In this episode of the 13 Week Bible, Shawn and Nathan preview the Scripture for week 5: that's the rest of 2 Kings, beginning with chapter 16. They'll move on through both 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. We not only hope you'll enjoy their fun and informative dialogue as they continue their journey through the Bible in just 13 weeks, but we hope to inspire you to read or listen through the Bible yourself.

For more inspiration, visit Loveshaped.life.

Hey, it's Nathan and Shawn again. We want to welcome you back to the 13 week Bible season two. We're in episode six ahead of week five's reading as we join you in working through the Bible in just 13 weeks. We pray you're making incredible discoveries as we are. In fact, this week was a pretty exciting week for me as I was prepping for this episode, working through the text. Just saw some cool stuff.

How are you, Shawn?

I'm well Nathan, I was just going to say just to encourage people that the reality is that it is a bit of a slog. Don't feel like you're doing something wrong by that. I find myself at times like, wow, I'm having a hard time keeping up with this because it's not really a marathon, it's a sprint. You are trying to sprint as fast as you can. It feels like you're trying to do a marathon length race.

Yeah.

but doing it at sprint speed.

Yep.

Right. So, and yeah, I'll speak to that too, because I actually lost a couple of days. I don't know, I lost a few days. We're actually the reading pace we're following is about five days ahead of the podcast. So it's, it's almost two weeks ahead of the podcast schedule. So by the time we do the podcast. We've been through the seven days of reading plus about five

except now I'm about the same pace. I'm exactly the same pace with the podcast. In fact, this last section, I didn't read most of the time. Most of it was big time skimming and just focusing on certain spots, but I'm telling you, I got stuff out of it. Just some incredible new insights or at least insights that felt new because they were fresh and recent. So just an encouragement to hang in there. And even if you can't like

Mm.

read as detailed as you want, there is really value in just pushing through the text. Again, even if you're just skimming, you know, some of the juicier chapters, it's incredibly valuable. So don't underestimate the value even if you're not getting every word, even if there's some days that are literally a slog, even if you're listening to the audio and you forget the last five chapters. Just keep going. It's incredible. Even

the things you do pick up and the connections you'll get from pushing through, it's incredible. And again, make it a habit. You can always come back next time with a fresh mind, work through the text again, and that habit is more important just to keep moving through the text is probably the bigger thing because you'll keep seeing new connections throughout scripture.

Mm-hmm.

It's a good word, Nathan. I totally agree with what you're saying.

Well, and Shawn, I appreciate that the note just acknowledging that, I mean, you love scripture. You just told me you're, you're working what you're working on your PhD or it's actually a DPhil because you're in the British system, but you're writing maybe 20,000 words, not specifically on scripture, but related to theology. And so like, this is not foreign to you at all, something you're immersed in. And yet.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

there's times where it feels like a slog. I think that's just a great thing to acknowledge.

Absolutely. Some people might be troubled by a pastor saying something like that. Nevermind two pastors saying it. But I mean, that's, we don't, yeah, we don't have to pretend that it's all, you know, easily read or understood or whatever. Like that's even, you know, later on, we'll get to this. Peter said this of Paul. He's like, there are some things that Paul wrote that are hard to understand. So.

Right.

Didn't he say they're easy to twist too?

Yeah, they're easy to twist as well, yeah.

So, and we've been, Shawn's a pastor's kid and I was raised in a family and church. So we've been in and around scripture for, I mean, a combined more than 80 years, something like 80 years between the two of us. Well, maybe you're not that old. I'm in my mid 40s, so.

Mm-hmm.

I read that old, Nathan, I read that old.

I think it's unfortunately maybe closer to a combined 90 years probably.

70.

So, and I'm only telling sharing that just so you know that it's very normal to continue being puzzled by scripture and to feel like certain books and chapters at different times just don't have much to deliver. It's not a knock against scripture, it's just the moment in your life, the moment in your reading. So don't let that kind of

Cause yeah.

Don't let that sense deter you from the process. You will come across stuff that will blow your socks off if you just keep moving.

Mm-hmm. I appreciate that. Well put, Nathan.

So last week, the reading that you're just finishing up was 1 Samuel 16 through 1 Kings, I'm sorry, 2 Kings 15, I got a little ahead of the game last week, but we were left with a bit of a cliffhanger if you followed the reading exactly. And the cliffhanger is chapter 15 of 2 Kings leaves us just before Israel falls apart for the.

of the last time, not the Kingdom of Judah, but the ten tribes of Israel, they in the beginning of our reading for this section this next week, we start basically right out of the gate with the collapse of the northern kingdom. So, first Samuel took us from the reign of Saul all the way to the collapse, I'm sorry, almost the collapse of the kingdom of Israel. This week we begin with the

um second kings with the collapse of juda and also uh get through both first chronicles and all of second chronicles um some pretty cool observations in uh first and second chronicles for me this week so we'll get there uh just a quick recap second king 16 through 25 uh chapter 17 records the fall of the 10 tribes known as the northern kingdom

Mm.

Second Kings 18 through 25 follow the final days of the Kingdom of Judah with their subsequent conquest and deportation under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. First Chronicles is dedicated larger to the history of the Kingdom of Judah. Chapters 1 through 9 are mostly genealogy. Chapter 10 begins with the historical account of Saul's death, the first king of the United Kingdom. The rest of the book is devoted to the reign of David ending with Solomon's coronation and David's

Second Chronicles begins with the reign of Solomon, including the building of his palace and the temple complex. Approximately a third of the way into the book, we find the account of the kingdom divided. However, the latter fall of the kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians is not mentioned in the book. The book concludes with captives being taken to Babylon and the land resting for Sabbath, excuse me, the land resting for 70 Sabbath years. All right, that's a quick recap. Let's dive in, Shawn.

Mm-hmm.

Why don't you kick us off? Second King stuff.

Well, I mean, I'll be honest with you, Nathan, like reading this section of the Bible, it feels like it's just a broken record. It's like I struggled to pull any unique insights. Now, you are really excited about this reading, so I'm eager to hear what you found to be so interesting. But I just feel like it's like the same thing again and again. Occasionally, there's a good king.

of Judah, not of Israel, a good king of Judah that rises up, whether it's Joash or Josiah and Hezekiah, you know, we'll talk a little bit about Hezekiah, I'm sure. But yeah, they appear, and so that kind of breaks things up a little bit. But other than that, it feels like you're just reading the same thing over and over and over again, where it's hard for me to some degree to differentiate or distinguish one story from the next.

It's the same thing, just with a different king, a different name. And you're trying to keep track of all the names of these kings. But I don't know, that's kind of what, you know, occasionally there'll be someone thrown in there who they seem to have a good reign. And then at the end, things like Abad or like Manasseh, it was like the opposite. Like terrible king.

Right.

And then he kind of reformed at the end a little bit. But then, yeah, so that's, I don't know, that's just, that's why to some degree, no matter how many times I read Kings and Chronicles, it just kind of all blurs together for me to some degree.

Yep, yep. So I, and this is where what I did this week out of necessity in, for the most part, can be helpful in times like that to sort of say, okay, I'm going to set the timer for 60 minutes, give myself 60 minutes in the text. I'm going to focus on this week's reading, but I'm not going to read it. I'm just going to sort of look.

I'm just going to spend time there looking for connections, seeing who's mentioned in this section of reading, what are the highlights? What are the what's the majority of this section focusing on? Is it lots of different kings? Is it one king? Is it one event in a king's life? Is there something missing from. The king's account versus the Chronicles account, and I was doing some of that and I was just again, it's not the first time I've done that, but it's surprising to me how, again, we're still going through the text.

Mm-hmm.

We're still keeping essentially pacing with a 13 week reading, but depending on how we approach it can make a huge difference. So.

Yeah, that's really good. You're really trying to see the broad contours of the section.

Right. And that's especially helpful when it does feel like a repeat or a slog. Just mix it up, do something different, like literally don't commit to reading every word, commit to following the story and just give yourself permission to adjust that and stay engaged. That's that's what I'd say as a reader. You can I mean, if you're best, if you're just set on reading every word, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's good. That's really good.

Hehehe

That's fine. But maybe you do that over, you know, plan to do that over five journeys through that you focus. Okay, this time through I'm going to make sure I get everything in Genesis. Okay, next time I'm going to make sure I get everything in Psalms and Proverbs type thing rather than committing in one reading which can get overwhelming to do that. So we're a few stories in the Kings that are pretty impressive.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's good. That's good.

I did touch again jumping into this week a little bit last week with just noticing the reason for the fall of the ten tribes of Israel. And just I did read a section of text. I'll just read one line from that. They imitated the nations around them. Although the Lord had ordered them do not do as they do that. That was the key. They had become demoralized.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Not in the sense of losing their courage, but in the sense of losing their morality Just like the nations that they displaced. I think we talked about that last week. So we're going to talk about that again

Mm-hmm. Yeah. For sure.

So you mentioned Hezekiah. What did you see in the Hezekiah story? This is such an amazing story. It takes up a fair chunk of this week's reading.

Mm.

Yeah, well, I mean, Hezekiah, you know, it's kind of a famous story where he is, and I can't, I think Chronicles maybe labors the point even more if I remember correctly, but he has such an impactful, significant reign that is characterized by great righteousness and you know, he's just, he seems to be

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

I think one place that talks about how he was basically a poster child for a good king and later kings were admonished to follow in his example and to follow his ways. The book of Isaiah picks this up as well, but his life basically comes to an end. God declares, get your house in order.

Hmm.

Yeah.

You know, you're gonna be going to the place, you know with your ancestors and you know You've lived a good long life and a good long reign and then he's like well, I don't want to die You know and so God grants him a state of execution as it were for how many was it 15 years and Then apparently those last 15 years were

Hmm.

Right.

15, yeah.

I don't get the sense that he became completely wicked, but it was kind of a reversal of some of the gains that he had accomplished. So, yeah, what do you do with that story? There's all sorts of theological questions about, well, yeah, anyway. So what did you get out of it, Nathan?

Hmm.

Oh man.

Well, I mean, and as you mentioned that story, sometimes getting what we want isn't actually good for us. The final years of Hezekiah were truly not his best years. Had he died when he got sick, it would have been the preferable death as far as his legacy. He gives birth, or not he doesn't, but he...

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

his son Manasseh is born during those 15 years. And that's the next king, which we'll touch on. But yeah, I think that just mentions a lot of just the risk of feeling like our view of what should happen next is truly the best scenario. We just don't know.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure

It is fascinating the interchange and we won't go into detail here. We'll let you read that you'll read it in the Kings, the Chronicles and an Isaiah again which by the way, Isaiah is an active prophet during the reign of Hezekiah so we'll come back to that when we get to Isaiah, but

And I think that's a fascinating thing. As you're reading, just try to pick up the different prophets that are mentioned whose books we will be reading later, because it's easy to read those prophetic books and not have much context for them. And you're just like, oh, these are nice platitudes or thoughts that the prophets are communicating.

Yes.

but then when you can realize where they fit in the context and who the king is at this time. And so, yeah, you know, many times in those prophetic books it will say in the, you know, in the year of the reign of King Hezekiah or in the year of the reign of King Ahaz or whatever. And so just taking note of what is going on during that time is incredibly important.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

That is a great word. So another prophet we could throw in here is the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a very important figure in the last days of Judah. And during the captivity, I mentioned the 70 years which come up in the Chronicles at the end of Chronicles. That was actually a prophecy by Jeremiah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So, and it was a prophecy Daniel wrote, read and prayed about. Anyway, that's a little ahead of the story, but good reminder. Just watch for those little connections. Sometimes that's the most exciting part for me is seeing those little connections and start seeing how the story weaves together, which is the reason, one of the big reasons why the 13 week approach or some call it the 90 day approach is so valuable because you can start seeing those pieces stitched together.

Anyway, so read the story of the assault by Sennacherib of Hezekiah. It's a super inspiring faith story. Again, if you read carefully, you'll be reading that in the Kings, Chronicles, and Isaiah. So just watch for that story. If there's anything you want to slow down for this week, it's that Hezekiah story of deliverance. That's one of the big ones, I should say. There's a few others that are pretty good.

Alright, so Manasseh. Manasseh is a pretty awful king. You will read that he is essentially the worst king in Israel. I like to notice, or I should say Judah now because Israel by the reign of Hezekiah, the Sorry about that. By the reign of Manasseh, the kingdom of Israel is dissolved and only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin continue as a kingdom with

probably the majority of the Levites also joining them. So just notice the reign of Manasseh, you're gonna find is an inflection point in the history of Judah. The reign of Ahab was an inflection point in the story of Israel, those 10 tribes, and also the reign of Jeroboam. So it's fascinating to notice, you know, to try to get above the clouds and just notice these characters that have a profound impact.

Jeroboam sets the stage for the fall of the ten tribes Ahab solidifies that during his wicked reign along with his wife Jezebel By the way watch very carefully because in Kings and Chronicles You're going to see that the reign of Ahab and his marriage to Jezebel directly influences Judah through marriage So these individuals have a profound impact

During their lifetime decisions they make, actions they take, leadership in, end up shifting the trajectory of the kingdom of their respective kingdom in the case of the divided kingdoms in profound ways. Israel never recovers from Ahab's reign, Jezebel's time, I could say Ahab and Jezebel, and Israel never ever recovers from Manasseh's reign.

I think it's interesting too, Nathan, you know, just looking at Josiah, and I know I'm getting a little ahead of you here, but yeah, Josiah, I mean, he's, you know, I remember reading little Bible story picture books as a kid about Josiah, and he discovers the book of the law, and he is just, you know, he's just so incredibly distraught that they are not keeping covenant with God.

Yes, no, go for it. No, it's good.

Mm-hmm.

He makes a clean sweep of all the idols and other gods. And it's just interesting to me that, this is maybe a bigger question, especially in light of the New Testament, but reform in that time looked more like changing one's behavior. And I come back to the question of like,

Hmm

How does this relate to the gospel? Because in our time, I would think that if there's incredible idolatry going on, then people need a more, a deeper connection and understanding of the gospel. Now Josiah didn't have access to quote unquote, the gospel in his day, per se, but

Hmm

So I guess what I'm saying is like the reform in those days may be a little different than how we would carry out reform today. I don't know, does that make sense? Obviously, as we've talked about, God was needing to establish monotheism in his reign. But it kind of struck me as interesting that there would be so much focus on obedience, I'll put that in air quotes, as opposed

Mm-hmm.

you know, faith, if you will. So, I don't know, how do I relate to that, Nathan? Help me out a little bit there.

Yeah, that's a great question. And I guess what's coming to my mind is that in the story, I see God doing what you might be called stopgap measures, keep the train on the tracks type thing. His dream in the text of scripture is relationship. Abraham exhibits that, Moses exhibits that, David exhibits that. So it's present, even Ezekiel.

Mm-hmm.

who's also a prophet that we're going to see coming into the picture as we, I'm not sure exactly where he comes in, but he's present during the exile, like he, and he's present as Judah is coming to its last, its last days. Ezekiel's on the scene. One of the things Ezekiel says, or God says through Ezekiel, is, I will give you a new heart. So the change of heart concept is not foreign to the text.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's just that the people, they didn't understand it or embrace it. And so God comes in with these stopgap measures like some of the. The execution direct instructions you read, if you read the text, we've passed this section already, but you notice sometimes God said, you need to stone this person so everybody is afraid and never does it again. Now, God's not looking to have a kingdom to have people who are driven by fear.

Mm-hmm.

But fear keeps us out of the street. Fear keeps us from, most of us from driving intoxicated. Fear keeps us from robbing banks. You know, most of us keeps us from robbing banks. And so we may not do it because we're good moral people, but it helps to keep us on the rails long enough to hopefully become good moral people. That's where I would see kind of the relationship between works and faith. God works with what he has, tries to keep the thing going.

Yeah.

for something better, to give the opportunity for something better to germinate as he continues. His prophets continue painting the picture of him as a beautiful God, continue holding out the dream of knowing God by faith, actually loving him. In the meantime, he's like, don't run in the street, the truck's gonna run you over type thing. So that's where I see is the way God works.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. I think God is primarily interested in preservation for a long period of time, right? So like, yeah, you know what? If you go near that stove, I'm going to spank you, you know, because I want you to have a functioning hand, you know, and then once that is preserved and established, then you can slowly lead somebody. Yeah, I think that's right.

Right, right.

Right.

Right.

Right.

And it's unquestionable once we get to the New Testament story that the heart is the thing God's after. I mean, it comes up in the Old Testament. If you watch for it, it's everywhere in Scripture that God's looking for the heart. But if the person dies, the whole heart thing is off the table. So it's irrelevant. So that's where I see this going.

It's irrelevant.

Yeah, I think that's right.

So it's interesting to me to note that the king sequence, Hezekiah lives an extra 15 years, is responsible for Manasseh's coming into the scene. Manasseh takes the kingdom in just, again, it's a deplorable direction, innocent blood fills Jerusalem. It is the turning point in this kingdom of Judah.

Mm-hmm.

horrible.

But then, and he has a son, Ammon, who's assassinated. Ammon has a son whose name is Josiah, the son you mentioned that we talked about. Josiah is one of my favorite kings. If you read the story of Josiah carefully, he is an outs, not just outstanding, he's an outstanding king against the backdrop of Judah's worst king and Judah's worst days.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

really sets a stark contrast for Josiah to show up on the scene and be so faithful and devoted is a remarkable contrast.

Yeah, absolutely. And there doesn't seem to be any sort of misstep from Josiah either. You know, you go back to Joash, who is praised as a wonderful king and like, I think if I remember correctly, it says something like he didn't completely, you know, tear down the high places, but Josiah seems to be pretty straight-laced throughout, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, I would, the only downer for me is the end of Josiah's reign. There's...

There is, there's a little bit of a misstep in an alliance he makes. I'm not sure if it's with Egypt or something. That's the old, for me, that's the dark spot in Josiah's story. There's not a, I don't see sort of a terrible spiritual compromise, but it's like, Oh man, you had it going for you. Why did you have to do that?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I do want to point out, and this is getting ahead of ourselves because this is recorded in Second Chronicles, I believe, but again, I alluded to it a little bit ago. Manasseh, for all of the reprehensible behavior he promotes and instills, he does turn to God at the end. Again, it does not mitigate or undo all of the terrible

Mmm.

things he had promoted before, but at least for him personally, the text seems to indicate that he made himself right with God to some degree.

So this is just a great place to pause again. And we did last time and probably in an episode before, noticing the goodness of God. Manasseh is responsible for making the final turn nationally toward the fall of Judah. And he does all of that before making anything right with God. He is...

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

taken captive and a ring is literally put in his nose like a cow and he's led off by rope as a captive. And in his captivity, he self-reflects and is brokenhearted because of his stupidity, his wickedness. He confesses. God forgives him.

Mm.

And it's just an incredible story. Like the biblical narrative is God, God doesn't want this thing to go off the rails. If there's any way he can save this thing, he's going to do it. If you give him any kind of opportunity, any kind of chance, any kind of leeway, any kind of, you know, crack in the door, he's going to do what he can with what you give him. And that just comes up over and over and over and over again.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a beautiful part of the biblical narrative, isn't it?

Yeah, another character to note, Daniel, which has a book in the Bible, Daniel is born during the final days of the kingdom of Judah. He is one of the captives, probably in his teens, he's one of the captives carried off as the Babylonians come in to take over the land. He doesn't appear to be taken, he appears to be taken off in one of the earlier raids. There's a handful of raids, Babylonian raids at the end of, at

Mm-hmm.

the end before Nebuchadnezzar just decimates the place. Daniel appears to be taken by one of the earlier raids rather than kind of the last one that Nebuchadnezzar conducts. That's the end of Kings. So let's talk Chronicles. So this is where I started getting super excited. It was probably maybe something I knew before, but it felt like a fresh insight.

Yeah.

Chronicles is written after the 70 years of captivity. And there's evidence within the book that that's the way it's written. So I started thinking of Chronicles like Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was this record of probably multiple teaching moments, multiple sermons, you might say, multiple lectures by Moses as the Israelites are about to enter Canaan, the promised land.

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And he wants to help the new generation see their history, see God's providence, and be ready to enter the promised land and occupy it well. He wants to give them the best opportunity to succeed. That's Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy is different sort of than the previous accounts in the Pentateuch of Israel.

Mm-hmm.

in that it's definitely a retelling of the story with the purpose of educating and inspiring and equipping the people to occupy the land. The Chronicles follows that same course, in my opinion. There's the 70 years of captivity, then there are the returning exiles who are coming back to reestablish the kingdom, and Chronicles is written to

to give a very specific narrative, to tell them the story, the essential story. And this is why it's the story of Judah, because the kingdom, the reign of David, the kingdom of David kind of sets the tone. You'll notice when Jesus' birth comes around, that Bible calls him the son of David. So the line of Judah, this David theme, is essential to the history. That's why in Kings, you hear Israel and Judah.

Mm-hmm.

But in Chronicles, it's mostly Judah, because Judah is the storyline that needs to continue, and the folks coming to resettle the land, many of them born during captivity, they're coming to resettle the land. And I believe it's Ezra writes the Chronicles, that's at least what kind of is assumed in the scholarly community, at least in some parts of the community, that Ezra writes the book. And he writes it to...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

God showed up in our past. God's going to show up in our future. Here's the consequences of doing stupid things. So as you inhabit the land, as you, as you re-inhabit the land, don't do stupid things like your forefathers did. Let's be successful. That's where I see the Chronicles. And that for me was just like, Boom, lights going off. So I don't know what you think.

It happens to live.

Mm-hmm. Mm. Yeah, no, I hear that and I see that. So, Kings is written to people in exile, and it's basically a warning, if you will, of showing the faults and the sins of the...

the monarchs of Israel and Judah, basically saying, hey, just remember, like, this is why we're here. Like, these are the behaviors that led us to this point. So there might be, even though there's positive splashed in there, it's mostly noting the unfortunate behavior of the monarchs. On the other hand, yeah, Chronicles is written to...

Right.

Right, yep.

people who have returned from exile. And so you're going to get a more positive tone, like, hey, these are not the characteristics of godly kings and behaviors that we need to strive for and emulate. So yeah, it's interesting now how just going back to Manasseh, second king doesn't talk about his conversion at the end.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Because that's not its agenda, but Chronicles does. It notes his turn to God in the end, because that's why he's not focused on the positives, which raises some interesting questions about how inspiration works, right, Nathan?

Yes, so let's we can talk about that in a minute, but there you mentioned the addition of Manasseh's repentance, his regret, his return to God. There are omissions, Absalom's, uh the words that come to mind, but Absalom's attempts to take rebellion is not mentioned. And

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Rebellion, yeah.

The let's see, then there is the last son of David before Solomon that tries to take the kingdom. His name's not come into mind right now either. He's not mentioned Bathsheba. That incident is nowhere in Chronicles. So this is fascinating like Manasseh is it says at the end he corrects course David is told. So again, this is the idealized story of David not to the neglect.

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Oh. Yeah.

The author was not assuming that the readers were not familiar with David's faults, the kings. There were records of that. But the author is specifically, I think, inspiring the people to see and emulate the providence, the positives and to embrace the providence of God, to really hold out the best story and inspire them as they reinhabit the land, to recognize the people God had

Mm-hmm.

that they are, that God has made them, and to lean into that story.

That's a fantastic point. I think with that being said, how does, if we understand that is seemingly the purpose for which first and second Chronicles are written, how does David's taking of the census then contribute to that agenda? And God is very clearly, apparently,

with David doing this. So there is some there is some negative about David. So I don't know what's that all about. I'm wondering to begin with why did God you know why was God upset with him doing this. We don't have the whole story either as we're reading this I'm sure.

There is.

Yeah.

But what we do have is fascinating. The Chronicles account and the King's account differ. This is back to the question that I sort of digressed from about the prophetic role. King says, basically, God instigated David to number the people and then punishes him. So we read that story and we're like, whoa, this is some craziness. Chronicles says very specifically that Satan instigated

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Ha-ha.

Yeah.

David to number the people that Satan tried to take the kingdom down through this numbering of the people, which specifically, you know, there's the numbering of the people, which, by the way, if you look at Chronicles, first Chronicles one through nine is basically lots of lists of people. The story starts in first Chronicles 10 with the death of Saul. And by the way, this is a reason why I think the Ezra.

Yeah.

Yeah.

the Ezra theory is correct, because if you read Ezra and Nehemiah, both of those books talk about the correction of mixed marriages, which was Israelites marrying pagan wives. That correction required an accurate genealogy. And so it makes sense that Ezra, who is a scribe, would be the one who puts together the Chronicles, and that

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

the chronicles happen in this timeframe where genealogy really matters. So they kind of all kind of really have this thread of genealogy that connects them, which for me makes more sense. Why there's so much genealogy is because they were trying to correct for the mistake of mixed marriages. And so chronicles account of the, of lineage becomes really important as they're trying to reestablish

Thank you.

Mm.

as faithful to God's expectations, to God's instructions. So anyway, the counting of Israel by David, the problem with that was that David was calculating the strength of Israel, which was in his mind at the counting dependent on numbers of bodies, not on the God of heaven.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Boy, that'll preach, Nathan. I know we don't do much application here, but that'll preach, right? I could cite some... Yeah, I think so. I think that's a good point. Very evidently it seems as though the problem that David is...

Yeah. I mean, does that make sense? I mean, what do you think? Is that it? Yeah.

you know, getting into is that he is putting his faith and trust in man and trying to boast of his strength and, you know, rely on the degree to which he is able to build up the numeric strength of Israel, or of Judah, I should say.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah, and I mean, this is a great time to remember what we read in previous books where God predicts. One of the predictions was if I bless you, your fields prosper, your kingdom gains strength. You're going to take that blessing and it's going to work against you because you'll think it all came by your own strength. David is taking that turn. He doesn't fully take it, but he's taking that turn.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Another reason this comes in, which was another exciting insight. I'm going to drop it and then pull back and that is the building of the temple and the consequence for the numbering of the people overlap each other. So I'll just leave it at that and we'll come back to this.

Joab, interesting. Joab, you know, he's got some crooked stuff about him as you read the story. It's not a clean story. But Joab, in this instance, he refused to number, I believe, the tribe of Benjamin because it was so nauseous to him. He understood what David was doing and it disturbed him so much that he refused to fully carry out the king's orders.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

So, so profit the question of profits, how to how does prophecy work if King says God instigated David to number Israel and then Chronicles clearly says that it was Satan who instigated the numbering of Israel. That brings up the question of how does the prophetic gift work and I don't think that you and I going to solve this, but I think it helps us recognize that.

Hehehe

and

That the prophetic gift is not a divine dictation. I know that's going to just some of you listening right now. That's going to send off all kinds of alarm bells. But if we take the scriptures as they are and we take an honest look at them. The prophetic writings cannot be the transcription of the hand of God.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally agree, Nathan. And we don't even have to cite the God-Satan part because believe it or not, there's lots of scholars and we can go long ways into this who think this proves that Satan is sort of a servant of God. Like, they don't believe in the existence of quote-unquote Satan as this.

divine, not divine, sorry, this major universal spirit that is living in opposition to God, but is actually somebody who is working in conjunction with God. So we'll put that aside because that's a huge discussion. I know, I know, it's not where I am either, but even aside from that, yeah, just the nature of if...

Yeah, that's not where I'm at.

Again, just using the story of Manasseh as an example. You don't get the whole story with First Kings. You don't get the whole story with Second Chronicles for that matter. So we just gotta be clear on that, that the Bible is not written to be an exhaustive, historical, C-span, literalistic representation of everything that happened at every single moment. Each writer has a specific.

Mm-hmm. Right.

Agenda and I don't mean that in a bad way nothing wrong with an agenda every writer has an agenda that they're trying to establish and An argument if you will that they are trying to demonstrate

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So is it appropriate then to say that the illuminating work of God is tied into that agenda?

Yeah, it's totally, this is the way God chooses to communicate to humankind. He is fully aware that this is not to imply that there's, that scripture is not reliable. That's not what we're saying at all. Scripture is reliable for the purpose for which it was written. I don't think it was intended to be, again, blow by blow.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Right.

beyond the shadow of a doubt historically, throw in your adjective, whatever you wanna use. It has a purpose in mind. It's not to prove that there were 21,648 people as opposed to 21,647 people. That's not what it's, yeah.

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Right. That's not. And that's so important. So, you know, one of the things and this is we got to get to this soon because this is where my second exciting moment comes in this week. But the theme of scripture, the fundamental theme of scripture is God wanting to be in relationship with human beings.

I didn't.

and longing for those human beings to be restored to the rhythm of a way of life defined by love.

Mm. Mm-hmm.

So the story is told with that objective in mind. The prophets are looking to accomplish that. The story of David is told for the purpose of Israel aligning with God morally, loving neighbor, building a just and merciful society. This is what God's after. We're going to see in Luke. Luke himself says, hey, I sat down and basically I did research.

Mm-hmm.

to share what I'm about to write to you in my book. He's writing to Theophilus, which is way ahead of the story, but another one of these windows into the process, the prophetic process, the place of scripture, again, it's to develop us as moral beings. We do believe in the accuracy of biblical history. We don't believe in like the pinpoint accuracy of every individual detail. We recognize that historians,

Mm-hmm.

vary, that the prophets had that freedom to vary, but the moral threat of Scripture is on point, and the historical threat of Scripture is on point, granting that these are human authors working with the sources they have.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think that's really important. Just because we don't have to claim that every single little detail is exactly how it happened. It doesn't mean we therefore say none of it happened. But, you know, I was going to pick up what you were saying too, Nathan. Of course, we'll get to this when we come to the prophetic books, although technically these books are considered to be in the Hebrew Bible.

Right.

Right, exactly, exactly.

prophetic books as well. But as far as the prophets, the books they write, well, yeah, Micah, yeah, yeah. Even though 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, they place a lot of emphasis on what we might call cultic violations, like they're worshipping the wrong gods, they are

And you're talking like Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, these voices to the people.

you know, going to the high places and so forth. The prophetic books, the prophets, they round out that more, and they point out that much of the problem is they're not doing justice, they're not loving mercy, they're taking advantage of widows and orphans, they are not treating the foreigners with righteousness and love. And so I think to your point, that is

Hmm.

Also the story behind the story is that it was not simply that hey you guys aren't worshiping me the right way It's that I you have I have shown you a man What is good and what the Lord requires of you to do justice to love mercy to walk humbly with your God? And that was not going on they were not living for the rhythms of God's love as you were pointing out

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yeah, so good. So before we transition, I'm going to put a plug in, you know, Steve Allred, right? You and I are both friends with Steve Allred. Steve Allred is a pastor and an attorney. And he and I, he's written a book on what he called, I think, the case for biblical justice. He has already agreed to do another season of the 13 Week Bible, to do a season with me.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And we're going to go through the entire Bible again, just like Shawn and I are, but we're going to go through specifically following this theme of doing justice. We're going to follow that thread and just watch how that thread weaves its way through scripture. So Shawn and I are doing lots of reflection kind of all over the place on the things that we observe. Steve and I are going to are going to tighten that up and focus specifically on this thread of character of moral goodness.

Oh.

Mmm.

Mm.

that winds through scripture. So that brings me to two incredible observations. So David, as you read the last of Chronicles, which first Chronicles, which really caught my attention, David is consumed with his desire to build a temple and he numbers Israel. The angel he notices stops over a non-Israelite.

That's awesome.

Mm-hmm.

homestead and this Jebusite non-israelite is Threshing grain he and his kids his crew are threshing grain and over that floor Which by the way the story says that God as the destruction was happening God's God lost his heart like just he couldn't he couldn't let it continue This is why David says I'll fall into the hands of God because he knew that God would do right

Mm-hmm.

by himself and the angel stops over the threshing floor of this Jebusite family. And David purchases the floor, that threshing floor, probably some property around it, and he offers sacrifices. And it's on that threshing floor that the temple is going to be built, which by the way is referred to as Mount Moriah.

So unless there's another Mount Moriah, this is potentially the same spot where years before Abraham and his son had come. So here the angel stops. They're just kind of the fascinating connections between stories Abraham's been there a long time before Now the angel destruction stops there. Is there a correlation in God's heart between those two events? I don't know, but it is fascinating that the angel stops there The rest of David's reign again, it's consumed

Mm-hmm.

He is devoting all these physical and human resources to setting the stage for his son to build this magnificent temple. And the thing that just caught my attention is David's genuine.

David genuinely being consumed with the worship of God. This guy loves God, like just really truly loves God. He's not doing this to earn brownie points. He's truly in love with the God of heaven.

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mmm, mmm, beautiful, beautiful. Yes. No, no, I, no, go for it, keep going.

So second thing, go ahead, please.

Oh, just the next thing that so that there's this thing in the text. I don't know if you've noticed it, but talking about the temple, the idea is I want to build a place for my name or the temple will be a place for my name, God speaking. And I'm like, what is a place for your name? What what did you mean by that? I kept asking myself this question over the last couple of weeks. And then this week, as I was looking at the text,

Mm-hmm.

I noticed the reference to one of the references to the Ark of the Covenant, which interestingly, a little trivia point, the Ark had things in it. If you read the earlier story, by the time it's put into the Temple of Solomon, it only has the Covenant, the two tables of stone in it. So that's kind of interesting. How did the other pieces that were put in, like the manna, manna is put inside the Ark. There's no manna there, just the two tables of stone. So that's kind of an interesting thing.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Um, covenant, the moral framework that defines how God operates can be summed up as love, radical, other centered love. That moral framework is at the center. It's the thing that's preserved. It's the thing. It's the thing. The only thing that comes from the

Mmm.

Mm.

the wilderness tabernacle, which still exists, by the way, at the time of the building of Solomon's temple, the wilderness tabernacle. The candlesticks are replaced. The wash basins are replaced. But the Ark of the Covenant is the original with the law in it. When you think of temples, you think, you know, a Buddhist temple or Hindu temple. What's inside that temple?

Hmm. Well, I know lots of incense and candles and statues of the gods, yeah

statues a Replica of the God Solomon's temple does not contain a traditional replica of the God

Mmm.

Solomon's temple contains the moral character of God. And it just, for me, that was a profound insight, recognizing that the thing at the heart, that God, he's not big into us seeing his shape, like Moses gets to see the backside. Even in that encounter, God's self-description is his moral character, his moral goodness. As John later says, God is.

character. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

love, this radical other centered love. The thing that God wants us to know about himself is who he is as a person, not what he looks like, not what he can do as much. What he can do is definitely a piece of the story, definitely highlighted, but the big, big centerpiece is who he is as a being of radical other centered faithful love. And that's the thing that is highlighted.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

That's the thing that the temple, the tabernacle system was intended to, to bring into the lives of worshipers was character. God wants people who love like he loves.

Mm-hmm.

I think that's a great insight, Nathan. Fantastic. And I think right there at the heart of that character, we do see those dual invitations to love Him supremely. That's the first table, the first four. And then the second table, the last six, are loving other people. I mean, Jesus says it. These are the two greatest commandments. Love God, love people.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So of course he knows that we can only, I believe, love others to the degree that we are both loved by him and loving him. So, yeah, so the first four set us up for the last six. And I think that's so incredibly important. And of course, so beautifully, you know, John paints Jesus, it says,

100%.

Mm-hmm.

the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory." So yeah, what's his glory? His character, his character of other centers loved, where he would dare care how people are treated. And that is his character. You know, I don't know how much comparative research you've done about, you know,

Mmm... Mm-hmm...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

the ancient Near Eastern context. Again, I touched on this a little maybe last week and the week before, just the degree to which we maybe don't understand how revolutionary this was because we are living 2,500, 3,000 years later as beneficiaries, I would say, because of course I'm a follower of Jesus, so I view it as a positive thing. The beneficiaries of this radical

Hmm.

monotheistic way of living. But it was so revolutionary because if you read the, you know, stories of other nations surrounding Israel at that time, Israel and Judah, the utter confusion that they were living in, one of my favorite poems to cite, I came across, because there was a time where I was heavily involved in, like,

Mm-hmm.

pursuing graduate work in the Old Testament. I came across this poem called A Prayer to Every God. And it was the prayer of a man who had all of these terrible things going on in his life, tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. And he assumed, of course, that everything that went wrong in his life was the result of the disfavor of the gods.

Hmm.

Hmm.

And so if there was something wrong in his life, it was because the gods were punishing him. And the problem was, is he didn't know which God he offended. So he decided to just say a prayer to every God. And imagine the extent to which that would take time and stress and like, okay, I got this God I'm gonna try to get good with. I have this God that I had to try to get good with. And so he was just like, whatever God is out there that I've offended, please.

You know, have mercy on me. I'm sorry I did. I don't even know what I did either, because that was part of the other thing is like, you were often left guessing what you had done incorrectly, because there was no 10 commandments. Now there were other laws that were definitely handed out, like the law of Hammurabi and stuff like that, but it wasn't as clear and concise. At least I may be way off on this, but the reading I've done, they're like, God brings.

Hmm

these expectations, they're very clear. And he's, you know, again, like you can, we're gonna get to Psalms where David says, oh, how I love your law. Well, why would anyone love the law? Well, because you don't have to guess with God, you know? So anyway, I'm with you 100%.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm

That is a great, that is a great, great way to wrap up today's episode. And, um, again, God is in the business. The, the redemption project is in the business of making beautiful people who love like he loves. And we're going to come back to this over and over and over again, because it's a thread that permeates scripture. It also helps sort of clarify the thing that God's after, even in the more complicated sections.

Mm.

earlier books that we've been through that God is working hard in the mess of the human story to bring about people who are like him in goodness of character. So until next time, enjoy this week's reading and may you see the beauty of God ever more richly. That's all from Shawn and I until next time.