Bible in A Year: Episode 13

Intro • 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 its themes and design patterns. We’re glad you’re here. Now, here are your hosts, Matt and Hannah. Here we go.

Matt • 00:16
Hello everyone. So I told you last week I’m looking for hip-hop lyrics to sort of open the podcast with.

Hannah • 00:23
Uh-huh.

Matt • 00:24
Make some noise by the Beastie Boys. Here we go again. Oh see, I’ve dropped it. Ah, see, I told you I can’t pull this off, but uh but it’s cool. Go listen to make some noise by the beastie voice. Whatever adrock opens that track with. Maybe that’s a candidate for the song. Okay. Something no lesser. Okay, no. Okay. I’m gonna keep working on this.

Hannah • 00:45
Alright, is that maybe gonna be your new opener?

Matt • 00:48
Maybe I should talk to Kyle.

Hannah • 00:50
Yeah.

Matt • 00:50
Maybe maybe we switch out. I mean we have a lovely opener. It’s very, you know, very podcasty, but you know. Maybe we freshen it up a little bit. Yeah. Okay. We’ll see. Yeah, there’s probably no other like Bible oriented podcast that is dropping Beastie Boy’s lyrics.

Hannah • 01:07
There’s gotta be something out there.

Matt • 01:10
Yeah, maybe. I like to think that we’re maybe not hip, but like we’re we’re maybe a little less churchy. than some of the other stuff in this genre.

Hannah • 01:20
Oh, sure. Yeah.

Matt • 01:22
Okay.

Hannah • 01:22
It’s it’s pretty easy to be less churchy than a lot of podcasts.

Matt • 01:29
Uh but by the way, thank you to the good people of Fairfax Bible Church for A sponsoring or supporting us through your tithes and offerings. And then uh And also B for listening to us. Anyway. Um, well, in the story of checking in here, uh we’re about a quarter of the way through this experience, Anna. Wow. About 25% slightly over at this point. Yeah, that’s exciting. Yeah. So, you know, if we were running the mile at school, you do four laps around the track to do the mile. Is that right? Yeah, that’s right. Uh so we’re about uh we’re at the quarter mile mark. What have uh what are your thoughts on reaching the quarter mile mark? What have you seen this time around through the Bible that maybe you haven’t seen before? What’s fresh for you or what’s uh what’s been interesting to you on this journey so far?

Hannah • 02:14
Hmm. Um you know, I don’t know. I I just think every time I read through the Bible I see new things. Um and I I’ve never done a study like this where I was doing it with a community, at least a bit uh, you know, more than like one or two people. Yeah. So it’s been really cool to see other people’s comments and um be able to just reflect on the scriptures from a different perspective through their eyes too. So I think that’s been the coolest thing for me.

Matt • 02:48
Yeah. People have so many in fact somebody dropped a question this week that we’re gonna chew on here in a second, so uh I will save that. I will say for me, one of the things that’s been interesting this time around is I think my understanding of God’s grace is changing a little bit. I would have learned kind of the Sunday school definition of like unmerited favor. Is that kind of what you learned is the definition of grace? back in high school or college or whatever.

Hannah • 03:15
I learned uh it was getting something that you don’t deserve.

Matt • 03:19
Yeah. And I I don’t disagree with that necessarily, but I think I’m f my view of God’s grace is a little bit fresh now in that I’m coming to think of the definition of grace as being this is all God’s idea. Um, like to create us and make us was his idea. To put the man and woman in the garden and to be in fellowship with them is his idea. when we walked away from that to do it for ourselves, to restore us and redeem us was his idea. Uh to enter into partnership with the people of it. This was all his idea. It’s It’s we’re not coming to him with anything. He is coming to us. And it this is all his idea. And so it’s I’m finding that my guard is coming down a little bit with him. Because I’m like, this is this is what you want. You want me to petition. You want me to confess. You want me to lament. You want me to bring you my stuff. And this is all your idea. This is this is what your grace is. So it’s I’m finding that grace is less of like a textbooky definition thing for me now and a doctrinal point. And it’s more sort of like the orientation of my relationship with him. And that is definitely something that has popped from reading the Bible this time around for me.

Hannah • 04:32
Related to that uh idea of or like your orientation of relating to God, the w the word that’s really popped to me, especially in the past few books is listen, like listening to the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. And so that really started heavy in Deuteronomy. We talked about it a lot, but I’ve been seeing it like way more often about really what the Lord wants from his people is to listen to him. Yeah. You know, and and that comes with obedience. Um, but there’s a heart behind that obedience of seeking out his voice first and it’s not just a a rule following thing, but it’s uh yeah, a posture to listen to him and wanna seek out His voice and live according to his ways and his wisdom.

Matt • 05:24
Yeah, we were talking about that very thing at my small group. probably about a month ago now and we were talking about this tendency to go to our human skill or our human capacity first before we pray about something. And especially with the rise of AI and ChatGPT and so we were funny, we should make a t-shirt that says pray first, then chat GPT. Yeah. Because our instinct, like when we have a problem, is like, well, who’s fixed this? Well, you who’s really smart about this? What can I who do I know that can help this? It’s like, well just stop. Pray. Like what does scripture say about this? Pray about this. What does the spirit want to say about this? So yeah. Pray first, then chat GPT. But I’m gonna trademark that, so do not be printing that people. That’s mine. No, I’ll share it. I’ll sh I’ll share it so Uh all right. So yeah, 25% of the way through. And and hey, uh in the chat as we are hidden through the next few days as you’re listening to this, if you have a thought you want to drop in there. About a quarter of the way through, long way to go, but this is pretty significant. About a quarter of the way through this. And I know for many of you this is your first time uh reading the Bible through like this. So it’s worth marking. What are you thinking about? What’s what’s popping for you? We would love to hear that from you so that we can Rejoice with you in that. Uh so Hannah, as we get into it, why don’t you uh catch us up? What’s the story so far? Where are we?

Hannah • 06:41
Yeah, so last week we were really tracing David’s reign and his character development. uh including both his successes and his failures. And we left off where his son Absalom was killed, and David was grieving his death. So this week we picked up in 2 Samuel chapter 19, and then we read through 1 Kings 16. So um at the beginning David uh is grieving, but he eventually resumes his role as king after that time of mourning. And we see increasing division between Judah and the other tribes. And then David’s character becomes more and more morally ambiguous. And there’s kind of a lot of questions that arise about is what he’s doing good or bad? Um, and then we see this song. where he claims to be blameless before the Lord. And so that adds some additional questions to us for us about what his character really is being left like at the end of his life. And so while he’s on his deathbed, one of his sons, Adonijah, tries to claim the throne, but David declares Solomon as the next king. And David’s final speech mirrors the final words of Moses and Joshua and Samuel when he urges Solomon to stay faithful to the Lord. And and then at the beginning of Solomon’s reign, we see him ask the Lord for wisdom, and the Lord grants him to be the wisest man in all the nations. And we see um a lot of Good signs about Solomon and his uh listening to the Lord. He builds the temple of the Lord that David wanted to build. And the glory of the Lord fills the temple when the Ark of the Covenant is brought into it. And um it’s looking pretty good for Solomon.

Matt • 08:45
Yeah.

Hannah • 08:45
But then we see that he starts to accumulate this great wealth, lots of weapons and chariots and horsemen that he’s stockpiling, and then he starts accumulating many, many wives.

Matt • 08:57
A thousand.

Hannah • 08:58
A thousand wives.

Matt • 09:00
That is unfathomable to me.

Hannah • 09:02
Yeah. And um all of these things go against the Torah’s instruction for kings, especially since marrying all of these foreign women uh turned his heart away from the Lord and he starts worshiping false idols, he starts um making altars for false gods And so we start to see his downfall and then his death. And after his death, we see that the kingdom is divided. And so next week we’re going to start tracing the division of those two kingdoms and the kings that come through or um yeah for each of those lines.

Matt • 09:40
Yeah I love in the Bible project video uh about first and second kings the little scoreboard about all the kings of Israel and Judah. And they’re like, uh, you know, Judah goes like, you know, seven for fifteen or whatever it is. Israel, oh for twenty-two. Oh yeah, oh yeah. We’ll we’ll we’ll get into that a little bit more more next week. Um ‘Cause it gets a little bit uh well there’s a pattern that develops from that. So we’ll we’ll chew on that next week. But this week I think we wanna chew on a couple things. We wanna finish up David, uh, and then Solomon, I know there’s a lot and you said something to me when we were putting the rundown together that was Really interesting. Uh, so I want to tease that out for people. Um, and then we’ll talk a little bit about sort of the division of the kingdom, but again, we’re gonna flesh that out a little bit more next week. So not too much, but uh a little bit there. And then I have a confession to make about first Kings chapter 13. Uh so we’ll save that for where we get it. But let’s um Let’s go. So I thought we were done with David, uh, but somebody sort of opened the loop back up for us. Ryan Dennis, I don’t know how many gold stars this is for you. But your question on I think it was day ninety-three was just epic and I I’m gonna read it here because uh it merits it and I want to chew on this a little bit. So this is Ryan’s question that he put in the chat. How are we supposed to interpret David’s song in chapter 22? If I heard somebody pray, for I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God, for all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside, I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. And that’s 2 Samuel 22, verses 22 through 25. Ryan says I would probably think that person to be a hypocrite or at least have questionable theology, especially when we know of David’s sin. Or is this something David could claim because he repented correctly according to the law? And we can claim because of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us? Ryan, I mean, that’s a fantastic question. I love this question. A couple people uh uh attavoid that question as well so Uh there’s clearly some interest in this. So yeah, I love that I love that question. First of all, uh I do have to nerd out a little bit. The song in chapter twenty-two may sound familiar to a lot of you because we’ve already read it this year. That is Almost word for word, Psalm 18. Um, so the song is included twice in the scripture. So uh and we’ll get to read it again because we’ll go back through the Psalms. uh when we turn it over uh about June. So yeah, we’ve seen this before, but yeah, there it is. So uh Hannah, what do you think? Is David nuts? Is he a hypocrite? What what are we to make of David’s statement that that he’s blameless? that uh that he’s he’s kept himself from guilt. He has clearly not kept it kept himself from guilt, but what uh what do we say about this?

Hannah • 12:31
Yeah, well, if our salvation was according to works, he would definitely be a hypocrite, you know. But even in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. It was not based on their ability to be perfect, perfectly righteous The Lord is still gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Um, and so yeah, I think what Ryan said really hits the nail on the head of the effect of his repentance. Like, especially compared to a lot of the other characters who would blame shift or defer, faults, you know. Uh day it the narrative is very um intentional in highlighting how quickly David would recognize his sin and repent Yeah. And I think that is what the authors are trying to highlight. Why David can claim that he’s blameless. I mean that word um for blameless is the same word that we use to describe a a spotless or blameless lamb that you would sacrifice. You know, which like literally it means to be innocent or pure or blameless, like perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not just a a mistranslation. That’s literally what what it what he’s saying there. Yeah.

Matt • 13:58
Yeah, it’s a fascinating question. You know, I think uh the character uh that I think he’s most contrasted with is Saul. And absolutely Saul wouldn’t you would not say this about him. Saul I don’t think we see any time where Saul actually repents He’s contrite a couple times. He’s uh upset that he got caught or called out about things, but we don’t see Saul repent and come back to God and listen to him and be restored, whereas David is quick to do that. uh and brokenhearted about his sin and regretful about his sin. So yeah, I it’s not a claim of sinless perfection. It’s not a s a claim of moral superiority. Um, but it is expression of a life devoted to God, expressed primarily through worship, uh, but also repentance and obedience Um we talked about this when we talked about the Torah, um, at least I think we did. The wonder of the Torah to me is is less of here are all of these rules. That you can follow and you can know kind of where you stand with God. There is some aspect of the Torah that does that, but so much of the Torah is when you mess this up, here’s how to come back in. You know, Leviticus has so much of that language about the clean versus unclean or you know how to how to demonstrate repentance, what’s the sacrificial system look like. So it’s not about who God keeps out. But it’s his heart to bring people in and I think David is a I’m maybe in the Old Testament the best example of that uh sort of coming back to my idea, you know, this is all God’s idea. God knows we’re gonna sin. God God understands that. God’s not fooled or naive about our sin. He’s not hovering over us just waiting to catch us out on things. He knows and he’s made the way, even in the Old Testament as you alluded to. the he’s made a way for us to come to him. You know, for the for the people of David’s age, that would have been expressed through going to the tabernacle or later the temple with the appropriate sacrifice. But for us it’s it’s Jesus. You know, Jesus has made the way. for us to come to him. So I don’t have to be hung up on my sin and let it rule over me uh and be crushed by guilt and regret and shame. I Give that to Jesus and I’m free. And that’s what God wants. He doesn’t want us to be wallowing in our sin and loaded down with shame and regret. He wants us to be honest about it and deal with it for sure. But He wants us to bring that to him in worship and confession and repentance. And we’re really blessed because we have the person of Jesus and we have a more full understanding of that. And we can pray about that specifically. You know, David only has partial knowledge of that, but David’s a fantastic example of that. So

Hannah • 16:40
Yeah. Yeah, I think David really recognizes the the reality of forgiveness. and mercy, to s to claim that you’re blameless and righteous after knowing and acknowledging that you’ve sinned and repented from those things is um Yeah, I don’t know. I I feel like I have a hard time being like, oh, because of Jesus, I am, you know, righteous and justified. I feel kind of like, oh, like, should I say that? Like that’s, you know. But yeah, David fully recognizes and acknowledges God’s mercy and forgiveness to cleanse him of his sin.

Matt • 17:21
Yeah, it’s astounding. And you know, Ryan, you you hit the nail on the head. It’s just a bold thing for somebody to say, especially with David’s track record. Uh and uh you know it’s another reason why I’m so persuaded uh that the scriptures tell us the truth because uh you know, other texts if you were sort of developing a a hero or something like that, you would not describe a character like David with his character flaws and his sin. You would you would marginalize those things or hide those things. As the biblical writers tell us about David, they put it front and center. Yeah, so yeah, David’s insane to make the claims that he does. But it’s it’s because he has faith. It’s because he listens to God and puts his trust in him and is obedient. And so he can boldly say Hey, I have I’ve followed the Lord. I have confessed my sin, and he considers me righteous and clean. And how much more could we say the same thing because of what Jesus has done for us? Yeah. David, the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you. Fantastic cry uh question, Ryan Dennis. Thank you s for sharing that with us. Well then David passes away from the scene, although there’s a little bit Game of Thrones uh sort of in the last minute because he gives Solomon counsel on which of the people he’s supposed to execute and all that. That’s that’s pretty fun. Um yeah. A little wacky. Yeah. Making sure we got our political bases covered here. Uh but Solomon, it’s uh after a little bit of drama because there’s a rival to the throne. One of David’s other sons uh thinks he’s gonna be the king. But David says, No, you are not gonna be the king. Solomon is gonna be the king, and yeah, this sorta gets off to a pretty good start. Now, you are sharing something with Me that I thought was pretty interesting because the the promise that the Lord had made to David when David expressed interest in building a temple Where he says, uh you’re not gonna build me a temple, but your your son I’m gonna build your house and one of your sons or your son will build me a temple and Yeah, I would have I would have thought that meant Solomon, but now you maybe have me thinking about something different. So explain to the people uh uh what’s going on here.

Hannah • 19:32
Yeah, well we talked uh this was I think this was just last week where we talked about um the covenant that God made with David and We talked about how it was a messianic promise where this is 2 Samuel 7, 13, actually 12. I’ll raise up your offspring, who I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. So we were talking about how that’s messianic because d to have an eternal kingdom is referring to the Messiah um who is going to reign forever and ever. A human king can only reign for the period of time that they’re on Earth. Right. And so Uh Solomon in uh chapter five of um first Kings says that uh you know I intended to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David, my father, your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name. I mean he’s quoting from those verses I just read in 2 Samuel 7. Yeah. So he’s kind of assuming that this is referring to him. You know, and so it Could go one of two ways. Okay. Is it kind of presumptuous for him to think like, oh, I’m gonna be the king who’s reigning forever? or my throne will be established f you know, for eternity. Um but maybe this is kind of a narrative uh strategy for the reader to be like, oh, is this the Messiah?

Matt • 21:21
Right.

Hannah • 21:22
You know, just like we’ve seen with all of these characters. We’ve We saw with um Moses, it was like, oh, is this the guy that’s gonna restore the blessing to all the nations? Like was promised to Abraham. And then David obviously was the the big one where we’re like, oh, maybe this is the guy. And so again we see Solomon kind of quoting from what the Lord said to David. And so you’re starting if you don’t know what’s gonna happen already, the the reader is kind of like, oh, maybe this is the messianic figure. Yeah. He’s gonna set up the the temple. that the Lord promised this messianic figure would set up. Yeah, so that starts to raise a couple questions in our mind.

Matt • 22:06
Yeah. Yeah, so I would have I think I would have always read this as a little more literal and straightforward. So I’m glad that you brought this out because I would have just been thinking the physical building. And I think it’s in the Chronicles account where they’re they’re really focused on that process and and David, you know, actually collects a lot of material because David wants this temple to get built. And he’s like, I’m not gonna be able to do it. So let me make sure Solomon has uh everything that he needs to build this since he’s gonna be this. Um so maybe that’s in my head. And we’ll we’ll get to that when we get to uh the the Chronicles account of this. Um but yeah the idea of sort of the perpetualness of this and sort of taking the thread Ye yeah, that’s that’s a little bit different and yeah, that’s a a little bit bigger than just building a building or even being king for a time, ’cause there’s there’s a lot more to that promise than I think most of us might see in the first reading of it.

Hannah • 23:01
Hm, yeah. I mean, um the actual Messiah, Jesus, it calls himself the temple.

Matt • 23:08
Yeah.

Hannah • 23:09
You know, his body is the temple. So Uh yeah, I don’t know. But I I think at least what the author is trying to do here is raise that question again of like, oh, maybe this is finally our guy. And then we trace the the e the eventual downfall of of of each character that seems to maybe be the messiah.

Matt • 23:31
Yeah, although it looks great. We get off to a great start here. This is looking great. We build a fancy temple and um it looks fantastic and Um there’s all sort of Eden imagery, a little bit like we saw with the tabernacle.

Hannah • 23:46
Yeah.

Matt • 23:47
Uh with the Eden imagery and the design and the Holy of Holies and and all of that. This is looking great.

Hannah • 23:53
Yeah. Yeah, that the temple itself is described with Eden language, you know, the the flowers and the pomegranates and all of the decorative things that are put in the temple. Um and then even before that, this is in chapter four, we see a ton of Eden like language with um the all of the like animals and there’s a ton of Eden language in there. And then it says that uh f chapter four, verse twenty, that Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. Which is giving us that uh language from God’s promise to Abraham. Yeah. Of like so many offspring you can’t count them like the stars in the sky. So we start to think, you know, this is good. It’s looking good.

Matt • 24:46
Yeah. And then I love verse twenty-three. No, verse twenty-five, I’m sorry. And Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree. So I started uh I I’m sure I learned this from somebody else, but I started using a green highlighter every time I see the phrase vine and fig tree together. So that one is in green highlight in my little online Bible here. So cause that’s an Eden that’s a call out to the Eden blessing. Um also uh little known fact, uh you you people know that I’m nerdy about presidents. George Washington’s favorite biblical image was the vine and fig tree. His favorite verse to quote was uh from one of the minor prophets where it says, Every man will live under his own vine and fig tree. So that was his uh sort of vision for America that it would be a place of vines and fig trees. Sorry, little GW shout out to all of you. But yeah, I love that. I always highlight that when I stumble stumble upon it in my Bible. Yeah, so this is looking great. And so he builds the temple and we have much like we saw with the tabernacle, God’s spirit full fills it and almost exactly like the tabernacle where it with this presence was so overwhelming that the priests could not go in to do their work. We get that same description on this one. It says they were overwhelmed. uh because God’s presence filled it so much. And this is kind of the idea of what the tabernacle with the temple was supposed to be, that heaven and earth space where God is going to be with his people. And yeah, Solomon built that building for him. And so this is looking great. And you know, he’s getting people come from all over the world. We got the Queen of Sheba. She’s coming to get some knowledge. He’s very wealthy. He’s writing books. He’s writing songs. This is looking great. And then it’s not.

Hannah • 26:34
Yep. Lots of gold, lots of wealth. And then he is stockpiling, you know, things to help him build up his military strength. Which is usually a sign that he’s trusting in his own strength, his own army, rather than trusting that the Lord will fight

Matt • 26:58
Yeah, and he’s he marries a lot of wives, a thousand we’re told. And we’re also we get a hint that a lot of the accumulation of wives is to form political alliance. Mm-hmm. And that is probably not what God would have wanted him to do. God would have wanted him to trust in him because the idea is that the nations are supposed to come to Israel and see what God is like and worship him, or instead Solomon’s going out to the nations and saying, let’s make a deal. Let’s partner. I’ll take, you know, I’ll do some intermarrying here. I’ll take your God. We’ll, you know, here’s some gold. That is not what the Lord called him to do.

Hannah • 27:38
Yeah, there’s very explicit uh instruction against marrying foreign wives specifically because they would draw them away from Yahweh as the one and only true God. Yeah, and that’s exactly what happens with Solomon.

Matt • 27:55
Yeah. So somebody in the chat this week, in fact I think it was Happy, who put a question in there, like How could this happen? How could how could Solomon have so much and then turn so drastically? How could it go so bad? Um and yeah, I I’m haunted by that question Because it’s great. It’s like everything that we’ve been looking forward to. It’s happening. And then it just he just sort of fritters it all away.

Hannah • 28:23
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and and it’s interesting because the text itself doesn’t it’s kind of a 180. Like we don’t see much of a development There’s not a slow decline.

Intro • 28:38
Yeah.

Hannah • 28:39
Um like I I feel like with David we got a lot of little glimpse of glimpses that like, oh, that one thing was kind of that was a little ambiguous, but it seemed not good. And then we get more stories kind of slowly to build up his decline. But you kind of turn the the page from Uh you know well, it’s like the middle of chapter ten.

Matt • 29:01
Yeah.

Hannah • 29:02
You know, it’s talking about the Queen of Sheba coming to visit. He’s the most wise person in all the nations, and then uh verse 14 and the weight of gold that came to Solomon annually. Like it starts to you know exactly detail how much gold and ivory and um Apes and peacocks. Super funny. Yeah. Yeah, I’ve heard that description be uh of so this is verse 22. gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks, uh described as kind of Solomon building an Eden of his own making

Matt • 29:40
Uh-oh, these like exotic animals. Uh-huh.

Hannah • 29:45
You know? So it’s not it’s not the real Eden that we saw in like chapter four. uh and five and six, but this is like uh an Eden of his own making, a false Eden.

Matt • 29:59
This is why I don’t like going to the zoo.

Hannah • 30:03
What?

Matt • 30:04
Yeah, because it’s uh Yeah, it’s cause it’s an it’s an Eden of our own making. I think I now have biblical grounds to not go to the zoo ever again.

Hannah • 30:14
I’m kinda with you on the zoo thing. Yeah, I d uh Yeah.

Matt • 30:18
I’m just kinda over it. Yeah. I had a terrible experience because my girls used to have do a thing at the zoo. They did a thing at the zoo in the winter because it was Christmas. It rained. It got very wet. I had to park like three miles away. I’m still a little bitter about it as you can tell. But We actually had a question at small group the other day, what was it, zoo or something? And I was like, why does anybody want to go to the zoo? And they were like, Well they’re cute animals at the zoo. I chose the what of the other option was. I’ll ask Meredith. She remembers it was her question but but yeah so zoo I like his Solomon’s basically putting together a zoo he’s got apes he’s got peacocks must have other animals in there too right yeah I think there’s lions

Hannah • 30:59
Lions around his throne. Crazy.

Matt • 31:04
Oh yeah. So uh like so he’s making his own Eden All right, so people if you like the zoo, go to the zoo. I mean, I don’t want to go to the zoo, but you people go to the zoo. It’s all good. I’m just having a little fun here. But yeah, this idea of making his own Eden. That’s a really fascinating idea. I love that.

Hannah • 31:20
Yeah. Yeah, fal a false Eden.

Matt • 31:23
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s a little bit like it’s kind of a twist in the idea of defining good and evil for ourselves. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Taking you know, what God and God has in a a certain intent. And when we think, oh, well I can I can do that or I can even maybe do it better than God. When we think that way, it’s gonna crash. And sure enough, I mean it’s kind of doing the same thing where we see that language of Doing what’s right in our own eyes, we know something terrible is about to happen. So Solomon sort of forming his own Eden, we know something terrible is gonna happen. And So sure enough, you know, there’s more description about him accumulating wealth, and then starting in chapter eleven, it’s about him accumulating wives, as we discussed, and then verse nine in chapter eleven, and the Lord was angry with Solomon.

Hannah • 32:11
Yep.

Matt • 32:12
Yeah. That’s interesting because we don’t see we don’t see it that black and white all that much in scripture. Right. Where it expressly says This is what character did, or this is what Solomon did, and this is what God thought about it. We got it a little bit with Saul.

Hannah • 32:27
Um We did once with David after the Bathsheba story.

Matt • 32:31
Yeah.

Hannah • 32:31
Which yeah, it was very unique.

Matt • 32:34
And so here’s God saying that he’s angry with God. And one of the things that we know about the character of God, he is slow to anger, long of nose, as we learn that that word means. So God’s been waiting for a long time. for Solomon to give this up and come back to him. And finally it says that he’s to the point of anger. Yeah.

Hannah • 32:55
Yeah, and uh chapter eleven, verse six says that Solomon did what was evil in the eye of the Lord. Which is uh very explicit instead of saying he did what was good in his own eyes, it’s just like this was actually evil in the Lord’s eyes. Not only just good in your own eyes, but evil in the Lord’s eyes

Matt • 33:15
Yeah, ’cause there’s a little bit of room. I mean not really, but you could sort of narratively come at he did what was good in his own eyes, ’cause maybe he misunderstands or he’s sort of making a noble attempt at something and he just sort of missed the mark. And the the text is not giving us any of that. I mean, for one thing, because we know Solomon wrote so many other passages of scriptures, Solomon would have been super familiar with Torah. He would have known it up, down, left, right. And so he’s doing these things, and I think the text would have us realize Solomon’s doing these knowing full well what he’s doing. This is not an honest misunderstanding. He understands what he’s doing.

Hannah • 33:55
Yeah. Yeah, and right in that same verse it says, unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to Yahweh, which I think is kind of touching on what we just talked about with David and his repentance. You know, like If if at this point Solomon turned back to the Lord, I I’m sure the Lord would have had mercy on him.

Matt • 34:20
Oh, yeah.

Hannah • 34:20
And would have would have honored um his repentance just like he did with David, but it’s clear in this this verse at least, you know, he’s not repenting of what he’s doing here.

Matt • 34:33
No.

Hannah • 34:33
Yeah.

Matt • 34:35
And it even goes so far as to say the like specific gods that he’s building idols to on behalf of his wife. And uh so one of them is I won’t get the pronunciations right here, but um but Shamash And then Molech and Molech in particular is one of the most egregious ones because Molech was the god of the Ammonites and that required child sacrifice. And so that was an especially grievous thing to the Lord, uh, the practice of child sacrifice to this idol Molech. And so when we see that name, we know that God’s heart is especially grieved.

Hannah • 35:09
Yeah.

Matt • 35:10
Yeah. So I do think there’s a I mean we run the risk of piling on Solomon. We’re actually going to talk a lot about Solomon in the weeks and months to come because he wrote some of the other books of the Bible that we’ll sink our teeth in. So we’ll we’ll process some of this, but I I do think Solomon is a bit of a warning to people like you and me uh who live in the 21st century in America. Yeah, for all I like I I know there are very real economic challenges uh uh in in the world that we live in, but this is still even today Uh I have no idea what the stock market did today, but work with me people here. This is the wealthiest country in human history. And yes, food is more expensive, and yes gas is expensive, and yes housing is an issue and yes there are very real economic issues. I don’t mean to diminish those, but still if you were going to pick a time in human history to be born, you would pick today. Like it’s do we’re doing great. Uh like communicable disease is down. Poverty is at like if you even a hundred years ago, the the level of poverty that we deal with. It’s real, but it’s so minimal. Like w there’s just by any measure, the United States and most Western countries, we are wealthier than anyone could possibly imagine. Like they would have thought, you know, somebody in Solomon’s day would have looked at any of us as a Solomon type figure for the wealth that we walk around with. And I I gotta say, I think some of the temptation there is it’s wise for us to be mindful of. Because there is a thing in scripture, uh Jesus especially talks about this. It’s you know, you can accumulate wealth, but after a point your wealth owns you. You don’t own your wealth. And yes, you can accumulate good things, but the wise person makes sure that they own their things, that their things don’t own them. And that gets away from Solomon. For all his wealth, for all of his influence, for all of his material goods, it’s clear that they own him. And his level of influence owns him and he succumbs to those things and it causes him to lose his love for the Lord and stop listening to the Lord. And I think if if it could happen to him, it could happen to us.

Hannah • 37:16
Yeah, yeah, I mean that like explicit uh statement of someone doing what was evil in the Lord’s eye doesn’t happen until he turns away. from Yahweh as the one true God. You know, he’s accumulating all this wealth. Um and then once he accumulates all these wives, they are the ones r I mean He’s turning to other gods is is what the the problem is. Wealth often leads us there, but but it’s not explicitly stated during when he’s accumulating this wealth that like this is really bad. Yeah. But if it’s causing you to turn away from the Lord, then you’re for sure Doing the wrong thing.

Matt • 38:04
Yeah. I mean the scripture paints the picture of God giving him this wealth in the first place.

Hannah • 38:09
Yeah.

Matt • 38:09
And so the wealth in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But I think the picture’s painted for us that at some point his life is in service of maintaining his wealth and uh sort of cashing in like leveraging that for influence and um fame and and things like that. And so at some point he doesn’t own the wealth. The wealth owns him, uh, rather than God owning his heart and being the one he listens to. And it’s really tragic.

Hannah • 38:37
Yeah. Yeah, it’s not just wealth too, it’s security. Yeah. You know, uh not only is he accumulating all of this silver and gold, but also uh military strength. And that’s his own personal security. Um, where he feels like his own strength and his ability to muster up military power is going to provide safety and security for himself.

Matt • 39:01
Yeah. And you know, hey, I Yeah, I’ve had some seasons in my life where I didn’t have money. So when that paycheck hits or when you know something comes through, it’s like, oh, I can pay my bills, I can pay back my student loans, I can I can get my car fixed, you know, the the um the safety and security that money can provide for you, th those are very real things and I would never want to be seen as diminishing those things. Uh but Solomon seems to move past that point. Where it’s not just, okay, I have enough uh to share with and to do what I need to do. And I and you know, he’s you know, the early part of his wealth, he’s like buying lots of cattle for the sacrifices and he’s giving everybody who comes to Temple is they walk away with like cakes and fruits and things like that. But that’s that’s not where the picture stays. Uh he it’s he’s accumulating and it’s it’s using um his wealth is using him more than he’s using it for God’s glory. So yeah. I don’t know. I find it hard to talk about because it’s it’s Yeah, it’s sort of as you were saying, you can make the money or the wealth the bad guy, but it’s more that it reveals what’s in our heart. Um, which is what Paul talks about, certainly what Jesus talks about, is that, you know, money reveals what it is you’re putting your trust in. So yeah, it’s it’s not a bad thing to go make some money, but it is something where you have to be careful because it will reveal what you’re really putting your trust in.

Hannah • 40:22
Yeah.

Matt • 40:24
Yeah. So it doesn’t go well for Solomon. And then so Solomon moved well and he the the text there even tells us that God’s angry and so he’s he’s going to take the kingdom away from David’s family. He’s gonna let Solomon see the end of his days. But then he’s going to take the kingdom away from David’s family. And we do see that split. And I think this is something we want to talk about more next week. So we’ll we’ll we won’t belabor it right now. But His Solomon’s son Rehoboam uh becomes king and is clearly an idiot. He’s just he’s just he’s just not wise. He has never taken any leadership class ever in his whole life because he does exactly what a new boss should not do. Where the people come in and say, like, hey, you know, your dad Solomon was a little rough on us. Can we maybe renegotiate this? And he’s like, Screw that. I’m gonna be even harder And they’re like, okay, we’re out. Yeah, and then there’s a civil war. And it’s not good. Yeah. Yeah, so we’ll tease that out a little bit more uh next week. There is one story I want to uh come back to though, kind of in the early days of the divided kingdom. Um it is chapter 13 of 1 Kings. So there’s uh one of the early Israelite kings, his name’s Jeroboam, and a unnamed prophet comes and confronts him. And then Uh an old prophet hears about this and goes to the unnamed prophet and basically swindles him. Basically says, Hey, come stay at my house. And the guy was like, no, I’m supposed to go straight home. God told me uh not to eat or drink anything, but go straight home after I did this thing. And the prophet says, No, no, God told me Uh, you shouldn’t do that. You should come to my house. And then when he does, he’s like, Oh, gotcha, you should have obeyed the the Lord in the first place. And he dies. And then when the prophet dies, he insists on being buried next to the unnamed prophet. And so I’m I’m sharing this with you because I want to explain to the people, I don’t get this. I have no idea. I have no idea what’s really going on in this text. I don’t understand what it’s there. I don’t understand how this is advancing the narrative. I’m just sharing with you people. Oh this is e at least the twenty-fifth time that I’ve read this account and I still hit this and I’m like, what in the world? What is going on here? I I I don’t get it. I’m not expecting you to explain everything to me, Hannah, but I just felt like I needed to get that off my chest and share that. I just need to be honest with the people. Yeah. I’m because I’m sensing that maybe a lot of people will read this and be like, what And maybe Matt and Hannah can unpack this for me and explain the great moral lesson that is involved here. And uh nope, I don’t know. I don’t know any better than you do, people.

Hannah • 43:10
Yeah, I haven’t studied this this either. There’s a ton of deception in the Bible. Like remember all of those Genesis stories? Lots of deception. So I don’t know how this is fitting in with that pattern, but the pattern’s there.

Matt • 43:27
Yeah, it’s a it kind of seems like maybe a little bit of throwback to judges. Where it’s just kind of random and chaotic and you know, kind of the last couple of chapters of Judges where we don’t even have names for some people that are characters in the story. So it it seems like it’s maybe sort of going back to that one. So maybe it’s a little bit of, hey, we we have an illegitimate king now, people are sort of back to doing what was right in their own eyes. Um, you know, we’re really not sure how this is gonna go. We’ve got some profits, but then they’re sort of superseded. It’s the sort of the only way I can get my head into this space, but just as first As far as just like a plain takeaway from reading the text, this is just bizarre to me and I I don’t get it.

Hannah • 44:14
Yeah. Not sure really how it’s advancing the the story. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt • 44:19
I believe that it is, because I believe that all scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training so that the person of God can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. I believe it, but uh I have yet to understand this passage.

Hannah • 44:34
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I’m right there with you.

Matt • 44:37
Okay. Yeah, so just in case people thought that we had all the answers, we do not have all the answers. Yeah, but I I hope you take encouragement from that. You’re gonna stumble along, whether it’s this passage or something else, and you’ll be like, I don’t get it. And that’s totally okay. You know, just keep reading. Yeah. Hit up a commentary. Call Pastor Matthew and ask him. He’ll be tickled that I said that. Yeah, so then the rest of kings is just sort of a lot of back and forth between the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. And we’re gonna get into that more next time, so I won’t belabor that here, but it does get into a little bit of sort of Judges. territory where people are sort of doing what’s right in their own eyes. Sometimes there’s a good king and then sometimes there’s a bad king and sort of what What makes and breaks the good king is kind of it, does he listen to the Lord and do what he says? So it’s sort of going back to the judge’s idea. So it’s a little bit chaotic, but we’ll uh we’ll help it make some sense for you when we dive into that for the next episode. Uh Hannah, you got any more thoughts for the people on this one?

Hannah • 45:47
No, I do not.

Matt • 45:49
Okay. Well, why don’t we go ahead and wrap it up? Can you pray for us?

Hannah • 45:53
Yeah.

Matt • 45:53
Yeah.

Hannah • 45:55
Lord, we just thank you so much for your goodness and your faithfulness towards us and your generosity. Um We thank you for your Messiah, for Jesus, who is so much more clear of a character than all of these characters that we’re reading about. That we know who he is, we know that he’s good, we know that he is listening to your voice, that he speaks your word, that he is um your son, that he was fully God and fully man here on earth. Um all of these confusing characters that are so morally ambiguous I I mean they reflect our hearts and our lives, our actions. And so we can see our own flaws in these characters, Lord, and help to open our eyes that we would um see our own faults and failures, but that we can rest in the hope and the finished um the the the completed hope of the arrival of your Messiah who fulfills all of these promises And so I pray that you would just continue to grant us your wisdom and uh open our eyes to your truth and um To see in new and fresh ways the story of your redemptive purposes being worked out through Jesus. in all of these stories that um might not seem like they’re talking about Jesus at first to us, but um we just thank you for opening our eyes and filling us with your spirit to see and discern and learn. From your word. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Matt • 47:42
Amen. Thanks, Hannah. Thanks everybody for listening. Looking forward to being with you next week. Thank you so much for being on this journey with us. Keep reading your Bible, and we will see you next time.