NL sermon David

The reading today focus’ on the second of Israel’s Kings, and perhaps the most famous.  However, famous doesn’t mean the best, or the most perfect.  One of the big differences between the leadership of the prophets and that of the Kings is that the former received it’s orders from God, the latter…well, with great power, you know how that saying goes.

The Lord regretted that he had made Saul king.  Kingship wasn’t God’s plan, it was the people’s choice, a bad choice…but God allowed it allowing the people to exert their free will. If you recall from last week Israel had lost faith in the Spiritual leadership of God’s prophets and priests and had demanded a king, like other nations had, despite all the warnings that the Lord gave them through the prophet Samuel.

The man chosen was Saul “a handsome young man. There was not a man among the Israelites more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.”

The perfect choice…from the outside.  But Saul proved a disappointment. He became what the people had asked for; a king like other nations…corrupt and self interested…leading people through example and action away from God and God’s law.

So, the Lord sent Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint a new king.  So Samuel went to the house of Jesse and asked to be shown Jesse’s sons.  He saw the eldest boy and “thought, “Surely his anointed is now before the Lord.”  But the lord said, not this one.  Samuel the prophet met the second son, then the third and so forth, each one the Lord rejected.

Surely, the eldest…the tallest…the strongest…the manliest should be king, that would be the traditional and expected choice.  That is what Saul had been and it proved to be not enough.

 “Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And (Jesse) said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.”… He sent and brought him in. Now (the youngest) was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.”

David.  The most famous of the ancient kings of Israel.  At this point David could be best described as a pretty young boy, not exactly a ringing endorsement after the mighty King Saul. “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, …, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 

And what did the Lord see in David that would make him a worthy king? 

David reined over Israel for 40 years, uniting the northern and southern kingdoms that had split up during the turbulent time of King Saul.  The time of King David reigned was known as Israel’s Golden Age and David was proclaimed a King after God’s own heart.  David was famed for making Jerusalem the religious center of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem under King David and the Psalter was famously attributed to King David, the poet and musician.  He was also known for speaking with God as a prophet would and receiving word from the prophets Nathan and Gad. 

Today, however, David was just a young shepherd boy left by the family to guard the sheep as the family worshiped with the great Prophet Samuel.  Just a young boy, but anointed and promised; called by God, but not king yet. David was anointed by the prophet Samuel, long before he became King…in fact Samuel anointed David to be King while King Saul was still the King over Israel and that caused chapters of problems!

This is the very start of the story of King David, the moment that he receives the Spirit of God.  Now, King David had a life that was literally blessed by God, but that did not mean that he was free from troubles, nor that he was perfect.  King David was certainly blessed; in fact it was this same David who slayed Goliath with a stone as Goliath mocked him and in the Lord’s name and thus triumphed for King Saul’s army against the Giant of the Philistines.   So, Saul and David met that day, and Saul was enchanted with David and favoured him, promoting him and having him live in the palace.  So that David became close with the King’s family and especially with the King’s son Johnathan, who loved him. 

But as David grew and joined the ranks of the Kings army, succeeding in everything he encountered, winning battles and earning the praise of the armies; Saul became sickly jealous.  His mind turned and he began to hate David and even tried to kill him, twice.  So the young David fled.

Still the Lord was with David and David flourished.  Saul, however had been reject by God, just as David was favoured and so Saul became increasingly angry and unstable.  We read that Saul spent his time coming up with plots to kill David, but David over came them all…not only evading Saul’s plots but becoming a famous and wealthy general in his own rite, with several wives and a following of loyal soldiers.  The armies of Israel had witnessed  how good a leader David was, and how unhinged Saul was becoming. So many deserted King Saul to follow David.  Prophets too spoke favourably towards David, equipping him and supporting him with food and weapons when needed.  Unfortunately, when Saul heard that even the priests and prophets favoured David above him…King Saul had the priests and prophets killed…85 priests, then in his anger at their rebellion continued to massacre their town, its men, women, children and even it’s livestock.  The first King of Israel was not proving to be a success.

David knew of the terrific anger and malice that King Saul had towards him, but David also knew that Saul was still the King.  David, might have been in rebellion, but he was a righteous man of God and he respected King Saul and the position he held.

This is shown in a story of an encounter with King Saul that David had, while King Saul was hunting down David.

One day…” Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. 3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself.

David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said[b] to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up (to King Saul)  unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

8 Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” …. 9 He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? 10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 11 See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. …

16 When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. 17 “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. 18 You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. 19 

Still the animosity continued with Saul against David, until the day King Saul and his sons were killed in one of the many battles against the Philistines.  David mourned over his king, but in due time David went up to Hebron and the men of Judah came there and anointed David King over Judah, the southern part of the Kingdom.

Now the kingdom of Israel in the North was still loyal to Saul’s heirs

…”the war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time.  David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker”. “All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’”

David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

Yet, even famous King David was not without his errors.  David achieved many good and righteous deeds in his time, but he was not perfect.  As time went by David did both good and evil, he grew ambitious and arrogant.  This is the same King David that forced Bathsheba and killed her husband Uriah.  The same King David who began to spend more time in building up his city and legacy then worshiping and following God. 

And it is this same King David, youngest son of Jesse whose ancestral line would lead in time to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  The stories of King David are well worth knowing, for even a King after Gods own heart is still just a man, prone to good and evil, like each of us.   And in these stories of our spiritual forebearers we can see our own lives reflected and in these reflections we can see God acting, then, now and always. amen