Today’s Scripture Reading (August 21,
2013): 1 Chronicles 8
Maybe one of
the strangest elections in the United States history was the election of George
W. Bush to the position of President of the United States. It just does not
happen often - or ever – that a son is elected to the same office that was once
held by the father. (In Canada there is
a similar event possibly on the horizon with the presence of Justin Trudeau –
the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau – on the next ballot
for Prime Minister of the country. And I think that there are possibly two
reasons for this. Maybe the most important factor is that the kids have watched
first hand their fathers (or mothers) run the nation. And after watching the
toll it took on them, why would they want to become leaders like their parents
(just look at the picture of an incoming president and compare it with one
taken as they are leaving office – there seems to be more aging through their
term than can be explained by the number of years that they have spent in
office.) And most of our kids are smart and they see that one fact and simply
are not sure why they would want to be president (I am not sure what that might
say about George W. or Justin.) But on the other side, being in a position of
power means that we build up enemies – and that often prohibits our children from
coming into power.
In the past,
and really in our not too distant history, it was not just political enemies
that would prohibit an election of a child. Often the family was murdered to
stop them from taking political office. Less than 100 years ago Tsar Nicholas
II of Russia and his entire family were executed for no other crime than being
the ones with best claim to the Russian throne. And today all you need to
remember the story of those final days in Russia is a single name. Maybe it is
Nicholas II, or maybe it is simply the name of Anastasia, Nicholas’ youngest
daughter. But simply their name brings back the entire story. With a single
name we remember both the Tsar and his executed family – and the firing squad
that took their lives in the basement of a house.
For Israel,
they would have remembered a story simply with the names of Jonathan and his
son Merib-Baal. Jonathan was King David’s childhood friend – and was himself a
prince. He was the son of Saul and rightful heir of the throne of Israel. Both King
Saul and his son were killed in battle on the same day. It was the day that
David would continue his long prophesied rise to power as King of Israel. And
in this case, it was the enemies of Israel that did the job of removing those
closest in line with the throne. But after David had ascended to power, he
conducted a search for someone from the house of Saul and specifically from the
house of Jonathan. In this day and age it would not have been unheard of for
the new king to search for the ones that might have a claim on the throne so
that they might be executed. In this way the crown would be made secure for the
one that now wore it. But that was not David’s purpose. He wanted to simply
show kindness to the family of his dead friend.
And so
Merib-Baal was found (we know him better by the name Mephibosheth.) Now, Merib-Baal
was crippled. The story that is told is that on the day that his nurse heard of
the death of his father Jonathan, she dropped the child forever leaving him
crippled. It might have been thought that this act was a kindness – after all,
a lame prince would be no threat to the throne. But for David, Merib-Baal was a
chance for David to honor his friend. And kindness was shown to the house of
Jonathan by a great King so that rather than the memory of the house of Saul
being erased from the annals of Israel, as the captives returned home to Israel
they can trace the descendants of the house of Saul through days of the reigns
of the kings of Judah.
Today’s Scripture Reading: 1
Chronicles 9
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