Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were priests. – 2 Samuel 18:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 10, 2016): 2 Samuel 8

In my culture, we lie. I am not saying we intend to, but we do. The biggest lie that we tell we even have a name for; we call it “the American Dream.” The lie exists in the idea that anyone can become anything. We don’t understand the rigors of a caste system. We don’t believe in hereditary leadership, where the son rises to take the place of the father. We have no king; even if sometimes we really want one. By the way, that was precisely the role that Ronald Reagan fulfilled. For eight years he reigned as king with all of the ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ of the position, and deep down we loved him for it. 

But he wasn’t a king. He was an actor, but we treated him as king. But that kingship did not lead to a hereditary system where his family or appointed leaders would take over after him.

Which I know is essentially part of the American Dream. Anyone can be president, not just those born into the right family (although, admittedly, the right family helps.) Anyone can do anything if you are willing to put the work into it. But the truth is something different. There are some tasks that we are simply better suited for doing with excellence. What the American Dream really says is that you are limited by your own traits and characteristics and beliefs rather than by family history or the tribe, all of which are accidents of your birth. But we clearly are still limited. I wanted to be a Doctor or a Lawyer, but the reality is that those were never the areas of my abilities. I am limited by my own abilities.

This passage definitely says that David’s sons were the priests. But the problem that arises is twofold. First, the priests in Israel were restricted to the descendants of Levi. You had to be born into the right family. And that family was not David’s, he was a descendant of Judah. But maybe even more surprising is that that was essentially what had gone wrong with the carrying of the Ark in the first attempt to move it to Jerusalem. It should have been carried by the Levites rather than by the soldiers in David’s army. It seems strange that after that event David would dare to repeat the mistake. But even if that were not the case, what we know about David’s sons does not lead us to believe that they had the right temperament to be priests.

Yet the text clearly states priest. It might be that the likely solution is that they were made ministers in the government and given oversight over several areas of daily life in Israel. But it does not seem likely that they would have been allowed to be priests, as defined by the idea of being among those who ministered before God in the Temple in Jerusalem.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 60