The Importance of Obeying God’s Commands: 1 Kings 2:1-12

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,