Today’s Scripture Reading (December
18, 2012): 1 Samuel 22:1-2 & Psalm 57
As I write
this, we are at the one week mark before Christmas. Christmas carols have been
in playing in the stores for a few weeks now. I have heard all about the Happy
Holidays and Merry Christmas argument. (And if you wonder where I am on that
argument, I really don’t care. Yesterday as I was leaving my office someone
driving by yelled Happy Hanukkah. I really think that they saw me coming out of
a Christian Church and wanted to insult me – but that is not what they did. And,
if they were sincere, then I feel deeply honored. I really want people of the
Jewish faith to wish me Happy Hanukkah. I do not care what you call the season
– just please do not ignore it.)
David has
run to a cave. He has been forced away from his comforts and into a place where
he does not want to be. His enemies are gathering. I love the way that David
describes his enemies. This passage is filled with mixed metaphors. He is
describing animals, which may have actually been threatening him as he hid in
the cave, but his real concern was more about the animals that prowled on two
legs outside the cave. It was these animals that had teeth that were spears and
arrows ... and that is a great metaphor. But then David says something that
almost makes you shake your head. He says that these animals have a tongue like
a sword. I have to admit that I would never have thought of describing a tongue
like a sword. But I think what David might have been getting at was that his
enemies were speaking comforting words, but those words were only intended to
bring David away from his hiding place and into a place where their swords
could kill him.
Generations
later (twenty-eight if we accept Matthew`s number) a descendant of David would
be born in a different cave. He would be laid in a manger and surrounded by
animals, but like David it would be the two legged ones that would bother him.
And before he would celebrate his second birthday, he would know the danger of
these animals whose teeth were like spears and arrows. He would also be the
subject of conversation in the house of a king whose tongue was like a sword –
who wanted nothing more than to have some eastern astrologers to come and tell
him where the king was laid so that he could come and worship him (worship
would have contained a sword.)
For both
David and Jesus, that cave was a place of danger. But both had a purpose that
came from beyond themselves. And for me, this is Christmas. It is all about a
king, who was born into a cave and surrounded by animals with teeth that were
like spears and arrows and a tongue like a sword. It is him that I am hoping
that my words bring honor. It is him we need to remember!
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm
142
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