glory days

I have been reading in Samuel and Kings about the "glory days" of Israel, i.e. the reigns of David and Solomon. You can almost hear Jews of later years telling their children about the "good ole' days". Yet these times were beset with trouble. The first seven years of David's reign, the nation was in civil war. Then Absalom revolted and David was again on the run. After that a man named Sheba revolted, and only Judah remained loyal to David. After that rebellion was put down, David sinfully ordered a census of the people and God in his anger killed seventy thousand Israelites.

Solomon's reign was tainted by 700 wives and 300 concubines--many of which were foreign and led him (and the nation) into idolatry. At the end of Solomon's reign, the people of Israel were so oppressed by Solomon's forced labor and taxes that they told Rehoboam he had to ease up on them.

And those were the good times, the pinnacle of Israelite history. It makes me think there probably wasn't a golden age of America, either. There is good and bad in every age. We have penicillin and Paris Hilton--Lord have mercy upon us.