Similarities

While reading through the book of 2 Samuel a few weeks ago, I was struck by something interesting. 2 Samuel focuses a lot of attention to the hero David. You know, the David-and-Goliath David. The writer of Psalms David. You know, Big King D.

Anyway, David was God's anointed king and shed much blood to unite the 12 tribes of Israel. Not only did God choose him to be king, but his lineage can be traced to Moses and JC. In other words, David was an important guy in the OT. He was a powerfully faithful man to boot.

I was reading about one of his major sins. He saw Bathsheba bathing on a roof and lusted deeply to have her in the Biblical sense. In his lust for her, he knocked her up. Even went so far as to have her husband killed and hastily married her just to hide the truth.

Of course, you can't hide the truth from the Lord. And, while God forgive his greatest servant for his sins, David's sins produced ... negative effects... on Israel. After all, how could God's chosen one be so susceptible to such temptation and sin? His enemies could see that he was no better than they were, and worse they could call him a hypocrite.

All that to say, while thinking about the story of David's life, I kept coming back to Bill Clinton. During Bill Clinton's presidency, the USA enjoyed prosperous times, no doubt (Republicans will argue that, but go with me here). While I lived during his term, I felt I was doing good. Got through college in his first term. Entered the work force, even started worked for the company I still work for in his second, and was married by the end of his presidency. Life was good. Some of my best years I feel happened during his time. So, in my eyes, Billyboy was, at the very least, good domestically for me and the US. I won't argue about his foreign policy (at least not now).

Then, Monica happened. And, I think for a while this country was ok with our president getting a bj. Once the leader of the free world was caught having an affair, it seems we responded (in a general sense) by not only accepting the behavior, but letting our morals decay further. Hey, if loose morals are ok for the President, then I'll have lesbians strippers do a tap dance with my silly putty. I guess what I'm saying is Bill Clinton's affair allowed our society to be even more free. While the situation was no doubt embarrassing, Clinton really didn't suffer humiliation in society. In fact, it's probably safe to say he made it socially acceptable to cheat on your significant other.

Take note that I'm not trying to judge anybody for their lifestyles and their own morals. It's not my place and just because I choose live one way doesn't mean someone else has to. No judgment here.

But, it's interesting to note the similarities between David and Clinton. They both were kings of their time. They both were, argueably, good to and for their people. And they both had their knobs shined by someone that was off limits. While Israel was unified during David's reign, there were rebellions. One was even successful for a period. But David got the throne back. Eventually though, many kings down the road, Israel was divided into two kingdoms and later ransacked by the Babylonians.

Interesting to note, America is now all about the red and blue state. The Republicans and Democrats. The Conservative and The Liberal. Maybe not two kingdoms, but certainly a divided nation. And look where all the ill-will toward US is coming from. Why, it's Babylo... I mean, Islamofascists.

I'm not trying to blame Bill Clinton for our problems. I'm just saying history does has a way of repeating itself. We learn about our future by understanding the mistakes made in the past. The question remains will we learn from the past? Are we too proud to admit our mistakes? Can we understand our actions, no matter how small and trivial, start a chain reaction that ends up affecting more than we could possibly have thought? Can we humble ourselves, admit we were wrong, and change our ways? Or could our fall be far off?