Session #12
Covenant 5: David -Kingdom
Intro
We will begin this session, after the beginning of the book of Joshua which picks up at the death of Moses immediately following Deuteronomy. Joshua, son of Nun, is the one to lead the Israelites into the promised land.
why Jericho
This story, if you grew up learning, talking, or reading sacred scripture to any substantial extent, you have probably heard this story. For our purposes, this is simply a historical moment that is both worth noting for the whole story of Israel and provides us with a little bit more of a timeline.
"And Joshua sent the people away, and the children of Israel went every man to his house, and every one to his inheritance to occupy the land. There is no doubt that this is repeated here by recapitulation (Cf Jos 24,28). Because even the death of Josué Nave himself is mentioned even in this book (Cf Jc 2,8), to briefly insinuate all things as if from the beginning, when God granted them the land, and to indicate how they lived under the Judges or what they had to endure. And so it goes back to the order of the book of Judges, from the order that had first been established."
What are we reminded of here
So the guy blows a trumpet, invades a town, and died. (: Again, this is a historical verse. However, we learn some important truths here. The people are most led astray by a faulty shepherd or an absent one. After, Israel attained what it had been most deeply wanted. There is, however, no record of consistent gratitude rather it is largely taken for granted. Once they have been given the space ideal for communion with God they do not choose it. This can, and historically often has, happen(ed) in our own lives. We are liberated from our sin, but then the spiritual landscape changes, and we are no longer tempted in the same way we were. Then what? We become wrapped in the warm grip of complacency and underestimate our enemy. Suddenly, we are back where we were, in Israel's case, paganism. It is not like paganism appears very rewarding to them, obviously, only God had done that, but they do not so much do it as a logical derivative. In Addiction groups, this is called relapse syndrome. There is also something both traumatic and desirable about our "favorite" sins that have so profound an effect on our psychology/physiology. Long story short Israel messed up again.
"After them came another generation that did not know the Lord or the things that he did for Israel. The author explained why he said that he did not know the Lord, that is, in those preclear and admirable works through which it happened before them that Israel knew the Lord."
What stuck out to you reading this?
Paganism is adultery for Israel, a particular sin against God's desire to guide us into salvation.
Sometimes no matter how faithful we are and how much witness we give, those that know us may still prefer their sins to virtue. This is often called "stubbornness of Heart" or "hardness of heart". We now move to the time David enters the story, by means of another great story.
"Deuteronomy puts the following in the mouth of God, when speaking of these enemy peoples: I will not expel them in a single year, so that the land will not be deserted, and the beasts of the field multiply against you. I will expel them little by little, until you multiply and grow and conquer the land (Ex 23:29-30). The Lord could keep this promise of his for the obedient ones, so that the extermination of those nations, as the Israelites grew, would be partially done, not allowing their multitude to leave deserted the lands from which the adversaries would be exterminated. The phrase: And do not multiply against you the beasts of the field, I would be very surprised if you did not refer to the desires and passions, in a way beastly, that are usually born of a sudden attainment of earthly happiness. For it is not true that God could not exterminate men and could not annihilate the beasts, or rather not allow them to be born."
If we are to cooperate with God's grace at all, we must recognize its power. David's boldness, the grace he was given to trust, and the providence he received are precisely the relationship we must have when it comes to overcoming great obstacles in our lives. As an aside, it is interesting to note when speaking of grace that David was anointed before this narrative by Samuel. David was strengthened by hearing what God has ordained him for greatness. Following the will of the LORD as David was, imagine if every Israelite soldier approached battle like this, like Joan of Arc did. This also speaks to the concept of spiritual wisdom being possessed by the lowly. The prophet Samuel helped transition the people of God from the judges to Saul and now Saul to David.
Note:
The Head of Goliath's javelin weighed 15 pounds.
In this Bible study until now we have not discussed the ark:
What might the ark of the covenant remind us of?
Tabernacles
Holy of Holies - Numbers 7:89
What sort of crazy things have happened with the ark?
Exodus 25:10
1 Samuel 4 (Refine specific verses)
1 Samuel 5-7 (Refine specific verses)
2 Samuel 6 (Refine specific verses)
2 Chronicles 35
Revelation 11:19
We can notice the very familiar language used here, where might we have heard this before?
that God used with Abraham.
Although we did not cover it in our readings, Saul betrayed David and God by this time. Also, the idea of a King came from the people themselves wanting to be like other nations, which God advised them against. However, God blesses this choice in David. Sometimes we can be frustrated by God's mysteriousness and grow tired of how illusory His communication is to us. Also, it is important to understand that God does not just abandon his admonition to not produce a King but rather He chooses a king for them to keep them from the worse danger of forgetting the LORD. Let us keep reading.
If desired and appropriate you may read to the end of the chapter
God has established His covenant with David and then in response contemplates not only the significance of such a covenant but also his unworthiness.
-Good stopping point-
The author from the beginning describes where Solomon is going wrong and to what extent. Resisting hyperbole, the Lord is right. Solomon did indeed and let his heart wander from the One true God and it makes sense. Christ says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart is." The wandering heart is one led by emotion, myopic to eternal or ultimate reality, and full of lust seeing things and others as potentially filling up one's lack of communion with God and the reality He brings signaling a deference from the reign of reason and justice. In our own time, we soon realize that we cannot please everybody, we cannot always work out the ideal friendship, and we cannot have both God and a life of reduction to limited and fleeting earthly goods. This can make us do stuff that we would not usually do. The "mountain on the east of Jerusalem" is the Mount of Olives.
We notice the significance of the numbers. The are often used more to demonstrate a point in scripture, this does not correlate to any specific reality external to scripture which can be superstitious. Still, they are used to emphasize aspects of a situation in scripture. The 666 in the middle passage points to the fact something is missing, just corruption is a sign of something missing.
What does Solomon's gathering of wealth remind you of?
Deuteronomy 17:16-17 - We may remember "blessed are the poor in spirit" and the commands to poverty that Christ send his Apsotles with. We may remember also the problems of the Middle Ages when clergy and royalty alike lost focus on Christ and rather wealth. The nature of them this verse repeats the word "many" and the reading from Kings uses large numbers to describe what Solomon.
The overall meaning of this verse is that Solomon abandoned the Lord and the way of his father by letting his heart wonder.
In spite of this failure
In looking at Solomon, we can see several comparisons to Jesus Christ. He is the son of David and king of Israel. He is known for his divine wisdom and for being the temple builder. His kingdom has international influence. All this foreshadows Jesus, who is the ultimate son of David and the King who fulfills all the promises made to David’s dynasty. Like Solomon, Jesus is known for his great wisdom and is the one who builds the new temple in His body (John 2). And it is Christ’s kingdom that ultimately fulfills Israel’s worldwide mission, extending God’s reign over all the Earth.
This is a key verse for Catholics because it describes the structure of the Old Testament Kingdom. We look at our relationship with the Blessed Mother and Christ in a prefigurement. The Mother of the King was Queen. This also illuminates the New Adam to New Eve Relationship. We will look into this in the next two passages.
Luke 1:46-56 - Here we see the glorification of Mary in her role in the kingdom.
John 2:1-6 - Here we see Mary acting in her role during the life of Christ
More on Mary in general (back)
So the Kingdom Splits into North and South. Ten tribes who knew themselves as the Israelites made up the North Kingdom with a Pagan priesthood being exiled in 722 BC by the Assyrians. The Southern Tribes of Judah and Benjamin would be known collectively as the Jews or Judah
As an aside: we notice the concept of Servant leadership mentioned here and this is developed in the 7 "I am..." statements of Jesus in the Gospel, John 10. The Concept of Christ, the Gate.
Fun fact: Christ is a Descendant of Rehobo′am the father of Abi′jah (Matthew 1)
We see the Babylonian Empire led by Nebuchadnezzar (Gold), Medo-Persian (arms of Silver; 539 BC to around 330 BC), Greco-Macedonia (Bronze; began to be defeated by Rome in 190 BC and finally in 31 BC when Rome made it to Egypt), and Roman Empire (legs of Iron, [they were more despotic than prosperous hence iron] which would not decline until 117 ish AD) i.e. the Kingdoms leading up to Christ foretold. (see graphic below)
The Roman Empire would be a highly opportune time for the spread of Christianity because citizenship was pretty universal, the effect borders has on the spread and nature of the Church can be seen when the Eastern Orthodox Church separated from the rest.
The Clay mixed with Iron symbolizes Hellenism: A Greek Philosophical/cultural flavor, with Roman interpretation of religions, and distinct in those it influenced by their culture and previous religion.
We see a foretelling of the interbreeding of the Israelites with pagans, which is now in the time of Christ.
Luke is understood to be a Greek Physician and Paul wrote in Greek as well, even Christ would likely have learned at least some Greek Philosophy under rabbinical instruction in addition to Aramaic which He spoke and the Hebrew he read in the scriptures.
Above all we see the foretelling of a final and eternal kingdom which cannot be destroyed. This would be a definitive fulfillment of every covenant made.
It is interesting that in the context of this foretelling of the Church in the Rock which would become the whole world, directly connects with the timeline of Christ who founds the Church, which would become the whole world and Peter was named by Christ to be the Rock
In this way, Daniel lays out the course of Judah from the time of Babylonian captivity to the time of Jesus Christ. He prophesies that 490 years will pass before this new kingdom will come about (Daniel 9:20-24) and prepares the people to receive a new king who will bring about a new kingdom.
