I did most of the introductory work for these posts in the first post, so from now on I’m just going to include my comments without introduction. Except for this one. You know what I mean.

They totally messed up the Jericho story (the spies hid on Rahab’s roof under some reeds. She was to hang a red rope out her window which was part of the city wall, not on a post outside her doorway.

I disagree with the move to totally skip the story of Gideon. It’s a great story showing God’s deliverance using a person most people wouldn’t look at twice. His story also shows the need to depend totally on God, not on our own power.

Which judge did they show?  Samson.  But it wasn’t really Samson, because Samson was JEWISH, not black. Yes, I know there are Ethiopian Jews now. There weren’t back then.

NOT an accurate portrayal of Samson.

They portray Samson as a guy who is just trying to do what is right. Samson wasn’t a good guy in the Bible. He was selfish and repeatedly disobeyed the commands of God to not touch dead things, not drink wine, as well as the law of Moses (for example, he married two Philistine women).

They messed up the details of the death of Samson’s first wife. Then they edited the Delilah episode down to one conversation where Samson gives away his secret the first time she asks.  Also, they made it seem like Samson killed about 100 people total, when he killed just under 6000 Philistines.  I don’t know how they could have shown this on TV, but they could have at least tried.   In the program, Samson’s eyes were still bleeding from his eyes being gouged when he killed his last Philistine. In the Bible they shaved his head, and it had been long enough for his hair to grow back before his last demonstration of God’s strength.

One final note about Samson.  His strength came from God, not his biceps and steroids, as every depiction of him seems to show. I don’t think the historical Samson was a big guy. That’s what made people wonder, “Where does he get his strength?”  Think about it:  if you saw a big burly guy doing feats of strength, you would assume he works out a lot and is strong and healthy.  But if you saw a wimpy looking guy do great feats of strength, you’d say, “huh?  What gives?”  That’s why I think Samson probably looked more like Captain America before his “treatment.” You know, this guy:

Moving on…

They totally glossed over the fact that Saul didn’t want to be king.
They totally glossed over the choice of David as the new king. First Samuel 16 has the account for any that care to read it. It’s an amazing story of how God looks into the heart instead of how someone looks on the outside.

At the battle with Goliath, David didn’t just drop Saul’s shield as the program portrays, he tried on Saul’s armor, and it was too big. Also, he picked up the stones from a creek, not from the ground in front of the king.  Again, details.

Goliath was probably too short as portrayed in the movie.  If I recall correctly, he was about nine feet tall, not six and change.

Saul never murdered any priests who gave David shelter.

The man who told David that Saul was dead claimed to have killed Saul (when Saul killed himself, as accurately shown in the program), and David had the messenger killed, a fact that is not mentioned in the program.

David reigned in Hebron for ten years before the conquest of Jerusalem. The ark was not brought into Jerusalem for many years.

As a final note on this episode, I can’t believe they totally skipped everything from just after David & Bathsheba to the deportation.  Elijah, anyone? Jehoshaphat? Elisha? Isaiah? Hezekiah?  These guys would have made for great TV!

In closing, if you are still reading, that means you are interested in the retelling of fictionalized biblical stories.  If you want to read great stories based on the life of David and his mighty men, read “Day of War” (and the sequels) by Cliff Graham.

a really great read!

He does an amazing job telling the facts as they were, and embellishing the extra stuff the Bible doesn’t mention.  Are his stories history? No, but the events described COULD have happened the way he tells them.  I believe there is a movie in production based on his book.  I plan to see it when it comes out.