Father Of Your Nation (part 1 of 2)

The father of your nation sinned… - Isaiah 43:27a  (NET)

When the Creator God tells Israel, through Isaiah, that the father of their nation sinned, He adds that “your spokesmen rebelled against Me” (43:27b).  Through this, He is expressing to them the reason for His judgment that has come upon them.  Now, who is the father of the nation by ancestry?  Specifically, that would be Jacob, and Isaac before him, with this lineage being traced back to Abraham, who was the recipient of a covenant with the Creator God and given the promise that he would be made into a great nation. 

So here, is the covenant God of Israel suggesting that Abraham has sinned?  Naturally, one can think of Abraham as a sinful man like any other man, but that is most likely not the referent.  Even though they certainly had their faults and flaws, it would probably not be appropriate to think of either Isaac or Jacob as the point of reference, though both certainly could be said to have “sinned” at a number of points.  So who is it that is the father of their nation?  Who is the one that sinned?  In all probability, based upon the Creator God’s dealings with His people that can be found throughout the historical books of the Hebrew Scriptures, the father in question, or more correctly, “fathers,” are most likely the kings of Israel and Judah. 

Throughout their history, as is indicated by the Scriptural narrative, the king (or even leaders or judges before the era of the kings) stood as the representative for the people.  They were the spokesmen for the Creator God’s people, in both word and deed.  They directed and reflected the national sentiment.  Looking through the history of Israel to find a classic example of this situation, one can find the excellent example of when King David ordered that a census that, tragically, did not include the taking up of an offering for the tabernacle (Exodus 30:12-16).  Even though it is he alone that is demonstrated to be at fault, it is the covenant people that suffer a plague until the point at which David makes an offering and buys the plot of land on which the Temple will eventually come to be built (thus effectively making an offering for the tabernacle).  Though it was their father that had sinned, it was the people that were forced to suffer. 

When the kingdom is divided into north (Israel) and south (Judah), the fortunes of the people are generally pegged to the righteousness (faithfulness to the Creator God and to His covenant requirements) or wickedness (unfaithfulness) of the king.  Their reported peace and prosperity waxes and wanes in accordance with the king’s reported disposition toward the Creator. Ultimately, as the historical records suggests, the north (Israel) would not have a single king that was said to have done what was right.  Naturally, this is a problematic situation for the covenant people.  As a result, Israel is conquered and the people are said to have been dispersed by Assyria, with this taking place in 722 B.C..  This happens fewer than three hundred years after King David.  The textual narrative makes the implication that the conquering is a result of the performance of the king---the father of the nation. 

The south (Judah), on the other hand, has a few kings that were said to have done what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  As a result of this, though conquering and destruction would eventually come at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 B.C., they were spared from the Assyrian conquering, having been given what proved to be a temporary reprieve from judgment.  The fate of Judah is said to have been sealed by the gross and intolerable idolatry of the king named Manasseh, who would reign over Judah for fifty-five years (more than any other king).  

David's Idolatry (part 3 of 3)

David, far from being exempt from these potential judgments, is going to experience them right along with the people.  This gives great weight to the idea that David’s numbering of the army was David’s idolatry, and that the command to number the people was God’s pretext that would enable David to come to terms with the fact of his own idolatrous ways, before God delivered and executed His promised judgments on the whole of His people for their pursuit of idolatrous activities.  David’s response reflected his earlier admission of guilt for his great sin, as he says, “I am very upset!  I prefer that we be attacked by the Lord, for His mercy is great; I do not want to be attacked by men” (2 Samuel 24:14). 

Interestingly, in the midst of being given the responsibility of choosing which curse is going to come upon Israel, due to his and their idolatry, David comments on the Lord’s mercy.  He knows, based on his presumed depth of acquaintance with Israel’s history and their God’s dealings with them, that He will ultimately bring exodus to bear against this temporary form of the experience of exile.   We will also notice, with his statement, that David does not make a choice.  His most recent decision (the numbering of the army rather than the numbering of the people as directed) was quite faulty, so here he leaves the decision in God’s hand, asking to “be attacked by the Lord.”  So the curse of judgment is either going to be the seven years of famine or the three days of plague.  Indeed, the Lord exhibits the previously mentioned mercy, and chooses to deliver the three days of plague, as “the Lord sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time.  Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beer Sheba” (24:15). 

This plague is said to have been carried out by an angel, as we go on to read that “When the angel extended his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented from His judgment.  He told the angel who was killing the people, ‘That’s enough!  Stop now!’” (24:16a)  Naturally, this would serve as a reminder of the angel of the Passover and the angel of death, and of the plagues of Egypt, and of God’s merciful, covenant-based sparing of His people.  Such a reminder fits nicely with the plague-inducing remembrances of God’s commandments against idolatry that were offered in association with potential curses of judgment, seeing as how, as we saw in our most recent look at Leviticus, that the warnings against idolatry are immediately followed by a reminder to keep the Lord’s Sabbaths.  There was, of course, no greater Sabbath for Israel than that of Passover, which as was said, would be called to mind by this angel of death that was visiting a plague upon Israel. 

Further on, attention is returned to David.  “When he saw the angel who was destroying the people, David said to the Lord, ‘Look, it is I who have sinned and done this evil thing!  As for these sheep---what have they done?  Attack me and my family.’” (24:17)  This further confession of sin, with reference to it as “evil,” lends even greater weight to the consideration that David was steeped in idolatry, with this in connection to the power represented by his military might and conquests, for it is idolatry (which serves as the root of a rejection of the weight of glory that attends rightly bearing the divine image and leads to inhuman behavior) that is regularly presented in Scripture as man’s great evil.  Along with this, David’s plea calls attention to the fact that, as king, he represents the people of Israel before God, thereby taking responsibility for the judgment that has fallen, and falling further into the merciful arms of the God of the exodus, in his desire for rescue for himself and his people, from this subjugating power that was sweeping the land as God was being “forced” to act in a way that was foreign to His desires and intentions for this people, this land, and this king. 

In response to this, “Gad went to David that day and told him, ‘Go up and build an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’” (24:18).  David readily acceded to this directive, proceeding to purchase the threshing floor, so as to build an altar and to make an offering, so that the plague would be removed from the people (24:21).  In addition, from this man David purchased oxen for the sacrifice and items that could be used for burning.  The ground, the animals, and the implements for offering were offered to David free of charge, but David replied that he would “not offer to the Lord my God burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing” (24:24a).  “Then,” we read, “David built an altar for the Lord there and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings.  And the Lord accepted prayers for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel” (24:25b). 

The removal of the plague, of course, is equivalent to an exodus, as the exile-oriented punishments are brought to an end.  In addition to this, we know that the piece of land that was purchased by David would eventually become the place where Solomon would construct the Lord’s Temple.  Thus, in all of this, as idolatry has been recognized, and as there has been a reminder of the Lord’s Sabbaths, there is also something akin to the reverencing of the sanctuary, so that the people can once again experience the Lord’s blessing.       

David Spares Saul (part 2 of 2)

At the close of this first encounter with Saul, which saw David deliver him from certain death by his own hand, Saul says, “The Lord delivered me into your hand, but you did not kill me.  Now if a man finds his enemy, does he send him on his way in good shape?...  Now look, I realize that you will in fact be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.  So now swear to me in the Lord’s name that you will not kill my descendants after me or destroy my name from the house of my father” (1 Samuel 24:18b-19a,20-21). 

Casting our thoughts rearward, again, to the plagues and the exodus and to Moses’ encounters with Pharaoh, we look to chapter twelve of the book of Exodus and to the words of Pharaoh after the carrying out of the plague of death against the firstborn.  There, “Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, ‘Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites!  Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!’” (12:31)  With these words, Pharaoh, like Saul, is admitting to the fact of the Lord’s power.  Pharaoh, like Saul, can see that he is being spared, though it is certainly not beyond the power of Israel’s God, at the word of Moses, to take his life.  Pharaoh realizes that Israel must be freed, and that they will be established as a nation, and that Moses will be their king.  Pharaoh then gives voice to a statement echoed by Saul, saying “take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested.  But bless me also” (12:32).  Saul asked for David’s blessing and mercy upon him and his family, as did Pharaoh to Moses. 

We can stay here in Exodus, moving forward to learn that “When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, ‘What in the world have we done?  For we have released the people of Israel from serving us!’  Then he prepared his chariots and his army with him…  the lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he chased after the Israelites” (14:5-6,8a).  Israel had been rescued from foreign subjugation, but their former oppressors wanted to re-subjugate them, turning exodus back to exile.  How is this related to David?  It is related in that the sentiment of the words that Saul spoke to David, which seemed to be words of peace and release, in recognition of the Lord’s faithfulness to David (like those of Pharaoh to Moses), seemed to be short-lived.  A short time after the cave incident, “The Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah and said, ‘Isn’t David hiding on the hill of Hakilah near Jeshimon?’” (26:1)  Rather than recalling David’s mercy and the Lord’s faithfulness to David, “Saul arose and went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand select men of Israel, to look for David in the desert of Ziph” (26:2).  Following a report, Saul’s heart is turned.  This sounds remarkably like Pharaoh’s reaction to the departure of the people, after his previous recognition of the power and faithfulness of Israel’s God. 

Pharaoh reversed his assertion and set out after Moses and Israel, and Saul would do the same.  What happens?  David confirms that Saul is pursuing him again, reversing the exodus, previously granted by Saul, from the subjugating and exile extending pursuit, but he does not respond in either fear or anger.  Like Moses at the Red Sea, when learning that Pharaoh and Egypt were once again in pursuit in order to subjugate and bring Israel back to exile, David knows that the Lord is fighting his battles for him.  He says, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” (26:6b)  Naturally, this was not for the purpose that his men expected, which they hoped was to kill Saul and thereby end their exile, but rather, for David to take another opportunity to make yet another point to Saul, and function, yet again, as a deliverer in the eyes of Saul, Saul’s men, his own men, and ultimately all of Israel as well. 

When Saul is approached while sleeping, the man that went with David, Abishai, said, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands” (26:8b).  Quite rightly, he speaks of God’s blessing upon His faithful servant, David.  David, however, does not necessarily focus on what God has delivered to him, but rather, God’s delivering of him from his own exile, and with being a deliverer, and a light, and a reflection of the glory of the God that has anointed him to be his ambassador in this world.  It appears that David does not see deliverance coming through the striking down of his enemy, but rather, in loving his enemy, and sparing his life again, in what is going to be, for David, because his own exile and subjugation will continue for the forseeable future, a costly act of sacrificial love. 

“David said to Abishai, ‘Don’t kill him!  Who can extend his hand against the Lord’s chosen one and remain guiltless?’” (26:9)  Pharaoh had attempted to do this, and things had gone poorly for him.  David, of course, was not in the same position as Pharaoh (who was not the Lord’s chosen one), as it is Saul that, as far as David is concerned, still stands in that role.  He said, “may the Lord prevent me from extending my hand against the Lord’s chosen one!” (26:11)  David continued to rely on the faithfulness of his God, choosing to endure hardship and suffering, rather than enter in to the establishment of his kingdom by raising his sword against the one that was persecuting and subjugating him.  He trusted that he would eventually be lifted from his exile and set upon his throne, with the requisite glory and honor and dominion that would be attendant upon that enthronement.  In this particular instance, we see David bearing the image of the One from heaven.