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Word in the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. Join from anywhere and enjoy a fun, rewarding, and doable 12-month journey through the Bible where you read it from cover to cover and understand it. It’s not a devotional or recap. It’s a guide by your side through God’s Word. With support from a weekly podcast and an online community of fellow travelers, this is the year when you finally explore the Bible in its own words and on its own terms for yourself.
This is Word and the Wild...a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide, and together we are on a 12-month journey as a podcast plus community...where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.
This week...WEEK 24... we kick off the next binge-worthy season of our epic adventure. Civil war tears Israel apart and shows us what the next generation of kings are made of... AND God's one and only measure of their success.
So... hello and welcome we're rolling though this journey together. It's not a recap where we feed you bite-sized bits of the Bible... No this is free-wheeling walk where we watch the story the Bible unfold like the epic movie it is... So, subscribe here on your favorite podcast platform and share with a friend.
And, a special welcome to our Word and the Wild PLUS community members. Their support of this non-profit endeavor is making space for all of us on this Bible reading adventure. They enjoy access to our private, safe online space where no honest question is a dumb question... along with a weekly livestream Q&A, and bonus content like articles, interactions, meet-ups, and even some livestream teaching gatherings with yours truly.
If any of that sounds like your jam, then check the show notes for how to become a member yourself. Or get all the details over at wordandthewild.com.
Now, let's jump in to get you set up for this new season of the Bible's epic, unfolding story....
Welcome to a new season in the epic story of the Bible. Let's call this season "a house divided."
As we step into this new season, of the story is picking up the pace.
Last season, time slowed down.... time slowed WAY down to allow us to view detailed biographies of the first three kings of Israel: Saul, David, and his son, Solomon.
When I say detailed, I mean we got it all. A full work up. We saw their lives from family origin story to death. We saw them in the battlefield and the bedroom. We got an intimate view of their interior lives -- how they thought. What they prayed when no one else was around. What they loved and longed for.
And while we have enjoyed many memorable moments... some inspiring. Some stomach-turning. ...If we step back and look for major themes that reach across the lives of Saul, David, and Solomon... and run through this new season in the story that takes us through the long Israelite civil war...
There's one theme that becomes crystal clear. For God's people, success as a person and as a nation is tied to the condition of the heart.
The heart. It has been the determining factor in the Bible's measure of these kings. As Solomon himself writes in Proverbs 4:23... "Your heart determines the course of your life."
In other words: You are what you love. Solomon discovered just how true that statement is, didn't he?
Each of these kings we're watching makes that discovery.
Saul: An insecure leader who valued what people thought of him above all else. God rejected him as king.
David: Loved God with strengh and simplicity as a young man. He made horrifying choices that haunted him for life. Yet, time and again he returned to restore his relationship with God. He is known as "a man after God's own heart" becomes the standard by which all other kings of Israel are measured.
Solomon: Starts fairly strong, but love of wealth, women, and pleasure pulls him away from a life of friendship with God in the end. He goes to his grave knowing he is a failure as a king because of it.
Now, as we start the new season of our epic story, we pick up the pace and zip through a number of other kings: Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Asa, Baasha, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Jehoshaphat... and on from there. Some of these kings get only a passing mention. Each and every one has their entire life and reign as king boiled down into a single, simple evaluation: Are they a good king who makes their relationship with God a priority? Or are they and evil king who does their own thing?
Whatever they build. Wherever they marched. Whoever they ruled. That's all secondary. It all starts and ends with the heart.
It echos the simple, powerful statement God made to the prophet Samuel. Remember Samuel? He was the man in the middle between the time of the Judges and the first kings of Israel. He was the one who anointed Saul as king. Then later, David. Remember when Samuel was there a David's house and one by one David's older brothers passed by. Samuel saw David's older brother. He looked the part of a king. But God told Samuel:
“Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
(1 Samuel 16:7)
Isn't that just how we do things as people? So much of our time and energy goes into projecting an image of success. Where we live. What we wear. What we drive. What we know. It's all outward appearances. We work out, stress out, act out. All to project some kind of image to gain acceptance or respect.
But from God's perspective, all that is just a footnote in the story of our lives. People see externals first. But for God, the headline is my heart. And heart isn't about being nice or being ethical. When God's looking at the heart, he's drilling down to the foundational motives that drive our decisions and set our identity.
Take Solomon, for example. If ever there was a guy who could impress everyone in the neighborhood, it's him. Wealth. Women. Wisdom. He built. He bargained. He bullied.
He was the original author of the "Art of the Deal."
The final verdict from God? Direct and devastating:
“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women....The LORD had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the LORD...”
“...The LORD was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon did not listen to the LORD’s command. So now the LORD said to him, “Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my decrees, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.”
(1 Kings 11:1–3, 9-11 NLT)
It was God who divided the kingdom of Israel... because Solomon lived his life with a divided heart.
This week, we will walk through a gallery of statues. Each one, a leader of God's people. Each one, evaluated, in the end, by nothing more or less than their heart.
What did they want? What motives drove their decisions? What desires wrote their identity? Their wealth and power may have fooled their entourage or impressed their enemies.
But not God. He sees right through it all. All the way down to their hearts. That's his one and only measure of success.
And, as our story moves forward... we will see that kings aren't the only ones who face the past / fail evaluation of the heart.
OUTRO
I'm grateful for the opportunity. If you love it... share it with someone you know... and make sure you've subscribed.
All you Word and the Wild PLUS community members, special thanks to you for your financial support of this non-profit endeavor. You guys are real gems. I'll be seeing you in THE WILD... our private online community space...
Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community. It's part of the LineHouse 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 change lives and change cities.
And... presented by the LumaVoz podcast network.
And with that, we're out. I'm Owen, I'm your host and your guide. Until next time, I'll see you out there on the trail in the Word and the Wild.