Fourth Sunday of Advent in year B

 David’s kingship will always subsist before the Lord

Nathan the prophet came to King David’s house

# Nathan, which means « Yahweh has given », is, according to the Bible, one of the principal prophets in the court of King David. When David sent Uriah the Hittite to war in order to seduce his wife Bathsheba, Nathan came to remind him of his duties, also telling him that as punishment, it was not David’s eldest son who would inherit the throne, but the fruit of the seed that David planted in Bathsheba, after the battles that decimated the royal family. He told him of the internal wars that took place in the royal family for his succession. During these wars, he supported Yedidiah son of David and Bathsheba who, after his accession to the throne, took the name of Solomon. His actions were described in the Second Book of Samuel (mainly 2 Samuel 7:2-17 and 12:1-25), the First Book of Kings, the Chronicles and in the Talmudic treatise Horaioth. Later, Nathan continued to advise David, warning him on his deathbed of Adonijah’s intrigues against Solomon, which precipitated his coronation. Nathan also played a role in the music of the First Temple in Jerusalem. A lost book called the Book of Nathan the Prophet is mentioned in the Bible.

From Samuel’s second book

King David finally lived in his house. The Lord had granted him peace by freeing him from all the enemies around him. The king said to the prophet Nathan : « Look ! I live in a house of cedar, and the ark of God lives under a canvas shelter !  Nathan said to the king :  « Whatever you want to do, do it, for the Lord is with you. »

But the word of the Lord came to Nathan that nigh : « Go and say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord, Will you build me a house for me to dwell in ? I have taken thee from the pasture behind the flock, that thou mayest be the leader of my people Israel. I have been with thee wherever thou hast gone; I have slain all thine enemies before thee. I have made your name as great as the greatest of the earth.

And I will set my people Israel in this place, and I will plant them there, and they shall dwell there, and they shall not tremble any more, neither shall the wicked come again to afflict them, as they have done in the past, since the day that I appointed judges to lead my people Israel.

Yes, I have given you peace by delivering you from all your enemies. The Lord says to you that he himself will make a house for you. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up a successor for you in your descendants, who will be born from you, and I will make his kingdom stable. And I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Thy house and thy kingdom shall stand before me for ever, and thy throne shall be established for ever.  » (2 Samuel 7, 1-5.8b-12.14a.16).

# David was the third king of the united monarchy of Israel and Judah, becoming king after Ish-bosheth. In the books of Samuel, David is a young shepherd who gained fame as a musician and later by killing the enemy champion Goliath. He became a favourite of King Saul and a close friend of Saul’s son Jonathan. Worried that David would try to take his throne, Saul turned against David. After Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle, David was anointed king. David took Jerusalem, took the Ark of the Covenant into the city and established the kingdom founded by Saul. As king, David committed adultery with Bathsheba, which led him to organise the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite. David’s son Absalom plotted to overthrow David. David left Jerusalem during Absalom’s rebellion, but after Absalom’s death he returned to the city to rule Israel. Before his death he chose his son Solomon as his successor. He is honoured in prophetic literature as an ideal king and the ancestor of a future Messiah, and many psalms are attributed to him. It was thought that there was no evidence outside the Bible about David, but the Tel Dan stele, erected by a king of Damascus at the end of the 9th century BC, commemorates his victory over two enemy kings

Promise of an eternal reign made to the house of David

David’s desire to build a temple to the Lord, in place of the old sanctuary that fell into disuse and the temporary tent he erected in Jerusalem, was naturally linked to the new situation created by the establishment of his residence and the transport of the ark to that city. It was this desire, expressed to the Prophet Nathan, that provoked one of the most important scenes in his life.

It can be said that all the messianic promises pronounced later by the prophets are based on the divine message addressed to David on this occasion by the prophet. The family of David was installed by the Lord as the irrevocable depositary of the messianic kingship through which the promise made to Abraham was to be fulfilled : « All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in your seed. »

At the same time the series of ancient messianic promises came to an end. Within the family of Noah was chosen the offspring of Shem, within it the family of Abraham, within it the family of Isaac, then the family of Jacob ; in the middle of it the tribe of Judah was put in the first rank, and now, within the tribe of Judah, was designated, as elected forever, the family of David.

In the midst of this the tribe of Judah was set forth first, and now within the tribe of Judah the family of David was designated as the chosen for ever. A prophet himself may have been mistaken when he spoke before he heard : « I can do nothing of myself: as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me. « (Jn 5, 30).

God was the one who warned him in every way and freely blessed him in the marvellous elevation he granted him until that moment, and it was freely that he added the last benefit he reserved for him and announced to him through Nathan’s mouth. The promise related above all to the elevation of the son to his father’s throne; but even in the person of Solomon was understood his entire descent.

« I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me ; and if he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod of men and with the wounds of a son of man. »  If this seed of David, starting from Solomon himself, became unfaithful, they will be punished, but not cut off altogether, as Saul and his family were. The relationship of father and son included not only protection, but also education, and therefore punishment. Man cannot go so far as to suppress a family from its head, as was the failure of Saul with the family of Ahimelech or that of Athalia with that of Joram.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other christian websites

◊ Father Hanly : click here to read the paper → Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent, Year B

◊ Lutherans Restoring Creation  : click here to read the paper → Fourth Sunday of Advent (Dec. 20) in Year B

Lutheran Church : « Fourth Sunday of Advent »