Electric Circuit Rider

The first reading this week tells us about David becoming King of Israel. We see the leaders of
Israel’s 12 tribes coming to David. These are proud and independent men. The warlords and tribal leaders of Afghanistan probably are the closest thing we have in this world to these tribal chieftains of Reuben, Zebulon, Naphtali and all the other tribes; men with hard eyes and strong arms and calculating minds. They are not men who are inclined to bow to anyone else. They are not men who give up their authority or their independence easily. Yet they are here today to tell David that they want him to be their king.

How did David become king?

He did not do it in any conventional way.

He was not born a king. He was born in Bethlehem, the last of a big family of boys. In a culture in which the first son inherited twice as much as the second, the best the kid at the end of a line of seven or eight could hope for was to work for one of his older brothers someday as a servant. So David was not born a king – quite the opposite. Neither was that other child born in Bethlehem 10 centuries later.

The other way men become kings is they conquer their subjects. From Genghis Khan to Napoleon, people of modest birth have risen to the heights because of their ability to conquer. David was certainly an uncommonly successful military leader, but these chieftains do not come to him because they have been beaten in battle. That is what is so remarkable about this moment. These tribal warlords are voluntarily surrendering their absolute power to David.

Why?

The Bible tells us that these chieftains say, “You are bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.”

This means they could trust David to understand them. He was one of them. It also meant that David’s fellow feeling for his people gave him a finely tuned sense of justice. We know that David cared about the little guy. Before he became king, he was kind of a Robin Hood figure operating on the edges of Israel. He helped the Israelites capture iron smelting furnaces from the Philistines and gave the Israelites the same advantages both in swords and plowshares that the Philistines had. He also made sure the poor were taken care of, even if he had to “persuade” the rich to share their bounty.

One of the most important affirmations we make about Jesus is that he is “bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.”

David’s concern for the little guy was part of his appeal. Like David, Jesus is Robin Hood. Jesus robs from the rich and gives to the poor during the offering. And that is not the only way He turns the world upside down. So, be careful about pledging Him your allegiance.