Saul, David and Solomon
The parable of three kings
By Hugo L j. Odhner
5. David Becomes King
In the inmost
sense of the Word, David represents the Lord who was to come on earth
to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human, and thus found the
kingdom of God among men. The Lord Himself confirmed this prophetic
function of David when He opened the Scriptures to His disciples and
showed them that in His life had been fulfilled all the things which
were written concerning Him, "in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets
and in the Psalms" - the Psalms of David. (Luke 24:44) The period of
David's life when he was fleeing before Saul and persecuted as an
outlaw, especially describes, in correspondential language and
word-pictures, the many temptations which the Lord sustained
throughout His abode on earth.
Yet we should
understand that the Lord's state which on earth was not represented
only by David, but by all the characters mentioned - Saul and Samuel,
Jonathan and Joab, - all the other persons who play a good or an evil
role in the Divine drama of Israel. For the Lord, in His very Person,
had assumed the human heredities, the tendencies and infirmities, of
the whole Jewish race. The representative story of Israel depicts how
these hereditary human elements transmitted through Mary the mother
were ordered and overcome by the Divine Soul from Jehovah God which
labored to express its infinite potentialities within Him.
Even David did
not always represent something entirely Divine. So far as he acted as
the Lord's anointed, so far He represented the Divine Human. But when
David departed from the Lord's commandments, he reflected the evils
and the falsities which lurked as slumbering tendencies within His
assumed human, the infirm human from Mary. The evils, the cruelties
and intrigues, the lusts and hatreds and envies and violent crimes,
which the Word in its letter so frankly describes, are the evils and
falsities which the Lord discovered when examining His human heredity;
and naturally they were the very evils which had been committed in the
course of Israel's history and which had been described in the Word.
* * *
But it is not
proposed that we follow David's story, as it mirrors the course of the
Lord's glorification. Instead let us remind ourselves that in the
process of man's regeneration, and in the development of the Church,
there are successive states which develop much like the life of Israel
under the first three kings. As was noted in a previous chapter, there
is even a historical parallel ready at hand. For King Saul represents
the literal sense of the Scripture, such as it was understood in the
declining ages of the Christian Church, when spiritual truths - the
truths of the internal sense of the Word, thus the truths of charity -
were outlawed by the official creeds and had to exist precariously as
fugitives, like David when fleeing before Saul. But in the Heavenly
Doctrine revealed after the last judgment, David has become king.
Spiritual truth has come into its own, and is ready to claim its
authority in the Church.
* * *
The Second Book
of Samuel opens with a strange episode of retribution. David had come
back to his ravaged town of Ziklag after recovering rich booty from
the Amalekite marauders. And a man came to him out of Saul's scattered
army and gave him Saul's crown and armlet, boasting that he had, at
Saul's request, given the wounded king his deathblow. This man, who
confessed that he was an Amalekite who had happened to pass over the
battlefield on Mount Gilboa, expected to be rewarded for his tidings.
Instead, David, ignorant that the Amalekite was lying (since Saul took
his own life), ordered the man to be slain for daring "to stretch
forth his hand to destroy the Lord's anointed." (AC 8607, 8593f)
The Writings
reveal that the Amalekites - jackals of the desert who never left
Israel in peace - represent evil genii who attack men's spirits in
their weakest moments, by suggesting persuasive falsities which accord
with interior evils of which man is not aware. But David was not open
to the subtle temptation of rejoicing over the death of Saul. He
ordered that the Amalekite be slain. Then he rent his clothes and
fasted and mourned for Saul and Jonathan and for the Lord's people
slain on Mount Gilboa.
And in his lament
he taught Israel some phrases from the Song of the Bow, which was
written in the ancient Book of Jasher: "How are the mighty fallen, and
the weapons of war perished!" There is no trace of recrimination in
his elegy. So far as David was concerned, Saul's faults had been wiped
out by his heroic death.
"The beauty of
Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! ...
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let no dew or rain be upon you, nor fields of
offerings, for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the
shield of Saul as though not anointed ... The bow of Jonathan turned
not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.
Saul and Jonathan
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were
not divided: They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than
lions ... I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:... thy love
to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty
fallen, and the weapons of war perished!"
To the listening
angels, this was the testimony of the spiritual sense of the Word to
the virtue and power of the sense of the letter of the Word, and to
the doctrine of genuine truth which can be drawn from it. The spirit
of the Word feels no rivalry from its letter. Nor does the letter
perish, even when it is understood in a spiritual sense. The death of
Saul was a resurrection - and the representation he had carried was
now added and transferred to David, to be carried on by him.
Therefore we find
that the men of Judah now came and brought David to Hebron and
anointed him king over the house of Judah, his own tribe. In the
course of man's regeneration, the time comes when spiritual truth,
perceived in the depths of the mind, kindles within him the beginnings
of a new will born in the understanding as a confession of the Lord.
This is a spiritual love - a love of uses for the sake of charity - a
love which actually opens the spiritual degree of the mind and by
degrees forms and infils it, so that it may become a power, a motive
power in the whole mind, to reorder the natural mind for new uses and
fill it with new affections; for it is so that man's natural mind also
can be born again.
Yet the natural
mind is full of complex states. Even our religious life is far from
pure. Although we may have a sincere acknowledgment of the Heavenly
Doctrine as the ruling authority in our thought, we sometimes show
this allegiance in the strangest ways. For our proprium sometimes
curries favor with our forming conscience - like the Amalekite, who
brought Saul's crown to David.
Our natural
affections, which contain so much of self-love and corporeal delights,
act on the principle that the end justifies evil means, and begin to
enforce the dictates of our conscience by wrong methods, by violence.
And our affections also war against each other, not for the sake of
spiritual justice but to dominate one over the other. For as long as
there are sensual affections left active in our mind, evil spirits can
stir up continual dissenting states and deceitful lusts and impulses.
Nor does our
first confession of the Lord - our crowning of the Heavenly Doctrine
with Divine authority - at once convert our whole understanding to its
service! Therefore it is told that although David sent messengers to
some of Saul's supporters to gain their confidence, yet Abner - Saul's
uncle and the captain of Saul's host - instead proclaimed Saul's
remaining son as king over Israel. The name of this man was Ishbosheth,
which literally means "a man of shame"! Despite this strange name, he
ruled for two years over Gilead and Benjamin, Ephraim and the northern
tribes. When Abner and his men met Joab, David's captain, at a pool
near the border of Judah, Abner suggested that the young men should
"play together" -that is, in individual matched combats. This ended by
twelve of each side killing each other. But this game of war then
resolved itself into a general battle in which Abner and the men of
Israel were beaten and fled. The warriors of Judah pursued, and Asahel,
Joab's brother, persisted in following Abner until Abner smote him
dead.
Thus it was that
an undeclared war developed between the house of Saul and the house of
David. Gradually David's party became stronger. And when Abner was
rebuked by Ishbosheth for taking one of Saul's concubines, Abner in
his anger sent word to David that he was ready to hand Israel over to
David.
In accepting this
offer, David's only condition was that Ishbosheth return Michal,
David's first wife, whom Saul had later married to another. And the
helpless Ishbosheth sent and took her from her second husband, who
followed weeping behind her. The humiliation of Saul's house was
complete.
Abner, having
advised the transfer of Israel's allegiance, then visited David at
Hebron with twenty men, and was received with honor and was ready to
be sent away in peace. But Joab, hearing of this, and thirsting for
revenge against Abner who had killed his brother Asahel, took Abner
aside to speak to him in the gate at Hebron, and murdered him there in
cold blood.
David was
horror-stricken, but by lauding Abner and blaming Joab alone, he made
it plain to Israel that he as king had had no part in the slaying. And
it was also understood that the king - in those times - could hardly
interfere in a private feud, especially when it concerned so powerful
a man as Joab.
Saul's house -
Ishbosheth, and Abner his captain - all represent the natural
understanding, which is slow to accept the rule of spiritual truth,
because it thinks in terms of this world, and adheres to ideas of
space and time and person. But spiritual thought, such as was
represented by David, has no intention to destroy natural thought
which is useful in its own field of natural uses and in the relation
of man to man in the community. Nor does a spiritual conscience act
violently. It destroys only evils. It does not kill rebellious or
immature thoughts. It conquers by love and inflows as a higher
motivation, leading gently, and strengthening those affections and.
ideas in the understanding which are willing to perceive a deeper
meaning in life.
David had dealt
lightly with Saul's house. Others were more revengeful. Thinking that
they were pleasing David, two Gibeonites assassinated Ishbosheth and
brought his head to David at Hebron.
In horror, David
ordered the misguided partisans slain. For a spiritual conscience
cannot condone those natural affections which would use evil means to
promote the cause of the Church.
Eventually the
elders of all the tribes came to David and anointed him king of all
Israel. His power was now complete. And one of his first acts was to
capture Jerusalem from the Jebusites. He raised a fort on Mt. Zion,
and around it an important city was soon formed on its northern
slopes. To him and his people, it was "beautiful in situation, the joy
of the whole earth," with its towers and bulwarks. In a sense, it was
the first strategically located city of Israel which could hold out
against real attack. And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent expert masons and
carpenters to David and supplied cedar wood for a real palace. David
also acquired a harem of many wives and had very many sons and
daughters.
But the safety of
Jerusalem was not assured at once. For the Philistines came up twice
to be defeated in the valley of Rephaim. This place was close to
Bethlehem, David's home town. And while he and his men were besieged
in his old stronghold, the cave of Adullam, David spoke longingly in
reminiscence, wishing that he could drink once again of the water of
the well by the city gate of Bethlehem. Three of his warriors then
broke through the ranks of the Philistine host, and at the risk of
their lives brought him a cruse of that water. David was so touched by
this testimony of their love that he refused to drink it, but poured
it out as an offering to the Lord. (II Sam. 5:18 ff, 23:13 ff)
The conscience of
spiritual truth - or of charity - is slow to develop.
Yet even with
those who are ignorant of the doctrine of heaven, but who read the
Scripture from an affection of charity, the goods and truths of the
spiritual sense - which are as yet like fugitives from the natural man
- are unconsciously inscribed interiorly upon their will and
understanding, albeit they cannot articulate the thoughts that move
within their spirit. Such must wait until after death to recognize the
genuine truths of spiritual doctrine.
But it was not
the Lord's will that the progress of men into the light of the
internal sense of the Word should be delayed until after they have
died! By His second advent the Lord has revealed the doctrine of
heaven which shall make possible the establishment and ordering of a
spiritual conscience with men, and shall "make all things new." And
this Heavenly Doctrine, as it descends into men's minds, is
represented in the Apocalypse as a "new Jerusalem." Indeed, the
Jerusalem of David, like Hebron, his first capital, represents "the
Lord's spiritual church," with especial reference to its doctrine. (AC
2901e, 2909, 2981)
In this city
David now dwelt in a house of cedar - even as the conscience of the
New Church man finds its home in rational good formed by spiritual
cognitions. Yet King David was not content. For the ark of the
covenant, with its precious tables of the Divine Law, had for nearly a
century been without a home. It had been brought fearfully from hamlet
to hamlet, as if it were still a fugitive, exiled from the holy place
within its proper Tabernacle. David first "heard of it in Ephratah,"
i.e. Bethlehem; he found it, now, "in the fields of the forest," in
Kirjath-jearim, "the city of the woods." (Ps. 132, II Sam. 6) And he
had "no rest unto his eyelids" until it was brought up and placed in
the Tabernacle pitched upon Mount Zion.
The ark with its
tablets written by God signified the essential Word, which is the
spiritual sense.
This was lost,
well-nigh forgotten, as if in a city deep in a forest. In His second
advent, the Lord brought back this Divine content of the Word and as
it were replaced it in its proper Tabernacle, which is the literal
sense of the Word, wherein it can serve as the medium of conjunction
between the Lord and the Church. Hence the man of the New Church, like
David, can say: "I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor
go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to
mine eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, an habitation for the
mighty one of Jacob. Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest. Thou and the ark of
Thy strength!" (Ps. 132)
The ark was
brought up to Jerusalem in three stages, which represented "the
progress of the Church with man, from its ultimate to its inmost," as
from one heaven to the next, even to the inmost. (AE 700:25-32). The
first stage was when the ark was placed on a new ox-cart and brought
from the house of Abinadab in Kirjath-jearim, while David and thirty
thousand of his men and all the people played instruments in festal
procession. This represented a state when the acknowledgment of the
Divine truth with man is somewhat precariously founded only on a
doctrine of natural truth from natural good, as on tradition and on
fickle natural states. It is therefore told that Uzzah, the son of
Abinadab, walking beside the shaking cart, put out his hand to steady
the ark, and on touching it, fell dead.
This ended the
journey. David was afraid to go on. The ark was instead placed in the
house of Obed-edom, a Gittite. This abode represented the spiritual,
who receive the Divine truth in the good of charity and are thereby
blessed. And after three months David decided it would be safe to
bring the ark up to Zion. But now it was not on an ox-cart, but was
carried by the priests. And every six paces the jubilant procession
stopped to sacrifice an ox and a fatling; and David danced with all
his might before Jehovah, girt only in a linen ephod. Amid shouts and
the sound of a trumpet the ark was brought into its place within the
tabernacle. This last stage represented an ascent into the inmost of
the Church, or into the third heaven, where the Divine truth is
guarded by the good of love to the Lord. (AE 700:25-32)
The spiritual
Word is accommodated to the three heavens as it descends from the Lord
by inspiration. But in its reception by men there must be an ascent
from a natural understanding into a spiritual and celestial perception
of its truth. By slow stages, man's mind, during regeneration, is
elevated into the light of the heavens and their higher loves,
elevated to perceive the interior aspects of the Word. It may at first
appear to man as if, in a certain sense, he was discovering this
higher truth, and, from his proprium, assisting the Word, or steadying
the ark of the covenant. Yet the truth is already in the Word - in
infinite measure.
And it is in
acknowledgment of that fact that the ark must be brought into its holy
Tabernacle. How bleak and purposeless the Tabernacle without the
golden ark in its sanctuary! How futile the letter of Scripture unless
we knew it as the abode of the Spirit of truth, the Divine meaning,
the spiritual sense! And how deprived of its intended use was the ark,
while standing forgotten in a distant hamlet, unprotected and with
none to attend it! - The Writings therefore say, that the ark of
Israel "could not be called holy, and a sanctuary, until ... covered
by curtains and veils" - as in the Tabernacle. "So would it be with
the Divine truths in the heavens, unless they were enclosed in natural
truths, like the truths of the sense of the letter of our Word." (AE
1088:3)
For the
conjunctive power of the spiritual sense is exercised through the Word
in the sense of its letter; and it is from and through the sense of
the letter that there is communication with the heavens, and
conjunction. (AE 1066:4)
It is this
conjunction of angels and men that was represented by the worship
centered in Jerusalem, the city of David, the spiritual center of the
whole earth.
The sacred drama,
in which the royal prophet led the ark up to Zion, was in a way a
culmination of his conviction that "the earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof." We can imagine that David felt some doubts who of
all this people were worthy to ascend into the hill of the Lord and
stand in the place of His holiness. And he answers, "He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart . . ." And the people burst out in a
chorus of joy: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up,
ye doors of an age! For the king of glory shall come in!" (Ps. 15, 24)
David, having
offered many sacrifices to the Lord, distributed lavish gifts of food
and flagons of wine to all the people. And having blessed the people,
he returns to bless his household. But Michal, the proud daughter of
Saul, taunted him sarcastically for demeaning his royal station by
publicly dancing in the view of his maid servants. David then retorted
that it had been before the Lord who after all had chosen him instead
of Michal's father to rule Israel. And as for the maid servants, of
them would he be had in honor, while Michal would be widowed in her
husband's house. Therefore Michal had no children to the end of her
life.
The contrast
between the dignified etiquette of the daughter of Saul and the simple
ecstasy of David's joy, marks the difference between a love of truth
that is sophisticated and self-conscious, because it is rooted in
natural affections and judges by the worldly standards of caste or
fashion, and a spiritual love of truth which is forgetful of self. A
spiritual conscience cannot be propagated through the natural light
which brings learning from the glory of pride. Such pride is
thenceforth childless, like Michal, unworthy to propagate the truths
of a spiritual conscience.
* * *
Historically
speaking, David's glory and power were ever increasing. He subdued the
Philistines decisively. He made Moab his tributary. He conquered Syria
up to the Euphrates and destroyed a thousand chariots, reserving a
hundred chariots for his triumphal return to Jerusalem, with golden
shields and vessels of precious metal which he dedicated for the use
of the Tabernacle. He put garrisons throughout Edom, and when his good
will ambassadors were disgraced and sent back half naked by the
Ammonites, David defeated them and their allies and added their
country to his domain.
Thus in one
generation, Israel had risen from a primitive and scattered lot of
tribes into the stature and repute of an empire, with important allies
and - for the time - a modern army. David had now an impregnable
capital city, a tabernacle where Jehovah was worshipped with elaborate
rites and festal music of David's own directing. His court and
government were organized like that of other oriental despots - his
sons being treated as princes and his nephews and old supporters
heading the army. His bodyguard, the Cherethites and Pelethites, were
foreign mercenaries.
And David now
bethought himself of his vow to Jonathan. He inquired of Ziba, a
former servant of Saul and found that when Saul and Jonathan had
fallen in Mount Gilboa, a nurse maid had fled with Jonathan's five
year old son, Mephibosheth, and that in her haste she had stumbled so
that he fell and became lame in his feet. David now sent for
Mephibosheth and restored to him all Saul's land, under the
stewardship of a man named Ziba. And Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem
from that time on, and ate at the royal table as one of the king's
sons.
* * *
David's empire
was the actual fulfilment of the Lord's promise to Abram, "Unto thy
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great
river, the river Euphrates." (Gen. 15:18) In order to understand what
this territory represents, it should be kept in mind that all the
ancient nations and peoples had their spiritual functions, based on
their religion, their history, and unique character. All were needed
as component parts of the picture of the spiritual environment of the
Church or the contents of the human mind. In the relation of Israel to
the Canaanite or Amorite or Hittite tribes which it displaced or
absorbed, and to the neighboring peoples, Moab, Ammon, Edom, as well
as Syria and Egypt, we see a description also of the various kinds of
spirits which inflow into man's hereditary nature and influence the
Church in its various states.
The kingdom of
David represented the central region of the mind which had come under
the control of a spiritual conscience. But around it we still find the
Egypt of the knowledge of the memory, the Syria of cognitions or
religious knowledge, the Babylonia of the imagination, and the Assyria
of worldly reasoning; which all will exert their influence on the
spiritual Israel of the Church.
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