Word & the Wild

This is Word and the Wild. It's a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, and together we are on this 12 month journey as a podcast plus community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves. Gang, here we are. It's week 18. And this week the spotlight is still on David, as the chickens come home to roost, as his family drama and political intrigue all have him on the run in the wilderness.

Just like old times. So hello and welcome once again. We're rolling through this journey together, having so much fun. It's not just a recap where we feed you little bite-sized bits of the Bible every day. No, this is a freewheeling walk where we watch the story of the Bible unfold. Like the epic movie that it is.

So subscribe right here on your favorite podcast platform. Share with a Friend, and let's jump into this together. When I say a special welcome to our word and the Wild Plus community members because it's their support of this nonprofit in NI that keeps all of us here on the trail together in this Bible reading adventure as a member of the community, they enjoy access to our private safe.

Online space where no honest question is a dumb question along with things like weekly livestream, q and as, bonus interactions and articles and more. And if all that sounds like you jam, then just check out the show notes for how to become a member of the community yourself or check out word and the wild.

Dot com for all the details. Once again, that's Word and the wild.com. Well, now let's go ahead and jump into this binge-worthy week here in our epic story of the Bible. It is a good one.

Now, this week we see that a, a very private choice becomes a series of very public. Problems this week in the story as we go through it, almost no one is who they should be or who we think they are. It's just deception and trickery everywhere we turn. Now, David's son, absol, for example, he's a model turned menace.

He betrays his father and just stokes a controversy that ends up in a conspiracy that leads to a civil war. You got Joe Ab, who is David's military commander, who should be an honorable man, and David trusts him completely in many ways. And turns out Joe Abs this kind of a liar and a murderer. Look at Saul's crippled grandson, Mephibosheth.

Here's another character we're gonna see on the adventure this week. He comes back in from several weeks ago, and here's a man who eats at David's own table, yet ends up bringing so much drama. David can't tell. If he is a friend or a foe, and these are just some of the characters we will encounter this week that are just all mixed up in this confusing, I don't know what you'd call it.

Like a, like a crazy soup. A stew, let's call it a confusing stew of lies manipulation. You got family and political backstabbing. Side stabbing, heart stabbing for real. And all of it just shows how complicated life in and around David's household has become. And while the story itself can be confusing to follow at times, because we're, we're, we're hard pressed to see who's telling the truth, what's fact, what's fiction though?

The root cause for all this drama is clear. And we can trace all the crooked storylines from this week back to their single crooked source. It all started, sadly, with a lazy king David, who looks out over the rooftops around his palace and decides to reach out and grab the forbidden fruit. David Bathsheba and the drama that unfolds, I mean, he.

Betrays and murders. A close friend begets his friend's wife pregnant. Then he involves Joab in the elaborate coverup. And if it weren't for the, the direct intervention and confrontation of God himself, I mean, who knows where David would have ended up? When would the craziness have stopped? Now, to David's credit, he does admit his mistake when he gets confronted, but.

Just as the prophet Nathan predicted, and we saw this last week, the consequences don't just linger for David, man, they really snowball. I mean, David's plot killed Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, and a few others, all involved in that tragic episode. But the end of all of this that we're gonna be watching this week, the coups, the civil wars that result from Davis Choices.

We're gonna see it's thousands of people that suffer and thousands that die. And David's own heart gets broken time and time again. It's really tragic. And yet, to David's credit, David continues to lean on God for comfort, lean on God, for support through it all. So as we walk through this week in the Epic movie, that is the Bible.

I think there are three things that will help you if you keep them in mind as we walk through this adventure. Okay. The first one is simply to remember that the Bible does not condone everything it describes, okay? The Bible recounts these stories because they, they fit inside the big story of the Bible, the big story arc of God's plans to rescue and restore his beloved creation.

So. What we see people doing is different from what we see God doing. God doesn't agree with everything we're gonna see this week, so just keep that in mind. 'cause if you don't, that can get confusing. Okay. So yeah, that the Bible describes things that it doesn't condone. Okay, here's another one, number two, to help you this week.

When you see a shady character in the story, getting away with murder, literally sometimes, Hey, just keep reading. And, and when you see someone talking out both sides of their mouths, just keep reading. It ain't over until it's over. Okay, and then here's the third thing, and this is something for, for you and me, for us to maybe overlay onto our own thinking and our own lives as we read.

See if we take a page outta David's story, we see that choices may be made in private, but they are not made in isolation. I mean, look at David's experiences. God, David learns and experiences God's God is both a God of compassion and accountability. And, and, and these small secret choices rarely stay that way.

I mean, just like the results of David's affair with Bathsheba, the results of our choices start to show right now. Listen, this is David's own description of this fact in in the lyrics to a song he wrote in the face of this season of betrayal by his enemies. Listen to this from David. It says, the wicked conceive evil.

They are pregnant with trouble. They give birth to lies. They dig a deep pit to trap others and then fall into it themselves. The trouble they make for others backfires on them and the violence they plan falls on their own heads. That's Psalm seven 14 through 16. We're gonna be reading that from David this week.

The same idea in the New Testament to Jesus half. Brother James uses similar language to describe. The life cycle of our choices when we turn away from God's path and choose to walk our own. Listen to James. He says, temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. Now, these desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

Right? How many times did David regret? What had happened, how many times did it keep him awake at night? How many times did he feel the weight of, of, of his guilt just sit on his chest as he watched the consequences of his decisions come home to roost? We can only guess, but there is one thing I think we can know for certain.

If David had a chance to offer you and me a word of advice, this is what he might say. Something like, be careful. My friends, in the heat of the moment. Don't forget about the future. You can't imagine the impact of today's decisions, not just on tomorrow, but in the years ahead. You, you, you always harvest what you plant, David would say, but, but he would probably add this too.

At the same time, it's never too late to admit when you've walked away from friendship with God. And, and God's love outlasts our mistakes. God's love endures forever.

All right, my friend, and now we are all set to hit the trail this week and it's been a pleasure to be with you here. I'm grateful for the opportunity. If you're loving it too, why not share it with somebody you know? If you want to throw a little something in the tip jar, that's great too. But most of all, just make sure you subscribe to the podcast here and share it with a friend all you Word and the Wild Plus community members.

Big thanks to you once again for your support of this nonprofit endeavor. You guys are real, real gems. I'll be seeing you in the wild this week. Look forward to hanging out with you there in our private online community space. Word and the Wild is a LumaVoz community. It's part of the LumaVoz Community Network, a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the Bible.

Because friendship and God's word changes lives and changes cities, and Word in the wild is presented by the LumaVoz podcast Network. Big thanks to my friends at LumaVoz. With that, we're out. I'm Owen, your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll be seeing you out there on the trail, in the word and the wild.

Have a great week. See you next time.