As I have been reading the books of Samuel, I have been trying to remember what I learned as a child about King David. I always thought that he was a great guy who saved his people all the time and was blessed by God. But now I am finding that he is a cheating jerk! He has more wives than he knows what to do with, is never happy with what he has and is very manipulative. I was completely disgusted at his actions towards Uriah. He had the man killed so he could sleep with his wife. What kind of guy is this?!? Why would God choose him to lead Israel?
In these two books, I am also the most disgusted with God than I have been with the rest of the Bible so far. I understood why God was so harsh before. You need rules to keep people in line but He is allowing mad men and jerkish polygamists to be kings of his chosen people. Also he is never punishing the people who actually deserve to be punished. Does He punish Saul for breaking all of his promises? No He does not. Does He punish David for killing Uriah? Yes he does by killing an innocent child. How is that even remotely fair? Another thing that greatly annoyed me was the treatment of Michal, David's wife and Saul's daughter. This woman seriously was cursed in life. First she had a mad man as her father then a jerk for a husband. She is punished for hating David when he has cheated on her, abandoned her, and basically treated her like crap. I would hate a man too if he treated me like that.
Needless to say that I am less than impressed with all of the men in I & II Samuel except for Samuel himself. He is the only one that shows any kind stability in his actions but even he could not control his people. I do not get why these books were put into the Bible. They are great narratives but seem to hold no moral values that would help inspire Christians or Hebrews. God is not consistent in punishments, leaders are crazy, and it shows Israel at some of its worst point with the various acts that they commit against each other.
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