Prophets, Kings, and Terrible Men with Aaron Higashi

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is Michael Medved. Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of Germany, once said that God offers special protection to drunkards, lost dogs, children, and the United States of America.

We'll explore that special protection and what it means in The American Miracle. Subscribe to The American Miracle on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Aaron Higashi (0:30)

Stories of David and Goliath, stories of David dancing in front of the ark. That's the image that you have of David in your mind as a child. And you try and come back to these stories as an adult, and you find all these stories are compromised. There's not a single one of these classical stories that is not in some way overshadowed by these issues that you're probably going to pick up on as an adult. So what now?

How can we take something from the story now that our more adult perspective on these characters has sort of come to light?

Dan McClellan (1:02)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:04)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:05)

And you are listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:18)

I mean, it's not 110 where I live, so things are doing pretty good. I'm pretty happy.

Dan McClellan (1:25)

It's 76, which I have sweat beating up on where my hairline used to be when it gets this warm, but at least it's not 76 inside.

Dan Beecher (1:34)

Yeah, but where it is warmer is Phoenix, which is the homeland currently.

Of our guest, Aaron Higashi, returning champion. Thank you so much for coming back on the show.

Aaron Higashi (1:52)

Long time listener, second time caller.

Dan McClellan (1:55)

Well, we appreciate you calling in today. We had something entirely different planned, but Aaron's kind of a hard guest to get rid of.

Aaron is here to talk about a book you've got coming out shortly entitled First and Second Samuel, or One and Two Samuel if you're nasty, or Normal People, part of the Bible for Normal People empire, A Guide to Prophets, Kings and Some Pretty Terrible Men. And this comes out, you messaged me and said, hey, I got this coming out on July 23rd. And I was like, hey, that's my birthday. I'm gonna be turning 44 the day you're book.

Aaron Higashi (2:41)

I'll get you a copy.

Dan McClellan (2:42)

I'll send it to you, man. That was part of the deal, I thought, but I would appreciate that very much.

Dan Beecher (2:48)

I also have birthdays, so I'm just throwing that out there.

That's exciting, I'll send you one too. I would love it.

Aaron Higashi (2:56)

But I do with my mom, I think that's it.

Dan McClellan (2:57)

And that's it, okay.

How many copies has Pete given you? You get a good deal from Pete?

Aaron Higashi (3:03)

I've just gotten the one so far. Really? I'm supposed to get, yeah, this is like the one before they actually send it off.

Dan McClellan (3:10)

Okay, okay, so yeah, gotcha.

Aaron Higashi (3:12)

Mass printing or something.

Dan McClellan (3:14)

Well, I wanted to say congratulations on the book. Didn't know you were even working on this book, but this is an exciting volume because First and Second Samuel are not the books that get very popular commentaries on them. Like, there are commentaries out there on them, but there are other books that have a lot more commentaries.

And First and Second Samuel is chock full of interesting stuff, interesting stories, and there's a lot that people don't understand about it. So I enjoyed reading through this, and I'm excited for it to get out.

Aaron Higashi (3:45)

Yes, super important stuff. Stuff that's often told to children, too.

Dan Beecher (3:49)

Yeah, exactly.

Aaron Higashi (3:50)

Stuff we get exposed to very early on, often.

Dan Beecher (3:52)

Whether it should be or not, it is told to children. That's right.

I want to start us off by saying that in, let's call it preparation for this interview.

Dan McClellan (4:06)

Let's call it that. It's not real prep work, but...

Dan Beecher (4:08)

Look, I do what I can. Look, you guys did post-graduate levels of prep work. I hit Google, and one of the things that I Googled was summary of Samuel 1 and summary of Samuel 2

And I want to hit you with what the first idea of...

So then it said, there was a thing that said, what is the main message of 1 Samuel? What is the main message of 2 Samuel? And I'm just going to start by throwing these out at you and just seeing how you respond to them today. I think they might have nailed it. And I just want to see. So this article says that the main message of 1 Samuel, or the key theme of 1 Samuel is, God is king of the universe and always has been.