Joshua 1:6-9 – Moses to Joshua
“Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
1 Kings 2:2-4 – David to Solomon
“Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the LORD may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'”
Matthew 3:16-17, 4:1-2 – The Father to the Son
“When Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights.”
Thoughts… Many commenters on 1 Kings 2 have expressed revulsion at the way this chapter takes shape. They insist King David is the quintessential hypocrite, beginning as he does with the high and mighty language of Moses from Deuteronomy and the opening of the book of Joshua: (1 Ki. 2:3-4 – note the sevenfold repetition.) “Keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the LORD may establish his word that he spoke concerning me…” But then David reveals himself ruthless and petty in demanding that the crown prince Solomon make sure the king's own personal enemies get dead. The last three-quarters of the chapter, with the lone exception of the kindness to the sons of Barzillai, records the bloody purge to secure the throne for Solomon. From this perspective (which we call a hermeneutic of suspicion), the episode becomes an operation of crass political machinations.
However, believing as I do, that this is an infallible, inspired revelation of God, and that there is no possibility of stray, incidental words inked in Holy Writ, I think it is incumbent upon the reader/expositor to consider the literary clues and imagery that bring the bigger picture into focus— that which theologians refer to as intertextuality. Intertextuality is defined as “the idea that a given text is a response to what has already been written, be it explicit or implicit;” or even better, “a reference to another separate and distinct text within a text.”
In the case of 1 Kings 2, David, far from feigning pious, is intentionally (I believe), referring to the words Moses gave to Joshua just before the generation raised in the wilderness crossed Jordan into the Promised Land. Joshua’s mission was to keep the disparate tribes together to fulfill the Abrahamic promise of Land (Gen.12), and it was an epic effort, but in the end, falling short. King David himself too, was unable to complete this call even as he had done much to unite the twelve rascally tribes of Israel into a cohesive nation within the Land flowing with milk and honey. Now, here at the outset of chapter two, he must exhort his designated successor, Solomon, to finish the job (cf. 2:5-9).
There are (so to speak) “Canaanites” remaining in the Land. There will be no kingdom unless Solomon wisely discerns and dispatches with these human obstacles to peace. Adonijah (2:13-25) is the first to meet this king’s determination to fulfill his father’s request. Adonijah’s request to marry the beautiful Abishag demonstrates that this wayward son of David still entertained thoughts of usurping the throne. To “uncover” the king’s nakedness by sleeping with one of his wives (or concubines, in this instance) is a raw political statement that he, Adonijah, is now the alpha dog! Solomon sees through this ploy and executes his unworthy half-brother, removing any further family challenges to the throne.
The high priest Abiathar (2:26-27) is given a little more grace. His exile comes as the price of taking part in Adonijah’s rebellion. Of more significance, his exile fulfills a prophetic curse placed on the house of Eli (cf.1 Sam. 2:27-33). Abiathar was the last remaining member of that clan. This judgment also signals that the era of the wilderness Tabernacle is over. Zadok will be the new high priest of the upcoming permanent Jerusalem Temple that Solomon will build.
Enter Joab here: With all that's breaking around him, he knows that he’ll soon be dancing to the beat of bullets in the dirt (2:28-34). This mighty general was just too volatile and violent to keep around. There would be no peace and stability until Joab was out of the way. David says that he will deserve what he gets! Benaiah, the soon-to-be commander of the army, deplumes the old commander’s knuckles from the altar to introduce him to the executioner’s sword. Joab’s bloodlust and bloodguilt is now expunged from the Land.
And so, last but not least, there was Shimei (2:36-46). I used to read this as an unfortunate turn of fate for this unlucky old guy. He let out of his mouth that which he could not retrieve, exceeding the bounds of royal propriety. But there is obviously more to this dust-up than a temperamental verbal miscue. Shimei, from the tribe of Benjamin, was a direct a relative of King Saul. Shimei’s presence in the kingdom would always be a not-so-subtle reminder of that other royal family that David replaced. Implicitly, this could be a threat to Solomon’s throne with this family still lurking in the background. In an intriguing twist, Shimei breaks his house arrest and pursues two of his runaway servants who have fled to Achish, King of Gath. This is the same place and king that David fled to years earlier, trying to get away from the murderous, pursuing King Saul. There is some poetic irony here that Saul’s relative is chasing his own servants to Gath!
This mission to give rest to the Promised Land is bracketed with these two verses at the beginning and the end of the story: (2:12) “So Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.” And (2:46) “So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.”
In 1 Kings 6, when Solomon finally completes work on the Temple, the narrator suggests that the Exile of God’s People has finally ended! (6:1-2) “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD. The house that King Solomon built for the LORD” was completed, and so too with it, rest has come to the Land.
Of course, in hindsight, it did not end well for King Solomon, or his sons who followed him on the throne. They stewarded the slouch towards Babylon. The curse of Exile came once again. Jerusalem and the Temple together burned in 586 BC.
This is how the opening to the opening of the Gospel of Matthew brings the appropriate conclusion to the mission that originated once again at River Jordan (Mt. 3:16-17, 4:1-2). Truly a New Testament! And talk about intertextuality, this episode is loaded: When Jesus goes to the Jordan to be baptized (read: coronated) by John, he is bringing God’s enlarged People across and into a new Gospel Promised Land, definitively. As his first “executive order,” Jesus goes into the wilderness of Jericho, where he is tempted by the devil for forty days (referencing the forty years in the wilderness wanderings). Our Lord Jesus conquers temptation, and subsequently hearts. He brings about a lasting and just peace that Moses, Joshua, and Solomon had been unable to secure.
Seen from this perspective, 1 Kings 2 serves as a prelude to the Gospel. In the words of the preacher in Hebrews 12:1-3: Therefore, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”
Art: “Joshua Passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant” by Benjamin West (1800)
