Word & the Wild

This is Word and the Wild. It's a one year Bible adventure with friends. And my name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide as together we are on a 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves. And we are here now in Week 17, gang, and this week.

We're gonna talk about why we are seeing Double on the Trail as we move through the story this week, and what Saul's tragic story tells us about what God really wants from all of us as his people. So, hello and welcome. Rolling through this journey together with you and loving it. It's not a recap where we feed you bite-sized bits of the Bible.

No, this is a freewheeling walk where we watch the story of the Bible unfold. Like the epic movie. It is. So subscribe right here on your favorite podcast platform. Share it with a friend and get into some conversation with them and with us too. I wanna say a special welcome to our word and the Wild Plus community members.

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If that sounds like your jam, check us out on the show notes to find out how to become a member for yourself or get all the details over at Word and the Wild. Dot com. Alright, with that enough chatter, let's jump into today's conversation and to do that, let's start by asking the question that begs being asked right now.

Why are we reading a lot of things twice now? We are well on our way here on this epic adventure, and you are a seasoned veteran of the trail. By now, I mean it is week 17 and all. But you may have encountered something here in the past week or so. That's got you puzzled. Got you wondering. Am I the only one that's seeing double?

Well, no, your eyes aren't playing a trick on you. No, it's true. There are many times in our reading right now, where the stories are repeated twice, one right after the other. And so of course the question is, what's up with that? Simple answer is it's just our chronological Bible doing its job. See, in a traditional Bible, these stories about the kings of Israel and Judah, they get repeated twice in two sets of books, first and second Samuel later, first and Second Kings, and then in First and second Chronicles.

So our chrono bibles are taking us through the Bible from cover to cover in story order. And so what it's doing is bundling the stories from first and second Samuel, putting them together with the same stories from first and second Chronicles. And putting both of those accounts back to back now, what's the point of doubling up on all these stories?

Well, first and second Samuel are a running account of the events of the lives of Samuel, Saul and David, and they're recorded close to when the events. Originally took place. It's a running history. And then after Second Samuel, we're gonna get into First and Second Kings, and that's gonna pick up the historical record of the Kings of Israel, Kings of Judah, and move the whole story forward.

Right? Okay. But then you've got First and Second Chronicles and these two books, they've got a different purpose. They were most likely written a little later in the history of God's people. At a time when the Israelites, they've lost their grip on the Promised Land and they're in exile. And so First and Second Chronicle serves as it is kind of a recap of Israel's relationship with God.

And it's also kind of a, a. Postmortem of how things in that relationship went wrong. They wanna learn from their history and not let history repeat itself. So they, they, they look back at history with that 2020 hindsight on how the decisions of the people in the story pan out and reverberate down through the centuries.

Alright. Can I give you an example? Make it simple. Let's take one from the life of Saul that we just read here in the past few days. Okay. More tragically. Specifically, let's look at the death of Saul. Such a tragic figure. I mean, his death there on Mount Gilboa, the events surrounding it, it feels like something right out of Shakespeare, right?

I mean, it's just drama. Drama, drama and more drama. Right? Well, the writer of one Samuel gives us this grim, stripped down account of Saul's final moments here in chapter 31 of one, Samuel, I'm gonna read it to you. We read this last week, but this, listen to it again, and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you something here.

Okay? So this is one Samuel 31. It says, all groan to his armor bearer. Take your sword. Kill me before these pagan Philistines come and run me through and tor and taunt and torture me. But his armor bearer was afraid and wouldn't do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it, and then his armor bearer realized Saul was dead.

He fell on his own sword and died beside the king. Okay, that's from one Samuel 31, then one Samuel 31 31. Right after here, it summarizes the aftermath of all the action in the very next verse. So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer and his troops all died together that same day. That's one Samuel 31 verses four through six.

Okay, now listen to that same story through the lens of First Chronicles chapter 10, and see if you catch a little detail That first Chronicles 10 adds in. Here it goes. So it says, Saul groan to his armor bearer, take your sword and kill me before these pagan Philistines come to t and torture me. But his armor bearer was afraid and would not do it.

So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. And then when his armor bearer realized that Saul was dead, he fell on his own sword and died. So Saul and his three sons died there together, bringing his dynasty to an end. That's first Chronicles 10, four through six. Okay. Did you spot the difference there?

Right. Same story, but First Chronicles has added the perspective of history. It wasn't just a tragic day for Saul and his sons. It was a fateful day in the history of God's people, the results of the battle on Mount Gilboa. It was not just the end of Saul's life, it was the end of his royal dynasty as well.

And Chronicles adds in that extra peace. Looking back through the perspective of history. See Chronicles often does this, it adds an extra layer of perspective to the stories as we read them and we encounter them, and this view they have is, is looking back from the future. And so it can help us understand kind of the point of the story.

What's the takeaway? What are we supposed to get from the story? For example, if we keep reading after the aftermath of Saul's death. First Chronicles, once again, gives us the bottom line of Saul's whole plot line. First Samuel ends the episode of the story with Saul and his son's burial. But then Chronicles has all that in there, but then it adds this little epitaph little summary.

Okay. It says, so Saul died. He was unfaithful to the Lord. He failed to obey the Lord's command, and he even consulted a medium instead of asking for the Lord's guidance. So the Lord killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse, 1st Chronicles 10: 13, 14, right there. On one hand, you know, it's a, it's a handy segue from the storyteller.

Going from Saul's reign, right to David's reign, but it's also this stark and honest summary of Saul's life and what went wrong. Why did Saul die? It gives you the why. It wasn't just, you know, an unlucky series of events in a battlefield. It tells us Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. That's the takeaway.

That's the lesson. All right. So when you feel like you're seeing double out there on the trail, as we move forward here in the weeks ahead, look for that bonus content that Chronicles often provides. Because you know, more context is gonna give you more clarity. It's just like seeing with your right eye and your left eye at the same time, it gives you a perspective.

You see with first second Samuel, you see with Chronicles. You get a little bit of depth perception, you get perspective in the story.

Now, speaking of perspective, Saul really does put some big ideas about God and pull them into focus, doesn't he? I mean, and we just zoomed through, man, 300 years of history in the book of Judges, and we did it in just like a week's time.

And now for the past couple of weeks, we've really slowed down and we are soaking in this, this story of the lives of Saul and David, and we're taking it slow. And that's because I think Saul and David's stories serve up some key insights into the Bible's main plot. So that's why we're slowing down. And that key insight has to do with the bottom line, you know, main plot idea of the Bible.

Which is simply this. How does a person go about maintaining a relationship with God? Now, we are gonna see more on this from David this week, but for a minute it's worth looking back into what we learn about what it's like to relate from God, from Saul. You see, sometimes we learn from an example of what to do, and other times we learn from examples of what not to do.

And Saul is definitely in the what not to do category, and it's easy to pass judgment on Saul. I feel like we can kind of, you know, look back on him and easily see what went wrong. And we also may feel like we are far from pulling some of the same stunts that Saul pulls. I mean, we don't. Command armies.

We don't make political alliances. We don't hold court in a palace. However, I would go to say that just like Saul, we do have a relationship with God. And like Saul, we may easily make the mistake of substituting religious activity for a living, breathing relationship with God. And that was Saul's hangup.

Now. Remember back when Saul was told by God to destroy the Amalekites and all their livestock? I mean, it was a big order, but it's what God asked Saul to do. Well, what happened? Well, Saul just didn't do it. He decided to keep the best and offer God the rest. And after this willful blunder, remember what happened.

God makes a profound statement through his prophet Samuel. God explains to Saul that he's after much more than what Saul's after in their relationship. Listen to these words coming from Samuel, really coming from God through Samuel to Saul. Take a listen.

"What is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?

Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as King." 1st Samuel 15: 22, 23.

And in those few words, we get the full picture.

Honestly we get to see that true friendship. God's heart And loyalty is foundational to friendship. God speaks his voice reverberates and and he wants Saul to listen to his voice and then to speak back to him like what we see David do. But, but Saul, like Saul keeps God at arms length. You know, he keeps God in the realm of ritual and religion.

He tends to see God more as like a bargaining partner instead of a walking partner. God wants to be Saul's friend. Saul wants to be God's ally. I. Different thing, and it's a common pattern for God's people. In fact, statements like the one that Samuel made, to Saul end up becoming a drum beat in the Old Testament, repeated over and over and over again.

As we get further into the story, we will, we will hear some of the same statements or same idea is phrased in slightly different ways. The things that God says to his people. For example this one comes from a prophet, his name is Amos. Listen to these words and notice the parallel message to what Saul heard.

Here's what God says to his people in Amos chapter five:

I hate your show and pretense the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings away. With your noisy hymns of praise, I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. Amos 5: 21 through 24. See, religious people will make a big, elaborate show of costly offerings to God. Big gifts, big productions, religious people will give God anything. Okay? Anything. Other than what God actually wants, which is loyal, honest, authentic friendship from the heart. That's the kind of offering that God really wants

now that's last week. Let's look ahead to this week. As we do, we're gonna see some, some conversation about David's house and God's house. Yeah. And there is a double meaning at play here. House meaning a place to live, and house meaning a royal dynasty that's carried on by their descendants. David's house, God's house.

This is a topic this week. Meanwhile, we're gonna see some cracks in, in David's approach to his home life from last week, we're gonna see those cracks widen out into canyons, okay? But even though David's house becomes a mess, we learn the secret to maintaining and sustaining a relationship with God through David, so he's worth paying attention to.

And inside of it all, we're gonna see God promise to establish his house and David's house forever. So buckle up. It's gonna be a good one.

And that is where we start this week. Hey, it's been a real pleasure to be with you. So grateful for the opportunity to open up the story and interact with you about it.

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Word and the Wild is a Line House community. It's part of the Line House Community Network. It's a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of Bible because friendship. And God's word, change lives and change cities. Word and the Wild is presented by the LumaVoz Podcast Network.

LumaVoz. You guys are awesome. Thank you for your support and love. And with that, my friend, we are out. I'm Owen. I'm your host and your guide. Until next time, I can't wait to see you out there on the trail, in the word and the wild. Have a great week.