Our Week in Review - King David

I've fallen behind in posting "our week in review" posts, and this was actually several weeks ago, but I wanted to share some pictures from the children's bible journals. I *wish* you could see these pictures up close. Truly, Bible time is my favorite part of our school day, and the children's journals, in which they draw while I read, are amazing visuals of our journey through the Old Testament this year. Together we have read Genesis, Exodus, most of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, all of Joshua and Judges, most of I and II Samuel, and most recently, most of I and II Kings.

At the beginning of unit 3 (Tapestry of Grace Year 1) the Hebrews asked God for a king to rule over them so they could "be like the nations around them." Their experiment with kingship went wrong almost right away, and God divided the kingdom in two after only three kings had ruled. One of those three, however, was David. Throughout the rest of Scripture we read prophecy after prophecy of God showing compassion to a remnant of Hebrews "because of my servant David". He was called "a man after God's own heart." After the kingdom was divided, the southern kingdom of Judah continued to have a descendant of King David sitting on the throne.

We talked a lot about David's strengths, and his failings. His response to his sin (repentance), and his yearning for closeness with God. We read some of the Psalms which he wrote. I love reading the Bible and talking about these things with my children!

This is son G's depiction of David's lusting after Bathsheba (top picture - he looks down from his palace and sees her bathing on the roof of her house - if you could see the picture up close it's really cute because he drew her shadow through a screen in an effort to be discreet! Click on picture to enlarge.) And the bottom picture shows Bathsheba's husband being placed at the front lines of a besieged city they were fighting, to insure that he would be killed.



Daughter G drew a set of four pictures to tell the same story. First was David spotting the beautiful Bathsheba.


Next was David trying to convince Uriah to to go home for a few days and spend time with his wife (which, as a good commander of troops, he refused).


Then in desperation, King David had Uriah placed at the front lines of battle.


And lastly the prophet Nathan comes and confronts David with his sin, telling David a story about a rich man with many sheep and a poor man with only one. The rich man takes the one sheep that the poor man had. David is infuriated with the rich man in this story, until he realizes that he himself has done the same thing with Uriah's wife. He repents of his sin, but must still suffer God's punishment (death of his firstborn son by Bathsheba) and the consequences of his actions (infighting among his family members, and his wives being given to others ~ see 2 Samuel 12).


The most incredible thing about this story is not David's sin, or even his repentance, but God's forgiveness! One of David's and Bathsheba's other sons, Solomon, became the next king, and it is said of him that "there has been no-one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you." (I Kings 3:12) God's forgiveness and restoration is so complete.

As we've been reading through the O. T. this year, it has seemed so fresh to me, almost as if I were reading it for the first time. I think this is because God is answering the prayer that we pray together every morning - that He would "open my eyes that I may see wondrous things out of thy law." ~ Psalm 119:18