Famine, War, or Plague? The King Decides.

Famine, War, or Plague?

Imagine being asked to choose one of three bad options for you and your people?

Three years of famine in the land, Three months of war, or three days of deadly disease - which would be your choice if some prophet came to you and told you that you can choose your punishment for deliberately breaking a divine command?

This is the odd old story we just read in the Book of Chronicles, and there’s some of it that is about our traumatic tragic reality - right now.

It’s about King David who decided to have a census and count the people of the land so he can know how many soldiers he has -- despite the clear prohibition against doing so - because the Jewish God and Jewish law apparently likes to keep statistics vague - - the king is told by Gad the Prophet who was told by YHWH in a dream that God is mad and that these are David’s choices: famine, war or plague.

Before we focus on what David chose and why this story matters still today, philosophically and politically -- just a pause to reflect on these choices: Which death and suffering does a king or anybody get to choose?

As if we can --- What’s the literary layer here of the three choices, each with the number of three? What would we choose and why?

Famine, sword, or plague?

How awful that in our lifetime, all over the world, even if some of us not impacted directly - these are not foreign concepts and for some of us and our loves one or people we care for this is today’s reality, right now - - maybe designed by the divine but definitely the work of leaders and people in charge and many who do nothing to prevent it -- leaders who make bad choices, evil policies, even as populations pay the price.

King David chose the plague - three days of death by disease were preferable to war or famine.

Within three days, the story we just read goes, 70,000 are dead through the land. Perhaps God does not like a census but those numbers, no names, are given. Was it an infectious disease or is this also a cover-up of war crimes as this book sometimes hints at?

Biological warfare and mass death by disease was not uncommon back then, more recently in this country - and right now, and so who knows what this tale of terror really is about -- yet it leads to the point of the story which is what happens next - and here’s where myth and history collide in what many consider to be one of the holiest hills in the world.

The angel of death roams the land with a bloody sword in hand, but then arriving at the hilltop belonging to Arvana, the King of Jerusalem, the angel stops.

Arvana is the leader of the Jebusites, the Canaanite natives who fortified their city called Jebus, with its citadel called Zion - yes - that’s an original Canaanite name - digest THAT fact -- but surrendered to King David and his Judean army who rename the city Jerusalem and make Zion their fortress, keeping the name.

Arvana has a threshing floor on the top of the hill in the small city. It’s a sacred site for processing the wheat which is life but also for religious rites.

And it’s this indigenous sacred site, occupied by the Judeans, where the angel of death stops from killing the people. Three days of death are up.

David sees the deadly angel, sees the sword and falls on his face in prayer. He is terrified of this angel and he decides to buy this threshing floor and make this site, revered for generations - into his new temple. The local king agrees after a long negotiations - he wants to give it all for free - but let the record show, that our king was not an occupier but paid for the land with 600 coins and forever the site of the sacred temple will be remembered as the former threshing floor of King Arvana, the native ruler of the land. What IS this story about??

SO much to decipher here. We won’t do this now, just pause to consider how the storytellers positioned this place - still so volatile and valued.

This is the spot where the Jewish temple stood, not once, but twice, the site of many sacred sanctuaries, and this is where today the Golden Dome of Haram Al Sharif, and the Mosque of Al Aksa, protect Jerusalem, Ursalim El Kuds, and all its people, which is why there were no missiles from Iran there these past two weeks -- the holy sword of death swerved sideways with deference to one of Islam’s holy sites.

Famine, war or plague?

I’m sitting with this story on this day, as all three ravage people on this planet and we keep telling stories that imagine, justify or glorify the past and present, helping us or hindering us from living better futures.

Below the Bible Belt is our journey, our job, to read these stories carefully, to ask ourselves what is their purpose, to lift up lost or hidden agendas and histories, such as the story of the sacred site that once was honored by much older ancestors who were the stewards of the land.

As we continue struggling with our sacred stories, I hope we listen to the dreams of prophets, help kings and rulers make wiser kinder choices, and do what we each can to be less of the problem and more of the solution - each in our ways - to alleviate suffering, avoid hardship, and increase healing hope and help all over the land. Our journey with the last book of the Hebrew Bible continues..

Next week, King Solomon takes over.. More lists, more political religious dramas that invite us to dream bigger and better for the future..

Thank you for joining me below the bible belt.

Sabbath Queen Says: Pause for Peace. Shabbat Shalom. Sabbat El Salaam.