Wow. Are you getting a Three Musketeers vibe after reading this chapter? We’ve talked about The Three and The Thirty in past chapters. It’s been a few minutes ago, though, and Ezra’s recap of these mighty warriors got me all ready to watch an action flick! I always wonder if characters like these are what inspired legendary stories like The Three Musketeers. This chapter is a beautiful tribute to the loyal men who served King David, and it’s a reminder to us about David’s rocky, yet monumental, kingship. I was trying to honor all of the soldiers of The Thirty by reading all of their names one by one and thinking about their hometowns. I also noticed that the list contains more than 30 names, and I figured that some of them must have died, and then I got to verse 41, where it lists Uriah the Hittite. We all can remember him if we think hard enough. He was Bathsheba’s husband, and David had him killed to protect Bathsheba after she learned she was pregnant with David’s baby. Oh, what a mess it was! And this one little line that lists Uriah the Hittite tells us that it probably was even messier than we ever dreamed. Uriah was a loyal soldier in David’s most elite army. I kind of badmouthed him in past chapters for being more loyal to the army than to his wife. In truth, however, he may have been more loyal to the army than to Bathsheba, but this only makes things worse because that would mean Uriah actually was more faithful to David himself, rather than to the army in general, so David’s backstabbing affair and the events that followed truly were down and dirty, in the lowest of lowest ways. If you want to read the expanded version of the story, you can find it in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.
Writing prompt: honorable
Honor someone through your writing today. That’s it. Enjoy.
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