Weeks 26 and 27: 2 Samuel 5 – 24 and Proverbs 23 – 31

Several days ago, Disney+ began streaming the musical “Hamilton” for Broadway enthusiast to enjoy while theaters around the world are still shut down due to COVID-19 precautions.  Feeling patriotic, I tuned in on July 3^rd to get in the spirit for the following day’s festivities.  I usually fall asleep within about 10 minutes of starting a movie in the evening, but “Hamilton” drew me in and did not let me go until the last note was sung.

What an incredibly crafted masterpiece by Lin-Manuel Miranda!  The lyrics, the composition, the performances and the history were all woven together with brilliant reoccurring melodies and rhyme.  The characters were developed beautifully, evoking a sense of empathy and compassion for each of them from the viewer.  It was full of human triumph and the havoc that pride wreaks on a person’s life.  The climax of the story was after Alexander Hamilton’s selfish ambition had ultimately led to the public humiliation of his wife after an illustrious affair and the death of their first-born son.   The story then portrayed the breaking of Hamilton.  It would seem that the painful consequences of his arrogance caused him to admit his own frailty, let go of his pride and turn towards God.  Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, being of woman of faith, chose to forgive him in a heart gripping scene while these lyrics are sung:

“There are moments that the words don’t reach.  There is suffering too terrible to name….The moments when you’re in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down…There are moments that the words don’t reach, there is a grace too powerful to name.  We push away what we can never understand.  We push away the unimaginable….” – from the song “It’s Quiet Uptown” from “Hamilton”

A grace too powerful to name.  Yes.  That line held within it the power of the Gospel whether Lin-Manuel Miranda intended it that way or not.  As I watched that powerful scene, I remembered just one night prior as my husband and I sat on the couch together discussing some really heavy dynamics that have plagued my family for years.  In different words, I had said the same thing to Tyson as I reflected.  “The grace of God is a very real thing,” I told him.

When it comes to many of the hurdles I have faced up to this point in life, real healing and freedom have come from encountering the grace of God in real time.  His grace has enabled forgiveness in my life, just as it was portrayed in the Hamilton’s story.  It is currently enabling restoration where there has been destruction.  It is enabling hope and trust to be rebuilt.  It is enabling boundaries to be set so that my heart is guarded from the sin that so easily entangles.  God’s grace makes a way for relationship even after betrayal, pain and heartache.  It does not make sense to me, but it is God’s heart and I know it to be real.

As we have wrapped up 2 Samuel on our journey through the Bible, I think of beloved King David.  Can you imagine if a Broadway musical were to be made about his life!?  What a story to be told with moving musical composition, brilliant writers and talented actors!  David’s was a life wrought with every imaginable kind of human experience and emotion.  With the right creative genius, it would sweep the Tony awards just as “Hamilton” did in 2016.

It is astounding how the beautiful similarities between David and Jesus’ character as reigning King in righteousness and justice go just as deep as the contrasts between them.  The depravity of David’s humanity left no mistaking the need of a truer and better King to come – one who would not forsake His justice and righteousness in pursuit of His personal gain.

David experienced profound depths of pain.  Some of his suffering was due to circumstances he had no control over, but some was the direct consequence for his sins.  He was rejected and forced to flee for his life by both Saul and Israel.  He lived through the death of three of his sons.  His heart ached for his emotionally destitute daughter after his own son followed in his footsteps, taking for himself what was not his to have.  He felt bitter grief as his men took one life after another out of vengeance and violence, against his own will.  Perhaps worst of all, when his pride and ambition got the better of him, he felt the sorrow of disloyalty towards his God.  He was indeed, a man of many sorrows.

Through it all, David worshiped and praised the God for whom his heart burned.  How could he not?  After all, he was met by that same powerful grace that Hamilton was met with, and that I have been met with.  Solomon, the very son of the woman that David lied, cheated and murdered for, was blessed by God.  Through Solomon, God would fulfill His promise to David to establish his kingdom forever, and would fulfill His promise of our Everlasting King.  If that is not scandalous grace, I do not know what is.  It makes me uncomfortable.  If I knew a man who had done what David had done, I would only want him to get what he deserved.  David knew what he had done.  He knew his own guilt.  And yet, God’s grace had the last word.  It did not make sense, but it was God’s heart.

All of our stories have been shaped by this “grace too powerful to name.”  Except, we know the name.  JESUS is the name!  All of God’s grace for you and me and every other sinner out there was put on display for the world to see in Jesus.  It was given a name for all to proclaim.

His grace truly is a real thing.  Let it be the reoccurring melody that weaves through our stories as we join with David and sing:

“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.  He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”  Psalm 103:8-12