Canter Bridge

Why do we love David?

There are so many reasons not to.

A question might just as well be placed from the God side of the matter: ‘Why is this David a man after my own heart?’

Perhaps they are the same question. (more…)

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Near the end of his legendary life, Israel’s King David stumbles into the folly of subjecting united and victorious Israel to a census.

David’s commander in chief and his counseling prophets immediately sense the outrage of the thing. Alas, it is more clear to them than to us just why this should have been such a bad idea. Likely it represented a lurch in the direction of conventional models of monarchy, with their inflated royal egos, bulging palace pantries, and rapacious demand for enough young women and men to keep them in well-protected luxury even when this denuded farms and villages of needed muscles and fertile home-makers. (more…)

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