The Original Red-Headed Stepchild?

December 28, 2021

 

Have you ever heard the phrase, “the red-headed stepchild”? As in, “This department always gets treated like the red-headed stepchild.” You always come in a distant second when good things are passed out.

I was listening to a sermon the other day, by a guy who was preaching about David, and how he was just considered ordinary by his family. He said that when Samuel came by to check out the kids for possible kingship, Jesse didn’t even send for David, who was stuck in field watching the sheep. But Samuel refused to sit down and eat until David was summoned.

The preacher also said that David was a redhead (“ruddy” was the word, but he said it translates as “red-haired), and that that was pretty rare in Israel (the only other redhead mentioned in the Bible was Esau). So, putting two and two together, I wondered if David was the original red-headed stepchild, with all the discomfort accruing to the position.

THEN I thought, “Well, that would explain why Isaiah said that the Messiah would come from a shoot from the stump of Jesse.” That phrase has puzzled me for some time—like when a tree gets cut down, but a little branch will sprout from the side, like an afterthought; why didn’t he say that the Messiah would come straight down the line from Jesse? But if David were a half-brother—for whatever reason—that would explain the phrasing, and the lack of enthusiasm on the part of David’s family.

Hey, it could have happened.

January 12, 2022

I heard the same pastor today saying that David was illegitimate. So I checked the trusty internet, and there is a school of thought that says he may have been. Guess I should brush up on Biblical history.