Week 14 I Samuel
Nobody gave me the job but if I revised the two books of Samuel I’d be tempted to make one single book: The Book of Samuel. The two Samuels are pretty much one seamless, interlocking story of The Three Bigs – Samuel, Saul, and David. Separating their stories is like trying to scrape the cheese out of a grilled sandwich.
Still, I’ve got to admit that the book division makes sense. Samuel has already died, and I Samuel ends on the day Saul dies. [Aside: I know I’m likely wasting some good sadness on Saul, but I feel kind of sorry for him. After a good start he joins the Renegade Against Normality Club. It’s like his personality stepped on a landmine, obliterated most of his common sense, and left behind big chunks of murderous rage, delirium, and paranoia – mostly aimed at David.] Anyway, now that Saul is dead the stage is set for the II Samuel story of David in power.
Notes: This morning I recalculated my April numbers. The rest of the month looks like this:
Week 15 II Samuel
Week 16 I Kings
Week 17 II Kings
Week 18 I Chronicles (a five-day week)
I like the thought of reading exactly one book a week. That might not happen again this year, but this month it could happen four times in a row! Plus, those four books give me my 100 chapters – so going forward things are lining up for me.