It's possible that you've noticed that I've missed a day here and there. Since every day is a pretty large chunk of reading, I'm not going to try to catch up. I'm just going to keep going from here, keeping my day count the way it's going. So while I will still read the whole Bible in 90 actual days, it'll take me more than 90 consecutive days to do so.
Today we're still going through David's story. We pick up right after Nathan, the prophet leaves him. We immediately see the consequences of David's sin. His son dies, one of his son's rapes one of his daughters, one of his other sons avenges his sister's honor, that same son then stages a coup, dies in the battle, another guys tries a coup and gets his head chopped off, and David beats down some Philistines. Oh, and we get a preview of Psalms.
Amnon, one of David's sons, is in love with his half-sister, Tamar. He plots a way to get her alone with him and then tries to seduce her. She won't give in and he rapes her. Then he decides that he hates her and casts her out. Her brother Absalom is pissed. David's pissed too, but it doesn't seem like he really does anything about it.
Two years later, Absalom invites all the king's sons over to his place for a party. Once Amnon has a bit of wine and is in high spirits, Absalom gives the command and his servants kill Amnon. David and all his sons weep and mourn the death of Amnon. It's interesting to see the range of emotions of the men in the Bible. They are these warriors who go out and fight these epic battles, but man, they can weep and wail with the best of them. David then longs for Absalom to return. David cares a lot for his children, but it seems he really fails when it comes to disciplining them.
But Absalom then starts to plan a conspiracy. He gets up early and sits at the city gate to resolve conflicts before they can get to David. He usurps his father but the way he judges the people rather than letting them go to David. He pretty much starts kissing babies and campaigning for king. After four years of this, he gets himself crowned King in Hebron. Unfortunately for David, all that campaigning that Absalom was doing worked, and he ended up with the majority of Israel on his side. David had to flee Jerusalem in the middle of the night. Absalom sent men to fight David and his men, but God was on David's side and David won. In the battle, Absalom got caught in a tree by his really long hair (I guess long hair is as bad as a cape). Joab found him and killed him (even though David had told him not to.)
Right after David wins against Absalom, another guy tries a coup, but Joab and the army go to the city where he is hiding and lay siege to it. The city doesn't want to get destroyed so they turn the conspirator over to Joab.
David then goes to war against the Philistines, but he's almost killed when he gets very exhausted during the battle. After that, his army will no longer allow him to go to battle for fear that he will be killed.
The reading for today ends with a song of David's about the Lord saving him. It sounds a lot like some Psalms I've read, and I'm interested to see if it is actually a Psalm that is included in Psalms or if it only appears here.
That's all for today. I'll try to get back on the daily schedule tomorrow. Tomorrow's reading is II Samuel 22:19 through I Kings 7:37.
Peace.
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Does anybody else find it strange how David doesn't like it when the bad guy dies and yet he's totally fine going out and killing thousands of philistines in battle? It's like in movies... like in Prince Caspian when Peter and Caspian kills a bunch of telmarines in battle but won't kill Miraz? They value the life of the major character who is causing all the trouble higher than the people (who also have names and families) who are just doing what they're told. I guess that's just the way it is with war, but the inconsistency and ranking values of life really bother me.
ReplyDeleteDavid definitely wouldn't win any Father of the Year awards. I wonder why there's such a disconnect with his family.
ReplyDeleteits weird how david's passivity here starts destroying not only his family but his kingdom! i wonder if there is still some separation from his sin, or if he is just paralyzed from doing anything. before he was just serving with his whole heart. now he has messed up and messed up big, maybe he is scared? maybe he is just trying to hold on to what he has b/c he sees that he could lose it all, just like he took it all from Uriah? I don't know, but David is such an all or nothing sort of guy.
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