For those of you disappointed by our #occupy interlude you will be happy to know we will return to regularly scheduled posting this week. There are a number of thoughts in my head that I would like to post such as my penchant for the thrill of deadline chasing, to reading church history through the lens of old testament narrative...
However, as I am deadline crashing as we speak, I will provide an insight from my school readings of such brilliance it is incomprehensible to me I have not heard it earlier. The insight is that the narrative in Judges 19 - 21 provide an apology for David and against Saul directed toward the Northern tribes. Note that the Levite is from the North (Ephraim) and that his concubine runs away to Bethlehem (David's home town). When the Levite comes to Bethlehem he is treated with lavish hospitality. On his journey home he doesn't stop in Jebus (Jerusalem)...too bad the Benjamites didn't do a good job occupying the land... it sure would be nice if someone would conquer it... maybe someone nice from Bethlehem will conquer it so nice Levites can stay there and receive hospitality...(DAVID!). So the Levite goes on to Gibeah (Saul's home town), where no one takes him in except a man from Ephraim. We then have the Sodom and Gomorrah episode etc. Rather than Saul providing any sort of redemption to this story, as I suggested in my post, this story rather foreshadows and prepares for the kingship story very directly. As readers, when we hear that Saul is from Gibeah, we should receive the hint that this is not awesome...
No comments:
Post a Comment