041 The Story Behind the Story

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Viewpoint

1. Samuel and Kings written very close to the actual events
   1. The information reads like agenda-driven headlines
2. Chronicles is much later
   1. Written from Judah (southern split) perspective
   2. Reads more like a documentary

Flyby of Samuel/Kings

1. Saul is selected and eventually rejected
2. David is chosen after going against Goliath
3. Saul pursues David for 10 chapters
   1. David refuses to not "qa-dosh he-shem" (hallow the name)
4. Everything David does to establish his throne is done in service of hallowing God's name
5. David's military approach is super counter-intuitive
   1. He'll mourn the death of enemies
   2. He threatens to kill his own men when they try to kill foreign kings
   3. David is all about the Shalom in Empire vs Shalom
6. Story turns to Bathesheba after David's defeat of the Ammorites
7. Then the story takes a turn for the worst
8. David is overthrown and chased by his son Absalom (perhaps a repeat of the Saul narrative?)
   1. His family is in ruins
   2. Second Samuel ends after David counts his men (major sin in God's eyes)
9. 1 Kings begins with Solomon establishing his own kingdom
10. Solomon is visited by Queen of Sheba
    1. Her gift is said to weight 666 shekels
    2. This foreshadows the downward spiral of David's family
11. Solomon enters into several treaties with foreign kings each including a foreign wife
12. Solomon eventually amasses 700 wives

The King's Downfall

1. David's immorality with Bathsheba is the turning point in his life and kingdom crumbling
2. Solomon's immorality in marriage (sex) and nation-alliance leads to his downfall
   1. He is led into idolotry by his wives

The Point

Source 1 (Kings and Samuel) tells us that God's leaders sin and cannot be trusted. They lead God's people astray via their disobedience of Yahweh's way.

Is this accurate? yes

Flyby of Chronicles

1. No effort is spent putting David's morality on display, only his pedigree
2. No discussion about his exclusion of Saul or his warfare tactivs
3. Bathsheba episode is totally forgone in Chronicles
4. David's kingdom falls for more than the moral failure of a leader according to the Chronicler...
5. Likewise Solomon's wickedness is also not discussed (wives, treaties, etc)

The Point

Source 2 (Chronicles) tells the story behind the story, written retrospectively, to make the point that it's not just sexual shortcoming or unrighteous behavior that leads God's people to fall. Chronicles makes an effort to discuss the injustice in Israel's kingdom.

Is this also accurate? yes

Temple

Temple is not absent in Kings/Solomon but it is the focal point of Chronicles. David's request to build God's house is the hinge-point of his reign in Chronicles (contrasted with Kings/Solomon accounts having the Bathsheba episode as the hinge-point)

David asks to build the temple because he feels guilty about his own life style... "Why should I live in a house of cedar while my Lord lives in a tent"

God's response is that he doesn't need a house basically - tent is mobile, that's God's MO - to get on the move blessing people

Empire vs Shalom

David, according to the Chronicler, is all about honoring God but in a very "empire-y" way made clear by the temple. David passes this onto Solomon who accumulates all kinds of riches and goes on to make the temple more grand than David had originally designed.

Solomon's acquisition of resources, treaties, money, etc. is in direct contrast to Deut. 17. Chronicler makes Solomon out to be the king who disobeyed literally every law for kings in Torah.

The Real Point

The story is not just about morality and disobedience. It's about seeing what goes on behind our immorality and what leads to our disobedience.

David counting his men

Parallel passages here...

2 Samuel 24:1 (LEB):  24 Again Yahweh was angry with Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go count Israel and Judah.” 

1 Chronicles 21:1 (LEB):  21 Then Satan stood against Israel and urged David to count Israel. 

1. Is it Satan or Yahweh who has David take the census?
   1. So Kings/Samuel (narrative about immorality) highlights that David is doing something that makes Yahweh angry.
   2. Chronicler highlights David's lust after Empire and ties that back to the Satan
2. In Chronicles there is an added response from Joab to David regarding David bringing guilt onto Israel...
   1. There is retrospective present here from the Chronicler
3. In ancient times a census was usually accompanied by a tax...
   1. David wants to build the temple, so his motive for the census is pretty hard to nail down but maybe he's trying to amass resources like Solomon will do for the purposes of the temple