Session 12: 2 Samuel 5 – 1 Kings 1-11

  • David, which means “beloved one” in Hebrew, is chosen by God because he has a heart for God(1 Sam 16:7).
  • The fact that David is the 8th son of Jesse is symbolically significant because the number 8 is the Biblical number signifying new beginning, and thus David himself is the beginning of the kingly line, promised by God to Abraham, that will culminate in the Messiah-King (Christ), who will betheSon of David(1 Sam 16:13).
  • David established through warfare an international Israelite empire that included the surrounding gentiles(nations)as subject states (2 Sam 9).
  • David founded Jerusalem as the capital (2 Sam 5). This was wholly appropriate, as Jerusalem was the site of the aquedah,and also, according to Hebrew tradition, the very site of the Garden of Eden.
  • After making Jerusalem the capital, David brought to Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant, which is the very Throne of the invisible God, thus placing divine worship at the center of national life.
  • David introduced singing and music, specifically psalms (poetic hymns), into liturgical worship, as worship previously under Moses had been without music. More importantly, the todah sacrifice(thanksgiving sacrifice)began to take prominence in liturgical worship, as it does today in Christian worship, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice (thanksgiving sacrifice).
  • David, since he has a heart for God, begins to feel badly because he is living in a lavish palace while the Ark of the Covenant resides in a tent. Therefore, David told the prophet Nathan of his intention to build a magnificent Temple for God. But God intervenes through Nathan, explaining that, though David’s intention is noble and pleasing to God, it is not His plan for his life. In fact, what David wants to do for God hardly compares to what God wants to do for David. Therefore, by means of wordplay, God, through Nathan, tells David that his son will build the house(Temple), and that God will instead build for David a house (royal dynasty).
  • The 5th major covenant is the Davidic Covenanton Mt. Zion in Jerusalem with David as covenant mediator and theTemple as architectural sign of the covenant (2 Sam 7:8-16). In this covenant, God, through the prophet Nathan, fulfills his 2nd promise to Abraham, by establishing an eternal kingly dynasty through David’s line (2 Sam 7:11b-16), which will ultimately be fulfilled by the everlasting reign of Jesus, Who is the King of Kings.
  • In response to this privilege of the kingdom, David “went in (before the Ark of the Covenant) and sat before the LORD (2 Sam 7:18)”, thanking Him in prayer. This is a type (foreshadowing) of visits to the Blessed Sacrament, whereby we go in, sitting or kneeling or lying prostrate before the LORD, Who is truly and substantially present in the Eucharistic Sacrament, reserved in the Tabernacle or displayed in the monstrance, as we enjoy the privilege of a personal audience with Him, speaking to Him in prayer and worship, or remaining in quiet, reverential awe in His presence.
  • As if he still cannot believe his ears, David expresses to God that He has shown him a “torah for Adam”, also translated as a“covenant-law for mankind” (2 Sam 7:19b). Essentially, David intuits that God is initiating a plan through him to extend His covenant blessings beyond Israel to all mankind, to the gentiles (nations). In other words, what the torah of the Mosaic covenant had been to Israel, as a charter of divine guidance and blessing, the torah of the Davidic covenant, especially as expressed and taught through the Son of David, the Messiah-King (Christ), would be for the gentiles (nations).
  • The promises to David are provisionally fulfilled in the son of David named Solomon, but they are fulfilled ultimately and definitively in the Son of David named Jesus the Christ.

Jesus is the Messiah-King (Christ) grafted into David’s dynastic line (Mt 1:1-16).

Jesus is chosen by the Eternal Father to sit on the Davidic throne forever (Lk 1:32-33).

Jesus, like Solomon, builds the Temple, yet His is not a stone-and-cedar Temple in Jerusalem, but the living Temple of God, comprised of His faithful disciples, who possess the divine indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul (Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:4-5).

Jesus, at His Ascension, where He sits at the right hand of the Eternal Father, begins His everlasting reign (Lk 1:33).

Jesus holds the key to the Kingdom of David (Rev 3:7).

Jesus bears the distinction of being King of Israel (Jn 1:49; Mt 16:16).

Jesus rises to rule the gentiles (nations)(Rm 15:12).

  • All of the saints, with the exception of the Holy Virgin, are flawed, including David. For example, his idleness lead to lust (1 Sam 11:2), and this disordered passion drives him to commit adultery with Bathsheba (1 Sam 11:4), and fear of the consequences of her pregnancy moves him to arrange for the murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah (1 Sam 11:14-15). But David refuses to wallow in sin, and so is quick toconfess and to seek forgiveness (1 Sam 12:13; 24:10, 17), sincerely repenting (Psalm 51). But David is not exempt from God’s penitential discipline, and the rest of his life is a painful display of David enduring hardship after hardship for his spiritual crimes. From these, David emerges a more humble man, learning to trust God’s plan for his life (1 Sam 16:10-12), and yearning for God’s mercy for his failings (1 Sam 24:14).
  • Like David, Solomon is a type (foreshadowing) of Christ, though keep in mind that types have similarities and dissimilarities, so, for example, the two are not similar with regard to sins committed because Christ was sinless. Nonetheless, both are similar in the following:

Solomon or Shlomo means “peace”, and thus, as son of David the king, he is “prince of peace”. Similarly, Christ, as Only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father, is “prince of peace”(Is 9:6).

Both are sons of David, with Christ being the Son of David (Mt 1:1).

Both are proclaimed king while riding into Jerusalem while riding on a donkey, as kings rode donkeys if they came in peace, and rode warhorses if they came in war (1 Kgs 1:38-40; Mt 21: 6-11).

Both are wise kings who speak and teach by means of parables(1 Kgs 4:32; Mt 12:42).

Solomon builds the Temple (dwelling place of God), in which the very presence of God dwells by means of His invisible presence, seated upon the cherubim Throne of the Ark of the Covenant. Christ builds the true Temple, which is His physical Body in the Incarnation(Jn 2:19), and also His Mystical Body the Church (Eph 2:19-22).

Both come to reign over a vast multinational empire, which includes gentiles (1 Kgs 4:21; Mt 28:18-20).