David's Hidden Tale: A Shocking Tale of the Shepherd King

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What if I told you that our beloved biblical character David was not just a shepherd out of choice or tradition, but was forced into it for reasons that may shock you? Prepare for an exploration into David's life, where we challenge common narratives and reveal shocking details of his early life as a shepherd in ancient Israel that have been overlooked for centuries. 

This episode peels back layers of David’s story, shedding light on the alleged scandal surrounding his mother, Nitzevet, and its impact on David’s journey into shepherding. Discover how this seemingly unfortunate circumstance honed skills that later proved instrumental on the battlefield and in his ascend to kingship. As we embark on our new series on Psalm 23, keep this fresh perspective of David's life in mind, and understand how his personal experiences profoundly influenced his intimate depiction of God as his shepherd. Get ready to be enlightened on this journey into our Ancient Future Story.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to our ancient future story, navigating
Scripture through the Eyes ofFamily, where I share with you
biblical stories like a familymember would share a story
around a dinner table.
As children of God, we are apart of God's family and His
family story has a lot ofhistory.
Each week we will take onestory and talk about it the
cultural, historical,geographical and sociological

(00:32):
impacts.
We will be looking at thesestories from the perspective of
our ancestors, through the lensof ancient times, in hopes of
learning more about our family.
This is our ancient futurestory.
Welcome back to our ancientfuture story.

(01:01):
I'm Vic and I am so excited totell you a new story today.
As we begin our new series onPsalms 23, I thought it was
important for us to first talkabout David and learn.
So what if that David was ashepherd?
I don't know about you, butafter studying Boaz and Ruth
this intently, it occurred to methat David came from a really

(01:23):
wealthy family.
Boaz owned so much land and hadsuccessful harvest year after
year.
So how did David become ashepherd the lowest social
status in ancient Israel society?
It seems like elite, becausetraditionally shepherding was
passed down through generations.
So let's find out together howDavid became a shepherd.
Grab a cup of coffee orsomething to drink and let's

(01:46):
dive into so what?
Shepherding was a skill that waslearned as a child.
So boys and girls would startyoung and take the flock of
sheep out to find food and water.
It would be up to the child orpreteen to protect their flock

(02:09):
from wild animals.
These young shepherds werecalled under-shepherds and they
worked for the master shepherd,likely their father, who owned
the entire flock.
Though this is traditionallyhow the career of shepherding is
passed down, it was not thecase with David.
According to the midrash, thatancient Jewish commentary, and
other rabbi teachings, david washated growing up because it was

(02:35):
believed that his mother,nitzvot, had an affair.
However, what really happened?
Nitzvot had tricked Jesse intosleeping with her, but because
of this assumption that David'smom had been unfaithful, david
was outcasted from his ownfamily.
They made him a shepherd inhopes that he would be killed by
wild animals.

(02:56):
Okay, pause, this is news to me.
David, the king David, wasforced into shepherding out of
spite.
I can honestly say no one hastaught me that side of David's
story in Sunday school before,but it does make sense, right?
Their family didn't drop thatfar in the social status Just

(03:16):
David.
Now, david could have beenbitter about this, but in all
his writings we only see howmuch he loved his sheep.
David learned skills like usinga slingshot, fighting off wild
animals, protecting sheep,finding lost sheep etc.
And all these skills served himwell, especially on the
battlefield bringing food forhis brothers, facing his cousin

(03:39):
Goliath and starting his journeyto become king.
So why do we care that Davidwas a shepherd?
The career of shepherding isnot glamorous.
It's dusty and dirty and norespecting person wants to do it
.
But David took pride in being ashepherd and all the skills he
learned during these days servedhim as king.

(03:59):
But, as we will see in ourPsalm 23 series, david
understood shepherding sointimately that he was able to
see Yahweh as his shepherd.
I hope this helps illuminatethe childhood of David a bit for
you.
Hold this backstory in yourmind as we enter in our next
series on Psalm 23 and see howDavid used shepherding to
express God's love for us.

(04:20):
See you then.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode of our Ancient
Future Story.
I hope that you really enjoyedit.
This episode was written andproduced by Vic Harmon.
Music is embarking on anadventure by Evan MacDonald.

(04:42):
Please support the show bysubscribing and rating us, and
be sure to follow us onInstagram and Facebook at our
Ancient Future Story.
See you next time.
Bye.