Alastair's Adversaria - David's Lamb

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

The following was first published on my Substack: https://argosy.substack.com/i/116018131/davids-lamb. Follow my Substack, the Anchored Argosy at https://argosy.substack.com/. See my latest podcasts at https://adversariapodcast.com/. If you have enjoyed my videos and podcasts, please tell your friends. If you are interested in supporting my videos and podcasts and my research more generally, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or by buying books for my research on Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/3…3O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035.

The following reflection is entitled David's Lamb. A version of it was first published on the Anchored Argosy. There are realisations that can represent huge breakthroughs in our study of a particular part of scripture. One such breakthrough for my reading of First Samuel was recognising the Jacobs saga being replayed throughout it. Once you really see it, it is nearly impossible to unsee. Saul, David, Jonathan, Michael, Nable and Abigail are always. all examples of figures who play shifting parts in this, corresponding to characters like Jacob, Esau, Laban, Isaac, Rebecca and Rachel. The result is a dense and rich intertextual

framework for reading the David's story. Part of the effectiveness of the framework is that there isn't any one-to-one correlation. The characters in the David's saga almost all relate to more than one character in the Jacob's saga and never exactly to any single one. The same is true of the characters in the Jacob saga, almost all of whom relate to two or more characters in the David saga. This isn't a regurgitation of an old story with different names attached then, but a multifaceted development and exploration of motifs. The person who reads First Samuel carefully alert to this intertextuality

will also reread Genesis differently, seeing things within it that they might not have seen before. It might, for instance, unsettling. a simplistic identification of Esau as straightforwardly the bad guy. David has characteristics of both Esau and Jacob, while typically strongly associated with Jacob, both Esau and David stand out in being described as red or ruddy. In chapter 25, we also see David coming with 400 men for vengeance, yet pacified by waves of gifts. Indeed, recognising First Samuel's portrayal of David as a sort of combination of the warring twins might even suggest a quasi-youngian reading of 1st Samuel,

with David needing to incorporate Esau as Jacob's shadow, yet without falling prey to Esau's sins. Saul also relates to multiple characters. At points he is like Laban, for instance, in mixing up his daughters in a promised marriage. At others he is like Isaac, in blindness recognising David's voice, is this your voice, my son David? chapter 24 verse 16 and 26 verse 17 both of these seem to allude to jensis chapter 27 verse 22 and declaring that david will receive the blessing at others he is like esau lifting up his voice and weeping when he knows that he has lost the blessing chapter 24 verse 16 can look back at jensis 27 verse 38 jonathan also complicates our reading of esau by presenting us with a good version of esau Jonathan gives his garments to David so that David will receive the inheritance.

His greeting of David in 1 Samuel chapter 20 verse 41 recalls the meeting of Esau and Jacob in Genesis chapter 33 verses 3 to 4. Jonathan is Esau at his best, Esau as he should and could have been. This is only scratching the surface of the intertextual relations between these stories. We could also get into supporting characters like Nabel and his relationship. to Laban, notice that Nabil is Laban backwards in Hebrew as in English. Or Michael and how she recalls both Rebecca and Rachel, the use of goats hair and Teraphim in deception in 1st Samuel chapter 19 versus 11 to 17.

While most pronounced in 1st Samuel, some of these connections continue into 2nd Samuel, as I have discussed in the past. As Yoram Hazzoni argues, sophisticated exploration and contrasts of types is a manner by which scripture can advance elaborate philosophical positions in the medium of narrative. When we consider such intertextual thematic exploration and juxtaposition of types, much can open up, not least the manner in which scripture can engage in and provoke deep reflection through the, to us, unlikely medium of narrative. If the David's saga uses earlier scriptures as a framework for its narratives,

later scriptures do the same with the David saga. Besides, being, being a powerful and poignant story, not least as it can be seen as partly fallout of David's sin concerning Uriah and Bashiba, Second Samuel's account of Absalom's coup and his death is charged with suggestive details. David unwittingly cast judgment upon himself in his response to Nathan's parable concerning the poor man and his U-Lam. As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb forefold because he did this thing, and because he had no pity, chapter 12 versus 5 to 6. David will end up losing four sons, the unborn son of Bashiba, Amnon, Absalom, and Adnijer.

A series of ugly events are set in motion by Amnon's rape of his half-sister Tamar, Absalom's full sister, a horrific act that follows and amplifies the pattern set by David in sleeping with Bashiba, the wife of Yoriah. Absalom is connected with his sheep shearers and has his vengeance. upon Amnon at the time of sheep-shearing, chapter 13, verses 23 to 33. Absalom himself might remind us of a sacrificial sheep. He was a man without blemish, who cut his hair annually and weighed it, chapter 14, verses 25 and 26.

Absalom died after being caught by his head in a tree and pierced by the men of Joab, chapter 18, verses 9 to 15. The ram-like Absalom, caught in a tree by his head, might record, call the ram caught in the thicket by its horns in Genesis chapter 22, the ram that was the substitute for Isaac. Absalom, the son of David, ended up substituting for his father's sin, the ram that suffered the death that his fathers deserved. The evangelists recognized the thematic power of the story of Absalom and his coup and explored its themes in various ways. Ralph Allen Smith observes the way that the Gospels all developed the analogy between a

Hithafel's betrayal of King David in Absalom's coup with Judas's betrayal of Jesus. Ahithafel is the man referred to in Psalm 41 verse 9, quoted by Jesus in reference to Judas's betrayal in John chapter 13, verse 18. As Judas would later do, Ahithafel ended up hanging himself, 2 Samuel chapter 17 verse 23. Smith notes the way that John developed the association between King David's mournful departure from Jerusalem and Jesus' departure to the Mount of Olives, highlighting the importance of John's reference to Jesus' crossing of the Brook Kidron in John 18, verse 1, against the backdrop of 2 Samuel 15, 13, 23 and 30. And all the land wept aloud, as all the people passed by, and the king crossed

the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness. But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered, and all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went. Further connections can be drawn, much as Zeba, the servant of Mufibishath, ministered to David just past the summit of the Mount of Olives in his retreat from Jerusalem, 2 Samuel chapter 16 verses 1 to 4, an angel ministered to Jesus on his journey towards his arrest in the garden, Luke chapter 22, verse 43. David prevented his right-hand man Abashai from acting upon his desire to kill Shimiye when Shimiai came out against David near the Mount of Olives.

Judas prevented Peter from violence against those arresting him in a similar manner. Intertextuality invites us to look at familiar stories from new angles. John's Gospel in particular invites us to consider parallels between David's sorrowful departure from Jerusalem and Jesus'. It also highlights parallels between Ahithefel's betrayal and Judas' Matthew's Gospel, by presenting the deaths of Jesus and Judas on trees within the same chapter, invites us to relate and contrast the two, a juxtaposition heightened by recognition of parallels with the hanging of the false counsellor and of the Son of David in the Absalom narrative.

That recognition, coupled with consideration of the sacrificial themes we have already noted in the story of Absalom in Seconds, Samuel itself. Oh my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, would I had died instead of you? O Absalom, my son, my son, bring to the foreground an arresting association, that of Jesus and Absalom. Eric Robinson writes, Absalom represents Israel, to be sure. From the time of the divided kingdom, Absalom's life is a precursor of Israel's fate, and not just in his hatred for his brother, northern Israel, and in his rebellion against his father God, the great king, who eventually transitions into God incarnate in King Jesus. Even as Absalom Israel forces his father or king

from his earthly throne, through the Kidron and onto the Mount of Olives, he seamlessly transitions into the Christ figure himself, moving toward his own death pierced on a tree. Why? Because all Israel has taken up in Jesus. His death on the tree is for all of the tree is for all. of the true Israel of God. In him are all those who rebelled and sought to take control of his kingdom as their own. He bears all of us who spurned the lordship of the father and took what was rightfully his because of his great humility that allowed such a terrible transgression in light of even greater exoneration. Absalom is the rebellious son of David, who suffers the judgment due to his father. Note the contextual association between the law of the rebellious son.

son and the cursed state of the man hanging on the tree in Deuteronomy chapter 21 versus 18 to 23. In Jesus, the greater son of David takes upon himself the parts of the rejected King David and of the ram-like son who died for David's sins. If you'd like to read this and other reflections, you can do so on my substack, the anchored Argosy. It's free to sign up and we post there every two or three weeks. like to support my work here, there and elsewhere, you can do so using the Patreon or PayPal links below. God bless and thank you very much for listening.