August: Prayer and Covenant
4 August 2024 Pentecost 11: 2 Samuel 11: 26–12:13
The person who emerges with most integrity from the story of David’s adultery and murder is Bathsheba. In the custom of the day, she had no choice but to obey the King. She mourns for her husband. She will remain faithful to David, as king, over the years, as well as to the child she later bears to David, Solomon, who later becomes king. David, by contrast, continues his unseemly behaviour; he listens to the prophet Nathan regaling him with a tale of a rich man and a poor man and erupts in anger at the selfish acts of the rich man. Yet, as Nathan declares, he is exactly that man: privileged and well-to-do, yet fundamentally evil in what he has done. Nathan executes his prophetic role with power: he speaks forth the word of the Lord into the immediate situation, calling David to account. At least the king recognises his sin and repents. God both punishes and forgives him.
11 August 2024 Pentecost 12: 2 Samuel 18:5–33
David’s son Absalom was, ironically, named “the father of peace”. It was claimed that he was perfectly beautiful in appearance (2 Sam 14:25). To his credit, he avenged the rape of his sister, Tamar, by their brother Amnon, the second son of David (2 Sam 13). To his detriment, he rebelled against his father and declared himself king, forcing David to leave Jerusalem for a time (2 Sam 15). David, now a king-in-exile, plotted; eventually his forces routed the usurper (2 Sam 18). It is yet another murky period in Israel’s history. David had wanted Absalom spared, but Joab ordered him to be killed. David’s reign was secured, but his heart was broken; “would I had died instead of you”, he laments. This final verse exposes once again the complexity of David; grasping to hold on to power, grieving for his lost son. Absalom, the “father of peace” has not bequeathed any peace to his own father, David. They are both complicit in this tragic end.
18 August 2024 Pentecost 13: 1 Kings 2:10–12, 3:3–14
David had many sons—there are 19 who are named in the Bible, and two others unnamed. We do not know how many daughters he had, except for Tamar (2 Sam 13). The passages offered this week from early in 1 Kings portray a smooth transition from David to his chosen son, Solomon; but the previous chapter has told of the plotting by Adonijah, and the next part of the story reports that David authorised the murders of his son Adonijah, his nephew Joab, and Shimei, a relative of Saul, to ensure that Solomon could reign. Living in a democracy where leadership is determined by popular vote, this feels particularly unpleasant and unjust to us. Paradoxically, David charges Solomon to adhere to “the statutes, commandments, ordinances, and testimonies” that God has decreed. Solomon sensibly prays for “an understanding mind to govern your people”. That is the essence of good leadership.
25 August 2024 Pentecost 14: 1 Kings 8: 22–30, 41–43
The sequence of stories from the sagas of ancient Israel which we have been hearing week by week as we follow the lectionary conclude with a long prayer of dedication as the Temple is completed. We began with Samuel; we end with Solomon. Under Solomon, Israel was said to stretch from the Euphrates to Egypt (1 Ki 4:21), the largest amount of land ruled by any of the kings (and the extent that is, controversially, claimed by extremist Zionists today). The extended prayer that Solomon prays is equally grand; he recalls the many acts of God and the response of God’s people, and repeatedly presses God to “hear in heaven” and forgive, judge, act, and maintain their cause. This prayer thus mediates the covenant they have made, for whilst Israel must be held to that commitment, so also God must be held to account for how God deals with God’s people. May this be our commitment, and our prayer, today.
These lectionary reflections were prepared by Rev. Dr John Squires, Editor, With Love to the World.
More detailed commentaries on these passages from Hebrew Scripture are being posted for each week on his website, An Informed Faith https://johntsquires.com