2 Samuel 6-11

Reading about David, I am. He was recently made king, and today I read where he was bringing the Ark of the Covenant down from somebody's house. They put it on a new cart and brought it down with a big parade! But the party was crashed real good when the oxen slipped a little and Uzzah thought that he was going to save the Ark. He grabbed it and God struck him down. It says, "The LORD'S anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act". After that happened, David didn't want the Ark to come to him, so he just moved it to somebody else's house. That man's whole house was blessed when the Ark was in it, so David went to get it again. The parade started again, and David gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to every person in the whole crowd. They made offerings, and generally had a good time and praised God. But here's the interesting part: It says, "David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might". His wife watched from a window and despised him in her heart, then later when he came up, she rebuked him for disrobing. So, did he take off the ephod and go naked, or was the linen ephod considered underwear? Maybe he just wasn't wearing his finest royal robes, in order to humble himself before the LORD. I dunno.

A couple of chapters later, the Ammonite king died. David sent some men to show sympathy, but they were attacked and disgraced, making the king mad. Once the Ammonites knew they hadn't let the sleeping dog lie and David was after them, they hired some Aramean soldiers to help them out. David sent his whole army, and the commander said, "Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight." So cool! Israel's army split in two to fight the Ammonites on one side, the Arameans on the other. They both got routed by Israel, and the king himself came out to fight a little later. The Ammonites were defeated and became subject to David. And this is my favortite part - it says at the very end, "So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore". Heehee!

The last chapter I read was David and Bathsheeba, but I think we all know about that. It should be difficult to cleanly novelize if I decide to do that. I shall read about what the prophet Nathan had to say about it tomorrow!