II. Samuel 19: The aftermath of civil unrest

So we haven't been getting a lot of sleep the last couple of nights and these chapters are getting more and more confusing with new names popping up and small side stories being told while David rules.

The big story tonight is that David is the king again. A familiar theme though is that the people are petty and are fighting to get in the good graces of whoever is in power. Fair weather fans so to speak.

Now that the battle has been won, David can only focus on the death of Absalom, turning a happy day of victory into a day of mourning. Joab (always the bad-arse) calls David out and tells him that he is making a horse's arse of himself and the people won't want to follow a crybaby who weeps for the enemy (in different words of course). David straightens himself out and sets to work reclaiming his kingdom.

Meanwhile in Israel, the people aren't looking for the return of David, despite all of the good things he did for them. This makes you wonder, had David not been the great king he is always made out to be? After all, the people did turn on him pretty quickly and it wasn't until David sent his priests to Jerusalem and Judah that the elders decided they wanted David back. Why was there such seeming disdain for David? The fair-weather fans eventually did come around to take him back, with the men of Judah and Israel fighting over who "liked" David more...too bad they didn't have Facebook back then or we'd have proof.

During this story we also see some side stories making David out to be the good guy we always heard about. First he pardoned the former servant of Saul who had thrown rocks at him and cursed him as he was fleeing Jerusalem. Then,  Jonathan's son that David had taken in spoke his unending devotion to David for taking him in and making him a part of his family. David also then made a promise to take care of the wishes of an elderly man who had stood by him during the whole Absalom debacle.

It seems that the stories about David are becoming shorter and less significant than the major ones we had previously read. There were some major events that were depicted in David's life previously and now we are getting the spark notes version of what else was notable in David's reign.