Of Cabbages and Kings

January 23, 2007 by djackson.

“I am weak today, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too difficult for me.” - 2 Samuel 3.39

Joab was David’s Muqtada al-Sadr. 

Nouri al-Maliki is the duly elected prime minister of the new, democratic Iraq.  He rules by law as expressed in a ratified constitution.  He represents a break with the brutal dictatorship of Sadam Hussein.  Muqtada al-Sadr is a Muslim cleric and warlord who supports al-Maliki’s reign.  David was the God-anointed king of Israel who ruled according to Mosaic law.  He represented a break with the tyranny of Saul.  Joab and his brothers, the “sons of Zeruiah,” were old-school warlords who threw their support behind the young monarch. 

Al-Sadr, however, backs the new regime with old methods.  He fields his own band of fighters, the Mahdi Army, who answer to no one but him.  A partisan Shiite, he uses this guerilla force not to uphold the rule of law but to settle old scores against his Sunni rivals.  Joab had little use for David’s fanciful visions of theocracy.  To him, power rested on the point of a sword and he whose hand gripped the hilt pointed power where he wished.  Joab’s war bands answered to him and he used his position to slay with impugnity whomever he chose, settling family beefs and keeping tabs on tribal rivalries that had nothing to do with bringing stability to a deeply divided Israel. 

David tolerated Joab because he couldn’t afford to cross him.  When his rogue general sucker-stabbed a potentially powerful ally, David rigged a lavish state funeral and wrote the eulogy himself, but admitted that his arm lacked strength to muzzle the real murderer.  Al-Maliki has not reined in al-Sadr, who holds court in his own fifedom within Baghdad, a district designated “Sadr City.”  Either he fears he cannot remain in control without the support of this Middle Eastern Al Capone, or he secretly agrees with al-Sadr’s old-school gang wars and happily lays off the action while retaining plausible deniability.

As David lay dying he briefed his son Solomon on handling Joab:  “Do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.”  (1 Kings 2.6)  The outgoing monarch read his long-harbored indictment against the indispensible incubus who had kept David powerless by keeping him in power.  Joab shanked and shivved his way through the ranks of his rivals.  He swaggered about in a blood-boltered cummerbund.  Something had to be done, but David had compromised too long to be the one to do it.

As soon as Junior mounted the throne, Joab learned that even the horns of the altar did not shelter him from the horns of the dilemma on which he had impaled himself.  There was a new sheriff in town who agreed (anachronistically) with one of Shakespeare’s kings that “no place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize.”  Similarly, President Bush has put the prime minister on notice:  if America stays in the game, al-Sadr goes.  Political niceties will no longer protect one who fights his own private wars.  Solomon decided early the kind of kingdom in which he would live.  His insight deduced that Joab had backed the wrong side in a civil dispute and no longer held sufficient cards to bluff out the hand.  Al-Maliki must now run the risk, either of betting heavily on American commitment or putting his pile on al-Sadr.  What kind of world he works with will depend on which kingdom he picks.

Jesus’ entire message came down to a single sound-bite, a bumper sticker slogan of salvation which Mark 1.14-15 defines as the essence of the gospel:   “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”  Put in the parlance of the Old West, “There’s a new sheriff in town.  Lay down your weapons and receive a full pardon, or we’ll settle it all in a shoot-out at the OK Corral.”  This is a cheek-turning, second-mileing, cloak-and-shirt-shedding warfare in which love outweighs hate as a weapon of mass construction.  It’s a crazy way to fight a war, based on a philosophy of mutually assured redemption.  What kind of world we work with depends on which kingdom we pick.

So we find ourselves identifying with Prime Minsiter al-Maliki.  Common sense says that we need the support of those who are powerful and cunning in the ways of The World - the only world we’ve ever known.  A deeper part of us, one that we keep quietly cloaked while in Sunday School, adds that we really like the ways of the flesh and yearn to see our old rivals paid in full for their past crimes.  On the other side of this equation we find Christ, the Lord of Hosts, who quietly but firmly insists that he has come to rule and reign according to an entirely new set of realities.  “Repentence,” in this context, simply means weighing up the data and making our wisest choice.

So - in which king do you believe?  In which kingdom will you live? 

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