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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. Welcome to day 164. We have crossed the threshold from 2 Samuel to 1st Kings. So over the next, I don't know, probably 10 to 14 days, I don't actually know for a fact, we're gonna go through the books of first and second Kings. Now, I wanna remind you that originally this would've just been one book. Scrolls are originally 32ft long, and when you ran out of scroll, you just move to the next. So first and second Kings are not originally two books. They're actually not split into two books until we get the Latin vulgate. But for right now, we're just gonna study them as if they are two books. But I want you to have in the top of your mind that they are not originally two books. All right, for everyone who's done the reading for today. Okay, that means you've read 1 Kings, 1, 2, 2, 3 and 4 First Kings, chapter 1, 2, 3 and 4. We've gonna knock out four chapters today because it's our first day in a new book of the Bible. I'm gonna give you a lot of context clues, gonna try to give you just as many nerdy nuggets. And of course, I'll end on a timeless truth. If you haven't done the reading today, stop the video, stop the audio. Go do the reading. All right. Anytime we're in the first session of a new book, the context clues are just a little bit more robust because I'm trying to give you context, not just for chapters one, two, three, and four, but I wanna give you context for the book as a whole. So context for kings. There's three big ideas that you're gonna see throughout the entire Book of Kings. Idea number one is this one question is gonna kind of dominate the landscape of first and second kings. And it's this. What makes a king successful? What makes a king either a good king or bad king? Okay, that question, there's going to be a scorecard given to every single king. Another piece of context that you're going to really need to know is that after the reign of Solomon, the kingdom gets split into two. So you're going to have 10 tribes in the north, which is going to be Israel. So I'll tell you exactly when this is going to happen. But there's a point in First Kings where when the word Israel gets used, it, it's no longer the entire nation of Israel, but it's those 10 northern tribes. And then there is gonna be the southern tribe of Judah. And so the Israel in the north, Judah in the south. All right, the first big question that's going to dominate the landscape of these two books of the Bible is this, what makes a king successful? We'll dive into a little bit more on how God is gonna judge those kings in a couple of minutes. Second big idea. And I'm gonna actually give you a date for when the book was written. Is this big question, why is the nation of Israel in exile? So that's relevant because this book, the books of first two Kings, or Kings if you want to call them, if you want to just combine them back into their original form, you can just say Kings. The Book of First and Second Kings is written somewhere between 586 BC and 539 B.C. okay, why are those two dates significant? 586. 539. The Northern Kingdom of Israel is going to get exiled in 722 B.C. the southern kingdom of Judah is going to get exiled in 586 B.C. and the author of these books is sitting in exile. So we know that these books are authored post exile. And somewhere around 539, the people of Israel are gonna be allowed to kind of go back to their homeland. So that window between 586 and 539 is probably the window in which the book of First Two Kings is penned. Okay, now if I'm sitting in exile, okay, the Babylonians have come, they've destroyed the temple, they have ransacked the nation, they've disappeared with the Ark of the Covenant. I'm probably wondering, how is God faithful when the worst thing that could ever happen has happened? I thought God made us a promise. I thought we were in covenant with this God, Yahweh. And the Book of Kings is actually there to communicate to the people you're in exile cause you sinned. So if you're wondering why in the world God did this, you are to blame. Okay? Isn't it crazy how we could fall short? We could sin and we're still kind of can be upset with God even when God is punishing us for the consequences of our own actions. And so the Book of Kings is written from the perspective of the people really don't know why they are in the middle of this situation and they're wrestling with how is it that God could give us these kinds of crazy consequences and his covenant with us be true. And so the Book of Kings is full of the justice of God and the restoring promise that God is going to bring his people not just to judgment, but he's gonna bring restoration to the people. Okay, so the first big thing that the Book of Kings is trying to answer is what makes a king successful? What makes a good king? What makes a bad king? Number two? Another thing that the Book of Kings is trying to figure out is how do we wind up in exile? How did this happen? Now, for anyone who may not know this, exile is the worst possible thing that could have happened. And it is the worst thing that happened to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. The worst thing I want you to kind of memorize this statement. I, I'm, I think about it all the time, and I use it all the time, is that it took the Exodus to get the people of Israel out of Egypt, but it will take the exile to get Egypt out of them. So the Exodus and the exile are like the two big defining moments of the nation of Israel's journey. It is the Exodus, the God's delivering power to get them out of Egypt, that marks them, that creates space for God to make a covenant with them. Okay, the Exodus, big huge moment. Then the exile is the other big huge moment where God chastises them, brings judgment and allows Assyria to exile Israel and allows the Babylonians to exile Judah. Okay, so Israel, northern kingdom, exiled in 722 BC by the Assyrians in the south. We're going to have Judah exiled in 586 BC by the Babylonians. So we refer to both of those 722 and 586 BC as the exile. Last thing that the Book of Kings is covering is this. It is the historical timeline that the prophets fit into. So if you're gonna have a king, then you have to have prophets. Cause prophets anoint kings, they not find the next king. But they are typically in charge of identifying Yahweh's choice for who the next king is gonna be. But then they also hold the king accountable. They judge the kings. The kings are typically implementing strategies that God gives prophets. So Elijah and Elisha gonna be huge pillars in the Book of Kings. And then what people don't typically realize is that kings becomes the historical backbone that all the prophets fit into. The same way that you could look at the Book of Acts and you could go to Acts, let's say chapter 17. And this may or may not be true. I may be pulling this out of my memory, or I may be making this up. We'll see. Somebody fact check me. Acts, chapter 17. I believe Paul is in Thessalonica. Okay, but then you can go to the book of Thessalonians. And Thessalonians can be placed in historical context because Acts actually gives you the historical backbone for the letters that Paul's gonna write. Okay, so, so Acts is gonna tell you when Paul was in Corinth, but then you can have the Book of Corinthians and see what Paul actually said to the Corinthian Church. The Book of Kings functions the exact same way. So you may not realize this, but you can get to a certain point of 1, 2 kings. And you realize, oh, Isaiah is prophesying during this time, or Jonah is prophesying during this time, or Micah is prophesying during this time. So prophets are another big theme that we're going to tackle. Talk about as it relates to first, second Kings. All right, now, now that we've got a lot of context, let's actually get into the text. Okay? We're going to get a transition from David to Solomon to his son Solomon. Now, Kings starts. You can't see this in English. It's really, really clear. In Hebrew, Kings starts with the word. And. And anytime a book of the Torah or book of the Old Testament starts with the word, and it means that that book is just picking up where the last book left off. Okay, so two Samuel leaves off kind of at the end, tail end of David's reign. And then Kings pops up and David's old. And so we're gonna see the transition from David to Solomon. Now, before we get into these nerdy nuggets, I want to remind you that In Deuteronomy chapter 17, you can go back there. This is the last bit of context. Deuteronomy 17, 14, 20. God is gonna outline what makes a good king. Okay, God is gonna clearly state what makes a good king. So the author of Kings is not necessarily gonna tell us whether or not Solomon was a good king. He's just going to give us details, and we're going to have to figure out, does this match up with what God said in Deuteronomy chapter 17. Now, for those of you who may not remember, there are five really, really important things that God outlines in Deuteronomy chapter 17. Number one, the king has to be an Israelite chosen by God. Okay? An Israelite chosen by God. Which is typically going to mean God speaks to a prophet and says, anoint your horn with oil. Go select that man as king. I've chosen him as king. Number two. He cannot accumulate horses or chariots. Why? Because God wants the people to know that it is he that fights battles for them, okay? Not their horses or their chariots, but Yahweh fights for them. The modern equivalent to this would be God saying, do not accumulate aircraft carriers or tanks or nuclear weapons, okay? And I'm not saying that it's wrong that America or any other nation does that. Israel was the only theocratic, truly theocratic nation in the history of the. Of the world. And so for Israel, God is saying, hey, your hope is not in your horse or your chariots. I actually want you to get to the battlefield and your opposing army have horses and chariots, and you only have swords so that you will know that I am the one that won the battle for you, okay? I don't want there to be any question as to whether or not your horses were the means of success or whether I was the means to success. Number three, no foreign wives. This is huge. Number one, a foreign wife means you've made an alliance. It means that you are again, trusting in foreign powers instead of trusting in me. Now, why were foreign wives the way that alliances were made? Well, you could just sit at a table and sign a contract that says we're not going to fight each other. Or. Or I could marry off my daughter to you, and you marry off your daughter to me. And as long as I know I have family members living in your palace, I'm not attacking your palace. All right? So it's a way to get favor with foreign powers. God says, don't do this. Cause your faith is not in your political alliances. Your faith is in me. And the way to show that your faith is not in me is to put forward faith in foreign alliances. There's another reason that God says, don't take foreign wives. And that is because your foreign wives are going to practice idolatry. And if they practice idolatry and you've got 20 wives and 70 children, and then you die. And one of your kids who you never spent time with, because you can't really be a good dad to 70 kids, one of those kids whose mom raised them, not you, is going to take the throne, and they are going to bring their foreign idolatry into public space. The king now is gonna be someone who's not a full Jew and who does not practice worship. Of Yahweh solely. The fourth thing that the king was not supposed to do is accumulate wealth. Now, a lot of times God will bless them with wealth, but they're not supposed to be actively accumulating it. Actively seeking to accumulate wealth. And then last, they're supposed to write themselves a copy of the Torah. So with all that context, let's get some nerdy nuggets. Okay, first, the Book of Kings starts out, and it's really clear. David is no longer able to have sex. Okay. In the ancient world, the way that a man proved that they were a king is kings conquered. And there's two places where kings conquered on the battlefield, in and in the bedroom. If you couldn't conquer in the battlefield, then you had to conquer in the bedroom. And so they go find this virgin girl. She's really beautiful. The text says multiple times that she's beautiful, but David can't have sex with her. And so this then prompts his oldest son. Remember, Amnon's dead and Absalom's dead. So Adonijah gets the great idea. Hey, my dad's no longer a man. My dad has no more strength or virality. I'm going to anoint myself as king. So Adonijah moves to usurp the throne, and he excludes some key people. He excludes Nathan the prophet, which means he does not want God's approval to become king. He wants to become king with political maneuvering, not the selection of Yahweh. The other person that he excludes is Solomon. This then prompts Nathan to find Bathsheba, and they form a plan that Bathsheba is gonna go seek the favor of the king and remind him that the king, that David made a promise to her that Solomon would be king. Now, this exactly what happens. Nathan actually orchestrates this whole thing. Nathan walks in, in the middle of their conversation, alerts David that Adonijah is trying to usurp the throne. David gets Solomon anointed as king. One of the nerdy nuggets that I want to point out is in verse 33 of chapter one, we get Solomon on a mule. Now, for whatever reason, I think that in modern church lore, we've made donkeys and mules, like the transportation of the lowly. But actually, in the ancient world, this would have been the most regal. This is, donkeys are like very, very wealthy mules. Mules. So. So all that to say, people look at the triumphal entry of Jesus and they're like, oh, look at. He's lowly. Look at this poor Messiah. He's using a donkey. No, actually there's nothing lowly about the moment. There's palm branches, there's worship, and a mule actually signifies kingship. It. It signifies royalty. And so Solomon is placed on a mule, he's anointed to be king. And then David is going to tell Solomon all the people that he needs to kill. And so we're gonna start to see Solomon operating according to the wisdom of David, which is actually not that wise, and he's gonna start killing people. He's actually gonna kill his rival, which is his brother. You can read exactly how that happens. He's going to kill. He's gonna exile and then kill Abiathar the priest. Remember, Zadok is going to get appointed as priest because he's a descendant of Eleazar. And there is a judgment on Eli's house. Eli is a descendant of Ithamar. Remember, there are four sons of Aaron, okay? Hophni, Phinehas, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Ithamar's line is going to end because of Eli's sin. Eleazar's line is going to. Is going to get selected. He's the only lion left. Hophni and Phineas both died. And so Zadok is going to get appointed as priest. And so Abiathar the priest is going to get exiled and he's going to get killed, and then Joab is going to get killed. Now it's not bad that Solomon's killing these people, but it is bad that they don't get a trial. And everything in this first movement of Kings is actually showing you Solomon's not that great of a king. Solomon is kind of no bueno. And then you get one Kings, chapter three, verses one and three. Okay, I'm going to go to first, Sam. First Kings, chapter three, verse one. It says that Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and married his daughter. Uhoh. Deuteronomy's already told us that you're not supposed to have any foreign alliances. So Solomon, already one strike against you already, bro. You just became king. Okay, next verse two. The people, however, will still sacrificing at the high places. Uh oh, not good. What's the high places? That means they're worshiping Yahweh, but they're not doing it where they should do it, which is at the tabernacle. Now this is really, really complicated, but I'm gonna get into it tomorrow. That David has taken the Ark of the Covenant. He's put that in Jerusalem. But the Tabernacle is still in Gibeon. We're gonna talk a lot about the tabernacle and the temple tomorrow because obviously Solomon is gonna take a. Take, take a lot of effort to build a temple. Now, the fact that Solomon does not put an end to the sacrificing at high places, this is no bueno. And then it says that he also offered sacrifices and burnt incest on the high places. I need you to know this. It's a nerdy nugget for you. High places does not mean that they're worshiping BAAL or Asherah. When people are worshiping foreign gods. The Bible will tell us that what is happening is that people are worshiping at high places, which means that there is no Levitical priesthood to ensure that they are worshiping God in the right way. And so this is worshiping the right God but the wrong way. And idolatry is not just worshiping the wrong God, but idolatry is also worshiping the right God in your way. I could preach an entire sermon on that because we have a whole lot of people who are worshiping Jesus, just worshiping him the way that they want to and not the way that he's demanded to be worshiped. 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, 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 angel 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 then in chapter three, there's a lot more I could say, but this, this, today's session's getting long. So in chapter three, he finally goes to Gibeon, which is where you're actually supposed to offer sacrifices. He's going to offer sacrifices and he's going to get wisdom. Wisdom. And we are going to see a change in Solomon. That he is going to go from being someone who's on a warpath, who's killing people who's making dumb decisions. And wisdom begins to be the thing that marks his kingship from that moment on. In terms of the narrative. So the author is showing us a before and after before wisdom and after wisdom, which leads us into our timeless truth for the day. And our timeless truth for the day is that wisdom changes everything. Solomon is the same person, but without wisdom, he rules and reigns based on the advice that David gave him and all of us. At some point, we're going to have to make the decision. I'm not just going to live my life based on human wisdom or what my family of origin taught me, but I'm gonna rely on a supernatural deposit of wisdom that only the Holy Spirit can give me. So I gave you a lot of context clues today. We didn't really even get into chapter four, but I'll pick up with some nerdy nuggets from chapter four tomorrow. I gave you a lot of context, I gave you a good amount of nerdy nuggets and I gave you a Thomas Truth. I'll see you right here tomorrow. I'm so, so, so, so, so proud of you. If you're on a roll, if you're on a streak, keep it going. If you're not, then just add another day to today. And as long as you get on a two day streak, you can make it a three day streak. Then a 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 day streak and let's get it going. All right. The Bible's good for you. I'm so glad that you chose to spend some time with me today. I'll see you right here for tomorrow as we continue our journey through one Kings. Love you. 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 and at thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.