[Music] We're tracing the theme of the anointed Anointing is a practice of smearing oil On people and sometimes places it's a Symbol marking a person or an area as a Place where Heaven and Earth unites Today we're talking about the anointing Of Israel's First Kings Saul and then King David and here's what's surprising King Saul the first anointed king Becomes the first Antichrist in the Bible the Greek word Christ is the Greek Word for anointed one so the anti-christ Means an anti-anointed one what's Interesting is the first anointed king In Israel's history actually becomes the Biggest obstacle to the anointed king That God wants to raise up that is David His replacement so Saul becomes the First anti-anointed Saul is given an Opportunity to lead Israel as the Anointed but he fails to trust in God's Word so God picks David instead David is Anointed privately spends years waiting For his public anointing and this begins An important idea within the theme of The anointed that the anointed one must Trust in God's word patiently even when It leads to suffering you have an Anointed one who's given everything they Need to succeed but their moments that Are going to need to trust and Trust God's wisdom and in Saul's Casey does it First and then he stops but now here's
David and he not only succeeds where Adam and Eve failed consulted that too But now David is succeeding where Saul Failed test after test in fact Saul Becomes the test and David refuses to Exalt himself to the public place of God's anointed one and remember God's Anointed one is supposed to crush the Snake so if Saul has become a snake Should David kill him in other words What do you do with the snake if the Snake is your brother portrait of the Anointed one takes a big step forward in The story of David whatever it's going To look like to stomp on the snake Sometimes it's as simple as Goliath you Know kill the bad guy but what if the Bad guy is the anointed one Saul your Brother what then So the true victory of God's real Anointed one is to sit patiently and Wait through suffering Even suffering that comes from your own Brothers and allow God to elevate you to The place of rule and to trust that God Will bring about the downfall of your Persecutors Today Tim Mackey and I explore the theme Of the anointed in the story of Israel's First Kings Saul and David I'm John Collins you're listening to Bible Project podcast thanks for joining us Here we go Hey Tim hey John hi hi hello
Hello and welcome to another Conversation I get to have with you yeah Hundreds and hundreds there's been Hundreds of hours yeah And uh I simultaneously have learned so Much and probably should know 10 times As much as I actually do with the amount Of hours yeah right the number of pure Yeah minutes we have logged no I'll go Back and look at series we've done with Notes from previous podcast series and It's like oh wow so none of that's in my Head right now I have to look at the Notes and then it uploads yeah so it Falls out your ears yeah yeah that's Okay you try to cram it and keep it in Yeah we're talking about the theme of The anointed the anointed yes so this Has been great we've been talking about That there's a ritual in which in the New Testament We Came Upon it where These early first century Christians Were smearing oil on each other and Praying for each other yeah and you're Like that's kind of weird praying for God's healing power yeah to transform Somebody yeah and heal them well yeah And so praying for healing that's its Own thing yeah and it's a beautiful Thing but then the practice of putting Oil yeah on someone yeah where'd that Come from so we started tracing that Whole idea and it brought us back to in
The Hebrew Bible The ritual of using oil but it was very Specific not for just healing people or Just kind of like having prayer sessions It was to select someone and anoint them Meaning to commission them appoint them As a representative For everyone else you're marking them as Like a Gateway Between Heaven and Earth A guide a mediator someone who who's Feet are on the ground but who can then Like bring the Divine down yeah to us Yeah and the key for that was looking at Not just the people who get oil poured On them in the Hebrew Bible but also the Places that get anointed or smeared with Oil and there were two that we looked at Because they are the two of which is the Rock that Jacob pours oil on where he Had a vision that heaven and Earth are Connected in that spot and then the Tabernacle With the tent and everything in the tent And around it got the super special oil Smeared or poured on it and it marked That as a heaven on Earth place a Garden Of Eden Spot where God's presence overlaps with Earth yeah so more abstractly than even Just a person it's just marking a place Yeah there's a portal yeah to Heaven a Portal Between Heaven and Earth and that Can be a walking talking bridge between Heaven and Earth in the form of a
Prophet or a priest or a king those are The three people associated with Anointing in the Hebrew Bible or it can Be a place that's a place of a Sacred Space in Jacob's case it's a place Called The he names Bethel House of God And he calls it the Gate of Heaven but Then the Tabernacle is portable so you Can take that anywhere and as long as Yahweh's glory is inhabiting it as it Tours through the Wilderness any place Can become a heaven on Earth portal Based on where Yahweh wants to set up a Camp Yeah so you showed us how Moses gave a Very specific ingredients yeah a recipe For some anointing oil and it kind of Makes you wonder like How was their imagination shaped and Such that they were like you know what We need to use oil yeah yeah you know What will really mark this place as a Heaven and earth spot yeah smear some Oil oil and not just any oil oil yeah With fragrant oil with cassia and myrrh And fragrant cane and Etc we explore the logic of that it Brought us back to Genesis 2. yeah yeah And we looked at the symbols and the Meaning behind God taking land and Watering it forming man forming the Garden and so there's you know the Water Of Life being instrumental for the Creation of Life yeah but then there was
One more ingredient for humans and that Was God's breath breathing into yeah the Mud the clay and so we just talked about Kind of the beauty of this image of the Spirit combined with water to create Life Water of Life and spirit And what better object lesson I suppose What better item to represent that than Oil because it's the life of a plant the Water of a plant yeah with all the life In it yeah the oils yeah the fragrances The life of the plant yeah just Compressed down yeah into like maximized Yeah and as a way to think about what Does it look like when spirit and water Come together it's kind of a cool image For that yeah that's right in other Words in the Garden of Eden God provides The water from the ground that irrigates The dirt One so that the form of the human can be Made out of the mud and then so that the Plants can grow up So Water of Life is key for the growth Of life But for human life you need more than Just the Earthly source The water watering the dirt you need a Heavenly source and that's what the Spirit or the breath is from God and so Water giving life and the spirit Bringing life to humans become joint Images and that's foundational because That pairing or that analogy between
Water And breath or spirit from God Is fundamental to how the biblical poets In the Psalms and the prophets in the New Testament all talk about the spirit As liquid liquid life which is actually Kind of a weird way to think about the Spirit because the spirit is breath or Wind right yeah and so why would you Start talking about wind or breath with The metaphor of liquid liquid it's like Clearly not liquid yeah totally it's Like yeah fundamentally yeah not liquid Yeah that's right but metaphorically There are ways of thinking about each Other the effects of water Are like and compared to the effects of The spirit in the Garden of Eden story And so that connection in that story Provides the foundation for why the Spirit describes liquid throughout the Spirit that we poured on you you could Be filled with the spirit these are Liquid metaphors right so the Association of water and spirit is like Images and then what better liquid to Symbolize that life-giving energizing Spirit That fills the place on Earth with the Heavenly presence of God what better Liquid than Kool-Aid [Laughter] Tree Delight You're right
So you just got me two times I do Remember country Deluxe what was that Yes it was like a lemonade it was a type Of what was country Delight yeah it was What it was not a spirit [Laughter] In water there's like two water and Sugar drinks from my childhood whoa Thank you for that that was impeccable Timing sorry oil oil oil and Um vegetable oil I mean sort of yeah Olive oil yeah we're not talking about Like that's right petroleum yeah no Olive oil which is you know olives are The seed of the Olive Tree so the seed Is the life and out of you squeeze that Life seed of the Olive Tree and out Comes this dense liquid that man does so Many good things so olive oil Becomes a liquid symbol of the Water of Life which in Genesis 2 set on analogy To the life-giving heaven conveying Presence of spirit And when it's used in the Hebrew Bible It's for people being set apart you Gotta to like lead in some way as an Ambassador a what's what's the word You'd want to use oh representative yeah Yeah an image To use the language of Genesis 1. all Right so what we're going to go on today In the next few episodes is there's one Particular group of people within the Storyline of the Hebrew Bible that gets
Called the anointed ones and that are Associated with the energizing power of The spirit and those are the Kings Israel's Kings and then specifically the Kings that are David and Solomon and Then the Kings from the line of David so What we're going to focus on right now Is actually the Rivalry between the First anointed King Saul and then we're Going to see how he becomes the Anti-anointed the Antichrist oh remember Oh yeah anointing means Christ yeah Anointed the Greek word Christ is the Greek word for anointed one oh so the Anti-christ whoa means an anti-anointed One and what's interesting is the first Anointed king in Israel's history Actually becomes the biggest obstacle to The anointed king that God wants to Raise up that is David his replacement So Saul becomes the first anti-anointed And that's what we'll talk about right Now shall we let's do it Thank you [Music] Thank you So quick backstory from the Torah Moses Anoints the Tabernacle in the high Priest and the first person called the Anointed one in Israel is actually the High priest of Israel Aaron his brother And so that's true throughout the Torah Aaron is the anointed one he represents All the people before God once Moses
Dies and Aaron dies Aaron's sons start Becoming the high priest but the Leadership of Israel moves on to the Shoulders of a guy named Joshua And the Torah concludes in the last Chapter of Deuteronomy by telling us That the spirit God's spirit that was Empowering Moses passed on and entered Into Joshua this is Deuteronomy 34. So Joshua he's like the heaven on Earth Person he's empowered by God's Heavenly Spirit but you know there's no story About him being anointed he's not called The anointed one it's just as far as you Know the priests or the anointed ones But they're not ever called that in the Book of Joshua once you get into the Book of Judges after that Joshua dies And leader after leader God raises up And what we're all told is that God's Spirit will come upon and Empower these Different leaders for a time period it's Like Gideon where Jeff the or Samson These are the judges yeah the judges Yeah that's right and so none of them Are anointed none of them are called King But they are leaders that gotten powers For a time and place are any filled with The spirit yeah that's what I'm saying The spirit the phrase is the spirit of God Came Upon Gideon okay right before He's about to go into battle or Something like that and then it'll
Empower them but it's always temporary And for a period of time so when you Step into the book of Samuel the people Don't have a king but they want one and So they approach the judge the prophetic Ruling leader of the tribes at the time And that's the guy named Samuel who's More of a prophet figure and that's a Whole story we explored some of those Dynamics in our firstborn podcast series On the firstborn yeah yeah yeah Hannah's Kid yeah Hannah's son so I think what All I want to talk about for this moment Is just to start our story right now With Saul being anointed to become king The people ask for a king And God leads this guy Saul from The Tribe of Benjamin to meet Samuel and God Says to Samuel he's the guy so in first Samuel chapter 9 verse 16 this is what God says to Samuel this time tomorrow I'm going to send you a man from the Land of Benjamin you must anoint him As the leader Over My People Israel And then in chapter 10 verse 1 when they Finally meet and they've had few Conversations Samuel took a flask of oil And he poured it over his head kissing Him sang has not Yahweh anointed you as Leader over his inheritance so that's Saul being anointed Just uh later like a few sentences later What we're told is as Saul turned to Leaf
Samuel like he just got oil poured on His head maybe it made his hair shiny And he kind of like massaged it in You're filling in the gaps here give it Yes yeah okay but give it some volume They all had long hair back then right At least did they I don't know in Religious media they do so what we're Told is he was walking away and he's on His way to a place named give a which Means high place and he meets this group Of prophets And the spirit of God rushed upon Saul And he started prophesying along with This band of prophets Do you skipped uh the verse what's that He turned his shoulder to depart from God changed his heart God changed his Heart yeah you skipped out on purpose Well it's just because it's a rabbit Hole okay Yeah okay that's why I skipped it but God turned his heart over yeah it's an Interesting theme the heart of Saul is Uh fickle and it keeps flipping back and Forth the his is Saul's heart or God's Own Heart this is God change Saul's Heart okay yep there's something similar With Saul's heart that's an analogy with The heart of pharaoh in The Exodus Scroll but that's the whole thing in This all story okay we don't have time To get into the point is that right After his anointing the Heavenly power
And presence of the spirit fills his Mind and heart and body such that he Actually begins hearing the words of God And speaking them to others prophesying Yeah with the procession of prophets how Many prophets do you need to make a Procession it's a good question maybe Just three four I don't know how many Prophets were around like on a given day In a given place in Israel no Information about these things oh okay Well there's a procession of them yep There's a procession so notice anointing With oil is coordinated with the spirit The spirit of God coming upon him okay So just like in Genesis chapter 2 the Water the liquid that God provides to Saturate the ground to prepare it To become vessel for the Heavenly Spirit To fill the ground and appoint the Royal Priestly human who will be God's Representative let's all Genesis 2. all Those images are being associated here With the liquid poured To appoint to miss King and then the Spirit coming to empower him to do so Okay so now Saul is set up as a new like A new atom a new human the next story This is so great man Now there was a guy named snake First thing I mean chapter 11. is what I'm reading here now That's literally snake the ammonite went Up that's not like a word that sounds
Like snake that's snake it's a guy named Snake yeah in Hebrew in Hebrew our Translations don't translate his name Which I guess it's fine to name but it's The word snake it's the exact word as in Genesis 3. yeah So this guy named snake who's from the Ammonites he came up and camped against This town in Israel yavish gilad So okay this is an arrival Nation the Ammonites are the ammonites they're you Know distant siblings of the Israelites These are one of the sons of lot and his Daughters from that oh is that night of Drunk sex in the cave at the end of Genesis 19 come the ammonites come the Moabites and the ammonites oh okay yep So nahash the yamanite so are they also In the Genesis 10 table of Nations no They come into existence after the Sodom And Gomorrah story okay yep yep so this Guy named snake who's from one of the Rival sibling tribes of Israel made war On this Israelite town and the people of Yavesh say to snake make a treaty with Us and we'll serve you and nakash the Snake the ammonite said On this condition I will make a treaty With you all by gouging out your right Eyes So I will disgrace you within all of Israel okay so this is the surrender Terms yeah I'll let you surrender yeah Either I'm gonna kill you but you gotta
Maim yourself overall that you surrender The gouger of the eye recall that in the Genesis story blindness and sight are Key images associated with what the Snake the snakes rule oh your eyes will Be open the snake says no on the day you Eat of it you won't die your eyes will Be opened and you will become Elohim Or become like Elohim and on the day They eat of it their eyes are open and What they see it is that they're naked So he's essentially saying that they are Blind and that he has the key for their Eyes to be open now here's a guy named Snape Um wanting to blame him saying I'm going To Blind their eyes yeah yeah okay this Is these are great examples these are All a little Eden very creative Hyperlinks to the Eden story okay so if Saul is like a new atom right appointed Through liquid and spirit yeah and now There's a snake in the garden yeah yeah What are we gonna do so just then Saul Was skipping down to verse five was Coming in from the field behind the Cattle And he said boy why is everybody crying Today What's that what's the matter with Everybody he didn't see the snake out There camped up against the city so the People told him about all the words from The men of from the city
And the spirit of God rushed upon Saul When he heard these words and he became Angry so you've got a guy named snake And he said I want to bring public shame On all of Israel that's what he said by Gouging out the eyes and when Saul hears These words of disgrace spoken over the People of God Israel he hears it he gets Angry the spirit of God comes upon him So he mustered all the people at bezek The Israelites were three hundred Thousand the men of Judah were thirty Thousand ten to one yep notice the Repetition of the number three okay Three here and he said to The Messengers Who had come this is what you should Tell the man of yavish Gilead tomorrow Deliverance will come for you when the Sun is hot So at the height of the day will be your Rescue and so the messengers went and They told and the men of yavish rejoiced Hooray So the men of yavish turn and send Messengers to snake And they say uh you know tomorrow could You wait till tomorrow can we do the I Thing tomorrow So Yeah we'll come at you tomorrow and you Can do to us whatever is good in your Eyes That's right from the Eden Eden story Yeah it's good in your eyes so the next
Day Saul put together all the soldiers In how many divisions Three three divisions this is part of How the motif of the test or the ordeal Yeah three symbolizes a test yeah often When you're getting to the ordeal I like That the ordeal in other words the belly Of the whale this is how the Hebrew Bible Melody works so later biblical Narratives are designed In order often to be patterned after the Order of the early chapters of Genesis And so you've had a new Adam Established in the garden A snake appears and that snake the Appearance of the snake creates a test Or a choice for God's appointed one Right and three represents the test and Oftentimes things the number three were Patterns of three sometimes 40 occur or Sometimes 40. yeah the threat so with His three hundred thousand men and Thirty thousand soldiers of Judah placed In three divisions they went out and They struck down the ammonites at the Heat of the day And it happened that the remainder Were scattered so that not even two of The snakey ammonites remained together He ran out the snake hmm way to go Saul All right So all the people came to gilgal and They made Saul King before the Lord and Gilgal they offered sacrifices and
Everybody Rejoice this is the story that Won him over In a way yeah in other words Saul has Been privately anointed as king okay and Samuel put him before the people and the People say that they want him and then This battle happens so it's his victory Over a guy named snake that qualifies Him in the eyes of the people to say Yeah we want you we want this guy yeah So this is the rise of Saul and it's you Know just on the retelling that I just Summarized yeah you're like yeah I think We could God could work with this guy You know he overcame literally overcame It was a good hiring decision the snake Totally yeah yeah okay so what happens From here in Saul's story is the Sequence from first Samuel chapters 12 Through 15. and it's a series of Failures of Saul two major ones and You'll just have to trust me but the Language in all these stories just goes Right through the language of Genesis 1 Through 11 again except when he comes to Each of those two ordeals or tests again He fails both of them And so in first Samuel 15 when he fails Both of those tests this is what he's Told by Samuel the guy who anointed him First Samuel chapter 15 verse 26 Samuel Said to Saul you have rejected the word Of Yahweh and so Yahweh has rejected you As being king among Israel
As Samuel turned to go Saul seized the Edge of his robe So like Samuel was leaving he's angry And Saul grabs just the edge of the robe And it tears off in his hand he like Tears off a piece of the robe it's a Vivid scene and Samuel turns around and He looks at his torn robe and this is What he says Yahweh has torn the Kingdom Of Israel from you today Saul And he's gonna give it to your neighbor One who has more Tov than you more good Than yeah it's very cinematic scene it Is yeah it's pretty epic soul grabs the Road but tears Samuel turns around and Goes God's tearing the Kingdom from you [Laughter] So that's the sequence that ends with First Samuel 15. the next chapter is About Begins The Descent of Saul and the rise Of David so the anointed one has shifted Now he is no longer God's favorite Anointed one in God's eyes but nobody Else knows that other than these two and God's going to raise up a new anointed One and as Saul is beginning his Downfall David is beginning his rise and The rest of the first Samuel story is Going to be about These parallel tracks of the true Anointed and then the anti-anointed And just track the sequence of the story Of David we're going to do just now like
We're going to do and it's been designed To imitate the rise of Saul David's rise Is going to imitate Saul's rise to power And in really creative and clever ways So moving on to David shall we this is The neighbor who is more Tov than song [Music] Thank you [Music] Foreign [Music] So chapter 16 begins and God tells Samuel I'm done with Saul let's go to This guy's house in the town named Bethlehem it's a guy named Jesse it's Got all these sons and we've also Explored the story of the selection of David earlier this year in the firstborn Podcast series So I just want to go to the moment that When David walks into the room Samuel Takes the Horn of oil and he anoints him In the midst of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord became powerfully Upon David from that day forward And you're like oh yeah that's what Happened with Saul that's exactly what Happened with David in the exact same Words oh remember except Samuel had a Flask of oil this is a horn now it's Coming out of a like an empty Rams Horn Yeah yeah That's a better design Choice yep The next chapter is first Samuel 17.
Pretty famous story about a David versus A guy named Goliath so the Philistines Are fighting the Israelites and we're Told that the Philistines are on one Side of the valley Israelites on the Other and then there's this battle line In between them and what we're told is That every day The biggest baddest Warrior of the Philistines he's called in Hebrew the Ish beniam the man of the in-between oh Well it gets translated as champion In our English translation I don't know Why man of the in-between yeah because He's walking in between the battle lines Yeah he just like strolls out there to The in between the battle lines yeah so The the man of the in-between came out From the armies of the Philistines his Name was goliat Goliath his height was well depends on What ancient text you're reading so That's whole rabbit the rabbit hole Whether he was like 11 feet high or Seven feet high oh there's textural Variants and ancient manuscripts okay I Mean that's quite a difference it is Quite a difference yeah but we start Focusing on the bronze helmet on his Head and the scaly armor The width 5 000 shekels of bronze his Bronze Grieves his bronze Javelin the Word bronze is spelled with the letters Of the word
Snake Is snake Is bronze and the armor is scaly okay Which is the same word used to describe Animal like reptile scales okay and Hebrew Bible yeah so he's being Described as a big bronze snake yeah now It's a word play it's a clever word Right okay but pay attention he would go Out verse 8 and Shout at the ranks of Israel and say Why did you guys even come out to draw Up in battle today Am I not the Philistine and aren't you The Servants of Saul choose a man let Him come down to me if he can fight with Me and kill me will become your slaves But if I Prevail against him and kill Him You will become our slaves And again the Philistine said I publicly Shame the ranks of Israel this day give Me a man that we might fight together a Public shaming yeah he is bringing Public shame it's trash talk so some Translations translate this I taunt the Ranks of Israel some translations say I Defy but it's You're shaming someone basically you're This is what bullies do yeah you know It's like Stand up for yourself you know so that's What he's doing he's disgracing them and That is that the same phrase used or
Just same idea used by it's a different Word from what nahash the ammonite did Okay but it's the same idea he wants to Bring disgrace yeah disgrace okay and When Saul heard these words of the Philistine okay stop right there so Here's a big bronze snakey dude of Israel's enemies bringing Public Disgrace on Israel how did Saul respond Last time this happened yeah he just Took care of him yeah he drove him out Yeah the spirit of God came on him and He drove him out this time when Saul and All Israel heard these words of the Philistine They were dismayed they were greatly Afraid You're like oh okay So something's changed so his heart has Changed yeah But then in the next paragraph David Appears on the scene his dad's like hey Go visit your brothers on the front line Bring him some you know cheese and oats And yummy things so David shows up with Like all these goodies and we're told in Verse 22 he ran to the battle line And he entered in order to greet his Brothers and as he was saying hi to his Brothers behold The ish beniam The man of the in-between the Philistine Was coming up just at that moment Imagine the timing and he spoke the same
Words and David heard them hmm And when all the men of Israel saw him They fled and they were greatly aflayed But David He spoke to the guys standing around him And he said You know is the king said he's going to Do anything for the man who will kill That Philistine and take away this Reproach from Israel who is this Uncircumcised Philistine that he should Bring public shame on the armies of the Living God you can see what's happening Here I think you probably can oh well I Mean just on a very literal level as He's he's asking is there a bounty and Wise in the king What's the king gonna do about this yeah What yeah what's Saul doing yeah is he Gonna do anything yeah so what Saul did When he heard the words is he's freaking Out with his army and they are no one's Gonna go up to him so you have two Anointed ones in the story you have Saul That's right because David's been Anointed yeah he's been anointed Privately yeah but just he just like you Know nobody knows about it except a few So now you have two anointed ones And Saul is responding the opposite way He did last time he encountered a snake And now David is responding more like Saul did back when Saul encountered Snakey man the ammonite
See now David is like becoming a new Saul or becoming what Saul ought to have Done or should have done So Saul hears about this young kid who's Like you know trash talk in this Philistine so he brings him in to his Tent and he says listen this is what Saul says to David you are not able to Go against this Philistine you're you're Just a kid He's been a warrior did we skip a part Where he actually volunteered yeah yeah He actually does volunteer he does Volunteer that's right but he volunteers Because Saul hears the rumors Start Spreading that there's this kid who's Saying that he would be willing to fight Yeah the Philistine right so Saul tries To talk him out of it and David gives This great speech when he says listen I've been a Shepherd for a while and you Know there have been times when a lion Or a bear would come and take one of the Lambs And you know what I just went after that Thing and I attacked it and I rescued The lamb from its mouth and if a lion or The bear rose up against me I would Seize it by its beard wow I guess the Lines of Maine it's a beard of a bear Ah you know I guess they can be hairy They can be kind of hairy furry yeah Just under the chin yeah and if they've Been drooling or something then that's
Kind of like just that hair just hanging Down and so well let's keep reading I'll Seized him by his beard I would strike Him and kill him that lion or bear I mean your servant has killed both a Lion and a bear and this Philistine yeah Will be just like that because he is Publicly shamed the armies of the Living God So David said the Lord who delivered me From the Paw of the lion from the Paw of The bear will deliver me from the hand Of this Philistine snake the snake is my Addition so he's comparing Goliath To this wild beast oh okay yeah and Goliath has already been subtly compared To a beast of the field namely a snake So now David is being portrayed on Analogy He's not David's now the new Adam in the Story facing the snake in his ordeal Just like Saul did but now Saul is Facing the snake and he's totally afraid And you can see the control so let's Just stop this is a pivot point it's a Pivot point yeah but notice just notice How creative this is right yeah the way The narrative is being shaped to compare Both of these characters back to Adam in The garden and then to contrast them With each other within the Samuel story Yeah who who pointed this stuff out to You I mean this is not very like clear On the surface like the oh I mean huh
That the guy's name is snake I guess You're reading in Hebrew yeah yeah like The bronze sounds like the word snake Yeah so two things one this is over the Last many years I have been going to Every Jewish and Israeli Scholars work Who's trying to understand the reading Habits and skills of Jewish Bible nerds In the second temple period And when you learn how they read their Bible it becomes clear that they were Reading it along the grain of its design So this is a lot of what we've been Doing with design patterns and Hyperlinks in the melody so I did However Find an author who so for a while I was Just like oh I could see all this this It makes a lot of sense and I've learned A lot also from a number of Scholars William tooman David Andrew Teeter Jake Stromberg these are Hebrew Bible Scholars right now publishing and Pursuing similar questions in Hebrew Bible but I found an author Brian verit Who wrote a book recently called the Serpent in Samuel A Messianic Motif and When I read his book I was like I'm not Crazy like he's he sees it all too yeah So if this is a topic that interests you Yeah this is a whole book on Garden of Eden imagery specific to the Snake in the story of Samuel yeah so Just see you know I'm not making this up
Yeah okay so yes it is very creative Very interesting and it makes you want To stop and kind of think more about These ideas but it's incredibly easy to Miss I mean but cool yep you're showing Us thank you yeah totally okay we're Almost we're getting there okay so the Philistine mocks David says am I a dog That you're coming to me with this is Goliath this is Goliath yeah Dave okay So David goes out he selects his five Smooth Stones right gets a sling yeah All that all right I've heard that Sermon um And uh he goes out to face the giant Snake And this giant snake makes fun of him Saying am I a dog so you are coming at Me with sticks yeah And The reader is thinking no like you're Like a bear or a lion or like a snake That's a cute arm so the Philistine Cursed David by his Elohim so in the Name of Dagon and in the name of all I Curse you Israelite And so David famously says to the giant Snake you are coming at me with a sword And a spear and a javelin but I am Coming to you in the name of Yahweh of Hosts The god of Israel's battle lines whom You have publicly shamed so that theme Of Shame is really key here wow because
Adam and Eve feel shame Adam and Eve They were naked and not ashamed and then On a day they ate of the fruit their Eyes were opened and they saw that they Were naked and then they hide their Bodies from each other hmm so this is Also an echo of the Eden Motif here Yeah it's worth thinking about a little Bit more shame is um it's a feeling of Inferiority Causes you to hide causes you to hide Yeah but it seems like also this is an Honor shame Society that's right yeah And really it's like by being publicly Disgraced it's kind of one of the worst Things that could happen to you in a way Yeah your identity is kind of bound up In Your status in this case among the Nations be shamed to be shamed is to be Treated as nothing as less than which is Kind of like you know Jesus saying you Can murder someone you could also just Hate your brother yeah and it's like Just as bad as murder yeah it's like by Making them yeah by publicly insulting Them yeah yeah shaming them yeah it's a Big deal it's kind of connected to the Idea of being the image God and Adam and Eve feeling shame no one's shaming them But all of a sudden something happened Yeah where by taking the fruit wisdom on Their own terms Their eyes were open but then they
Recognized We suck yeah yeah we've made a huge I've made it terrible made a terrible Mistake That's a whole Trope now yeah like Different films and shows yeah I've made A horrible decision Yeah it's that moment that moment of Realization that's right okay now here It's someone you know forcing public Shame on another that you know would Resist it Or but the Israelites you know their King is running away So in a way it's as Saul fears and runs Away from the giant snake It's a way of him saying my God is Not Powerful enough to deliver us and we are Not powerful enough of a Nation to Defend ourselves or so their status Among the Nations is lowered and for David he's like no my God delivered me From a lion and bear he's the Living God So he can take off the head of the snake And So that's essentially what David does he You know famously slings goliaths with Once done sinks into his forehead and Then there's a little focus of the story Where David runs up with no sword in his Hand and then in verse 51 of first Samuel 17 David ran and stood over the Philistine took his sword drew it from Its sheath killed him
And cut off his head with it so he Crushes the head Genesis 3 15. he strikes he strikes the Head and he is not struck by the snake Because in Genesis 3 the snake Crusher Will also be struck yeah so this case It's just One Direction that's right Snake weapon yeah totally So here then David is compared Well he's contrasted with Adam and Eve In that he successfully drives out the Snake yeah crushes the snake's head so By the time you get to the end of first Samuel 17 you are Feeling great about this kid you're like He has radical faith and trust In Yahweh And he is secretly Israel's King but Israel does not recognize him you're Feeling great about that but didn't we Feel great about that when Saul yeah he Told about the snake yeah we were yeah So must be some tests coming okay I Expect some tests to come David's way and lo and behold when do The tests begin chapter 18. Here Saul becomes jealous About how God is elevating David and People are singing songs about David Saying you know Saul killed his Thousands of Philistines but David Killed is tens of thousands this is what It says the young women sing in the town That'll get under your skin
It does yeah so in these chapters I'm All leading up to First Samuel 24 which Will land the plane here but for the Next five chapters for Samuel 18 to 23 It's all stories about Saul trying to Kill David so this is a Cain and Abel Kind of thing exactly right yeah yeah so David is like an atom Or like an able you know who's favored In God's eyes the chosen one yeah and Saul takes on the role of like a cane Who's anti the anointed one but they're Both anointed ones that's what makes it Yeah story it's the anointed one turn Into yeah the anti-anoidance the Kane Figure yeah yeah the Christ and the Antichrist yeah oh yeah it's interesting So in other words they're almost like Reverse mirrors of each other because They're both Israelite Kings But one has been anointed secretly Privately one has been anointed publicly And it's about the Rivalry between the Two so notice all of these themes the Anointed one but the firstborn Right the Rivalry between these two Kinsmen Kings There's so many themes overlapping right Here [Music] Thank you [Music] So this all builds up to for Samuel 24. Where David flees he just has to run for
His life Into the Wilderness but he's Got a crew of like faithful Abandoned Brothers around him and so in First Samuel 24 David flees to a cave And caves you know from The Book of Genesis are little refuges that are like Eden Eden refuges we do we know this Okay and then more specifically in first Samuel 24 1 we're told that David is Dwelling in the wilderness of engedi Which is an actual place it is also the Words of the phrase Garden of Eden with Just the letters swapped around The phrase Garden of Eden is gone Aiden And and Getty is the same letters oh Well just uh reversed okay so he's in His own little Eden but it's in a Wilderness in the wilderness well so is The Garden of Eden yeah exactly right Totally yeah so Saul took three Thousand chosen men okay to seek David In front of I just want to talk David Yeah so there's this cave and Saul Looked into the cave and he went in he Was like guys I really got to go to the bathroom And we're told that he went in to Relieve himself in Hebrew that is Let's have a little Hebrew lesson here In Hebrew it means to cover over the Feet Really it means you take down your robe Oh that's how you say it it's covering Your feet and you're squatting and
You're taking a dump oh this is the this Is the number two yeah to cover over Your feet yeah I'm totally gonna use That I need to go cover over my feet Yeah so I mean you get the idea you have If you have a robe there's basically two Things you can do I would be more inclined to hike it up Yeah yeah and just hold it under my Shoulders that's awkward from squatting But it's awkward it could fall down and Then yeah so instead you kind of take it Down and you kind of like blouse it out And then you it's over your feet yeah at Least that's the phrase It's not a Common phrase It's only it's idiom yeah It's an idiom it's used also in the Story of that really overweight King Eggler oh yeah in Judges chapter three He does a Squatty and that's well that's About Ehud who stabs him in the stomach Anyway that's a whole other thing but Say in Hebrew for me just please just to Indulge me Uh so Saul went into the cave lejasek Is to cover at our glove is the feet I'm Not gonna be able to pull that off all Right And then here's the narrative says that David And his men Had been sitting in that very cave in The back like they were hiding in the Cage hmm
They're like touring around the Wilderness looking for David they went And hid in this cave yeah like just Imagine this would be a great film scene Yeah and you're looking out and you just See King Saul coming in yeah and but Then he goes halfway and then he turns Around and yeah you're like oh he found Us oh wait no he's going to the bathroom Covering his feet Okay so this is this is so classic man In other words he's naked oh well yeah Half naked yeah you know So again think of Eden sure I was here Okay all right all right the men of David said to him this is the day which Yahweh said to you I'm going to give Your enemy into your hand so David you Should do to him what is good in your Eyes This is what they're saying and that's The phrase from the Garden of Eden yeah This is also the phrase used from the Story of with nakash the ammonite yeah They told the ammonites yeah I do it's Getting yours yeah but to be clear in The Garden of Eden Story how is the Phrase used the woman saw it was good in Her eyes yeah yeah it was uh she Saw that the tree was good for seeing or Good to look at okay yeah and then she Took from the fruit and she ate okay and Then later that act is called God Describes what Adam and Eve did as
Stretching out their hand and taking From the from the tree okay So David's friends are saying David Do what's good in your eyes like this Guy's trying to kill you yeah here's Your moment yeah So David got up And he cut off The edge of Saul's robe Well that sounds familiar uh that's off The edge of the robe but secretly hmm so How he pulled this off I mean Ninja [Laughter] Wasn't it quiet in there like was solid Being loud about his business you know That David could like anyway Leaves a lot to the imagination yeah It's always focused so it came about Afterwards that David's it says his Heart struck him Because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe or we felt bad about it he Felt bad he's like I shouldn't have done that So David said to his men May the Lord forbid that I ever do such A thing to my master who is yahweh's Anointed one That interesting yeah because David Knows he's also the anointed one yeah Yeah not just also but like he's clued In that he is the true anointed one yeah Yeah yeah but he is willing to honor
Even though that God's anointed one has Become the anti-anointed one David says far be it from me to do that Or to stretch out my hand against him Which is the phrase to describe what Adam did stretch out their hand and take Yep yeah for he is the anointed one so In other words he's being portrayed here So they they asked they told David like Just take him out stretch out your hand And kill him yeah David doesn't do that He just stretches his hand and he takes A bit of his robe yeah yeah and even That David's like I've gone too far yep And he says to us guys no I'm not going To do what's good in my eyes and I'm not Going to stretch out my hand against him So in this scene Saul going to the bathroom Becomes the tree of knowing good and bad For David well striking him down here Comes taking the fruit exactly right Yeah yep and he won't do it and with These words for seven David sharply Rebuked his men and he didn't allow them To strike Saul either and Saul left the Cave and went his way So David passes his test So what's rad is once Saul gets down the Hill David Runs Out to the mouth of the Cave and he says look Saul it's me and Saul's like what David what and he says Look I've got your robe right here I am Not trying to kill you
You left something yeah totally yeah so As soon as David finished saying these Words verse 16 Saul said is that your Voice David my son and he started crying And he said you are more righteous than I am you have done Tove to me you did Tov you did good And I have been doing raw I've been Doing bad hmm it's the same words as the Tree of knowing good and bad Just as you told me about the good that You did to me how Yahweh delivered me Into your hands but you didn't kill me You know when a guy finds his enemy does He let him get away May Yahweh reward You for the good that you have done to Me today I know that you will be king And the Kingdom of Israel will be Established in your hands So I think what when this is just great Storytelling yeah you know the robe yeah It is and they're both compared to Adam But then Saul Fails Like Adam and Eve But David succeed where Adam and Eve Fail it's just all you know Hall of Mirrors of all the stories reflecting of Each other but what we're meditating on Is what What does it look like when God's Heavenly presence Manifests itself in an Earthly human Ruler And Saul and David offer these contrast Portraits hmm well and both of them they
Are anointed they both have a Confrontation with the snake Usually the story goes in the Bible the Snake deceives you yeah you take yeah And then you failed the test but both of Them actually But then comes more tests And while Saul Failed his subsequent tests what we get Here is David after defeating his snake Goliath Now having this other victory over yeah Well Saul's now the snake here yeah Exactly well he's the tree And but he's also the the enemy yeah and He's the test and David succeeds he Doesn't take What he could have taken and Saul could See like whoa that was the right move That was good yeah so To be an anointed one means you're going To have tests yeah and you're required To pass the test yeah and you can fail The test and you can lose your status as The anointed one I mean that's crazy Yeah exactly yeah the anointed one can Through their choices become the Anti-anointed one and I don't like that The anointed one I was like I kind of rub you wrong a Little bit hmm Hmm the God would be like you're the one Like you start Monday Yeah I was like I've made a mistake well
I don't know how is that different than The story of humanity in that's true That bugs me too Ah okay yeah yeah but you're right That's a good point the story of Humanity that is the story of humanity Yeah that's that's why all these stories Are being hyperlinked and set on analogy To Adam and Adam and Eve so I'm just Annoyed by being human yeah Yeah I guess so look at the meta plot Themes here you have an anointed one Who's given everything they need to Succeed but they're moments that are Going to need to trust And Trust God's wisdom And in Saul's case he does it first and Then he stops yeah and we didn't look at Those stories in detail Saul's failure Stories but they're all about him not Listening to the word of the Lord and Doing God's command which is just like What God says to Adam and Eve but now Here's David and he not only succeeds Where Adam and Eve failed because Saul Did that too but now David is succeeding Where Saul failed Test after test in fact Saul becomes the Test And David refuses To exalt himself to the public place of God's anointed one yeah that's what's Key he's being patient yeah and he's Kind of like has this radical trust in
Like if God wants me to be the anointed One like I'll wait yep for God's timing Yes that's right and I won't take yeah In My own initiative yep that's right and In fact that's what the next two Chapters we don't have time to look at Them for Samuel 25 and 26 tell two more Stories making a toll of three right Here that are David's kind of ultimate Test And three times he refrains from using The sword to make himself King And one in the middle time it's not even His own decision fully he's persuaded by A wise woman named my father is the Redeemer Abigail and she convinces David Not to use the sword to try and assert His authority as king And he listens to her hmm I he does the Will of God by listening to the woman When he faces his test so I guess the Whole thing is the The portrait of the anointed one takes a Big step forward in the story of David In that whatever it's going to look like To stomp on the snake yes there is a Sometimes it's as simple as Goliath You know like that's fair that it's Calling a common Trope there's a good Guy there's a bad guy kills a bad guy by Simple you mean it's plain yeah plain There's the bad guy He's described like a snake yeah talks
Like take the bad guy out take him out But what if the bad guy yeah is the Anointed one right a fellow a fellow Israel is real life your brother who's Still King yeah what then what then how Do you fight the snake when the snake is Your brother Yeah yeah and in this case he doesn't Crush his head he allows the snake to Bring about his own ruin and he waits For God to elevate him you know as we Think about you know their relationship As a king and able kind of story it's Fun to rethink of the story of Cain and Abel as like Cain tries to kill Abel Isn't able to I didn't mean to say that what the word Play on Abel Kane tried to kill Abel Yeah doesn't he isn't able to he doesn't Have the ability to And then Abel yeah can then go back yeah And take out Kane yeah that's right and Then decides not to that's the story That's the story yeah that's right yeah So the true victory of God's real Anointed one is to sit patiently and Wait through suffering wow even Suffering that comes from your own Brothers And allow God to elevate you to the Place of rule and to trust that God will Bring about the downfall of your Persecutors who claim to be the anointed
One And I remember when I first started to See these themes of work it was so hard For me not to start thinking about how The gospel authors have shaped the story Of Jesus yeah I was thinking about that Like how much was Jesus Thinking about David when he would talk About the ethic of yeah the kingdom too Yeah you know like yeah don't How do you treat your enemy yeah now This David killed plenty of enemies At least in this story but for this Story yes clearly the author wants to See this as the tests of David's Faith Yeah it's he he doesn't take Vengeance Into his own hands hmm it's really Powerful young David's pretty it's Pretty incredible yeah yep I've killed Lions send me after him yeah so I think Why this is cool for the anointed Conversation is the reason why most People think of a king from the line of David when they hear the word Messiah is Because the David's story is the fullest Narrative portrait Of the anointed one in the Bible I mean Aaron appears in the Torah and He's important but he doesn't get nearly As much air time as David there's one Character who is an anointed one who Gets a lot of yeah page time yeah David But also God very explicitly says There's going to be a king in the line
Of David who is going to yeah in fact This perfect place to land the plane At the very end of David's life he sings Two poems that we call second Samuel Chapter 23 and 22. Samuel 22 it's also identical to Psalm 18 in the Book of Psalms okay It's a song of David that he sang when The Lord rescued him from the hand of Saul and the Hand of all his enemies That's how it opens And he retells the story in Poetic Imagery of how God's rescued him Throughout his life and the last line Last lines of the poem or is this He says Yahweh is alive How blessed is my rock now is a rock may God the rock of my rescue Be exalted God accomplished Vengeance on my behalf He brought peoples under me He brings me out from my enemies from Those who rise up against me you lift me Up from Violent Men you rescue me so I Will praise you Yahweh among the Nations I'll sing praise this to your name and You're like yeah Brad here's the last Line He makes great Deliverance for his King He shows loyal love to his anointed one To David and to his seed forever so what He's saying here is that the rescues That God performed for me based on the Promises he's made to me he will
Continue to do that For my seed on into the future so I Think the contribution that the story of David makes in the Hebrew Bible Is to portray him in the story of his Rise I mean he blows it eventually but To portray him in his rise as being this Portrait that's kind of like Moses in The Torah The kind of human we need who will be Victorious over the snake will need to Be like David was on his best day And David trusts that God will do for That descendant of mine the anointed Descendant of mine What God did for me he will do for my Descendants as well and so in that sense The Samuel scroll is pointing forward It's a it's a Messianic story hmm it's a Story about the Messiah about a future Anointed one yeah who will be like the Past anointed one of David So with the story of David the portrait Of the anointed one that the Hebrew Bible points to if you think of a mosaic Made up of lots of little tiles the David tiles there's like a lot of David Tiles and that's what we've been Exploring in this conversation It's pretty rad yeah and so next Yeah next what I want to look at is how This portrait of the anointed one in David's story is picked up and developed In the scroll of Isaiah and then in the
Psalms okay And then we'll turn to see how the story Of Jesus and the gospels is modeled and Hyperlinked to Isaiah the Psalms and the Story of David and the story of Adam and Eve all right great after that Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible project podcast next week we're Talking about David again the new David Promised and looked for in the scroll of Isaiah he won't look like a royal Glorious Heir from The Lion of David Ruling in Jerusalem that's not gonna be Like that that rule is going to look Like somebody who is rejected isn't Honorable in the eyes of important People and he identifies with people in Their suffering and grief Today's episode was brought to you by Our podcast team producer Cooper Peltz Associate producer Lindsay Ponder lead Editor Dan gummel and editors Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza Tyler Bailey also Mixed this episode and Hannah Wu Provided the annotations for our Annotated podcast on our app final Project is crowdfunded non-profit and we Exist to experience the Bible as one Unified story that leads to Jesus and Everything that we make is free because Of the generous support of thousands of People just like you so thank you so Much for being a part of this with us hi This is Hadassah and I'm from Puerto
Rico hi this is Jana Lee and I'm from Rancho Santa Margarita California I First heard about Bible projects through My co-worker while I was working at my Church I used Bible project for the Enrichment of my biblical understanding I first heard about Bible project Through YouTube when I was browsing for Information about a Bible passage I used Bible project for Bible study both in my Personal life but also when I give class To the youth at my church my favorite Thing about Bible project is how it Helps me understand God's word even more The creative and simple way you explain These really intricate and complicated Biblical themes we believe the Bible is A unified story that leads to Jesus We're a crowd-funded project by people Like me find free videos study notes Podcasts classes and more at Bibleprojects.com Foreign [Music]