King David’s Sons
David’s story in the books of Samuel has a gripping story. It reminds me of my time obsessively reading the Alma war chapters.
The fun doesn’t stop when he becomes king. One of his sons comes up with an intrigue that allows him rapes one David’s daughters (by a different wife), that daughter’s brother lays an elaborate plot to kill the rapist (which he does), then one of King David’s servants schemes up an intrigue to get the murderer recalled from exile (which happens), and then the murderer starts destroying the servant’s property until the servant agrees to intercede for the murderer to be restored to favor at court . . . and that is only the beginning. None of these people let law or order or virtue stand in the way of getting what they want.
This was always going to be a problem for David. The chronicler tries to portray his rise to power in a very positive light, but we still see glimpses of the corner cutting and killing involved in a guerrilla rebel’s rise to power. Even so, David made his problem much worse. He set the example of letting nothing stand in the way of getting what he wants and he did it after his rise to power. All of these incidents with David’s sons and servants happened after Bathsheba and Uriah, which everyone in David’s court would have known about. Further, I do not believe that David would have gone as far as he did with Bathsheba and Uriah if he hadn’t gone at least partly as far before. Adultery and murder might have been his most corrupt scheme but I do not believe it was his only corrupt scheme.
E.C.
April 21, 2023
My Institute teacher was talking about this while setting context for Isaiah. He pointed out that David would have been one of those people you immediately feel wary of when he walked into a room. He was the kind of king who didn’t feel any compunction about holding people hostage at court to keep everyone else in check, and who kept a pet assassin to make sure of everyone’s attendance at his lavish banquets, because those who refused to attend were often found dead in their beds the next morning – assumed guilty of conspiracy.
When God told David he couldn’t build a temple because he was a man of blood, I don’t think it was hyperbole. The man’s sons learned their behavior from someone.
That being said, there was one reason he was called a perfect man before the Lord. David never, in all his scheming and bloodshed and adulterous behavior, turned away from his God to other gods.
Zen
April 21, 2023
David is a complex character. On one hand, he really was a man after the Lord’s own heart. He refused repeatedly to lift up his hand against Saul. He frequently sought the Lord’s will.
And yet, everything you said about him is true. The story of Nabal, mentioned in Conference never sat well with me. Yes, they were different times, but killing a guy just because he is a jerk? I have a hard time understanding that.
Jonathan would have been a better king.
IAW
April 21, 2023
One thing people get really wrong about David is the phrase “a man after God’s own heart”
This does not mean God’s heart and David’s heart were aligned in our modern sense of “heart.”
The heart, in ancient days, was seen as the seat of the intellect. (Emotions were for the intestines – hence “my bowels are filled with compassion”; the brain was, in modern terms, seen as more like the battery of the body, not the hard drive).
So “A man after God’s own heart” should be read more (in modern terms) “A man God thinks about” – or that God consciously and with deliberate intellectual reasoning, chose David. It does not mean David was a guy whose sympathies were the same as God’s.
IAW
April 21, 2023
(Similarly, “Mary kept all these things in her heart” does not mean she felt deep feelings about it. It meant she memorized and remembered the events – a way for the author to state he has her eyewitness account).
Zen
April 25, 2023
IAW – that is right. Thanks for the reminder.
Still, notwithstanding it all, what fascinates me, is how the Northern kingdom rebelled, and never once had a good king, while the Davidic line had many terrible ones, it also had many great ones. The Northern kingdom was right to be indignant about most Davidic kings, but that doesn’t mean their efforts would have done better.
Of course, it isn’t like Samuel didn’t warn them.