Alright, so lesson three is entitled, David's the Turntical Rain. And that's gonna be First Chronicles, chapters 10 through 16. Now just to connect with our previous lesson, last lesson we had a whole hour dedicated to the Long Juniologies of First Chronicles. It's like First Chronicles is famous for those genealogies.
Not very fun to a lot of people, but with the guidance of some key commentators and commentaries, I think we got a lot out of that to see the thematic purposes of the chronicleer, and what he's trying to do. So now here we are with chapter 10, looking at the actual story. And as we open up to chapter 10, we're gonna begin with King Saul. Now this is really interesting.
As I explained in the previous two lessons, especially in the introduction, there's really very little about King Saul. I mean, there's scant material given to him. He's not even called King here as a matter of fact. And even chapter 10, if you look at it, if you have your Bible in front of you, it's not really that long of a chapter, just 14 verses.
So he's not even called King, it's just kind of recording his death and the circumstances of his death, which is from First Saint, chapter 31. So we're diving straight into the story, not looking at really any of the content from First Samuel. I mean, by and large, chapters one through 30. So we have no information whatsoever about Samuel himself and the appointment or anointing of Saul and all the shenanigans that took place when Saul was persecuting David for all those years and David was running for his life in exile, in the wilderness and building up his posse of men, his little army and living on the edge and hiding in caves and all that stuff.
None of that stuff is recorded here. We're just kind of jumping straight into some really important theological points on King David's reign. So before we get there in chapter 11, let's see what the chronicler has to say about King Saul, which is just really, again, just focusing about his death because really again, the chronicler wants to focus on David. That's the whole point.
So nothing's talked about, nothing really talked about Saul. And as we're gonna see, as we move through these books here and these future chapters and lessons, there's not really any information about the Northern Kingdom as well. We're just focusing on the Kingdom of David, his successor Solomon coming up and then just after the Kingdom splits, after Solomon's death, we're focusing on the Southern Kingdom and what happens leading up to exile and the return. So in any case, David is really the focus here because he's gonna receive blessings from God because of his faithfulness.
And so we're gonna contrast Saul's infidelity with David's and that's the whole point really of chapter 10 here. So as we read it, now you're gonna find a lot of this repeated from first name of chapter 31. It's not really a glorious death at all. If you remember the story, if you listen to my Bible study on first and second Samuel, that's gonna be very, very helpful for a background on all this stuff, but maybe you're familiar with the story yourself, which is great.
And by the way, I should say, I think it's really important to me the longer I teach this stuff, the more I'm really convinced, it's really important to read the full story, the full account of first second Samuel and then first second Kings, then circle back around to first and second Chronicles because again, we're not talking about all the same stuff, much of it is repeated, sure. Yeah, that's true. Certainly it was just a repeated for purpose, but Chronicles is really giving us a real biblical theology of King David and his covenant and the liturgical empire that he has. So I think it's very important to say, if you haven't studied first and second Samuel and first and second Kings first before this one, then I think that you should go back and do that.
So in any case, so let's look at chapter 10 here. It's just a story of his death. So the story goes, he's fighting the Philistines and he and his three sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Mount Keshua are three of the four sons of Saul. There's one more son still walking about his name, especially if he's the only one who survives, but Saul and his three sons, they die in battle and it goes on to tell the story of how Saul is wounded by archers.
He doesn't want to be shamed by being captured alive by the Philistines, so he tells his armor bearer, kill me and the armor bears, no way Jose, I'm not doing that. So Saul kills himself, then the armor bear kills himself and then it talks about how the Philistines found his body. So let's get down to verse eight on that point. So the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
They stripped him and took his head and his armor, which is pretty belittling, right? You know, that's pretty shameful, right? Cutting off his head. By the way, I kind of think there's a bit of an echo, maybe a little bit, I might be stretching it with Goliath, right?
David cut the head off of Goliath after he told him in battle, cut off his head and he had victory. I kind of wonder maybe just maybe if Saul is kind of depicted as a new enemy of Israel, right? So Saul dies in this very ignominious way, very shameful way through suicide, and then his head is cut off, right? So he's kind of like the new enemy of Israel almost.
And just like David kills Goliath and becomes the champion and the hero of Israel, the same kind of thing is going on here where Saul is killed, not by David, obviously, right? But Saul has killed his head as cut off and then David is going to rise in prominence, right? Maybe there's something to that, maybe not. But in any case, his head is taken with his armor.
Let's go on here and send messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people. And they put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Daegon. All right, we'll just stop there really quickly here. So I did skip over verse six here about how it says, Saul died, he and his three sons and all of his house died together.
All right, well, when it says all of his house were really talking about his like, his reign, like anybody, his dynasty, he didn't have a dynasty yet, because I'm going to explain here in just a second, I'm going to review his major sins back from 1 Samuel. So when it says all of his house, it means like anyone who has a claim to power, they're all gone. Now, as I mentioned before, he did have one other son, Ishpo chef, which means man of shame. His whole story is skipped here in 1 Chronicles, but you have to go back to 2 Samuel to really find out that story.
So there is one more son remaining, and he doesn't die very well. Either he had two body guards betray him and cut off his head, it's just very, very sad. But in any case, all of his house, anyone who has a claim to power, they're gone now. They're defeated by the Philistines.
And then it says his head is placed in the shrine of Daegon. Now, that's important as well from 1 Samuel, chapter 5, specifically, because these Philistines with all their gods, really all the pagans with all their gods, it's pretty shameful. But Daegon had popped up into the story because if you remember, just summarize this quickly, because it's kind of funny, I think. So the Philistines captured the ark.
This is going to be back in Samuel's time, and Samuel's predecessor remember was the priest Eli. And he had two wicked sons. And so they're fighting the Philistines, and they think, hey, you know what, let's just take the ark with us in a battle. They treat the ark like a good luck charm, like a lucky rabbit sword or something like that.
It's a very huge sin of pride and hubris and presumption. And what they think, so long as we just bring the ark of the covenant with us, we're going to win, right? Well, wrong, right? Because they don't have a heart after God.
They don't worship him. They don't obey him. Or obey his laws. They're not faithful to the covenant.
So in God's providence, the Philistines conquer Israel. They capture the ark. And then they bring the ark of the covenant to their shrine of Daegon. It's the same shrine that they're talking about here where they brought Saul's head.
So back in first, Samuel, chapter 5, verses 1 through 5, it's pretty funny, because they bring the ark to the shrine of Daegon. And the next morning, they walk into the shrine, and Daegon is face planted in the dirt right before the ark, which is pretty funny because obviously, God is supreme over all the world. And the pitally little pip squeak demon behind the idol of Daegon is just giving a beast since God symbolized to the ark. And they're like, oh, this is strange.
Let's go. Let's put him back up on his little pedestal here. And just going to make things right. Well, the next day, Daegon is again prostrate before the ark.
But this time, he's missing his hands and his feet. He's dismembered here. He's completely defeated. There's a lot of echoes to the exit of the story in that regard to where God has victory over the false pagan gods.
But it's pretty funny because this is really strange. And true keeps coming into our shrine. And desecrating our idol to Daegon. Well, no one is.
It's the fact that Yahweh is supreme. So that's pretty funny. So in any case, Saul now, his head is in this shrine. But luckily, some soldiers, it goes on to say in verse 11 and following some soldiers from Chibesh Gilead.
They're showing honor to Saul because Saul once upon a time helped him against the Ammonites. So these soldiers go in and reclaim Saul, his corpse, and bring it back. And Saul is buried with honor, right? Rather, his ashes are buried with honor.
So that's the brief story here. And then in verse 13 and 14, this is the real point of the short chapter 10. It says Saul died for his unfaithfulness in verse 13. You can underline that.
That's really important. And that's true. Saul died for his unfaithfulness. He was unfaithful to the Lord, and all that he did not keep the commandment of the Lord, and he consulted a medium seeking guidance.
And he did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore, and as many people have said, you might have heard this from me and other teachers, right? Whenever you see the word, therefore, look to the previous verses to see what it's there for, right? Kind of a little catchy quip, right?
But it's true, right? So therefore, because he was so unfaithful in these ways, the Lord's loom and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse. So Saul, this is a really brief story here, and many people know it well. Saul died because of his unfaithfulness.
And the chronicle doesn't really record what his unfaithfulness was. You got to go back to First Samuel to see all of that stuff. So I summarized this here in your notes. There are really three major strikes.
You can call it that. So the first major strike was when, if you remember in First Samuel 13, Saul was waiting for Samuel to arrive before a battle. And Samuel is fashionably late. Really, he's unfashionably late because he's a weak late.
And Saul is getting really antsy. He's getting really impatient. He's hemorrhaging soldiers. And so he decides to take matters in his own hands and offers the sacrifices himself.
Now, sure enough, like, wouldn't you know, as soon as he's done, Samuel walks in and stage right, and he gets into big trouble because he usurped the authority of the Levites when he was not supposed to offer sacrifices. So the punishment there was he lost his kingship. Well, rarely he lost his dynasty. That's the real point there.
He lost his dynasty. And then a couple chapters down the line, he was told by God to go in and utterly wipe out the Amalekites because the Amalekites are truly wicked. Amalekites, they don't stand for all the Gentiles or just a particular clan. And the Amalekites have been fighting Israel for a long time.
And so Samuel tells God, or rather, God tells Saul through Samuel, excuse me. So wipe them out and Saul doesn't obey. He goes in, he leaves King Agag alive. He takes the best of the plunder and the spoil and the animals, right?
And that's also quite humorous and ironic because Samuel was told Saul had this obeyed. And of course, Samuel's heartbroken about this. And finally, he confronts Saul. And he says, Saul, what's going on?
Saul just begins a whole slew of excuses and deflections and just outright lies to Samuel's face. I did obey the voice of the Lord and then Samuel says, well, then why do I hear the bleeding of animals in my ears? If you obey the Lord, I wouldn't hear anything. If you'd be peace and quiet.
But because I hear all these animals, clearly you did not obey and wipe everything out. And he's, oh, no, no, the people did it. And all these excuses, right? So because he ignored the Lord's command to destroy the Amalekites, he lost the kingship.
Losing the dynasty in chapter 13 meant that he would not have a son to rule after him. Now he's losing the kingship, which means he's going to die because of this, and the kingship is going to be given to someone else. And that's just going to begin the story of King David. Then the third major strike, three strikes you're out idea, right, is in 1st Samuel 28, before his death, if you remember, he consulted a witch.
He went incognito, went cloak and dagger kind of idea. He's all hooded. And he goes in and he asks this witch that he found, because all the witches were exiled from the kingdom, but certainly they're still practicing witchcraft. He finds this witch, and he tricks her at first, saying to conjure up Samuel's soul.
Because Saul is panicking, and he's anxious, and he's desperate and really despairing. And because he consults a witch, his punishment is death, according to the law of Deuteronomy 18. And that's really the reason why that was the final straw that broke the camel's back. I mean, honestly, there were many straws that broke the camel's back.
That poor camel's back was shredded. It couldn't carry anything else. Saul was committing all kinds of sins, right? He killed the priests of the Lord, men, women, and children.
There's a bunch of stuff we went over in 1st Samuel, so check out that study there. But because he consulted that witch, that meant his punishment would be death, and that's why he died in battle. So that's just a quick review of the story told in 1st Samuel that the chronicler skips over. So his unfaithfulness wasn't just one thing.
His unfaithfulness was consistent. He didn't love the Lord. He neglected as we're going to see a worship of God. It was a really bad situation.
So he was punished for it, and in God's providence, in God's timing, after giving Saul many opportunities to repent. He didn't, and so he died in battle. Mostly he died by his own sword, but you know what I mean? He was wounded in battle and took his own life.
And therefore, then the kingdom passes to David. So David is in contrast to Saul. David is faithful. Now don't get me wrong.
David has some serious sins, most of which, I mean, the big wannies of adultery and murder, the chronicler skips over, interestingly enough. But there's another major sin that the chronicler does recount, which is the sin, we'll talk about that later on. But by and large, David is faithful, and Saul is unfaithful, and that's why the kingdom passed to David. Now I will just simply point out really quickly before we move on to chapter 11, that this idea of being punished for unfaithfulness is going to play in an important role in the rest of the history of Judah, especially during the divided kingdom years, because just like Saul was punished because of his infidelity, Judah is going to end also in the northern kingdom as well.
They're going to be punished for their infidelity as well. Now once we study the covenant of David in chapter 17 in the next lesson, we'll see that despite Judah's infidelity and the kings of the Davidic heirs, the kings of Judah, despite all their infidelity, they're going to be punished, which was conquest and exile, which of course we all know the end to work from Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, Israel and Judah, and the kings will kind of be like new Saul figures to a certain extent. They're going to be punished severely for their sins, but it's only because of the covenant that God makes with David in chapter 17 that there will always be an heir on the throne, and that's ultimately going to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So yeah, it's one thing to look at Saul's infidelity here, but really I think that chronicleer begins with this, not just he begins with the story, not just to segue to David, but also to serve as an example for all the future David kings that they're going to be like Saul, and they're going to die separated from God if they are unfaithful to the covenant.
All right, so that's I think sufficient. Very good. Now let's get to chapters 11 and 12 here where we have, this is Roman numeral two in your notes, where we have David's liturgical reign from Jerusalem, and the chronicleer is really going to emphasize particular aspects of David that the books of First and Second Samuel don't really emphasize as much, which is his liturgical heart, right? So here's a little quote to start us off from a Catholic study Bible which says, David always made the service and worship of Yahweh, his top priority in the center of Israel's national life.
This is why David was so astonishingly successful and why Israel enjoyed such prosperity and blessing during his reign, end quote. So keep in mind for all that we're going to study here in the next number of chapters and lessons here. David was successful in all that he did because God was with him, because David loved the Lord and worship the Lord. And this is true, worship of God was his top priority.
And the chronicleer is going to really make this point, especially because his contemporaries need to remember this. Remember that the chronicleer is writing after the return from exile. So you have all of these people coming back to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple and pick up the ashes, pick up the pieces and rebuild the life of themselves. And so the chronicleer is saying, it's liturgical fidelity to God.
It's a heartfelt worship and obedience to the Lord that's going to bring success. So you better follow, follow suit, you better following David's footsteps here if you want success in rebuilding the city and the temple. And that's kind of the underlying message throughout here. So in chapter 11, verse one and following, we have David being crowned and the chronicleer is going to summarize content from second Samuel here.
But let's just read a couple of verses and review a few things. In verse one, it says, all is real gathered together to David at Hebron, saying, behold we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you that let out and brought in Israel. And the Lord your God said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel and you shall be prince over my people Israel.
So all the elders of Israel came to the king of Hebron at Hebron and David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord and the anointed David king over all Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. All right, so I'll talk about the whole, the idea of the idea of the expression, all Israel and just a second here. But I want to focus on a couple of other importance lines here, especially these descriptions and the language being used. First the language that the Israelites say, we are your bone and your flesh.
And that is covenant to language. Generically it just means kinship, right? If you're bone and flesh with somebody, you share blood, you know what I mean? Like your bone and flesh with your siblings, your bone and flesh with your cousins, right?
With your parents, your grandparents, bone and flesh needs family bonds, right? Through blood, right? That's true. But specifically the language there of bone and flesh recalls Adam's words about Eve, that can Genesis chapter two, when he says of Eve, you are my bone, one of my bone, flesh on my flesh.
What does that mean here? And so commentaries will say, good commentaries will say, that this exchange between Israel and King David is echoing the story of Adam and Eve because the king is the royal bridegroom of the people. And so Israel is the spouse of the king. And that's really, really important here.
This is gonna be one of the characteristics of David as king. We talked about this before, remember, we got these various characteristics of Adam, you know, being pre-profit king, son of God and bridegroom. That's gonna play out in other major covenantal figures, especially here David and ultimately Jesus Christ, David and Davidic king is a pre-profit king, obviously king, but a son of God through the covenant, which we'll talk about in chapter 17, but also the bridegroom. So this is really beautiful.
The king is meant to provide for his people, take care of her, to defend her, to nourish her, to bring her closer to God. Everything that a good husband is supposed to do, you know, by virtue of the masculinity given to him, right? He's supposed to protect his bride. And that's what David's supposed to do.
So the kings of Israel really, well, I mean, David is the king of all of Israel, but specifically Judah, is meant to fulfill that figure. And so the people as bride are meant to follow his lead and to submit to him and really to worship God with him, is one big, happy family. And I don't mean that as a cliche, that's true. The assembly of God, God's people, is a family, led by the king.
And all of this, of course, is a very beautiful one applied to Jesus Christ as the new son of David, the new king. All right, so that language is very, very important here. He is the royal bridegroom to the people. The other line here is when Israel says also, where they quote God's words through Samuel, you are to be the shepherd of my people Israel.
That language of being the shepherd of God's people also goes back to Moses. So there's a couple of passages you can look at, I have them in your notes, and depending on the comments you're looking at, they'll provide a slew of them. Where Moses is often called the shepherd of God's people. I mean, Moses was literally a shepherd, if you remember, after he fled Egypt after killing that Egyptian, he was a shepherd for 40 years.
Shepherding his father-in-law, Jethro's flock. And David was also a literal shepherd, right? And that imagery of being a shepherd of the flock is really important because they're going to be elevated and called by God to shepherd God's flock. Sadly, many people have pointed this out that we as God's people were called sheep, and many people will point out that sheep are pretty dumb.
And it's kind of insulting a little bit. You're like, what are you saying, God? Are you saying that we're dumb? Are you saying that we stray?
Are you saying that we need the shepherd's crook and the staff sometimes to get bumped on the head or beaten on the rear end to get back into the flock? Yes, absolutely, we are dumb. That's why the expression is we are sheeple rather than people. And so God raises the shepherds to be the shepherds of his own flock.
So what that means essentially is, yes, David is a new Adam, like we just discussed. He's the bridegroom of his people, of God's people. But he's also a new Moses. So keep that in mind.
We talked about this before, I think, in the introduction. David's life and his especially, David through the covenant and through the liturgical worship that he's the leer of was people, he sums up all the previous covenants, right? He's the new Adam. He's the new Abraham we're going to see.
He's the new Moses. We're going to see that a lot. That's going to be really exciting in this particular lesson how many connections there are between David and Moses as the shepherd of his people and the co-founder of Israel's liturgical worship. So that's all really cool.
So hang tight for that. That's fantastic stuff. Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample.
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