OLD TESTAMENT

– A narrative on 1 Chronicles 11,12

BY COMPARING the way people in different ages use the same word, we can trace changes in culture. In 1000 BC, heroes are brave warriors who risk their lives to secure David’s kingship. Less than 300 years later, the same society’s heroes were those who could hold their drink (Isaiah 5:22).

The twentieth century saw the same process compressed into less time when wartime heroes such as the RAF airman and physically legless Douglas Bader gave way to sports and screen anti-heroes who became emotionally legless devotees of wine, women, and narcotics.

In our more passive and indulgent age, we may have difficulty in identifying with the battle heroes of Chronicles. Today’s role models may be the unsung heroes of the emergency services, or an intrepid conservationist.

To appreciate Chronicles in the Old Testament we must enter the mindset of a different era. David was the Lord’s anointed, and he (and the Lord) were worth dying for. These are the heroes who inspired Jewish readers in different walks of life. They lifted spirits and gave vision. The author may want to show that people from all the Israelite tribes were loyal to David and prepared to die for him. This would have been important in later years as people looked back over the tragic story of the divided kingdom. In fact, he plays down the role of Judah and Benjamin, which later formed the nation of Judah and took on the story of God’s people.

David’s apparently disdainful waste of the water brought to him at great risk by ‘The Three’ was actually an act of worship and thanksgiving. (Water was poured out ‘before the Lord’ in several rituals). David, at this stage, was giving God all the glory and regarded anything done for himself as an act of service to the God who had chosen him.