The Honor of Obed-Edom

On Kids Radio, John Avery Whittaker opens another chapter of the Book of Speculations - imagined stories built around people the Bible mentions only briefly. This one is about Obed-Edom, and as Whit reminds listeners, no one is saying it happened exactly this way, but it could have.

The story begins in the Besor Valley, where King David leads four hundred of his mighty men against the Amalekite raiders who have burned their village and carried off their families. Obed-Edom, David's trusted scout, reports that the women and children are alive and the enemy camp is feasting, unaware of the coming attack. The battle is won, but Obed-Edom is struck from behind and his leg is shattered.

Years later, Obed-Edom walks with a cane and has been released from the king's service. He spends his days telling his young grandson Othni about the old battles and teaching him to pray. Othni assures him, "You're a mighty grandfather, though," but life has grown hard. A drought has killed the garden, his sons have been quietly paying his debts, and the neighbors supply his food. His wife Malah, worn down from carrying the household alone, confesses she cannot bear it much longer. Worse, Othni's cough is far more serious than Obed-Edom knew - the boy needs a physician, and his son Shemaiah, grown bitter and tired of his father's stories and prayers, is thinking of moving his family to Jerusalem.

Then King David himself appears at the door. He is searching for an honorable man to house the Ark of the Covenant. On its journey toward Jerusalem, a soldier named Uzzah touched the Ark to steady it and died on the spot - as David puts it, "his mistake was assuming he was holier than the mud." Shemaiah tries to refuse for his father, remembering the tumors that struck the Philistines, but Obed-Edom wonders whether God allowed his injury for this very purpose and joyfully accepts. Furious, Shemaiah declares that as long as the Ark remains, neither he nor Othni will ever visit, and his father must stay away from them as well. Soon all eight sons agree, leaving Obed-Edom and Malah outcasts from their own family.

The Ark fills the best room of the house, and the couple worships before it daily. When Othni sneaks in to see it, his grandfather describes the treasures inside - the manna, Aaron's rod, and the stone tablets carved by the finger of God - but the visit ends badly when the boy nearly touches the gleaming gold and Shemaiah catches him there. Father and son part with a painful goodbye.

Yet blessing after blessing follows. Without a drop of rain, the garden swells into a bumper crop. Then Shemaiah returns - not to scold, but to apologize. Othni, who had grown so weak his father feared for his life, was suddenly healed at dusk, the very hour Obed-Edom prayed for him before the Ark, and Shemaiah's wife Dina is expecting another child. "Keep the Ark. Keep it forever if God wills," Shemaiah says, and the family worships together at last.

After three months, David returns to carry the Ark to Jerusalem. Malah begs to keep it, but Obed-Edom agrees it must go; clinging to it for the blessings would make them no better than the Philistines. When David wonders why God never healed his friend's leg, Obed-Edom answers simply, "Some blessings come through pain." Impressed, the king invites him to play his lyre in the great procession and to serve as the Ark's gatekeeper in Jerusalem, bringing all his sons and their households with him. Whit closes the chapter: Obed-Edom kept that post the rest of his days, all eight sons were blessed with children, and his legacy of faith was passed down to them all.