Bible in A Year: Episode 11

Bible in a Year Episode 11 • 00:00
Welcome to Read the Bible in a Year with Matt and Hannah, a weekly podcast from Fairfax Bible Church where we explore scripture together, uncovering his themes and design patterns. We’re glad you’re here. Now, here are your hosts, Matt and Hannah. Okay, episode 11. Read the Bible in a Year with Matt and Hannah. Hi, Hannah. How are you? Hey, Matt. I am doing well. Yeah. So I know we say this every week, but we have so much to talk about this week. Yeah, it feels like we really mean it this time. Well, so we’re going to do Ruth because we promised the people some Ruth. And then we are doing chapters 1 through 27. 24. 24. I think we were looking at different spreadsheets. Okay, so it’s less than I thought. But it’s still a lot. That’s a lot of chapters. Yeah. But this is fun. You know, the action is definitely picking up. And so we meet some really cool characters this week, and we meet one of the great heroes of the Bible. We’ll talk about more of him. A couple of classic Bible stories from Sunday school. So if you were a Sunday school kid, like Hannah and I were Sunday school kids, oh boy, is this your week? Because we’re hitting some of the greatest hits here. So yeah, it should be fun. I am definitely looking forward to this conversation. Yeah, me too. Well, before we get into it, why don’t you kind of set the scene for us? What’s the story so far? Okay, so yeah, we’re going to cover Ruth and then 1 Samuel 1 through 24. So to orient ourselves, last week we read the book of Judges, which reveals this tragic cycle of sin where everyone in Israel does what is good in their own eyes. I still have not fully cleansed my palate from Judges. Well, hopefully we’ll get there today, especially with the book of Ruth. Because Israel is not the holy nation that God set them apart to be. Rather, they’re becoming more and more like their idolatrous, unjust, evil neighbors. And one thing that was highlighted in Judges is that Israel needs a king. And not just any king, but one who will listen to the voice of God and deliver Israel out of this downward spiral. So the book of Ruth is a beautiful example of what covenant faithfulness and loyal love look like. especially in the midst of such a terrible time in Israel’s history. And then 1 Samuel starts to lead us towards a solution for Israel’s lack of king. So the book starts with the story of Hannah and her song, which sets up a lot of the themes for the entire book. And Hannah has a son named Samuel who grows up at the tabernacle. He becomes a prophet and we’re introduced to Saul. and the Lord tells Samuel to anoint Saul as king. And the way that the people of Israel demand that Saul becomes their king is patterned after some of this Genesis 3 language, which foreshadows his ultimate failure and disobedience. So it’s clear that he’s not listening to the voice of the Lord and he does not trust the Lord’s wisdom. And so eventually the Lord tells Samuel to go find David anoint him as king instead. And so we see the story of David defeating Goliath, classic Sunday school story. And you have some of the goodies for us on this one. I’m so ready for that story. And then Saul’s son, Jonathan, becomes very close friends with David, but Saul becomes extremely jealous and tries to kill David many times. And so David goes into hiding. He’s on the run. but david still trusts the lord despite all of this and he even has a chance to kill saul but he has mercy on him and so we start to see towards the end of our chapters that we read this week that this story starts to provide some hope that maybe david is the king that israel really needs so we’ll just have to keep reading and see what happens next yeah all right well let’s do ruth I mean, I joke that my palate isn’t really cleansed from reading judges, but Ruth is a bit of a palate cleanser. After all of this ugliness and chaos and just blech, it is so, what a beautiful story. Yeah, yeah, it really is. So the interesting thing about Ruth is that the story is first set up for the reader. So you have some certain expectations about how the story is going to go. Right off the bat, it tells you it’s during the time of the judges. so we’re like oh that was not good not going to be good and then it says there’s a famine also not a good thing there’s other stories that start with a famine like Genesis 12 says that there was a famine and so Abram and Sarai go down to Egypt and right then is when Abram tells the Egyptians that Sarai is his sister and there’s a failure there So a lot of these stories that start with famine end up being bad stories. Okay. So that sets us up to kind of question what’s going to happen. And I love that the two sons, so Naomi and her family, they have to go to Moab because there’s a famine there. And the two sons, I won’t be able to say their Hebrew names, but in English they mean weak and sick. Yep. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s like the name of the seven dwarves from Snow White or something like that. The author’s telling you exactly what’s happening here. Yeah. Like, you know, they’re probably about to die any second. Yeah. They’re not going to be around much longer here. Yeah. Yeah. And so after their father died, the sons take Moabite wives, which doesn’t sound like a good thing for Israelites to do. Maybe not. No. Yeah. So a lot of things are being set up to not look very good. but the story takes a pleasant turn. Ooh, yeah. Yeah. So they end up, so Naomi’s going to go back to Israel, to the land of her family. And of course, the line that many of us probably learned, the other sister or the other daughter-in-law, you know, she starts to go, but when Naomi says, nah, you don’t really want to do this, she’s like, oh, okay. And she goes back and Ruth says those beautiful words, where you go, I will go. Your people are my people. your God will be my God, which is just a beautiful statement of devotion and love. And is that, I don’t actually have that section in front of me. My Bible’s open to something else. But is that chesed? Is that the word that’s used there? In which part? Like her love for her, Ruth’s love for Naomi. So in chapter one, verse eight, it does say, may the Lord show chesed to you first. it describes the Lord’s steadfast, loyal, faithful love. And then I don’t know what exact verse it is, but it does describe Ruth as having chesed as well to Naomi. So I think we’ll probably talk more about this later, especially when we start riffing on the Psalms more, but a basic primer on this word chesed for those who may not have heard it before. Oh, like Yeah, what’s the word mean? What’s its importance? We may have talked about this a little bit when we did Character of God, Exodus 34, but just in case somebody’s like, why do Matt and Hannah love this word so much? Because we do. Yeah, it’s a unique type of love. It’s related to loyalty and covenant loyalty specifically. So when the Lord is described as having love for his covenant people, it’s often using this word that means steadfast or loyal love that God won’t give up on these people that he loves. Yeah, it’s kind of this idea that he doesn’t love us because we are awesome or worthy or we’re a good bargain. He just loves us because he loves. It’s just part of his character. He can’t help it. He couldn’t stop even if he wanted to, because it’s just embedded in his character. So when you see the phrase in your Bible, steadfast love, it’s that word hesed. You say it cooler than I do. You get the in there, but that word hesed, it’s just an amazing word. And it tells us so much about the character of God. Yeah. So, yeah. So, and the other thing that I really love about Ruth, so Ruth meets, you know, we, unfortunately we have a lot to get to, so we can’t belabor the story too much right now, But Ruth becomes connected with this man, Boaz. And it turns out that Boaz is kind of family to Naomi and is the kinsman redeemer. So according to Torah and the ritual practice at the time, Boaz would have sort of primary responsibility to sort of bring Naomi back into the family and provide for her and for Ruth. And so the story is how she makes those connections and he’s receptive of that. So it’s a beautiful story of what following the Torah could actually be. Yeah, and there’s actually even a closer relative that Boaz notices. Oh, there’s actually someone else. Let me ask him first if he wants to buy the land and marry Ruth. But once he hears that he has to marry Ruth, he’s like, no, I’m out. So, but Boaz is really, yeah, committed to making sure that Naomi and Ruth are both redeemed and protected and provided for. Yeah. And even a simple instruction of the Torah where when you’re, when, you know, there was instruction where when you’re harvesting your field, leave some along the edges for the widow, for the orphan, for the sojourner. and Boaz does that. Like the text is very explicit about telling us that he does that. Well, this is exactly why. This is exactly why you can see that Torah gives us that instruction. You know, you get the sense, you know, after all the chaos of judges where everybody’s just doing whatever, they’re not following Torah. You can see how following the Torah actually leads to human flourishing pretty close to the way that God designed. Yeah. Yeah, and the crazy thing is that neither of these people are fully Israelite. Oh, I know. Yeah. I think this is a discovery for me this time around. So unpack that a little bit. Tell the people what you mean. Yeah. So we see at the very end of the book of Ruth, and it’s also in Matthew’s genealogy, that Boaz is the son of Rahab and Salmon. So Salmon is an Israelite, but Rahab was the Canaanite prostitute that we met in Joshua, right? So Boaz is half Canaanite and half Israelite. And Ruth is not Israelite at all. She’s a Moabite. So a half Canaanite man and a Moabite woman are far more faithful to the God of Israel than basically any other Israel that is Israelite that is living during this time period of the judges. Crazy. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. But the Lord’s always been for the nations. He always has open arms. Throughout these stories, we’ve seen sprinkled in non-Israelite people being welcomed in, you know, even Rahab herself welcomed in for their faithfulness and recognizing the Lord as being the true God. Yeah. Yeah. I remember years and years ago, I took a class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, which sort of really plays up the Genesis 12, the kind of the, it basically says the real great commission in scriptures, Genesis 12, where it says, you know, to Abraham, you know, those who you bless, I will bless those who curse you, I will curse. And it talks about how we’re blessed to be a blessing. Because the whole point is when God pours out his blessing on a certain people, it’s so those people will turn around and show the character of God and the love and the mercy and the generosity of God to other people. And this is a fantastic example of what that could be. So it’s really beautiful. I’m also reminded, I remember one of the early episodes in this podcast series where somebody asked about the genealogies. Do you remember that? I think it was Ryan Dennis who asked about, this is why you read the genealogies, Ryan Dennis. Because cool little moments in there. You could be scrolling around along. You’d be like Salmon, Rahab, Boaz, whatever. Boom. There it is right there. We get this wonderful little nugget of truth and beauty. So it’s awesome. Yeah. So that’s Ruth. What a cool story. Yeah, it’s great. So encouraging to read. And also a really great example of a book of the Bible that it really works. It pops when you’re doing it as a whole read. So when you’re reading the Bible kind of all the way through, or at least reading chunks of the Bible, because you the story doesn’t you don’t get the full hit of the story unless you had just read judges and unless you continue through to see the story of David and his family so it’s one of those that is contextual and it’s what brings out even more of the meaning and beauty like I’m sure if you just picked up Ruth and read it you’d be like oh that’s a beautiful story yay maybe even a cool love story maybe Taylor Swift writes a song about it I don’t know but uh but the context and sort of reading it as a story, as a chapter in a story that’s going somewhere, really highlights the beauty of it even more so. Yeah, yeah, totally. So the book actually sort of teases, you know, it gave us some context at the beginning. This is in the time of the judges. And as you alluded to, it’s pointing forward to the king because it names the lineage of David. And so we tip into Samuel here. And so when we get into the book of Samuel, it kind of picks up the story from the book of judges, things are still pretty chaotic and there’s some famine as you alluded to, but also there’s a woman who’s experiencing infertility, which is also one of those things mentioned in the Moses sort of blessing and curse things. And so we meet a woman named Hannah and well, I mean, your name is Hannah. So this has got a, this has got a ring for you and poor Hannah, things aren’t going well for Hannah. Hannah, tell us about Hannah. Yeah. I’m proud of that one. Hannah really wants to have a child, but she is barren or infertile. And she is married to a man who has two wives. So he has another wife who has had children. And so there’s a bit of that like rival uh thing going on that we saw a lot in genesis yeah with like um both sarah and you know rachel and leah um and so but hannah is actually the favored wife um and her husband is even giving her like a double portion um which he’s not supposed to do but oh that’s right yeah it is explicit that he’s not supposed to do that oh yeah cheater i mean we like him so maybe i don’t know if we like him that’s true good point so he’s kind of insensitive to hannah hannah is like you know sad that she’s not having a child and he says aren’t i good enough as if i’m like 10 sons and she’s like yeah yeah i don’t you don’t you don’t get it what are you that’s not the point you know what that’s a really good point and i think it’s hitting me because i may or may not have said something like that to my wife at some point. Okay, so when we get done with the podcast, I have to go apologize. Yeah, maybe. Come on. I’m awesome. Is that not enough for you? Yeah, this is, boy, oh boy. Hannah, you didn’t know you were doing marriage counseling tonight, did you? Oh yeah, I had no idea. Well, so eventually, you know, Hannah’s going up to pray at the tabernacle um like every day or continuously eventually she um the lord answers her prayer and what i do want to talk more about is this um this song in at the beginning of chapter two so um these themes are about god humbling the proud and exalting the humble which is such a significant theme throughout the entire bible and this song this poem is so similar to mary’s song in luke chapter one so um like if you just look side by side at these two poems so mary’s song is in luke one starting in verse 46. so if you go look at them side by side there’s like so many repeated ideas and themes magnifying the lord rejoicing in the lord the lord lifts up the humble he exalts those of humble state he’s filled the hungry with good things and those who talk proudly those who are arrogant um you know the lord does not honor those people Wow. Yeah. The poems are so similar. And this is the whole story of God using the humble, the underdog, the latecomer, or the secondborn, right? Even David was the youngest of eight sons. So God is always lifting up people who in our worlds we believe are lower or less significant and using those people for his purposes. Yeah. Yeah, that’s so interesting. And I think one of the things that you have pointed out to me is this is essentially a template for the rest of the book. Though in the Hebrew scriptures, it’s not delineated as 1 Samuel or 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. They would have been all in one scroll. So it’s a theme that would continue even into what we would call 2 Samuel. Am I getting that right? Yeah, well, it was two scrolls, but just because you couldn’t make a scroll that big, that’s the only reason they split it up. We just, yeah, it was meant to be one unified work. Okay. Yeah. So it’s, it’s basically sort of like Judges where it had that chapter at the beginning where it says, here’s what you’re going to see reading the story. Samuel’s doing the same kind of thing. Oni is doing it with Hannah’s song. Yeah. Yeah. So the next few chapters about this guy, Eli, who is the priest at the time, and his sons, who are just awful, ferried them, and they would have fit right in in the book of Judges. We didn’t read about them then, but they would have fit right in. They’re selfish, and they break all the rules. They do things they’re not supposed to do as priests, and they’re just horrible, like taking advantage of people and misusing their office. And yeah, we’re skimming through this part a little bit. There’s some battle scenes. It all kind of falls apart. and Eli kind of meets a tragic end and his family does. But that sets the scene for Samuel to kind of come into his own as a priest and the last judge, the last of the judges. And then as Samuel is sort of retiring from the scene, I guess by all accounts, Samuel did a pretty good job. But as he’s starting to retire, the people are like, hey, we’re about to lose you. We don’t need another prophet or we don’t need another judge. We want a king. we want a king get us a king and so this crushes samuel he’s not happy about this yeah well so chapter nine first starts with the description of saul which might be worth taking a little look at okay um this is where we see some of this language that it’s clear that this is not the right thing that israel should be asking for so um in chapter 9 verse 2 it says that um saul was um a good young man it says tov i don’t know what your translation says let’s say uh let’s see there let’s see it says he was a handsome young man yeah that’s the word for good tov handsome in well yeah it’s translated as handsome but okay okay so he’s a good young man says there’s not a man among the people of israel more handsome than he yeah more good okay and uh and from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people yeah so we got a tall handsome guy what could possibly go wrong right i mean you’re married to a tall handsome guy I could be described as tall, relatively handsome. What could possibly be the issue? Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, okay. So let’s just first recognize that this word tov, good, is on the mind with a lot of these early Genesis stories. So we’re just keeping that in mind. Okay. The other thing we see is that he’s from the tribe of Benjamin. Now, we just had a problem with the tribe of Benjamin, did we not? we did just have a problem okay judges 19 that was a city a benjaminite city okay so benjamin so it’s on the mind okay so yeah we’re meant to associate benjamin with a little bit of dysfunction a little bit of chaos like yeah well not a great uh sort of foundation for a king not coming from a great place yeah we’re skeptical because of the story we just read so right we’re just keeping that in Yeah. Okay. Then in the next chapter, we’re skipping forward a little bit. Samuel like loses a donkey or something or not Samuel, Saul loses a donkey. And so he goes to try to find it. And he asks for where the prophet is to help him find his donkey. And they tell him how to find Samuel. And so the Lord says to Samuel, Hey, this guy’s going to show up, anoint him as the king. And so he brings this oil with him to anoint him. And then let’s skip down to chapter 10, verse 19. So Samuel tells the people of Israel, today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions. You said to him, you must set a king over us. So they’re demanding a king, but clearly it’s because they have rejected God as their king. Yeah, so this does raise a question for me. Because judges made it seem pretty clear that not having a king was a problem. Yeah. Yeah, it says in those days there was no king. Everybody just does what’s right in his own eyes. Yeah. And so it seems to be sort of opening the door for a king as if that would be a good thing. And now that we’re getting a king, it’s not a good thing. So I’m experiencing some tension here. Yeah. But at this point in the story, I am as well. Okay. Yeah. But let’s look first at maybe a specific reason why this is bad. So down in verse 23, it says that they ran and took him from there. Okay, I recognize that. And then verse 24, Samuel asks the people, do you see the one that the Lord has chosen? Okay, so we’re taking and we’re seeing. Yeah, and what did we learn about Saul’s appearance? He’s tall and handsome. Good, but he’s good. They see that he’s good. Yeah. They see that he’s good and they take him as king. Okay. Okay. Okay. I see what you’re doing here. Yeah. So we’re, again, like we’re just setting up the story here. We haven’t gotten to any conclusions about Saul himself, but we see the Genesis 3 language. So we’re skeptical. Okay. And the whole Benjamin thing and, yeah, and, you know, a king’s probably not a good idea anyway. or a king in and of itself maybe not a bad idea but it would have to be the right king yeah certain type of king okay yeah and the signals are not good so far right okay and then Saul proceeds to basically live right up to that yeah so you know he has a couple decent stories like maybe he leads Israel into like a victory or two but it’s pretty clear a couple chapters in that he’s not not living up to the standard of the king that Israel really needs yeah yeah so I’m really struck by you know I think this is something you’ve pointed out to me especially starting around chapter 15, this phrase of listen, kind of going back to the Deuteronomy idea, hero, Lord, or, you know, hero Israel, the Lord of God is one sort of Shema language, listen. And Saul’s just kind of all over the place. He’s not listening. Or at least he’s not listening to Yahweh. He’s listening to other counselors. He’s listening to his own intuition. He’s listening to his enemies in a way. Yes. Because he’s very sort of like, almost like paranoia and what are they doing and I need to respond to that. And we only see him turn and listen, quote unquote, to Yahweh when he’s backed into a corner. Yeah, I mean, even then, when does he really listen to Yahweh? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it’s like the, where is it here? well there’s one where um well this is probably a better example of what you’re describing so chapter 13 where um they’re on the precipice of a battle and he wants samuel to come do the sacrifice and samuel for whatever reason doesn’t show up when saul expects him and saul’s just like you know what screw it i’m just going to do the sacrifice myself yeah which is not good he he would know that is not a kingly duty that’s a priestly duty um so that’s bad and saul and And Samuel calls him out on it when he finally does show up on the scene. Yeah. Do you know what phrase he uses? I do not. What does he say? So chapter 13, verse 11, Samuel asks Saul, what is this you have done? Oh, man, really? Genesis 3 is just all over this thing. Everywhere, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Right. And then the one that I think is pretty well known, kind of a little bit later, a couple chapters over um well there is this we’ll circle back around to this but the one where he um it’s going to go against the ammonites and um and god says that you know i want you to to slay the whole thing uh and this is kind of going back to the genesis stories where the ammonites did not want to let israel pass and saul just basically doesn’t do it like he they they win a battle but they they try to plunder like the livestock and they they keep the king around and there’s even a a hint that kind of the soldiers are going to start intermarrying with the women. And there’s a funny moment because Samuel shows up and says, what is this bleeding I hear in my ears? Which is actually, that’s a good one, Samuel. I like that. That’s funny. And Samuel’s, or Saul says, you know, I did obey the Lord, but the people, the people did not obey. I obeyed the Lord. I did what God told me to do, but I can’t control the people. And Samuel’s just, yeah, it’s just rationalizing. But he is actually the one that tells the Israelites to plunder. Yeah. Well, so he’s lying, for sure. Yeah, yeah. So he blames the troops. Yeah. Because this is in chapter 14, verse 36. Saul says, let’s go down after the Philistines and plunder. And then, same verse, the troops say, do whatever is good in your eyes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I missed that the first time around. Yeah, we’re in it now then. Right. Yeah, if even the people are talking that way. Yeah. And he thinks he’s going to undo all of this because he’s like, well, we kept the good ones because we’re going to sacrifice those. Right. I’m sure you were. Yeah. Maybe he was, but it’s like, you know, I mean, Samuel even says to him, you know, does the Lord take delight in sacrifice as much as he does in obedience? Like you wouldn’t need to sacrifice if you’re just obedient. Why do you think Yahweh is okay with this thing where just do whatever you want, do whatever’s good in your eyes. But if you just do this ritual, it undoes everything else. And Samuel just lets him have it for that. Yeah. And that verse that you were talking about, does the Lord take pleasure? So this is 1522. Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in to listen to Shammah, the Lord, listen and obey? Yeah. So yeah, this is what we were talking about with Deuteronomy. To listen, truly listen means that you will do something and respond, that you will obey the Lord. And that is the type of king that Israel really needs is someone who’s going to listen to the Lord and obey. Yeah. And Saul’s not that guy. No. Not that guy. And so we get this interesting moment here because at the end, is it the end of chapter 15? Yeah. where it actually says, the very last verse of chapter 15, Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Yeah. And this one’s a little curious because not, what, 10 verses before, six verses before? You know, Samuel’s describing Yahweh as says, you know, the Lord’s not a man that he would have regret. Yeah. But at the end of that chapter, it says that the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king. So there’s another tension point for me. We’ve just been told one thing about God, and then right there in the text it says something that would seem to be a little bit different. So this is another one where I’m experiencing a little bit of tension. Yeah, this is a very significant and common riddle in the Bible, this idea of the Lord changing his mind or regretting. So it’s the same in verse 29 and in verse 35. It’s the same Hebrew word to regret or change your mind. It’s Naham. Okay. And yeah, so it literally says that the God, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or Naham, change his mind, for he’s not a man who changes his mind. Yeah. But then the Lord changed his mind. he regretted that he made Saul king over Israel. That’s really interesting. Yeah. This word, I’m pretty sure it’s Jeremiah 18, that has a really interesting story. This is about the clay in the potter’s hand. Okay. And how the Lord is saying, if I see a nation who I, you know, in my mind, I want to bless and do good, but they sin against me, can’t I change my mind and withhold the blessing? Or on the other hand, if I have my mind set to judge a nation, but they repent, can’t I change my mind and bless them? So that’s something that I’ve found helpful in describing this aspect of the Lord, that he can change his mind about how he’s going to act in a certain way, but he doesn’t change his character. He doesn’t change his big picture purposes, his redemptive purposes. So there’s things about the Lord that don’t change that do change for humans. You know, humans will falter and change their minds all the time. I mean, I change my mind 50 times a day. Yeah, I mean, that’s a good day. I don’t know. I do like my routines and habits and all that. I can barely pick out what outfit I’m going to wear. I start to wear something. No, I’m not wearing that. I’m changing my mind about that. This time of year, the temperatures are very extreme one way or the other. I’m digressing. It’s over for Saul. He’s going to stay king. He’s going to occupy the office for some period of time, but he’s essentially done as an instrument of God at this point, as a rightful king. And then we meet the one who’s going to become the real king, so to speak, this guy named David. And it’s picking up on the theme from the Song of Hannah, not the person you would expect. If Saul is exactly who you would want as king, David is one of the last people that you would expect. He’s the youngest of eight. His father has such a high opinion of him that when Samuel shows up and says, okay, the next king is going to be one of your sons, the father just doesn’t even bring him in to be considered. He’s like, ah, he’s on the field. And only when he sort of runs through all seven of them. And he’s like, do you have any more? Because God’s telling me this. And he’s like, well, the youngest one is out there, but he’s going to be a mess. He’s like keeping the sheep. Sam is like, yeah, bring him in. Yep, God says that’s it. So, yeah. I mean, if you’re not even that impressive to your own father, I’m not sure how the rest of us are supposed to think of you as a king. Right. Yeah. You know, what’s interesting is that there’s some Genesis 3 language used to describe David too. but the way that it is presented is almost like a reversal. It’s using similar language, but it’s reversing how we were viewing Saul, and now we’re viewing David in a different way. Okay. You want to look at that? Yeah. Can we do it quick? Oh, yeah. I don’t want to cheat you of the chance to talk about Goliath. I know. I’m so ready to talk about Goliath. Okay. Well, let’s do this one quick. Very briefly. So chapter 16, verse 11. So Samuel asks Jesse, are these all the sons you have? And he responds, well, they’re still the youngest. And so Samuel tells Jesse, send and take him for me, is what the Hebrew says. Okay, because in this one it says get him. Send and get him. Okay. Yeah, send and take him. And so he had beautiful eyes and he was tov in appearance. He was tov to look at or to see. Oh, okay. It’s handsome again in my translation here, but yes. Yeah. Yeah. So you can see that he is good, that he’s handsome, and he tells Jesse to go send and take him. So we’re using the same language, but this is clearly a reversal because Samuel is actually listening to the voice of the Lord in this situation and doing what is good in the Lord’s eyes, not his own eyes. Yeah. So we meet David and we had a foreshadowing because the book of Ruth told us that we’re going to meet this guy named David. And David turns out to be like wacky, like a wacky character. And the plot lines are kind of all over the place a little bit. But essentially, he’s the youngest of a family. There’s a war scene with the Philistines. And David comes to the war scene. He’s like delivering bread, delivering food. And then I find his behavior like a little crazy. when he shows up yeah he’s like hey guys what’s going on we fight the war here what can i can i get in the game put me in what what’s going on here yeah that’s true yeah he’s very very bold uh very confident but his confidence comes from the lord so yes it’s not that crazy okay you know when we really think about it but if he does initially appear to be like wow who is this you know, this little kid, the runt of the litter, basically, who is bold enough to walk up to this giant. I mean, have you, you’ve met somebody and they’re just a little over enthusiastic. They’re just a little too happy to be here. I’ve met these people, right? Oh, sure. Yeah. I get that vibe from David here. Like he’s a little too excited about this situation. You’re like, We’re at the risk of being slavery. They got this giant over there and the giant just keeps yelling at us. Nobody wants it with this giant. And you show up and you’re like, hey, guys. Yeah, let’s go do this thing. Are we fighting? Can I fight? Yeah, it’s like, whoa. Slow down, David. Right. And then they try to put body armor on him and he’s like, it’s too big. I’m just going to take my stones. I’ll be fine. I don’t need a sword. Yeah. Just my stones. So to his credit, he decides, he raises his hand. He’s like, yeah, I’ll go fight this giant. And he even says, like, I fought lions, I fought bears. So, you know, and he’s a pretty good shepherd. So, you know, he’s facing things. I mean, he’s much more confident than I would be. And as you said, his confidence is in the Lord. So, yes. And then, yeah, he gets out there. I don’t know if you would have read this or not, but a couple years ago, Malcolm Gladwell, writer, He wrote a book basically about this idea of advantages and disadvantages and perceived disadvantages that are actually advantages. And it was called David and Goliath. And he makes the case in that book that we read this, the Sunday school lesson that you and I learned was about David as an underdog. And by trusting the Lord, he overcame this insurmountable odds, which it’s not that that’s not true. But Malcolm Gladwell makes the point in his writing that David had some distinct advantages over Goliath, like speed and things like that. I don’t know. It’s an interesting essay. You can go find it out there if you want to. But yeah, when you point out when he’s going at the description of Goliath to kind of look at some factors. And I know this is keen to you because when we look at how Goliath is described, oh boy. Oh boy, there’s some cool stuff in there. So yeah, tell us what we should be seeing here. Yeah. Well, some of the first things you’ll notice is that his like armor is described. So it’s described as scaly in some translations. Like his armor was like bronze scale armor. So scaly is used to describe snake skin as well. And actually the word bronze is in Hebrew, nekoshet. And the word for snake is nekosh. And they are just one letter different. Okay, so if I were reading this in Hebrew, I was like, wait a minute, this word looks a lot like that word. Yeah, the word for bronze looks like the word for snake. Okay, and Moses had the snake. That was a bronze snake? It was. Yeah, okay. Oh, yeah, a little play on words there as well. Yeah, but there’s four times that his armor is described as bronze. Okay. So they’re like really playing up the words in Hebrew here. Okay. And then you mentioned already that David compares Goliath to the wild beasts of the fields. Like I’ve slain lions, I’ve slain bears. He’s just like them, right? So some of this like wild beast of the fields language, When humans are described like animals, it’s getting a little bit into like the snake territory, you know, and a little bit of a reversal of God chose to partner with humans. So when they act like animals, they’re placing themselves lower in a non-partnership kind of role with God. So there’s something interesting going on there. And then the, okay, in verse 49 of chapter 17, it says that after David slung the stone at Goliath, the stone sank into his forehead. Okay. Okay. The only other time that this word sink has been used so far up to this point in the Hebrew scriptures is Exodus 15, which describes how Pharaoh and his army sunk into the Red Sea. Oh. Oh. It’s like, it’s to sink into like liquid or mud. Like that’s how this word is used. So for a stone to sink into your forehead is kind of weird, a weird way to use that word. Yeah. So it might, it’s supposed to make the reader think, I wonder what this is connecting to. And that’s the only other time so far in the Hebrew scriptures is describing Pharaoh sinking into the Red Sea. That’s really interesting. Yeah, because I think of it as like an impact moment. Yeah. Which it’s not like it’s not, but the text is inviting me there through the word usage to have a little bit different image in mind. Yeah. Okay. Right. Okay, and then one more thing. The amount of times that it’s described how David cut off the head of Goliath is kind of unnecessary. There’s four times in the story where it says, I’m going to cut off his head. So verses 46, 51, 54, and 57 all say something about Goliath’s head being cut off or how David was holding the head of Goliath. Yeah, okay, yeah. And so last week we talked about a couple women who crushed the head of someone, and this is all tying back. We’ve already got all this serpent language, you know, and now he’s cutting off the head of this snaky figure. Okay. For sure, Genesis 3.15. Wow. Yeah. So it begs the question, is this the guy we’ve been waiting for? We were promised a seed of the woman who would cut off the head of the serpent. Seems like the text is inviting us to ask that question. Yeah. And he’s from the right line. He’s from the line of Judah. Yep. Okay, I’m in. Is David your guy? David’s my guy. What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, so I think it does beg the question, though. If I’m an ancient Hebrew and it’s been taught to me my whole life that this promise that God made with the seed of the woman, he’s going to crush the head of the snake. And okay, well, there it is. So I don’t know everything that’s involved with that process. But what should I be expecting from this person? This seems like it’s a big deal. God promised he was going to send this person. Great. Okay. I’m in. I’m excited about this. What should I be expecting from this person? Well, yeah. I mean, you just have to keep reading and see what happens. Yeah. Right? Like, not to, spoiler alert, but David fails. Oh. Big time, for sure. I just now bought in. You know, but this is how the Hebrew Bible sets us up to expect a Messiah to keep looking forward to a Messiah. They raise up a figure. You know, we saw Abraham. Maybe he’s the guy. Oh, but no, he fails. And then Moses, maybe he’s the guy. Oh, no, he fails as well. He can’t even enter the promised land. And then, you know, and a lot of these characters have good qualities, too. David is a man after the Lord’s own heart, and he listens to the voice of the Lord. But we do see all these people end up not becoming that perfect, ideal human king that is going to save Israel. Yeah. So I think, you know, as a reader, this is probably the time where my appetite is wet the most. The signs are there. And like, I mean, he’s a war hero. He’s a musician. He’s got a great personality. He’s anointed. There’s a lot of signs. This is somebody we want to kind of hitch our wagon to. So of all the people that we met so far, this is probably the guy I’m excited about. And only from what the text is telling me. Never mind my own projections or assumptions. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, we’ll see later on that God makes another special covenant just with David. So certainly, he’s a highlight character for sure. in this redemptive arc. Yeah. Well, we’re going to spend a lot of time with David over the next, at least next week and probably the weeks to come. And we’ll talk more about kind of his role in the story and kind of where things are going to go with that. He has some definite highlights and he has a tragic arc as well. And his family history becomes really important. So David, yeah, but what an origin story. What a way to meet a character. I mean, oil poured on him, fights Israel’s greatest enemy, and then this super repetitive language about cutting the head of the snake, which has been one of the earliest promises. So yeah, if you’re a reader, if you’re a Bible reader, you’re fired up because it’s like, oh, okay, something is about to happen here. Yeah, that’s cool. I know it feels like a cliffhanger. Yeah, it is. Yeah. We’ve not really had a good cliffhanger on this podcast. jet we did a little tease from joshua and to ruth but this is a little bit more cliffhanger you have to come back next episode to find out what happens with david yeah or just read your bible that too that’s awesome yeah well like we said tons going on here i mean we even skipped over some things here but so lots of stories lots of uh patterns and and repetition and you can see that the pace is picking up. It’s pretty clear God is not just moving the reader somewhere. He’s moving the people of Israel to something here by bringing Samuel into the picture and a king, and we get the picture of the kingdom gone wrong. And now we have a picture, well, maybe this is going to be okay. So yeah, you got to keep reading and we’ll see what happens with David. So we’ll keep reading next week and then meet back here and figure out what happens. So how’s that sound? Sounds good to me. All righty. Well, let’s leave it there. Again, we’re terrible at cliffhangers, but that’s where we’re at right now. Hannah, can you pray us out? Yeah. Lord, we just thank you so much for this beautiful written word that we have that reveals your character and your purposes and your wisdom and your truth. And we pray that you would continue to fill us with your spirit, that we might see what you’re revealing to us, that we might know who you are, that we might love you more through your word. We pray that you would teach us to listen to your voice, that we might be able to represent you well by listening to what you tell us, listening to your word and acting upon it and doing something with it. We know, Lord, that you care about the heart and not just the outward appearance like David. And so transform our hearts and help us to see people the way that you see them and to see good and see your wisdom and trust your wisdom and not the things that just look good from outward appearances to us. And so we pray that you would continue to be with our whole community as we continue to read together, that you would bless our time reading and that we would be able to learn from one another and learn from you and your spirit and love you more and more. And we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thanks, Anna. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us and we will see you on the next episode.