“1 When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. 2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, show yourself a man, 3 and observe what
the LORD your God requires: Walk in His ways, and keep His decrees and commands, His laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go, 4 and that the LORD may keep His promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
5 “Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. 6 Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace. 7 “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom. 8 “And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD: ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ 9 But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”
10 Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.”
‘I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, “where?” and I said, “to be with the Good Lord,” and you said, “why?” and I said, “because I’m old,” and you said, “I don’t think you’re old.” And you put your hand in my hand and you said, “you aren’t very old,” as if that settled it.’ That’s from a story of a dying, older father trying to make sense of death and life to his young son.
What do you say to try to make sense of death and life? It depends on the situation. In that story, that father is trying to help his young son prepare for the likelihood of poverty and the need to depend on the Lord. In the story we’ll consider tonight, a dying father is trying to help his son prepare to the throne. In this life, it seem that we are always preparing or being prepared for something beyond us and so we are. So it was for Solomon as David lie dying. David told his boy to keep God’s commands and to keep his eyes open; that’s wisdom for us in our station in life as well; wisdom is keeping God’s commands and keeping our eyes open; that’s the claim of this sermon on David’s farewell to his son.
We will study this in three points. First: David’s charge regarding commands. Second: David’s charge regarding politics. Third: the death of David. First, in verses 1-4, David’s charge regarding commands. Second, in verses 5-9, David’s charge regarding politics. Third, in verses 10-12, the death of David.
We see the call to keep God’s commands in our first point: David’s charge regarding commands. Last Sunday we witnessed Solomon crowned king. He became co-regent with David like a previous owner of a business staying to onboard the new man at the top. David is onboarding Solomon; that’s verse 1, “When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.”
Farewell reminders are common throughout Scripture—it begins with Israel himself instructing his sons from his deathbed; that’s the whole of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy; before he dies Joshua yet again urges the people to be strong and faithful; Paul gave farewell instructions to the Ephesian elders and to Timothy; Jesus did that and more with his disciples before his death and again before his ascension. A farewell reminder to remember what matters is central to Biblical ethics and so we practice something similar week-in and week-out as a church in this sanctuary when we open God’s word and so David reminded Solomon to remember what matters.
First, though, David told his son, “I am about to go the way of all the earth.” David was reminding his son that everyone dies. That’s statistically obvious but continually surprising because none of have done it yet. It’s always something new to you when it’s your turn and there is no way to be familiar with it until it your turn. There’s wisdom in accepting that and so Martin Luther translated Psalm 90, “teach us that we will die so we might gain a heart of wisdom.”
David wants Solomon to succeed after he’s gone. It’s obvious that Solomon already has enemies and now David won’t be there to help his son. “I am about to go the way of all the earth; so be strong, show yourself a man…” Solomon will need to be strong if he is going to stay king. He would need to show himself a man.
David is the archetype of a man. That’s why Michealangelo chose to sculpt him. David outmans the men held up in our culture. He’s tougher than John Wayne. He’s courageous. He’s passionate. He’s familiar with the privileges and pitfalls of power. If David were here, every single one of us would listen to what he says with rapt attention. So how did this man among men describe what it means to show yourself a man? “Observe what the Lord your God requires: walk in His ways, and keep His decrees and commands, His laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.”
Nothing was manlier in David’s mind than keeping the commands. David thought he would have been manlier to not commit adultery. David thought honoring his parents, which he did, was manlier than killing Goliath, which he also did. Nothing is manlier than a man keeping God’s commandments. Also, nothing is more womanly than a woman keeping God’s commandments; that’s Proverbs 31. None of this surprising because the commandments describe us living life as we were designed to live as men and women. This is why Jesus is the perfection of humanity. He is what humanity was meant to be—loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. Those are the virtues running in and through the commandments.
That’s the best advice you can give on living a wise life and David gives it his son. That’s a gift. It’s a gift that we get to study this on a night like this. There are always people hungry for real wisdom. That’s why Youtubers with quality content receive so many views. That’s why a surprising hit song of 1999 consisted of a man merely speaking, not singing, wisdom to the beat of a snare drum, “Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive; forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.” The fact that you just resonated with that wisdom is a sign of how the pumps of our minds are primed by encountering wisdom. We’d be foolish as a church to ever desire something less than that. Anything that denigrates or marginalizes the place of God’s wisdom in a church is a threat to wisdom as a whole and an obstacle to those who want wisdom. Our role is, like David, to pass on the wisdom God has given for others to live out as we’ve tried to live it out.
We live it out in our own circumstances. I don’t live it out in yours and you don’t live it out in mind and neither of us live it out in the life of the man to whom these words were first spoke: Solomon, and that’s our second point: David’s charge regarding politics.
Solomon was king. I’ve never a king. David has. That would be wise for us to keep in mind as we listen to David’s instructions here. Some of it will seem troubling and we will cover the ethics of it next week, but for now recognize that I’ve never been in the sort of trouble Solomon stepped into by becoming king. We need to be wise ourselves here because we humans can be remarkably arrogant in imposing ourselves upon others. We seem to think we’d know exactly how to successfully resist Stalin if we lived in Soviet Russia or that we’d know how to whip that neighbor child into shape if only we had a week with him. We also might read this and think we know better how handle tribal politics better than the man who had been doing it for nearly his whole life; let’s not do that. Let’s practice humility in this text as preparation for dealing with the people we will encounter tomorrow and the people in pews around us.
David’s first warning to his son regarding his shaky hold on the throne had to do with Joab. Joab had backed Adonijah’s claim on the throne and so he’s already a suspicious character but David doesn’t mention that. David focused on Joab killing two generals of Israel—Abner and Amasa. David had tried to make peace with both those generals to better unite the whole nation but Joab had killed them both in cold blood. Joab is an amoral man; morality had no bearing on his decisions. Joab is also a very smooth operator. Joab made David’s reign very difficult. That’s behind the words, “you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me.”
David isn’t seeking revenge here. He’s warning Solomon that Joab would prove even more difficult for him. Everyone saw David as more powerful than Joab, but that’s not the case regarding their views on Joab and Solomon. Joab was already manipulating Adonijah and he’ll be looking to manipulate Solomon. “He is not a man who will be content with Solomon’s kingship nor will he make the government of a united Israel easy,” as Provan puts it. Joab is an existential threat to Solomon’s throne and Solomon’s life. Joab is also David’s nephew, but David knows that family ties make no difference to Joab’s ambition. Joab must die. “Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.”
The wisdom David is calling for has to do with the way in which Solomon puts an end to Joab. Solomon will need sufficient provocation. Solomon will need to let Joab hang himself out to dry and David is quite sure that Joab will do so sooner rather than later.
Solomon has the opportunity to do what David never could. Joab was enmeshed within administrative David’s machinery like cancer too integrated to be removed. That’s not the case in this new chapter and here David is trying to set his son up as best he can to succeed. Joab isn’t a casualty in this process. David is trying to save his son from being Joab’s casualty. David is telling his son to keep God’s commands and to keep his eyes open. We are to learn the wisdom of living in a fallen world with fallen people. Let’s not assume we know Joab or the political realities of that day better than David.
In contrast to the trouble of Joab, David next tells Solomon, “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.” Barzillai helped David publicly and privately when Absolom made run at the throne. When David returned to power, he tried to reward Barzillai, but the man declined David’s generosity due to age. Now David urged Solomon to bless Barzillai ‘s family.
If you’ve read 1 and 2 Samuel, you know that David is remarkably generous, but this instruction isn’t simply generous; it is political. Barzillai’s family is in Gilead, a perennial anti-David territory. This is a bit like Republicans making friends in California or Democrats making allies in Texas. Ancient Israel was just as much the real world as 21stcentury America. “In his counsel to his son, David is aware that the throne does not exist in a political vacuum, but depends upon strategically placed, powerful allies among the landed,” as one author puts it.
Like Solomon, we are to learn to keep God’s commands and keep our eyes open to the realities of this world. There are people who are worthy honor. There are people who aren’t. The Bible doesn’t send us out naively any more than David did with his last words to Solomon. We are to be discerning and we are schooled in almost the opposite today.
You continue to see David’s political savvy with his instructions regarding Shimei. Barzillai lived in a pro-Saul, anti-David area, but Shimei was the embodiment of pro-Saul, anti-David rhetoric to the point of cursing David as David fled from Absolom with “that’s what you get.” David wants Solomon to make inroads with the other tribes but not slavishly to give into their demands and so he urges Solomon to deal with Shimei.
David knows that his dynasty is part of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise and that to curse the Davidic king is to be cursed and the bless the Davidic king is to be blessed. Shimei cursed the Lord’s anointed and so he is cursed. Jesus is the perfection of that. If you bless him, you will be blessed. If you curse, Jesus you will be cursed. The Bible is giving us templates with which to interact with Jesus similar to how early life experiences give us templates by which to interact with life.
Shimei cursed the Davidic king. He cursed God’s chosen. He cursed God’s choice. When David returned to the throne, Shimei came back and unconvincingly apologizing. David promised not to execute him, but “now,” David warns Solomon, “do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”
Solomon is not to give Shimei a free pass. He’s to be wary of the man. There are people in this life of whom we are to be wary. Jesus practiced that; regarding the Jews who were pro-him early in his ministry we read, “Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.” Believing others to be good doesn’t make them good. Believing Shimei to be good wouldn’t make him good. That’s naivety. David is urging wisdom. Keep the commandments. Keep your eyes open.
It’s worth noting that David didn’t mention the person who will make a play for the throne next week—Adonijah. David’s missteps with his children are well chronicled but the reasons are, as always, complicated. He loved Absolom even though the boy tried to kill him. He loved Adonijah even though he failed to love him by discipling him when he was younger. David won’t bring himself to warn Solomon about him, but as we will see next week and as David likely knew, Solomon would now exactly what to do with Adonijah. Family is messy too. Keep the commands there too. Keep your eyes open there too.
That’s the end of David’s advice and now we come to the end of David’s life in our final point: the death of David. In the Old Testament, David is second to only Moses. That makes the brevity of with which his death is recalled all the more striking; “Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.” There’s only one death in all of Scripture that is detailed in great specifics at length, and that’s instructive. That death is the death of Jesus. That’s because that death has everything to do with us who believe this message. David’s death leaves Solomon king, but Jesus’ death leaves us saved.
The record of David’s death, though, reminds us of his importance by way of his resting place, “Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.” God had established a kingdom through David and the capitol of it is now called the city of David. That kingdom, David’s last words regarding commandment keeping and the kingdom’s flourishing is an apt summary of the life of this remarkable leader.
That’s how the Bible leaves David—he’s a man and not a perfect one. “This is one of the notable features of biblical writing: the hero is not to be glorified because the hero is not ultimate,” as Oswalt reminds us. The Bible is quite focused on the flaws of its heroes, but not because it wants us so focused on these flaws. We must remember that and not limit David to his adultery, Peter to his betrayal, Paul to his persecution, because to do so is to limit ourselves to our sins as well. The reason the Bible is so focused on these flaws is to prepare us for the king who is not flawed. Everyone else in the Bible is a contrast by which we come to recognize Jesus. Everyone else, us included, functions as the Baptist’s words, “He must become greater; I must become less.” It’s self-justifying to condemn David. It’s God-glorifying to exalt Jesus. On whom do you put your focus when it comes to people? Choose wisely. That’s forming you.
That’s the wisdom you are to live out in this life—you are to become lesser; Jesus is to become greater. That’s the sort of wisdom you would want to share from your own deathbed with those will remain and so that’s the sort of wisdom you and I would do well to live out in this life as we keep God’s commands and keep our eyes open. Amen.