David Grows Up

In the story of David and Goliath one of the first things that stand out to me is the unquestionable faith everyone seems to have in God. David believes that he has God's will by his side so he doesn't even doubt in going of to battle with a giant, bulky, armed, warrior who can literally snap him in two. He tells Goliath, the Philistine giant, 'I come to thee in the name of the LORD' and we can see that he is willing to give up his life just to prove his faith in God. On the other hand, Saul the king of Israel doesn't give a second thought to sending 'but a youth' to fight with a full well grown warrior in a battle that could very easily end up in the conquering and capturing of his whole kingdom and all of the Israeli people. No, he just sends David off with the words 'Go, and the LORD be with thee.' Some faithful servants these are, if I was God I wouldn't be so keen in scaring them away with all those test in their faith, although they would probably pass them all.

Another thing is that even though both Saul and David share their undying passion for the Lord, and even though David saved Israel and is completely loyal to Saul, Saul hates that little man. He is so jealous that everybody says that David has killed more men than he has, that they say he is more courageous or whatever it is they say, that he actually tries to kill David in many occasions. Saul is scared of David because he sees 'that the LORD was with David', here we see another example of the covenants God has with certain men, and how others are afraid and intimidated by these men. In this case, Saul is so afraid and jealous that when he isn't successful in killing David, he sends all his servants and his son to kill David at any cost. Still, no one is able to kill him.

This leads to another thing that surprises me: how everyone seems so calm and going-with-the-flow. First of all, David is completely respectful and understanding with Saul- because he is his father in law or because he is king or because he is older than him, I don't know- even though he knows that it is Saul who has many times attempted to end his life when David hasn't done anything to him. He even asks Jonathan if he deserves what Saul is trying to do, 'What have I done? what is mine iniquity?' In real life this wouldn't happen, Saul would already have been… taken care of. Then we have Saul's own family, his son Jonathan, who is David's BFF, and his daughter Michal, who is David's wife. They know what he is trying to do to David and even though they save and help David many times, they can still sit down at the table with him and talk normally, even while plotting against him with David *cough* Jonathan *cough*. They both have such close relationships with David, but as they say (or maybe they don't) in the end, family is all that matters.

One thing that stood out to me was the part where Michal tells David: 'If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.' This is exactly like what happened to Simon Bolivar. One night he was at home with his lover, Manuelita Beltran, she heard footsteps and warned him that they were coming to kill him. He fled and was saved. It is very strange that two situations so alike would happen after so many years, and when the two had nothing to do with each other. It also goes to prove that 'after every great man, there is a greater still woman'. I like this part.

Later on happens something that was bound to happen, it is the time to test the people's faith: the king vs. God. Of course, since this is the Bible, the Book of God, God wins. This takes place when Saul tells his men to kill every prophet and every priest in the city and none of his men obey him, except Doeg the Edomite. All the godsend men are killed in act which I think would seriously make Saul loose points with God, leaving him with very little points after this and his pursuit of David. I say pursuit but I should really say high speed chase, that's how they make it sound. Plus, I think it is so unrealistic that when Saul has his sworn enemy cornered in front of him, he is just going to put it off for later and go fight a battle taking place miles away (or so I imagine).

After that battle passes, Saul returns to find David, but David finds him first and just cuts off his skirt- I have no idea why- , he is not able to kill him. Then Saul says 'For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away?' He says this to point out how good David is for not killing him, and he also says that he is bad. However, that is exactly what Saul did. Maybe he didn't do it in as good spirit as David, but he should at least give himself a little credit.

I totally didn't expect it. I didn't think that David would be one to take what he wanted no matter what, like he did with Nabal and his wife. But then again, here in the Bible it seems everybody knows everybody else, that men have no respect for women and that women don't make themselves be respected. They just follow the few chosen ones around like everybody else does. I can't seem to get the analogy of a high school off my mind, in this way they are so alike. And to my recollection, everybody always says: High School sucks.

'And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men' I'll say, only four hundred?!

In the end Saul finally got what was coming to him, he died in battle with the Philistines, just how it all began. The interesting part is that even though he did various evil things in his life, everybody loved him so much that they were willing to give up their lives just because their leader had died too, I guess God can't win 'em all!