1 Samuel 16—2 Kings 15 with Shawn & Nathan
In this episode of the 13 Week Bible, Shawn and Nathan preview the Scripture for week four: that's the rest of 1 Samuel, beginning with chapter 16. They'll move on through 2 Samuel and into 2 Kings, ending with chapter 15. We not only hope you'll enjoy their fun and informative dialogue as they continue their journey through the Bible in just 13 weeks, but will consider reading or listening through the Bible yourself.
For more inspiration, visit Loveshaped.life.
Transcript
Hey, it's Nathan. Shawn's right here with me as well. We want to welcome you back to the 13-week Bible. This is season two, and we're in episode number five in our weekly reading preview. We're hoping you're enjoying the reading through the Bible in just 13 weeks. By the way, if you're just dropping in, we'd encourage you to start with episode one and follow along.
Today we're previewing the rest of 1 Samuel, beginning with chapter 16. We'll also preview 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and on through 2 Kings, chapter 15. Sean, how's the reading?
Shawn (:My reading is going very well, Nathan. I am, I think, one day behind, but I'm, I feel like I'm keeping pace pretty well. So, yeah, but not only that, I'm enjoying it, and as we've talked about, getting a lot out of it, and really, you know, as I'm reading, no doubt, as you are doing, Nathan, I'm making notes of little questions and stories that I want to come back to.
Nathan (:Nice.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Shawn (:to in the future, but I keep adding page after page to my notes because we can't slow down and tackle all these things right now, but I don't want to forget about them.
Nathan (:Yep. And so that's a great reminder as you're reading. That's the best thing to do. There's another way you can do it. I use the voice record option on my iPhone and my Apple watch when the buffer's not full, just to throw in voice notes. So I can do that while I'm driving, at least with my watch. You can, maybe that's not something I'd recommend, but anyway.
That voice note if you're sitting down or even don't want to pull out the pen or don't want to pull out your phone To make a note you can always use those voice notes And in fact, I was just reviewing a couple of them on my way in this morning Again, that's so helpful to keep those notes You'll find again that if you don't slow down You're gonna get some great ideas and some of those ideas you just don't get if you slow down so there's that mix again, we're talking about a habit of
fast big picture reading that is accompanied by slower reflective deeper study. So we're definitely not here saying just spend all your time skimming. This 13 weeks is a great time to skim and get the big picture, but then in between be planning, you know, on the months in between, if you've got time in the days in between, certainly you can slow down.
But thanks, John. That's a great reminder of the value of the big picture. Oh, one other thing I wanted to mention is I was just reminded recently, because I've had some challenges keeping up with the reading, is if you come at the text with.
Shawn (:You bet.
Nathan (:even the desire sort of or the focus of looking at like skimming through and just picking out bits of the story even if you go through a Bible that has like headings and just take you know set your timer give yourself 60 minutes and just go through the section don't focus on reading it focus on looking at the connections the different stories in the section slow down to pick up details it's a different way of sort of
previewing the whole chunk. So I think that's even another method, one, you could, or you're actually reading through. The other one where you're not focused on reading, but you're focused on sort of reflecting on the whole chunk together of sort of a day's reading. That can be very helpful. And I was just reminded of that this time as I've been sort of looking at keeping up and processing and just being reminded that sometimes
Attacking the text or approaching the text in a different way besides sort of the reading approach can be very helpful again and picking up the big picture the big linkages.
Shawn (:Yeah, I think that's good. It's an important reminder and it's an important permission because I don't know about you, Nathan, but I'm the type of person who I don't say I've read a book unless I've read every word in it. And so I feel like I'm cheating. I feel like I'm cheating when I don't read every single word. But again, as we've said before, the purpose of this sort of exercise is to not get every little blade of grass counted, but to see the big picture.
Nathan (:Hahaha, right!
Thank you. I love that word permission. And I just, I do want to encourage as a listener to give yourself permission, to accept our permission that you're here to get the big picture, whatever that looks like. If it looks like skimming and jumping around, go for it. That's the purpose of this reading. It's not to say I checked the box, I read it. It's to see the big picture. You might come at this with a specific thing. You may come at the text and say, this time as I read through,
Shawn (:Thank you.
Mm.
Nathan (:I want to focus on, let's say there's a big theme of land. Maybe this time you go through and you just want to focus on land. So just be skimming the text, looking for every place where land sort of comes into the conversation, whether that's the Abraham story, I'll give you this land, whether that's the conquest story of Joshua as they conquered the land, whether that's the piece where the land will spit you out if you violate the covenant.
So you're looking for a thing. So then you're skipping lots of stuff to dial into that specific theme. And so that's another way to go at it thematically. Again, you're still going through the whole text. You're still following the daily reading as your focus point for the day, your focus section, but you're drilling in on a specific theme. Could be covenant, could be all kinds of things. Again, if you plan to read it through more than once, that...
really helps take the pressure off to say, okay, I can do this time. Next time I can do something else. Again, if you plan to make it a part of your scripture rhythm. All right, I want to do a quick review. Last time we were in Deuteronomy 8 to the end of Deuteronomy, Joshua judges Ruth and into 1 Samuel through 15. You know, Sean, as I was looking back on the text, I realized there's
There's the namesake character Samuel, then there's the next big character, Saul, and the next big character, David. That was kind of an aha moment that I hadn't really thought about. It's just the book is basically those three characters and their interaction. That's pretty much the entire story of the book.
Shawn (:That's a good observation. It's not something I noticed, so I appreciate you pointing that out. I mean obviously I know that they're in there, but yeah, I didn't notice that pattern. Yeah.
Nathan (:Um, right. Yeah. So then Joshua, the conquest of Canaan, the promised land judges, really messy book, um, as the people of Israel are just going back and forth between faithfulness. Then we came to Ruth, um, great story of a non-Israelite embracing the God of heaven, and then first Samuel brings us into the monarchial period of Israel.
which is where we find ourselves for the entire week ahead as we move through the rest of 1 Samuel, which is 16 through 31, recounting the rise of Israel's most famous King David and the tragic fall of Israel's first King Saul. Then we move to 2 Samuel, which is entirely devoted to the reign of David with all its triumph and tragedy. That's followed by 1 Kings, which recounts the rise of Solomon, Israel's wisest king.
Then follows the dividing of the kingdom in the early days of his son Rehoboam's foolish reign. The rest of the book follows the two kingdoms and their kings with a focus on the kingdom of Israel. Also included is the inspiring story of the Israelite prophet Elijah. Second Kings continues to track the two kingdoms. It also recounts the exciting story of Elijah's prophetic successor Elisha. This section brings us into the tragic.
final days of the Kingdom of Israel. That's the big overview. Let's slow down, Sean. What would you say is sort of your big focus in the last half of 1st Samuel?
Shawn (:Mm.
Well, you know, it's quite interesting because something I had never noticed before Obviously I kind of understood it from later in Israel's history taking place, but Really from the beginning there is this rivalry between the ten tribes of Israel and the
tribes of Judah, Judah and Benjamin. And it's actually present right from the beginning of, well, Saul's reign, but especially it becomes pronounced after Saul. When I had never, I don't think I'd ever noticed this before, technically David was not the second king of Israel. You know, we had, we had
Nathan (:Yes.
Yes, that's something that really stuck out to me this time too. Yeah, keep going. I was noticing the same stuff.
Shawn (:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no. You know, lots of times when we do these little trivia games like who's the second king of Israel or who's the third king of Israel? It's like David and then Solomon. No, actually Ishbochef, Saul's son, was originally the king of Israel and Judah accepted David, but it took a couple years for the rest of Israel to embrace David. And I find that to be interesting
Nathan (:That's right.
Shawn (:divide that develops. I mean, even when we get to Solomon, Israel is like, we're not really sure we like Solomon, and he taxes us too much, and then it comes up with Jeroboam and Rehoboam. And so there was this division sort of right from the very beginning between those two different sections of what we often call Israel.
And of course, you know, it definitely gets distinguished after Solomon between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. But right from the very beginning, Samuel is setting us up to see that there's this conflict in this division and this rivalry that takes place between these two parts of God's people. So I mean, that's something that jumped out at me. That's an initial thought. There's obviously so much more, but
That's something that I had never really noticed before.
Nathan (:That's such a great observation. I think those are the big pieces that really sort of give value to the purpose of this podcast is to highlight those things as you're reading this week. Then you can just be keeping your eye open. Again, I was fascinating and I've read it through before, but just really fascinated to see, just to notice it really struck me the fact that David was not the king that followed Saul.
Except for Judah. I mean, for Judah that was true, but not for, I think it's seven and a half years, if I remember right, between kind of the full transition was like seven and a half years.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I was just trying to review. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Because I did, I think, yeah, it was 33 years total that he reigned over all of Israel. And then, yeah, I think it was seven where he was just Judah. So yeah, now, obviously, you know, in Jewish thinking, the big, maybe the big three, why we say heroes are Abraham, Moses, David.
Nathan (:Hmm
Shawn (:So David is extremely pivotal and important in their understanding and certainly the Hebrew Bible and Bible's understanding. We talked about this a little bit last week, I think, where I don't remember exactly where it said in scripture and I'm reading a different version, so it's hard for me to use the classic language. But David was a man after God's own heart.
Nathan (:Huge.
Hmm.
Shawn (:And I'm trying to pick up what in the story makes him so. And as I sort of touched on last week, I do think it was because of his singular devotion to the monotheistic God. He certainly had other problems, adultery and murder and all this other stuff, but he kept coming back to the singular worship of God. I think also,
Nathan (:Hmm
Shawn (:one theme that is picked up as well through David's life is that over and over again, and it's like the other characters in the story, they are constantly surprised by this and you think they know, but he is not happy when his enemies die and are killed. Like people, you know, whether it's Saul or Ishbosheth or Absalom,
Nathan (:Yes, oh, that's a great observation.
Shawn (:You know, these people come to him with this report of, hey, yay, your enemies have been killed. And like, basically, he often has those people who report this news, he has them killed. And so he's like, what makes you think that I would be happy about my enemies being killed? And so it just shows, I think it's a picture into God's heart where, you know, the great.
Nathan (:Right. Yeah.
Right.
Shawn (:statement of Jesus, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He has a heart of love for his rivals, for his enemies, not a heart of hatred and despising them.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Sean, I think we could really sit on this for a while. In fact, I think as a reader, as you're reading this week, just really keep your eyes open. I would, in my mind, I'm thinking that factor is a major reason why God says he's a man after my own heart. Because you do, you have it. And I have in my notes, just the note that twice Saul was in David's hand. So there's this cat and this cat and mouse game.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mmm, mm-hmm.
Nathan (:Well, it's not a game for David or Saul, I guess, but just this awful cat and mouse where David's the anointed, Saul sees that God is with David, Saul becomes this raging jealous, basically. I don't know if maniac is the right name, but he really loses it. Tries to kill David more than once. He chases David through the bush.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:Twice, in fact, David escapes to the Philistines the first time he freaks out and pretends to be a crazy man and so that he saves his hide. The second time he actually moves in and interestingly is running raids on Philistine villages from within the Philistine territory. So that's an interesting section of the story. But here's the piece I wanted to mention. Twice, David and Saul are so close that David, and David is literally within.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Hehehe
Nathan (:actual physical striking distance. One time he cuts off a corner of Saul's robe. I'm forgetting what he did the other time. Both times, if I'm remembering right, he's encouraged by his faithful men to do something, to take the life of the king. And both times David's like, no. In fact, when he takes the corner of Saul's garment, I think that's the cave episode. Saul's using the restroom in a cave. David's men are back deeper in the cave.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:David cuts a piece of Saul's robe while he's using the restroom and the Bible says his conscience was smitten. So sure David Has some really dark moments, but he has this He has this heart for God and when he realizes he's messed up He's very quick to say whoa. Oh, man. I'm so sorry. He's very quick to correct course
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:And I just, that for me seems to be like this heart that is like God is this heart that can be moved to correction and is moved by love for enemy in ways that don't seem to show up as much in the story of other kings.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Well, I think precisely because of that reason and others as well, but because of that, that another theme that emerges throughout the narrative as we continue to go through it is that, you know, God favors future kings because of the covenant he made with David. You know, he promised that he would have a son on the throne. And so because of God's love for and covenant he made with David.
He shows favor to subsequent kings and future generations, just again, echoing God honoring the faithfulness of David and placing his favor upon his descendants.
Nathan (:That's another great tag team moment because I was thinking about the same thing as you were talking earlier. It does, you read through the entire, I don't know if it's as much the Israel story as the kingdom of Israel story, kind of the northern kingdom as much as the Judah story. But over and over and over again, you do just watch for it because it does come up where God's like, yeah, I was going to just sort of turn my back on things and let you fall, but I can't.
Shawn (:Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:Because my servant David was so faithful, I have to honor his legacy. Man, you know, there's a lot in the story. This is a relational book, right? And there's these moments where that just comes out really clear. Invite us to reflect. Yeah, go ahead.
Shawn (:Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I think, no, and I don't know how to develop this idea fully, but it speaks ultimately and it raises questions about God's commitment to covenant, right? Like he is treating future generations with favor because he is duty bound to honor his covenant he made with David. And so that's...
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Hmm
Shawn (:I mean that raises all sorts of theological questions in and of itself which are very interesting but you know and the text doesn't give us a theological reflection on why God has to keep his covenant but it's just it's an interesting part of the story where God because he must remain faithful to the promises he makes is on the hook so to speak to treat
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:future generations with kindness and favor because of the covenant he made with David.
Nathan (:So a friend of ours, Ty uses and a couple other friends use this idea that the Old Testament, its promises made, the New Testament promises kept. And I think that's that theme of promise and covenant is very powerful. In fact, the idea of love in the biblical narrative is very intertwined and inseparable from the idea of faithfulness.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Nathan (:covenant faithfulness.
Shawn (:And certainly, you know, Judah, as we're going to learn, is taken into captivity. And so you'd say, well, did God keep his covenant? You know, did he remain faithful? But, I mean, that's a whole other discussion. But the point is, ultimately, who's sitting on the throne of David when it's all said and done, right? Jesus. He is the son of David, the great fulfillment of the covenant.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, that's right. That's right. And again, it's a story and we're looking at the twists and turns of the story. One of the things I noticed this week, and maybe you can give me some feedback, is that scripture is the telling of the story as the prophets could see it. They didn't necessarily have sort of this grand
Shawn (:Mm.
Nathan (:you might say, Bible commentary insight into the story. They were firsthand observers. There were times where God gave them specific insight. There were other times when the prophet was simply operating in the moment in that time in history, speaking to what was happening in the unfolding story. And as Paul says, we see through a glass darkly, they were speaking to a limited understanding
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:limited experience illuminating that peace as God continues to mature and unveil, to mature the people, but also to unveil in increasing, with increasing clarity over generations his own story. So there is a sense in which, and you'll see it between the Kings and the Chronicles, that the authors look at the same history with a little different lens. We'll touch on that when we get to the Chronicles, but
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:because again, the prophets are observing with, again, sort of like that game map, if you've played, whether it's Minecraft or some of these map-based video games that will limit your vision. Sort of the map is only seen as far as you've explored. And the prophets are kind of operating in that. There's sometimes where God gives them insight into regions of the map beyond their explored territory, but often,
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:their view is largely confined to what is visible, what is known within the storyline as God is step-by-step unfolding himself. I don't know what you think about that, Sean, but.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm. No, I think that's right. I think sometimes, at least I do, I get to thinking that a profit is basically omniscient. They know everything. They are given the full picture. They know more than anyone in their time or future times knows, as though somebody living in 800 BC knows more than we do now. Right?
Nathan (:Hmm.
Shawn (:And I certainly think there are occasions, like you sort of said, where they are given, and I don't wanna use the term supernatural, because of course they're given supernatural, but I mean even maybe super supernatural knowledge where they're all knowing. But they probably merely maybe were one or two steps ahead of the rest of the people out there. And they weren't a hundred steps ahead of people. I think if they were,
Nathan (:Hmm.
Shawn (:they, you know, the information that they would have access to would be un, not understandable by their contemporaries. So again, it's like, you know, it's like trying to teach college calculus to a first grader. No, the person has to teach, be a little ahead of the students, not completely ahead of the students. Otherwise, it's too confusing. So, yeah.
Nathan (:Hmm
Yep.
Right. And I think, too, remembering that God is also working within the intelligence and perceptive capacity of the prophet. You know, you look at Paul's writings in the New Testament, very deep and articulate. You look at other writings like John's simpler. So, God is also working within the parameters of the human being. There's not like this superhuman piece.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:Certainly we have supernatural moments, but God is not overstepping the bounds of the prophet's intelligence and capacity as a general rule. We should probably keep moving. The sad part, you'll follow the end of the story. In 1 Samuel finds Saul and his sons killed, Saul dying by suicide tragically. At least that's what the record indicates. Now, I'm not sure if that's the end of.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:If 1st Samuel says that or if that's an insight that comes from Chronicles, um, cause I've read both.
Shawn (:Yeah, there seems to be a little ambiguity. I'm trying to remember which says what, because I do know one of them is like, wait a minute, did he kill himself? Did he not kill himself? Did somebody else do it? Yeah.
Nathan (:Right. Cause the Amalekite in second Samuel's like, Hey, I came on Saul and he was about to die and I killed him and David's like, uh, like Sean mentioned. He said, you think that was a good thing and has them executed. Right. So we're in second Samuel now. And I think one of the pieces that I would just slow down for is the mourning of, of David for Saul and Jonathan. There's.
Shawn (:Yeah.
Do you think I'd be happy?
Nathan (:this beautiful prayer where David just mourns deeply for Saul. And very affectionate, not just about Jonathan. We know Jonathan and David have this deep affection for each other. But David expresses deep affection and respect for Saul. And this is the Saul that tried to kill him multiple times where David says, like, how are the mighty fallen? How did this happen to you, Saul? Just this deep...
Shawn (:Hmm.
Nathan (:Like this ability to grieve his, the death of his oppressor as if his oppressor was a good and righteous man. Just an incredible, incredible way of seeing past his own pain and hurt. I think that's forgiveness, is that what that's called?
Shawn (:Mmm.
Something like that. Yeah.
Nathan (:And then we talked about the short reign of the, and that's, we sort of got ahead of the story. Second Samuel's where we find the reign of Ish-bosheth, seven and a half years where David is King of Judah. And then where Abner gets frustrated with the, I think gets frustrated with Ish-bosheth. And he's like, if David is not, if I don't make David King, may tragedy happen to me? He's like, just, just like, I'm going for it.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:and that was the transition from the divided kingdom in this case of Judah and Israel, kind of the early division, being repaired by Saul's general. You got anything on this part?
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
No, I mean, I just echoing, and I kind of touched on it before, but not only David's lament of Saul's death, but then again later on with Absalom. You know, he's my son, my son, you know, he's just absolutely torn. And Absalom was actively trying to overtake his father's kingdom to the point where David has to leave Jerusalem.
Nathan (:Yes.
Shawn (:as a way to protect himself. And so again, that heart of love and forgiveness and grace is just overwhelming in the story of David.
Nathan (:And we find ourselves in that story. We find one of Saul's relatives is throwing stones and rocks at the procession, specifically at David as they're leaving the city and just calling down curses, you know, you're, you're an evil king and this is what you deserve for stepping in and taking over from the family of Saul.
Shawn (:Mmm, yeah.
Nathan (:And David's like, listen, we can take this guy out. Just give us the word and we'll kill him and you'll be done. And David's like, no, maybe this is what I deserve. It's just this humble kind of, he has the humility not only to forgive his enemy, but in this difficult time in the story to say, maybe this is what I deserve. And he just kind of bows his head and accepts this mistreatment when he could have.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Nathan (:just easily given the word a snap of his fingers, there's plenty of stories to affirm the loyalty and courage of David's men. They would have had that guy beheaded in seconds. And yet David is just humble to say, yeah, I just, again, this beautiful king, this beautiful character, I should say.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
along those lines, one of the most beautiful stories in all of scripture to me, and it comes up in this section, is the story of Mephibosheth, where Jonathan's son, lame in his feet, is discovered. And David's like, is there anyone in Jonathan's family that is still alive that I can show kindness to?
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:He has to like, he has to express his kindness, his devotion, his faithfulness. He's like, can you find somebody for me? And they, you know, they bring Mephibosheth in and it says that he eats that David's table for the rest of his life. And it's just like such a beautiful picture of the covenant faithfulness of God and God's grace and mercy. And this man Mephibosheth had absolutely no value because of his physical condition. He couldn't.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:produce anything. He wasn't somebody who was going to be of much use to David. But he's like, I just want to show him kindness. That's all I want to do. And I mean, we don't do much application in this. But if that isn't a beautiful picture of the gospel of we do not have much use to God, so to speak, but he wants to show us kindness anyway, it's not the usefulness of our lives that God
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:values. It's the fact that we are his children and he just wants to shower us with gray.
Nathan (:Yeah, yeah, and I just highlight, yeah, to pay attention to how God works to form David's heart. We're going to get to the Psalms, which David did not write all of them. This is quite a, it's a few weeks down the road, but we're going to come to the Psalms, and the Psalms are this window again into God's forming work in David's life. And I mention that because we have the
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:stays home from battle and ends up having this affair that involves a murder. And yet we've just been talking about had David has a heart like God's heart. Obviously in this moment, that's not the case, but it's worth noting that in this messy mix, God is maturing somebody and just gives me courage and hope to say, you know, in my mess, I am
not all that I can be, but I'm also not abandoned and forgotten by God. He's forming me in the day-to-day space and yet I'm going to blow it. And yet God is not going to turn his back on me. If I'm willing to be formed, God's going to engage in that forming process. I think David is just a great example of how God is forming him through the ups and downs. I mean, he makes a huge mistake at the end of second Samuel with numbering Israel.
which we'll come back to in the Chronicles. So yeah, go ahead.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Could I insert, I don't want to throw a wrench into the discussion, but I think it's an interesting episode with Bathsheba and what you're just bringing up because I don't remember exactly where it is said. But according to the narrative, it seems like
The sin of David here was not the fact that he had, now hear me out on this, was not the fact that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, it's the fact that he had Uriah killed. And that raises a whole, again, to me they're both sins, but the narrative itself expresses the concern over Uriah's death.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Shawn (:murder and it just raises I think some exegetical maybe theological questions and maybe just critical questions about what this goes back to what you were saying about the biblical writers and prophets only seeing some of the picture because I don't know at that stage if they you know women were not valued as much.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Hmm
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:This was more a sin against Uriah than against Bathsheba. So anyway, it just, I think it speaks to the contextual nature of the scriptural narrative because it doesn't, it's not terribly scandalized that David did this. I mean, for goodness sake, David and Solomon and all these kings had how many wives and concubines. So they're not that scandalized by stuff like this. They're scandalized by a man having his property taken though.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:Anyway, that's just, again, that's a little wrench in the discussion. But anyway, I don't know what you think, Nathan.
Nathan (:Yeah, I mean, the one thing that came to mind is, we don't really get the chance to see how God would have responded to that because of the murder involved. That's kind of a, you know, you can't really repair a murder. So you know, I wonder if God is addressing the biggest thing. And let's just focus in on what we've got to address this. This is the part that, this is the part where David strays the farthest.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Nathan (:So we're gonna deal with that. Someday down the line, we'll start dealing with marital faithfulness and one wife, et cetera. But this is really egregious that he uses, again, an affair, you could recover, the husband can recover like that, can be repaired. A death cannot be repaired. So maybe that's part of what's in the story.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm. So, that's it.
Yeah.
Well, I do think there's little hints of it in the story about trying to prepare the soil for a more robust understanding of how women should be valued and treated. I just had someone share this last week about how she was reading a book on Bathsheba.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Shawn (:and how they pointed out that Bathsheba repented of her sin and so forth. And I'm thinking the text doesn't say anything about Bathsheba repenting of her sin. Like there's nothing in there that says it. And quite frankly, I don't think she had anything to repent over because she, the story seems to, even though again, it doesn't come right out and express concern about that part of the story.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:There are little hints that she was acted upon and not somebody who was culpable for the situation. So anyway, again, sorry to take us on a little detour.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah. No, it's good, that's part of what we do. So, 2 Samuel 22 is actually found also in Psalm 18, excuse me, and a beautiful, beautiful Psalm to take note of, beautiful prayer to take note of. There's intrigue in David's house, Amnon and Tamar, Absalom later, Adonijah. So, it's messy business. Yeah, so we'll come back to the numbering of Israel and second.
Shawn (:Hmm.
Nathan (:Chronicles, but I want you to put your finger there second Samuel and second Chronicles tell the same story with different focal points and this is another great reminder that the different angles represented by the different prophetic books are Super insightful so you're gonna find that in Pieces of second Samuel and the Chronicles you're gonna find that in Kings and Chronicles that the authors of each book
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:have a different sort of retelling, a different perspective on some events, and that can be very insightful. So if you trip over a story in one book, be open to see that same story may be told from a different angle in another book that helps to clarify the story.
Shawn (:And sometimes one of them says, hey, this is a great king. And the other one says, this is a bad king.
Nathan (:Yeah, yeah, it's good. So then we come to First Kings begins with Adonijah versus Solomon. Adonijah is the son of David as well as Solomon. Then, oh, you know what? One thing to mention in Second Samuel is just noting the great desire of David to bring the ark back. We won't talk more about that, but just following that story of David longing to build a temple and longing to
Shawn (:Hmm
Nathan (:center the ark in the worship of the Hebrew people. The ark had apparently been largely neglected during Saul's reign, so that's a little piece for you to pay attention to as you read through. So anyway, back to 1 Kings. David was not permitted to build the temple. That's another conversation to keep your eye on as you look at the story of David and 2 Samuel as well as later in the Chronicles.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:But Solomon gets to build the temple. So there's a big piece of Kings that is devoted to the construction of the temple. First Kings, what do you want to bring out from First Kings, Sean?
Shawn (:Well, you know just pointing out the name Solomon itself means peace and you know, this is a time of great peace that Solomon Enjoyed and promoted and You know, it's interesting. We've always heard that Solomon was the wisest man You know to ever live and he asked God for wisdom But the text actually I like this a little nuance
Nathan (:Hmm
Hmm.
Shawn (:It doesn't say he asked for wisdom, at least I don't think first king translates it this way. It says that he prayed to God for an understanding heart, which I think is a little different than wisdom. It speaks more, maybe to a more holistic approach to being able to discern the realities of human life. But yeah, then the book.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:very intentionally seeks to demonstrate that understanding heart and that wisdom. So no sooner does it say that than the story of the two moms is presented over the child that is, one dies and the other is still alive. And it's very clearly trying to then present an anecdote that demonstrates just how understanding and wise Solomon was. So.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:In many ways, the life and rule of Solomon is a story of the best of times and the worst of times. It's all wrapped up into one person where he has all this wealth, he has all this wisdom, he has all this peace, and yet his heart turns to other gods. The Book of Ecclesiastes is kind of...
Nathan (:Hmm
Shawn (:born out of that experience where he basically says, vanity, all vanity, he comes to the end of his life to realize just how vain all of the riches and wealth and fame was. So it ends on a good note on some levels, but it goes through many twists and turns that could have been avoided if Solomon had not had his heart turned to other gods.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Yeah.
Yep. So I'm thinking about another piece that's sort of interesting. David kind of establishes Israel. There's Joshua. Joshua leads the people in. Then there's that tumultuous time and the judges. Then there's the rise of the Kings. And then there's David who in his reign, you get this very clear sense that David establishes the kingdom. Like it really comes to settle in as a meaningful kingdom with true authority and
true power among the surrounding nations. And that sets the table in a sense, sets the stage for the people of Israel to be at rest and focus in on the establishment of the worship of God in at another level. So it's almost like David's reign prepares the way for the peaceful reign of Solomon, who then in his peaceful reign establishes, builds the temple.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:and centralizes in a magnificent way the worship of God. The tragedy is, as we move through the story, like here Solomon, David sets the stage, Solomon builds the temple, centers the Hebrew worship again, and then everything falls apart. It's really tragic. It's almost like Israel was about to enter into a whole new level of existence of the Bible.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:worship and goodness as a nation and then Solomon's foolishness, which is kind of a theme here, different kings along the story during the history of Israel, their choices profoundly shift the trajectory of Israel's history.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:Solomon's one of those.
Shawn (:Well, I think it's interesting, yeah, yeah. Well, I think it's interesting, you know, picking up on one of those themes of the temple is that, you know, David originally, when he gets this idea to go build a temple for God, you know, Nathan the prophet initially says, yeah, good, go for it. But then he consults with God and then he comes back and...
God basically says to David, hey, where'd you get this idea of building a temple? He's like, I never asked anyone to build me a temple. He's like, I don't know where you get this idea from. Um, he says, I'll tell you what I'm going to, God's like, I'm going to do something better for you. I'm going to build you a house. And, um, I think what God is actually pointing to is he was pointing to a line of kings and that would be the house of David, the house of David is
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Shawn (:the kings of David, the descendants that came from David's loins. And so, you know, now obviously God accepts Solomon's work of building a temple, but I don't know, this is a bigger point, I don't know that God originally necessarily wanted a physical space that people had to come to in order to encounter him. And certainly, you know, the
Nathan (:Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:later on in the story, Jesus comes and basically says, I'm the temple, right? Like I am, you know, Solomon's temple is embodied in me. So I think that has all sorts of interesting implications, but anyway, we won't develop those right now.
Nathan (:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hmm.
What's a great thing to think about as you read, watching that interaction and just thinking about what's God after here and what is the human being after? It's honorable and yet is it falling short and all it's grand here, is it in some way perhaps falling short of the point? Maybe being more religious than spiritual.
Shawn (:Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:I mean, over and over again, you get this picture that God's not after sacrifices and all this. He says specifically, I'm not really interested in all that stuff. I want your heart. And so maybe that's part of this conversation.
Shawn (:Mmm.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, that's right. I think so, where God is not looking to have a beautiful physical space, per se. He's looking to have a beautiful people who are adorned with His character of love. And that's, you know, that's the house He's looking for.
Nathan (:Yep.
Yeah, yeah. So one of the characters that comes up in, well, we'll say two of them. Well, here, let's just pause and notice that at the end of Solomon's reign, this guy, Jeroboam, he's come into the picture during Solomon's reign, during that dark time where Sean mentioned Solomon just kind of threw his morals to the wind.
He actually engaged in human sacrifice. And that was absolutely detestable to God and was such a profound violation of the covenant that there was basically no return in the long run. We kind of see this as a major shifting, major inflection point in the story of Israel in general. And after that, it's after that the kingdom is divided. Jeroboam is just a...
Shawn (:Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:Rehoboam is the son of Solomon, is really a foolish young king. And he is directly instrumental in the early division that Sean mentioned between the tribe of Judah, tribe of Benjamin, and the rest of Israel. Rehoboam kind of clinches that.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and it's... Mm-hmm, and Jeroboam is like, is pointed to as kind of like the prototypical or archetypal evil king because every king in Israel from then on is like, and he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and so like he sets them up for that whole slide into utter
chaos and debauchery and you know Judah has a good king here and there but Israel never from that point on after Solomon starting with Jeroboam never once has a king that has any redeeming qualities spoken of like it's just a slide further and further into sin and utter evil and tragedy.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Yep. And it's set up squarely on the foundation of religious practice. Jeroboam establishes the calf worship and that single act is probably the centerpiece of why Israel never recovers.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
So, I know probably we don't have a lot of time left in this episode, but I do think it's an important launching point to discuss, well, why was God so... We talked about it a little bit last week, but why was God so...
disturbed by these cultic religious practices. I like how the version I'm reading puts it, you know, the term that's often used in kind of traditional translations is the high places. That's what they're called. In my version, the message, it refers to them as sex and religion shrines. And I think that
Nathan (:Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Shawn (:that maybe gives a little more insight into what was going on and why they were so disturbing. It wasn't simply that God was jealous and say, you know, you need to give me your undivided. He knew that these idolatrous practices were leading into terrible, tragic behaviors. In addition to what you already mentioned, literal child sacrifice. I mean, there is no freedom. There is no joy. There is no...
Nathan (:Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:Keith in following after these other gods and setting up these high places, so to speak. So God desperately wanted to protect his people from these tragic behaviors for their own good.
Nathan (:Hmm.
Yeah. And the phrase that comes to mind is morally deforming. And this, so these, these idolatrous practices were, were morally deforming. And that again, we've talked about the cause and effect. That's fundamentally the issue. It's not that God can't, it's not that God has a jealousy problem in the human relationship sense, but that he.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm. I like that.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:knows the trajectory of the moral deforming that happens when human beings lose sight of him. I mean, he loves to be in relationship with us. Like, there's definitely more to the story, but a piece of it is simply that he is, his heart is broken as he sees human beings deformed into monsters, sacrificing your own children. Like, this is unimaginably cruel.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Nathan (:And we see it continue. It's interesting that the Bible in first Kings 14, as you read, you'll see this language, which comes up more than once, but give Israel up where God is. Israel comes to a place where, where they're so bent on evil that God's like, I just have to let you go. I'm going to step back and let you just kind of pursue your own thing. Cause you're so committed to it. I'm going to step back out of the picture.
Shawn (:Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nathan (:So first King 16 records the rise of Samaria. And there's a king, really bad king that, you know, we talk about Jeroboam shifting the course. The next character in Kings that gets a lot of attention, probably one of the, maybe the single, the king with the single most attention is Ahab, at least on the bad Kings. And his counterpart, not a king, is a prophet, Elijah.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:So during this dark, dark reign of Ahab where he's just basically going full speed into evil, there's this foil and the foil is Elijah the prophet.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:I don't know if you have any comments on that, the rest of First Kings, but.
Shawn (:Yeah. No, I think you're right. Elijah takes up a lot of the attention of first kings and then in the second kings transitions to Elisha. But Elijah, again, he's a man of God, but he has his own weaknesses to work through. He has a kind of a...
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:complex about, you know, woe is me and I'm the only one who, you know, is following your ways, which is encouraging because it means we don't have to be perfect to be, you know, in partnership with God. But yeah, he has a critically important ministry and it's just, it's always interesting to me. I would have been curious to see the dynamics of, like on the one hand, Ahab, you know.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Right.
Shawn (:Elijah is Ahab's bitterest enemy. On other occasions, he calls him before the court to pronounce the prophecy. So how does that whole prophetic ministry work is just another question, but Elijah, of course, is going to be considered one of the big characters in the New Testament where John the Baptist is presented as having an Elijah ministry.
Nathan (:Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Shawn (:And of course, Elijah is, as the theological term is, translated. He never dies. He goes directly to heaven on a chariot. And he obviously had an exceptional life and lived according to God's ways over and above other characters in scripture, apparently.
Nathan (:Mm-hmm.
Well, and at a dark time, I think that's a fascinating thing. We have Ahab and Jezebel just bent on doing evil and it's in the middle of them that this exceptionally holy, faithful man lives. And maybe that's one reason he's translated, not only because of his connection to God, but because of God saying, listen, I love people who love right, and he's just really doubling down on that at a time where Israel is just running from him at full speed. Um, and this, uh,
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:So let's see, because we move into second Kings, a couple of things I wanted to mention. One is the just the kindness of God to the non-Israelites that's highlighted in the story of Elisha and even Elijah that comes in into the mix to keep your eyes open for.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Nathan (:And second Kings, there's Joash, great story, but I just want to pause as we look, you know, wrap up today's podcast with some reflection on The downfall of Israel and you'll find that in second King 17 they fall to Shaman Nasser King of Assyria during the reign of Hosea.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Nathan (:The Israelites are taken captive. They're deported and Non Israelites are resettled in the land and here's what second king 17 says is the reason This is in IV But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors who did not trust in the Lord their God They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep
They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless, there it is. The religious, the pagan worship was morally deforming. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. Again, as we read the text, this becomes a reason why God was so specific about evicting the other nations from the land. Those other nations had lost the right to occupy
Shawn (:Mmm.
Nathan (:physical space on earth because of the moral debauchery the moral collapse that those nations had come to and then Israel follows in their footsteps and also morally collapses They imitated this is a quote again from second King 17 They imitated the nations around them. Although the Lord had ordered them do not do as they do
Shawn (:Mm.
Nathan (:That's what we'll leave you with for this week. Sean, do you have any final words? We'll pick up with Hezekiah next week.
Shawn (:No, that's a good word, good word, Nathan, very sobering and also, you know, I think there's hope in there, right? Like, you know, God wants what's best for us and that speaks to his heart of love and he wants to save us and protect us from that moral deformity as he talked about.
Nathan (:Yeah, yeah. So I guess forgetting where we cover next week, we may not get to Hezekiah next week, but it's a great part to pay attention to. You'll notice that when we compare first Chronicles or Chronicles and Kings, that Kings focuses more on the history of Israel. Chronicles almost leaves out the history of Israel, focusing heavily on the story of Judah. So we'll come back to the story of Hezekiah. We'll come back to the story of Manasseh and the fall of Judah as we swing around to the Chronicles.
Shawn (:Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nathan (:which is just around the corner. God bless you as you read. May the reading of scripture and your reflection on the text help you see more clearly the beauty of a God who loves faithfully.
Transcribed by Riverside.fm
