Preview
  • David the Great

  • Deconstructing the Man After God's Own Heart
  • By: Mark Rutland
  • Narrated by: Maurice England
  • Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (225 ratings)

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David the Great

By: Mark Rutland
Narrated by: Maurice England
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Publisher's summary

King David was a complicated, conflicted man of flesh. But too often he is viewed as an Americanized shepherd boy on a Sunday school felt board or a New Testament saint alongside the Virgin Mary. Not only does this neglect one of the Bible’s most complex stories of sin and redemption, it also bypasses the gritty, life lessons inherent in the amazing true story of David.

Mark Rutland shreds the felt-board character, breaks down the sculpted marble statue, and unearths the real David of the Bible. Both noble and wretched, neither a saint nor a monster, at times victorious and other times a failure, David was, through it all, a man after God’s own heart.

©2018 eChristian (P)2018 eChristian
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What listeners say about David the Great

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"Great" book..

What a captivating and extraordinary book of the life of David. Dr. Rutland's coloquial verbiage makes it fun and exciting to understand the many facets of David and how he was a man after God's own heart. What is man that you are so mindful of us oh Lord.

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Get Real

Great listen. King David comes alive, not the myth, the ancient man who heard about a God worthy to trust, and, with much blood and much betrayal and many errors because he was a “man after God’s heart. “ great job dr mark

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what a king

The author breaks down the story of David from the textbook like format in the Bible, and transforms it into a beautiful narratard story.

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Gripping and raw, I loved it!

Mark Rutland has done it again! Awesome reflection of King David’s life. It was far from dull, in fact, it puts the greatest action movies to shame. I think all leaders and parents should read this book. It sets the bar on what a leader should... and at times shouldn’t be. Right from get-go Mark had my full attention. Buy it now, you won’t regret it.

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outstanding book

Very biblical based. Accurate and anchored by the Bible. Eritten in a way that it's very entertaining and easy to listen to.

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He’s a man after God’s heart but fell short like us all

This is worth the read. Trust me, you’ll be happy youinvested the time to read it

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Good with a Goliath-sized Caveat

A no-holds-barred, no-BS look at the turbulent life and flawed character of David. The pedestal he’s so often put on is stripped away and his life is laid bare in all its victories and defeats, shames and triumphs, beauty and ugliness as it attempts to answer how on earth David could be called “a man after God’s own heart”. All of this the book does well without venerating or vilifying this complex man.

The issue I take is that the author tends to make authoritative statements about the motivations and reasoning of people who lived thousands of years ago based entirely on his own conjecture. He speculates on dialogue, relationship dynamics, motivations, responses to situations and feelings in situations—all things we cannot know—and then builds upon that speculation as if it’s fact, sometimes even referring back to his own fictitious conversations as if they really happened. I have no doubt he would admit he cannot know these things and is only speculating, but the fact that he makes those authoritative claims is distracting and at times disturbing - one example being when he calls David’s tragic first wife Michal “Daddy’s spoiled little princess” crying “crocodile tears” when she saves David’s life by helping him escape her father Saul and then lies about it instead of standing up to him. I think at times the author, who insistently reminds us that we can’t judge David by modern standards, does exactly that to others and seems to think that a woman living in the ancient Middle East with no rights and no protections who is considered property could and should defy her father and king, an action with its own death sentence.
He makes these kinds of assumptions many times and it’s as distracting as it is aggravating.

The book is worth reading for the valid insight it gives on how David—a lust-driven prideful man, adulterer, murderer, terrible husband and worse father—can possibly be “a man after God’s own heart.” The answer when it comes in the epilogue is simple and not exactly deep or detailed, but I think it’s right, and that was helpful to me personally. I haven’t been a fan of David since I did a research project on his wives in college. This helped me balance my perspective on him.

Worth a read, but listen with a robust grain of salt.

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Extraordinary Read!

The narrator was fascinating and even sounds a bit like Dr. Rutland. This audiobook totally change my perspective on David and leadership.

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Insightful Views from a Godly Erudite Professor

King David’s life has long been one of the examples from God’s Word that captured me because of the reality and transparency of his human plight. King David, not unlike every one of us, was a man who committed sin. The lessons and detail Dr. Mark go into in this book scrape away the novelties of David’s life to the crux of what made him a man after God’s own heart- his heart of repentance.

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Amazingly detailed

I really enjoyed this book! I plan on listening to it again, probably multiple times! I’m sure something I missed will stand out!
Very detailed and easy to understand!

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