David was a spoilt brat! Really.
Ok, I better start from the beginning.
In the beginning, there was God, and He was doing His own thing. Then He had this brilliant, or not so brilliant, idea to create humans. Because He wanted friends. God wanted to hang out. I guess the angels weren’t a lot of fun. So God created man to be His friend. But it looks like things didn’t work out according to plan. Or did they.
God created Adam. The first man. The first specimen. And boy, was he a disappointment. Let’s look at it. All Adam had to do was name a few animals and tend a garden. God gave him all the resources he needed and even gave him a partner so he wouldn’t be alone. But that was the problem. Adam just wanted someone to tell him what to do. Which God did. But God only saw Adam once a day in the evenings. Eve, what Adam named his partner because God allowed him to name her, was with Adam all the time, whispering in his ear. So when Eve told him to eat the apple, Adam was like, ok. And all mankind fell from that moment. Thanks, Adam. Great help Eve was. But maybe she was upset that Adam was too lazy to use more than one syllable for her name when his had two.
Then there was Cain and there was Abel. Adam and Eve’s sons. The first children. Cain killed his brother because Adam’s sacrifice was better than his. Sound familiar? Meet Cain the first murderer. But with parents like his what did God expect? Fast forward to their descendant Noah who showed some promise but liked to drink so more curses followed.
Abraham was somewhat obedient, a good sample. He was God’s friend. He was like the son God had when he was 20 and they grew up together. You know what I mean. If God were a man that is, which He is not. So Abraham helped redeem God’s faith in man. A little bit. His wife? Not so much. Sarah did not believe that God could give her a child in her old age. So she gave her handmaid to Abraham to sleep with so they could have a child. Abraham did not say no. Again, sound familiar? That’s how we got Ishmael and potentially, the first second or outside family. This act may also have caused a fundamental dividsion in who and what men believe to this day.
Isaac, Abraham and Sarah’s son, narrowly escaped being sacrificed to prove Abraham’s friendship with God. Isaac and Ishmael buried their father, Abraham died of old age, not because of what he tried to do with Isaac. Then Isaac marries Rebekah, and they get Esau and Jacob. God tells Rebekah that the younger, Jacob, will serve the older, which is not fair, but with God, things are rarely as they seem. Isaac loved Esau while Rebekah loved Jacob, which probably didn’t help family relationships. Jacob, it turns out, was a chip off the old block. A trickster. But who gives up his birthright for a bowl of stew, no matter how gourmet? Esau, that’s who. Did I mention that Isaac lied that Rebekah was his sister so he would not be killed, just like his father Abraham had done?
When it came time for Jacob to get married, he was tricked by his Uncle Laban, his mother’s brother. Jacob had to marry both Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel, even though he was in love with Rachel and wanted to marry only her. I guess it runs in the family. Isaac kind of gets back at Laban by increasing his own wealth at Laban’s expense. It must be said that at some point, Jacob decided to turn a new leaf and fought with God to change him and give him a new name.
Fast forward to David. David is your quintessential spoilt brat. Whiny, impulsive, reckless even. And who spoilt him? His father. His Almighty Father. God picked this little uneducated shepherd boy, the youngest of his brothers, to be King over all His people. David was to replace the gorgeous Saul who was too fine for his own good. God made David rich and powerful, and He kept giving David all this advice so David appeared wise and did great things. God even told David that if he had asked for more he would have given him.
But all David’s mistakes were made when David leaned on his own understanding and not on God. David was King, he was powerful and rich so the ladies fawned over him and he indulged. A little too much. And it is this eye for women that David’s son Solomon inherited and ultimately led to the downfall of Israel. It is no wonder that the various Kings of Israel turned out to be spoilt, indulgent, wicked, mean, arrogant, wilful brats that basically ate through the family and the people’s wealth. They were all chips off the old block.
Jesus Christ was God’s first-born son who did all God told him to do in order to save mankind. Jesus offers us the gift of salvation and redemption. But we have to accept him to be saved. Jesus is our eldest brother, the first among many. Thank God for that one brother or sister who does the right thing. Compared to Jesus, David is the spoilt youngest son you just want to smack.
Then there was Paul. Paul is the serious brother or the studious child that always has his nose in a book. That is why he wrote so many letters. He was proud of his pedigree and education but when the Father blinded him on the way to Damascus, he fell down at the feet of the superior power.
All this is to say that apart from Jesus Christ who was and is our perfect specimen, all the others were simply men and women who show us who we are, the challenges we may face and the choices we have. Humans are complicated. We are good sometimes and we are bad sometimes. We are not perfect and God does not expect us to be perfect. He accepts us the way we are because He created us and He loves us. He only wants a relatonship with us so He can show us what life is really about. That is, what an abundant life means. And He gave us freewill to choose our path.