Concluding Thoughts on Second Samuel

King David occupies the spotlight in all of the Second Book of Samuel.  The naming of this book is a little inaccurate, as the prophet Samuel died in the previous book, but as it was Samuel whom God instructed to anoint David, the prophet's influence lives on.  Some more traditional translations of the Bible call this the Second Book of Kings, and at one time there were even some Bibles that condensed all four of the kingly books into two.  At any rate, I've reached the halfway point of this segment of the Old Testament.  The death of King David happens early in the next book and then we'll see the reign of Solomon and all events leading up to the captivity.  

King David is, again, the focal point in this book.  Not since Moses has a Biblical figure commanded such attention up to this point in Scripture.  David is clearly a figure of monumental importance.  As a king he places himself at the service of God; as a sinner he begs God's forgiveness; as one persecuted, he prays for deliverance from his enemies and also deals magnanimously with them.  He is a model for us in so many ways.  But he is also very human, and his falls from grace are notorious.   But instead of being a cautionary tale, a figure who is tragic and whose life is one to avoid, David opens himself up to God's restorative Grace, and he prostrates himself before the True King and is redeemed.  And so we, likewise, ought to do when we inevitably fall.  This model ended up being the standard followed by the great Christian kings of the ancient and medieval eras.  David's humility, his status as God's servant first and his people's servant second, was what all good kings aspired to.  Most importantly, David's kingship and his kingdom signify something far greater that will be fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ 1,000 years later.  The Son of David, Christ the King, will establish His Kingdom through His Church, and we can view David's kingdom as a precursor, a sign of things to come.  David's words still ring true with remarkable power via his psalms, still read and sung today in the Church's official prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours, and at Holy Mass.  All of this to say that David's importance can't be overstated.  His earthly life as told in Scripture may be coming to an end, but his influence will live on throughout the remainder of the Word.

2 Samuel 23-24: David's Legacy

I've reached the conclusion of 2 Samuel (or 2 Kings).  It ends on an interesting note.  All of 2 Samuel focuses on King David and these final chapters show once again how complicated a figure David is.  As a king he shows myriad positive and negative qualities.  In Chapter 24 we see his pride and vanity on display when he, out of curiosity, orders a census of his kingdom.  This displeases God and a plague is sent upon Israel.  We then see David's humility and repentance when he admits his transgression and accepts his punishment.  This is followed by the final event of 2 Samuel when David builds an altar to the Lord to show his gratitude to God for His ending of the punishing plague.  David is a figure worthy of emulation because he is so very human and yet he never despairs.  He falls, but he always gets back up, makes amends, does penance, and renews his efforts to do God's Will.  That is the key difference between David and Saul, his predecessor.  Saul succumbed to despair.  When he found himself at odds with God, instead of humbly asking forgiveness, he dug in his heels and allowed his pride to prevail.  David often lets his pride get the best of him as well, but he always acknowledges his sins and pleads for forgiveness.  In the final act of 2 Samuel, we see David building an altar, which represents his devotion to God, no matter what.  After all the ups and downs of his life, he does not abandon God, but without fail returns to Him, and acknowledges God's Universal Lordship.  

The site of this altar is said to be the site of the temple that David is inspired to build.  Of course we know David won't live to see this temple built, but it's interesting to see here its humble beginnings.  Solomon's glorious Temple is forthcoming, but it's important to note it began as a simple altar of thanksgiving by the great King David. 

2 Samuel 22 - "Thou art my lamp, O Lord"

God has delivered David from his enemies.  He has preserved David from the enduring threat of Saul.  And now David rejoices in song.  It is a preview of the glorious Psalms to come.  In fact, the words of 2 Samuel 22, David's canticle of thanksgiving, is seen again in Psalm 17.  But here, right after the last of Saul's descendants are put to death, is a proper placement, as David's reign, nearing an end, finally enters a period of peace, and you can feel the depths of David's gratitude, expressed in the gloriously poetic language of this Psalm.  

Again, David's reign, and his part in the story of God's Creation, is coming to an end soon.  2 Samuel 22:7 reads, "In my distress, I will call upon the Lord, and I will cry to my God: and he will hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry shall come to his ears."  "Out of his temple."  Here David alludes to the Temple he has been inspired to build, which at this point is still in the planning stages, but will come to represent a time of glory and prosperity for the Jewish people.  A new era has begun.

But most importantly is what is ultimately prefigured in this Psalm, for David sings, "Thou wilt keep me to be the head of the Gentiles: the people which I know not, shall serve me" (2 Samuel 22:44).  The Temple will indeed symbolize the pinnacle of God's Glory manifested among his chosen people.  But in verse 44, David looks even further into the future, of a time when even the Gentiles will come into the fold and serve the Lord.  This did not come into complete fruition in David's lifetime, so we can view this as a glimpse, a prefiguring of Jesus Christ (whom David often prefigures), Whose Church becomes the mystical temple for all his people, Jew and Gentile alike.  

2 Samuel 19-21: God's Will Be Done

The first thing of note here in this part of 2 Samuel is how even years after his death, Saul's sins continue to plague his family.  David has Saul's remaining progeny (save Miphiboseth) crucified to appease the Gabaonites, who demanded satisfaction for Saul's injustices done against them.  This speaks to the severity of Saul's sins and the gravity of God's justice.  It is a sobering lesson for all of us, to avoid sin, to keep God at the center of our family, lest temporal punishment be visited upon our descendants.  

Of note also is the fact that we see crucifixion as a mode of punishment 1,000 years before the crucifixion of Jesus.  I never realized how far back the practice went.  The specifics of how people were crucified doubtless changed much over time (even as far back as Deuteronomy 21 there is mention of people hanging from a tree in a manner some think was an early form of crucifixion).  The descriptions of Respha keeping "beasts" and "birds" away from the bodies of the crucified would indicate that the crosses were much lower to the ground than they were in later times.  Crucifixion was seen in Ancient Rome as a particularly ignoble way of dying, and we see here the implication is the same.  The Gabaonites were incensed at Saul's ruthless and savage betrayal and slaughter of their people, and they wanted the deaths of Saul's descendants to be as severe and as humiliating as possible, thus crucifixion was clearly the manner of death most fitting.  The fact that Jesus Christ, God as Man, came to be put to death in this most degrading way, shows us just how ruthless and savage our sins against Him are.   

Another powerful image from this Chapter is when, after the men had expired on their crosses, "water dropped upon them out of heaven" (2 Samuel 21:10).  This can be seen as a sign of God's appeasement (and a foreshadowing of Jesus's crucifixion and God's appeasement 1,000 years later).  As hard as it is to read of people, seemingly innocent, being put to death in this manner, David is subjecting himself to God's Will, as mysterious and difficult as it may be.  God's justice is done.  Rain falls and things are set right.  May we receive it in all humility.  

2 Samuel 17-18: Mourning for Absalom

The account of Absalom's death in the Old Testament is one not soon forgotten.  Absalom's ignominious death, hanging by his hair from a tree, defenseless, humiliated, and subjected to the wrath of his enemies, seems a fitting end for someone so pompous and brazen.  But what struck me in these chapters was, again, David's behavior.  It is David who is the common thread that runs through this part of the Bible, and just how his meek behavior in Chapter 16 is striking and anticipates the pinnacle of virtue we see in Christ, it is David's pity, his compassion, his mourning for his son Absalom in Chapter 18 that once again points toward Christ Himself.  

David weeps for Absalom, which makes sense on the one hand, for it is his son, but Absalom also was someone who betrayed David on a grand scale, tried to usurp the throne in the ultimate act of treacherous disrespect.  The purely human reaction to Absalom's defeat would have been satisfaction, but David shows no signs of being happy about how things played out, instead he acts with a superhuman grace, an example of the charity and compassion we all ought to conduct ourselves with.  He weeps for Absalom's lost soul, his tragic death, the fact that Absalom didn't get a chance to repent and make his life right.  Jesus likewise wept looking down over Jerusalem as He saw the waywardness, the sin, the lack of repentance in His children.  As sinners we are like Absalom, rebellious, insolent, self-destructive; yet like David for his son, Jesus never ceases loving us and desiring our salvation, and He weeps for the lost sheep who never find their way back to the fold. 

2 Samuel 16 - David's Meekness

As David flees from Jerusalem, as Absalom unjustly usurps the throne, we see example after example of the king's humility.  As in previous chapters, David in Chapter 16 does not exhibit rage and virulence.  He proceeds in his exile with a self-inflicted lowliness.  He walks in the desert with his faithful servants.  He acknowledges his sins and the fact that his current suffering is due to his past iniquities.  At one point, someone named Shimei, who we learn comes from Saul's house, approaches David and begins cursing him.  He also hurls stones at David.  These are powerfully insulting actions!  Most people would respond with indignation, maybe even with violence against their aggressor.  And David's followers are ready to defend their king against this blatantly disrespectful person.  But David does none of this.  He accepts the insults, he allows Shimei to continue with his cursing.  David simply and meekly takes it.  In 2 Samuel 16:10 David says, "let him alone, and let him curse: for the Lord hath bid him curse David."  And then in Chapter 12 he says, "Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction, and the Lord may render me good for the cursing of this day" (2 Samuel 16:12).  This statement that the acceptance of insults and attacks can be itself a virtuous act is a powerful lesson in Scripture.  It goes against our natural tendency to pridefully defend our own honor, but like so many virtues it requires the death of our natural (i.e., sinful) tendencies in order to behave in a supernatural way.  David describes Shimei's curses as an affliction.  David sees the occasion as a moment of suffering permitted by God as punishment for his past sins.  And therefore David does not dare put an end to Shimei's attacks, for if they are sent by God ultimately, David determines, who is he to lash out and retaliate against Shimei?  This is yet another example of David's Christ-like behavior we see so often in these chapters of Scripture.  Christ was insulted, cursed, and violently attacked, and yet He accepted it all.  The King of the Universe, who had every right to respond with indignation, is a figure of meekness and humility in the face of vicious attacks upon His Person.  And in David we see a glimpse, a foreshadow, of that same virtuous meekness here in his response to Shimei. 

2 Samuel 14-15: Sins of the King

After Absalom's banishment, it was disappointing to see him welcomed back to Jerusalem only to immediately turn around and begin plotting against his father.  Absalom is a figure of ambition, and he pursues the crown through manipulation and deceit.  Meanwhile, David, who is a complex figure representing holiness as well as redemption after sin, reacts to the news of Absalom's rebellion in an unexpected way.  A king learning that his son was plotting to overthrow him might react with rage and wrathful vengeance.  But David, perhaps seeing that this was all a result of his great sin, doesn't lash out at Absalom, instead he takes on the burden of his own self-inflicted suffering.  2 Samuel 15:30 reads, "David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, going up and weeping, walking barefoot, and with his head covered."  David epitomizes humility here.  He humbly leaves Jerusalem and allows Absalom to enter the city as a usurper.  This accentuates the evil of Absalom's actions -- it solidifies Absalom as an antagonistic, ambitious demagogue -- and it causes us to see David as a pitiful victim.  I've come to see the complexity of David in these chapters.  He's a poet-king and almost priest-like.  He practices humility and appeals to the religious leaders when he has transgressed.  It's those transgressions that humanize him.  In all other respects David is saint-like, a Christ figure.  But he falls like we all do.  And it's his great sin with Bathsheba that really brings him low and causes him to humiliate himself and seek atonement as an example for all of us.  It's also his great sin that has caused so much turmoil within his royal household.  The older David is a figure of suffering.  Through his sin evil has entered his house and his family experiences untold strife.  Absalom's revolt is only the latest example of this.

Addendum:  I now write from Idaho.  It's been unfortunately a long lapse of time since I've written here, but last year we made a big move and relocated to a new state.  As things begin to settle down hopefully I can get back on track with my reading of the Bible.  It's two days before Christmas and there's snow on the ground.  A welcomed change from the heat and aridity of Southern California.  And hopefully good conditions for writing.