The Journey 2-1-14 Morning People! I Chronicles 11:1-47 “About David” “All Israel gathered to David at Hebron, saying, “Now: we are your flesh and blood. Some time before now, even when Saul was king, you were leading Israel out and bringing Israel home. Yahweh your God said to you, ‘You are the one who will shepherd my people Israel. You will be ruler over my people Israel.’” So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David sealed a covenant to them at Hebron before Yahweh. They anointed David king over Israel in accordance with Yahweh’s word by means of Samuel. Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem—that is, Jebus; the Jebusites were there as inhabitants of the country. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You will not come in here,” but David captured the stronghold of Zion—that is, David’s city. David said, “Anyone who strikes down the Jebusites first will be chief and commander.” Joab son of Zeruiah went up first and became chief. David lived in the stronghold; therefore it was called “David’s city.” He build up the city all around, from Millo around, while Joab brought to life the rest of the city. David continued to get greater; Yahweh Armies was with him. These were David’s chief warriors, who were the people who asserted their strength along with him in his reign, along with all Israel, in making him king, in accordance with Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. This is the list of David’s warriors. Jashobeam, son of Hachmoni, was chief officer; he was wielding a spear against three hundred; he slew them in one go. After him was Eleazar, son of Dodo, the Ahohite; he was one of the three warriors, and he was with David at Pas Dammim when the Philistines gathered there for battle. There was a plot of countryside full of barely. The company had fled before the Philistines, but they made stand in the middle of the plot and held it, and struck down the Philistines. Yahweh won a great deliverance. Three of the thirty chiefs went down to the crag to David, to the cave at Adullam. The Philistine forces were camped in the Valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold; a Philistine garrison was then in Bethlehem. David had a longing. He said, “If only someone could give me a drink from the Bethlehem cistern by the gate!” So the three broke through the Philistines’ camp, drew water from the Bethlehem cistern which is by the gate, carried it, and brought it to David. David wouldn’t drink it. He poured it out to Yahweh and said, “God forbid that I should do this. Can I drink the blood of these men, at the cost of their lives?”—because they had brought it at the cost of their lives, and he would not drink it. This is what the three warriors did. . .Benaiah son of Jehoiada was an able soldier, mighty in deeds, from Kabzeel. He struck down two Moabite leaders. He went down and struck down a lion in the midst of a cistern on a snowy day. He struck down an Egyptian man, a huge man seven feet tall. In his hand the Egyptian had a spear like a weaver’s beam. (Benaiah) went down to him with a club, tore the spear from the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear.” (Verses 24-47 list further warriors) Reflections • It is almost like Chronicles is telling about the “Good old Days.” There is no David now, and also no Jashobeam, Eleazar, or Benaiah, and in retelling the account in Samuel-Kings, Chronicles might have been tempted to omit these stories as it omitted many others. I wondered at first reading, why they didn’t. Then it hit me, when Hebrews 11 takes us the stories of great Old Testament heroes (of faith), it does so on the assumption that these can be an inspiration. While the kind of thing that Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and Miriam did will not be the kind of thing that Hebrews’ readers will have to do, these readers can be inspired by the attitude of TRUST and FAITHFULNESS those heroes took in facing the challenges that came to them and thus be encouraged to face their different challenges with the same trust and faithfulness. Am I tracking here? Perhaps Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Benaiah could similarly inspire Chronicles readers. They might also encourage them not to assume that the great days were all over. In other words, encouraged expectation. I think we need that lesson to day as well! Our faith is not just based on “facts” alone, although that is incredibly important. There is an “experiential” facet to it as well, correct? • Another LESSON for me is the way Chronicles describes David’s coming to the throne. It is easy to assume that it was inevitable from the beginning that David would come to the throne over ALL Israel, but it wasn’t. Remember, kings are usually succeeded by someone from within their own family, and many people would have assumed that someone from Saul’s family should succeed him, not some “upstart” from the south who has been behaving in a suspicious fashion in living among and identifying with the Philistines for as long as anyone can remember. Second Samuel describes how it was the southern clans that first acknowledged David (at Hebron, the key southern city); the northern clans acknowledged him only later. Chronicles, in my opinion, TELESCOPES this process in order to emphasize an implication for its day. Think about it, when Chronicles was written, there would be people from the south (from Judah) who were NOT keen on associating with the people from the north. Like the lists in chapters 1-9, the stress on ALL Israel reminds them that the people of God embraces TWELVE tribes, not three. They are to welcome the other tribes when they want to join them. It’s also noticeable (did you see it?) that the LISTS in verses 26-47 INCLUDE an Ammonite, a Hittite, and a Moabite. Once again Chronicles reminds its readers that they are NOT to be ethically exclusive. QUESTION: How old was Jesus when He first read Chronicles? Did he get these implications you think? Was it part of the background for his telling the story of the “Good Samaritan”? Or, for instance when he asks “Who is your Neighbor”? Interesting. Let me turn it, so to speak. The Northern tribes need to be willing to follow the example of their forebears in recognizing David and recognizing Jerusalem. At some time in the Second Temple period the people in the north built a temple on the top of Mount Gerizim, above Shechem. (remember the woman at the well referring to it in speaking with Jesus?) It wasn’t necessarily wrong to have “other’ worship places; Jerusalem is a long way away from most people. But the Gerizim temple can’t be allowed to rival the temple in Jerusalem. To say, “We are your flesh and blood” (Literally, “We are your bone and flesh” ) is to say, “We want to become one family with you.” Jerusalem’s becoming a Judahite city would seem like ancient history now (it was ancient history now), but I had started off as one of the cities the Israelites couldn’t occupy, and it was still in Jebusite hands in David’s day. The Jebusites had good reason for thinking it was unconquerable. It sits at the end of a little thumb-shaped ridge with steep inclines surriounding it on nearly every side. But Joab found a way of capturing the city on David’s behalf (2 Samuel 5 gives some account of how this was achieved). Its strong position then became an asset for Israel, but, in addition, many point out it makes for a capital in a neutral area that maybe all the clans can acknowledge. You get that idea but prejudice, bias, name calling prevented that from happening. LESSONS for us today, right? Have a wonderful “rest” day people! Love you guys and gals, pb
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 12:36:43 +0000
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