Day Twenty-One -- A new king! Well, sort of . . .
1 Samuel 16:1 to 1 Samuel 28:19
On this the third day of reading the 1st Book of Samuel we encounter the third transition of leadership. The first transition was from the priest Eli to Samuel as prophet and judge. The second transition was from Samuel to Saul as the first king of Israel. Now a third transition is underway as Saul falls out of favor with God and Samuel is sent to anoint David of Bethlehem as king. So David is king, and yet isn't yet king as he goes to serve in the court of Saul. It's hard not to feel sorry for Saul, who never asked or wanted to be king in the first place. He has his challenges (would we today have diagnosed him with a mental or personality disorder?). I certainly can't fault David, however, from fleeing from the household of Saul. Mealtime must have been awfully unsettling, never knowing when you might have to dodge a spear being hurled in your direction.
Playing against the cat-and-mouse episodes involving Saul and David is the background of constant threats and warfare in the land. There seems little if anything to find attractive in the lives of everyday people. Could there have been any joy in the villages as group after group of marauding kings and armies marched and seemingly plundered everything they encountered? Did the people keep the appointed feasts and sacrifices? Did they call out to the LORD and he answered them or was God, as one might infer from the text, too busy with other things?
On this the third day of reading the 1st Book of Samuel we encounter the third transition of leadership. The first transition was from the priest Eli to Samuel as prophet and judge. The second transition was from Samuel to Saul as the first king of Israel. Now a third transition is underway as Saul falls out of favor with God and Samuel is sent to anoint David of Bethlehem as king. So David is king, and yet isn't yet king as he goes to serve in the court of Saul. It's hard not to feel sorry for Saul, who never asked or wanted to be king in the first place. He has his challenges (would we today have diagnosed him with a mental or personality disorder?). I certainly can't fault David, however, from fleeing from the household of Saul. Mealtime must have been awfully unsettling, never knowing when you might have to dodge a spear being hurled in your direction.
Playing against the cat-and-mouse episodes involving Saul and David is the background of constant threats and warfare in the land. There seems little if anything to find attractive in the lives of everyday people. Could there have been any joy in the villages as group after group of marauding kings and armies marched and seemingly plundered everything they encountered? Did the people keep the appointed feasts and sacrifices? Did they call out to the LORD and he answered them or was God, as one might infer from the text, too busy with other things?
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