Genesis: Abraham, David and Israel

Abraham, David and Israel
    Although the LORD delivered the nation from Egypt and returned them to the land as promised, the expectations of an autonomous state governed by a royal dynasty remained unfulfilled. The promised seed had been depicted in royal terms: Abraham and Sarah would be the ancestors of ‘kings’ (17:6, 16; also Ishmael, 25:16 and Esau, 36:15–43). Abraham’s successful engagement against warring kings in his rescue of Lot (ch. 14) and his treaty with the Philistine king Abimelech (21:22–34; also Isaac, 26:1–33) showed the international status of Abraham as a powerful player in regional politics. Proleptically, Jacob spoke of Judah’s household as bearing ‘the sceptre’ for ever over his brothers and achieving victory over their enemies (49:8–12). Mosaic legislation built on this expectation by establishing the regulations whereby Israel’s king would govern (Deut. 17:14–20). The growing desire for such a ruler resulted in the premature offering of kingship to Gideon (Judg. 8:22–23) and the foolish submission of the Shechemites to the kingship of Gideon’s son, Abimelech (Judg. 9:1–57). Despite Samuel’s protestations, the people turned to a king to fight their battles (e.g. 1 Sam. 8:1–22; 10:17–19; 12:1–25), but Saul’s reign collapsed and the LORD, again out of grace, chose a deliverer, David, through whom he would rule his people (1 Sam. 16:7–13).

Israel’s patriarchs and kings (seed)
    The idea of an elect family through whom exclusively God would work is integral to Genesis both structurally and theologically. As noted above, Jacob’s blessing upon Judah (49:8–12) pointed to a future royal house springing from the patriarchs. With the rise of the Davidic monarchy, this early expectation became central to Israel’s theological reflection. David’s credentials as a descendant of Judah, as shown by his royal genealogy (Ruth 4:18–22; 1 Chr. 2:5–15), satisfied the Genesis prophecy. The linear form of the ten-name genealogy for David is the same as that of the two chief genealogies in Genesis, tracing the line from Adam to Abraham (5:1–32; 11:10–26). In creating a ruling house, the Davidic covenant (2 Sam. 7) interpreted the promises made to David as the fulfilment of the Abrahamic blessing. Similar forms and language underline the close relationship between the two covenants. Their form was that of the royal land grant in which a king bestowed a royal possession upon a loyal subject. This grant was a one-time gift which was perpetually possessed by the recipient’s family. The LORD blessed Abraham and his royal descendant David with a promised ‘name’, ‘seed’ and ‘land’. The promise of a great ‘name’ occurs for only these two leaders in the OT (12:2; 2 Sam. 7:9). The LORD promised David a dynastic ‘house’ (2 Sam. 7:11, 16) of kings ‘for ever’ (2 Sam. 7:13, 15–16). ‘House’ and ‘household’ were common terms in the covenant of circumcision made with Abraham (17:12, 13, 23, 27). Psalm 89’s memorial to God’s covenant with David emphasized his eternal line of royal ‘seed’ (Ps. 89:3–4, 29, 34–37). ‘Seed’ was also the language of patriarchal expectation (12:7; 13:15–16; 15:3, 5, 13, 18; 16:10; 17:7–12, 19; 21:12–13; 22:17–18; 24:7; 26:3–4, 24; 28:13–14; 32:12; 35:12; 48:4, 19). Another echo of the Abraham story in the Davidic covenant was the promise that only a child from the forefather’s own body would receive the inherited blessing (15:4; 2 Sam. 7:12).

Promised Land and exile (land)
    While the word ‘land’ occurs in Genesis’ prediction that Israel will inherit Canaan (e.g. 12:1, 7; 13:14–17; 15:7, 18; 26:3; 28:13, 15; 48:21), the Davidic covenant uses the words ‘place’, ‘kingdom’ and ‘throne’ in its re-formulation of the promise (2 Sam. 7:10, 12–13, 16; Ps. 89:29, 36, 44). Much of the Jacob and Joseph stories concerns the life of the patriarchs outside Canaan, and in the remainder of the Pentateuch the Hebrews are in exile and in the wilderness. During the conquest and monarchy, the people lived in the land for the longest continuous period recorded in the OT. However, dispossession and dispersion remained a threat from Abraham to the time of the prophets, even during the reigns of David and Solomon. God foretold to Abraham his descendants’ four-hundred-year exile in Egypt (15:12–16), and Moses’ final message to Israel predicted their apostasy and exile (Deut. 28:49–52, 62–68; 31:15–21; cf. 1 Kgs. 8:33–34). In a manner reminiscent of Deuteronomy, the Davidic covenant provided for the chastening of any future king who transgressed the law of the LORD (2 Sam. 7:14; Ps. 89:30–32). Foreign oppression and exile resulted from the wickedness of the kings and the nation’s apostasy (Ps. 89:38–51; 2 Kgs. 17:5–23; 21:11–12).

A banner for the nations (blessing)
    Despite their expulsion, Israel could take heart that the prophets also had foreseen their return to the land and the establishment of a worldwide kingdom by a future heir of David (e.g. Is. 2:2–4; 11:1, 10–12; Jer. 23:5; Zech. 6:12). Through this new David the psalmist’s ideal of a realm maintaining global peace and blessing would be realized (Ps. 72:8–17). Genesis had given birth to this expectation of blessing for the nations which would come through Abraham’s progeny (12:2b–3). The treatment of the patriarchs by their neighbours, for good (blessing) or ill (curse), determined whether or not those nations benefited from the promised blessings. Pharaoh suffered, as did the Philistine king Abimelech, because of their mistreatment of Abraham and Sarah (12:10–20; 20:1–18; cf. 31:24), but outsiders benefited by making friends with the patriarchs (21:22–32; 26:28–29; 30:29–30; 39:2–5; 47:20).