Category Archives for "David"

David’s family problems

By Mark Morgan | David , Miscellaneous

Success and failure

Children are born with faith. Without knowledge or strength of their own, they rely unquestioningly on others. As they mature with growing life experience, faith commonly fades, outshone by the glow of self-dependence and a confidence that human opinions are the best available. Faith – the certainty about what has not been personally experienced or cannot be directly proved – slowly trickles away. And so we arrive at adulthood where, for most people at least, personal and communal experiences or opinions become boundaries and limit the possibilities of life.

King David, however, avoided this decay and reached adulthood with his faith intact. For him, killing Goliath was not only possible but essential.

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Joab, the son of Zeruiah

By Mark Morgan | David , Miscellaneous

Joab, King David’s nephew and army commander, is an enigmatic figure in the Bible. He has always fascinated me.

When Bible characters fascinate me, I want to write novels about their lives. Why? To make them more real to me! And while doing so, my perfectionist tendencies force me to find out everything I can from the Bible to avoid any glaring errors. The resulting extensive research is very helpful for me.

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Harmony of Bible records of David’s life

By Mark Morgan | David , Harmonies

Bible records of David’s life

David, the son of Jesse, was born in Bethlehem into a poor family from the tribe of Judah. Working first as a shepherd, he soon became known for his faith and courage, as well as his musical and poetic ability. Chosen by God as a future king and anointed by the prophet Samuel, he became the target of King Saul’s hatred and jealousy. Yet God kept David safe until Saul was finally killed in battle.

King David initially ruled over Judah for seven years and six months before being made king over the 12 tribes that had entered “the Promised Land” – the land still called Israel today, although at that time it included extra areas promised to Abraham but now claimed by the Palestinians, Syria and Jordan.

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David – a shepherd

By Mark Morgan | David , Miscellaneous

What is God like? Do you know how he thinks or what his character is like?

When we are looking for friends, we want them to have characteristics we appreciate or admire – often ones that will match or complement our own.

God does the same.

When God rejected Saul as king over Israel, he told him that he had found a man after his own heart to be the next king.^[1]1 Samuel 13:14 This man was David, the son of Jesse^[2]Acts 13:22 from Bethlehem, who became famous when he used a sling to kill Goliath the giant.

The expression, “a man after his own heart”, reveals a kinship of thought and fellowship of mind between God and David.

For me, it prompts the question: what was it about David that God liked?

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King David’s Family Tree

By Admin | David , Family trees

King David’s Family Tree

If you look far enough up King David’s family tree (ten generations), you will see that he came from the tribe of Judah.  And as we look through his family tree, we see that some of his relatives are still very well known, even 3,000 years later.  Some of his famous relatives include: Continue reading

Moving the Ark of the Covenant

By Admin | David , Miscellaneous

The Ark of the Covenant was a gold-plated wooden box that God told Moses to make in the wilderness. On top was a lid with two cherubim facing each other and made of pure gold.  Two tables of stone sat inside the box, with God’s law written on them.  The ark represented the presence of God and was a place where God met with his people. As the most holy of the articles of worship, it sat in the innermost room of the tabernacle.  However, the Israelites packed up the entire tabernacle – including the Ark of the Covenant – when they travelled in the wilderness.  God gave special rules about moving the Ark of the Covenant – they had to be very careful. Continue reading

Obed-edom the Gittite

By Admin | David , Miscellaneous

King David wanted the Ark of the Covenant of God near him, so he arranged to bring it into Jerusalem on a cart as part of a huge celebration. However, the oxen pulling the cart stumbled and the ark wobbled. Tragically, a man called Uzzah who was driving the cart put out his hand to steady it and was struck dead by God.

David cancelled the celebration and moved the ark into the nearby house of a man called Obed-edom. This event is the subject of a micro-tale found in Fiction Favours the Fact – Book 3.

Since I wrote that story, several people have asked me questions about this man, Obed-edom.

These questions have revolved around who Obed-edom was, his nationality and possible genealogy. The reasoning behind the questions seems to be that David would not be likely to put the Ark of the Covenant in the care of a man who was not even an Israelite. As an intriguing follow-up to this idea, a search of the Bible shows that the name Obed-edom is not unique, but we’ll get to that later. Continue reading

Timeline of King David’s life

By Admin | David , Timelines

A Timeline of King David’s Life or ‘How old was David when…?’

How old was David when he killed Goliath?

This is one of the many events in David’s life which include hints at his age, but no more.

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David’s legacy

By Admin | David , Miscellaneous

Yesterday morning our family read 1 Kings 1, a chapter that tells about the end of the reign of David, the great king of Israel.  At the age of 70, David was a sad shell of the mighty man that he had been.  He was reduced to needing a nurse to lie in bed with him to keep him warm, and his control of the kingdom of Israel was slipping away. Yet David’s effect on the kingdom was to continue for many generations after his death. So what was David’s legacy and what can we learn from it?Continue reading

Armour-bearers

By Mark Morgan | David , Jehoshaphat

The Bible mentions armour-bearers several times. Their job title gives the impression that all they did was carry armour, but that’s a long way from the truth.

We are never given a full job description for an armour-bearer in the Bible.  As far as we can tell, they were special bodyguards for important people such as kings, princes or commanders. Continue reading

Anointing Bible Kings

By Mark Morgan | David , Jeremiah

Appointing kings

Many countries that have kings or queens, and even those with prime ministers or presidents, have ornate ceremonies for appointing a new person to the position.  The rules for choosing who the new leader will be and the associated rituals are considered important and followed carefully. The same was true for anointing Bible kings.Continue reading