51 pages • 1 hour read
A Tale of Three Kings: A Study of Brokenness
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Part 1, Chapters 15-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 15 Summary
The narrator leaves the story of David and Saul to underscore some of the spiritual principles at work in their situation. He focuses on Saul’s calling, gifting, and anointing by God as a leader for Israel. Although the reader might be tempted to dismiss Saul as a failed leader, the narrator makes the case that such a judgment is not the whole truth: “Look at the facts. Saul was one of the greatest figures of human history. […] It was Saul who took these people and welded them into a united kingdom” (39-40). Saul was granted authority by God for his role as Israel’s first king, and he was good at many of the tasks that kingship required. The difficulty, however, is that his inner character was not conformed to God’s ways, and he allowed vices like pride and jealousy to fester in his soul.
The narrator insists this does not negate the fact that Saul was God’s anointed king, pointing out that the same mixed dynamic is unfortunately true of many spiritual leaders in churches today who are called and gifted by God for ministry but who inwardly are not willing to conform themselves to the hard road of sacrifice and suffering by which true virtues grow: “There is a vast difference between the outward clothing of the Spirit’s power and the inward filling of the Spirit’s life” (41). Not only does this moral disjunction occur in church leaders, but also God permits it so that the church at large can see within the spiritual impoverishment that accompanies the pursuit of self-serving authority: “He sometimes gives unworthy vessels a greater portion of power so that others will eventually see the true state of internal nakedness within that individual” (41). The narrator suggests that while such prideful leaders still serve a purpose in God’s kingdom, people ought to be seeking humble leaders whose pride has been broken and who are willing to submit to God’s ways, even if they are not as spectacularly gifted as other leaders might be.
Part 1, Chapter 16 Summary
After the theological excursus of Chapter 15, this chapter now returns to a direct dialogue between the reader and the narrator: “[Reader:] ‘You still haven’t answered my question. The man I sit under: I think he is a King Saul. How can I know with certainty?’ [Narrator:] It is not given to us to know. And remember, even Sauls are often the Lord’s anointed” (43). The narrator then extends this application, pointing out that efforts to stand against a presumed Saul often have the effect of persecuting a David. Despite the impossibility of knowing for sure whether a given leader is a Saul or a David, however, a patient approach often bears insight: “The passing of time […] reveals a great deal about your leader. And the passing of time, and the way you react to that leader—be he David or Saul—reveals a great deal about you” (44). The book thus encourages its readers not to rush too quickly to action but to observe the situation’s developments, with regard to both church leadership and one’s own character.
Part 1, Chapter 17 Summary
Chapter 17 returns to the historical narrative arc, but not within the lifetime of Saul or David. Rather, following the narrator’s advice to observe the passing of time, the narrative recommences with a story (not taken from the Bible, unlike most of those in the book) about a young Israelite army officer during the reign of David’s grandson Rehoboam setting out to find one of the remaining survivors of David’s band of followers (known as his “mighty men”). Contrary to his expectations, the soldier finds that the old “mighty man” does not recall David as being great for his authority and power but for his humility and brokenness: “If you are asking if I am a former thief and cave dweller and one who followed a sobbing, hysterical fugitive, then yes, I was one of the ‘mighty men of David’” (46). Instead of David’s rule being marked by the exercise of authority, the old man recalls it as being one of submission and patience. It did not exercise itself in laying down rules for others and made no attempt to defend itself from efforts to overthrow it, instead relying on the will of God for the kingdom.
Part 1, Chapter 18 Summary
With the Saul/David narrative complete, Chapter 18 marks a transition to Part 2. It returns to the idea of the story as a theatrical drama, with the narrator and reader interacting as they watch the show. The reader whose questions have appeared in dialogue with the narrator appears to remain convinced that the leader in their own church situation is a Saul, not a David: “You are now certain the man you are under is not truly from God…or if he is, he is at best only a Saul? My, how certain we mortals can be…” (49). The narrator then asks the reader to turn and catch a glimpse of a new figure emerging from the shadows of the theater.
As they try to make out the features of this new arrival, the narrator remarks that it looks like the reader: “That face. Is it not you?! Yes. It is. It is you! You who can so wisely discern the presence of an unworthy Saul! […] Behold: Absalom the Second!” (50). The reference to the reader as Absalom (with whom Part 2 of the book is concerned) is intended as a further warning: that although the reader may be convinced their leader is a Saul who needs to be expelled from the church, it might turn out to be the case that that leader is in fact a David and the reader is the aspiring and ambitious upstart who longs for the rightful king’s overthrow.
Part 1, Chapters 15-18 Analysis
The final chapters of Part 1 illustrate the stylistic range of the chapters in A Tale of Three Kings. They include a reflection on the allegorical meanings of the narrative (Chapter 15), a dialogue between the narrator and the reader (Chapter 16), a return to the historical narrative but far out of sequence—two generations in the future—(Chapter 17), and a return to the theater motif as the narrator draws attention to a new figure in the shadows of the room (Chapter 18). This varied range of mini-genres within the chapters works well but only because of the theater motif that Edwards established at the beginning, which allows readers to imagine the chapter as a scene on the stage, a commentary by the narrator who sits alongside, or a conversation between the narrator and the reader from where they sit in the audience. The passive nature of the audience member again emphasizes The Difficulty of Knowing the Will of God, but as the reader advances into the action of the story as Absalom, they break this passivity and themselves become a bad leader, exercising their will rather than being passive to God’s. This also speaks to Leadership and the Call of God, with the reader’s own agency also serving a role, albeit a negative one, as Saul’s agency did.
While all the major themes are present in these chapters, special prominence is given to the theme of The Difficulty of Knowing the Will of God. This theme is brought to a high point in Chapter 18, in which the narrator essentially accuses the reader of being an Absalom-character (i.e., ready to overthrow a legitimate, God-anointed authority) simply because they have too much trust in their own assessment of their leader’s poor character. The narrator reminds them that they cannot know what God’s will is regarding who is the leader of his people—only God knows that. Any direct action taken against a leader, then, might well be an action taken against the will of God. The reader is not practicing Brokenness as a Godly Virtue.
The theme of Leadership and the Call of God is also present once again and particularly in Chapter 15. There the narrator reminds the reader that Saul—despite all his failings—was a great figure in his own right, the anointed first king of the united tribes of Israel. The message ties in with the theme addressed above: namely, that assessing another person’s call is a nearly impossible task, and even if it were possible in a given situation, it would still be inadvisable. The narrator suggests that for the person under authority, the goal should not be to oust a leader from their position but to make use of the difficulty, sorrow, and suffering of the current situation to develop a sense of brokenness in one’s own soul; this Brokenness as a Godly Virtue thus can be crafted into an inner tool that can better be used for the purposes of God.
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