They had it all. The nation of Israel was independent. Their enemies were defeated. There were no great world empires to contend with. David, who was "a man after God's own heart", was acknowledged as king by all of the tribes of Israel. There was a national capital at Jerusalem which housed not only the king's palace but the Ark of the Covenant…the icon of the nation's religious identity. In addition God gave, through the prophet Nathan, a promise to King David that one of his descendants would rule the nation for ever. (II Samuel 7). This then should have been the moment when the promise of God to release, renew and restore the world ought to be unleashed on the world. Yet it was not. So what went wrong?
In some ways we might simply say that the time was not right. The nation itself though living under King David was, as we will discover, still very much divided by its ancient tribal allegiances. The people of God still were not at a place where they could see themselves as a single, coherent community. While there was political stability, it would prove to be temporary.
A second reason why this would not be the time of God's blessing flowing to the world is that David, though a mighty warrior was rather incompetent when it came to ruling his nation or running his family. David had the ability to motivate people to great deeds. He had the integrity to show appropriate deference to his predecessor Saul. He had the cunning to survive threats from every direction. Yet he was not an administrator. He established no means for running his empire. This led to corruption, betrayal and the deaths of many innocent people.
David did not have the ability to control his family as well. He watched as one son raped one of his daughters, and then another son killed the rapist. Neither was adequately punished by David. We are never completely clear as to David's reasons for such behavior. However we might assume it was based on how own behavior as regards Bathsheba. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, then had her husband (a very loyal soldier) killed in battle with Israel's enemies. It was as if David's guilt over that incident paralyzed him from taking appropriate action as regards his family.
In the end, while David's tenure as King was often lifted up as the best of times, it was in many ways far from it. There were unresolved issues which would haunt the kingdom for generations; which is perhaps where we ought to turn with our vision seeking process.
There is a tendency in many churches to look to the past in order to find a vision for the future. People believe that there was a mythical time in which everything was perfect in the life of the church and if we could only return to that time everything would be fine. The problem with such a belief is that our mythical times were never perfect. There were issues which divided churches and relationships. There were failings on the part of staff and session. The challenge of any vision seeking congregation is to take the best of the past and combine it with God's plans for the future. God is always pointing us forward toward a deeper and more faithful life in community. So let's mine the past and seek Christ's future that we might be ever more faithful with each passing year.
John
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