1 Kings, Chapter 2 (part 1) - David's Final Words | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of First Kings chapter 2. I'm Jeremy [music] Gimpel here with my dear friend and Haruta Ari Abramowitz. Haruta is study partner and [music] this of course is brought to you by the Land of Israel network at the landofisrael.com. All right friends, this is a profound long complicated chapter so much so that we're going to break it down into two parts. So today, it's part 1. Let's call it the passing of the torch. The death of David, the greatest king Israel would ever know in his final words to Solomon. It's like a dying father's last charge and listen to where his heart goes first. This is verse 2. Be strong and become a man and keep the charge of Hashem your God to walk in his ways. Be strong and become a man. And so, what does it mean? Like in become a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his statutes, his commandments as written in the Torah of Moses so that you'll succeed and you'll whatever you do it'll be blessed. David sets the Messianic dynasty into motion with his final command to his son, keep the Torah. So that God will fulfill his promise. If your descendants walk before me in truth with all their heart and soul, you will never be cut off from the throne of Israel. >> And Jeremy, I want everyone to like really hear what you just said there and feel the weight of it because because of who is speaking and when he is speaking. This is David, the shepherd, the giant slayer, the warrior who united the tribes, conquered Jerusalem. I don't need to give the intro. We know King David. He was the king who built an empire from the Euphrates to Egypt. If anyone had earned the right to give his son advice, whether it be military, political, or personal, it's David. This is his deathbed. These are the final words that a whole life distills down to. And what does David choose to say? Keep the Torah. Walk in God's ways. He's telling Solomon, "The throne is not secured by armies. It's secured by faithfulness. Everything I built, everything you're inheriting, it all rests on one thing. And it's not your strength. It's your relationship with God. And that connects straight back to the covenant of the second book of Samuel chapter 7, the the eternal dynasty. David heard God promise that his house would last forever, and he understood that the condition of that per- permanence was faithfulness to Torah. So, with his dying breath, he hands his son not a sword, but a scroll. Right, and friends, there's a lesson in that for every parent and every leader, every one of us. When it comes down to the very end, what do you most want to pass on? David's answer was, "Stay close to God. Everything else comes from that." >> Yeah, that's really beautifully said, Ari. And you know, all across the United States, people would ask me, "What's the best thing I can do for Israel over here?" And I gave the same answer to every single person, to every Jew, to every Christian, everyone. The one greatest thing you can do for Israel, that you can do for yourself, is to teach your children the Bible. Teach your children the Tanakh. The final story of the greatest king of Israel is a charge to his son to keep the Torah. And so that message is a direct line 3,000 years later to us. Teach your children the Bible. That is exactly why we started this mission of Prophets of Israel Daily. Take it. It's one chapter a day and you're just on the drive >> [laughter] >> from Georgia to Florida, you could probably finish Judges, Joshua, the Book of Samuel and like get right up to where we are now. But the chapter takes a turn and it has troubled readers for a long time, maybe 3,000 years when it was written. Because after that soaring spiritual charge, David gets very specific and very political. He turns to old scores. He tells Solomon about Joab who murdered Abner and Amasa in cold blood, spilling the blood of war in a time of peace. And it's fascinating, David doesn't raise Joab's killing of Absalom, his own rebellious son. He raises specifically the murder of the two generals who had led enemy armies against Israel, men David was trying to make peace with. And both times David reached out to reconcile the nation and both times Joab took matters into his own hands and killed the man David was trying to bring in from the cold. And so David and Joab had a really complicated relationship. Joab was fiercely loyal, but he did what he wanted even against the king's will. And just last chapter, Joab backed Adonijah for king instead of Solomon. Again, without consulting David. So here is the head of the army of Israel having just backed a coup against the rightful heir. And in his wisdom, David charges Solomon to end that rivalry, to remove the one man whose ambition could destabilize the whole kingdom and leave just a clean slate to rule in peace. Deal with him, David says, "according to your wisdom. Do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace." And then Shimei ben Gera, verses 8 and 9, the man who cursed David and pelted him with stones when he fled from Jerusalem. It's like, "I swore to him I would not kill him." That's what David says. "But you're wise, you'll know what to do." >> Ron and Jeremy, I've always struggled with that sort of tension here. On one moment, David is is is soaring, you know, keep the Torah, walk with God. And the next, he's settling blood debts from his deathbed. How do we hold these two things together? So, I think there are a couple of honest ways to look at it, and maybe it's even possible to hold them all at once. On one level, this is a father handing his young, untested son a realistic map of the kingdom's dangers. Joab was the most powerful, most ruthless man in Israel, a general who had murdered his rivals in the most brutal way, burned into my memory, and I haven't even seen it, but I feel like I have. You know, he defied the king again and again, and just he just backed an attempt to steal the throne. Shimei was a Benjamite Benjamite with Saul's blood loyalty, right, who could really rally the old opposition. David isn't merely settling the score, he's naming the two men most capable of toppling his son. In the ancient world, a new king who left such men standing often didn't make it far in their kingship. But, and I don't want to minimize this because the Tanakh doesn't minimize it, there's something uncomfortable here, too. This was David's blind spot, the one thing he could never fully resolve, the violence that clung to his house as part of that the the curse, his punishment, right? And maybe that's part of what we're seeing here, that even the greatest man carries wounds, blemishes, unfinished business. Like I said, wounds that never healed and a shadow that follows him to the grave. David's blemishes aren't whitewashed here. He's real, and that realism is exactly what makes the Tanakh the truest book ever written. >> You know, I there's an honest tension here, Ari, and I I think we're not meant to resolve it too neatly, but I do want to point out something that sometimes people miss cuz David's deathbed charge isn't just about justice for those who rose against him. In the very same breath, he charges to bless the one who stood beside him in his hour of need, Ittai Barzillai, verse seven. Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table. For they stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom. Remember who Barzillai was. When David was at his absolute lowest, driven out of Jerusalem, crossing the Jordan in disgrace, hungry, exhausted, barefoot, running for his life, it was this old man, Barzillai, a wealthy Gileadite from across the river, who came out to meet him. He brought beds, food, and provisions for David and all of his people, and he asked for nothing in return. He was 80 years old and wanted no reward, and he simply could not let his king go hungry in his hour of need. And look at what David does with his dying breath. Right alongside settling the accounts of those who betrayed him, David makes absolutely certain that the man who showed him hesed, pure selfless kindness, when David had nothing to give in return, is remembered and repaid through his children. David never forgot a kindness. And it's the very same quality we saw at the beginning of his rise, and here we see it at the very end. The man who remembers exactly who stood with him when it was costly to stand with him. And I think that is a prophetic teaching that everything is going to be remembered. Who stands with King David when it's not so clear? Who stands with Israel and the people of Israel when things are not so simple? They'll be remembered. >> Yeah, yeah, Jeremy. And you know, when you put those two charges side by side, uh something remarkable comes into focus because together they they're the whole job description of a king of Israel. Right? On one side, Joab and Shimei, those you know, those two who shed innocent blood and cursed the throne, face justice. On the other side, Barzillai, the one who blessed the king when it stood to truly cost him something, well, he has that blessing poured out on onto his children. Justice for those who came against the anointed king, and kindness for those who stood with him. And friends, if that pattern sounds familiar, it should because it's the oldest promise in the story of our people. Like you were just saying, Jeremy, it's what God said to Abraham at the very beginning. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. David on his deathbed is handing that ancient covenant down to the next generation, written into the founding orders of the kingdom itself. And that, I believe, is the message of this chapter for our generation. Because the throne of David is not a relic of the past, it is the throne the whole story is still moving towards the throne of Mashiach. And the principle David sealed with his final words still stands today over the entire world. Those who bless Israel, who stand with the Jewish people when it is costly to stand with us, are blessed and will be blessed. And those who come against Israel will be coming against the covenant of God, and they will be cursed. David's last act was to make certain that both halves of that promise, the blessing and the justice, were carried forward. The final charge of the king of Israel, keep the Torah. And God's justice and chesed, the justice and loving kindness of Hashem, they will be executed. >> You know, that's the perfect place to pause, Ari. And so, the reign comes to an end. In verse 10, David sleeps with his fathers and is buried in the city of David. 40 years he reigned, seven in Hebron, 33 in Jerusalem. So, the shepherd boy from Bethlehem, the giant slayer, the singer of Israel, the man after God's own heart, the greatest king Israel would ever know, is gone, and the throne passes. Verse 12, Then Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. And there, friends, we're going to stop for today. David is buried, Solomon is on the throne, but how that young king takes the reins David handed him, how he closes the accounts of his father's reign and secures the kingdom. That's the story of part two and we'll take it up next time. Hazak Ve'ematz, my friends. 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Shalom from the Sunshine State of Florida.