2 Samuel & 1 Kings

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:15] Speaker B: 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. I am your host, Jason Lloyd, here in the studio with my friend and this show's producer, Nate Pyfer What's up, Nate? [00:00:36] Speaker A: Hey, buddy. Hey. [00:00:38] Speaker B: It's good to be back in the studio recording another episode. [00:00:41] Speaker A: You've been a traveling man again, dude. Are you all right? [00:00:46] Speaker B: This last little bit was pretty intense. Doing well. Doing well. [00:00:51] Speaker A: How was it, though? You feeling all right? [00:00:52] Speaker B: I'm feeling great. We. We finally. So for those of you who were listening to Doctrine Covenants last year, I said that we were going to do a family trip to Missouri in June, and we did it. We pulled it off. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Sweet. Did the kids have fun? [00:01:08] Speaker B: The kids had a blast. We watched, like, a record number of red box movies driving across the country. [00:01:14] Speaker A: Yes, you did. We. [00:01:17] Speaker B: It was pretty good. We went to Winter Quarters, and then we went over into Independence, and then we went to Far West Hans Mill, Adamandayaman, and then we skipped over to Nauvoo and did Carthage and then took a day off to Legoland. [00:01:40] Speaker A: Random, but okay. [00:01:41] Speaker B: And some KC barbecue. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Oh, man. Barbecue in Kansas City is amazing. [00:01:48] Speaker B: I, I know. I was a little disappointed. Not in the quality of the barbecue, just in the fact that Vic's KC barbecue was closed. Oh, no, that. I, I, I wanted to take my family there. The guy's awesome. Good restaurant. But they're only open Wednesday to Saturday, so I, we went there Tuesday. Didn't plan that, right? Anyhow, that's, that's my, my latest. [00:02:10] Speaker A: I'm glad you made it back safely. Thanks for letting me teach your institute class. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Thanks for teaching it. [00:02:15] Speaker A: I'm glad we were able to keep this ball rolling. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So we're talking about David and Solomon today, and I'm telling you, we've been going through this. I know I've said this before at, like, breakneck speeds, sadly. And there is so much that we're trying to rope in that's kind of getting left at the wayside here and there before we dive into this. Nate, is there anything from last week maybe you want to regurgitate, tidy up, or pull into, or should we just see where this goes? [00:02:54] Speaker A: You mention that because most of this week has been me thinking, oh, man, we really got to put this in. We've been getting amazing feedback. There was some amazing feedback even in the institute class. We've had some amazing feedback from some of our listeners. And there was. There's so much that I wanted to put in. But as we were even just kind of talking about it before we started recording, there is so much that I'm like, oh, we can't just do another podcast on last week's stuff. But we have talked about this and we have heard you and we have heard some of the feedback saying that there would be interest from at least a good chunk of our listeners if we were going to be doing some kind of supplemental. I. We've done. We've done a couple episodes right. In the past. We've done a couple supplemental episodes, but we. But they've usually just been kind of sporadic here or there. We are. We are going to start taking this a little bit more seriously because there's so many amazing things to be learning in the stuff that we're skipping over that I think we're going to start doing regular supplemental bonus episodes. And I think for the stuff that I really wanted to talk about this week, I think we just save it for and we record something in a few days and put it out. [00:04:17] Speaker B: Fair enough. I like the sound of it. [00:04:21] Speaker A: If you have anything specifically that you would like to recommend or have us talk about, though, please always email at us. [email protected] yes, sir. All right, let's get into it. [00:04:33] Speaker B: Okay. I am going to dip my toes in a little bit to the end of last week's. Do it just to give us a little bit of context with David and Saul, because we are talking about the transition here from Saul's reign to David's reign. And I know last week we kind of ended with David and Goliath and we didn't really get into a whole lot of how this is going to finish up end up. So I feel like we need just a little bit of context before we. We go too far. Interesting enough, David, when he has his falling out with Saul, he's got to go somewhere. He's kind of exiled out of Israel. Saul's seeking his life. And to me, one of the most fascinating things is where he goes. He shows up at the Philistines doorstep in the city of Gath, right? And if you don't remember, the city of Gath is the city of Goliath. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:05:34] Speaker B: And he's kind of hoping like maybe they won't recognize me. Here's the guy that slew Goliath, their champion, and he's coming, mind you, with Goliath's sword strapped to his side. [00:05:49] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Thinking maybe they will. [00:05:52] Speaker A: It's super subtle. [00:05:54] Speaker B: Maybe they won't recognize me. This is almost as subtle as Abinadi, when he says he's coming back into the city with the disguise, and he starts off his speech saying, I Abinadi. Like, it's not very subtle at all, right. And of course, they recognize David, and it starts to not go well for him. And he has to pretend insanity to kind of. To kind of get his way out of town and work his way to some other refugee cities. And he takes with him an army of about 600 loyal people to him. If you don't know going through some of these stories, David was kind of the war hero. And the song was going, you know, Saul and his thousands, but David and his ten thousands. And it's almost kind of like a military coup, this transfer of power from Saul to David. But David has his mighty men that are going with him, that are loyal to him, that have fought by his side. And eventually he does end up going back to the capital city of the Philistines and negotiating a truce with the king of the Philistines, where they give him the city of Ziklag. And that's where he stages his guise. And the Philistines are asking him to go to battle with the Israelites. And so David is actually using this opportunity to. To go to battle with the Amalekites and kind of stirring up all sorts of trouble with the Amalekites and going to battle and winning all these wars for them, and then telling the Philistines that he's fighting the Israelites, kind of doing a little deception, trying to gain favor with the Philistines and to kind of speed this up a little bit as we're getting to the end of this, the king of the Philistines asks David. He trusts him so much now at this point that he asks David to bring his mighty men, his 600, with him to go fight Israel itself. So now we're going to have a showdown between Israel and the Philistines, and the Philistines are going to go to war with them. And now you're going to see David and Saul on opposite ends of the pitch, going to battle with each other. But all of the other Philistine commanders are nervous having David in the rear guard, that he's going to turn against them and start slaying them. And so they kick David out and say, don't join us in this battle. David's coming back to the land of Ziklag. But the Amalekites, whom he had been waging war with. When they saw that he had left to go fight with, the Philistines came and sacked the city and took all of their wives and their families. And so David's kind of got his handfuls going to fight with the Amalekites. The reason I bring this up, Saul, Samuel has died. And he knows that the Philistines are coming to wage war with him. He's terrified, and he's trying to get inspiration from God. Like, what is going to be the outcome? What do we need to do? So he's offering up his sacrifices, he's asking God, and the heavens are closed. He's not getting any answers. God won't respond. So he tracks down a witch, and he had cast out all of the witches previously with Samuel. But he finds one, and he asks her to help him get this divine inspiration, which is kind of interesting that you're turning to the sorcery to try to find it. But this witch of Endor, and I think it's cool you got Endor wrapped into this whole story anyhow. Let me just read this one verse. As we're setting the stage, she conjures up Samuel. So she sees this vision, and she doesn't realize this is King Saul because he comes in disguise. And when this vision is conjured up, she realizes who she's talking to. And she's terrified because she feels like she's been trapped. And he's going to kill him. Excuse me. He's going to kill her. Sorry. As I'm flipping through these pages, trying to get to where I am. Okay, this is 1st Samuel, chapter 28. And let's see, verse 12. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. And the woman spake to Saul, saying, why hast thou deceived me? For thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, be not afraid for what sawest thou. This is where it gets interesting. And the woman said unto Saul, I saw Elohim ascending out of the earth. So she saw a God, an Elohim, a God ascending out of the earth. And in the English, it says gods, but the Hebrew word here is Elohim. I saw a God ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, what form is he of? And she said, an old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel. And he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself. She saw a God rising up from the dust of the earth. That's interesting to me that here in the Bible you're referring to dead people who lived here who were rising up as Elohim, as gods. And I know in our religion, we believe that God wants us to come to him, to be like him. And we get a lot of flack for this idea that we are children of God, that can be like God. But right here, the witch and Saul are looking at this, saying, I saw a God rising from the dust, and it was Samuel, an old man. Like, he. He is a God. For what it's worth, I find it kind of interesting that they refer to him like that. Anyway, Samuel's like, what are you doing? Disturbing my peace. I'll tell you what's going to happen. You're going to lose. The Philistines are going to destroy you. I'm sorry. So now the Philistines go to battle. It does not go well. They slay Jonathan. And Jonathan is a super awesome hero. And I know we haven't talked about him. So, Nate, as we're talking about some of this content, maybe we throw into a bonus episode. I think we need to give Donna. Jonathan a good nod. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Jonathan was awesome. [00:12:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:38] Speaker A: It's a bummer that we kind of. He hasn't kind of made it into the. The stories in, like, the cultural stories, like David and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and, you know, all of those awesome. Other awesome. You know, Daniel and the Lion's Den. Like, there's so many really great, awesome characters. Jonathan was just solid, I feel like. And it's. He kind of has a. A tragic storyline with, you know, his dad being crazy. [00:13:11] Speaker B: He was kind of crazy. Should we. Should we give him a quick nod or. Or save it. [00:13:15] Speaker A: Yeah, let's give him a quick nod, man. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Okay, so Jonathan, one of the most impressive stories about. Obviously, he. We haven't talked about this, but I'm sure you've read this. Him and David are very close. And. And Jonathan's a. Apparently a very good ar. Signals kind of communicate back and forth. And David even says when Jonathan dies that the love he had for Jonathan was even greater than that, than the love for a woman. And so some people look at it and say, oh, David and Jonathan, maybe they were homosexual, maybe not. But I think here it's just a very solid relationship. They got along really well. But Jonathan, when David leaves, he kind of becomes this hero that. That fills that place for Saul, and he's earning a lot of the victories for Saul. Saul is not so much out there in the forefront winning all the wars. He's more of A commander and using [00:14:11] Speaker A: these generals, which is interesting because does this even give us a little bit of insight into the downfall of Saul? One of the first major battles? Jonathan goes and wins the battle. Yeah. And then Saul's like, yeah, baby, I won the battle. And everybody's like, look at Saul. Saul won the battle. And you're like, jonathan went and won that battle. Was this almost the first taste of you getting glory for something you totally didn't do by yourself? Or was this that first taste of glory? And is this where the pride that eventually led to his ultimate downfall, could this. Could this have been the seeds? Right. Where the actual person out there that's. That's amazing and doing a great job isn't the one getting the credit for it. [00:15:07] Speaker B: And I loved what you mentioned last week by the sweat of your brow, right? This idea that maybe Saul is not putting in the work, but he's taking a lot of credit for all the work that other people are doing underneath him. [00:15:20] Speaker A: Yes. Just some thoughts. Part of me just wonders if that's. If that's maybe an interesting insight into the beginning of the end of Saul. [00:15:32] Speaker B: It very well could be. I mean, this guy, one thing after another until it leads to insanity, and poor Jonathan because of it. And so maybe the culminating thing here with Jonathan, maybe his last great adventure, he is all alone with this armor bearer and he has to climb this mountain stronghold to get to where the Philistines are. And it's very cool because they say that he has to pass through two rocks and they name the two rocks. And the names are very similar to what you see with the two pillars of the temple. And so I look at Jonathan, and as he's passing through this pass and going through these two pillars on this very hard trail, and thinking of this as temple imagery as you're passing between these two pillars into the temple on this covenant path. And then when you get inside the temple, you've got cherubim and a flaming sword guarding the way to the Tree of Life, Right. He's going to clear this. This path and come across the whole armed army that is preventing him from achieving his objective. You also see it similar to the covenant that God established with Israel, when he makes six of the tribes stand on one mountain and six of the tribes stand on the other. And having Israel pass through the valley in between as they shout out the blessings and the cursings and establish this covenant. So I see Jonathan's sole journey down this path is this covenant path. Passing through these pillars, passing through this valley, climbing Up. And as he's getting to the top, he's talking to his armor bearer and he says, we need to make sure we're doing what God wants us to do. Here's what we're going to do to make sure we know it's God's will and not just ours. If the people say, we're going to come destroy you and they come to get us, then we'll know that it's not God's will and we'll get out of here and try to save ourselves. But if they say, hey, we've got something for you, why don't you come here and we'll give it to you kind of in a mocking sort of way, like, come here and we'll clean your clock, then we'll know that God is going to deliver them in our hands. And that's a bold thing. He gets to the top, he's climbing, it says, on his hands and knees, because it's so steep. As he clears the way and they see him, they shout out, hey, why don't you come over here? We've got something for you. And Jonathan says, that's our sign, and just runs in and slays like 20 in the first swing here. And all of a sudden there's chaos in the camp and everyone's confused and they start slaying each other. And this young man single handedly destroys all of the Philistines in the stronghold and delivers it up for Israel. So I don't know that stories get more heroic than this. [00:18:36] Speaker A: Should he have been the king? In most circumstances, absolutely. [00:18:41] Speaker B: He was next in line. He was supposed to be the king. Had he not fallen in battle. That would have been interesting to see how David would have handled that situation because of his love and respect for Jonathan. Very likely he would have been the [00:18:56] Speaker A: next king and would have been by all accounts a great king. [00:19:01] Speaker B: Yes, Very similar to David in his zeal for doing what's right and his courage. And he even spoke his mind contrary to Saul when Saul orders all the people to fast to deliver them from the Philistines. And Saul's like, what are you doing? If we had strength, we could have been Saul's kind of doing all sorts of his own little crazy. And it actually leads to him sentencing Jonathan to death. [00:19:31] Speaker A: That's right. [00:19:32] Speaker B: For dipping his stick in a little bit of honey on the way when he didn't know, he didn't hear that they were supposed to be fast. [00:19:38] Speaker A: He's doing this dumb fast, by the way too. Like not necessarily even a Sanctioned. You know what I mean? By the way? A fast with a bizarre covenant that. And if anybody here eat anything, they should die. [00:19:51] Speaker B: You know what this reminds me of? [00:19:52] Speaker A: Tell me if I can take us [00:19:54] Speaker B: back to my mission in Mexico. Some zone leader had this wonderful idea that we're going to give a little bit more to the Lord and sacrifice our P day to him by working all P day, too. And that by consecrating and sacrificing or fasting, if you will, this offering, by giving up our P day, we're going to be all the more blessed. And to me, [00:20:21] Speaker A: I mean, you said no, right? [00:20:23] Speaker B: Oh, it was. We all had to do it for a while. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Come on. You said no, right? Am I just the only, like, rogue dude in this entire world? Like, if anybody were to have said that, I would have been like, okay, cool, man. Well, I'm going to go play basketball now, and I guess you can call the mission president. [00:20:40] Speaker B: Like, how else do you get your laundry done? How else do you. That's what I mean. And it reminds me in the Book of Mormon when they say it's not needful, that. What do they say? You can't run faster than you have strength. You see that there? You see it in Doctrine and Covenants, and there's got to be order in all things. There's a reason why we have it the way we do. [00:20:59] Speaker A: There's a reason that on the seventh day, God rested. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Yes. When Saul, in time of war, starts all of a sudden imposing these weird restrictions to try to consecrate and make the people holy, he's not doing it in the right frame of mind for the right reasons. God's not answering his contest, his prayers, his offerings. He's kind of closed things out and then. Anyways, neither here nor there, but he's. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Luckily, the people saved Jonathan, though. Luckily, the people were like, yeah, we're not going to kill this dude. We like this dude. [00:21:34] Speaker B: And they do. But unfortunately, in that war where the Philistines are going to go against Saul and the witch of Endor prophesies their downfall, they lose. Jonathan is slain. Saul is. Yeah, Saul is running away, and they're gaining on him. And if I remember, I believe he's even injured, and he doesn't want to be humiliated. And what's the right word for this? Desecrated. Or his body to be molested by the enemy? When the enemy overruns him, he's the king. So he asks his armor bearer to slay him. And his armor bearer is like, no, are you Kidding me? I can't kill the king of Israel. I'm sworn to protect you. I'm not going to break my oath. And I can't kill the Lord's anointed. No, I'm not going to do it. So Saul falls on his own sword. The armor bearer falls on his own sword. And then when the Philistines show up, they abuse him anyways, even though he's dead. So what he was so afraid of happening happens anyways. They chop his head off. They chop his hands off. And then they take Saul's body and Jonathan's body and they hang him up across from Gilead, which, by the way, this is the city where they had said, we'll make a covenant with you if you take all of your eyes, your right eyes, and pluck them out. And they went back to Saul. And Saul united all of Israel to defeat them and save them. And now they're mocking them by putting the bodies of Saul and Jonathan, hanging them up in front across from the city of Gilead. And so they. They get brave and they go to avenge Jonathan, Saul, and recover the bodies and bring them back so that they can be buried. And this is kind of going to be the transfer of power where we're going to see David kind of step up. Saul has another son that hasn't died yet. His name in the Bible, it says is Ish Bosheth, which is not true. Ish is the Hebrew word for man. B is the Hebrew for shame. So Saul did not name his son man of shame. He named him Ish baal, which means man of baal. To give you an idea of the fall of Saul, where he went and where he ended up, Jonathan is Jehovah, has given Jeho Nathan meaning to give. And so you start with Jehovah and then in the end, your younger son. Now you're naming him baal, you're worshiping a different God, a different Lord, and you're crying, you're going a different way. Ishbaal is supposed to be the next king. Abner is kind of his chief of the army, one of the Amalekites who David is fighting. Remember, David's army got pulled off from the Philistines because of the doubt. They have to go back. They find the Amalekites have ravaged their towns. They catch up with the Amalekites, kind of an interesting story. They find an Egyptian servant along the way who was abused and kind of beat up. He's been laying on the road for three days. And the Amalekites abandoned him. And you almost kind of get this parable of the Samaritan as David comes in and sees him. And even though he's in a hurry to catch up to the Amalekites, he takes him in and binds his wounds and takes care of him, makes sure he's healed. And the Egyptian in return says, I'll guide you to the camp and help you figure this out. They catch up and they recover all of their possessions. They're moving so fast that only 400 of the men of their mighty men can even keep up. 200 have to get left behind. They recover it, but they're fighting the Amalekites. They defeat them. They bring everything back to Ziklag. And then an Amalekite from the battlefield of the Philistines comes running up to David with the king's crown and bracelet saying, hey, Saul was wounded on the battlefield. He asked me to kill him. So I slew him, took the crown and the bracelets and brought them to you because you should be the next king of Israel. He's doing this to try to find favor in David's eyes. He knew that Saul and David were enemies. So slaying Saul and taking the crown and bringing it to him, he thought would make him happy. David. How many times did David have an opportunity to kill Saul but held back because it was the Lord's anointed? And so he's looking at him and says, how could you not be hesitant to raise up a hand against the Lord's anointed, even though Saul had killed himself? This guy, if he's lying and taking credit for something he didn't do, he's still bragging about killing the Lord's anointed. David executes him, has him put to death. Anyhow, I'm sorry, I'm going into all sorts of stories. I'll try to get us where we need to go. [00:26:53] Speaker A: So Jonathan was dope, though. [00:26:54] Speaker B: Jonathan was awesome. David comes back to Israel. Judah anoints him as king, but the rest of Israel chooses Saul's son, Ish Bosheth, which was really Ishbaal, who the later the biblical writers were ashamed that their king would name him after baal, so they changed it to shame, the shame of instead of baal. Anyhow, David has his captain of his mighty men. In fact, it's really cool as you're reading through these stories, David has a whole host of heroes. And David's heroes, they talk about their feats and how many men they slew with the spear and how cool they were and how fast they are. And just like these are the first special forces of the Bible, if you will. I guess they're not the first special forces. Abraham had his elite crew that kind of went in and took care of business when he freed the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. But this is another section where you get this kind of these elite troops kind of stories, these cool little things that are in there if you want to read about it. Joab was the captain of this. Abner was the captain for Ish Boshet. Joab and Abner sit down, kind of chat with each other. Doesn't go well. Their men engage and they slay each other. And a lot of fighting happening. Joab's brother is chasing Abner. Abner's telling him, hey, look, man, go chase somebody else. Go fight somebody else. I don't want to answer to your brother. If I have to kill you to defend myself, I. But his brother's super fast and persistent, stubborn. He's not going to give up. He's catching up to Abner to where Abner thrusts the back part of his spear into his brother and kills him as he's chasing him. So it creates this rift between Abner and Joab. The reason why this is important, if you're still listening. Abner ends up sleeping with one of Saul's concubines. And this is something I'm sure we've talked about. If not, you should realize this. In the Old Testament times, if you're sleeping with the king's wife, you are taking on the king's power, the king's throne. It's a play for the throne. And Ish Boshet's like, how could you do this to me? What were you thinking? And Abner's like, look, really, David is the anointed. David should be the one. David. It should all be back to David. Let's go. I'll try to go make this agreement and figure this out. He settles things with Ish Bosheth. He comes to David. He meets with him. And I'm not going to get into all the details of this, but he goes to make peace. David accepts the terms. Abner is going to bring all of Israel to come in and support David as king. And Joab asks what's going on. David explains how this is going to work. And Joab sneaks out and kills Abner. Even though Abner is relinquishing and bringing all of Israel to David, he kills Abner. And then you've got Two of the servants for Ish Bosheth on Saul's camp, Saul's side of the deal, that seeing this kind of change of power and that David is going to be on the rise and that Saul's house is falling. And they want position and power in this new kingdom and this new favor with the king. They slay Ish Bosheth and they come back and bring the news to David, hoping again, kind of like this Amalekite did for a reward, like we killed him. We want to acknowledge you as king and to serve you. And this is our offering, what we did. And David's like, how in the world are you that ignorant? Did you not know what I did to the Amalekite that slew Saul? And now what should I do to the ones that slew Saul's son that didn't have regard or respect for him? And he slew them as well, had them executed. But the interesting thing is he does not execute Joab. He plays favorites here. Joab slew Abner, and David says, you slew a righteous man. You should never have done that. But he refuses to carry out justice. And he says, the wickedness will be upon you. I'm not taking any part of this. But still, he's not carrying out the justice to Joab. And because he fails to mete out justice to Joab, it's something that's going to come back to bite him later on in the story as Joab continues to be this assassin, this character that continues to kind of. I don't know how you classify this, Nate, a loose cannon, a rogue who's loose cannon, who's going to keep doing what he wants to do. And it's going to work to. [00:32:05] Speaker A: He's going to pay the price later. [00:32:06] Speaker B: He's going to pay the price. That's probably the best way to put this. [00:32:09] Speaker A: So we've kind of talked a little bit about the beginnings of the downfall of Saul. Is this some of the beginnings of the downfalls of David, I wonder? [00:32:20] Speaker B: I mean, you see some of the weakness in Saul's character at the beginning. I think you see hints of it with David and how he tends to play favorites. [00:32:29] Speaker A: Like, I think people think that the downfall of David is simply he has an uncontrollable vibe for women. But I think that it's more than that. I think that these are kind of little clues into the bigger picture of that. It's a lot more nuanced than he's a sex addict. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Well, and you look at Samuel, had the Same issue when his sons were being unrighteous. And Eli, the same thing. The high priest who had two sons that were again, having these issues, that [00:33:02] Speaker A: he [00:33:05] Speaker B: gave him a pass. They should have been more strict or they should have been adhering to the law, but they gave him a pass. And it makes me wonder. It makes me wonder with David when you're talking about the same judgment that you judge out is the same judgment that you'll receive. And I wonder if sometimes he's not giving him a pass because of some things in David's life that are haunting him, that maybe his weakness or sin is causing his inability to mete out justice, how it needs to be in his own household. [00:33:39] Speaker A: Well, that for sure happens later in his life. [00:33:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. With Absalom. And we'll get to that story today. It's a good question. I think you do start to see a little bit of cracks in the foundation with David. [00:33:52] Speaker A: Let's keep going. [00:33:54] Speaker B: All right. David needs to capture. Well, David is going to capture Jerusalem, which is pretty important to the Bible, as you well know. Jerusalem is a fairly important, significant city. Before he does, though, he's going to bring the Ark of the Covenant back. And the Ark of the Covenant has been sitting at the same house now for 70 years, since the Philistines brought it back. Way back when, at the time when the Lord smote the Philistines with hemorrhoids. And so they put it on a new cart with the oxen so that they could take the wood from the cart and build a fire and sacrifice the oxen and try to make things right for taking the Ark of the Covenant to begin with. So David is reinstituting the Ark of the Covenant into Israel. And it's interesting that it stayed at this house for 70 years. It's not reconnected with the Tabernacle. David is going to build a new Tabernacle, a new house for the Ark. It's like all of these things have fallen by the wayside. Under Saul's reign, religion all of a sudden wasn't as important. Worshiping God wasn't as important. The Ark of the Covenant wasn't as important. It's like Israel really, truly did replace their king with a human king. And David, wanting to fix this, has the Ark brought back to the center here, to where the king is, to the heart of Israel instead of the outskirts. So he goes and asks the king. Sorry, he doesn't go and ask the king. He goes to the house where the Ark of the Covenant is. And the priest there has two sons that are also Levites. And they make arrangements to transport the Ark. And this is where we get the weird story. As they're along the way, one of the oxen that are pulling the cart that the Ark of the Covenant is in, his foot slips is what it says. And when his foot slips, it causes the cart to start to tip or the Ark to start to tip. And Uzzah reaches his arm out to steady the Ark to keep it from tipping over, and God strikes him dead. What is going on here? Why is God striking Uzzah dead in the Ark of the Covenant and studying the Ark and we've heard this story and the significance of studying the Ark. I don't know if we fully understand the context of the story, what's going on? So I want to break this down a little bit. Uzzah was a Levite, and he was a Levite responsible for transporting the Ark of the Covenant. So he's acting in his capacity, in his role that he's supposed to be acting in. However, they're not doing it right in numbers. We read that in order to transport the Ark of the Covenant, the Levites had to use staves. And they would run these poles, these staves into the little islets, the rings around the Ark, so that they could carry it by touching the poles and not touching the Ark. And it says if the Levite were to touch the Ark of the Covenant, they would die instantly. So Uzzah should have known that touching the Ark of the Covenant would have killed him. That's what the Israelite law says. But more importantly, why is the Ark of the Covenant on a cart being pulled by oxen instead of Uzzah and his brother carrying the poles? Why are the Levites not transporting it? Bipoles themselves. The only time you see the Ark being transported by oxen, mind you, is when the Philistines are returning it. They are using the method for transporting the Ark that the Philistines used. So you see Israel here starting to adapt foreign behavior on how to treat their own God, how to reverence their own stuff. And I think the message here is kind of clear when you start to adapt the standards of the world around you, instead of God's standards in how you treat holy things or how you treat that which is sacred, special, you've corrupted yourselves. And if I were to say this, they say so many times that the word of God is like a two edged sword. And I like the two edged sword. I think on one edge, the ability to cut, in a sense that to save where the other edge, the ability to cut more into, to dam. So if God tells you, like in the instance of the young man in the New Testament who had a lot of possessions and says, what do I need to do next? Well, the word of God here is coming out like a two edged sword. Sell everything that you have and come follow me. If he listens, the word of God is going to save him and exalt him. And if he doesn't now, it's going to be used against him to damn him. This two edged sword can either save or condemn Christ. Is the, the foundation stone that you can either build upon or the stumbling block that's going to destroy you. [00:39:46] Speaker A: I just want to inject in, in your examples. Perfect too is why wasn't the, why wasn't the young man able to do it? It was too hard. And then Jesus even says, this is how hard it is. I look at the story that we're talking about right now. Yes, it probably isn't as easy to like carry this thing right? To like actually haul it across. But that's the right way. That's not the lazy way, that's not the cheap way. That's the right way to do this. And there's a reason for it being that way, whether you understand it or not. Yes, it is the harder way, but that's what Christ requires of us, is the harder way. [00:40:26] Speaker B: Yeah, how much easier is it to just have a couple oxen pull the thing in a cart with wheels as opposed to you being the oxen that are carrying that thing on your shoulders? And I also want to look at the story and say, if this is how the Philistines did it and it looked like it worked so much better, how many times do we justify what we're doing because of the world around us or looking at the influence, maybe we're embarrassed or ashamed of what we do. Almost like the large and spacious building a little bit in Lehi's dream. If you take that back into, into the Book of Mormon, when you're reading about them following the path, how many times to fit in, do we talk differently or say things or maybe make fun of things that are sacred or not treat things right because we're trying to adapt or fit into the world around us, I think there's a lot of value in that. All right, so David is terrified by the power of the Ark of the Covenant. And you know that the Ark of the Covenant led to Israel being destroyed by the Philistines when they took it out Unholy not being. I mean, the Levite sons carrying the ark way back when were not in a good place to do it. The Philistines destroyed them. So it was like a curse to Israel. Then it was a curse to the Philistines when it gave them the hemorrhoids. So they bring it back, and now Uz is struck dead on the way. And David's like, uh, oh, is this thing still a curse? I'm not taking it to my house. I don't want to be cursed. So he actually puts it in somebody else's house, which is kind of an interesting. An interesting move. Like, hey, this thing, this. This might be a bad deal. So I want you to hang on to it just in case it's a curse. But he puts it into a Levite's home, and the Levite is actually authorized to take care of the ark by his family lineage and the priesthood. So at least he's got that right. This guy's righteous because it says, after some time, David sees that it's blessed the man and his household, and because it's blessed him, he's like, okay, it's not just this cursed object. Israel's not cursed. We just have to do things the right way. And you'll notice that when he moves it from the man's household, which is about 12 miles outside of where David's going to be moving it to, that he carries it. Now, it's not on a cart being pulled, it's actually being carried by Levites the way it's supposed to. So they learn their lesson. And as they're coming into town, there's a lot of singing, there's a lot of dancing, and David himself is down in front of the Ark of the Covenant wearing an ephod, which is a Levitical clothing for the Levites to wear, dancing his little heart out. And Michal, I would say his wife. But it's interesting because the Bible does not refer to her as his wife in this instance. It refers to her as Saul's daughter. And so there's a little bit of a schism here. She's upset by David making a fool of himself out there. And when David comes in, she's like, how could you expose yourself to all of the maidens of Israel? And because it says David was wearing an ephod, and he's exposed himself to all the maidens of Israel, some people have, in my estimation, incorrectly assumed that David was only wearing an ephod, dancing around naked, exposing himself to the women. And she was Upset by how brazen he is. Because it also talks about how these maidens are going to be falling for him and whatnot. I don't think that's the case here. When she's talking about him uncovering himself, she's talking about him not acting as the king. And you look at Saul's reign because they're associating her with Saul. This is Saul's daughter. Saul had put the Ark of the Covenant, had left it in a far corner of Israel. It wasn't a part of their practice. He had left a lot of the religious rites and the religious ceremonies to the people to worship, and it wasn't a priority for him. And his kingdom, the tabernacle has fallen in disarray. You never hear of this being mentioned again. Ever since Eli dies and Saul becomes the king, all of this kind of falls to the wayside. And it is kind of this. The king is above all of this. The king is more important than all of this. He shouldn't have to be participating in this. And now David is out like a commoner in front of the ark, dancing like just a normal person. He's not acting kingly. He's not acting as Saul would have acted. He's not being this above all of this person. So she's looking at him and saying, not only are you defacing yourself as a commoner, but you're wearing an ephod, the Levitical clothing. David is not from the tribe of Levi. He is not a priest in the sense of a Levite. He's a priest in the sense that he's been anointed king. And he can stand almost as a high priest. A different priesthood to. To preside over his people, but with the Levite clothing. Remember, Levites don't have an inheritance in Israel. They don't have land. So it's not just that you're a commoner, you're a servant of the people. Levites were supposed to live among the 12 tribes and serve them and help them because they didn't have their own inheritance. So the king shouldn't be a commoner, shouldn't be a servant. You have this interesting contrast between David and Saul, and I love this contrast. Saul was exalting himself above everything. He was too good for all of this. David was trying to rule by bringing himself below everything, by being the servant that was serving everybody else. And so I love this. I love this contrast in leadership. I also think it's interesting, the parallels with Christ because you notice David starts reigning when he's 30 years old. Christ is also going to start his ministry when he's 30 years old and at the beginning of David's reign. So after this instance, and he tells Michal, look, I'm going to do what God wants me to do. And I am not embarrassed to make a fool of myself in front of God. I will humble myself, I will humiliate myself because God chose me over Saul. Another connection with her and Saul and putting her down and saying, look, God has chosen to exalt me, and therefore I will humble myself before him and I will debase myself and make myself even more lowly. And you talk about how that's embarrassing in front of all these maidens. But I'll tell you what, those maidens are going to like that and choose me to the point I'm not even going to have kids with you. You're going to be irrelevant. I will inherit all of them instead, which kind of happens. She kind of drifts off, doesn't have any children through him, and David ends up having all sorts of wives and concubines and whatnot. But going back to these comparisons, David sets his sights on Jerusalem to go and to capture the city which is held by the Jebusites. And the Jebusites say, the lame and the blind are going to turn you away, saying, like, because Jerusalem is surrounded by cliffs on three sides, and it's hard to access, it's hard to conquer, it's hard to take over. And they're saying, we don't even need to send our army to go stop you. We can stop you with just our lame and our blind. So David takes that and he says, okay, we'll take all the lame and the blind and cast them over the walls, down off the cliff. And he's not just saying, this sounds like a really cruel thing to say. David's not just referring to the lame and the blind. He's referring to all of Jerusalem being lame and blind. He's saying, if you think the lame and the blind are going to stop me, then I will take all that are opposed and I will throw them out of the city. And so David's conquest of Jerusalem starts with this idea, this notion that he is going to rid Jerusalem of all the lame and the blind, take that back to Christ and his ministry as he comes in. And he is also ridding Jerusalem of the lame and the blind. But he's doing it by healing the blind, by healing the lame, not by slaying them. And he's trying to convince them to teach them and to show them the higher way to cause the blind that they might see. And so it's interesting as you contrast this David. Yes, he's this humble shepherd. There's a lot of interesting similarities here. Do you want to chime in, Nate? I'm going to try to. As we were on the ride over here, we were talking about comparing and contrasting some kings and you had some very fascinating comparisons. We've been talking about King Benjamin and King Noah. So I'm going to try to remember all of the ones with Christ and David as we talk about. [00:50:25] Speaker A: I loved all the ones you were talking about in the car on the way over. By the way, the only reason I'm not chiming in is because you're doing great. [00:50:31] Speaker B: I'm trying. I'll try to. [00:50:34] Speaker A: You talked a lot about who. You talked a lot about, David. I'm trying to remember trying to save Jerusalem, basically. But Christ coming and. Or the Jews were expecting a leader to come in and a military leader to come in and rescue the Jews from the Romans. Yeah. [00:50:53] Speaker B: As they are looking for another David, a messiah, someone from the line of David, they are expecting this conqueror to come in. They cast all the lime, the lime, the blame, the blind and the lame. We will get that right. [00:51:10] Speaker A: The lime and the coconut. [00:51:12] Speaker B: They are looking for this conquering hero that came and conquered Jerusalem. And Christ did come and in a sense conquer Jerusalem, but not in the way that they were expecting. As you see Christianity sweep the world and then as you see the Romans shortly after his death in 79 AD come and destroy Jerusalem. I mean, Jerusalem was destroyed. The Jebusites in this case were the Jews at Jerusalem. The ones that were lame and blind, that didn't hear because Christ prophesies this of his death when he says that there's going to be destruction and woe to the mom that is giving suck to the child when these days come. And when you hear this, it's time to head to the hills. All of the Christians fled into the mountains before the Romans came and not one of them were destroyed. It was the lame and the blind, the ones that refused to be healed that were destroyed by the Romans when they came in. So some interesting parallels that way. [00:52:15] Speaker A: The line that you said that really clicked with me is that the Pharisees and Sadducees thought that they were going to be getting a conquering hero to come and rescue the people from the Romans. But Christ actually came and rescued the people from the Pharisees and the Sadducees. [00:52:30] Speaker B: Yeah, [00:52:34] Speaker A: A little twist of Fate. [00:52:35] Speaker B: And we talked, you know, how both of them were shepherds. David from a young age, had to flee, was in exile because Saul was seeking his life. Christ at a young age. His family had to relocate to Egypt to save them from Herod, who was seeking his life. And you have these outsiders that coming into Jerusalem as conquerors. You look at Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Just, Just kind of some interesting similarities as you. As you look at them as. As kings. [00:53:08] Speaker A: Some of the things that we were talking about too, and that we'll maybe get into a little bit in our. Our little bonus episode is that there's. There's a lot of really interesting parallels with where people start, with where they end, right? Or, I mean, because we have. And we even kind of talked about it like the patriarch, you know, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and how they're these really amazing. You know, we. We hold these three kind of back to. Back to back in really high regard. They were righteous. We saw how they treated the stranger. We saw how they. They were faithful. We saw. There's just so many parallels with those three. And then you almost look at the first three kings that we have with Saul, David and Solomon, and it's. It's three kings that started out with so much potential and then went wayward like all three. And there's so many parallels between the reasons why all three went to. There's just a lot of really interesting parallels. But one of the things that we talked about a lot is that David had every opportunity to be the greatest king. He had every opportunity to do it. But unlike Christ, he let other things get in his way and distract him. [00:54:29] Speaker B: And you look at how. How good he was executing judgment. And in the case, he didn't hesitate to execute the Amalekite that slew that claimed to slay Saul or the ones that claimed to slay Ish Bosheth. He was a man that was very decisive. He took charge. But why then didn't he hold Joab accountable? Why then is he just. Some of the things where he let slide, you see some of this weakness start to get, I don't know, start to fracture the character down the road. And it is interesting and I love the comparison that you have with the three patriarchs when you compare Abraham, Isaac and Jacob versus the first three kings, as we're talking about a new era in Israelite history, they ask for this king, and you get Saul, David and Solomon. And yeah, you start off with such righteousness and such promise, and you end up with these fractured Individuals that in the end aren't able to deliver, to hold up. Whereas in with the patriarchs, it's almost the opposite. You start with these weak characters, that very humble, circumstances that may be flawed, individuals that are trying to figure it out that in the end learn faith and finish much stronger than where they start. It's kind of interesting, and maybe one last point on this, when we're talking about it, is the idea that God wanted a nation of kings and priests from the very beginning. That's what he said, a nation of kings and priests. And up until the point where you have a king, everybody had the responsibility to go and fight. Everybody was a king to themselves. Everybody was supposed to be a priest and had all of the power, flexibility, freedom within themselves to be responsible, to be accountable, to do what they needed to do and not be dictated or controlled or commanded by someone else. Which is why it was so frustrating for God, I think, to see when they claim they want the king, they want to be like these neighboring countries, it's a sad day for them. But we had this conversation that if God is willing to be their king and allow all of them to not be ruled over, but to be kings unto themselves and to be free, why would they want to exchange that? Why would they want to give up their freedom for the sense of security. And I think where we came Nate on this discussion is this idea that God would only deliver them as long as they were being righteous. But what happened when they stopped being righteous? Now all of a sudden they were vulnerable, they were weak, and they didn't like that. They wanted security for the times when they weren't following God. They wanted that standing army, that protection, that king to be able to help them regardless to how righteous, unrighteous they were. This, this sense of security that would hopefully give them more stability. And they were exchanging some of that freedom for security that hopefully they could overcome the downfall that is God not protecting them when they chose not to follow God. [00:58:00] Speaker A: I really appreciate the way you put that because as we talked about, they had a king, they had a king that protected them, and they had a king that promised that he would take upon himself their shortcomings and cover them. Right? God was their king. When they were going to Samuel saying, you know, we want a king, a lot of it, like, like they claimed was for physical security because of what you just said. They also kind of wanted to have somebody to send all the problems to, to. To carry the weight of the blame. We've even talked a little bit about, you know, When Saul was basically commanded to go kill every man, woman, child, baby animals, everything from the Amalekites, he wasn't able to do it because of the pressure from the people or whatever that was. But that's the nice thing, I guess, about having a king, right, is that the king's the one that's responsible for all that because the king commanded the army to do it. So the army goes and does what the king told him to do, and then the king takes the blame for that. And so having a physical king to kind of put all of that on too, as well, I'm sure seemed very appealing. But they already had that. They already had that. And. And I'm really glad you highlighted. They also just wanted to be able to do whatever they wanted to and still have those benefits. But as we've seen, you know, and as we know throughout the story, how that worked out. [00:59:28] Speaker B: And I also like to think of this as you want someone to preach to you this idea that I don't have to be responsible for my own safety, I don't have to be responsible for my own salvation. I'm going to hire somebody to do that for me. I want somebody to be responsible for that. It's the. It's the preacher's fault. It's the king's fault. I can shift the liability, and I don't have to be accountable. Instead of being a nation of kings and priests, where you're independent and you're responsible and you're accountable, shift that somewhere else and make them responsible. And in the end, I think that falls more in line with Satan's offering from the beginning. Like, I will go and save everybody. They don't have to worry about that. Don't give them agency. Don't let them be responsible. Put it on me, and I will save everybody. As opposed to personal accountability, how can that ever work? I mean, you obviously have the discussion that it can work if you have a righteous king, and God is the righteous king. Right. If you have a righteous king that enables and empowers his people to be free to have that accountability, who sets that example by working for themselves and not just putting it off. And I don't know, when we have one of our kids babysit and then there's dishes to clean up, and they're like, well, what should we do? And they start forcing all the ones that they're babysitting to clean up the kitchen for them, because now they have their own little servants that can work for them so that they can have all the benefits. Of, I don't know, are we there to be served or to serve? Because I think that's. I think it all comes right back down to that. By the sweat of your brow. And this idea that we have to do the work and we have to not take the shortcut. If we're going to be like God. It's a process. There's cherubim and a flaming sword guarding the way. We're going to have to figure out how to overcome that if we're going to reap those benefits. [01:01:33] Speaker A: But those benefits are specifically to become kings and priests. [01:01:38] Speaker B: Yes. [01:01:38] Speaker A: And priestesses, obviously. Killer. [01:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry, that's. [01:01:44] Speaker A: Should we get to Bathsheba? [01:01:48] Speaker B: I think so. I'm just trying to mentally go through. We've talked about studying the ark. We've talked about dancing in an ephod. We've talked about parallels between Christ and David, and we've talked about taking Jerusalem. I think you're right. I think we're Bathsheba time. [01:02:11] Speaker A: Here we go. [01:02:14] Speaker B: So the come follow me lesson, I think starts this one chapter too late. If we back up one chapter just to get some context to the war that's going on in a neighboring nation. They had a death. And David sends messengers to bring his condolences to the nation to try to shore up some of these relationships and to be a good neighbor. When these messengers show up, some of the advisors to the kingdom there and the neighboring nation say they're not here to offer condolences, they're here to mock us. So they take the messengers and they shave off half of their beards, which is super humiliating to have half a beard. And in this area of the world, the beard ruled. I mean, you go down into Egypt and you see the carvings and any of the Egyptians, you'll see clean shaven with no facial hair. And then you can tell the Semites, the people from this region and the Canaanites very easily because they all have beards. So this was a kind of a big thing for them. Not only that, but they cut their clothes in the midsection so that their backsides were exposed, so their bottoms were hanging out, which is super humiliating. And these guys, they send them back, they're so embarrassed, they don't even go into the city to meet with David. David has to go out of the city to meet with them because they don't want to walk through all of the Israelites with half a beard or they're clean shaven to try to make up for half a beard missing and their bottoms hanging out. David goes and meets with them. He's pretty upset with what happened. They are on his errand. And now he has the responsibility to cover for them, to make this right for them. He sends them to another small city till their beards grow back so they can come back into town and not be humiliated. And now this takes us to the story of Bathsheba. Because now is the time when the kings go to war. And not only are they going to war, but they have a nation to go to war with. This nation has insulted them, and they are going to go fight them. David was supposed to be there, not only because this is the time when kings went to war and he was supposed to go war with the neighboring king, but because these messengers were on his errand. He was personally responsible for their humiliation. To make this right, to try to go to battle for them. And he finds himself staying home. That's weird for David. While his army goes out, he sends Joab out there with his army. This is not the David we're familiar with. This is not the David that's going to go fight Goliath. This is not the David that goes and gets the Ark of the Covenant and dances in front of it. This is not David. Even at the end of his life when he's out fighting with giants that are about to kill him and Joab has to step in and save his life and say, look, buddy, you're too old for this. We want you to be safe and stay home. This is very not David to shirk his responsibility and stay home. Why does he do it? And you see, he's out there with the moon, looking at the rooftops of the houses around him. And he sees Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop. There's some significance to this, too. The reason why she's bathing is for ritual purity. She has been unclean, and now she is bathing to cleanse herself so that she can become clean again. She's unclean most likely because this is the time of month for her. So as David's looking on the rooftops trying to find women who are bathing, he's looking for a woman who's just come from that time of month, who's not likely to be able to have a child. Is that a good way of putting that? Does that make sense? So he thinks that by staying home, and maybe he's already kind of figured this out, and he knows what time she's on the roof, and it's corresponding with the time when the kings go to battle. And he knows if he sends his army out with Uriah, her husband. He's going to be able to take advantage of this opportunity, and no one will be the wiser because of the timing, because she is bathing to cleanse herself and should not be able to have a baby. But as we know in the Bible, miracles happen all the time, and she becomes pregnant with a child. Now, David, who is trying to hide the sin in the first place by doing it at this time, tries to hide it again and asks for Uriah to come back from the war so that he can commend him for his efforts and give him kind of a reward, have a night, stay with his wife. [01:07:34] Speaker A: He suggests as much. Hey, man, how's the war going? Oh, interesting. Cool, man. Yeah. You know, you should have a nice meal, sleep in your own bed with your wife. Like, I mean, it's like, kind of bizarrely, like, really, why would you suggest this? But, yes, continue. [01:07:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And what's. [01:07:57] Speaker A: The only reason I bring this up is because we talked about a little bit. I. I am of the belief that Uriah figures out what's going on before anything else. [01:08:07] Speaker B: I mean, it is pretty suspicious to pull one man home just to ask him how the war's going, a war which he should have been a part [01:08:13] Speaker A: of, instead of being out there by yourself looking at it. [01:08:16] Speaker B: And why are you not going through the. The chain of command? Why isn't Joab coming home and reporting to you? Why. Why is this. This guy coming back? And so what's his response? Nate, [01:08:29] Speaker A: the war is fine, but I'm not going home to sleep. I'm just gonna sleep out front. Because in my mind, I wish. I have a feeling he would say, because this all seems a little suspicious, but his excuse was, I don't feel right about sleeping in a nice warm bed and having good food and being with my wife if all of my men are out on the front line. [01:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that response cuts pretty deep for David. Like, how can I. [01:08:58] Speaker A: Because he's suggesting the same for him. [01:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah. How can I be in my bed when all of Israel is camped on the ground? Like, I should be camping on the ground and I will continue to camp on the ground. [01:09:09] Speaker A: It was definitely a protest in one way or the other, or rebuke in one way or the other for sure. [01:09:14] Speaker B: And you have David at home sleeping in his own bed. Not only sleeping in his own bed, but potentially, in this case, you can say sleeping in other people's beds in that sense. So, yeah, Uriah won't play ball. And David's response becomes even more sickening because now he says, okay, he's going to send Uriah back to fight, but he sends a letter to Joab, and here you have this Joab again. He sends a letter saying, I need you to send him to the hottest part of the battle and then withdraw the troops so that he's left to die. So he's causing the death of this man and they carry it out. And I see this like one. [01:10:05] Speaker A: And in the most cowardly way too, by the way, in the most cowardly way. Because honestly, all said and done, part of me would have respect if Dave was like, look, here's the situation, let's go battle it out. Yeah, I mean, at least look the man in the eye. Because the thing is, for me, like we talked about a little bit, the story is more, more complicated than simply he had a problem with his lust and his passion and then it kind of got out of hand. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. He was a coward. And instead of owning his mistake, he tried to hide it, which made it worse. And then he tried to hide it, which made it worse. And then he tried to hide it, which made it worse. And then he tried to hide it. And then that was his salvation. What a coward. Look the man in the eye. It's part of the reason why Uriah's awesome to me, because there's part of me that thinks Uriah knew what was going on and was like, nah, I'm not going to play this game. If you have something to say to me, say it to me. I'm not going to let you. I'm not going to let you, though, weasel out of this, you coward. And he was a coward. [01:11:13] Speaker B: And Uriah dies fighting like a man. A heroic death. And I love, I love how you said that, Nate. This idea that David, first he tries to cover his sin by picking someone strategically at a time where it's not going to get done. [01:11:34] Speaker A: That was a deliberate move. This wasn't a slip up. This wasn't accidental, which happens on some level, right? [01:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:41] Speaker A: Like, people get put in a situation where they let things go too far and you're like, okay, oh, I'm glad you brought this up because the sin in the first place was incredibly deliberate. This was. And in the church, we kind of talk about this as if he just happened to be out on the roof for an evening stroll because he couldn't sleep. And he just accidentally saw Bathsheba and then he just accidentally kind of couldn't take his eyes off It. And then things started turning around. [01:12:10] Speaker B: No, [01:12:13] Speaker A: no. This freaking coward. That was deliberate. And it wasn't just accidental. There's nothing. There's nothing that just kind of accidentally went too far. This isn't a story about be careful of how long you look, because you never know. Okay? That's a good lesson and that's a good thing to learn. But that's not what this story is about. David knew what he was doing. [01:12:39] Speaker B: Sometimes we got to question our own motives. Like why. Why are we pulling out our phone or doing what we're doing or looking what we're looking like, are we. [01:12:47] Speaker A: Be honest. [01:12:49] Speaker B: Maybe it's not as accidental as we try to make it seem and as he's trying to cover himself. And I love that you say that. This idea of covering, because that's Kaphar, cover is the same word as atonement. Yom Kippur, day of atonement. And we talk about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and what do they do when they first mess up? Go make fig leaves for themselves at the adversary's suggestion. Go see, you're naked. Make fig leaves and cover this and make this right. And it's woefully inadequate, this idea that we can atone for ourselves with this sewn together leaves, as opposed to coats of skin, this more complete covering. So he covers himself there. Then he tries to cover himself by having Uriah spend the night with her. Doesn't work. And so now he's left exposed. There's only one way to cover what we've done. And it's not by trying to hide it. It's by being a man and facing what we've done and, and not letting it get worse and worse and worse to the point where I, it gets bad. [01:14:12] Speaker A: So I know we don't. And we don't really have time to get into this. Something I do actually, though, at some point want to talk about is what Beth Sheba's role and motive and kind of what her participation in this looks like, because it doesn't really get talked about. And I don't. Maybe, maybe it's. Maybe it's as innocent as that. That's why we don't talk about it. But it's hard for me to believe that that's. That it's a pure, total innocence from her part too. But my, my, I guess my, my follow up question to what you're saying is what is the. What's in theory the worst that happens if he comes out and he's like, okay, she's pregnant and I blew it. And we need to make this right. Like, I, I, I, I'm asking sincerely, I don't know the answer. What's like, legal ramifications? What's the, like, what's, as the king, what's really the worst, worst case scenario? I mean, is he getting put to death? Is it just gonna make people upset? Because clearly he's had concubines and affairs and various things at this point. Anyways, I guess I'm just wondering, like, what's, what's he so afraid of in this one particular case that he's willing to murder somebody for it? [01:15:21] Speaker B: That's an interesting question because that actually puts David in a different light if this comes out. And punishment back then is a lot more harsh on the woman than it is on the man, Bathsheba would have been put to death. And so if David has to choose what life is going to be saved, Uriah's or Bathsheba's, it's almost like he's executing Uriah to save Bathsheba's life, which [01:15:53] Speaker A: there's some amazing symbolism in there by the way of like the pure thing being sacrificed for the unclean thing. [01:16:00] Speaker B: And maybe that puts Uriah in another light, being willing to go into the front line and give his life. [01:16:08] Speaker A: So good to know at this point, right? Yeah, like it was way suspicious, the whole thing. And then he's like, wait, I'm getting sent out on the front line. Oh, wait, why is everybody else like Balin with me out here? [01:16:20] Speaker B: And why didn't he bail with everyone else too? Maybe he knew and he was willing to give his life so that her life could be saved. [01:16:31] Speaker A: This story has a lot of layers to it. [01:16:33] Speaker B: And this is the line that Christ is going to come from. [01:16:36] Speaker A: That's right. [01:16:38] Speaker B: Not this child, mind you. This child gets sick and dies. The child of, of this grave sin doesn't survive but layer, which even more, [01:16:50] Speaker A: just adds more layers to the heaviness of the story, right? [01:16:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Which crushes David. And this whole event, by the way, emasculates David. It crushes him from who he was. And you see this, by the way, in the role that the women play in his life. You talk about Bathsheba, she does not mention how she feels, how she thinks. She's not playing any kind of active role in any of this. Right. And you look at Milka earlier and David's wife, she's very vocal and she's very opinionated and she's saying all sorts of things. And David is Very vocal and opinionated with her and this relationship. Now all of a sudden, it's a little bit different. Now this is all on David, for whatever it's worth. You don't get to see what Bathsheba thinks. You don't get to see how she responds or what she says, any of that. It's all hidden, off limit. This is all on David, for what it's worth, in this story. And then he's still kind of powerful, but he's powerful in a way that he's making the wrong choices. And then at the very end, he's going to have. At the end of his life, he can't stay warm, he can't keep enough body heat, he's freezing all time. And they bring him a new concubine to sleep with him, not to have sex, but just to keep him warm at night. And David's impotence is on highlight here because he can't have any relationship with her. He can't have any more kids. Now all of a sudden, you have a very weak king, a very impotent king who can't even keep himself warm at night, who can't have children anymore, to where you can kind of see this relationship played out of David in these different stages of these different wives throughout his life, for what it's worth. [01:18:46] Speaker A: It's awesome. Great content as always. The David. I mean, so much of these stories are tragic. This whole. The Three Kings, right, The first three Kings is just tragedy after tragedy. Are we. Are we supposed to be into Solomon yet or. [01:19:06] Speaker B: Yeah, Shlomo's next, and that's his name in Hebrew, Shlomo. Shlomo. [01:19:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty dope. Wait, are we talking about his rise and fall? Because we're totally out of time. [01:19:15] Speaker B: I know. We've got so much more to talk about. And you know what? As tragic as it is with these kings and their personal lives, this was Israel's greatest period. Never, never again after Solomon will Israel have as much territory, be as powerful, or be as established as a nation. They have the greatest dominion under David. They conquer more than they did under Joshua when he brought them in the land. This is the golden age of Israel. As flawed as these characters are individually, and every king after David will be compared to David. And he walked in the ways of his father, David, or he was not as good as David. David is the benchmark. He is Israel's hero despite everything. And it's interesting because David, being bent with age, stands up in front of Israel and prophesies being Filled with the spirit to them, even in his old age, despite everything that he's done, which is kind of interesting to me, that, yeah, you've sinned. [01:20:24] Speaker A: But maybe it wasn't about him, though. Maybe it was about his anointing and the calling and the position that he stood in. It wasn't about him. It wasn't about David at that point. It was about the Lord prophesying to the people. [01:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah, good stuff. And you have to. You have to include the story of Nathan in here. [01:20:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, of course. We have to include the story of Nathan in here. [01:20:48] Speaker B: I'm sorry. It's super long, guys. [01:20:49] Speaker A: No, it's all right. You know, I'm personally not letting this happen without including the story of Nathan, [01:20:55] Speaker B: because Nathan comes to David and tells him the story of a guy that had a lot of sheep. [01:21:02] Speaker A: Why do you think he. Why do you think, by the way, instead of just coming and rebuking him, he. He let. He let David do this. Was it to really hammer home the lesson, or was it because he was afraid of telling the king how it was? Both. Yeah. [01:21:15] Speaker B: I think you come in and criticize the king, and it usually doesn't go very well for you. But I also think it's great insight into judgment, like, who judges us, really, at the end of our lives, we're standing before God. Everything's laid out before us. I think we become our own best judges. And maybe that's why it's measured to you just as you've measured it to everyone else. Because you. You see it. That's how you are. That's how you. You can't help but look at your life and say, yeah, that's how it's going to be. [01:21:48] Speaker A: Okay, sorry. So he came in, gives him the story. [01:21:51] Speaker B: Yeah, the story of the sheep. The guy that had a lot of sheep and the guy that only had one sheep and how much he loved that sheep. I mean, your heart breaks for the guy when you talk about how he takes care of the sheep and makes sure the sheep is warm and. And sleeps at night and feeds him and all this. And the guy that has lots of [01:22:11] Speaker A: sheep, the rich guy. Yeah. [01:22:12] Speaker B: With a lot of sheep, is envious of this one little sheep and steals it from him, robs the guy. He tells this whole story out and says, okay, King, this happened in your kingdom. What should be done? And David measures out his judgment. He doesn't hold back. [01:22:29] Speaker A: Doesn't he say death? [01:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah, take this guy and beat him and bind him and. And execute him. And then the most I don't know, maybe some of the most powerful words in all the scriptures. Thou art the man. And David realizes that this was a story about him and the sheep. And it's powerful, this idea of the sheep being the bride. Right. All of his concubines and wives, he had so many. And Uriah just had this one wife. But Christ also being the good shepherd and the sheep. Kind of this bride imagery. The husband and the groom or the groom and the wife, it's just. I don't know. It's powerful. [01:23:15] Speaker A: David knew, by the way, too, right? When. When Nathan's like, you're okay, well, you're that guy. [01:23:21] Speaker B: Yes. [01:23:22] Speaker A: Because then what do you say? Do you punish him for just letting you cast your own judgment? I mean, good job, Nathan. It's how you survived that whole thing, by being really wise and smart. [01:23:35] Speaker B: So why didn't. So why didn't David. Why didn't God take the kingdom away from David like he did Saul? Because Saul, he takes it away and gives it. So Saul's from Benjamin, and now he brings it. And. And by the way, so Samuel, who was before Saul as a judge, is Ephraim. Now to Benjamin, now to Judah. Why doesn't he strip it and give it to a different tribe? Well, early on, when David's like, hey, Hiram is bringing all these cedars of Lebanon, all this nice stuff is coming in to build me this house. How can I feel comfortable dwelling in a house when God dwells in a tent? I need to build a house for God. [01:24:15] Speaker A: Definitely trying to make up for some. [01:24:19] Speaker B: Well, this was before. [01:24:20] Speaker A: Okay, this is before. That would make sense if he's saying this later. [01:24:24] Speaker B: No. And as he's trying to establish this, God says, okay, for establishing my house and bringing this back. Center stage. Right. Because the tabernacle was not where Saul was reigning. It's off on the outside. It's disrepaired. The Ark of the Covenant is forgotten about. David's bringing this all back in. He's going to build the temple. He's going to bring the Ark of the Covenant back into and bring Israel back to God. And God says, because of this, the kingdom, the rule, will always be within your family. So this promise is made to him early on because of his desire to build the temple of God. And maybe just one more comparison between Christ and David. As we're talking about the temple here, you have David saying, I'll build the temple. And Christ says, no, after you die, your son will build the temple. And so you have this temple connection with David. Well, Christ is destroying the temple. After he dies, the temple is going to be destroyed, the veil is going to be rent, and then Rome's going to come, and not one stone will stand on another. One of the things that they wanted to crucify Christ for was his prophecy of the destruction of the temple. So here you have one coming to build and the other coming to destroy. So it's interesting how you compare these two. There's a lot of similarities, but there's also a lot of contrast. Just like you have a fall and a rise, an atonement from the fall. I just like some of the imagery with David and Christ. [01:25:55] Speaker A: All right, we're way too out of time. What are we talking about next week? We'll probably talk a little Solomon. [01:26:01] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of Solomon that we're missing out on. With Shlomo. [01:26:05] Speaker A: With Shlomo, baby. [01:26:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:08] Speaker A: We'll get to it, though. [01:26:09] Speaker B: And the division of the kingdom and that kind of gets left out. It's not part of the. Come, follow me. But we're definitely going to be talking about what happens after Solomon dies and kind of pick up with the subsequent kings and the divided kingdom. Israel in the north, Judah in the south. If you don't understand what that is or how that means or how the tribes split up, tune in next week and we'll about talk all about that. Perfect. [01:26:33] Speaker A: Until next week. [01:26:34] Speaker B: See ya.