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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 158. We're making our way through Second Samuel today. We've got two Samuel chapter four, five, six, seven. We got four chapters today. Hey, if you've already done the reading, then everything that I'm gonna say in this episode is gonna make perfect sense. If you have not done the reading, then you may be a little lost. So you may wanna stop the video, stop the audio and go do the reading. Day 158, second Samuel. Action packed book of the Bible. Like always, I'm gonna give you some context clues, I'm gonna give you some nerdy nuggets and I'm going to give you some timeless truths. We're actually gonna backtrack just a little bit and I'm go some nerdy nuggets that I meant to actually give you yesterday but just, you know, didn't have all the time in the world. First thing, a nerdy nugget from yesterday is that raiding and plundering battle Sites was very normal in a very, very common practice in the ancient world. Okay, so when two armies battled each other, that meant that there were clothes, weapons, swords, and things like crowns. So if you are wondering, okay, this Amalekite that David kills, how does this Amalekite have Saul's crown? Well, it's because once all the fighting is over and once it's just a field or mountain slope or mountainside of dead bodies, people are going to come and they're going to plunder and raid. This is normal. People who are living around the area are going to get shoes and clothes and coins and swords and spears and weapons and, yes, crowns. So this Amalekite is first. Samuel tells us that Saul kills himself and his armor bearer won't even kill him, won't even help him die. His armor bearer kills himself as well. So the Amalekite probably is just out there raiding shortly after, like, same day or the next day, and realizes, oh, gosh, this is Saul and this is crown. Let me go bring it to David. Win some points with the new regime. Little does he know that David has an unfathomable sense of loyalty to Saul and Jonathan and their home, their house, like their lineage, their family. So that's number one, if you're just wondering, wait a second, if this guy's lying, how does he have Saul's crown? Well, he has Saul's crown because it's normal to go plunder and raid battlefield. Okay, number two, the other thing that you may have noticed, or maybe you didn't notice, is from chapter two to chapter three, David picks up four more wives. Now, this is not good. And the text doesn't have to tell us that this isn't good. We know it's not good. We know it's not good because foreign kings are gonna accumulate wives because they're going to use wives to form political alliances. And God does not say that this is a good thing, okay? It's a lack of faith. And this is quintessential secular king activity. And the king of Israel is not supposed to act like a secular king. He's supposed to act like a godly king, supposed to be set apart. So just want you to notice, you're going to begin to see the list of wives grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. Okay, Next, David's loyalty towards Saul's family is absolutely radical in every way. So now for today's reading, here's the context, okay? This Entire Chunk, Chapter 4, 5, 6, and 7, is all about the ascent of David and the establishing of his rule over Israel. So in yesterday's reading, David became king just over Judah, over one tribe. Well, in the chunk of reading that we have today, he is gonna become king over all of Israel. And the big win here is that he's gonna finally take Jerusalem. Okay? Jerusalem has been under foreign control this entire time. Many of us, we almost know the land of Israel by the city of Jerusalem. And it's actually very, very fascinating how David is going to take control of the city of Jerusalem. For those of you who don't know, Jerusalem has three mountain ranges and two valleys, and it looks like a W. So anytime you want to kind of see how Jerusalem looks like, there's just these three valleys, three mountains that form two valleys that make up Jerusalem. To make a long story short, because of these three valleys. Sorry, it's the other way around. It's three valleys and two mountain ranges. Sorry, that makes it look like a W. It. It means that the Gihon spring makes Jerusalem an oasis, okay? And the. The Jebusites had put up walls, and so they're able to take the city because they're able to, like, crawl under the city's sewer system, essentially. It's actually insanely genius. One thing that I really, really want to point out is chapter six, okay? Once Jerusalem is settled, once he's. Once David is the king over a united Israel, we're going to begin to move the Ark of the Covenant, which is great, but the only issue is that they're moving it on a cart. The Ark is not supposed to be moved on a cart. They're doing something based on convenience. Okay? This is our nerdy nugget for the day. The ark was supposed to be placed on the shoulders of the Levitical priests and moved physically because the weight of God's glory was actually something that was supposed to physically rest on your shoulders. They're putting it on a cart because this box is heavy. But the word for heavy and the word for glory are the same word in Hebrew. Worship is a heavy thing. It's actually why praise music is so important in church. If all we do is sing worship music, worship is kind of heavy. Okay? You can start to realize people can get depressed, and all you do is worship. You actually need celebration. You need praise. And I know that praise music can make. Can seem. I don't know, there's this. There's nothing biblical about it. I don't know why people think this. That, like, worship music is just more spiritual or more mature. I remember when I was a Youth pastor. You know, we would always make sure that we had a good balance of praise and worship. Praise isn't just fast songs. Worship isn't just slow songs. It's actually. It has more to do with the. With the direction of the. Of the music. As someone who comes from a black church tradition, this is actually one of the things that I love about black church is that praise requires other people. So that's why praise typically happens with a choir, because we are all praising God together. So praise is not something you could do as an individual worship. You can worship as an individual person. You can worship as a sole individual unit. You can just worship the Lord. Cause worship is very, very vertical in nature, but praise is very horizontal. We are all like, I could praise my wife to you. I could. I could tell you all these amazing things about my wife. So praise is very, very horizontal. And I think over the last 15, 20 years, worship. Worship has dominated in church over praise. And that. I can see a direct correlation between that and depression and anxiety. Because worship's heavy. It is. It's supposed to be heavy. We're supposed to feel the weight of the glory or the kabod of God. And so instead of dealing with the weight, they put God's. They put the ark on a. On a cart. Well, I. And I really want to, like, point this out because it says this, you know, verse five, chapter six. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, okay? With castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums, and symbols. When they came to the threshing floor, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark. Because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act. Therefore, God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. So you're not supposed to touch the ark. You're supposed to put poles through the loops, and you're supposed to carry it on your shoulders. But because they are doing something improperly, they create an unsafe spiritual scenario for everybody. And Uzzah then thinks he. He can assist God. God cannot be assisted, and God kills him. Okay? The. The. The holiness of God is not something that can be touched by the sinfulness of humans. And so I want us to focus on this, okay? It's chapter six. I want us to focus on this because although there is singing and celebrating, there is not worship. Because in order for there to be worship, there has to be obedience. Obedience. And they are celebrating the presence of God in A way that God has not instructed them to celebrate his presence. And although there is great celebration, that does not mean that there is worship, because worship requires obedience. This is a lot like Samuel saying to Saul, hey, obedience is better than sacrifice. Just because you sacrificed animals to the Lord does not mean that there's worship, because worship requires obedience. I cannot disobey God, but think that the extravagance of what I'm offering Him is going to distract him from the fact that I'm disobeying Him. 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 they finally get it right. For anyone who struggles with this, then David is struggling as well. Look at verse 8. David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah. And to this day, that place is called Perez Uzzah. But then the ark stays at a random dude's house for three months. Okay? Now King David was told, hey, the Lord has blessed the household of Obed Edom. This is verse 12. And everything he has because of the Ark of God. So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David was rejoicing when those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps. They sacrificed a bulldo and a fattened calf. Okay, so now David's dancing again. And we get this famous line where his wife Saul's daughter says, like, why have you danced before all these servant girls? And David's got this iconic line. It was before the Lord who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house, when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people. I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this. And I will Be humiliated in my own eyes. That's an iconic moment. Okay? And then we're going to get a moment that is a bit interesting. In chapter seven, David now had built himself a house, a palace, and wants to build God a house. Now, God is not a fan of this idea, okay? And I know you may have never heard this before, there are a lot of scholars who would suggest that God never really gives a thumbs up or an approval on the building of the temple, that God's idea for how he was gonna dwell with his people was confined to a tabernacle, and that God was happy to dwell in a tent so that no tribe could have a monopoly on a permanent location of God's presence. So as long as you have a tent, the tent moves around. And every tribe can have access to the tent because a tent is mobile. Okay? The moment you put a physical location, that's permanent. Buildings cannot move. Tents can move. Buildings cannot move now that there's a permanent location. So the only difference between the tabernacle and the temple is that the tabernacle is a mobile tent. The temple is built with the same dimensions, has all the same furnishings, but it's a permanent building. Once there's a permanent building in Jerusalem. Now all the tribes have to migrate or have to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which begins to elevate the tribe of Judah, because Jerusalem is in the tribe of Judah. And this is going to become a point of tension between the northern tribes and the southern tribes. And. And is going to lead to the division between Judah and Israel. Okay. Once we get past Solomon, the nation is going to split again, and it's going to stay split all the way up until exile. So there are a lot of scholars who firmly believe making the temple a permanent building and putting it in Jerusalem is really a political move. And David is doing this not because he loves the Lord, but because he wants Jerusalem to have a political centrality. He wants to be able to control the worship of Yahweh. And there's a lot of evidence for this. I haven't made up my mind one way or the other. But you could see in God's response, God's response is, I'm good, bro. I really don't need a house. And now God's response to David is gonna be, but I'll establish your house. And house here is used as a double entendre. I'll establish your house, which means I'll establish your dynasty, that your family will be the family through which Jesus is going to come. So now God now establishes an unconditional covenant with David, that David will always have an heir on the throne. And that is going to be fulfilled through the person of Jesus Christ. Now, when Nathan prophesies to David, this is chapter seven, this is God's response to not wanting a temple built. He says in verse 11B, going into verse 12, the Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you. So the word house is getting used as a double entendre instead of a physical building. Now God is saying, I'm going to establish a dynasty for you, a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your ancestor, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. Now, you could assume that he's talking about Solomon, because that's going to be the David's son who's going to take over as king. He is the one who will build a house for my name and Solomon then builds a temple. However, if you keep reading, you begin to realize, I think he's talking about Jesus, actually. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Verse 14. 14, I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. This doesn't sound like something that was fulfilled in Solomon's lifetime. Okay, this sounds like the crucifixion. But my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever. Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. So there's a lot of scholars who really do believe God never really gives a final thumbs up on the building of a temple, that that is David and his son Solomon's idea, that that is not God's idea. So that the temple is a bit of a concession. It's not like God is saying, I hate it, but God definitely didn't. It wasn't. God didn't initiate the idea or the concept for a physical temple. And you can make a massively strong argument that politically it would actually make more sense for the unity of the nation of Israel for there to be for no one tribe to have a monopoly on a house of worship, on the presence of God. I know this is very, very granular, very, very nerdy. But essentially, like when Jesus talks to the woman at the well and she has questions about where she'll be worshiped and the Samaritans worship here, but the Jews worship in Jerusalem at the temple. That all becomes a problem because the Samaritans don't have access to the temple that is in Jerusalem. So there's a bunch of geography and geopolitics that are actually at work that start here with David. And there's a lot of scholars who just believe David's motives here are political and God can see that God can't be fooled. And so God never says that a temple is a good idea, but God allows it. But God doesn't ever actually approve of it. That's which leads us into our timeless truth. I think that's actually a great segue. Just because God allows something does not mean that God approves something that is a timeless truth. You could change God's answer. That doesn't mean you've changed God's mind. So be very, very careful. It may be true that God has said yes, but I think we all need to really ask ourselves some hard questions. When God says yes, what tone did he say yes in? Did he said, yeah, I think that's a great idea. What did he say? All right, go for it. You know, those are worlds apart. And I would say I lean towards the perspective that don't think that the temple was God's idea. I do think it was a concession. I think it's something that he allowed, but I don't think that it is something that he approved of. But I think it's something that he allowed. And that's our timeless truth for the day. All right, Tomorrow is day 159. We've got two Samuel, chapter eight through ten. I'll be right here. If you got a streak going, I'm proud of you. Keep that streak going. If you don't got a streak going, well, today's a good day to start one. All you gotta do is just keep racking up days where you don't miss. And if you didn't miss today, all you gotta do is don't miss tomorrow. And then we gotta get this streak going because the Bible is good for you. Hey, guys. I love you so much. I'm proud of you. I'll see you right here 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 hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses at the Bible Depart. We'll see you back here tomorrow.