Sermons

That reading from 1 Chronicles a scene as King David, Israel’s king at around 1000 BC, hands over the reins to his son Solomon.

It may be some of you are wondering why we’re looking at this story. It’s a piece of Ancient History, that seems to have little relevance to modern life or Christian worship. But we worship Jesus, who didn’t arrive in a vacuum. God had carefully prepared for his arrival. And one of the things he did was to send his people a line of earthly kings. Some good. Some bad. All flawed. But they set the scene for Jesus the king.

All over the world, people suffer at the hands of unjust and corrupt rulers.

Sometimes it’s rulers of nations. In the past 5 years, the people of several countries have risen up to try and overthrow an unjust government. Either it succeeds, or the oppression gets worse.

Other times it’s rulers in the workplace, the bullying boss with unreasonable demands you can’t refuse.

Some people have to put up with tyranny in their own homes.

In all spheres of life, there are many good leaders, but many others who bully and repress.

In a moment, we’ll have our reading from 1 Kings chapter 2.

I thought before we do, I’d give you a bit of the background to it. Various characters from King David’s past pop up in the reading. We’ll understand the story a lot better if we’re up to speed on who these people are, and how they featured in David’s life before this point.

Perhaps if you turn to 1 Kings 2, page 336, that would help.

We meet 3 main people here.

It’s hard to imagine living in the dark ages.

For many of us, it’s hard to imagine living before 1990. No internet. Never mind life before 1960. Cars a luxury. Never mind life before the war.

Far worse than living in the technological dark age is to live in the moral dark age. In a society without law and order. Everyone just looks after themselves. Nothing is sacred. Total anarchy. And you live in fear.