ISRAEL
AND ITS KINGS
Tonight we are going to talk about three of
Israel’s first and greatest kings, Saul, David and Solomon. Their
stories can be found in the Old Testament books of I and II Samuel
and I and II Kings, tracing Israel’s transformation from twelve
separate tribes into a monarchy.
The period of the prophet Samuel, Israel’s
last judge, and of Saul, the first king of Israel, marked the most
desperate moments of danger Israel hade ever faced
The reign of David and his son Solomon marked the highest
success the nation ever achieved in its long history.
Even so, kings would prove to be a mixed
blessing for a nation that prided itself on being a league of tribes
with a great deal of independence, local freedom and equality. And
while kings gave strong government, they did it at the expense of
every Israelite’s
jealously guarded rights..
The first and second books of Samuel form the
transition from the loose tribal league which had been in force
since the time of Joshua. It was the prophetic and religious leader
Samuel who was the major figure of changing from being a nation of
twelve tribes to a monarchy with a king.
You may remember my story of the missing Ark of
the Covenant…at this time in Israel’s
History the Ark had not disappeared.
There was in fact a shrine where the Ark was kept and the
shrine was watched over by the old priest, Eli. People would go to
the shrine to worship on high holy days.
As a boy Samuel came to serve the old priest Eli at the
shrine and in time became both priest and prophet.
In battle with the Philistines one tradition
said that the Ark was stolen and old Eli died of the shock. Samuel
soon became the powerful religious force in Israel.
Because the danger from the Philistines was so
great, the tribes realized they needed a king to unite them against
the enemy and they went to Samuel to beg him to provide them with a
king like other countries had.
God spoke to Samuel and told him “At this
time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin whom
you are to anoint as commander of my people Israel.”
Now Samuel was still reluctant to have a king,
but agreed as long as God chose the man who would be king, a man
named Saul.
Saul was a brave warrior and won some battles,
but he didn’t manage to gain the final victory he needed to unite
Israel. Also Saul’s
arrogance and rash temperament turned Samuel and his son Jonathan
and David away from him. David, formerly a shepherd boy, had become
Saul’s aide. Saul’s armour bearer and musician. David had killed
the Philistine hero Goliath and become increasingly popular with the
people. This made Saul envious and poisoned the relationship between
them.
As David became more popular, Saul’s
popularity declined and Samuel anointed David. David had to flee
Saul’s rage and the Philistines attacked again killing King Saul
and his son Jonathan.
?The book of II Samuel centers on David’s
reign of power. How he first consolidated his power and then won a
large empire for Israel. The second part of II Samuel records the
downfall of David’s hopes as his sons fought to be his successor.
David was both a military and political genius.
He defeated the Philistines and pushed Israel’s borders across
Syria and Jordan. David understood people and had a winning
personality. We would call him a charismatic politician, and it was
David’s gifts that united Israel and conquered neighboring lands.
People wanted him to be their king.
David made Jerusalem his capital and Jerusalem
is still called the city of David. He brought the ark of the
covenant to Jerusalem and to his palace grounds and God was with
him. God promised David that he would care for Israel.
But David had a dark side, even though he tried
to love and serve Jahweh. It may even be that the accounts in the
Bible portray David as a better man than he actually was. Many
scholars believe that David played off Saul against the Philistines,
created a personal army to protect his person and power and used the
deaths of Saul and his son to take power from Saul’s other heirs.
Indeed David may have arranged some deaths to advance himself.
What Biblical texts do show of this kind of
bloodthirsty ambition is where David arranges the death of Uriah so
he could get Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bathsheba.
The official portrait of David was beautiful,
but behind the scenes there is evidence that he could be scheming,
ambitious and bloodthirsty.
In II Samuel the text shows how David could
conquer all external foes, but could not keep peace in his own
family.After David had Uriah killed God told him he would punish
David by the pain in his own household. And indeed God did. Son
kills son. Son plots against father and is killed. David had family
problems.
David had gifts and David had flaws and yet God
protected him and his dynasty. In the Psalms you can see many
references to God’s love and protection for Israel. Psalm 89 is a
song of praise of God’s promise to David. With all his flaws David
remained loyal to Jahweh. It was David’s primary loyalty and as a
great warrior David
brought the rule of Jahweh to many surrounding nations. As a king he
had received a promise of divine protection that actually lasted
four hundred years down to 586 BC when the powerful Babylonians
swept into Judah and Jerusalem.
The primary meaning of both David’s successes
and failures was not that David deserved the praise, but that God
used the weak king to accomplish his divine purpose.
Now David had a son, and you will recognize his
name…Solomon…what was King Solomon known for?
Do you remember any stories about this king?
But even before God gave Solomon the wisdom for
which he became to famous, Solomon had already shown himself to be
both decisive and ruthless. When he came to power he killed off all
his possible rivals. He made peace with neighboring kings and
married an Egyptian princess. Ultimately his ways led to revolt
against the introduction of pagan influence on Israel.
In the first book of Kings it says that Solomon
was the reason that Israel turned away from the faithful obedience
to Jahweh that David had closely observed.
Yet Solomon became legendary for his wisdom. He
was the author of thousands of proverbs and songs and had a great
knowledge of plants and animals. He was also a major builder. He
built the great temple of Jerusalem and constructed a wall around
the city..some of which you can see today.
He developed extensive trade with other nations and made
commercial treaties with Egypt, Turkey and Tyre. Under Solomon
Israel enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity.
But like his father David, Solomon had his
shortcomings. In building the great temple, Solomon established his
own greatness. But Solomon became a tyrant, living in great luxury
with l,000 wives and concubines, violating Moses law against
intermarriage with foreign people. And even worse, Solomon built
temples and performed religious rites for other peoples Gods.
His taxes to support his court and building
projects were a huge burden on the people and he used forced labor
to accomplish his building. Most irritating, Solomon took away the
tribal powers for himself. He split tribes apart even as he seemed
to favor the Canaanites and other foreign peoples over Israel’s
traditions. He neglected the simple and severe demands of Jahweh’s
faith that centered on the covenant and the people as a community.
Troubles broke out everywhere and the great
kingdom began to splinter. Solomon, a great king died out of touch
with his people, and Israel’s faith tradition was in danger. By
all human measure Solomon was the most successful king Israel ever
had, but by Old Testament judgment he was, if not the worst, at
least among the worst of kings.
The central role for kinds in all nations of
the ancient world was to preserve the divine order, participating in
the religious rites to invoke divine blessing on the people, making
sure the divine world was pleased and would bless the year ahead.
Early records if Israel proclaim that Jahweh
was king over Israel, but when Israel began to have kings, the kings
claimed to be deputies of Jahweh, though not divine.
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