For cowboy lovers, the 1950s were golden. There were more cowboys than you can count on your fingers and toes: Hopalong Cassidy, and Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Lash LaRue and the list goes on. There were probably only a dozen or so basic scenarios played out in all their shows, and one of the classics was the runaway stagecoach. The driver became incapacitated, the horses went mad, the coach was full of terrified passengers, and along came Roy riding Trigger at what seemed like seventy-five miles an hour. He pulled up next to the runaway horses, leaped onto the back of a lead horse, and brought the stagecoach to a safe stop. Remember all that?

This episode from the eighteenth chapter of 2 Samuel is about runaway lives. In fact, that’s true for much of 1 and 2 Samuel. Certain…