Ep 377 | 2 Samuel 8-24; 1 Kings 1-11, Come Follow Me 2026 (June 22-28)

**Bryce** (0:03)
Hey everybody, welcome to Talking Scripture, a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application of the Scriptures in Come Follow Me.

**Mike** (0:10)
We also dive into the history and cultures of the text.

**Bryce** (0:13)
Thanks for taking the time to share and subscribe to this podcast.

**Mike** (0:17)
For show notes, head over to our website, talkingscripture.org. Welcome to Talking Scripture, I'm Mike.

**Bryce** (0:26)
And I'm Bryce.

**Mike** (0:27)
And today we're going to be covering 2 Samuel, Chapter 8, to the end, and 1 Kings, all the way to Chapter 11 These chapters focus in on King David's fall from grace and King Solomon's establishment of his kingdom and the building of the temple.

**Bryce** (0:43)
And I want to just say, hold on, hold on to your faith because it gets a little discouraging when you watch great people like David, who has so much promise and is so loved by the Lord, actually commits adultery and then murder. And then Solomon, who was so loved by the Lord, and the Lord was with him and granted a marvelous request, and Solomon was such a marvelous king and he dedicates the temple, and then he ends up, according to the text, with a thousand wives. And we're like, what is going on? And so it's a little difficult as you read these, and it can be a test of your faith to say, oh great, what hope do I have of being saved when great people like David and Solomon fall? And so hold on to everything you know about the Gospel, that if we have faith and we repent and we keep our covenants and we follow the Holy Ghost, that the Lord's going to be with us. We need to trust the Lord's ability to save us more than we trust our ability to be saved. Sometimes we focus on our limitations and we lose hope. And we say, I don't know that I'm ever going to be perfect enough. And that's probably true. But we do need to focus on the Lord's ability to save us. And so as we go through David's fall and Solomon's fall, pay very close attention to what the Lord says. That I would have done anything for you, David. Nathan's going to come in after the fact and basically say, the Lord would have done anything that you needed him to do. And I would just kind of remind you that we're the only ones that can prevent God from saving us.
Trust that as long as you hold the Savior's hand, as long as you walk with him, as long as you're willing to go where he is leading you, that there is no obstacle that he cannot overcome with you.
The only person that can prevent your salvation is you. And David and Solomon do illustrate that, that they're the ones that push the Lord out. So hang on, because this can be a very discouraging week as we study the falls of two great kings of Israel.

**Mike** (2:51)
Bryce, I like that introduction. The first eight chapters or so describe, in 2 Samuel, David's rise to power. And the second bit is kind of what you've been referring to. From about chapter 8 verse 19 to the 20th chapter, it's the sin of David and then the destruction of his family, how it just kind of devolves. And then the third part of 2 Samuel, and that's chapters 21 through 24, is an appendix with a bunch of miscellaneous materials.
So in 2 Samuel 8, this chapter, chapter 8, emphasizes David's military expansion. David smites the Philistines and he takes out the leader of Moab. And then we get to verse 15
David reigned over all Israel and David executed judgment and justice unto his people. That verse tells us because he's executing judgment or fairness or equity that he is, at least in this chapter, the embodiment of the kind of king that God wants to have.
So then in the 9th chapter, David shows Chesed to Jonathan's son. And his name in English is Mephi-Boshef.
Have fun pronouncing that. But here's the idea. David shows love or kindness to him in this chapter. And David is a merciful kind of person.
The 10th chapter, there's this war between the Israelites and the Ammonites. And because of this war, we now have chapter 11 And the very first verse tells us that it came to pass when the year was expired, at the time when kings went forth to battle, David sent Joab, remember he's the military leader of the House of David, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon. And they besieged Rabba. And then the author says, and this is important, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. That's the setup. So the 11th chapter of 2 Samuel is very difficult. David's supposed to be like verse 1 said, out fighting in the war, but he's not. And then it's at night, he's on the roof of his house and he sees this beautiful woman. Her name is Bathsheba in verse 3, and she's bathing, and he desires her. And so he sends for her. Verse 4 says he lay with her, and then verse 5 tells us that she's with child. And at this point, David writes a letter to his general, Joab, and he says, send me the man, the husband of this woman. His name is Uriah the Hittite. So Joab does, Uriah comes to him, and then David says, tell me about the war. And he does, and then he says, why don't you go home and spend the night with your wife? And he doesn't. It says in verse 9, Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants and went not down to his house. And so when it was told to David, so the servants of the king are telling him, hey, he didn't go lay with his wife, he calls him back a second time. And he says, why didn't you? And there's something going on with the honor and shame culture of the Ancient Near East here because Uriah calls him out. To look at verse 11, Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents. And my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in open fields. Shall I then go to my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife as thou livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. Now what's interesting in this verse is verse 11 tells us that Uriah is calling him out. We need to note that he is also not of Israel. He's a Hittite. He's not even one of them. And he's calling David out as an outsider. And so David says, well, verse 12, Terry here today also and tomorrow I'll let thee depart.