The Main Point – House of David
Just to get to the point early, the main point of this post is to recommend a new eight-episode series, House of David, available on Amazon Prime. The Free Press describes the series as “a beautiful corrective to a lie that’s seeped into American culture: that Christians see Jews as enemies.”
Episode One included dramatization of an event reported in 1 Samuel 15:32-33: 32 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” And Agag came to him haltingly.[a] Agag said, “Surely this is the bitterness of death.”[b] 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother shall be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.”
My first thought was that the artists had warned that some helpful details had been added to the Bible accounts and that this must be an example of that! Just to check it out I searched “Samuel slays Agag in Bible” and the passage above immediately popped up! The only explanation I have for having no memory of ever reading about the event is that the dramatization has a much stronger impact than that simple 11-word sentence in 1 Samuel.
Later in the evening, I read the interesting story of why such capital punishment had been deemed justified. 1 Samuel 15 offers a good summary. That inspired this post and the book recommendation.
Episode Two depicts a condemned and failing King Saul, and Episode Three dramatizes the anointing of David by Samuel. I’m looking forward to the encounter with Goliath.
Value of Dramatizations
Very common these days are dramatizations “based on a true story.” Sometimes those are very misleading, containing only hints of the true story and loaded with extracurriculars to attract more attention and better ratings. I believe we won’t find that in the recommended House of David.
My favorite Bible dramatization is The Gospel of John, the script being exactly the words in John’s Gospel, nothing added, nothing taken away. Here is the link to a blog post on the subject. It is available now, streaming free on the Roku Chanel and on Amazon Prime.
Both Old Testament House of David and New Testament Gospel of John would be great Lenten enjoyment, inspiration, and education.