“head and shoulders above the rest” by jenny downing

Just when you begin to wonder if any Bible story is really suitable for simple Sunday School reading, and have begun to suspect that the Bible has no message but: Humans are broken and need mending, humans are sinful and therefore they keep spoiling God’s lovely world and hurting each other. Along comes a story to remind us of another truth… Just as the story of Ruth  followed the grime of Judges, so now in 1 Samuel 24 we get a story, set amid the war and political jostling of the beginnings of the Hebrew monarchy, with not one but two real heroes. Both protagonists are noble in this chapter. Both we know from other chapters are sinful broken men, but here young David and poor old, broken and probably insane, Saul both act with gracious nobility.