Review: Exalting Christ in 1 and 2 Samuel

“And the king said to the guard who stood about him, ‘Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.’ But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. 18 Then the king said to Doeg, ‘You turn and strike the priests.’ And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. 19 And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword. 20 But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David” (1 Samuel 22:17-20).

How could this be in the Bible?

How could something this awful happen?

How could God permit it?

What are we supposed to learn from that?

How could Saul—whom God did choose as king, after all—do that???

1 and 2 Samuel—a book with questions. A book in a historical context far different from ours. What does it have to do with us? King David, a good example, someone we want to be like but often feel like we’ll never measure up. He was the great-great-something of Jesus, right? A king, right? Chosen. Anointed. And the rest of the book? King Saul, evil spirits, battle deaths, no-honey oaths, usurpation of the thrones, a royal history of a land we can’t quite picture…

But the authors of Exalting Jesus in 1 and 2 Samuel (Thomas & Greear) make a stunning claim:

“First and Second Samuel expose for careful readers the horrors and hope of the real world” (7).

Really? And this story? Is Jesus exalted here in the story of Saul, Doeg, Abiathar, and blood? Does this touch our lives at all? To draw out and elaborate on some of the points made by Thomas and Greear:

 

Jesus is exalted by need—Saul, a man who rejected God and shows the horror of a heart bent on its own pride. We see the horror of sin in our own lives as we strike with the tongue. We see the horror of sin in the news. The extreme depths of the horror of sin call for the extreme sacrifice of Christ. May my heart break at my own sin, cry out for the sin in the world!

Jesus is exalted by contrast—Saul, the king. The king who was supposed to reign in a way that mirrored God (Ps. 72), that brought God’s justice and flourishing life. Instead, Saul reigned for himself and reigned with blood. Saul shows how no earthly king will be the true King we need. In our world of chaos—personal financial, relationship strife, hurricanes, wars, when we feel tossed like pawns in forces greater than ourselves, we need a king. Saul failed as a king—and serves as a foil for Jesus, our true King. Instead of shedding blood, Jesus’ blood was shed. Instead of exerting power, Jesus served. Instead of perpetrating injustice, Jesus was the victim of injustice so that justice would ultimately come. Instead of killing the innocent, Jesus died for the rebellious guilty. Jesus, I praise you for you are greater!

Jesus is exalted by foreshadowing—one priest was saved. And he ran to the anointed one, David. Anointed one—Hebrew meshaich. Transliterated into English as Messiah. A title we give to Jesus. David, the one whose throne was promised to last forever. Yet, we see David’s failure. But David pointed to Jesus who never failed. And Abiathar ran to the Messiah, the Anointed One. He points us—where do we run to? Our Messiah. Our Savior. Our King. My dear Lord!!! May I run to you in the dark horrors of this world, run to you alone!

I have spent hours today in prayer for a friend, in grief at others hardness of heart and sin. I am weak with pain and suffering. The newspaper has the grave weight of a mountain and the force of a bomb on the soul. Lives are ripped. Tornadoes—literal and relational—tear through our world. You walk with your own burdens and joys. But we do not wring our hands in despair. We do not fight, freeze, or flee. We do not despair. We do not grit our teeth and hope for the best. We run to our King and we trust. The pain in this world—see Jesus as greater. The hope we see in this world—a foreshadow of the greater hope King Jesus will bring. He is our Messiah, Savior, True King. We trust.

In a pair of Bible books of questions, books that can seem distant, Thomas and Greear do an excellent, gospel-centered, Christ-exalting way of bringing this book to our lives. For my full review, see here.