Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Old War Stories

I'm reading through the Bible chronologically with my friend Julie. She lives in Austria right now. Isn't that fun?! We're reading the Bible together, even though we live very VERY far apart on a regular basis. Anyway. Right now I'm reading about David and his life and adventures as a rogue soldier. Did you realize he's kind of like the original Robin Hood? Running away from the king? An outlaw? Robbing from the rich to give to the poor? It's great! Anyway. So I'm reading through 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles today. Super exciting right? Actually ... yeah! I was reading these stories of David's Mighty Men and began to hear them in the same voice that you hear veteran's talk about the battles they were a part of. I realized ... war stories! These are just old war stories. Told by these old men who shared these experiences together. I mean, obviously they're IMPORTANT war stories, but still ... they're just old war stories. Isn't it great? Can't you just imagine these old men writing down these stories going ... "remember that time Benaiah chased that lion down into a pit and killed it even though it was snowing and icy?" or "what about that time the whole army chickened out and Eleazar and I were the only ones who would fight the Philistines and God gave us victory anyway?" The Old Testament takes on a different light when you remember that people are people ... even Old Testament people ... and that people have always been people. They're just stories. Some about war. Some about love. All about life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's so true! I was thinking about something kind of the same today, sort of different, but I was thinking about people in history that we just sort of think of as being there - like, Benjamin Franklin was a little boy once, and had a mom. Hitler was a little boy, and had a mom... and I was thinking what did these women think of their sons when they were grown? Their moms were just ordinary moms, like me...

The Wibbler said...

You may be an ordinary mom, but you're also a great mom! And nowadays when more and more moms are underage and unmarried ... you're not so ordinary at all! I do wonder what their moms were thinking. Probably similar things to what you think about Hallie and Hanna. I'll bet Hitler's mom thought he'd be a drummer ...