Mfonobong Inyang: David’s Divine Leadership versus Saul’s Ceremonial Rule

I just left the airport, I said I must come here – there was no way I was going to miss this chance to cook. I admire Luke’s MO, the brilliant raconteur who was inspired to give his readers an important addendum. Having originally written the third synoptic gospel, he would go on to critically document the Acts of the Apostles which he started by making a veiled reference to his previous work, “the former treatise have I made, o Theophilus”. A little over a year ago, I made some submissions about the leadership archetypes of David and Saul. So it’s only imperative that I share a sequel to those original thoughts.

Some of my original thoughts: “A king that would appropriate the best of state resources to himself and his cronies while taxing them (citizens) to high heavens without commensurate delivery of a social contract clause.” “Some ‘intellectuals’ swore that he was the best thing since the cedars of Lebanon.” “He repressed fundamental rights and religious freedoms; the civic space had so shrunk under Saul’s tyranny.” “Whose CV is riddled with falsehoods, misrepresentations and exaggerated achievements.” “He is heavy on propaganda.” “Just as he was over-hyped before becoming king, he proved to be a spectacular failure in office.” “The overall best in oppression, junketing and looting the treasury dry but when it came to delivering good governance, he was unavailable.” “You shall cry on that day because of the king you have chosen.”

My views on Saul were neither personal nor partisan; I merely described him based on the intelligence extrapolated from his dossier. Nothing he does surprises me, I am familiar with his game. From his origin story, the best thing they could say about him was his aesthetics, not his competence. I established in no uncertain terms that Saul was a pseudo-messiah – he was not touched by the feelings of the people’s infirmities. He was just a ceremonial king with no gravitas; the lack of legitimacy hounded him from the beginning of his reign till its abrupt end. The people no send am; they were more fascinated by whatever David did or said. Imagine being an incumbent king and hearing the people you govern over dancing and singing: “Saul has killed a thousand enemies; David has killed ten thousand!” Saul wasn’t a prophet, his act of prophesying was circumstantial. It was so odd that people asked themselves what afterwards became a famous question that year, “Is Saul now among the prophets?”

Saul was not a priest, Samuel rebuked him twice for carrying out burnt offerings without authorisation. The second time when he tried to be clever by half, Samuel said “Do you think all God wants are sacrifices? Empty rituals just for show?” Saul, ever incorrigible, failed to realise that the hood doesn’t make the monk; obedience will always be better than sacrifice.

Conversely, David wasn’t just a true king, he was also a prophet and a priest. David was so great a king that Jesus during his time on earth would give utmost priority to anyone who recognised him by his ancestral title, “Son of David”. As a prophet, David prophesied about the resurrection of Jesus over a thousand years before it happened. As a priest, David is after the order of Melchizedek. That’s why when the ark of the covenant was being returned from Obededom’s crib to Jerusalem, the very same city where Melchizedek once ruled as a priest-king – David was outchea dressed as a high priest and looking dapper in a linen ephod. Trust me, David is the real city boy, he just doesn’t brag about it. He blessed the people and distributed portions to them because he’s evidently a high priest who is touched by the feelings of their infirmities and he’s also relative to those he is called to redeem. Saul’s daughter, Michal, was clearly raised by a father who was heavy on aesthetics. No surprise she was angry about how ordinary David looked over the joy of having the ark back.

The unfortunate thing about Saul was that he knew he was in trouble and his reign was coming to an inglorious end, yet he was goading his followers. Saul had admitted to David privately that David would be king. God had already told Samuel that he had rejected Saul. Yet Saul, ever full of hubris, tried to stop David’s prophecy with propaganda. Till the very end, Saul was so desperate to get a co-sign from Samuel which he considered a form of legitimacy that he surreptitiously went to consult a witch at Endor for that purpose.

Let me put you on game; I only ask that you come through with some critical thinking. When Goliath was outchea smacking his gums for forty straight days about a worthy challenger, you would expect Saul to step forward as the leader and go mano-a-mano with the opp but that doesn’t happen and it doesn’t inspire anyone else in the army to come forward. However, David comes into play and takes care of business – that blud don’t miss. You would think that should earn him a statue right? No, it earned him a target on his back! Riddle me this, how come a supposedly timid king who couldn’t face a giant suddenly found courage, not to even issue an APB but to personally lead 3,000 of the finest military men to headhunt David? I then fooled around and found something rather intriguing: there was another battle that broke out but there weren’t swords or spears in the hands of the army but surprisingly, Saul and his son had weapons. Then I discovered that there wasn’t a single blacksmith in the homeland such that everyone who wanted to keep their farm tools such as ploughshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharp, had to go to the Philistines territory to “refine” those tools. What was even more fascinating is that this arrangement is by design from the Philistines, they literally said, “Lest they develop their weapons.”

This throws up an obvious question, what kind of king would be comfortable with such an arrangement? Certainly, not a patriot because this had gone beyond socio-economics; it bordered on national security. Suddenly it clocked that when Saul was ‘crowned’ king, the Philistines were strangely quiet. On the flip, the very day David was crowned king, the same Philistines came out in their numbers and spread themselves in the Valley of Rephaim ready for battle – ever before David officially formulated his foreign policy because they knew that anyone willing to take on Goliath must certainly be a patriot, not a puppet. When you triangulate these blocks of circumstantial evidence, you don’t have to be a trained intelligence operative or forensic psychologist to suggest that such a king might be Manchurian – an asset owned by the opps. While you chew over that, let me share some OT: be careful of the white noise – a situation where ‘intellectuals’, global organisations and other nations become not only critical but actively try to undermine good governance but are strangely quiet when you are suffering from bad governance. Forget about the smokescreen of megaphone diplomacy, behind closed doors – your individual and collective success is a direct threat to their strategic interests.

Those who were rooting for Saul should have asked themselves what Jonathan knew about Saul that made him voluntarily give up his opportunity to inherit his father’s throne but instead, aligned with an outsider. About those who deliberately misled others into rooting for Saul, I wonder whether the reputational damage they have suffered was worth it. Today, a lot of them have become a byword and a proverb, to be remembered as one of those who sold their souls for a morsel of cornbread.

Some of us have vowed to say the truth and nothing but the truth despite the lush overtures by Saul and his surrogates who are willing to pay a princely sum for us to help him bear false witness. It’s righteousness that will exalt a nation, not propaganda – skulduggery is a reproach. My generation is gifted for such a time as this; we’re patriots – not political jobbers. Since some elders like Eli are now moving funny, God has bypassed them and put his word in the mouth of little Samuel. Indeed, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast God perfected praise. David is him; tested, approved and trusted – na why we dey call am GOAT. The horse is prepared for the day of battle but victory comes from God. That’s why some of us will never fold; we are standing on business. I told them from the start, right from the very start. I told them they were gonna see this but for some reason, they didn’t believe it – so here we are.