September 29, 2009

Texts:
1 Samuel 20-22
2 Corinthians 2

Samuel:
Chapter 20 seems to be at odds with much of chapter 19--in terms of how David and Saul came to such disagreement. Jonathan's knowledge of his father's feelings seems different here too.
Some people want to read into David and Jonathan's relationship. Quite frankly, it doesn't really add up. While there was homosexual behavior in those days, there was not the same sense of sexual identity as we have it today. Shouldn't men be able to be close friends without making it about sex? People do the same thing with Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings. I don't see it.
When Saul yells at Jonathan in vs 30, I think it is more about the fact that Saul knows that if David is alive, his son Jonathan will never be king.

Chapter 21 is difficult. It is a good illustration of how faithful people get in the way of political scheming. The priest Ahimelech didn't know that David had fled from Saul. How could he have known? And Saul's soldiers seem to agree with him when they refuse Saul's order to kill him. Even today, innocent people suffer because of political wars.
The violence in Honduras comes to mind....

Corinthians:
In v 3, he talks about writing this tearful letter to them. Is this a letter we have? Is it chapters 10-13? Is it part of 1 Cor?
V 14-17 seem to have a different tone than the first half of the chapter, to my ears at least. What do you think?
And compare vv 16 and 17 with the opening lines of chapter 3. What do you notice?