2 Sam 4-12 - David's great! And crappy.

The readings - Days 96-97 - 2 Samuel 4-12

Remember that time when I was in awe of how different our world is from that of the Bible, in terms of the abundance and ubiquitousness of violence on an epic scale?

Yeah, I'm there again. These chapters open up with a hapless and, if we're honest, fairly sniveling/sycophantic pair of guys who sought out and murdered Saul's son Ishbosheth in his sleep, and then brought his head to David's camp, having either never heard, or completely ignored, the story of what happened to the hapless guy who brought the "good news" of Saul's death to David, expecting to be rewarded.

David himself is a little taken aback by the lack of memory or knowledge displayed by these two guys, and he promptly has them killed. And then he cuts off their hands and feet and strings them up by the pool like so many patio lanterns.

Yeah... guess whose voice you're going to be hearing in your head all night now... You're welcome.

2 Sam 1-3 - Altruism and Politics

The readings - Day 95 - 2 Samuel 1-3

When we last left Saul and Jonathan, they were dead.

They're still dead.

But what I wanted to bring up again was how that happened. At the end of 1 Sam, Saul's sons are killed in battle, and the enemy's coming for him, too, so he asks his armour bearer to kill him so that he's not killed by his enemies. His armour bearer declines, so Saul offs himself. His enemy, deprived of the opportunity to actually kill him, instead parades his bits all over their kingdom.

1 Sam 28-31 - On seers and faith

The readings - Day 94 - 1 Samuel 28-31

So in case anybody hasn't noticed, it turns out the Middle East (and particularly Israel/Palestine) has pretty much always been a bloodbath region. Here in the closing chapters of 1 Samuel, we get a couple of snapshots of that - the picture painted by the Bible shows a land of nearly constant conquest and re-conquest. Not only are the Philistines still causing problems for Saul and the Israelites, but while David is on campaign with the Philistine king (and he wasn't even gone that long, since he was sent back before the fighting even started) the Philistine region (as well as chunks of Judah) were ransacked and pillages by Amalekite armies, who carry off David's wives and stuff, along with the wives, children and stuff of all the others who are away at the time trying to carry off the wives and stuff of other cities and countries.

1 Sam 21-24 - Good stuff.

The readings - Day 92 - 1 Samuel 21-24

It's still sort of difficult to find something interesting-seeming to write about when the whole story your reading is so well-known, but such is life.

This story of David, though... It's quite the tale. I think the biggest loss from David becoming such a well-known character is that the sheer drama and excitement of this bit of the Bible can get lost in the shuffle. It becomes a sort of glossed-over cliche, in a way. It's a little like the way people talk about Casablanca or The Godfather - they're so well-known for being tremendous movies that you often only think about them; there's almost no need to watch them anymore. Yes, they're great. Everyone knows that. Let's watch Zoolander instead! (And then maybe we can take turns stabbing ourselves in the eyes with razor-sharp knives made out of vinegar-soaked lemons...)

1 Sam 15-20 - For tonight's performance, the role of Samuel will be played by Sir Ian McKellen

The readings - Days 90 & 91 - 1 Samuel 15-20

We're rapidly approaching what is (now that we're out of the drudgery of Leviticus/Numbers) becoming one of the hardest types of passage to write about - the "all-too-familiar" story.

Within these five chapters, we encounter what is quite possibly the most famous story in the entire Old Testament: David and Goliath. Its message is one of faith, hope and triumph against seemingly hopeless odds, and two out of three of those have been gladly co-opted by modern society, almost ad nauseum (guess which one tends to get left out?), and with good cause. It's a great story - you've got the enormous, lifelong-trained warrior (a whopping nine-and-a-half feet of him at that) against the puny talks-big-for-his-britches shepherd boy who has rocks and a strip of leather, and the 'underdog' wins. Perfect.