Saul killed thousands, and David, tens of thousands.
Saul grew ever more suspicious of David. One day he threw his spear at the boy…twice. But David was quick. So Saul sent David to wage more wars. He promised his older daughter to him…then changed his mind and gave her to another. He promised his younger daughter, Michal, to him. This time they wed, and David was happy.
But Saul’s fears grew. The Lord was with David, not with Saul. No one could beat David in a war. Everyone loved him. The women sang,
Saul killed thousands, and David, tens of thousands.
Saul lost his mind to jealousy and self-doubt. He tried to kill David, chasing him into the wilderness. He put to death those he thought conspired in favor of David. It must have been excruciating for David, given how he revered Saul. But Saul’s son Jonathan saved David repeatedly, as did Saul’s daughter Michal. They realized God had chosen him to be king of the Children of Israel. Every time Saul sent David into battle, no matter how bad the odds, he survived.
Once Saul entered a cave to relieve himself, not knowing that David and his soldiers were deep inside. The soldiers urged David to kill Saul. David snuck up behind Saul and cut off a bit of his cloak. When Saul exited the cave, David followed and knelt before him.
Another time David stole Saul’s water jug and spear while he slept. He could have killed him that time, too, but he refused to. He still loved Saul.
“Father, see this bit of cloak. My men said I should kill you, but I would never do that. You are my king, anointed by God.” David had called Saul “father.” His heart was breaking.
“Is that the voice of my son David?” answered Saul, barely able to believe his eyes. His agony equaled David’s, and his words echoed those of the bedridden Isaac when Jacob-Israel had entered disguised as Esau. All Saul could do was weep; he’d been wrong. “You will be king,” he said, though perhaps he realized that David was already king. “Swear you’ll never wipe out my descendants.” So those terrible fears persisted, even in this moment of proof of David’s loyalty.
David swore.
Around this time the prophet Samuel died. The Children of Israel mourned, especially David. The cold fact now settled inside David: Samuel’s anointing him had lasting effects. Saul would always want David dead. David had to stay wary. This fact made him more responsive to kindness from others. A wicked man refused to give provisions to David’s troops. But his wife Abigail loaded donkeys with bread, wine, sheep, grain, raisin cakes, fig cakes, and brought them to David, for she admired this man of the Children of Israel. The husband was so upset at this betrayal that he died. David rewarded Abigail by making her his second wife. Then he took a third wife, Ahinoam. But Saul cut through any pleasure David might have had, for Saul broke the law and gave his own daughter Michal, David’s first wife, to another man.
Saul led 3,000 skilled troops after David, whose soldiers were a motley group of a few hundred disenfranchised men. While Saul lay asleep in the wilderness with his troops, David came across him. Again, David’s men urged him to slay his enemy. David stole Saul’s spear and water jug. He went to high ground and called out, saying the troops needed to do a better job protecting Saul, for, lo, he had easily taken Saul’s spear and water jug, the two tools crucial for survival.
Saul woke. “Is that the voice of my son David?”
Hearing himself called “son” again must have pierced David’s heart. “It is, my king.”
David returned the spear and Saul admitted wrongdoing. But things had changed. David was a bloodthirsty warrior now. He wiped out towns, leaving no one alive, taking sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels—raiding the households of the dead. As for Saul, he was a beaten man. Soon Saul’s sons, including Jonathan, were killed in a battle with the Philistines. Saul threw himself on his sword to avoid capture.
When David learned of their deaths, he sang a song of sorrow…the first of many songs that would flow from his heart…for he had lost a father, no matter how fickle, and a brother as true as purity.
Then he publicly owned his kingship. But warring continued. The northern lands were still fighting—as though in memory of dead Saul—against the southern lands, who embraced David. That northern branch were descendants of Joseph and of Benjamin, the sons of Jacob-Israel with his wife Rachel. That southern branch were descendants of Judah, the son of Jacob-Israel with his wife Leah. Though the family had reconciled, that reconciliation was not firm, for the cleft remained apparent still. The Lord helped David win the war, until all Children of Israel united under their king, completing the reconciliation.
A part of David was nourished by the boy within who had played the lyre to soothe the souls of others and by the man within who sang the lamentation psalm at Saul’s and Jonathan’s deaths. This part of David lifted up Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, lame in both feet, and gave him Saul’s belongings and brought him to eat at his table. Thus David protected the vulnerable.
Another part of David was nourished by the boy within who had challenged the towering Goliath, and by the man within who had waged battle and won. This part took wife after wife: Maacah, Haggith, Abital, Eglah. This part looked through David’s eyes one hot night as he stood on his roof and saw a beautiful woman bathing. Her name was Bathsheba. Her husband, the Hittite Uriah, was off in battle. David had Bathsheba brought to him, and he loved her. When she became pregnant with his child, he had Uriah sent into the thickest part of battle; Uriah died there. David married Bathsheba and she bore him a son. Thus David exploited the vulnerable.
The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to tell David a story about two men, one rich, one poor. The rich man had many sheep and cattle. The poor man had but one lamb, who ate from his cup and slept in his lap. A traveler came to the rich man’s house. Instead of making a meal from one of his own sheep, he made a meal of the poor man’s lamb.
David raged. “The rich man was wrong! He should pay back the poor man four times over!”
“You are the rich man,” said Nathan. Uriah was the poor man. David would have to pay four times over for his sin.
The son Bathsheba bore to David fell ill. For seven days, David fasted and prayed, but the boy died. That was payment number one. David’s oldest son Amnon was cruel to his half-sister Tamar. Payment number two. Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, killed Amnon in retaliation. Payment number three. Absalom mounted a rebellion against David and was killed. Payment number four.
David’s story played itself out to an ever sadder tune. Famine, battles, intrigues. But one good thing happened: Bathsheba gave David another son. David called him Solomon, while the prophet Nathan called him Jedidiah. David knew this boy would improve life for the Children of Israel. When King David lay dying, he declared Solomon heir to the throne.
BATTLE GEAR
In this tale, Jonathan gives David his cloak and, even more important, his battle gear: armor, sword, bow, and belt, just as his father Saul had tried to do when David first came to him as a boy, far too small to wear the king’s armor. Giving apparel and weapons has strong significance in the ancient world in general. In the Greek epic The Iliad, two warriors who were supposed to be on opposite sides, Glaucus and Diomedes, learn that their grandfathers had been friends; to show respect for this old friendship, they exchange armor. That way, they are essentially protecting the other with the same means and vehemence that they would use to protect themselves.
Two women claimed a baby as their own. Who knew which told the truth? So King Solomon ordered the child to be cut in half—half for each woman. One woman begged him not to and to instead give the child to the other woman. Wise King Solomon gave the child to the begging woman.
SOLOMON’S WISDOM
King David’s great accomplishment was to unite the Children of Israel. King Solomon’s great accomplishment was to maintain that unity. For 40 years he would reign over an unshakable people. The Lord had promised David and then Solomon that, so long as the Commandments and laws were followed, the Lord would support and protect the
Children of Israel. But Solomon was more than a unifier; he was wise.
Solomon went to the town of Gibeon and prepared a sacrifice to the Lord, in the form of 1,000 burnt offerings. That night God came in his dream. “Ask!” God said. “What shall I give you?”
Solomon said God had been kind to his father David and God had been kind to Solomon himself. But Solomon was young and inexperienced, so he was cowed by how many people he had to rule, especially since those people had repeatedly proved themselves unruly. He asked for an understanding heart. That way he could tell what was good from what was not and have a chance at ruling decently.
What a fine request! Solomon had not been greedy; he had not asked for long life or wealth or the death of his enemies. He had put the people first. God granted a wisdom never before given and never to be given again, a wisdom that Solomon had, in fact, already demonstrated by virtue of his request. Because of Solomon’s selflessness, God also promised him long life and wealth.
When Solomon returned to Jerusalem, two women of ill repute came to him to resolve their argument.
“We live in the same house. I gave birth to a son. Three days later she did the same. Her baby smothered in the night because she rolled over on him. She put her dead babe beside me as I slept and took my live babe as hers. When I woke, I saw that the dead child beside me was not mine.”
“Liar. My son is the living one; yours is the dead one.”
“No! Just the reverse.”
They continued like that until King Solomon said, “Fetch my sword.” The servant brought the sword. “Cut the child in two. Each woman will get half.”
“Stop! I beseech you, give the boy to her. Do not put him to death.”
“Go ahead! Cut him in half. Neither of us shall have a son.”
King Solomon nodded. “Give the living boy to the woman who would keep him alive. She is his mother.”
Perhaps she was his mother, perhaps not. Either way, the one who would have the child live was the right one to raise him. Solomon’s wisdom put all Israel in awe; this king knew about justice. This king knew how to lead. His father David had suffered as a leader because he wanted Saul to love him. But Solomon moved with the confidence of having God’s love. He showed it not just in his judgments, but in the fact that he wrote 3,000 proverbs and 5,000 poems about wisdom, justice, love, and righteousness. His understanding was vast as the grains of sand on the seashore—vast as the offspring God had promised Abraham years before. King Solomon was a botanist, talking about everything from the simple wall moss to the great cedars of Lebanon. He was a biologist, talking about beasts, birds, creeping things, and fish. People from everywhere came to learn about life on earth from Solomon. Kings sent representatives to learn from him. Solomon built a palace for the Lord. Colossal, with fine windows and a balcony around the great hall, paneled in cedar, overlaid with gold—this sanctuary took a full seven years to build. The Lord promised to dwell in it, like the Lord had promised to dwell in the tabernacle Moses built. Solomon spread his palms to the heavens and talked on and on about the glory of God, about how heavens could not contain God, so how could this house Solomon had built ever do that. He begged the Lord to be with them, sustain them through offenses when they sought forgiveness, give them rain, and aid in times of famine, plague, blight, mildew, locusts, caterpillars, enemy attacks. Whatever afflicted the heart, the Lord should be merciful and give balm. Solomon knew that the most important thing was for the people to have a strong relationship with God. God promised to do these things, so long as the people obeyed the Commandments and laws.
King Solomon loved wealth far too much. Even the wealthy Queen of Sheba was in awe of the splendor of his home. They exchanged precious gifts.
Still, Solomon had flaws. While he had not shown greed to God in that earlier dream, he now displayed outrageous greed, though Moses had long ago warned against a king having too much wealth. King Solomon charged his subjects for securing the peace: flour, oxen, sheep, deer, gazelle, roebuck, fatted geese. He had 40,000 stalls for his 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and silver as plentiful as stones of the field. He spent 13 years building his house, decorated with bronze pomegranates and birds flying around a cast-metal sea. When the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to test Solomon’s wisdom with riddles, she was breathless as much at this splendor as at his answers. She gave him gold and spices. He gave her sandalwood and precious stones.
But the most dangerous thing Solomon did involved women. Moses had warned that too many wives would lead a king’s heart astray. This rich king took 700 wives and loved even more women, some Children of Israel and some not, though the Lord had forbidden marriage with foreigners for fear the wives would then turn their husbands away from the one true God. That’s exactly what happened to Solomon. For love of his wives, he adhered to the goddess Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, to the gods Milcom and Molech of the Ammonites, and to the god Chemosh of the Moabites. The Lord was furious. Out of respect for David, who had united the people, King Solomon would be allowed to rule till his death. But when the throne passed to his son Rehoboam, the Lord would tear away the kingdom and give it to another. To Rehoboam the Lord would leave only one tribe.
BIBLICAL KING SOLOMON
Biblical characters often employed the same practices to gain and maintain control as historical figures have done in times since, perhaps giving us evidence of what was considered a sensible path to power in ancient times. In the First Book of Kings, we learn three important things about Solomon: He was wise, so he knew how to judge fairly and write proverbs and songs. He was a renowned botanist and biologist, and people traveled from all over to learn from him. Finally, he had many wives, and this was his worst flaw. While that might have been his worst flaw spiritually, in fact, through strategic and multiple marriages, King Solomon made alliances across Africa, India, and the Arabian Peninsula, allowing him to control many trade routes and to keep the Children of Israel safe and prosperous.
The prophet Elijah went to a riverbed with no food; ravens came and fed him bread and meat. Next Elijah went to a widow’s house and promised her that if she fed him, her flour and oil would not run out; it was true. Finally, when the widow’s son died, Elijah lay upon him and he came back to life. These were Elijah’s three miracles.
ELIJAH
Many years later, during the reign of King Ahab, things did not go well for the Children of Israel. Ahab married a foreign woman named Jezebel, who worshipped the god Baal and led Ahab to do the same. Upon her orders, prophets of the Lord were killed.
The Lord was irate. Why did these Children of Israel keep making the same annoying mistake, worshipping false gods?
So the only remaining prophet of the Lord, Elijah—a hairy man who wore a leather belt—told King Ahab that rain would not fall again until the Lord decided it would. This was amazing. How could this hairy Elijah’s god control the weather? Ahab didn’t believe him.
Elijah went to a wadi—a riverbed—and drank. Ravens came every sunrise and sunset and fed Elijah bread and meat. This was Elijah’s first miracle.
After a while a drought came and the wadi dried up. The Lord told Elijah to go to a town where a widow would sustain him. Elijah went to the town of Zarephath and saw a widow gathering sticks. He asked for water, which she gave. But when he asked for bread, she said she had but a handful of flour and only drops of oil. She would use them to make bread for her son and herself, and still they would die. Elijah assured her that if she fed him, the flour jar would not go empty nor would the oil cruse go empty, not until it rained again. So the widow fed Elijah, and sure enough, there was still flour and oil left. This was Elijah’s second miracle.
After many days the widow’s son got sick and died. She railed at Elijah: “You came and killed my son.” Elijah bade her bring him her son. He carried the body upstairs to his chamber and lay him on the bed. He stretched himself over the boy’s body three times and begged the Lord to bring back life-breath. Suddenly the boy breathed again. This was
Elijah’s third miracle. “See?” he said to the widow. The widow knew then that Elijah was a true man of God.
The drought dragged on for three more years. Finally Elijah and Ahab had a showdown. Ahab said, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
“It’s you who made the trouble. Bring everyone to me,” said Elijah. “The Children of Israel and the prophets of Baal and Asherah—these men who eat at your wife Jezebel’s table. It’s time for a gathering at Mount Carmel.”
When a crowd had assembled, Elijah addressed them. “Why do you hop from one god to another? If you believe in the Lord, God of Israel, follow that one. If you believe in Baal, follow that one.”
No one spoke.
“All right then, a challenge. I am the only remaining prophet of the Lord. But there are 450 prophets of Baal. Let the prophets of Baal slaughter a bull for sacrifice and put it on the altar, but not light the fire. I will do the same. We can pray to our gods for fire to consume the sacrifice. The god who answers first is the true God.”
The prophets of Baal prepared a bull. They jumped around on the altar, calling to Baal. They called all morning. At noon, Elijah mocked them, saying perhaps they should call louder, for maybe Baal was asleep or traveling. The prophets of Baal called louder and cut themselves with their own swords and seemed to lose their minds.
Elijah repaired the altar—for it had been damaged by the jumping. He took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes of Israel, and made the altar strong. He cut up his bull and lay it on the bed of sticks. He dug a trench around the altar and told the people to pour four jugs of water over the offering and the firewood. He made them do that three times, until everything was soaked and the trench was full to the brim. By this time, it was the hour of the afternoon offering. Elijah called to the Lord, God of Israel. Just like that, fire consumed the offering and licked up the water till the trench was dry.
Treasury of Bible Stories Page 9
