With the success of The Chosen, more bible-based projects are gracing our streaming platforms. YouTube just released a comedy in the style of The Office, about the Exodus, called The Promised Land. Another show is House of David, on Amazon Prime Video, the first season releasing last year and reaching 40 million viewers by the end of the season. The first two episodes of House of David, Season Two drop on October 5th.
The story of David in the Bible can be found primarily in the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Samuel. The producers of House of David are up front about the fact that they do take some liberties with some biblical elements of the story from time to time for the sake of storytelling. One glaring example is making David an illegitimate son of Jesse to explain why he was least regarded in his family.
Still, much like The Chosen, House of David fleshes out the story of King David by imagining what some of the details that are not in the Bible may have been. The storytelling in the show draws the audience into the drama in a new way that will, hopefully, send people right back to the source to become more familiar with the biblical account.
Season One ends with David (Michael Iskander) gaining victory over the Phillistine giant, Goliath (Martyn Ford), much to the surprise of King Saul (Ali Suliman), his son Jonathan (Ethan Kai), David’s own brother, Eliab (Davood Ghadami), and the rest of the Israelite and Phillistine armies.
Yes, Goliath has been slain but there is still a battle to be won and the first episode feels like the Battle of Agincourt from Kenneth Branagh’s version of Henry V, minus the spurting blood and guts (as the show is rated TV-14). The intensity remains, however, and as various characters, including a very disoriented David, circulate in and out of the scenes, the horror of war is on full display.
This is a Bible battle, though, and the seer, Samuel (Stephen Lang), remains on the cliffs above the battle praying to Almighty God for victory.
Episode Two sees the victorious army triumphantly entering Saul’s stronghold at Gibeah. David is still very much out of his element and seems both pleased and embarrassed when Saul introduces him to the people as the “giant slayer.”
Despite the biblical liberties taken, House of David is faithful when it comes to the main point: God has promised to be with the people and things will go well as long as the people remain faithful to serving God. In a conflict between King Saul and Samuel, the seer affirms, “You must know by now I do not serve kings.”
In today’s society, it often seems like it doesn’t matter whether one serves God or not. Success, wealth, and power can be gained by anyone in almost any way, seemingly without consequences for wrongdoing. Experiencing the story of David and his ascendence to the throne of Israel through House of David, can remind us that yes, God still calls us to service and yes, if we reject God and place other people or things in God’s place, there will be consequences, even if it doesn’t seem so at the time. The show gives us, the audience, a chance to ask ourselves: whom do we serve?