The
Lion’s Roar
|
And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried
with a loud voice and spoke to Saul, saying, why have you deceived me?
For you are Saul. And the king said to her, be not afraid: what did you
see? And the woman said, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
|
1
Sam. 28:12-13
|

The Book of Kings tells us of a time when
people got
fed up with their elders’ habit to pass on clout and influence only to
club
members.
“It came to pass, when Samuel was old,
that he
made his sons judges over Israel. And his sons walked not in his ways,
but
turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted the law. So
all the
elders of Israel gathered and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said to
him,
behold, you are old, and your sons walk not in your ways: now make us a
king to
judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when
they said,
give us a king to judge us”
(1
Sam. 8:1-6).
Samuel reluctantly yielded
and anointed Saul as the
people’s prince, but the puppet began developing a mind of his own.
Saul was no
pushover.
The historic King Saul can
perhaps be identified
with the Habiru chief Labayu in the Amarna tablets, if we follow David
M.
Rohl's controversial redating. Labayu, too, not unlike King Saul in the
story,
found himself caught in the middle of antagonisms from his own camp and
in a
dispatch to the Pharaoh Akhenaten implored his overlord for assistance.
The Bible speaks of Saul as a charismatic
leader who
was a bit of a shaman himself (1 Sam.
19:24). He is the anointed,
the Messiah.
But the old establishment, the council of
the elders,
had a dim view of all of this. So Samuel, their spokesman, resorted to
using
the oracle of his shrine at Shiloh to scare the wits out of the brave
but
superstitious prince (1. Sam. 9:9;
14:35-46, 15:11, 23). Then he
approached
in secret (1 Sam. 16:2-4) what seemed an inexperienced but willing
young man,
carefully chosen for his looks (1 Sam.
16:12).
But this David had ideas of his own.
The conniving Samuel must have been a
particularly
poor judge of character. Under his approving eye the young man was
introduced
to Saul as a harp player (1 Sam. 16:23) and David soon rose to the office of the
king's
armor bearer.
The king's oldest son Jonathan immediately
fell under
the spell of David's handsome looks and stripped himself naked the very
first
time he laid eyes on David (1 Sam.
18:4). Thus the infatuated
prince became
the unwitting accessory to Samuel and David's conspiracy against King
Saul.
David was a shrewd propagandist of his own
fame (1 Sam. 17, 18:7) and his courageous exploits began to
command a
following in Saul’s army. Yet the plot was discovered and David had to
run for
dear life. He survived leading a band of malcontents and mercenaries (1 Sam. 25:10 27:5) and appears even on the Philistines' -
the
archenemy’s - payroll (1 Sam. 27:1-7). In his later years David himself will
rule from the
shoulders of mercenaries of whom some held the highest ranks in his
army (2 Sam. 11:3 etc.). So, betrayed by their allies and in the
throes of
deep personal distress, King Saul and his son are destined to encounter
an
overwhelming force against hopeless odds.
It is at this critical juncture that the
narrator
suddenly feels the urge to mention that David took no part in the final
showdown. Not a likely scenario if indeed the Philistines had their
suspicions (1
Sam. 29:3-7). With their main forces engaged, they
should rather
keep an eye on this treacherous ally (1 Sam. 27:11). Meanwhile King Saul,
who in his heydays is depicted as prosecuting sorcery and witchcraft,
is
himself seeking help from a sorceress.
Her prophesy confirms his doom, she has no
comfort to
offer; only a meal. So King Saul, sore in his soul but unflinching,
rises from
her couch and goes into the long night (1 Sam. 28), a true aristocrat all the
way. The Good Book doesn’t approve of aristocrats and tragedy.
Throughout the
book, David not excluded, the various kings are censored according to
their
observances of Yahweh’s cult, even those who never worshipped, or came
from an
era when this cult still didn’t exist (1 Sam. 8:7, 11-18). What seems to
annoy the rabbinical editor is the fact that an aristocrat lives by his
own
honor and chooses his own destiny. Saul is the only truly tragic
character in
the Bible.
The story goes on with the accession of
David, and we
see this serial philanderer and assassin consolidate his power with
ruthless
efficiency. David “brought forth the people and put them under saws
and
harrows of iron, and under axes, and made them pass through the
brick-kiln: and
thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon” (2 Sam.
12:31). Even when "the days
of
David drew nigh that he should die,”
the old mobster issued instructions to take care of unfinished business
(1
Kings 2). The prophet Nathan plotted against the
legitimate contender for
David’s throne and instead of Prince Adonijah the son of a concubine,
Solomon,
became David’s successor.
And the dying David “charged Solomon, saying, you know what Joab did to me, do
therefore according to
your wisdom, and let
not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace. And, you have with you
Shimei
the son of Gera, which cursed me with a grievous curse: hold him not
guiltless:
bring his hoar head down to the grave with blood. So David slept with
his
fathers, and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon."
©
- 12/28/2004 - by michael sympson,
1,000
words, all rights reserved