Second Samuel

3:8 – grandpa’s sermon “am I a dog that I should do such a thing (i.e. rebel for Judah).. dog or no doubt he did it”. The pain and lashing out of the unjustly accused (or was it the guilty?).

3:36 (and 4:12) – politically astute – grief that is useful (P.R.!)

4:1 – loss of a key person results in loss of courage in the community.

5:8f – if it means true Islam could be defended “with one hand tied behind my back” (i.e. an expression) then the later rule about excluding blind and lame is harsh. If it means literally “blind and lame” then David is despicable in my estimation. I have less and less use for him the more I get to know about him.
5:12 – theologically sugar-coated politics?

5:24 – God created the panic first and then David mopped up (versus first version of the same campaign).

6:1f – the Ark of the covenant to true Islam – a political move once more.

6:8 and 9 – anger and fear – two reactions of David to the accident and God's response to it (use I killed) heart attack? He left it with an immune (?) Philistine – “politics is okay, but this is a bit too hot to handle”? Only after Obededon is blessed for three months by its presence does David return and fetch it!

6:14 – sacrificed every six steps and a Canaanite type dance – politics (magic philosophy) pretty thick here.

6:21 – must have been a fun die around the home! Drags in the in-laws in a domestic squabble! Then he withholds sex!

7:2f – David's initiative and initial okay upon consultation with Nathan is reversed by a second thought.

8:2 – nice guy!

9:1 – a political move to head off a sol-family rebellion/coup – likely the slaughter of Saul's family (later in text) had already happened. The politics of this power struggle narrative is thick.

10:4 – this sounds like a college hazing!

10:2 –“ and let us play the man...”cf. Ridley's quotation of this while burning at the stake.

11:1 –“ in the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle”– how sad an aside.

12:1f – Nathan's parable – “you are this man”

12:11 – an evil out of his own house – we plant the seeds of our own destruction – our kids pick up how we act and do it to us. Cf. “the generation who suffer now at the hands of the generation which has marked them expendable, and at the mercy of our convenience, will someday find the older generation at its mercy – and from them we can expect no mercy”.

14:3 – “so Joab put the words in her mouth”– interesting expression, basis of ours?

15:6 – “so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel”– with love and justice. David neglected his job and Absalom moved in to it.

15:30 and 32 – David flees and is on the Mount of olives “where God was worshiped” cf. also Gethsemane and the ascension.

16:7 – “Be gone! Be gone! You worthless fellow”– one contemporary estimate of King David!

16:11f – open to the word of the Lord in criticism and the Lord's turning it all to good.

17:14 – God who controls history had Absalom believe the misinformation.

17:23 –Athethophel may well have known it was now all over for him. So he killed himself. He knew there was no hope for the rebellion.

18:3 – “but you are worth 10,000 of us” another estimate of King David.

18:14-15 – Joab and 10 young men. He struck first and they joined in – office politics! (Nathan also the preceding verses).

19:1f – the disastrous after-effects of a civil war – in countries or in offices. It shows up in the lifestyle after the battle.

21:5 – land claims, Israelite style!

23:1 – “the Sweet psalmist of Israel”. Perhaps, but by today's standards he appears to me at this point is a somewhat despicable character. Perhaps we have to put him in the reality of an ugly setting to make him shine – perhaps that's what it really was. How much can any of us to do beyond the culture we are in without leaving said culture?

23:8f – David's elite 3 and 30. He obviously didn't do it all himself. He had top officers whose status was based on their fighting skill.

24:3 – anti-census sentiment due to a fear of taxes and levies probably.

24:10f – God is an interesting character. See elsewhere.

24:14 – it is interesting that David would rather take his chances with God than man – after a life of intimate dealings with both!

24:15f – “I will not give to the Lord that which cost me nothing”. A somewhat better attitude than ours often. This is an aetiological story of the start of offering sacrifices on the spot where Solomon later built the temple.

 

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