It’s interesting to read about the women’s role in David’s time.

Already, in the first two chapters, we encounter references to the women. The two verses in chapter one appear to cast the women in the role of

“Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?”

Chapter 2

How wise and humble David was in asking God what his next move should be.  It was decided that he would go to Hebron, in Judah; he and his wives and household.  The text reads as a very modest new start for David.  However, the men of Judah came

"How are the mighty fallen"

II Samuel.

The book opens with somewhat of a bang.

The man who comes to tell David that Saul and Jonathan are dead is in turn killed because he had “slain the Lord’s anointed.”  This he had done at Saul's own request,