Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

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. Welcome to day 163. We are at the very, very last episode in our trek through the book of 2 Samuel. But no need to be sad, okay? We're gonna still be following David's journey even as we get into First Kings, which is the next book that we are going to dive into tomorrow. So David's not going anywhere today. We probably got a day or two left, you know, to say goodbye to our beloved King David. So day 163, second Samuel, chapter 21 to 24. If you've done the reading, good job. Everything that I'm going to say is going to make perfect sense because you've done the reading. If you have not done the reading, you want to go ahead and pause this video, pause the audio, because everything I'm going to say is probably going to be out of context because you haven't done the actual reading. No cheating on this Bible reading plan. All right, do the reading. It's good for you. Reading the Bible is good for you. So first context clue that I'm going to give you for today's reading, like always, I'm going to give you a big picture context clue, going to give you some nerdy nuggets, and I'm always going to give you a timeless truth. I like to balance out the timeless truth with the context clue because obviously a context clue is in context. Okay? It, it's in historical, cultural, linguistic context. But a timeless truth is true all the time. It's not just true in the context of the biblical narrative, but it's true forever, everywhere, for all times. Okay, so let's get into it. Second Samuel, chapter 21 and 24. Here's our big context clue is not in linear sequential order. So from chapter 10 all the way to chapter 20, everything has been, this caused this, which caused this, which caused this, which caused this, which is just a very, like, linear way to read through a narrative. Once we get to chapter 21, there's nothing in the text that tells us, hey, we're no longer in sequential reading. You just kind of have to know that. And so I'm here to let you know that because knowing that context is going to help you actually read These chapters. Well, so chapter 21, 22, 23 and 24 are not in sequential order, okay? Not in sequential order. I want to say that again. Not in sequential order. Now, I know for the average modern Western reader, when things are not in sequential order, they're confusing. So why would something not be in sequential order? Well, it's actually because this entire section is a chiasm, all right? So it's not in sequential order. It's in a chiastic structure. So this entire section is a chiasm that starts with a famine and ends with a plague, okay? So the bookends of this chiasm are going to be a famine and a plague. Then we're gonna have two psalms in the middle, okay, of this chiasm. So we're gonna have a famine, we're gonna have a plague, and then we're gonna have two psalms right in the middle. Also, remember, in the context of first and Second Samuel, First Samuel starts with a song. It's Hannah's song. Second Samuel starts with a song of David. And now all of it is ending with a song, okay? And we're gonna look at those two songs. They are psalms, okay? So all of the psalms are not found in the book of Psalms. Some of David's psalms are found right here in the book of 2 Samuel. Also, I'll say this just about context. These stories, okay? These stories could be taken from the beginning of David's reign, the end of David's reign. They're not. Again, they're not in order. Why does the book conclude this way? Well, concludes this way so that the story of David would end on a positive note, okay? So we had a lot of dirt on this man, essentially from chapter 10 to chapter 20. My man's getting drugged through the mud, all right? And so the book is ending on a. On a high note, on a positive note. And so a lot of David's more positive attributes are going to get highlighted. And in these last 21, 22, 23, 24, last four chapters of Second Samuel. So these stories highlight David's heart, his justice, his sympathy, proper burials, atonement. These are not sequential, but they are chiastic. And they're here to really help us to not end this study on David with, like, this guy kind of sucked. We're supposed to end our study on David. The author of one Second Samuel really wants us to end our study of David not by thinking David sucks, but by thinking he's human. And I can relate. And there's something to learn, because the moment we Villainize someone is the moment that we are not able to really learn from them because we cannot see ourselves in a villain. So chapter 21, let's kind of give you as many nerdy nuggets as I can. There was a famine. For three successive years, David sought the face of the Lord. Okay, this is positive. The Lord said it is on account of Saul in his blood stained house is because he put the Gibeonites to death. Okay, so you need some context on the Gibeonites. The context for the Gibeonites is all the way back in the book of Joshua. Remember, they pretended to be from a faraway land and Israel made a covenant with them. Well, now there's blood guilt because Saul went against that covenant and because they went against that covenant, David, who wants to put this famine, who wants there to be an end to this famine? It says, you know, Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul and his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them. David asked the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement? Great word, atonement. How do I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord's inheritance? The Gibeonites answer him, we have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have right to put anyone in Israel to death. What do you want me to do for you? David asked. They answered the king, as for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the Lord's chosen one. So the king said, I will give them to you. Now this may sound really foreign to any modern Western reader, but what happened is that this works. Okay, verse 14. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land. Okay, so the famine ends. And so restitution atonement had to be made because a covenant was broken. Now we don't live in a culture of covenants. We live in a culture of contracts, convenience and clout chasing. That's just the world. We live in a culture where you make, you don't make coveted friends, you make friendships based on who can scratch your back. We do, we, we, we do ladder climbing, social ladder climbing instead of covenant loyalty. So then there's some random battles that are going to get talked about. Verse 22, chapter 22. We're going to get. Now A massive psalm. Okay, on behalf of David. So David is. We're going to get writings from David, which is going to feel like a summary of a lot of his life. And then we're going to get into chapter 23 and we're going to get another psalm, okay, from David. And then chapter 23, verse 8. These are the names of David's mighty warriors. I love this portion of. I think that when, when I think about David's mighty warriors, I think all the way back to the, to the cave. When David is, is stuck in a cave, I actually want to find exactly where that is. This is First Samuel, chapter 22. I actually want to go there. First Samuel, chapter 22. This is what it says. Okay, First Samuel, chapter 22. David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers in his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him and he became their leader. So did he became. Did he become the leader of the Ivy League, you know, graduates? No. Did he become the leader of the best of the best and the brightest? No. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him and he became the leader. About 400 men were with him. Okay, 400 guys. From there, David went to Mizpah and Moab. That verse right there, I remember reading that as maybe like a 17, 18 year old and just going, that's the kind of guy I want to be. I don't know, something about that feels like just being a man's man. Just the kind of guy who can take the most raggedy, discontented, distressed, in debt guys and turn them into something great. So now with that Context, okay, from 1 Samuel, chapter 22, I want you to read, you know, 2nd Samuel, chapter 23, verse 8. These are the names of David's mighty warriors. Josheb Bathsheba was chief of the three. He raised his spear against 800 men whom he killed in one encounter. Next to him was Eleazar, son of Dodi the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted. The Philistines gathered as pas damim for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead. Next to him was Shammah, son of AGI, the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down. And the Lord brought down, Brought a great victory. During harvest time, three of the 30 Chief warriors came down to David at the cave of Adullam. Okay, remember we just gave context for the cave of Adullah in 1st Samuel 22, okay? While a band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim at that time, David was in the stronghold and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. David longed for water and said, oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate in Bethlehem. So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out before the Lord. Far be it from me, Lord, to do this, he said. Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their own lives? And David would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty warriors. Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the three. He raised a spear against 300 men whom he killed. And so he became as famous as the three. Was he not held in greater honor than the three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them. Benaiah, son of Jehoiada. I love this one. A valiant fighter from Kabzeel performed great exploits. He struck down Moab's two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on. On a snowy day and killed a lion. Just killed a lion just in a pit on a snowy day with a lion and killed it. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada. He too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. He was held in great honor than any of the 30. But he was not included among the three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard. I love comparing 1st Samuel, chapter 22 to 2 Samuel, chapter 23. Because all we get in 1st Samuel, chapter 22 is this. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented. In distress, in debt or discontented. You know what? Somebody else can take the Ivy League guys. Oh, man. I can do a whole lot with some men who are in distressed, in debt and discontented. And to be honest, I think that's my timeless truth for the day, man. I think especially in church culture, we have this tendency to just try to go after the best staff, the best employees. And I don't want to take somebody else's staff that somebody else developed. I want to grab people who are in distress, in debt, discontented, and teach them and train them, work with them, transform them. I want to build up sons and daughters. I want to grab people who don't know what they're doing, who have no ministry experience. And I want to put my hand to the plow, work with them, and then I want to see them to the point where they start to do great exploits. When I think about David, I think about someone who's a players coach, man. Players play their best games for coaches who know how to get the best out of those players. And I want to be a players coach. I want to be the kind of leader who can take people that other people would throw away, other people would discard. And I'll take those leaders. I'll take that guy that nobody else wants to lead. I'll take those who are in distressed discontent, in distress and in debt. Oh, man. And I'll make a man out of you, Mulan, baby. I'll make a man out of you. I think we need more pastors, more leaders who are just willing to get their hands dirty with people and take boys and turn them into men. I think that's what it's gonna take for us to see revival in America. To see revival in our churches is to take boys and turn them into men. And the reality is that someone could be 35 years old, still be a boy. A boy doesn't have anything to do with your age. It has everything to do with your maturity. And at some point, you need a mentor, a pastor, a leader who's willing to take you as a boy, regardless of how old you are, and turn you into a man who can do great exploits to help you to get out of being discontent, get out of being distressed, and get out of being in debt and teach you. I wonder how many psalms David sang with those guys. I wonder how many times those guys heard David pray. I wonder how the stories from the cave. David decided to do life with these guys. And honestly, it reminds me of Jesus. Jesus doesn't go down to the rabbinical school to recruit Peter. No, he just goes to the fishing village and Recruits some fishermen. When, when, when the disciples are turning the world upside down. All through the book of Acts, here's what it says. These unlearned fishermen are here doing miracles, doing great exploits, man, I'm not scared to take some unlearned fishermen, some guys who are in distressed, in debt and discontent and to turn them into great leaders. And man, I want to be known as someone who's a leadership factory, man, I want to take people and make great people out of them. And I think we got a lot of people. Nothing against staffing agencies, nothing against, hey, we're going to hire Vanderblumen or Group139 to go find a youth pastor force. I'm just a little bit kind of like, man, if you got to hire a staffing agency to find a youth pastor for you or to find a whatever. And what happened to the day where you just raised them up, where you identified a kid in middle school and you said that's gonna be our youth pastor in 10 years. And then you developed them, you put em through a leadership track. I just want us to get back to the day where we got some prophetic leaders. I knew early on that we were gonna need videography stuff. And so I remember the first leader that I ever, I ever put a camera in his hand, bottom a lens and put a camera in his hand. His name is Justin Reed. I remember at the time Justin Reed had never edited a video, had never recorded anything. And I just said, you're pretty creative. I, I think you could do video. And I got him a lens and I put a video in his hand and I just said, hey, make, make a recap video out of this. Well, guess what? Today Justin Reed's hold life, his livelihood, his job is as a creative person making videos. I mean, what happened to just seeing something prophetically in people and then, and then giving them the resources to do it? To me I'm like, man, that's David style leadership right there. Find those who are in distress, find those who are in debt, find those who are discontent. Turn them into some great leaders. I think we got too many pastors just scared to, to take risks on people and to fix people that may be broken. We gotta get back to that 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. All right, tomorrow we get into first kings. Today was day 163. Tomorrow's day 164. I'll be right here leading us through first and second kings and the rest of the Bible. If you're on a streak, don't break it. If you're not on a streak, all you need is two consecutive days back to back. And if you're in distress and you're in debt or you're discontent, you're in the right place. You, you keep reading the Bible, guess what? You keep showing up. You'll keep growing up. I'm proud of you. I love you so much. I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 164. Love y' all. 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 hebible 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.