Human Nature In David: A Young Champion Of Israel

To understand the way we, as cerebral humans, think and behave, one must also understand human nature; the instinctual tendencies of the human race. The concept of human nature encompasses everyone in human history, affecting everyone who has ever lived, influencing their thoughts, ideas, and actions. We can recognize this notion of human nature by simply observing the people around us, news, or maybe even looking at the Bible. The Bible can give us insight on some of the first accounts of human nature taking place, with characters such as Cain or David illustrating our natural and instinctual behaviors, in the most read book by humans. “The First Murder” and “Young Champion of Israel”, as well as the poem, “A Time for Everything”, all from

The story of young David takes place when Saul was king and Israel was at war with the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. The Philistines send out their best warrior, Goliath, to fight one champion from Israel, whichever champion won the battle, their country would conquer the other. No one would face Goliath, until courageous David came forth and briskly slew Goliath. “And David said to the men who stood by him, ‘What shall be done about the man who kills this Philistine… For who is this Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?’” (1 Samuel 17). Before David came, every Israelite shook in their boots at the sight of Goliath, not wanting to take on the onus of facing the monster of a man. However David embraced the challenge-seeking and courageous side of his human nature and fought Goliath. This is the same side of human nature that motivates people around the world to face difficult tasks, accept challenges that others will nott, and go up against seemingly impossible odds. In the story of David and Goliath, this is one of the first examples of someone demonstrating the beneficial aspects of human

“A Time for Everything”, written in the book of Ecclesiastes, starts off with stating there is a time for everything under heaven, and then continues to mention numerous different instincts and feelings we as humans go through throughout our journey of life. Whether that be death, birth, or marriage, the poem represents that there is a proper time for all of human nature’s actions. “A time keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3). Throughout the poem, the author continually looks at two sides of us as humans. There is the more amiable side of us, the peaceful, loving, benevolent, and laughing side of humans, yet the author also describes the more woeful side of us, the warring, reprehensible, reproachful side of humans with the capacity to kill. Here, the message is clear through the poem that there during some point in their life, everyone is going to go through these emotions or actions. There are both the deplorable and admirable parts of us, but we all must experience them to become aware of our roundness as human beings. That is due to how all these emotions and actions