David’s Epitaph (Part 1)

  1. Voices at the Grave
An epitaph is a brief inscription or statement on a tombstone, usually venerating the dead. Metaphorically, an epitaph may also be a short funeral speech or writing on the dead person.  In Rome, at the grave of John Keats the English Romantic poet, it is written, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”  Martin Luther King Jr. was an African-American Baptist preacher martyred for freedom fighting.  His grave is in Atlanta, Georgia, with these words ringing from the tombstone: “Free at last, free at last, / Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.”  It came from one of his classic speeches, “I Have a Dream,” delivered at the mammoth march on Washinton.

The revolutionary Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso has this written for him: “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness.”  The epitaph of Oscar Wilde the Irish poet says, “Here lies a man who was not a slave to fashion.”  That on Winston Churchill is rather enigmatic, if not dismal, although some think it humorous: “I am ready to meet my maker, but whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” Other common examples are: “home at last,” “rest in peace,” “in God’s loving care,” etc.

If an epitaph could have been done at the grave of Jesus, it might have been, “It is finished,” but the grave could not keep Him.  That tomb still yawns mutely agape in amazement at His unprecedented triumphal Resurrection through its sealed and reinforced portal Psalm 24:7-8). The Roman government had hastily done one for Him, to the great displeasure of His haters.  It boldly announced at the head of His cross, “King of the Jews.”

  1. The Three Honours
One of the closing verses of 1 Chronicles reads like an epitaph on King David.  It’s not just its perceived eulogy as an epitaph but the profundity of what it says in a few words: “And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour” (1 Chronicles 29:28).

That verse highlights three unique details about that man at his exit from the earth.  He was

  1. full of days,
  2. full of riches,
  3. full of honour.
Each of those items can be the topic of a full book, but for space, let’s consider them only briefly here.  Not of all men or women has it been so said, or can; that they exited the earth podium full of all three: days and riches and honour.  We have honoured men for being full of riches when they died, although they had only a tiny honour, or not at all.  (I dare not name any politician here.)  There are those we still venerate for their fullness of honour while they lived, although they lacked riches and/or days: Martin Luther King Jnr of USA, Thomas Sankara of Africa, and Mother Theresa the Catholic nun.  A few at their exit were able to combine two of the three, but for many, none at all.  Seldom have we had men or women who, like David, were full of all three tributes at their exit: days and riches and honour.

We have spoken much about the massive wealth of Solomon, but I have just discovered, as we shall shortly find in discussing David’s fullness of riches, that he actually laid the foundation for Solomon, and was not distantly less rich than his son.  It is amazing what we shall soon find in that discussion, especially as we attempt to quantify his public donations in contemporary terms when we discuss “The Exchange Rate.”

  1. The Dynamics of the Three
Life => riches => honour: significantly, the first of the three tributes is days, as one has to be alive to pursue riches and honour.  The second is riches, under which we could bring such other items as career, business, ministry, education, possessions, certificates, and all that goes into the struggle for life and survival.  In the process of those endeavours, unfortunately, many have minded neither honour nor life, so far as they grabbed riches.

We need life to acquire riches but should not lose life or honour in the process of that struggle to survive.  Unlike glittering riches, honour might be intangible, but the life of honour is worth more than the thirty pieces of silver that we sometimes hastily trade it for.  Ask Judas: shortness of days, fleeting riches, absence of honour.  For all that silver, you won’t name your first son after him.

  1. Fullness of Days
Fullness of days meant that David “died in a good old age” – at 70 years, seeing one of his sons succeed him to the throne, followed by a proper public handover ceremony at a national convocation in Jerusalem attended by all the dignitaries of the land.  David exited with elaborate provisions left behind for his many children (1 Chronicles 28:1-5).

These days, there are several who do not care how briefly they live if they can exchange wealth for their short life.  They bow to Lucifer at hidden heights, come out with sudden fame, and burn out of the sky as suddenly as they had appeared, like a shooting star.  They climb up quickly and crash out of life as quickly and disastrously, in the prime of their life.  Their tombstones are mute where David’s blares its three-point theme.  They might have had riches, but without days, without honour.

  1. Relative Capacities
David did not live to 175 years like Father Abraham, or to 120 years like his ancestor Moses, still the Scripture says that he lived to the ‘fullness’ of his capacity, dying ‘satisfied’ with life, or “long life,” as Psalm 91:16 would put it.  Enoch lived for 365 years when his father Jared lived for 962 years.  Relatively, if Enoch were living today or in the days of David when a full cup of life measured 70 years, he would have been only 26 years when God took him, full of honour, his precious tender cup overflowing with noble days (Genesis 5:21-24).

Capacities differ, so do individual points of satiation.  Somebody’s ‘heavy meal’ is another’s mere snack or starter.  For those ancestors, their larger vessels were full at 175 and 120 respectively, but David’s at a different gauge and capacity.  Apparently due to the rigours and battles of his life, at 70, he was probably already honourably spent, without emotions anymore even for fresher attractions of those Bathsheba-type of romances that used to distract him even in the face of critical battles (1 Kings 1:1-4).  First anointed before he was twenty, David began to reign at the age of thirty, and reigned forty years over Israel.  Approximately 3,000 years after his glorious exit since about 1000 BC, he is still being celebrated today, his ‘days’ still counting honourably across the ages – now in some sense not just full of days but centuries!

  1. Fullness of Riches
David did not just have riches; he was FULL of riches – and riches is a plural concept meaning not just wealth but great wealth.  That David was “full” of riches meant that he did not die poor, like the prophet-debtor whose embarrassing crisis is reported in 2 Kings 4:1, who was so anointed but broke that he pledged his sons to get a loan but still died young and poor, leaving behind a young widow and the two little boys.  He was neither full of days nor riches.  Being a priest, however, we might allow that he had some holiness and honour, but how much honour do we concede to a man who would trade the future of his sons to survive his own present?  And was his untimely death the nemesis for his fatherly flaws?

As nobody gives what they do not have, David’s riches can be guessed from what he gave.  He gave not only to God but also to men.

  1. David the Giver

As a young man, even before he had become a king, David could send gifts to “his friends” as well as to “elders” of the land, who did not ask for a gift from the young man.  As kings and elders are not usually given common gifts, we may conjecture that what he gave were very valuable gifts befitting the status of the receivers.  In one chapter alone, David sent presents to “the elders of Judah” in several cities such as Bethel, South Ramoth, Jattir, Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, Rachal, Hormah, Chorashan, Athach, Hebron, “and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites,” a total of eleven named cities as well as other unspecified cities in the provinces of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites.  Wow!

How many can afford a presentable present to one king or elder, how much more to numberless elders in such many cities?  Who knows how many elders per city there were?  Such a man was certainly not a poor man (1 Samuel 30:26-31).  He had riches enough for himself and to spare.

At the risk of sounding tautological, I may also say that David was not a selfish or greedy man.  Even when some greedy members of his team wanted to appropriate all the booties of war to themselves, he considered those in the team whose strength had been less, who in their weakness had been unable to go as far as the rest.  They also were entitled to a fair share of the proceeds of the collective project, despite their weaknesses.  That was not a selfish or greedy leader (1 Samuel 30:21-25).

If he gave gifts only to elders, we might wonder that he was merely wisely seeking to secure their tribal kinship alliances, especially in the face of his challenges with King Saul his boss from the tribe of Benjamin; but he gave gifts also to “his friends” – he did not forget friends when things went well with him.  That was a man of honour, very unlike the kind that, in popular Nigerian pidgin, they would call, chop alone, die alone.  Those that share their bread hardly die alone – and you don’t have to have everything to be able to give something (1 Kings 17:13-16; Luke 21:1-4; Acts 3:6).

David gave to God, and he gave to men.  He was unlike those who would religiously claim that they are so engaged with building for God that they have nothing for the hungry at their doorsteps; and unlike the agnostic ‘philanthropists,’ on the other hand, who would claim that they are so committed to giving to the poor that they have nothing left for others in “all the places,” let alone for “friends” afar that did not solicit their gifts, and much less for building the house of God (1 Samuel 30:26-31).

  1. David the Builder
I have lately caught a glimpse of David’s enormous wealth by a consideration of his public donations to the temple building project.  We talk much about David’s great conquests and his lofty psalms of praise to God, but not his great wealth.  That is also probably because David didn’t flaunt his wealth, like some rich people do.

For the building of the temple of God, here are the details of David’s declared gifts from his personal treasures, much more than the combined gifts of all the nobles of the kingdom.  There were two donation services, the first in 1 Chronicles 22:14 and the second during the national ‘convention’ of all the leaders of the nation, in 1 Chronicles 29:2-4.

At the first event, he said, “I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver,” besides “quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone.”  He then told his son Solomon, “And you may add more,” suggesting that the account was still open (1 Chronicles 22:14, New International Version).  Mark that remark; we shall return to it.

According to The Living Bible, David said of these initial donations, “This is at least a beginning, something with which to start.”  That’s amazing!  So much donation was just a “start”?  Now let’s see what he gave at the first instance:

  1. 100,000 talents (about 3,775 – 4,000 tons) of gold
  2. 1,000,000 talents (about 37,750 – 40,000 tons) of silver
  3. Bronze and iron, too much to be weighed
  4. Timber and stone and precious metals
At the second public ‘fundraising’ event, which was the first time he called for donations from others, David said,
2 With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God — gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble — all of these in large quantities. 3 Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: 4 three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings (1 Chron 29:2-4, New International Version).
At the first event, David had said that his massive donations were just “a beginning,” to which Solomon (or others) could “add more.”  At this second event, he personally started to make the ‘additions’ that he had prescribed for others; additions “over and above” his initial donations, thereby inspiring other leaders and citizens to follow his example in that Temple Project.  Why won’t they?

David said, “I am giving ALL of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction” (New Living Translation).  All?  Well, he was ready to go, and he wasn’t going to need any of those treasures in Paradise.  What did he give at the second event?

  1. 3,000 talents (about 110- 122 tons) of gold
  2. 7,000 talents (about 214 – 262 tons) of silver.
No mention is made this time of bronze and iron and stones, there having already been too much of those items to be weighed at the first instance.  How much does David’s gifts amount to in contemporary terms of dollars, naira, rupees, rubles, rands, cedis, pounds, yen, liras, and shekels?  Follow me …
From The Preacher’s diary,
July 12, 2024.
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Dr.C.K. CHRIS-KALUNTA
Dr.C.K. CHRIS-KALUNTA
7 months ago

DEEPLY INSIGHTFUL & Though Provoking! Many thanks for this Fresh Word full of Grace! May your Oil keep Brimming in Jesus Name!

Dt John
Dt John
7 months ago

Amazing insight. May my eyes of understanding be enlighten

SEBASTIAN ODUENYI
SEBASTIAN ODUENYI
7 months ago

This oil and this honey flowing from you anointed pen to feed countless souls shall never cease in JESUS mighty name. Amen. TRULY, THE PREACHER IS A PROPHET OF GREAT REPUTE. I have never seen that verse as an epitaph, and in deed it is a great epitaph, a desirable one for that matter. God bless you sir.

Mary Kokoyo Edem
Mary Kokoyo Edem
6 months ago

I’ve been so overwhelmingly blessed by this teaching.
Thank you sir.
I pray for a continuous flow from this divine depth of wisdom in JESUS mighty name.
Blessings sir.

Joel B Lebe
Joel B Lebe
6 months ago

Elohim, speaks to me on the need to bear in mind:
1. The day of reckoning
2. Finishing the cause of the fight of faith well at all cost
3. Dying empty by giving my all at the cross daily.
Thanks The Preacher, This has been a huge blessing. God bless you amen.

Last edited 6 months ago by Joel B Lebe
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