Bible reading: 2 Kings 5:4-5 and commentary

David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

In Hebron he reigned over Juda seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned three and thirty years over all Israel and Juda.

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I selected this Bible passage for three reasons. One is that I rarely tired of speaking about David, and teaching about his unswerving belief and piety. Isn't it interesting that one of the greatest men who ever lived leaves behind no great buildings to be archaeologically dug, no great works of art in the museums, and no "legacy" material that is political, but only of God and his love for God.

The second reason is that this is an easy passage to view once again that the Bible is a historical document in addition to a faith document. Here you see that not satisfied with just generalities about his age and reign, records are kept of his specific times of rule, in both years and months. Anyone who calls the Bible mythology in any way shape or form has clearly never read it with an open mind and good intention.

The third reason is to point out that David was anointed King at virtually the same age as Jesus emerged to start his public ministry. I and other scholars have had to remind people that the quiet of Jesus' time as a child and a young man was entirely consistent with the cultural and religious belief of those times that no youth had anything worthwhile to say in public until he was a man of thirty years. Thus St. John the Baptist also started his public preaching at around that age too. So I wish to point out that here is a very clear example of the age of King David being recorded, reflecting not only the cultural mores but God's will, since God was the one who revealed the existence and chosen status of David at that stage in his life, receiving the word personally from God. By the way, this concept of thirty years old being the threshold to wisdom and public life responsibility carries through in the laws of the USA, where the President must be at least thirty years of age!

2 Kings 2:1, 4

And after those things David consulted the Lord, saying: Shall I go up into one of the cities of Juda? And the Lord said to him: Go up. And David said: Whither shall I go up? And he answered him: Into Hebron.

And the men of Juda came, and anointed David there, to be king over the house of Juda.

I mentioned in a previous blog post, providing part of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that my favorite title for her in that section of the litany is "Tower of David." Here is the reason why. Jesus is directly descended from David through both Mary and her spouse Joseph. Joseph being the Blessed Virgin Mary's chaste spouse was Jesus' stepfather, but the lineage is still very significant and prophetic. Since the father's lineage was the one that was most carefully recorded, St. Matthew in his Gospel opens with the precious material of the genealogy of Jesus through his father, St. Joseph, since he was of course considered in every way Jesus' father and Jesus had all the rights of his lineage. (St. Matthew 1:1-17.)

However, Mary being the virginal biological mother of Jesus, and having the direct lineage back to King David (who was one of the great prophets of the coming of the Messiah), bore the fruit of Jesus on the tree of King David. To give birth to the Messiah is, to me, the building of the great Tower of David, the legacy for all of humankind. So as I mentioned, archaeologists and "historians" scowl because they cannot find monuments inscribed "King David was here." But just as the prophets had prophesied, the eternal monument of Jesus, the gift, the legacy of the tree of King David, can well be described as Mary being, for having conceived the Messiah, the Tower of David.