Day 137: David Mourns Absalom

Psalm 38 As we have seen, illness is not necessarily the result of personal sin, but God may permit illness to prompt repentance, conversion, and, ultimately, personal holiness. The psalmist admitted that he deserved this discipline from the Lord. However, he was especially pained by the rejection of his friends on account of his infirmity, which was mistakenly attributed to sin. Wisely, the psalmist turned to the Lord, confessed his sins, and asked for deliverance. (CCC 1502)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• Ok Gosh 😉

• And...here... we...go!

• Remember that Chronicles started out with all the names of the genealogy of not only the people of Israel, but specifically the line of David of the Tribe of Judah

• Because that is where the Messiah will come from

• Now we are also getting a bunch of names connected to the PRIESTHOOD

• The Tribe of Levi

• The Chronicler wants to remind the people of Israel that yes, they have fallen on hard times

• But God PROMISED that there would be a KINGDOM that will last FOREVER

• God PROMISED that there would be WORSHIP that would give Him GLORY FOR ALL TIME

• So we are following the Tribes of Judah and Levi

• So yesterday we read about the NEW ROLES of the Tribe of Levi

• Aaron’s family line was the priests

• The other three family lines, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari were in charge of the structural maintenance of the Tabernacle etc. and these were not the duties of priests

• David is described as wearing an EPHOD and then go pray and be before the Lord

• So we may wonder, “Is David a priest?🤔”

• So we know that David is from the Tribe of Judah

• We also know that you can ONLY be a priest if you were from the Tribe of Levi and SPECIFICALLY the family line of Aaron

• So when David puts on an EPHOD he is wearing priestly vestments and seems to participate in a certain way in the actions of a priest

• While David participates in worship and even writes a bunch of songs aka THE PSALMS, he is active when it comes to TEMPLE WORSHIP

• BUT DAVID IS NOT A PRIEST

• David is like a priest in the line of MELCHIZEDEK (remember him? 🤔)

• Jesus was ALSO a priest in the line of MELCHIZEDEK and was descendant from the Tribe of JUDAH, NOT THE TRIBE OF LEVI

• So….guess what this means???

• TYPOLOGY!!

• David is foreshadowing Jesus’ role as KING, the royal nature of Christ’s role on earth

• David is ALSO foreshadowing a PRIESTHOOD OF MELCHIZEDEK

• So for those of you wondering if David was a priest too?

• HE WAS NOT

• We have seen Saul offer a sacrifice WHEN HE SHOULD NOT HAVE

• We are going to see in The Book of Kings other kings who offer sacrifices and get KILLED for it

• It is not something that someone TAKES UPON THEMSELVES

• Being a priest was ONLY for the family line of Aaron from the Tribe of Levi

• So now you know (And what does G.I. Joe say? 😉)

• 2 Samuel Ch 19

• This is a REALLY BIG moment

• There are moments that show David’s weakness, brokenness, and even GOODNESS

• The first is that David is MOURNING Absalom

• Yesterday we noted how powerful this was

• It was even tragically beautiful, this love of a FATHER for his SON

• “Would that I had died instead of you.”

• Because of this, David brought SHAME upon all the people who fought for him

• Remember that 20,000 people DIED in this battle in order to preserve DAVID’S KINGDOM 

• 20,000 men died during this CIVIL WAR

• 20,000 men died FIGHTING FOR DAVID’S THRONE (and not a single dragon was involved!! 🤓)

• So when David says that he should have died instead of Absalom, the people heard this and felt SHAMED 

• So what does Joab do?

• He keeps it 100 😉 (for our international brothers and sisters the phrase “keeping it 100” means to “keep it real” aka to tell the truth no matter how painful it might be)

• Joab comes before the king and tells him that he DISGRACED the people that put their lives on the line for David

• People GAVE UP THEIR LIVES FOR DAVID

• David DISGRACED THEM by acting like this

• They even think that maybe David wishes that THEY ALL HAD DIED instead of Absalom

• But David has OTHER SONS

• David has OTHER DAUGHTERS

• ABSALOM WOULD HAVE KILLED THEM ALL if they had not fought

• So Joab knocks some sense into David

• So often, we can find ourselves in a position JUST LIKE THIS

• What we’ve lost OVERSHADOWS what we have

• The sadness of LOSING someone can overshadow the fact that there are still people in our lives who LOVE US, who NEED TO BE LOVED by us that are still there

• OF COURSE WE CAN GRIEVE

• OF COURSE WE CAN MOURN

• But at some point we MUST acknowledge that there are STILL PEOPLE AMONG US THAT NEED TO BE LOVED

• WE ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT CAN DO IT

• David needed to be smacked upside the head in order to get out of that funk and  to realize this

• Yes, his son Absalom was killed in battle

• BUT…

• That very same son, Absalom, WAS TRYING TO KILL HIM AND HIS ENTIRE FAMILY

• Joab does a GOOD DEED by knocking some sense into David

• David later forgives Shimei, the man who cursed and threw rocks at David

• There is a really interesting moment where David says that the people of Judah (David’s tribe) reestablish him as King of Israel

• The other tribes 10 tribes (minus Levi) wonder why they didn’t get to be a part of this

• A lot of those tribes went and followed Absalom

• So they weren’t necessarily IMMEDIATELY WELCOMED BACK

• So now we see the SEEDS OF REBELLION that will happen after the death of King Solomon

• Those 12 Tribes united in one kingdom STILL experience DIVISION

• I mean, they did just fight a CIVIL WAR

• But after the reestablishment of David’s Kingdom there are cracks

• AND YET…

• David says very clearly that he ultimately wants the kingdom to receive him back WHOLEHEARTEDLY

• He will not ASSERT himself as king until they AFFIRM him as king

• As we move forward we will pay attention to where David acts WISELY

• We will pay attention to where David acts FOOLISHLY

• We will pay attention to where David acts BRAVELY

• We will pay attention to where David acts COWARDLY

• Because that is the TRUTH

• The truth is that we can often see in some of these characters pieces of OURSELVES

• There is NO HUMAN BEING that is FULLY GOOD

• There is NO HUMAN BEING that is FULLY EVIL (except Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins 🤪)

• WE ARE A MIX

• EVEN OUR HEROES ARE A MIX OF GOOD AND BAD

• EVEN OUR HEROES ARE A MIX OF DARK AND LIGHT

• So this is a REMINDER

• WE ALL NEED GOD’S GRACE

• EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. US.

• WE ALL NEED GOD’S GRACE

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise today and every day. Your mercies are new every morning and you speak to us with your fresh voice, your eternal voice, your voice that is the same yesterday, today, and forever because your Word, Lord God, your Word, Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so we thank you and we give you praise today. Thank you for speaking to us words of knowledge, words of wisdom, words that even capture the penitence of our hearts, the sorrow of our hearts when we experience opposition, when we experience even internal failure. You give us in the Psalm 38 today, Lord God, you give us words of repentance, words that voice confidence in you when we need you the most and when we deserve you the least. And that’s when you give us your love. That’s when you give us your mercy. When we need it the most and deserve it the least. And so we give you praise and thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.”