Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:15 Is this thing on, ah, just messing with you. Welcome to the weekly deep dive podcast on the add-on education network, the podcast where we take a look at the weekly, come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. It's good to be back with you Nate, here in the studio.
Speaker 2 00:00:31 Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 00:00:32 Yeah, this, this show's producer. Nate. Nate, the great
Speaker 2 00:00:34 Piper. Thanks. Thanks for calling me. Great.
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Yeah. Greatness is well deserved.
Speaker 2 00:00:40 Oh, you're too nice.
Speaker 1 00:00:42 <laugh> it's good. It's uh, we're getting to that time of year. End of school. Beginning of summer when it's just madness. So it's good that we've been able to collide together and, and make this work.
Speaker 2 00:00:54 We've got it. We've got it under control. We're back.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 We're back.
Speaker 2 00:00:58 What we talking about today,
Speaker 1 00:00:59 We're diving into the rest of Samuel and, and I don't know if we'll get to all of Samuel we're we're gonna start and, and just kind of pick up with, uh, Hannah has dedicated Samuel to the temple. The Lord has called him. He responds. Can E here am I that, that same response that you see Christ. Hi, SHA Lockney here. Am I send me, uh, here? Am I behold me behold me look at me and the Lord is calling him from an early age. He learns from an early age to recognize the voice of the Lord, and more importantly, to act on the voice of Lord. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the night and he's super tired. He acts on, on what he hears and the inspirations that he sees. And you will see how that pays off when it comes time for him to call a king. So today's lesson, we're gonna be transitioning from the time of judges to the time of Kings. When Israel comes to Samuel and says, make us a king. And he says, how dare you I'll do it. <laugh> and we get to the reign of Saul. And, and then we'll finish with the reign of, of David ish as, as Saul and David kind of have this. I mean, we're, we're, we're getting to, yeah, all sorts of great stories today. Let's see how this goes.
Speaker 2 00:02:23 Can't wait,
Speaker 1 00:02:24 Philistines, let's start there.
Speaker 2 00:02:26 The Philistines,
Speaker 1 00:02:27 The Philistines. So STS. So we, we talked last week, um, Eli had two sons and Samuel introduces us to a new term in the, in the Bible, the, the sons of Billy El. And that is one of the funniest phrases for describing somebody. You see it a couple different times and it means, um, without worth, oh, geez. Yes. The sons of worthlessness.
Speaker 2 00:02:56 Okay. So are they worthless or are they
Speaker 1 00:02:58 Just the sons of worthlessness? They are the product of worthlessness. I don't know. And, and that's a good question. Like, how did that name come about? And, and in a sacred book, you wouldn't think that they would be slinging names around so much, but they kind of do, like we see, we saw with Macone and, and chillion right. Oh yeah. Chilion baby weekly and sickly. And, and there's even an argument that Neer was never named Nebi Kezer he was named NECA reer, which, which was God saved the king and the Jews changed it to Nebi Kezer the more familiar term as we've very familiar with the Bible, which means God saved the ass because they weren't very good fans of him. So sometimes you get a little bit of coloring or favoring flavoring in, in the old Testament. And so Billy L is one of those, and I don't know if this is like an, an official political movement or organization, because they seem to be United in their voice.
Speaker 1 00:03:55 And, and, but they seem to be very negative, very contrary to, to what the Lord wants to do and kind of destructive towards society, or if it's just anybody that seems to be ignorant and, and worthless that the scribes or the people would just refer to them as AAU son of worthlessness. Okay. It's kind of funny. Anyways. It is funny. Eli's sons are such because they, they are choosing the choices meets not following the rules, kind of using the priesthood, abusing the priesthood to favor themselves. And Eli's not doing much to try to, to solve this. And we're going to see some of these stories play out in, in duplicate because at the end of Samuel's life, he also has two sons and his two sons are, are in a sense, sons of worthlessness, th they're they are not doing their job. They're not doing their priestly ordinances.
Speaker 1 00:04:56 They're using the priesthood to abuse the, their rights and using their father's position and status to make things good for themselves. And Samuel's not really correcting them. And so it's interesting, anytime you see these stories repeated, like that's how Samuel came to arise, then that's how his life is going to end. It might be setting us up for a chiasmus because you have that repetition in the story of this and that. And if you want to on your own, do some homework and see if you can find anything else that repeats within those bookends. It might be interesting. Or if those aren't the bookends within an even larger Kayas MIS in the Bible itself, I I'll just leave that to you for your homework. If you want. Also, the Philistines are going to war with Israel. This is, uh, they, they say that Eli is about 98.
Speaker 1 00:05:49 He's pretty old. His, his sons are taking over and the Philistines destroy Israel and Israel is shocked that they're losing to the Philistines. So they ask for Eli's two sons to carry the arc of the covenant, into battle with them so that the Lord will be on their side so that they will defeat the Philistines. They go, and they fetch the arc. They bring it out to battle. And the Philistines almost have a heart attack. They look at this arc and say, ding, it that's what that's Israel that's. They defeated the Egyptians. They, they smoked the red sea. They smoked the, the rivers that came across were doomed. So they, they, they did whatever they could to kind of make themselves strong and gather a larger force and go to battle with the Israelites and they win. And they capture the arc of the covenant.
Speaker 1 00:06:37 So this is the story. When the Philistines get it, I love this story. Oh, this story gets even more interesting and twisted Nate, they take the arc and, and they rejoice and like, Hey, our God must be greater than their God. So you think about what this means. If, if this nation represents Jehovah and the Philistines represent Dagon and, and by the way, Dagon was a fish. God, and, and it, it was a statue of a fish like, God, Hmm. Then like, who's, God is greater. Well, I guess the, the fish, God, it's kind of insulting to the Lord. And, and it's causing his reputation to be marred somewhat. By the end of this story, you will see that even though the Lord's people don't accurately represent him. And, and I think that's the value of this. As crazy as this story is going to get.
Speaker 1 00:07:25 I think the value is when the people claim the Lord and they take his name upon them, and you're out there representing the Lord. It's not enough that you just believe in the Lord. You must also act or follow. If Israel's not being righteous, it doesn't matter that they're choosing the right God or that they're God is the living. God. The one that created the world, if they don't act in accordance with what he's doing, it doesn't matter. They're going to lose it. Doesn't work. So the Philistines and their fish, God, they, they capture the arc. They bring it into their temple. They set it next to the fish. God, in subservient too. So it's worshiping the fish. God saying that our God is greater than your God, because our God allowed us to win you by, by translation. If you are lower than us, then your God is lower than our God.
Speaker 1 00:08:21 And when they come the next morning, they find their fish. God worshiping the arc, laying down, prostate prorate, facing towards the arc in, in the form of worshiping it. And they think, oh, that that's strange. It must have been a mistake. I maybe they maybe, maybe somehow the, the, the statue fell over. So they set it back up. They come back the next day. And now the head of the God and the hands of the God are cut off. And the body of the God is still laying. Now is laying down, is return to laying down prostate before the arc of the covenant prostate, prostate. That R is important.
Speaker 2 00:09:04 Yes,
Speaker 1 00:09:04 <laugh> thank you. We will. We will get to that
Speaker 2 00:09:10 Region. Do I need to honestly like get my, my sensor beeper back out? All right. Let's keep going.
Speaker 1 00:09:16 <laugh> we might soon it's laying there prorate, worshiping the arc of the covenant. If you will, in the, in the, in the form of worshiping it, but the head and the hands are on the threshold and, and you might think, oh, well, if it fell over, then easy enough. The hands of the God could have just broken off in the fall or the head could have snapped off in the fall. But the word is not broken in Hebrew. It's cut that. It's been severed, but not only has it been severed, but because it was placed on the threshold. Now there's two potential thresholds. There's a threshold coming into the room, which been, would've been really far away in the wrong direction from which it's laying. So it would've been like it fell forward. And then the arms and the head slid across the room sideways all the way to the other side of the room.
Speaker 1 00:10:02 Like it wouldn't happen. The other threshold is to the little nook where the God itself sat in this little alcove. And, and if that's the threshold, how would it fall forward yet? Everything slide backwards then, and be placed neatly on the threshold. That's why they bring it up here is because it was so miraculous to them. And, and they said to this day, so obviously this, this story being recorded long after the, the events happened to this day, the Philistines will not step foot on the threshold in the temple. They will step over it, but they won't touch it because it was, it was sacred because of what happened here. If that was just it, that would make for a pretty good story.
Speaker 2 00:10:45 Oh, but that's
Speaker 1 00:10:46 Not it. That's not it because this is where the prostate comes in. Prostate, no prostate,
Speaker 2 00:10:53 Prostate pro stop saying that word
Speaker 1 00:10:56 Prostate, because they get smitten with hemorroids.
Speaker 2 00:11:00 Okay. I guess prostate works now.
Speaker 1 00:11:03 <laugh> they get smitten with hemorrhoids.
Speaker 2 00:11:07 That's right.
Speaker 1 00:11:08 And they're like, what? What's going on? We don't like hemorrhoids. And we don't like the fact that our God keeps worshiping this arc. What do we do? They said, let's move it to a different city. Maybe it's just our God here. And, and we need to go to a different city and see if that works. So they take the arc and they move it to another city. And then all the men in that city get stricken with hemorroids as well. And they're like, this, this isn't great. We don't like hemorroids. And, and we don't like being cursed. We've gotta get rid of this. And, and at this point, this arc of the covenant, I mean, it, it is kind of neat. You know, you talk about the Lord being the building block, the foundation stone, or the stumbling block at this point, the arc was a great stumbling block for Israel.
Speaker 1 00:11:53 They brought 'em out and they were destroyed and they take it to the Philistines and hemorroids, and then hemorrhoids again. And they're like, all right, we're gonna return this to Israel, cuz you know, let it keep cursing them. They, they can keep getting destroyed all they want. We don't want their hemorrhoids. Let's take it back. But they, they, this is, I can't imagine the conversation that takes place here, Nate, they come to their priest and say, what's the proper procedure for returning this arc. And they say maybe, maybe the hemorroids happened just because it, it was a coincidence. And it happened to coincide with when we were putting the arc here, obviously they're, God's not that powerful or they wouldn't have been defeated in war. And they say maybe it is the, the, the Lord though. So to find out, let's, let's try to handle this the right way.
Speaker 1 00:12:41 We're going to offer an offering with the arc when we return it to the Israelites and the offering consists of six golden hemorroids what, what do, what does that even look like? How do you, how do you make it hemorrhoid out of gold? Is it just a little, a little hill, a little mountain? Like a, I, I don't even know. So they take six golden hemorroids and six golden mice to represent the plagues that they have been given. And they're offering this gold with the arc of the covenant to try to appease the Lord and return it back to Israel to make things right and see if that eliminates their, their pain, their pain in the backside, literally.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 And they offer this to Israel. And I can't imagine what Israel was thinking when they get the arc back. So they, they offer it with the oxygen and the cart that are carrying it and they take it in and then Israel's going to take it and use the wood from the cart to, to create a burning and the oxygen sacrifice it as a sacrificing and receiving this. And then also they have the gold that's offered that they put in the temple treasury. I wonder what they were thinking when they're like, what are these? They probably didn't ask too many questions. <laugh> what happened in that land that these people, all of a sudden here comes this cart. They probably didn't have with the arc on it and golden mice. Yeah. And these lumps and these, these lumps let's keep going. It's a weird story, but there's more to the story.
Speaker 1 00:14:14 Yeah. Let's keep going. Okay. So they, they bring it back and, oh, we, we missed, we, we missed some critical parts of this story. The, the two sons of Eli that carried the arc into battle are destroyed in battle. And when the word comes back from the messengers of the Warfield, two Eli and says, Hey, we lost the arc of the covenant to the Philistines. The news is devastating to where he falls off his chair and breaks his neck and dies. And when the word comes to the, the priest sons, excuse me, the, the Eli's sons wives that their sons were Sain in battle. And that Israel has lost the arc of the covenant. They, they die in childbirth. Like this family kind of gets wiped
Speaker 2 00:15:09 Out. This was, this was kind of what I was thinking about with this story is what does this represent then specifically with these people who are in a position that they're supposed to represent Israel, not doing what they're supposed to, and then in their, in their effort to still win this thing, they're like, well, we still have this covenant, so this Covenant's gonna save us no matter, you know, just like without, without any, without any, um, I don't know, uh, action attached to it. Right. Without any righteousness attached to it, like, uh, well just because we have this covenant, we're good. I think that there's, I think that there's a moral in this part of the story of, and maybe I'm wrong, but that when, when I've read through this story, that's kind of one of the things that stood out to me
Speaker 1 00:16:01 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:16:02 Is these people tasked with bringing it in, aren't living the way that they're supposed to, and then they're still gonna try to go, well, let's still handle our covenants as if this is going to protect us against our enemies. And God's like, Nope. Now that doesn't mean that God's like, yeah, but I'm still not. I'm still, I'm still reigning Supreme here. Don't misunderstand Philistines. But, but just because we've made a covenant in the past, doesn't mean that you get to live, however you want to doesn't mean to get you get to do however you want to. And then UN, righteously, bring me out into battle. Like, well, well, are, God's still gonna save us because of the promises that he's made to, you know, our, our people
Speaker 1 00:16:46 And, and how many times do we take upon us? The name of Christ saying, we're Christian. And because we're Christian, God loves us. And we worship the right God or whatever. We, it gives us a pass to beat up other people.
Speaker 2 00:16:57 Yeah. Go do terrible things. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 00:17:00 The crusades.
Speaker 2 00:17:01 Yeah. To go do, to go do, to go do bad things. And again, you look at a lot of the history of religion, even in this country and around the world, really of the things that were done in the name of God or in the name of crisis, like, no, that doesn't, that doesn't give you the right to go. And <laugh>, you know, you basically basically say, well, because, because we've made these promises in the past, that that gives us, that gives us unlimited, you know, power to do whatever it is we want to, I don't know. That's, that's at least something that I've, I've kind of picked up from that story.
Speaker 1 00:17:35 Absolutely. And, and the Lord has not yet restored his name at this point when the, when the ox and the cart gets back, some of Israel is, is curious with the arc and they open it up to see what's inside of
Speaker 2 00:17:47 It. Oh, I've seen Raiders of the lost arc
Speaker 1 00:17:48 And know what happens. And that's, that's exactly where they're pulling it from, right? So they get, they get destroyed. And, and not only that let's see verse 19, this is Samuel six. And he smoked the men of Beth shees because they had looked into the arc of the Lord. Even he SMO of the people, 50,003 score and 10 men, and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten, many of the people with a great slaughter and the men Beth Shamus said, who is able to stand before this, holy Lord God. And to whom shall he go up from us? So the destruction of the Lord went from Israel to the Philistines, the Philistines, at least they didn't die. They just had hemorrhoids. Then it comes back to Israel, they look into it and they're dead. And, and you almost see the, the difference in the punishment between Israel and, and the, the Philistines based on the expectation and what they knew.
Speaker 1 00:18:41 You knew that only the priests only the priesthood was able to do that. And yet you took this sacred object and you defiled it where the Philistines also defiled it. But their understanding was that their God was something greater that this was not this sacred object to them. Right? And so you see the level of severity and the harshness, it's a sacred object. It's, God's, he's going to respect it. He's going to doll out a punishment. But that punishment is very different based off of the understanding and what they should have known and how they should have treated it. And so after this, the people says, what can we do? Who shall be able to, I mean, you lost your priestly family. You've, you've lost a lot of the war. You've lost the Philistines, but you're also facing divine punishment, God himself, ISMI you Samuel steps up.
Speaker 1 00:19:33 And he says, if we're going to do this, we have to put away all of the false gods from us. And he says something kind of interesting here. If we look at what he does to try to purge Israel from the false Lords that they worshiped, he says not, um, it's a verse three of chapter seven, and Samuel spoken to all the house of Israel saying, if you to return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ash terror from among you and prepare your hearts unto, unto the Lord and serve him only. And he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines Ash tariff. That's, that's maybe a different word for you guys. Have you heard, maybe you've heard it, seen it. The Ash Toro it's it's ish tar in, if you've heard of it's the female goddess and it's in ancient times in Israel, we've, we've, we've been able to our in archeology uncover some of these religious sites where they would worship Ash to oath as God's wife.
Speaker 1 00:20:46 So when he's talking about putting away the strange gods, and as to oath from among you, he's saying stop worshiping. If you will, this heavenly mother, this, this God's wife, this isn't how you've been asked to worship. And you've taken what he's asked you to do, and you have changed it. You're worshiping other gods. You're worshiping as your neighbors worshiped. And you're trying to change worship to fit your style rather than what God has asked you to do. And that can only lead to one route death, all roads lead to death, except for following the savior. And that's the point that he is trying to teach Israel. And it doesn't matter if his name is, is thrown through the mud for a little bit, because in the end, he's going to redeem his name, just like he's going to redeem his people. He put himself through the mud when he came here and took all of our sins upon him and descended below all things so that in the end, he could be established by establishing his people by be, be by arising above all things and being able to offer us also that great gift.
Speaker 1 00:21:58 If you follow him, he can save you. And it means eternal life. If you decide to follow your own what you want to do, there's only one end outcome and that's death.
Speaker 1 00:22:11 So Samuel consecrates his people. He cleans the, the inner vessel. As you've mentioned so many times, Nate makes sure you clean that inner vessel first and as they do. So they go back to war with the arc of the covenant. And now, instead of being a stumbling block, it's a great blessing to them. And they wipe out the Philistines and the Lord's name is restored to the, even among the Philistines to realize, oh, he is God, he is a great God. It's not so much that they worship him. It's that they worship him and do what he asks them to do. Those two things together makes it a very powerful equation when you don't follow the Lord it's to your own destruction rather than to your benefit. Cool, awesome. Let's keep going. Let's move on. Samuel's sons. They're taking bribes, doing whatever they want after Samuel has kind of created this reputation.
Speaker 1 00:23:04 So we have a repeat of the story, as we've said, and this is where the people they've just barely learned this important lesson that we need to do, not just worship and believe, but also act. And they come to Samuel and rather than saying, Hey, your sons are worthless and we don't want them leading after you die. And we're worried about them making us go apostate. They say, your sons are worthless. We want a king. And, and Samuel is, is a little bit bothered by it. He comes to the Lord and he asks, what shall I do? And the Lord says, give 'em a king. If they want a king, give 'em a king, but warn them about what it means to have a king. And Samuel comes back to them and says, I'll give you a king, but this is what a King's going to do. He's going to take your sons and to raise up an army, to have guards, to, to man, the chariots, to man, the horses, to create the weapons. He's gonna create a standing army, if you will. And he's gonna take your daughters to be chefs and cooks, to support the army, to support his reign. He's gonna take taxes to be able to do all, all of these things that you don't have right now. And, and Israel, to this point, they don't have a standing army in a central government and all of these things.
Speaker 1 00:24:20 And he's saying, if you have a king, he's going to take all of that from you. They're like, and, and, and their response is we don't see a downside to this. And, and it's an interesting debate. And it's an interesting conversation, Liberty versus, um, safety, safety. Thank you. That's it. Freedom versus safety. What, what are you willing to give up in exchange for safety, having a standing army? Isn't that a great thing to be able to rally and, and defend your nation? So it's an interesting read and, and it's an interesting discussion point. And, and in turn, they decide that they want a king. And so Samuel says, all right, we'll find you a king enter Saul, kind of an interesting story of how Saul gets here. His family loses a herd of donkeys asses, and he and a servant go out to find them.
Speaker 1 00:25:20 And after searching for several days and not being able to find them SA is worried that his dad doesn't even care about the donkeys anymore. He's worried that his son's not coming home. So he tells his servant, look, we gotta give up. Let's go back. Just in case my dad's worried to death about me and, and, and figure this out. The servant says, whoa, whoa, before we go back, let's go visit Samuel the prophet and ask him what to do, because there's a man of God here, Samuel. He'll, he'll be able to give us some advice. And Saul says, that's fine. I don't have anything to offer the prophet. I don't have any gold. I don't have any silver or food. All of our supplies ran out, which is kind of the reason why I'm saying we need to go back. And the servant says, I've got still a little bit of silver on me.
Speaker 1 00:26:05 I'll take that silver and offer it to him. And we'll find out what he says. And SA says, sounds good to me. Let's go. And as they're going, Samuel actually meets them because he knows they are coming. And this is the power. And they say that Samuel is, they make this interesting, uh, distinction. They say he is a seer because that's what they used to call profits back in the time, not profits, but Sears and profit in Hebrew is nav, which means to babble forth like a, the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it means kind of this idea sense that you're bubbling forth. The words of God, you, you speak the words of God that makes you a prophet. Seer is different. And Hebrew. It means seer, literally see someone who sees. And when they show up, Samuel goes out to meet them because the Lord had shown them that they were coming.
Speaker 1 00:26:56 And he says, Hey, before they even have a chance to offer the silver or ask him anything says, I know why you're here. You're looking for your donkeys. Don't worry. They got found a long time ago. They're back at home, but I need you to come here because all of Israel is looking for you. And he takes him and, and he he's going to make him the next well, and here it says captain, but eventually he's going to become the king of Israel. He says, the Lord has chosen you to make you the captain that is going to lead all of Israel and he will be with you. And he gives him some further direction. He says, as you go back, you're gonna run into some of the, the, the sons of the prophets or some other prophets, and they're going to prophesy. And when you run into them, you're gonna be filled with the spirit of the Lord and you are going to prophesy and the Lord is going to change your heart. And you're gonna be a new person you're gonna see. And you're gonna understand, and you'll be like a prophet and you'll return home. And you'll, you'll know what to do. You'll know what to say. And the Lord is going to make you the, the leader over Israel.
Speaker 1 00:28:12 So they turn back well. And then also, uh, Samuel, an annoys Saul by taking a vial of oil and pouring oil over his head and consecrates him to be the king. And, and it is interesting early in the Bible. God says, I want a nation of Kings and priests. So you think he wants them all to be Kings and all to be priests. So why is it such a bad thing that they're getting a king now? Well, by having one king now, not everybody is necessarily allowed to be Kings. Now, everybody is able to put all of the blame on one person, and there's a lot of responsibility. Instead of having a kingdom of Kings, you have one single king that is solely responsible for the fate of Israel. So I, I think that's where some of this discontent from, from the Lord and from Samuel come from is this shift in responsibility and lack of accountability for their own righteousness and their own safety.
Speaker 1 00:29:08 Anyhow, he anos Saul and Saul returns back to his home. He comes across the prophets. He prophesy, he's filled with the spirit of the Lord. And the people are saying, who is this guy? He is a, nobody. He shouldn't be prophesying. He doesn't come from a prophetic line. He doesn't come from a priest line. He actually comes from Benjamin. And there's a story there. We need to actually pause and go through what it means to come from Benjamin. Um, but before I get to that, he gets home and he tells his, his dad says, Hey, we found the donkeys a while back they're here. And he's like, okay. And he does not tell his dad anything that Samuel had done. And, and when Samuel decides to call the pro the king in front of all of Israel. So this was all private conversations. In fact, Samuel, even dismissed, Saul's servant to have private words with Saul.
Speaker 1 00:30:05 Saul knows what Samuel has in mind, but now Samuel's gonna make this known in front of all of Israel. Cuz he can't just rise up and say I'm king and expect everyone to follow him. Samuel says, okay, all of Israel come to come together. We're gonna draw lots. And we're gonna find out who's going to be king, the lot falls on Benjamin. And then it falls on, um, Saul's family's house. And then it comes to Saul and they say, where's Saul, Saul didn't even show up. He's hiding. Cause he didn't wanna be king. What does that say about him? And it also says that Saul stood head and shoulders above everyone else and literally head and shoulders above everyone else. Either. He was really tall and, and of stature taller than everyone else. Or it was just referring to how good he was. That was the nature of Saul in the beginning was he was a man that was so good.
Speaker 1 00:30:57 He stood head and shoulders above everyone else in, in righteousness and obedience. And, and yet here's this humble young man who didn't even want to be king when he has this opportunity. He's not running home and telling his dad all about how he's going to be king. Now when the time comes and they're calling everyone out and it comes to fall on him, he's not even there because he's hiding from this responsibility. It's something that he's not seeking to take on for himself. Let's talk a little bit about why Saul is an underdog and why it makes sense or why, why Benjamin makes any difference to this story. This happened in judges. It's a story we skipped. There was a Levi who was traveling with his Conine doesn't say anything about his wife. Um, for all we know is Conine is like a wife, the for whatever reason, the two of them and a servant are traveling and it's starting to get late in the day.
Speaker 1 00:31:58 And the servant is asking the Levi to turn into a city, less. They get robbed on the road and beat up during the night when it's dark and they can't see. And the Levi responds by saying, we will not go to any of these cities because they're not Israelite cities. They're Canaanite cities and Canaanites. Historically speaking, think of lot in the Sodom and Gamora do not have a good reputation for how they treat the stranger. He says, we are Levi's priests, I'm a priest. And I need to be in an Israelite city among the Israelites. They will receive us and treat us. This is our land. This is our blood. They will receive us and we'll be safe there. We're not stopping at any city. That's not Israel. So they push on into the night until they make it into the, the, the, the tribe of Benjamin's territory into one of the Benjamin cities.
Speaker 1 00:32:50 And when they go into the town, nobody takes them in. Nobody offers them shelter. Nobody offers them a place to stay. And they're treated kind of like strangers until a fellow Levi sees them. Or now, now I'm a little foggy on the details. It was either a fellow Levi or another non mite Israelite who happened to be in the city visiting. So he's also a stranger. He sees him and says, come here, take, you know, I'll, I'll give you a place to stay, brings him into where he's staying. And then all the men of the city come in and try to break down the door and say, let us have the stranger that we may know him. And it's, it's a repeat of the story of Sodom and Gamora again. And he says, no, you can't. If, if you're gonna be doing this at the very least do it to a woman here is my Conine.
Speaker 1 00:33:39 They set her out. And the men abuse her all that night in the morning when he opens the door to prepare to leave because his, his Conine hasn't come home and he's looking for her, opens the door and, and she is dead. And if I remember maybe even her hands on the threshold, which is kind of interesting in light of the story of Dagon, but she has been abused to death by the men until literally she is dead. So the Levi cuts her into 12 pieces and sends the 12 pieces out that all of Israel and saying, this is what happened to me. A Levi, when staying among an Israeli city, this is how I was treated. Is this the kind of behavior you're going to tolerate? And Israel, incest, incest, incensed. That, that, that, again, one, one letter makes a big difference by outraged, by what happened, gathers up a large army of men from all of the tribes.
Speaker 1 00:34:35 And they show up at Benjamin's territory at the do and says, look, this is what happened. We can't put up with this in Israel. We don't wanna be destroyed their, their righteousness or unrighteousness leads to the whole fate of the country. If, if we're gonna put up with this wickedness, we can be wiped outta the land, give us the men responsible for this. We will execute 'em and purge Israel of this wickedness and remain a, a, a holy nation. And Benjamin says no, who care? We, we don't, we don't care. None of your business will do what we wanna do. Leave us alone. So Israel goes to war with Benjamin and they fight Benjamin and they lose the first time they lose the second time. And Israel's getting kind of hammered here, not just losing, but losing by a large amount. The third time they kind of use a little bit of tactic, draw the men outta the city, come into the city, destroy them all out, wipe 'em out and surround the rest of the Benjamin Xs and, and just lay ways to them, to where there's only 300 Benjaminite left of all of Israel.
Speaker 1 00:35:42 The whole house was destroyed, saved 300 men only. So when we talk about Saul being a Benjaminite he's, he's coming from a very small group of people, a very small remnant that's left. And not only is it a small remnant that's left, it's a small remnant that's despised because of what they did and their stance on it because they wouldn't take care of themselves and purge their own wickedness. Israel was forced to do something very uncomfortable to where they were worried that one of their tribes was gonna be wiped out forever. And that was a big concern for them. So Benjamin had a terrible reputation. And so Saul's looking at this why me I'm, I'm from a, a hated tribe. I'm nothing. And how many times has this story played out Enoch? I, I am, but Alad and hated in my youth. Uh, and, and then look at Joseph Smith and how much he was hated and despised as a prophet and a young man who says, why me?
Speaker 1 00:36:45 I'm a, nobody, this idea that God calls who, who we would maybe least expect or these underdogs and, and turns into, turns them into to greatness. So it's kind of interesting here. And the reason why that story plays such a significant role in this story. Not only do we have the, the story of why Benjamin is a hated tribe and why there's so few and why it's so shocking that out of only 300 men, out of all the different houses of Israel, God chooses this little despised one, but later on, when Saul's still trying to figure out what he's going to do and, and shirking the responsibility or rising up and becoming this captain that he's been anointed to become. There's another area in Israel where they're being oppressed by their neighbors and, and the, the, the, the neighboring nation is attacking them and, and surrounding them and, and beating them down and they're going to lose.
Speaker 1 00:37:45 So they, they ask for a treaty and they say, let's make an agreement. Let's make a treaty so that we can live. What do you want from us? What will we pay? How do we, what do we need to do so that you don't wipe us out then? And they respond and say, we'll make a treaty with you. As long as everyone here in the city, Plex out their right eye. Oh, which is terrible. Right. And they say, okay, let's give us seven days to ask the rest of Israel, our, our brothers, if, if, if they will help us and support us. And, and if they won't support us, then, then we'll abide by your terms. And we'll take out our right eyes or whatever. And the cool thing is the neighboring nation that's attacking them is like, okay, that's fine. You can have seven days.
Speaker 1 00:38:33 What nation does that? Like, I'm, I'm attacking somebody and I've got the advantage and I'm going to win. And they're like, Hey, time out. I just wanna see if I can get some allies on my side to help fight you. They're like, yeah. Okay. That's, that's cool. Come back in seven days. And we'll, we'll figure out whether we're making this agreement or whether you're gonna be destroying us, but promises Covenant's words. It, it was everything back then. I, I don't know. It, it, it's interesting how this plays out. So they come back and, and it get word gets back to solve. This is the condition. And all of Israel's lamenting like how horrible a situation our brothers are in, what can we do? And so Saul takes, and, um, he takes oxen and he cuts them up into 12 parts. So this is coming back from the same story of early Benjamin.
Speaker 1 00:39:26 And he sends them to all of Israel and says, this will be us if we don't bind together. And then again, this is covenant language. We will be cut up and destroyed. If we allow this evil to happen. If we don't stand for what happens, anyone who doesn't respond, may they be destroyed. And so Israel rallies just like they did in the time of Benjamin. So now you have Benjamin in reverse where all of Israel was rallying to destroy Benjamin. Now you have Benjamin rallying, all of Israel behind them to unite and destroy the enemies of Israel. And, and they go, and they destroy their, their, their enemies and deliver the people. So they don't have to pluck out their right eyes. And this solidifies Saul as their leader and their king. And this we've talked about covenants before, but this is the same as what you see captain Moroni, when he is tearing that coat and renting it and trampling under feet, may we be destroyed if we don't live up to the terms of this agreement, and then you see it with the sacrament when we tear that bread and, and may we be destroyed and suffer if we don't follow, and the terms of this condition, we will be delivered and saved.
Speaker 1 00:40:44 And the Lord will preserve us, save us from death, save us from the enemy. Unless we, I, I, if we reject him, we will be destroyed. And, and that's a message that is prominently on display throughout this, throughout these stories. Cool worries. Cool. So Saul saves the
Speaker 2 00:41:08 Day. Saul saves the day, baby. He's a great king.
Speaker 1 00:41:13 What happens to what happens to Saul later on?
Speaker 2 00:41:17 Well, as we learn in doctrine and covenants, when you ever, you give a man a little power, it by nature tends to corrupt that person.
Speaker 1 00:41:25 Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:41:27 It was funny when you were talking about this earlier about them wanting a king, we learned from the book of Mormon that having a righteous king is actually the best form of government Uhhuh.
Speaker 1 00:41:36 <affirmative>
Speaker 2 00:41:37 So say you have somebody perfect, like Jesus himself. That's a good, that's a good, uh, ruler over the kingdom. Right? You have, uh, it, it, it tends if you have a righteous king, like Benjamin, it tends to, um, lend itself more towards there being way less injustices, because you have a righteous wise person overseeing conflicts and such and, and managing. I mean, again, like, I, I know that it's not exactly like, you know, apples to apples, but look at how church organizations are ran. Right? Like you have, there is, there is structure with somebody at the top and then, and then there's, you know, delegating from there down, but oversight and then delegating from there, down in oversight. Right? Yeah. And so the idea of having, having a king by nature isn't bad at all. In fact, again, it's, it's, it's the best form of government, as long as there's an actual good righteous person sitting at the, on the throne. Right. But, but, uh, to answer your question, if you don't have a righteous person that can go sideways quick,
Speaker 1 00:42:51 And, and unfortunately it does. And, and I, you look at Saul, could there not have been a better man? When you, when you look at like elected officials or someone that you want to lead over, you oftentimes it's the person that doesn't want to do it, right. Not the person that's sitting out front saying, choose me, choose me. Like, that's the one you gotta be a little bit leery of. Like, why, why do you want to do this so bad? Yes.
Speaker 2 00:43:17 Which then by nature explains why I hate all politicians. <laugh> it's because their whole job is to sell you on why they're so great and why they need to be in power.
Speaker 1 00:43:28 And it it's, it's a weird deal. Like how do you do that? That that's a very discomforting thing to try to sell yourself or promote yourself, but then how do you get people to vote for you? If you don't? I mean, it's a weird deal, but going back to this, I mean, Saul, I, I look at him and I see the right kind of character. He's not boasting about it. He's not arrogant. He's a little bit reluctant to do it. And you also see his character in the fact that when Samuel announces Saul is king and he's out hiding somewhere and doesn't wanna do it. You have sons of Billye, again, that are saying, we don't want him as king. This guy's worthless. And then when Saul gets the call about what's happening with the eyes and gonna be pulled out, if they don't bind together and he cuts Thein out and he unifies Israel and he goes and delivers them, then the people are so solidly behind him that they say, let's take all those sons of bill, round them up and destroy them.
Speaker 1 00:44:21 Because it's like the, the whole oxen covenant thing, just like we would've been cut up. If we wouldn't have listened, we would've all died because they didn't listen. Let's cut. 'em up. Just like the oxen let's destroy them. And Saul says, no, right. He keeps his peace. When those guys are voicing concerns, he holds his peace. He doesn't stand up and say, Hey, I didn't ask for this. Keep your mouth shut. He, he holds his peace. And when everyone starts calling for their destruction, this mob violence, this vigilante let's destroy them. He says no. And he keeps the peace look at the way he starts off his reign. And, and maybe one thing I learned from, from the scriptures is I look at Saul, subsequently David, and then after him, Solomon and we even saw Gideon, right? Yeah. Is that power tends to corrupt. And, and maybe we look at these people and say, you were supposed to be perfect your whole life.
Speaker 1 00:45:20 You can't screw up. You can't sin. And maybe we hold them to a really high, maybe an impossibly high standard was we look at these guys and say, you have to be perfect. And we're not very forgiving in how we judge them or how we look at them only God was perfect, but there's a lot of pressure. And I don't know that we fully understand what it means to be king in the decisions that you have to make when you're committing people's lives into battle and people die because of what you said, and that's on you and those families coming back and saying, you know, what had we not done that I wouldn't have lost my husband or my son, or this wouldn't have happened? You, you have your supporters, but you always have those people that are tearing you down and the ugly side of leadership, that it doesn't matter what you do. People will always hate you and disagree with you and, and having that power and trying to make those decisions. I don't know. I, I think it's, I think it's almost like taking a shortcut to being a God. When, when all of a sudden being a God is thrust upon you, where you have to be perfect and you have to make the right decision and everyone is going to judge and be critical of you. That, that something about having that. It just, it, it, it's a hard road to walk until we're ready to walk it.
Speaker 2 00:46:40 I agree.
Speaker 1 00:46:41 Anyhow, I, I think God judges leaders a little bit differently than maybe what we do and, and he can take all of that into account and look at their decisions and maybe understands them a little bit more intimately because it's a similar role to what he's doing. And, and maybe there's a little bit of,
Speaker 2 00:46:56 Well, then let me, like, let me just throw this out there, then please do why didn't, why didn't king Benjamin fall under the same thing? What a rare, I mean, I guess what
Speaker 1 00:47:05 A rare quality,
Speaker 2 00:47:06 But do you understand, do you, I guess my, I think that this is kind of going back to my original point, which is yes. Power corrupts, but if you rely on the right person, truly, which is the ultimate king, right. If you rely on that person, he gives you the example of how to lead appropriately
Speaker 1 00:47:28 And Samuel and Moses.
Speaker 2 00:47:30 That's what I'm saying. Right. And, and I'm not going to assume that king Benjamin was perfect, but we read that he was pretty good that he was pretty great. Right. So I guess I'm just saying like, can, can we look at, can we look at any, at least like leadership traits between those two, you know what I mean? Or, or that one had that, the other didn't, you know, for me, at least off the top of my head comes again, the stories that we read of Benjamin out there in the fields working, right?
Speaker 1 00:48:03 Yes.
Speaker 2 00:48:04 Like out there, serving, working, and serving and working and serving where you, you know, where in with other Kings, they almost just take on this, you know, king Noah, for example, right. It's like, it's, you know what, you know, whether or not the pictures ever, you know, we've had this conversation right. Of like how art influences, doctrine, understanding, doctrine, all understanding, even if it's not doctrine, but it's like, uh, I can't help, but see the picture of, you know, king Noah with the cheetahs or the leopards, just fat sitting on the throne. You know what I mean? Yes. Like finger pointed out and it's like, where along the line does, does corruption take over, right. Is there a lesson in there? Does corruption, does corruption start to really seep in when you have people begin to serve you instead of you serving them? Right. Does it, does it end when you are not out in your own field, but now you have people out there working for you, right.
Speaker 2 00:49:04 Because I can imagine, you know, having somebody do your chores for you as a child is a lot more fun than doing them yourself. Yes. But, but does the service, is that what keeps you humble? Is it, is it being willing to go get your own hands dirty? Is that what keeps you great? Is that what keeps you humble? Is that what keeps you down to earth? And then, and then you apply that to a lot of the, you know, national politicians that we have versus a lot of local politicians where, you know, like, Hey, you're still responsible to the community that you own a car dealership here. You own a business here. You know what I mean? Like, you're, you are still, you're still one of us, right. Does that keep you less corrupt, I guess, than these people that live 3000 miles away and don't have to,
Speaker 1 00:49:54 Well, maybe that's why originally it was all meant to be you, you did have farmers and workers that did this on a part-time deal. Like Congress was only supposed to meet like a couple weeks of the year. Not, not, it, it wasn't ever supposed to be a full-time commitment. They, they did support. They were supposed to. That's an interesting point, Nate. And I wonder also in our own lives, you know, maybe we start off very ambitious and, and working really hard in our first marriage. And first have kids and, and, and maybe very close to the Lord. And as we start to achieve success, or maybe start to get a little bit of riches or, or start to, to be a little bit happy and satisfied in life that we forget the Lord and, and do not follow the same way. A lot of these Kings went when all of a sudden things become comfortable.
Speaker 1 00:50:44 And I take this back to the garden of Eden, when man introduces mortality into the world, by partaking of that fruit, God blesses them by cursing the ground so that they would have to work. It's almost like in terms of mortality, you do have to labor in order to save yourself. Like I'm doing this for you. I am cursing the ground for your sake that you will have to work because that, that working that diligence, that going back and doing it and not forgetting is what's going to save you in the end, the idea that you only have a limited amount of time and it has to be done now, and you have to do it. And that keeping you your hand to the plow sort away is what will keep you in the way it'll bless you. Maybe it's a blessing of mortality that we do have to work all the, the days of our life.
Speaker 2 00:51:37 It's awesome.
Speaker 1 00:51:37 I like what you said, Nate, thank you for,
Speaker 2 00:51:40 I just, it is, it's an interesting subject to me because we, all we see in our lives and all we read about is just corruption and power and corruption and sub subjugation and power and corruption. And you go, man, how was pay horn, able to keep it together? How was moron? I able to keep it together. How was Moses able to keep it together? And then you go, okay, well then why wasn't David able to keep it together? Why wasn't solemn and able to keep it together? Why wasn't Saul, able to keep it together? You know, and I, I guess maybe this is why it's important to read these stories and understand, even if it's just the most subtle of differences, because again, it doesn't sound like moron. I really had much time in his life to be out working in the fields. Right. I mean, he was at war since he was a teenager. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:52:32 Yeah, you have to have the right amount of pressure. You take that pressure off and, and you'd become disengaged. And as you, as you mentioned that something, you know, about the story of Saul, what would've happened, had those donkeys not gotten lost that, that first day, right. Would he have ever come into path with, with Samuel or, I mean, some of the things that happened and, and looking at some of the, the adversity in your life, you know, having your donkeys get lost and then wandering three days till you're out of supplies, not being able to find them, wouldn't he be praying like, God help me to find these donkeys and how come you haven't answered my prayer and look at how all of Israel's looking for you just as you're looking for these donkeys. And they're found just as there's some interesting artistic value in, in some of this story and, and wanting to alleviate some of that hardship, but yet some of that hardship is what's bringing you to where you're going to be and preparing you for the role that you're going to take.
Speaker 1 00:53:29 You can't eliminate that hardship without ruining the story without ruining the character without making that. So to your point, eliminating that hardship and that burden or that labor. And sometimes we pray so many times, God make this easy for us when really we shouldn't be praying that everything becomes easier or that what's lost is always found, but that we, we might somehow continue to use adversity to fine tune us, to keep us in the way to make it so that we don't end up with the wrong amount of pressure and, and go off the rails at the
Speaker 2 00:54:03 End. Yeah. And to your point, just to kind of put a bow on it on my end, I love what you just said too, because I also don't think that there's. I also think that that's the most like normal response to being in a bad situation is, look, if I don't have to drink out of this cup, you know, Uhhuh, I mean, if the Lord himself is, if Jesus is saying, Hey, if I don't have to do, it's like that's so, but again, then we were given the perfect example of what the response after that should be, which is, but, you know, if, but if that's what needs to happen, at least just be with me, you know, but I, but I'll do it. And so anyways, I think it's a great, it's a great point.
Speaker 1 00:54:47 Well, let's wrap this up with the story of David.
Speaker 2 00:54:50 Oh baby David. Oh, David.
Speaker 1 00:54:53 And we're not gonna get through the whole of David. We're gonna get through the good side of David.
Speaker 2 00:54:57 Okay. That's good. I'm glad we're off on a good note.
Speaker 1 00:55:00 Yeah. Uh, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:55:01 Good David,
Speaker 1 00:55:02 Good David. And so what happens is Saul and not waiting for not waiting for the priest to offer sacrifices, takes the priesthood into his own hands, offering the sacrifice. And, and the Lord says, what are you doing? Yeah. Like you've, you've overextended. This used to be about me. And you were very humble and, and you would do what I wanted you to do. And I made you great to now where it's about you and you've forgotten the Lord. You're, you're starting to shift. And because you're doing this and taking this into your own hands and, and becoming powerful and forgetting the Lord, I am going to choose another. And David is consecrated very early on, uh, as a young boy, but David also is gonna be serving as an armor bearer. So it seems like there, there's a little bit of weirdness and we'll we'll address this later, cuz we're gonna have more time to talk about David and another podcast.
Speaker 1 00:55:54 This is more kind of just a finishing note to, to Saul and Samuel. Um, but David, as a young boy, he's gonna be serving as this armor bearer for Saul. He's the harp. He's also gonna be the, the shepherd for his FA his dad's family. And let's just get to the story that I guess we're all waiting for. When, when Saul is going to war with the Philistines, then you've got this giant Goliath that steps onto the battlefield and says, look, if you have a champion that can fight him on one, on one battle, let's let that determine it. Instead of having hundreds of people being slaying on both sides of the deal here, like what champion do you have to fight here? And, and Saul should've been that champion, right? He was the fearless one that the Lord chose that stood head and shoulders above everyone else.
Speaker 1 00:56:39 He should've been that champion that would've stood up fearless before him. And so this story is also used to show that shift in this young boy that was willing to do whatever God asked and not shirk his responsibility versus this other one who, who should have done it. But he's, he's willing to let some unknown boy step in, in his shoes and feel that responsibility, the very, very much this cementing story of the change in dynasty and why it should go from Saul to David, as you're gonna see these two in opposition and, and Jonathan gets a little bit of screen time here throughout the end of Samuel, feel free to read and, and learn all about that. We'll, we'll revisit this with David, but let's go to David and Goliath. Uh, David he's the youngest son. So as the youngest son, it, the, the responsibility of being shepherd falls upon him. His dad asks him to take some food out to his older brothers who are serving in the army. And he sees Goliath, taunting Israel, saying who is going to come out and fight me. And David says, are you gonna let this UN uncircumcised Philistine
Speaker 2 00:57:47 Favorite line in the, in the Bible? Maybe
Speaker 1 00:57:50 You, you gonna let you gonna let him like put Israel to shame. Like you guys are supposed to be these heroes, these mighty men, these soldiers, and, and really like, there shouldn't be any one of you, even the least of you should be able to stand up to him because God is on our side. He, I don't care how big, how strong the Lord will provide for his, his servant. It doesn't matter how big the obstacles are. So he, he opens his mouth and ends up being chosen to be this, this champion and Saul himself allows him to wear Saul's armor. And, and that in and of itself is an interesting thing.
Speaker 2 00:58:31 I was gonna say, this is, I couldn't wait to get to this cause I have so many thoughts on this. Keep going.
Speaker 1 00:58:36 Okay. I, my thoughts are one as, as his armor bearer, he would be very intimately familiar with the armor that he was caring for Saul. But two, if you look at Saul, he was head and shoulders above all of Israel. If you look at that, literally as a very tall person, then if David was head and shoulders, it would follow that David would also be head and shoulders above Israel, even though he's the youngest son, he's at an age where he might be taller than most. And Saul's armor would be the only armor that would fit him. That's if you look at that, literally it might just be that he was heading shoulders above in righteousness, in which case that wouldn't hold anymore. So, so I'm not sure. So he has that, Nate, what, what do you want to add on that?
Speaker 2 00:59:19 I'm I'm going full symbolism here. Let's do it. What do you, what there's cuz we, as we later know, it just gets in his way, right? The armor, the armor it's he's just like, it's, it's either too heavy or it's or it's frumpy or whatever it is. But I think a lot of that is like, what is, what did Saul, what, what was Saul sending, um, David out with, right? Like man's armor. Right? And there's a weight about that. That again, there's, you know, we, we, this is a thing that we read about all the time in the old Testament, especially, but even well, a lot in the new Testament too, which is, is the wisdom of men is not the wisdom of God, right? Yes. And so you think to yourself, okay, I need to be, I need the heaviest armor. If I'm gonna go out and fight this strong dude, but it, it's not only, not only is it not effective, but it's just, it's a hindrance, right.
Speaker 2 01:00:12 It's in the way. But then I think of like, man, I think of like the weight of that, or like what was like, what was the, the armor of Saul at this point was very different than the armor of God. Right? And the armor of God was basically shedding the weight of man, or basically ridding yourself of the, you know, the, the wisdom of manner, the responsibilities or, or what, or what humans would see as like, Hey, this is what you need to protect yourself. And he goes, this is, this is more in the way than anything that I actually need. And then, and then you look at it just from a faith standpoint, right? Like if you are David in this circumstance too, there is something about the idea of it's. It's like when Peter got out of the boat in the middle of a storm, right?
Speaker 2 01:00:58 Like you still can't take the human out of this. Right. There's still a level of faith. That's like, I don't need, I don't need this to do what I, what needs to be done. Right. Or, or I'm going to go into a dangerous situation. Every part of my human instinct says, you should probably be bundled up. <laugh> you know what I mean? As tight as you can get for Peter, it's like, you probably should stay in the boat. Right? Yeah. But the, but the irony, again, in both of these stories is Peter wasn't Peter was safer out of the boat, right? Yes. Because, because we have this idea of safety as humans, that boat dude, the water at any point could turn over that whole boat. You're not safer in the boat get outta here. Right. And, and you look at this story and you go, where was, where was he?
Speaker 2 01:01:44 Where was David actually safer? Was it with this weight of the king of the future? Uh, you know, what I mean is, is, is even, even kind of previewing his, his life, you know, is it, is it sitting under the weight of all of this metal and, and protection where even with that stuff on, if he doesn't have the Lord on his side, Goliath's gonna go and club his head off anyways, no matter how much armor he has on, right. It's this fault, sense of safety that even that armor really gave him in this, in this particular story. So anyways, that's kind of, that's kind of what I've taken out of that. Love it, the story a little bit,
Speaker 1 01:02:24 Sometimes the counterintuitive we're, we're, we're more safe when we're uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 01:02:29 And I also like too, what you said too is if, if Saul's gonna put all of this armor on him, why doesn't he just go out with it all on himself? If he, if he even, he really believes it, right. There's just this funny, there's just this funny idea behind, you know, or, or, or is this the point where even Saul realizes he doesn't have the protection of the Lord anymore and that's why he's going. Yeah. It's probably better that we send somebody out. That's a good person. Right? Well there's but here's my armor. Here's all the weight that I've been carrying.
Speaker 1 01:02:58 Well, it's interesting how the Lord chooses different personalities at different times and, and uses those personalities because you look at Saul, this isn't the first time he's run away when he was first called to be king. And he was nowhere to be found because he was hiding from his responsibility. It is very different from David who here I here, am
Speaker 2 01:03:16 I very bold? Yeah.
Speaker 1 01:03:17 And he steps up even as a young man to go take on the most intimidating foe there is. And later on in his life, he's going to war as the king battling on the front lines against giants and his heroes have to step in and save him as a giants about Tom him. And they say, look, king, please. For the love, stay home from battle. <laugh>. I mean, he had
Speaker 2 01:03:36 A very, he don't got it
Speaker 1 01:03:37 Anymore. Yeah. He, he, he had a very different personality and it's not to say one is good or one is bad, but they are different. And the dynamics are different. And how the Lord uses them are different ma you know, having, having someone who knows how to direct resources, the way that the way that Saul was able to unify Israel, to go save the, the people that were gonna be blinded and, and pull the resources and pull the man and, and strategically use them versus David who's, who's maybe a little bit more fool hearty. I don't know. What's interesting for what
Speaker 2 01:04:09 It's worth. Uh, let's keep going.
Speaker 1 01:04:11 So David comes out there to battle. He, he finds him some smooth stones, as you said, he rejects the armor. And, and he has words with the, the Philistine with, with Goliath and he, and he smites him with the, the smooth stone and knocks him out and, and then takes Goliaths sword and cuts his head off with his own sword and, and delivers Israel that day from a very young age. And, and he becomes very popular. And, and this popularity is what is going to drive DEU between Saul and David, because Saul knows his days are numbered. He's been a coward from the beginning and he's losing popularity among Israel. He didn't go out there. He didn't fill his, his role. He offered someone to be his champion where his armor and represent him on the field. And David didn't even do that. David said, I'm gonna represent myself.
Speaker 1 01:05:05 I'm not representing you. He comes out there with his own style, his own way. As a shepherd with a sling, David knows his da or Saul knows his days are numbered. And, and this starts to begin this feud where David is going to be the outcast of society and, and, and have an army that kind of slowly flock to him in this setting. The stage for this interesting rivalry feud before David is going to become the next king. And, and I think, I think a lot has been said about David and Goliath and, and this idea of us fighting the giants in our life and the challenges that we have, uh, time wise. I think I, I don't know, Nate, where are we at? I, I, I think,
Speaker 2 01:05:49 No, that's great. I think we're, I mean, we're past time, so I think we've, I think we've, we've done what we needed to on this bad boy.
Speaker 1 01:05:55 Yeah. I think, um, I think we wrap this
Speaker 2 01:05:57 Up killer. So next week we're gonna be finishing up with David. Yes, sir. Okay. Killer. All right. Well then until next week,
Speaker 1 01:06:04 See ya.
