officials

This morning, I’m fascinated by a brief passage from 2 Samuel 20 that I’ve never paid much attention to before. It’s verses 23-26, a section headed “David’s Officials” in my Bible, and here’s how it reads: 2 Samuel 20:23-26: “Joab was over Israel’s entire army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; Adoniram was in charge of forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.”

For starters, I was a little surprised at what wasn’t there. Who oversaw tax collection and revenue? Who handled relations with other nations? David, it appears, was his own State Department and Justice Department, among other things.

I was also struck that the two high priests and David’s personal priest were accorded the same respect as the head of his army, his recorder and his secretary – those three were the only ones that seemed relatively normal to me.

But the two who really surprised me were Benaiah, who led a group believed by many scholars to be elite mercenaries used as the palace guard and to protect the king in battle, and Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor. Why was the king’s guard separate from his army, and overseen by a different official? Maybe David had learned the cynical truth that a mercenary’s love of money brought more loyalty that nationalism or political passion – after all, look how easily Absalom stole the hearts of his people. And why was this king after God’s own heart doing his civic building projects with slave labor? You’d think that would be one way that the David would be culturally different from other nations.

I guess, as only the second king God’s people had ever had, David was still inventing government. Probably these were the areas that demanded so much time that David just couldn’t see to them. Or maybe there was so much drudgery involved that he didn’t want to. All in all, though, it suggests some kind of dysfunctional things about society under David.

In the end, it makes me think of the shortcomings of my own government, and I’m reminded what a precious gift it is to have Jesus as my true king. He’s the only ruler who never abuses his people, who instead sacrifices himself for their good. No American president has done that completely, and even David couldn’t.