David’s Epitaph (Part 2)

9.  The Marathon Convoys

To get the value of a foreign transaction, we would usually translate those costs into local currencies.  How do we translate the value of David’s donations into contemporary currency?

As there were different standards or weights of the talent in ancient times (the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Egyptian, the Greek, and the Hebrew talents) corresponding to those various ‘international currencies,’ the total weight of David’s donations is variously computed by several writers.  For my computation, I shall use the pre-Babylonian Hebrew talent (also called the “talent of the sanctuary”) corresponding to about 30-32 kg in weight.

I’ll be modest to use the lower estimate of 30 kg/talent.  In that case, here are the statistics of David’s total gifts to the Temple Project, calculated in metric tonnes, noting that 1,000 kg = 1t:

Let’s put that into a more homely contemporary perspective.  How much is a tonne?  A tonne is 1,000 kilograms, which is 20 big bags of rice or bags of cement in Nigeria, each weighing 50 kg.  If 20 big bags of rice (or cement) make a tonne, 3,090 tonnes of gold would be 20 x 3,090 = 61,800 bags of rice (or cement) – envisage that as gold.  That’s quite a warehouse.

If we should load those many bags of rice or cement into a 10-ton dump truck, popularly called a tipper, which carries 10 tonnes of cargo, that would be 61,800 (bags of rice or cement) ÷ 10 = a convoy of 6,180 trucks, each carrying 200 big bags of rice or cement – now imagine that it is gold, pure gold of Ophir!

By the same process, 30,210 tonnes of silver would be: 30,210 x 20 = 604,200 (bags of rice or cement) (imagine that as silver).  Loaded into 10-tonne trucks, each carrying 200 bags, that will give us 604,200 ÷ 10 = a convoy of 60,420 trucks of silver.

So, David’s public donation for the temple project, in terms of precious gold and silver alone, excluding the innumerable trucks of bronze and iron and marble and timber, would be 6,180 + 60,420 = a convoy of 66,600 trucks or tippers.

If a medium sized tipper measures about 7 meters, 66,600 trucks tightly parked head to tail would cover a distance of 7 x 66,600 = 466,200 meters.  If 1,000 meters make a kilometre, 466,200 meters would be 466.2 kilometres … one man’s gift in gold and silver stretching 466.2 kilometres, excluding the numberless convoys of bronze and iron and timber and other items!  The convoy of gold and silver trucks alone is approximately the distance from Port Harcourt to Abuja in Nigeria, from Lagos Nigeria to Accra Ghana, from Egypt’s Alexandria to Libya’s Benghazi, from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Hamburg in Germany, from London in the UK to Brussels in Belgium, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in the USA, from Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires to Uruguay’s capital city of Montevideo …  one man’s ‘international’ convoy of donations to his God!

David was certainly full of riches, but he was not a man to flaunt his wealth.  Only when it came to building for God did so much wealth show up.  He was a man made in the wilderness, humbled by the recurrent valleys of shadows of death through which he was grateful that God passed him, and from all of which He saved him (Psalm 23:4-5; Hebrews 5:8-9; Psalm 34:19).

 10.  The Exchange Rate

In April 2024, an ounce of gold was about $2,431.85, and a tonne about $92,431,875.  At the very modest round figure of $90,000,000 only for a tonne, David’s donations in gold would be 3,090 (tonnes) x $90,000,000 (per tonne) = $278,100,000,000 (two hundred and seventy-eight billion one hundred million dollars).  Convert that into your local currency, and let’s see what you get.

At approximately $30 per troy ounce of silver in July 2024, a tonne of silver would be $965,500.  How much would be the donations of David in today’s terms?  That would be $965,500 (per tonne) x 1,007,000t (of silver) = $972,258,500,000 (nine hundred and seventy-two billion two hundred and fifty-eight million five hundred thousand dollars).  Again, convert that into your local currency and let’s know what you get.

The total donations of David in gold and silver, then, in American dollars today, would be $278,100,000,000 (gold) + $972,258,500,000 (silver) = $1,250,358,500,000 (one trillion two hundred and fifty billion three hundred and fifty-eight million five hundred thousand dollars).  Convert that into your local currency, and you might wish to send a message what you got.  The figure could break some calculators, their frail dashboards desperately screaming “Error! Error!”

David was certainly full of riches, but he was not a man to flaunt his God-given wealth in the face of other mortals, for he would usually say, in thankful prayer to God,

This man was not only full of riches, he was full of honour.  Not all blessed men speak so humbly.  Not all rich men still worship God so meekly, counting themselves as mere stewards of riches that have been a privilege from God.  Somebody else would certainly have seized the rare opportunity of the podium at such an august national event to vaunt themselves, like Lucifer, even if the angel of God should smite them as he did pompous Herod (Acts 12:21-23).
At the national convention at which David publicly endorsed Solomon as his successor and encouraged others to also give to the Temple Project, he made a burnt offering of 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams, and 1,000 male lambs (1 Chronicles 29:21-22).  At about N700,000 (seven hundred thousand naira) for a large cow in Ikeja market in Lagos, Nigeria, and N150,000 (one hundred and fifty thousand naira) per 60kg live ram, and approximately N80,000 (eighty thousand naira) for a lamb, how much would have been David’s sacrifice?  Modestly at about $2,000 per bull in Texas USA in July 2024, a Rambouillet ram modestly at $1,000 only, and a lamb at only $360 in the same market, how much would be 1,000 oxen and 1,000 rams and 1,000 lambs? Do the maths … full of riches … for just one convention!

We have ‘big men’ in my country who would brag about how many cows they could kill to entertain guests at any ceremony: a cow, two cows, or ten!  David offered 1,000 oxen, apart from rams and lambs. That would seem to be where Solomon got his cue for his landmark offering of 1,000 oxen that opened the heavens to him in his preliminary days (1 Kings 3:4-13).  That was a son well groomed by a good father, even though he was to sadly depart from those noble paths in his later years.

Days, riches, and honour … of the three, riches is the critical midpoint, the seductive and sometimes slippery material midpoint.   Of materialism, the Bible has much to say.  Jesus couched a warning in a parable about those who receive the word among thorns, and let “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful in their lives” (Mark 4:19).  Riches can be deceitful.  The problem is not the seed but the soil (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23).  Solomon must have been well instructed by his father to seek grateful contentment, lest being stupidly “full,” he denied his Maker, saying, “Who is the LORD?” (Proverbs 30:8-9) – like some foolish nobles today.

There once was a seeking young rich ruler who came to Jesus.  He had days before him, he had riches, he sought honour.  Jesus gave him a candid prescription, but the pill seemed too bitter to swallow, so he “went away grieved,” because he was full of “great possessions” (Mark 10:22).  His kin are still to be found in the religious crowds that throng after Jesus today; folks who “trust in riches” too much to trust the Master and His Kingdom (Mark 10:24).

One has to have life to seek riches, but unfortunately, many have not cared about honour or life while they pursued riches.  “Life is a struggle,” they say, and their struggle has no rules.  Even if they have to get riches from the devil or at the cost of another’s life, they push for it.  They pursue tangible materials even at the expense of their intangible souls; they seek temporary gain even if it should mean their everlasting shame (Matthew 4:8-9; Mark 8:36).  King Solomon warns, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold,” but that’s not a sermon they care to hear (Proverbs 22:1).  They might manage to count a few days during which they build elaborate riches, but it is buildings without the roof of honour; roofless great houses exposed to the ravaging storms that waste.

David was not a perfect man, yet when confronted with his sins, he did not behave like King Saul his boss who would kill the messenger if he did not like the message, even if the message came from God (1 Samuel 16:1-2).  David would rather break down and cry, like Peter, if the cock crow confronted him with his woes (Psalm 51:1-6; Matthew 26:75).

Two times, David had a perfect chance to kill his boss who had been meticulously after his own life, but he restrained himself, saying, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD” (1 Samuel 24:6-10; 26:9-11).  Meanwhile, that was a man already rejected by God, a man possessed by devils, an expiring old backslider that he had already been anointed to replace.  If that had been me …  But David was full of honour.  When David heard that his persecutor was dead, he did not throw a party, as the young Amalekite broadcaster had expected him to do (2 Samuel 1:1-16).  He composed a dirge and called a national lamentation (2 Samuel 1:17-27).  Had that been me … But David was full of honour.

How many disciples are there to whom Jesus can entrust His purse and not fear that it will have grown holes overnight?  How many prophets like Elijah can God trust enough to send to the home of a single-mother widow in a season of famine, and there wouldn’t have been a scandal after the seventh night there?  To how many can God entrust exceptional royalty and not fear that they sooner would boast in His face, announcing, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).  Who is that young man that God can grant exceptional anointing, and tomorrow he would not boastfully grieve away the Holy Spirit, declaring self-confidently, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself” (Judges 16:21), until the Philistines should humble him with blindness that forces his sun to set at noon!  How many can make a public declaration of their righteousness, like Job, without fear of the repercussions that they swear upon themselves?  Check Job 31:5-33.  Where is that young man whom God can send to Elisha for the quadrupled portion of Elijah’s hovering patriarchal anointing, without fear that he would be seduced midway with the trojan horse of Ambassador Naaman’s enticing purple robes and gold concealing that generational leprosy that banishes the taker from the fold? How many can stand, like Samuel, in broad daylight and say before their entire community,

What shall be the epitaph at your place when the day comes?  Like Churchill, uncertain of how to meet your Maker, or like David, “full of days, and riches, and honour”?  Pray…