Wednesday, February 1, we read 1 Samuel Chapters 16 and 17 in English
In Chapter 16 we at last meet David, soon to be King, a contradictory and complex characater.
"The Bible certainly does not idealize him, but he is all the more appealing for that. No bit of human hope and despair, bravura and foolishness and bitter melancholy, smoldering hatred and deepest love, is foreign to him."
--James Kugel
As recent interpreters have pointed out, he is a man whose feelings are often hidden from us, a man who is acclaimed and loved by others (including his readers) but of whom it is never said that he loves anyone...David, as a man who is sincere but hardly a saint, has through the ages provided a powerful model for repentance...He emerges from Samuel as a humble and humbled king, who points the way to the possibilities of genuine change."
---Everett Fox
And stay tuned: in Chapter 18, to be read on February 15, we will meet two of the people who love David, Jonathan and Michal.
In Chapter 16 we at last meet David, soon to be King, a contradictory and complex characater.
"The Bible certainly does not idealize him, but he is all the more appealing for that. No bit of human hope and despair, bravura and foolishness and bitter melancholy, smoldering hatred and deepest love, is foreign to him."
--James Kugel
As recent interpreters have pointed out, he is a man whose feelings are often hidden from us, a man who is acclaimed and loved by others (including his readers) but of whom it is never said that he loves anyone...David, as a man who is sincere but hardly a saint, has through the ages provided a powerful model for repentance...He emerges from Samuel as a humble and humbled king, who points the way to the possibilities of genuine change."
---Everett Fox
And stay tuned: in Chapter 18, to be read on February 15, we will meet two of the people who love David, Jonathan and Michal.
