When there’s not much to base on

Title: When there’s not much to base on
Date: 22 Oct & 5 Nov 2017
Preacher: Rev. Enoch Keong

It was a happy day for many Israelites. The folks were so joyful and they made so much noise till the ground along the streets split apart (v.40). When we leave the streets and move indoor, and into King David’s chamber; we will hear the loud noises no more, but we will certainly find the same mood of celebration going around in the room. David has finally named the successor to his throne, and David’s servants are there to congratulate him that his son Solomon is now king of Judah and Israel.

Then, when it comes to David’s turn to say something about the happy occasion, we find these words, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it. (v.48)" David says that Solomon’s enthronement is something that God has granted. Question, how did David arrive at such a conclusion? Well, we’ll need to go into the story to find out.

The story we read this morning begins with “Now King David was old and advanced in years (v.1).” He was so old and so frail that his he wasn’t able to even feel warmness in his body. His servants suggested getting a young woman to help him due with the problem. Friends, may I ask, are we able to see the logic behind the servants’ suggested solution? I have to admit that I can’t find the logic. Because, if the need here is to transfer bodily warmness, then why can’t any of David’s 18 wives do the job? Why do they have to get in someone like Abishag who is not only beautiful, but very beautiful?

Biblical interpreter have put forward various reasons to explain why someone like Abishag had been sought and placed in the king’s chamber. Among the reasons proposed, I find one to be most probable.

Back in those days, people believed that there was a definite link between a king’s natural powers and the power and effectiveness of his rule. I don’t think I am getting the point across, am I right? Maybe for this case we need to escalate the rating from PG to somewhere between NC16 and M18?

Let’s try again.

People back then believed that the physical and sexual vigor of a king has a direct impact on his ability to rule the country. David was by now old, in fact very old (v.15). He had not been active in his bedroom for quite a while. People therefore, because of the belief that they held, started to question if David should still remain as king if he has lost his virility. So, the concerned servants went all around recruiting the very beautiful Abishag, the purpose is to help him regain his usual activeness. But sadly, the bible soon announces the outcome of the servants’ experiment, “the king knew her not (v.4)”, which means David continue to remain inactive.

David’s condition signals that it’s time to have a change of kingship. And so Adonijah, David’s oldest surviving son, the rightful heir, began campaigning for the throne.

From the opening verse and up till this point, what can we say about David? He is very old and frail. His condition couldn’t be help even when given the best possible treatment. And, his son is ready to have him replaced.

Let us continue with the story. We still need the other ingredients in it to answer the question on how did David arrive at his conclusion?

The verses that we skipped over during this morning’s scripture reading tell us that while Adonijah was holding his party at En-rogel, a conspiracy was at the same time taking place in the palace. Nathan, the prophet that was not invited to the party, went to speak to Bathsheba. He warned Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, that both she and her son will die if Adonijah became king. Having successfully put fear in Bathsheba, the prophet then urged her to speak to the king. He even gave her the things to say to the king, and assured her that he will be there right after she has spoken to strengthen her case.

The action quickly follows. Bathsheba went to see the king. And this is what she said to him, “"My lord, you swore to your servant by the LORD your God, saying, 'Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.' And now, behold, Adonijah is king, although you, my lord the king, do not know it (vv.17-18).”

These are certainly the words to be said to the king at this critical moment, to remind the king that he had promised to let Solomon be his successor and to also remind him that the vow was made before God. But there’s a problem here, from the day since David peeped through Bathsheba’s window till this moment where it’s Bathsheba looking at the younger beauty attending to the king, there’s no record of such a promise ever being made. In other word, we can’t find this promised being made by David in the whole of Second Samuel. Did Nathan who taught Bathsheba how to speak made this up? Is the prophet a political animal? Or is it simply because the author of 2 Samuel chooses not to report this bit? We will have to suspend judgement since the bible is silent at this point.

But what can be said with greater certainty is that when Nathan himself spoke before the king, he was out to poison the king’s mind and to manipulate him to act according to what he himself had wanted. We will highlight here only one of his acts of manipulation, although there are more. Nathan reported to David in verse 25, “And behold, they are eating and drinking before him, and saying, 'Long live King Adonijah!’”. Well, it is true that Adonijah did organize a party to eat and drink with the powerful men of Israel. The purpose for throwing the feast was likely to campaign and lobby for support, and probably nothing beyond that. But that’s not how Nathan put it across to the king. He made the king believe that the guests were already exclaiming “Long live King Adonijah!” He made David believe that Adonijah had no regard for his father and had went ahead to make himself king. By doing so, Nathan had successfully generated anger in David against his son. And by doing so, he has forced David to recall the treachery of Absalom, a recollection that would inject pain into David’s heart, and that pain soon transformed into an impetus that propelled the king to act.

David the king went on to give the command to anoint Solomon as king, and the rest is history.

Having come to this point of the story, allow me to ask again a question that was asked earlier on. From the opening verse and up till this point, what can we say about David? He is very old and frail. His condition couldn’t be help even when given the best possible treatment. His son is ready to have him replaced. He was subjected to the manipulation of Bathsheba, who was first being manipulated and made fearful by Nathan. Next, he was manipulated by his advisor who played on his emotions. And finally, he seems to have awaken from his slumber and gave orders as a king.

The list we have reflects the poor health conditions faced by David, the good and ill intentions people had toward him, the kind and the unkind treatment he faced, and his personal involvement in shaping the present and the future. It is with these items in this list, that David built his conclusion.

Now, when we place the items in the list and David’s conclusion side by side, what do we see? Would we not think that the 2 doesn’t quite correspond with each other? As in when we add up the individual items in the list, we will probably not get a result that would looks like what we have in the column on the right. In other words, there is here disjointedness. If a third or more of the items in the list are more spiritual in its characteristic, we might say that the 2 columns correspond fairly well to each other. But the items in the list are predominantly unworthy human motives and plots. There is a clear mismatch here.

And now that we have taken note of this mismatch, what can we say about David who concluded all that had happened with a statement that sounds so spiritual? Was he trying to sound politically correct, since Israel was by right a theocracy? Or was he being uncritical about things?

May I suggest to us, what we have here, is a man who is after God’s heart, who again is in his elements. What do I mean? David is by now (in the story) well known for 2 things: wrong decisions and indecision. David sinned terribly by killing Uriah–that’s an example of a wrong decision made–and he had paid a high price for that. As to indecisions, David did nothing to correct Amnon and Absalom after they had done wrong. And he had done many other things that made him look not quite like a man of faith. But here we see again a David who is a man after God’s heart, as in we see a man who acknowledges with his life that God is sovereign, and that God is always at work, always at work, always at work in our midst to accomplish his good purposes.

Good and bad things happened around David. And all those things took place only because the people around him designed and executed their thoughts and plans, but, to David, that doesn’t make them non-spiritual. Because when God is at work, when God is involved, it is spiritual. And because this is David’s understanding of things, it is no surprised that David could draw such a conclusion.

Friends, we live in the same real world as David; a world where we get to experience happiness and sadness, success and failure, health and sickness, peaceful and turbulent times, sunny and rainy days. In our real world we will get to meet people who want to care for and helps us, and we will probably come across some who only want to exploit us for their own gains. We will also get to meet people whom we wish that the minutes and seconds will keep stretching when we are with them, and we will probably have those whom we wish either that it is they or ourselves who have never been born.

In our real world we get to experience all these and more. And more often than not, things before us don’t seem to look spiritual in nature, just like the items in David’s list. The evidence of God being there in our daily lives, and that God is at work, is usually so thin and so hard to find. As time goes by, some may even prefer to think that God is just not there. At least, he is not there most of the time. Could we be one of those that think this way?

But look at David; and take another look at the list of things he based on for his conclusion. How many items therein do we consider to be spiritual? There are 2 answers to this question, none or all. When life is not lived by faith, none of the items would be understood as spiritual. But for a person who is after God’s heart, then everything is spiritual. Because to such a person, God is sovereign, God is at work at all times, God is a God who works in and though all situations to fulfill his good purpose. And so a person after God’s heart will be one offer up every moment of his or her life to see God’s purposes fulfilled.

David is one such man. David offered his life by letting God work through his aged and frail body, the unkindness of Adonijah and Nathan and more. The life he lived in real time, in real time he offered it up to God. And, God’s will was accomplished, Solomon was enthroned as king.

David, at this point in his life, is again a person after Gods heart. What about us? And what sort of a person do we rather be?