A Biblical Record of Major Crimes: Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault
A Biblical Record of Major Crimes: Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault.
[this article is in process, so please don’t read until it is finished soon]
“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. Truth in indirection lies.” (Emily Dickenson).
A Different Look to a True Story. Emily Dickenson’s advice was to come at the truth from different angles; reveal the truth while approaching it sideways. There are times when only an indirect story will effectively grab a reader’s attention and will inspire a fresh perspective on an ancient truth. There are occasions when coming at a truth from the side through a story will go further than a didactic, systematic study using logic and reason. We seem to be created in a way in which truth can often be better understood from the side instead of head-on through a blunt statement of raw truth. This fictional story below is intended to reveal the truth of a biblical crime story in a way that brings a fresh perspective, an unexpected layer of meaning, to a familiar story. Perhaps we can learn something new in this indirect approach to the true story of King Saul and the musician David. (1 Samuel 16-31).
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Gibeah City Police Department: A crime report submitted by Detective Jacob Samuels, 9-25-1063.
THE CRIME. I received a call by a young man named Jonathon residing in the King’s fortress right here in town. He stated that he was an eyewitness to his enraged father, King Saul, attempting to kill the well-known musician David by throwing a spear directly at the musician while playing his lyre in the royal residence. David was able, due to his athletic prowess, to dodge not just one spear thrown directly at him, but two. David remains safe with his close friend Jonathon, but is understandably cautious about further attempts on his life. According to Jonathon, his father has been subject to what appears to be an increasing mental instability. After observing this apparent descent into mental illness for some time now, Jonathon was able to bring his father to mental health professionals for diagnosis and treatment. These professionals disagreed as to Saul’s condition, and diagnosed him with a wide variety of mental illnesses, including Bipolar Affective Disorder, Paranoid Schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and PTSD due to his recent dramatic war experiences. Every psychoanalyst did agree, though, that his symptoms included severe depression, uncontrollable rage and manic paranoia. I asked Jonathon to tell me more about his father King Saul…
THE PERPETRATOR. According to Jonathon, David was hired to be the palace’s official musician because his music was the only successful way for Saul to regain peace of mind after his distressing episodes of instability. It was during one of these moments of distress that Saul lost all self-control and reason, and threw his spear, not once but twice, directly at David nearby. David was able to duck out of the way and so avoided being impaled by the King’s spear. Saul continued his attempts to end David’s life by sending him into sure defeat with a powerful enemy, and then chasing David around the wilderness for 15 years. At one point, Jonathon observed that one of his father’s death squads contained 3,000 soldiers. I asked the obvious follow-up question as to why his father was so intent on murdering David…
A LITTLE BACKSTORY ON KING SAUL. Jonathon reported to me that many years earlier his father had directly disobeyed God’s clear instructions after appointing him King of Israel. His father continued to rebel against God’s orders, and finally God permanently rejected Saul’s leadership over Israel and withdrew His support of Saul in that role. God told Saul He would not bless him any further as King. God’s rejection of Saul seemed to have left a void, says Jonathon, that allowed an evil spirit to oppress him in those weak moments that were coming to Saul more frequently. God had evidently allowed an evil spirit to torment Saul as punishment for his rebellious disobedience and stubborn resistance to God’s guidance. This distressing spirit was permitted by God to come and go in Saul’s life, bringing mental torment. During these distressing episodes, David was able to give Saul peace and heal his mind at least for a time. David often played his harp and sang his songs and managed to soothe Saul’s troubled spirit. But then the evil spirit would oppress Saul once again to bring further deterioration to Saul’s mind. Many believe that David, as a devout follower of the Lord Yahweh, would succeed with Saul because he sang worship songs that highlighted God’s goodness and character, and that the evil spirit had no choice but to withdraw from Saul’s presence. David seemed to bring God’s presence to Saul through his worshipful music. It appeared, according to Jonathon, that Saul’s overwhelming jealousy of David, accompanied by Saul’s fear of losing his kingdom, were fueling the mental illness and instability of his father. My thinking as an interested observer is that this evil spirit that tormented Saul was probably a mysterious blend of the supernatural with the psychological, and that the demonic force allowed by God to distress Saul was a part of, and maybe even the cause, of Saul’s mental disintegration.
“The single most characteristic thing about David is God. David believed in God, thought about God, imagined God, addressed God, prayed to God. The largest part of David’s existence wasn’t David but God.” (Eugene Peterson, Leap Over A Wall.)