The Battle of Bible Heroes: Joseph vs. David

Let’s face it–when two heroes rumble, the whole earth shakes! Thankfully, I’m not writing about a real “battle” between our Bible heroes, Joseph and David. I’m not sure anyone would read that post or book or buy a movie ticket!

The “battle” we’ll talk about today between biblical giants, Joseph and David, will measure the distance of their personal journeys. Not just the land they traversed–though we’ll consider some of their travels–but more so the changes of their hearts.

Why did I choose Joseph and David? Well, because that’s who I’m studying these days. I’m preparing for the imminent release of In Feast or Famine (coming May 9th!), which tells Joseph’s story in Genesis 37-50. At the same time, I’m researching and writing my next project on David’s Hebron Wives. I’ve noticed some doozy differences and startling similarities in these familiar Bible heroes.

Gotta Love a Shepherd

Isn’t it interesting that both Joseph and David began their lives as shepherd boys? Of course, they lived in a pastoral society, dependent on crops and livestock to survive. But from the clues in Scripture, it seems both Joseph and David were more than just rugged, smelly herders. During the long, lonely days of caring and protecting the family flocks, it seemed God cultivated in them especially tender hearts for those who couldn’t care for themselves.

The compassion we see played out later in their lives points to men who had learned mercy and compassion. Could it have been because they’d witnessed firsthand what it meant when a predator stalks its prey?

Battles During Childhood

Both Joseph and David were embattled in their early years but in very different ways. One was hated because he was his father’s favorite. The other was exiled from his family–so Jewish legends say–because his father despised him.

A Doting Father & Difficult Brothers

Even those who never read about Joseph in the Bible maybe heard of, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Broadway brought Jacob’s unchecked favoritism to life. He adored his favorite wife Rachel’s firstborn, which made for a great story–and lousy family dynamics.

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons…When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.” Genesis 37:3–4

David’s family troubles aren’t spelled out as clearly in Scripture, but Rabbinic tradition tells us why only seven of Jesse’s sons were presented when Samuel came to anoint Israel’s next king. Tradition says David was banished to the shepherds’ fields because Jesse questioned whether David was truly his son. After David’s birth, he was convinced beyond doubt, yet he never completely accepted his eighth and youngest son.

Battles As Teens

Both Joseph and David were forged in the fires of childhood adversity and thrown into some pretty harsh circumstances as teens. Some scholars believe David was only fifteen when his father Jesse sent him to Israel’s battle lines with food for his brothers. David seemed to get the same ol’ badgering from his brothers–when he asked a simple question about an enemy soldier named, Goliath.

“When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, ‘Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.'” 1 Samuel 17:28

Joseph was a little older, but no wiser. He’d shared the dreams God gave him with his brothers–dreams that foretold his whole family would someday bow before him. Was he arrogant or young and foolish?

“Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers…Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph… ‘Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.’ …So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern…So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.” Genesis 37:2, 12-14, 23–24, 28

Both Joseph and David became captives. Joseph literally became a slave in Egypt. David was a slave to his circumstances, first to King Saul’s jealous paranoia, later to Saul’s murderous accusations of treason.

Endurance Through Feast or Famine

Saul’s death didn’t release David from his chains because he had to fight for seven years to gain Israel’s throne over all twelve tribes.

Neither was Joseph completely free when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and was released from prison. Pharaoh appointed Joseph, a despised Hebrew, as second-highest ruler in Egypt, but he undoubtedly had to overcome incredible adversity despite a new Egyptian name and wife. He needed to gain Egypt’s trust during a time of abundance to prepare for the forecasted famine.

Scripture indicates that both our heroes seemed to gain a level of success and peace in their achieved power. Whew! A deep sigh, right?

Maybe not… Sometimes great blessing becomes our greatest tests of all…

Remaining Faithful In the Good Times

When we don’t have hard things that push us closer to God, we tend to relax. Our spiritual muscles can get flabby. Our prayer life may grow weak. Perhaps we begin to think, “I don’t need to ‘bother’ God with the small stuff,” and we charge into situations or decisions relying on our own ability.

I see the same tendencies in our biblical heroes. In Joseph’s original interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams and the plan to manage the famine (Gen. 41:33-36), was there any mention of Pharaoh gobbling up private citizens’ land and creating widespread slavery in Egypt? Ummmm, no. And there’s no mention that Joseph consulted Elohim before instituting the economic need for slavery in Egypt’s social classes (only two generations before the Hebrews would be forced into bondage).

“Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other.” Genesis 47:20–21

Did David consult the Lord before he sent his general out to war but remained in his palace–glimpsing Bathsheba, another man’s wife, for the first time–committing a sin that would lead to a spiraling of family drama in David’s household?

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army…One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her.” 2 Samuel 11:1–3

God had richly blessed both Joseph and David. They were wealthy. Powerful. Didn’t they deserved to live well and enjoy the fruit of their hard labor and faithfulness?

Do any of us who serve the Holy God of all Creation deserve anything?

Can we bank faithfulness? Do good deeds accumulate like interest earned? Emphatically, NO!

What have I learned from Joseph’s and David’s heroism?

1. God’s heroes are faithful not because of their goodness but in response to God’s goodness.
2. God’s heroes are faithful in feast or famine because they remain in intimate and constant relationship with their Creator.
3. God’s heroes sometimes sin, but rather than bringing shame and damaging relationships, failure leads them into a deeper experience of God’s love and grace.

I want to be God’s hero. How ’bout you?

Today’s Question:

• What have you learned from today’s post or from your own life about God’s heroes?

Tweet-Ables:

• Gods heroes are faithful not because of their goodness but in response to Gods goodness.
• Gods heroes are faithful in feast or famine because they remain in intimate and constant relationship with their Creator.
• Gods heroes sometimes sin, but rather than bringing shame and damaging relationships, failure leads them into a deeper experience of Gods love and grace.