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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. We used church candy for our new church plant the Garden, and the response blew me and my team away. At our new church Plant the Garden, we ran simple invite ads through none other than church candy, and hundreds of people responded. Seriously. People who had never even heard of us, who had never met me or heard me preach. They saw an ad on Facebook or Instagram. They showed up to a launch party or launch team training. Some of them have joined our team. Here's the best part. A good amount of them have started giving and tithing, which means the ads have paid for themselves. Our church plant is growing, and it's because we chose the right partner. We didn't have to figure out marketing strategies or spend hours tinkering with ad settings. Church candy handled it all and it worked. You might not be planting a church, but if you're a pastor who wants to see more new faces on Sunday, and by the way, I've never met a pastor who doesn't want to see more new faces on Sunday. It's time to check them out. How about you go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a discovery call, Let their team show you what's possible when the right people hear about your church family. Welcome to day 156. We are in the last three chapters of the book of 1 Samuel. But remember, first Samuel and 2 Samuel are not actually separate scrolls. Originally, there are separate books now because we have these modern Bibles. Actually, the first person to separate first two Samuel was Jerome, St. Jerome, when he translated the Bible into Latin, which we know as the Latin Vulgate. So prior to that, this is just one book. So first Samuel's about to close and there's going to be a Natural transition to 2 Samuel. Almost as if, you know, as if they're one book, because they are. So if you've done the reading for today, let's dive into 1 Samuel, chapter 2931. If you have not done the reading, stop this video. Stop the audio. Go do the reading. You don't wanna miss out on what the Lord would say to you as you engage with the Bible for yourself. Okay? These episodes are designed to be a supplement, not a substitute for reading the Bible. All right, so chapters 29, 30 and 31. I'm gonna actually summarize what's happening. David has been fighting for the Philistines, okay? He's been living in Ziklag. He's been fighting for the Philistines. He's essentially, you know, a pay for hire soldier for the Philistines. Okay? Well, the Philistines are now lined up, set up to fight the Israelites, okay? King Saul's so scared about it that he goes to the witch of Endor the night before the battle to actually inquire of the Lord to. To hear, to conjure up Samuel. Okay? So. And Samuel lets him know, you're going to die tomorrow, bro. Like, this battle with the Philistines, you're kaputs. Like it's over for you. So Saul is scared out of his mind. And all of chapter 29, okay, so we got three chapters here. 29, 30, 31, all of chapter 29, essentially an alibi for David. Why does David need an alibi? He needs an alibi because if he in any way, shape or form killed Saul, then this is the biggest tarnish on his reputation ever. I mean, bigger than David and Bathsheba. Bigger. Bigger than anything, okay? David can't be anywhere near the battlefield when Saul dies. And so what you're going to see is the Lord, the Holy Spirit is going to essentially manipulate circumstances to get David out of this battle where Saul is going to die at the hands of the Philistines. Okay? So Saul's. David's been fighting for the Philistines with the Philistines for God knows how long. But this battle, they're like, nah, we don't trust him. Like, what if he. What if he's a traitor? This, that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And David's like, yeah, I get it. I'm an Israelite, but I've never been disloyal. I'm a man of my word, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so God does everything to get David as far away from this battle as possible. Actually, if you look at just a map, okay, Mount Gilboa and Ziklag are nowhere near each other. David is nowhere near where Saul dies. Okay? That if you're wondering, like, man, there's a lot of just like, details here. There's a lot of reading. What's the point? I'll tell you the point. David is in Ziklag and the battle where Saul dies is happening at Mount Gilboa. They are not connected. They are not close to each other. They're not near each other. There is literally no possible way for David to have been involved in any kind of conspiracy to. To get Saul killed. And that is. That's the main thing that the narrator wants us to know also. So next, if Saul dies, which obviously he does die, there's going to be a power vacuum. So this is not the first time where we saw, like, chapters ago where God's trying to get David back to Israel. He's like, hey, stop moving east. Go back west. So if there's a power vacuum and somebody else declares themselves as king, this is an issue. So God is desperately trying to get David to go, be where you belong, because Saul is going to die. Obviously, the Lord knows Saul's gonna die. David doesn't know that Saul's gonna die. So Yahweh is desperately trying to get David back to Israel and out of Philistia. He's been trying to get David out of Philistia for a long time. It's very odd that nobody in Ziklag was killed or injured. Okay, so, you know, Ziklag gets raided and every person gets taken away. No one's dead, no one's injured. This is God. Okay, so it's God that he's nowhere near Saul. It's God that nobody dies in Ziklag. And everything that we're reading, I know there's tons of stuff we can preach out of it. There's all this interesting things that we can pull out of it. But the core of what's happening is two things. Number one, David is not involved in Saul's death at all. And number two, David's gotta get. He's gotta get his behind to Israel so that he can assume leadership of the country. Because if he does not assume leadership of the country, then, man, other leaders are gonna fill that power vacuum. Here's what's kind of odd. Chapter 31, verse 11 should be, we're burning bodies. This is the most non Israelite thing to be doing. Okay, so this again just kind of shows you that moral decay that was prevalent in the Book of Judges, it's not really gone anywhere. I mean, we're burning bodies. Burning bodies is a big no no. Okay? Jews don't burn bodies. If anything, they will let the body decay and then get the bones and put the bones in an ossuary. But cremation is a no no. That's a big no no. Obviously they reach the end of the scroll. And I love David's theology. We're actually going to go to chapter 30, verse 23. But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, he has preserved us and handed over to us the raiding party that has attacked us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For the share of the one who goes down into the battle shall be the same as the share of the one who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike. From that day forward, he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel. It continues to the present day. So obviously, who's going to get the spoils? When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoils to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, here's a present for you. This is now, like, political, you know, maneuvering. However, I love David's theology. Why is everybody sharing in the spoils? Because it's God's victory, not our victory. And I think that's a good perspective to have in life, man. Why has Arma grown? We have put in a lot of hard work, but it's been the favor of the Lord. Why have we been able to do 70 plus speaking engagements a year for the last couple years yet? I've networked and I got a degree, but it's the favor of the Lord, like, it's the favor of God. Why have we been able to do book deals, man? Cause it's the favor of God. And I think that when you begin to lose that, you start to become an entitled leader and you're like, well, I need to be compensated more and I need this and I need that. Well, you think that because you think that it's your work, your hard work and your holiness or whatever that's actually getting results. And I think those things are important. I think there's so many things that are important. Me going to school is important. Me working hard is important. Me networking is important. We're not saying those things are not important. We're just saying that those things by themselves don't equal success. Like, God has to favor stuff. And David goes, I know it was us on the battlefield. I know it was us sacrificing our lives. I know it was us swinging our swords. I know it was us. But the victory came from God. And I would go, oh, man, that's incredible theology. We gotta work as if it was all us. But then know that, yeah, it's the Lord. That's God. It's God's favor. God's favor's on my life. God's favor is in this battle. God's favor's on us. It's God's favor. I Think that when we get to a place of believing that it was our hard work or our sacrifice or our dedication or our brilliance or our ideas or our holiness or our sanctification or our, you know, consecration or our this or our that, I think we start to grab glory for ourselves. And I think that David continues to keep himself, at least at this portion of the story, in a posture of humility, because really, he has an attitude that is, oh, my God, look what the Lord's done. God delivered them into our hands. God's had favor on us. And I think, man, that's amazing. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. So here's the Thomas truth that's going to connect us in the second Samuel. The Philistines have sealed their own fate by killing Saul, because now David will eradicate the Philistines. So David is finally going to do what man should have happened in the Book of Judges, which is a full eradication of the Philistines. It is now going to be left to David, and David is going to do it. In David's lifetime, he is 100% going to deal with the Philistine problem once and for all. Samson was actually, you know, exalted, risen up as a leader to deal with the Philistine problem. Saul should have dealt with the Philistine problem. There's so many leaders who had opportunities to decisively deal with the Philistines. But now David is going to deal with the Philistines because, honestly, he's ticked that they have killed God's anointed. I need you to see this. Although this now means that David is king, he still is mourning the fact that Saul, who is God's anointed one, is dead. And David will not rejoice in this at all. Even though it's good for him, he will not rejoice that this has happened. And this is where you just start to see character. David's got some jacked up morals, but when it comes to character, man, there are so many areas where David is just right on. And there's so many areas where David is very off. And when those moments happen, I'll talk about them. And we're gonna see how David's gonna respond to the news of Saul being dead, because he's gonna respond pretty interestingly. All right, but that is for tomorrow for day 157. Gonna get into two Samuel, chapter one, two and three. Can't wait to dive into that with you guys tomorrow. Hey, First Samuel's been a blast. Let's dive into 2 Samuel tomorrow. If you're not on a streak, how about you start one? If you are on a streak, let's keep it going. I'll see you right here tomorrow. I'm so proud of you. I love doing this with you guys, and I hope you're having a blast. I hope this is a value add. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram @thebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow. Sam.