Rest in Peace

Title: Rest in Peace
Passage: 1 Kings 2:1-12
Date: 12th Nov 2017
Preacher: Rev. Wong Siow Hwee

1 Kings 2: When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.
2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
5 “Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood he stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. 6 Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his grey head go down to the grave in peace.
7 “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.
8 “And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ 9 But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his grey head down to the grave in blood.”
10 Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

A while ago, a family requested a pastoral visit to a church member in the hospital. The doctor had said that her time was up and there was nothing more to be done. Yet despite her suffering, she seemed to be hanging on. So the family requested for a pastoral prayer to Rest in Peace (RIP). RIP is an expression to wish for the soul of the deceased an eternal rest and peace in Christ. We then asked if there was any close family member or friend who perhaps hadn’t visited yet. In my experience, in the final moments of a person’s life, he or she typically would wish to see their family and friends one last time. But in today’s passage, we see no such heart-warming scene at the death bed of David. He wasn’t surrounded by his family and friends. None of his wives or his favourite generals or officials were there. None of his 19 sons, except for Solomon, were there. I don’t know, maybe they had visited already, and now it was Solomon’s turn. Or, maybe things are just different when you are a king. As a king, you have different concerns. For David to rest in peace, his main concern was that his kingship lived on. Maybe this is how a king would rest in peace.

I’m reminded of a similar story about King Liu Bei of the 3 Kingdoms. 在刘备临终之际，他召来了诸葛亮，对诸葛亮说：“我要死了，有心腹之言相告!你才高于曹丕十倍，必能安邦定国。若小子可辅，则辅之；如果不行，你就自立为王，当成都之主。”
听了此话，诸葛亮手足无措，汗流遍体，随即泣拜于地，哭着说：“我岂敢不尽力辅佐幼主，尽忠贞之节，以死报国啊！”
刘备一听此话，终于放心了。在他死后，诸葛亮真的没有二心，继续辅佐阿斗。[1]

Maybe this was how a king would rest in peace. For David to rest in peace, his main concern was that his kingship lived on. To ensure that, it would ironically mean that Joab and Shimei must not rest in peace. Regarding Joab, he said: 6 Do not let his grey head go down to the grave in peace. Regarding Shimei, he said the same: 9 Bring his grey head down to the grave in blood. Why must Joab and Shimei be killed for Solomon’s rule and kingdom to be firmly established? (see verses 12 and 46) One way to think about it is politically, Joab represented Adonijah’s power circle, while Shimei represented those who were loyal to Saul. One must not be so naïve to think that Solomon did not think of them as political threats. Their death would give Solomon a stronger control of the country politically. (Rev. Tiong Ann will elaborate further on this at the Chinese Service.)

Another way is to look at this matter from a spiritual perspective. David’s kingship was based on a covenantal promise from God. And this covenant was very similar to the one between Israel and God.
Deuteronomy 30: 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

In Deuteronomy, there was a promise between God and his people. We call this the deuteronomistic covenant, and theological understanding based on this covenant as deuteronomistic theology. Simply put, if you obey God, you will get life and prosperity, if you disobey, you will get death and destruction. In reality, life does not always work that way, bad things can happen to good people and vice versa. But the deuteronomistic theology is still one of the key ways to understand God’s relationship with humanity. Over time, such a theology can become overly simplistic and legalistic like with the Pharisees, becoming a blind and cumbersome adherence to the Law of Moses, but the deuteronomistic theology itself is actually present throughout the entire bible. With this understanding, if the Davidic kings obeyed God, the kingdom and dynasty would continue, but if they didn’t, it would be destroyed eventually.

In this sense, you can see why Joab who murdered Abner and Amasa in cold blood must be punished. Joab went against the Law by shedding innocent blood. In Deuteronomy 19: 13 Show no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.[2] Similarly, when Shimei cursed David for the death of Saul, David must also retaliate to prove his innocence. Deuteronomy 30: 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. Simply put, if David let Shimei go unpunished, it was as good as admitting that he was guilty of Saul’s death. The guilt of shedding Saul’s blood would go to him. But since David was not guilty, then he had to return the wrongful curse upon Shimei himself. Shimei must pay for his wrongful accusation of David shedding innocent blood.

Let me sum up our understanding so far. In our passage today, David was preparing to die. For David to rest in peace, he had to ensure that his kingship was secure. And this assurance was based on obeying and fulfilling the Law of Moses, standard Deuteronomistic theology. This was not just David’s own assumptions, God said the same to Solomon himself in 1 Kings 3: 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life. And with regard to these laws, during David’s kingship, there were 2 unfinished matters: Joab and Shimei, and these two must not be allowed to rest in peace based on what we have read in Deuteronomy. Perhaps in David’s mind, his last concerns at his death bed were: if these two things were finally settled, he would have fulfilled everything in his reign according to the laws and regulations. God would then keep his covenantal promise and secure his kingdom. And he could finally rest in peace. [3]

At this point, I want to address the elephant in the room. If this matter was so important to David, why were these 2 matters still unfinished? The murder of Abner and Amasa happened a long time ago and David did nothing. We also know that David did nothing when he returned to meet Shimei because Shimei came with 1000 Benjamites. But even if he felt the timing was wrong at that time, much time has passed since then. Why did David do nothing to Joab and Shimei till his dying moments and leave the job to Solomon instead?

The charge to Solomon gives us a clue to the answer. David said to Solomon: “So be strong, act like a man.” (NIV) Another translation goes: “Take courage and be a man.” (NLT) David said this with regard to obeying and keeping God’s decrees and commands. As for the specific instructions to kill Joab, he said: 6 Deal with him according to your wisdom. As for killing Shimei, he said, 9 You are a man of wisdom. What this tells me is that these two attributes were what was needed to execute these 2 unfinished businesses: first, the courage and strength of a man and secondly, wisdom. Wisdom here refers to strategy, skill and even shrewdness. In Chinese we say: 有勇有谋. We do not often associate these two attributes with obedience to God’s will. But if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. God’s will sometimes takes love and sacrifice, such as giving and forgiveness, and some of us might find this relatively comfortable to do. But some of us may be very uncomfortable, when God’s will requires you to offend people or to endanger a situation. You need guts and gumption to do the right thing, even if it will be hurtful. In Chinese we say you must not have 妇人之仁. However, the wisdom part is a reminder that you have to execute things smoothly, and not to rush matters or to barge into situations foolishly. Precisely because some situations can be tricky, such as this case of killing Joab and Shimei, doing it with wisdom means that you have to use the right timing and the right methods to do the right thing. It was legally justified to punish Joab and Shimei, but it should not be done at the expense of a national revolt or a civil war. So to answer the question: Why were these two matters unfinished till the dying moments of David? Sad to say, David might be a man of God, but perhaps when it came to matters of relationship, one was Joab his loyal servant, and another was Shimei a loyal servant of his master Saul, David often lacked this final strength and wisdom. It was only for the sake of preserving his kingship and keeping the covenant with God that he left this unpleasant and dirty job to Solomon. And with that, he could finally rest in peace.

Brothers and sisters, I think David’s charge to Solomon is a timely reminder to all of us in spiritual leadership, whether you are taking care of a church, or a ministry, or a cell group, or your own family. Many of us are called into leadership positions because of our willingness to love and sacrifice. It is a good thing to treasure relationships and to have empathy for people. But this could be the Achilles’ heel for many shepherds as well, when we let our feelings in our relationships get in the way of doing the right thing. It is not just a matter of hard-heartedness. It is both a matter of strength and wisdom. Without courage, you cannot fight the strong. And without wisdom, you cannot right a wrong. Doing God’s will sometimes means the willingness to put your personal feelings aside to confront people, yet executing it skillfully so that hurt and pain are necessary but measured. I pray for courage and wisdom for all the spiritual leaders of Jubilee Church.

Brothers and sisters, as we come to the end of David’s life, and to the end of the sermon series, let’s take some time to reflect on what have we learned throughout this journey since June. We have walked with David from the prime of his career, when he was anointed as king, to his struggles with his family and foes, till this moment at his death bed. We talked about Hesed, and we explored what it means to co-create our lives with God. I hope each one of us will come away from all these with some conclusions about life: how to 做人. For me, I compared David’s life with my own imperfections. I’m very thankful that the bible hid none of David’s flaws. And my personal conclusion at the end of the day is faith. I have my own flaws, and I’m even less courageous and less wise than David. But even on his death bed, David’s default mode was to try and try again, to get it right with God. To me, that is true faith. Faith does not mean being sinless or flawless. The opposite of faith is not doubt or falling down. The opposite of faith is apathy and giving up. And so long as I try and try again, my faith will be made complete by God’s grace. This is my personal conclusion, and I hope you also take some time to form one of your own.

[1]刘备自知不久于人世，将孔明和李严从成都召到白帝城，然后拉着孔明的手泣曰：“君才十倍曹丕，必能安邦定国，终定大事。若嗣子可辅，则辅之；如其不才，君可自为成都之主。” （诸葛亮）泣拜于地曰：“臣安敢不竭股肱之力，尽忠贞之节，继之以死乎！”最后刘备有下诏告诉儿子：‘汝与丞相从事，事之如父。’”

[2]Even when there is an unsolved murder, there are also instructions on what to do. Deuteronomy 21: 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, 9 and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

[3]Such an understanding is echoed in 2 Samuel 23: These are the last words of David:
“The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse,
the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
the hero of Israel’s songs:
2 “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over people in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings grass from the earth.’
5 “If my house were not right with God,
surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant,
arranged and secured in every part;
surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire.
6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,
which are not gathered with the hand.
7 Whoever touches thorns
uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;
they are burned up where they lie.”
David’s last words in 2 Samuel 23:1-7 is typical Deuteronomistic theology. If you obey God’s word, he will bring life and prosperity upon the land, like light and rain upon the fields. Not only that, the covenant will be secure for as long as the king stay faithful to God. But evil must be purged and destroyed. And so, for David to rest in peace, Joab and Shimei cannot be allowed to rest in peace.