In the Pentateuch Moses is the prototypical prophet, the prophet par
excellence. God singles him out by name (Ex. 33:17) and he saw God face
to face (Deut. 34:10). He brought the covenant and the Commandments
from Mt. Sinai and gave the people of Israel the law.
In the Books of Samuel and Chronicles, David appears as the
prototypical King, the messianic king. Like Moses, he is called a
‘Servant of God’ and Man of God’. In I and II Chronicles his name
appears 263 times and that of Moses appears 21 times. Moses wrote down
the Ten Commandments dictated to him by God (Ex. 34:1). David wrote
down the plan for the Temple: All of this in writing from the hand of
God given to him (I Chron. 28:19).
Can the prototypical prophet and the prototypical king represent the
same theology? Do they represent different functions?
After David, who is already King of Judah, becomes King of Israel, the
Ark with the Tablets of the Commandments is installed in Jerusalem and
the city becomes the religious and political capital of Israel. Then
come the passages that are sometimes called the ‘Davidic Covenant’ (II
Sam. 7). David himself now lives in a house of cedar. He seeks the
approval of the prophet Nathan to build a house of cedar for God ‘to
dwell in’ (7:1). Nathan tells David, ‘All that is in your heart go do,
for the Lord is with you’ (7:3). God, however, objects and says to
Nathan:
‘Go and tell My servant David, the Lord says to him thus, Are you to
build me a house [ba’it] for me to live in? I have never lived in a
house from the day when I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until
today, but have walked in a tent and tabernacle. In all my travels with
the Israelites, did I say to any of the rulers of Israel whom I had
commanded to shepherd My people Israel why do you not built Me a house
of cedar?’ (7:5-7).
God’s immediate response is quite remarkable. ‘Go and tell My servant
David . . .’ Before this only two men have been called God’s servant:
Agraham (Gen. 26:24) and Moses (Num. 12:7,8). Thus, God is
comparing David to Abraham, the biological founder, and to Moses, the
spiritual founder, of the people of Israel. Prior to David, only Moses
had been called a Man of God.
But thereafter God is very critical of David: ‘Are you to build a house
for Me to live in? . . . I have never lived in a house’ (II Sam.
7:5). All the gods have houses of cedar or other material, so does
David assume that God also needs a house? Shamai Galander questions
whether the issue is the need for a ‘dwelling’ for God or that David
should build it. 1 Is David, the recently crowned King of Judah and
Israel trying to tie God down, to be the god only of Israel and not of
the entire world? Is this the beginning of the nationalist God of
Israel?
Is God also asking David whether David is being arrogant enough to
suggest that he, David, has decided that God needs a house? Does David
not realize what his son Solomon is to realized when he dedicates the
Temple [ba’it – literally: ‘house’]: ‘But will God indeed dwell on the
earth? Behold, heavnen and the highest heavens cannot contain thee: how
much less this house that I have built!’ (I Kg. 8:27). The key issue,
as we will see, ‘. . . a house for Me to live in’.
Then God continues to Nathan:
‘This is what you must say to My servant David. The Lord of Hosts says
thus: I took you from the pasture, from following sheep, to be the
leader of My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went; I
have gotten rid of all your enemies for you. I am going to make your
name as great as the name if the greatest on earth. I am going to
provide a place for My people Israel, I shall plant them with there,
and there they will live and never be disturbed again; nor will they be
oppressed by the wicked anymore, as they were in the former times, ever
since the time when I instituted judges to govern My people Israel. I
shall grant you rest from all your enemies, and I shall grant you a
‘ba’it’ [house, in the sense of ‘dynasty’] (II Sam. 7:8-11).
Like Moses, David had been a shepherd. Like Abraham, his name is made
great (Gen. 12:2) Abraham is promised: ‘I will give you this country as
your possessions’ (15:7). David rules or will rule from Damascus to
Sinai and defeats all the enemies of Israel. The promise made to
Abraham is in the future tense (‘will’). With David the promise has
been fulfilled.
Then God says to David, ‘I shall grant you a ‘ba’it’. In aremarkable
change and word play, God says: I do not need you to build Me a ‘ba’it’
[‘house’ meaning structure], but you will be My ‘ba’it’ [‘house’
meaning dynasty]! As will be seen, this ‘ba’it’ is promised forever.
‘And when your days are over and you fall asleep with your ancestors, I
shall appoint your heir, your own seed from your bowels to succeed you
and I shall make his sovereignty secure. He will build Me a house
[‘ba’it’] for my name. And I shall make his royal throne secure
forever. I shall be a father to him and he a son to Me; if he does
anything wrong, I shall punish him with a rod such as men use, with
blows of men. But My mercy will never be withdrawn from him as I
withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your dynasty
[ba’it’] and your sovereignty will stand forever before Me and your
throne be secure forever’ (II Sam. 7:12-16).
The psalmist later affirms: I shall not violate My covenant (8:30). I
have made a covenant with My chosen one, sworn an oath to My servant
David: I have made your dynasty firm forever, built your throne for all
generations. (9:4-5)
When God speaks to Moses just before his death, He says: ‘You will soon
be sleeping with your ancestors, and these people are about to play the
harlot by following the gods of foreigners of the country’ (Deut.
31:16). God speaks in a more forgiving tone to David: ‘I shall appoint
your heir, your own seed . . . And I shall make his sovereignty
secure.’ The first passage suggests future problems with the Covenant
after the death of Moses. The second passage a covenant of optimism:
the punishment for sin will be manlike and not God-like. God does not
threaten as He did to Moses that He will destroy the people (Ex.
32:32). He will never destroy David’s dynasty as He had Saul’s.
When God says your son shall ‘build a house [‘ba’it’] for God’s mane (I
Kg. 5:17) a house is suddenly acceptable, but only for God’s name. A
house for My dwelling like other gods: No A house for My Name: Yes.
David is the first successful King of Israel, who unites the tribes,
defeats the threating Philistines and expands the borders. He wants God
to have a dwelling where He will be the protector of the people of
Israel alone. But God, the creator of the world and the protector of
all people, rejects that role. I cannot ‘dwell in your house’ but I can
have a ‘house for My name’.
What is the difference between a house for ‘My dwelling’ and a house
for “My name’? The significant of the ‘name’ of God first appears when
He meets Moses at the burning bush. Moses is given his mission to go to
the Pharaoh and tell him to release the children of Israel from Egypt.
Moses asks what he should say when the children of Israel ask who sent
him. God says to Moses: ‘My name is Ehyeh asher Ehyeh and tell the
children of Israel Ehyeh sent me [Moses] to you’ (Ex.3:14).
This ambiguous term can mean ‘I am the God who existed’ before time and
will exist after time, the universal God who created the world. God
tells Moses that for ‘Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I appeared as El
Shaddai, but I did not make My name the Lord known to them’ (Ex. 6:3).
(The Tetragrammton rendered as ‘the Lord’ is a variant of Ehyeh.) To
the Patriarchs, God was their father. To Moses, He will be the God of
the entire world.
After the Exodus, Moses takes the people to Mt. Sinai and a Covenant
with God. The Covenant begins with a theophany (Ex. 19-20), with a
theme of fear and warning (19:21-24) and a terrified people (20:18-20).
They are terrified and say: ‘Speak to us yourself and we will obey; but
do not let God speak to us, or was shall dies’ (20:16). Moses becomes
God’s mediator to the Israelite people, indeed the Servant of God.
God says to Moses: ‘I know you by name and you enjoy my favor’ (33:12).
Moses asks God: ‘Show me your glory’ (33:18). God responds: ‘I shall
make all My goodness pass before you, and before you I shall pronounce
the name of the Lord [the Tetragrammaton]. I am gracious before whom I
am gracious and I take pity on those whom I take pity’ (33:19). The
people will receive God’s grace as a result of God knowing Moses’ name.
This is symbolized for Moses by then hearing God pronounce his own
name, ‘Lord”. Just as God knows his name, Moses now knows God’s name
(33:22-23).
At the giving of this Covenant of Sinai, Moses proclaims: ‘Lord, Lord,
You are long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth’ and ends
with ‘[I will] visit the iniquities on their sins’ (34:6). This
covenant has two parts; mercy and punishment, obligations and
responsibilities. These are based on the issues of God’s name and God’s
knowledge of Moses’ name. This is a universal covenant between the
people of the world, the people of Israel and God, the Creator of the
world. The Israelites were to be a kingdom of priests, to follow more
strict behavioral laws as a symbol of the universal laws – the Ten
Commandments. As Moses says toward the end of his life: ‘I set before
you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life (Deut.
30:19).
The people fail as God had predicted to Moses they would (Deut. 31:16).
They request a secular king similar t all other kings. While God Saul's
monarchy as a secular monarchy. He realizes that universal laws
not mediated by nationalism had failed. Thus, He gives David a
nationalistic monarchy, but mediated by David’s being God’s vassal.
This is the compromise that is the covenant given to David by God.
Solomon builds not a house for God to dwell in, but a Temple for
the name of the Lord (1 Kg. 5:17). This Temple has a universalist
message, as Solomon says in his prayer of dedication.
‘Even the stranger; not belonging to Your people Israel, but coming
from a distant country, attracted by your name – for they to will hear
your name. . . . listen from heaven where You reside, and gant all that
the foreigner asks of You, so that all the peoples of the earth may
acknowledge Your name . . . and know that this Temple, which I have
built, bears your name’ (8:41-43).
The Davidic covenant, however, is nationalistic and ends with ‘Ishall
be to him [Solomon] a father and he shall be to Me a son . . . If he
sins I shall chasten him, but My mercy shall not depart from him, . .
. And your dynasty and your sovereignty will stand forever’ (II
Sam. 14:16). It appears to have no conditions or requirements. No
matter what Israel did, God would protect it. The Temple built by
David’s son became the symbol of the father’s national Judaism.
There is a potential conflict between these two covenants; that given
to Moses on Mt. Sinai and that given to David on mt. Zion. The
Zion covenant appears unconditional: ‘Your dynast and your sovereignty
will stand firm before Me and your throne be forever secure’ (7:16).
When Solomon built the Temple, the Israelites believed that it would
last forever and was God’s guarantee of David’s dynasty. This created a
theology of optimism.
That this was a false theology is shown by Isaiah, Ezekiel and most
especially by Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s tortured life was based on his
recognition of the covenant of Sinai, while the people believed in the
covenant of Zion. God informs him to tell the people and the priests at
the gates of the Temple of the greater importance of universal ethics.
“Do not put your faith in delusive words such as ‘This is God’s
sanctuary,
God’s sanctuary, God’s sanctuary’. If you treat one another fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods, to your own ruin, then I shall let you stay in this place, that I gave for ever to your ancestors of old’ (Jer. 7:4-5).
Making the sacrifices is not sufficient to satisfy the God of Moses.
When God says ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ (Lev. 19:2), the laws of
sacrifice and the following statements surround this section. ‘You will
not exploit or rob your fellow . . . You will love your neighbor
as yourself (Lev. 19:13, 18). The people of Jeremiah’s day chose to
adopt the sacrifice ritual and neglect Moses’ law of ethical behavior
toward their fellow man. The God of Jeremiah, like the God of Moses,
makes clear that His covenant was conditional. But the people did not
believe Jeremiah, preferring the more optimistic covenant of David. But
the Temple was destroyed and Zedekiah was the last of the Davidic
dynasty to rule.
Medieval Jewish commentators continued this argument. Rashi said that
to be holy meant doing the sacrifices. Nachmanides said that was not
sufficient, the ethical rule of ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ was
what made the people holy.
1 Galander, S., David and His God, (Jerusalem, Simor, Ltd., 1991) pg.
76.