Day 9- 1 Samuel: 20-31, 2 Samuel: 1-21

Wandering Disciple

Some seriously good stuff today! We're in my favorite parts of the Bible. It has it all! Again though, all apologies for any terrible pronunciation of those brutal Old Testament names. Egad!

We pick up where we left off yesterday. David (not yet truly king) is running for his life again(he does that often) from Saul. We get a few glimpses of the most beautiful bromance to have ever existed on earth. Ohh, Jonathan and David, not a hint of impropriety, just a wonderful, and deep, and real admiration for each other. 1 Samuel 20:17 "And Jonathan caused David to swear again by his love for him, for Jonathan loved him as he loved his own life."

At first Jonathan tries to argue that King Saul, his father, isn't trying to murder David or get him killed somehow. But then he puts his dad to the test and he comes to the conclusion , Oh, Davide was right. Soo, you should run for your life, Dad is Definitely trying to kill you.

David pops into to visit a priest while on the run, and asks for food and weapons, the priest consents albeit to his detriment. The king finds out the priest helped David and gets himself and everyone he knows slaughtered for his accidental treason.

The Lord tested David's heart several times while on the run. King Saul was within his arm's reach in vulnerable situations, where David could easily have killed him and Taken the throne which was rightfully his anyway, but he didn't. He knew better than to take revenge or to take the throne by force.

Saul being spiteful, gave David's wife away. But don't worry, David seemed to have a knack for collecting women and ended up with a dozen others instead.

Tired of running from Saul, David went to the enemies of Israel, the Philistines, as in the same people whose hero he killed. Remember Goliath? You'd think they wouldn't appreciate that, considering songs were written about how many of their people David had killed. But nonetheless, the king of the Philistines welcomed David with open arms and even gave him a whole city.

In utter desperation, Saul is terrified of the fight he's about to engage in, so he goes to a medium and asks her to summon from the dead his old prophet. Samuel scolds him wildly for his past sins and possibly this one for waking him, and tells Saul he and his sons will die tomorrow.

1 Samuel ends with the death of Saul in battle and three of his sons, tragically including Jonathan.

2 Samuel begins with David finding out his friends are dead and weeping a lot. David does a LOT of crying in this book. One of Saul's remaining sons assumes the throne. There's constant political tension and lines crosses in terms of loyalty by several people who server both David and Saul's son king. Lots of betrayal and selfishness.

David pretty much screws up the rest of his life for himself and his family with this one stupid and infamous act. He steals the wife of a righteous man, gets her pregnant, and then murders the truly good and wholesome soldier. Their first son together dies. God curses David's household because of the evil he committed against an innocent man. One of David's sons kills one of his brothers, goes into exile for a little while, and then comes back and decides he wants to be king instead of his dad, and after gathering an army for himself to kill his dad, he decides to have sex with David's unattended harem on the rooftop for Israel to see. David's son, the usurper Absalom eventually dies in battle, and David goes back to his palace. There is a 3-year famine and David learns it is the result of a divine judgement because of some people Saul screwed over previously that David has to make right. The demand the death of seven of Saul's relatives, whom David hands over promptly. And the final chapter for today ends with a bunch of giants being killed, relatives of Goliath, one amazingly with six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. That's a real thing you know, a family in Brazil all have them. Youtube it.