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Episode 551: In this episode, we dive into the final instructions of King David to his son Solomon, as recorded in 1 Kings chapter 2. We reflect on the significance of David's final words to Solomon. As David approaches the end of his life, he emphasizes the importance of courage and following God's commandments. Throughout the episode, we draw parallels between David's situation and modern-day issues, such as the importance of leadership, the consequences of mercy versus justice, and the challenges of navigating personal and political relationships.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, if this is your first time tuning in, then welcome to the Bible Guys. This is episode five hundred and fifty. You might have missed a few things. But if it's not your first time, why do you keep coming back? You just welcomed the newbies and didn't welcome the long time. That's true, that's true. Well, that's that's my bent anyway, right, Okay, I was welcome newbies first. So hey, we have a great episode planning for you. But before we do, we have something very different. I've never seen this opening before, have you? No? I have not. Yeah. This is called passage questions. Yes, today we're talking about David's final instructions. Okay, so we pulled together some questions about following instructions. Oh okay, okay, that's the second way. That's the terrible segment were talking about. Yeah, that's right, all right. So here's the first one. If you had to follow instructions written in a foreign language you don't understand, would you risk it by trying to wing it or to google translate every step. I think that's a no brainer. Yeah, what do you do? Do you risk it? Well? I mean, I guess it depends on the definition of don't understand? Do you follow instructions normally? I guess what I'm saying, Yes, I do. But what I'm saying is is like, if it's like Greek and I almost understand a single word, then yeah, I'm going to probably google it. Well, I think the question says a foreign language you don't understand, So maybe she's thinking Greek. No, it's literally a foreign language you don't understand, so I don't understand what the caveat is to you. Now here's what I was thinking. I was thinking, like, what if I partially understand. It, it doesn't say that. Well, if I don't fully under instructions. Yeah, if I don't fully understand something, then I don't understand. Well, she's assuming you don't understand it. Literally says I can look at instructions that say it's something about the phalangy. I'm telling you. I'm telling you the instructions she's giving you is fine. It's a foreign language, yes, and and wait for it. You don't understand it doesn't say you partially understand it. Now you happened to think there's area. There's no gray area. Partially understand means don't understand. Oh my gosh, people, Now you see what I work with every day. Oh what a version that you are with me? All right, okay, because I'm a step person? Yeah? Are you a non step person? No? I use the instructions too, Okay, so bad. Google Translate instructions are better than no instructions. I use Google Translate all the time. Oh yeah, all the time. I'm overseas all the time, and I can't read menus. This is very important to me. I bet you I have it's still in my photos thing back when you used to have to take pictures with Google Translation. I probably have three hundred photos of things I'm trying to translate, right, Probably want to. Free up that memory. Yeah, I got a lot of memory on my phone because of that, Because of that, But yeah, I use it all time. So we're that way. But the Google Translate things are really funny. I was in a restaurant in Egypt, and of course I don't read Arabic, so I'm using this thing and it's not super accurate in Arabic and one of the menu items was pregnant woman delivery. Wow. Yeah, I'm not sure what that was. But I didn't order it. No, I don't think I would want either. I didn't want to to pay for it the rest of my life. So there's that. But yeah, I was like, I'm not sure what that means. I don't think I'm going to order that. Yeah, I'm not going to sign up for that. That's really good. All right. You want to read the next one. It says if you followed instructions perfectly Chris, yes, but still ended up with a mess. Would you blame the instructions or your own questionable skills? This is a hard one because actually, I'm sure you've done this because I followed my sure of instructions because we're old, right, But isn't it true that you have come up well older than the average bear? Okay, so. You know after thirty years of being a homeowner, that's what I'm trying to say. I see, don't you haven't you come across a company with poor instructions? Oh? Tons, yes, tons of them? So I guess again this is a little bit of a but who do you blame? Well, if it's poor instructions. Then I absolutely blame the company. I do too. We're two for two on this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I follow your instructions, and I'm an instructions follower, yes, and you gave me bad instructions, then right now. There have been many times where I realized they were giving me bad instructions and I altered my course. I got it right anyways. Wow. But you know, because I do, you read ahead on the instructions almost always. Yeah. So I'll read through the instructions and then I'll lay out all the stuff. Yeah, and then I'll try to figure out does this make sense? Okay, and then as I'm putting some together, I keep reading ahead the next couple. Yeah. Always. And so if you begin to realize, well, if I do this, I want I can be aleut this thing on, well, then yeah, I'll alter it. That way I think I have. This is the only the only exception that I have in this rule is if it seems really intuitive, even though I don't know how to put it together. But it's like, oh, I understand, you know, the left bones connected to the right bone over here, and then and then I lay it all out because I did the exact same thing. Sometimes I won't read ahead because it seems like, wow, these instructions are really good. Yeah, so then then I won't read ahead. Okay. Number three, If you could ask one question to the person who wrote a particularly confusing set of instructions, would it be she has written are you okay? Or did you enjoy writing this? While laughing maniacally? Ah? I'm not sure about this question, but both and then more. I think she was laughing when she wrote this. Yes, yes, she probably thought in her head this was really fun. Yea yeah yeah yeah so uh so like so I'm looking at. The instruction writer and I go, you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? Did someone hurt you? Well? Sometimes sometimes the way some instructions are written, they're written it it's like some drunk wrote them right right right? Or did you enjoy writy? Did you enjoy wriddy this? Ha ha ha? There you go laughing maniacally? So, because we don't know how to answer that, just pick one. Well, speaking of instructions, Oh, you're not going to answer yes, not even answer now, I said both, I said, and then so okay, but uh, maniacal instructions? Have you ever read First Corinthians chapter two. Ye, First Kings, I mean I've read both. Yes, yeah, David gets a little off yeah, off the wall here and his final instructions of Solomon. Yes, that's we're talking about today. That was an easy transition, because that's why she wrote the same. Yes, I think so. Thanks, So it's pretty crazy. Yes, and when I you have you ever read First King's chapter too? Of course you have. Yeah. Well I've read the Bible. Yeah, yeah, big fan. It's a fan, big, big fan. It's it's it's probably a prerequisite to claiming to be a Bible guy. I've met guys who didn't haven't read the Bible that claimed to be Bible guys. So that is true. That is true. Okay, Well we are in First Kings chapter two. Yes, we have spent a significant amount of time in the life of David. Oh well, his weeks. Well, I mean think about this, I mean, how how much you you mentioned this yesterday? How much real estate in the Bible does he cover? Oh yeah, he covers a bunch and yeah, very significant, and his influence is spread over almost all the rest of it. Yes, right, so one of the central figures of the Bible and he reflects most of us in different ways, or we reflect him in that way. So there's a lot to learn from the life of David. Well, here we come to the end of David's life. If you're just joining us. Last week we wrapped up the intrigue and the excitement around getting Solomon on the throne when there was a coup that he was able to. Yeah, it's unbelievable, so very exciting. Should go back and listen to those episodes. But today we're picking up at the very end. These are David's final instructions to his son Solomon, who sits on the throne now, and it says as the time of King David's death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon. I am going where everyone on earth must someday. Go. Take courage and be a man. Observe the requirements of the Lord, your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations and laws written in the Law of Moses, so that you will be successful and all you do and wherever you go. If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, if your descendants live as they should and follow me faithful with all their heart and soul. One of them will always sit on the throne of Israel. I kind of wish he'd stop there, because then he says, and there's something else. You know what Joe Abbs, son of Zariah did to me when he murdered my two army commanders, Abner's son of Ner and Amasa, son of Jeether. He pretended that it was an act of war, but it was done in a time of peace, staining his belt and sandals with innocent blood. Do with him what you think best, but don't let him grow old and go to his grave in peace. Wow. And then he says, be kind to the sons of Barzilai of Gilead, make them permanent guests at your table, for they took care of me when I fled from your brother Absalom. And remember Simii son of Ghiria, the man from Bahrum in Benjamin. He cursed me with a terrible curse as I was fleing in Mahanaam. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, I swore by the Lord that I would not kill him. But that oath does not make him innocent. You're a wise man, and you will know how to arrange a bloody death for him. And then David died and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. David had reigned over Israel for forty years, seven of them in Hebron and thirty three in Jerusalem. Solomon became king and sat on the throne of David, his father and his king them was firmly established. David's buttoning things up right before he dies, isn't he. Yeah, I got a couple more things for you to do for me, Simon. I've always wanted to kill these two guys. Yeah. Uh, you know the curse he cursed me with the terrible curses I was fleeing Mannaheim. Yeah when when when he maybe. Down the Jordan River, I swore by the Lord I would not kill him. Yeah. I don't seem to remember that curse. So I looked it up because I was. I was having a hard time with it too, So shimmy, I cursed David. Oh you know what, Actually it was something we skipped. No, no, no, we read this curse. Yep, it happened. Well, David was fleeing from Uh, it's stuck now. It happened while David was fleeing from Absolom yep. And he gets down to the river, he's getting ready to cross, and Shimmy I comes out and uh says, you're sitting on Saul's throne, and God's gonna judge you because all the blood on your hands and all these things. Well then later on news get it's out that Saul is dead, I mean, not the sauce, that the Absolom is dead, and Shimmy I remember, comes to him like hat in hand. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. And David goes, don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Remember this is that time Abner at this point right had had turned against him all these things, and he forgives all these guys. Remember we talked about how magnanimous David was. Yeah, for sure when he finally succeeded and won against this coup. When he says curse, is he talking about an actual curse? You know what I mean, like like like a proclamation. Well, it was saying you're going to fall off the throne and sow's your family forever? Okay, Yeah, yeah, so that's what. So he's he's all mad. Now, David's like I told him I wouldn't kill him, but right, sallin, you're a wise man. You should do what you know what to do. But now after forty years, I'm no longer king. Yeah, that's right, you're a king. There's a new regime. That's right, the opportunity to do what I always wanted to do. So I also looked this up. He says, you're a wise man, and you'll know how to arrange a bloody death for him. That's pretty rough in the English translation, Yeah, but the exact translation would really be don't let his white head go down to Sheol in peace. So sheol is one of the words that can be translated as hell. Yes, so he says, don't let his old body go to Hell in peace? Whoa wow? As if as if that's not enough fun, right, Hey, don't make it a comfortable ride to Hell? Yeah, yeah, getting uncomfortable. That's exactly what he's saying. Oh yeah, so this is what makes David so so unbelievable that it's why God didn't let David build the temple, right, because David's a bloody man. Yeah, And I mean that's exactly why, God said. God said, I'm not going to have you do it because there's blood in your hands. Right, he said, I'm gonna have Solomon do it because because your life has been spent. I mean, think about his entire life forty years now, he had years of piece finally, right, how many years of piece do you think he had? Ten? Well, he had he had the time with appso was less than a year. And the rest of it was he was at war with the Philistines and the Assyrians. But then he finally conquered right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so probably less. Than less intent. Yeah, he was constantly in battle, she. Wish and uh yeah, so this poor guy, I mean just and even even back a couple podcasts ago when when God said, hey, there's a punishment for the for the census that he took, and he said, I'll give you a choice, which is pretty wild. By the way. Choice of punishment reminds me of that movie Goodwill Hunting. He said, my father will call me in and put a switch or wrench. He says, choose your choose your punishment anyway, good Will Hunting. No, okay, okay, anyway. The point is is that God says, choose your punishment, and one of the punishments was run from your enemies for three months, and David said out loud, I would rather put my fate in the hands of a merciful God than any enemy enemies. I mean, think about all his life he had been spent running from enemies, and he's probably getting PSD you knowd PTSD flashbags right where he's like, I'm not going to do that again. I'm too old for that stuff. Well it sounds like a really hard thing, but we have to remember that Shimmy I was a trader, yeah, working for a coup against the king, the one that God had ordained. And David showed mercy in the moment. But he says here, the fact that I made an oath doesn't make him innocent, right, And so that's why he tells Solomon, Hey, uh, you know you need to execute him, because, yeah, he was a trader, and you can't trust a trader. And it could have been honestly that David made that choice to spare Shimmy I. Is that his name. Yeah, uh, probably for different reasons, right, not just for you know, the judgment of whether or not he deserved it or not, but also like a political move how it's being seen. I wanted to send him message of mercy, right, I mean, like he could he could, he could have made that decision for all sorts of reasons. Yeah, you know, so you see this in shim he forgives, he doesn't forgive shimy I. He chooses not to execute SIMII publicly it's a public thing. And then he also chooses not to execute Abner, who had you know, gone against him on this moment. And both of those were public demonstrations of okay, this problem is done right, because David understands the cycle of war revenge, back and forth, back and forth, you know, tip for tach kind of fighting. And so if David punished everybody publicly, right, then then all of the other enemies to think, well, he's coming for me too, so let's go ahead and plot against him, and then well rite. But instead this very magnanimous kind thing saying listen, it's done. It's very similar to after the US Civil the Civil War in America, Johnson and Grant uh chose not to hunt down the generals of the Confederacy. Instead say hey, we're Americans. We have to find a way for peace now. Right. That doesn't mean they agreed with each other. It meant if we just keep killing each other, it's never going to stop. We saw that in modern times in Rwanda when the Hutus and the Tutsis were killing each other, right, this horrible genocide. When it was all done, president Kagami, who has his own faults, but President Kagami came in and said, hey, there's no more revenge, right. So there are people who need to go to prison, and they put a few people in prison for a while, a lot of people in prison for a while. But the villages took care of the people that were in the prisons. And then when they were done, they would have a celebration. You paid your price, you can come back into society, right, And there would always be the villages would have big celebrations to say, there's honor in paying the price for the wrong thing you did, but we believe in you. You're welcome back into the village again. And what that does now is there's this phrase in Rwanda, there's no more Hutus or Tutsis, only Rwandan's right. I think that's what David was doing by by passing on his right for revenge. With Shimi I passing on his right for revenge against Abner was saying, there's no more absoloms than David's. It's just Israelites, right, right, That's what he did. Yeah, So it's wisdom in that, a lot of wisdom. Yeah. But now he's like, hey, I'm about to breathe my last. But you know what to do again? Another movie quote, do you ever see the Wrath of Khan? Yes, when he goes at my last breath, I stab it fee right, that's Coln with the melted face. Uh, you know, and then Spock staves the day anyway, the uh yeah, And imagine this that David was trying very hard at that time to set a different example than Saul, right right, So David, you know, Saul has to apologize publicly for his uh you know behavior in front of all his kingdom and soldiers, for being so ruthless and hunting down David. And then David stands up and says, hey, you know, I'm not going to raise my hand against the king's annointed. So David has a habit of wanting to uh you know, and and and you know, and especially when it comes to power, he's wanting to send the message that he's not that type of king, which is great, but again, it is very common. We have to understand this too. As blood thirsty as this is, it is also very common for a new king to come in and then to uh, you know, take action and to you know, right, right, some wrongdoings once they're in power, right, I mean think about it that she even said, uh, hey, if you don't take care of this right now, uh, Solomon and myself will be treated his enemies as soon as he is, right, and that would be very very normal, right, And it's the reason why what's what's the guy's name, ab, the one who pulled off the coup before Solomon was king, I've been a jeb whatever his name is, nig there's there's an uh. It's the reason why too, everybody has as banquet table ran yeah, right, because it would have been very customary for Solomon to send guards and say no, no, no, no, no, right, this is yeah, this is my first action. Right. Yeah. So we talked real heavy about the violent side of this, but the reality is he starts off saying I'm going to go where everybody else goes. Everybody dies, and so there's wisdom in preparing our children to understand this life doesn't last forever, right, and that death is and that there's more than this. And so there's wisdom in that. I think it's important for us. But we shouldn't, you know, because we're Christians. We don't have to fear as other people fear. I just talked to somebody yesterday who got some really bad medical news and we talked about that. Right, it's not the fear of death now, it's it's you know, there's sadness about men. I thought I had more I was going to do in my life, but you know, I'm not afraid of dying. Yeah, how do you threaten a Christian with heaven? Right? Right? So, so we should have our children not be a afraid of dying, but preparing for the fact that, you know, we don't want to waste any days. We don't want to waste our time. And then he says, take courage and be a man. And I love that, right that he associates courage and being a man. He's not ashamed of the idea of taking a masculine position. Men are men, women should be women, right, And he's saying, listen, sometimes the man just has to do what a man does. You got to man up, is what he's telling his son. Now you don't get to be dad, he's a little boy anymore. You are the man, right, so now you got to be the man. There's a time when David's standing in that cave, remember, and he turns to his soldiers, who are Special Forces guys, but they're nervous, and he turns around and goes, hey, you guys have to play the man right now, because the rest of the troops see us right right. So they weren't even feeling like being the men right then. But he's like, you got to play the man now, right, You got to at least act like it. So David has this very developed sense of what it means to be a man and a leader, and he's telling us under debt, and then after those two things, prepare for your death, be a man, and be courageous. You're the man now. Then he says, for the whole rest of that, here's how you're successful, and it's all about leaning into God's words in God's ways. It's brilliant, just fantastic. I wish he'd stop there, but you know he had, he had some business he wanted to clean up. Right, Hey, you know we all you know, people are just so sensitive about talking about men being man and women being women, you know, in twenty twenty four and everything else. Yeah, I would say, be a man and take courage, right. That's exactly right. Well, I'm just going to tell you I saw this a reel on Instagram where guys are doing interviews on the streets and he goes up to a girl and he goes, hey, he goes, is a man a less of a man if he does know how to change a tire? And both girls, you know, they're like they're out of the town or something, and both of them go absolutely, And then he goes, does that mean a woman is less of a woman if she doesn't know how to make a meal from scratch? And they both went, uh, it just cuts. They didn't know what to say. It was really really funny. So I think that there's a possibility there's a way of you know, there's a phrase in society now about this idea of toxic masculinity and things being masculine is not toxic. No, there is an over emphasis on tough guy stuff and aggression and that kind of stuff that is that can cause toxic behavior. But the idea being masculine, A part of it is, you know, we want to build men and teach them to be courageous because they're the ones who protect our villages. They're the ones who protect our towns. They're the ones who protect our children and our wives. It's not wrong to say, hey, you should be stronger, be physically strong, Learn how to you know, butcher a deer, Learn how to fix a you know, change a tire, Learn how to do the things that men historically have had to do. Otherwise, what's happening is we're all just turning into housebroken humanoids. Right where we're housebroke, and we fit well in walking up and down the sidewalks, and we sit well in our offices, and we you know, we know how to use a but we don't know how to do the things that are important that men normally are supposed to do. So we don't say the term stewardess anymore. What do we say flight attendant. We don't say the term secretary anymore, What do we say assistant right administrative system, We don't say the term even waitress anymore. We more properly we say server, right, those words are fine words by themselves. Secretary is an actual accurate term, right. But what happens is we abandon the whole word because it becomes something that feels like, oh no, you know, mistreating a secretary. You know that it gets attached to it some negative things. So we just changed the word. That's what's happened. That's what's happened with real masculinity. So the true definition of saying be a man and do men things that by itself is a really important and true concept. It's just that you know, the nineteen fifties, you know, and the abuse of some of the those things have stuck on to the idea of masculinity and it's tainted it. So the society wants to abandon that whole concept, right, But the bottom line is is you can't. Yeah, I would, So I would reject that masculinity is tainted because some people misbehave. I don't think. I don't think there are school teachers who abuse children, but I don't think school teachers are tainted. There are firefighters who steal stuff out of houses when they go take care of you know, people that are are you know, had a heart attack. But I don't think firefighters are tainted. So it's when we allow groups of people who already have a problem with an idea to attach on bad behaviors as if now, oh, masculinity is tainted. It's not. There are some people who behave poorly, just like there are some school teachers who behave poorly. There's some firefighters who behave poorly. That does not taint teachers and firefighters just doesn't. And so it doesn't masculinity either. And so I reject it because I reject I cancel, cancel culture. How about that, I reject it. Yeah, well I am you're pitching to the choir. I think it's totally legit for us to go No, I'm not going to embrace that. I think teaching my sons to be men, teaching my daughters to be ladies, there's there's value in that. God made us that way. That's what he's doing here. And so yeah, it's a it's a challenge, and this is what Dave is doing. He's trying to make sure he sets up Solomon to win. And uh, hey, the only way you can do that. Your success is going to come from following God, right, And I love it, man, I think it's great. So I wasn't saying you were rejecting that, by the way, No, I was agreeing with you. Yeah. Yeah, you were saying to the world, to the world, to. The world, the world, I proclaim I rejected, I canceled cancelers. Yeah. By the way, By the way, I didn't get to do my joke, which which is the best joke of all. These are final David's final instructions. Solomon stands up the next day and goes, my father's final. Words were princess pride. Yes, yes, you got that one. All right, that's what time. We'll see you next time on the Bible, guys,