Please read the whole chapter and feel free to post a reply even before you read my thoughts. If you don't have a Bible with you, you can follow this link to the passage: 1 Samue 16
I'm not sure what the timing is on this passage, but it has always intrigued me that the newly anointed one, David, is brought into Saul's service to help him. You would expect that the next king would simply gather some troops and take over, but for whatever reason David and Saul are drawn closely together. This certainly complicates the situation for them. Yet it is not surprising that David as God's chosen one would be able to alleviate Saul's suffering. It makes me wonder how Saul would have fared if he had just repented and followed God's man.
There are of course many other difficult issues in this chapter. Feel free to ask away and give your thoughts. We may have a livelier discussion in this one.
Saul doesn't seem to know anything about David being anointed at this point. It is evident that he learns of it later, but perhaps he still believes he can win the kingdom back. The other way to see it is the Eastern proverb: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
ReplyDeleteDan P.
What about the spirit that tormented Saul. KJV says "evil" ESV has "harmful", NIV say "evil" with a foot note "injurious". The New World in its usual mush mouth way calls it a "bad spirit". All say it came from God. There seems to be a trend in more modern translations to avoid any suggestion that God creates anything evil. This was not apparently a problem for the original author. C.S. Lewis addressed this in Problem of Pain. Often what seems to us to be evil is either a natural consequence, or is actually a good from God's point. If God must cause or allow Saul to suffer, it is only so that Saul (and we who read about it) can draw closer to God. The connection is obvious when David is able to drive away the spirit. God is saying "Keep David, as long as you keep him and protect him everything will be good". What do you think?
ReplyDeleteDan P.