1 Kings 1-3 Solomon Moves In and Cleans House

1 Kings 1-3

When I read chapter one, when Adonijah assumed he was getting the throne, this popped into my head.

I had surgery to repair a hernia last friday.  All is well but the Vicodin is making it near impossible to read more then two sentences without completely zoning out.

What was I saying?

Anyway, Let's start on Kings so we don't get any further behind.  It stars Solomon, a very wise man who liked to chop up babies.

2 Samuel 10-12, 13-16, 17-20, 21-24

I'm out of commission until Monday.

Please keep reading and I'll repost these sections so we can discuss in detail.

Consider this a biblical spring break!

2 Samuel 5-9

2 Samuel 5-9

David puts a hit out on the blind and lame.
David goes to war against, well, almost everyone.

The ark is moved and, while trying to steady it is touched my a mere mortal.  The do-gooder is of course killed for trying to help.

Proof

I've been asked by many people over the years, most recently by commenter Edward what proof would I need to accept that the Christian god, or any god actually exists.
Well, I'll tell you, kind of.

Back in collage I took a class where religion and atheism were compared.  We discussed this question frequently amongst ourselves.  Everyone pretty much agreed that if Jesus descended from the skies on a beam of light for all the world to see that would be enough proof.  But we are taught that the lord does not work in such garish ways.  He's not going to show himself in public.  We just have to have faith.

So I thought, If god won't show himself to the masses anymore (he was constantly showing up unannounced in the OT), would he give me a "personal" sign of his existence?  If so, I'm sure he would allow me to pick my proof because I would have to know the sign beforehand so that I knew it was God contacting me.

So I set out to create a set of rules.
1) I had to rule out mental illness as a possibility so it would have to be verifiable by others.  Others would have to be able to see the sign but not need know what it meant.
2) It would have to be something  very personal.  Something only I would understand as a sign.
3) It would have to be something that occurred in the the natural world.  The sun couldn't "dance in the sky", the trees couldn't start talking and the  stars in the night sky could spell out BRUCE IS AWESOME (although that would be nice, and true).
4) I can't tell anyone what that sign would be to rule out the possibility that someone would try to trick me into believing.

I have my sign and have been waiting almost 25 years for a higher power to show it to me.
If/When I see it I will spend the rest of my life trying to convince the rest of the world that they need to praise this god as well.

Atheists, what proof do you require?  Did you believe and now you don't?  Do you have a plan?  Is mine sound?

Believers, What made you believers?  Did you have an experience that changed you?  Could you apply the above rules to your experience?    Are those rules even relevant to your faith?

2 Samuel 1-4 How the mighty have fallen

2 Samuel 1-4

Book two starts off just where book one ends.  Any reason for splitting them up?  Different authors?

David kills the messenger when he finds out that Saul and Jonathan are dead.

There is an interesting quote from David about the man that was trying to kill him for several years.
"Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives"

David then goes to Hebron and is crowned King of Judah.  Abner crowns Ishbosheth the king of all Israel.  This causes a civil war (and why is any war called "civil"?)

People get smote under the fifth rib, we get a bunch of begats from the seed of David and he is reunited with Michal.

Abner and David make peace but unfortunately, Joab learns about it too late and does some fifth rib smoting on Abner.


Finally, Rechab and Baanah learn that surprise gifts aren't always appreciated.
How would you react if someone handed you the head of Ishbosheth?


Reminds me of the ending of the movie Se7en.  Spoiler Alert and NSFW.

1 Samuel 28-31

1 Samuel 28-31

Man this is one harsh way to end a book!  I've complained that some of the previous books had weak endings.  1 Samuel makes up for it in spades!

Saul goes to a witch/psychic to talk to the dead Samuel.  Even though this is a parable, it says allot about what the Israelites believed.
A) They believed that people survived in some form after death.
B) They believed that the living could communicate with the dead.
C) The dead could predict the future.

Saul doesn't like what Samuel has to say but his fate is sealed,  along with his sons and the army of Israel in general.

Meanwhile, David isn't allowed to fight the Israelites with the Philistines, lest he become a turncoat during the battle.  To make matters worse, the previously "utterly destroyed" Amalekites have invaded and taken David's wives.  David chases them down and destroys them once again (except for the 400 that escape on camels).

We finish with Saul and his sons being defeated in battle, Saul, not wanting the Philistines to have the honor of taking his life does it himself.  Is this the first literary instance of someone "falling on his sword"?  The Philistines don't treat the dead very well.

Again, I have to comment that this feels very Shakespearian to me.  I think it would be a safe assumption to say that he used the Bible as an influence.  I've also seen pieces that say the Bard helped translate the KJ Bible but there seems to be debate on the amount of involvement.

The sequel starts tomorrow.  David's revenge?

Book of Judges Podcast

Our own Abbie, better known as אביגיל was on a podcast last week talking about the Book of Judges.

Go to her site to find the links.

You can find the Oklahoma Atheists website here.

They conduct the "Godcast"  in a very casual style and there is drinking involved but they drill down way deeper into the books then I do here.  I found it very entertaining and informative.