Hey, Bible readers. I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today, we started our 11th Book of the Bible, and we're 30% of the way through. Can you believe it? Let's jump into 2 Samuel. Israel is going through a tough time. First, their prophet Samuel died, then their first king and three of his sons died in a battle where they also lost a lot of land to one of their fierce racist enemies. Fortunately, it seems like some people have heard the news that Samuel had appointed the next king before he died, so there's a rough idea of what will happen next, but there's no precedent for this and no specific plan in place for how to move things forward. They're building the plane while flying it, so to speak. Meanwhile, David has been living at his refugee home in Philistia, and he's just defeated the Amalekites. So to make sure we have it all straight, we've just gone through two simultaneous battles, the battle of Israel and Saul against the Philistines, which Israel the Lost, and the battle of David in Philistia against the Amalekites, which David won. Confused yet? Don't worry about it.

The vital parts will all make sense. First, there's this. David wasn't anywhere near the battle Saul was fighting. He was a three his journey away. But an excited messenger decided to make that trek to tell David what he thought would be good news. Hey, guess what? Your enemy is dead. But this guy obviously doesn't know David's character. David does not rejoice at this. And on top of that, the messenger seems to think he can score some extra points with the future king by claiming responsibility for killing the old king. But you may have noticed a discrepancy in the messenger's story and the story scripture told us yesterday in 1 Samuel 31, which says that Saul fell on his own sword. So there's a good chance this guy is making things up to earn favor, but what he's actually doing is digging his own grave. Since David doesn't have access to 1 Samuel 31 like we do, all he knows to do is take this guy's word for it. Even though this happens during a war, this messenger is a sojourner among Israel, so killing a fellow inhabitants of Israel, and especially the king, still warrants the death penalty, which is what David orders.

David inquires of God about what to do next, and God sends him to Hebron in Judah. Judah was the largest tribe by far. They had the largest land allotment, and they even had their own army of sorts. In some ways, Judah was to the tribes of Israel what Texas is to the 48 continental states. So David goes to Hebron and they make him king, but only over Judah at this point. When Samuel anointed David in 1 Samuel 16, it was in private, so it may not necessarily be something the whole country is aware of or even on board with yet. Everything is going okay for about five years until some of Saul's people, specifically his military commander and cousin Abner, decide that they want to keep their positions of power, so they anoint one of his surviving sons, Ishmaosheth, as king. They effectively made him king over the other eleven tribes. After about two years of having the two kings in the promised land, the commanders of the two armies meet up for a chat by the pool. Abner is the commander of team Saul/Ishmausheth, and Joab is the commander of team David. Joab is one of David's three nephews who were there that day.

The poolside combo turns into a series of one-to-one battles between each side's 12 best warriors, like a dozen David and Goliath battles back to back. And just like in that incident, David comes out ahead again. His warriors win the most battles, even though all 20 four men die. Then Abner from team Saul has a conflict with one of David's nephews, and Abner kills him. So David's two other nephews try to chase him down, but a bunch of other men show up to get Abner's back, so David's nephews decide to stand down. Abner from team Saul calls a truce, and Joab from team David agrees. It was a pretty smart move on Abner's part because through all of this, team Saul lost nearly 20 times the amount of men team David did. David's power continues to grow, as does his family. He has six kids with six wives and concubines while he's living in Hebrun. Meanwhile, Abner was also continuing to amass power on team Saul. But then something happens that shifts everything. Ishmael Sheth, Saul's son, accuses Abner of sleeping with one of Saul's concubines. Now, Saul is long and dead, so this wouldn't have been an offense against him personally.

So why is this a big deal to King Ishmael Sheth? Sleeping with a former king's wife or concubine was usually a strategic display of power. It served as a way to show you're trying to take over the throne. So Ishmael Sheth is essentially accusing his commander Abner of attempting a coup against him. We never find out if it's true or not, but Abner is so offended by the accusation that he actually makes an oath to help David become king over all twelve tribes, and he switches teams. God is working out his plan even through these accusations. First, Abner reaches out to David to let him know he wants to join Team David, and David's like, Sounds fun. Just one thing first. Remember when your cousin Saul took my first wife Michal away from me without my consent? I know I have a bunch of other wives now, but I want her back. Make it happen or the deal is off. And Michal goes back to David, but she's still married to her second husband as well. She's perhaps the first and maybe even the only female bigomist in the Bible, even though it was through no fault of her own.

As you can imagine, this creates a lot of trouble because her second husband wants her to himself, but Abner sends him home heartbroken. Meanwhile, Abner gets the other tribes on board with having David as king, and he fills David in on the good news. But his timing was terrible because Joab, the commander of David's army, wasn't there at the time. And when he finds out that the former commander of Saul's army is acting in ice, he becomes highly suspicious and possibly even feels threatened. So he kills Abner, which also avenges the death of his brother Asahel. Across the Jordan, King Ishmael is upset at the news of Abner's death, even though they'd recently become enemies. Things are starting to crumble for Ishmael, little by little. And then finally, he's killed by two of his military captains. Much like the messenger who brought David news of Saul's death, these men excitedly come to tell David they've killed his enemy, thinking they'd be hailed as heroes. Nope. David orders the death penalty for them both. But even through their wicked actions, God's plan to position David as king moves another step forward. There's still one surviving member of Saul's family, though.

His grandson, Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan. Mephibisheth is unlikely to make an attempt to take the throne because he's very young and because he was crippled in a terrible accident a few years earlier. So at this point, it looks like we're poised for David to be the king of all twelve tribes of Israel, not just Judah. My God shot today was in 339, where in the midst of all these people being killed against his will by people who think they're pleasing him, David says, I was gentle today, though anointed king. The king's position makes people fear him as one who might be harsh and ruthless. David says, I'm not that king. So how does this demonstrate God to me? Remember how David was called a man after God's own heart? I believe this shows us glimpses of the Father's heart. Though he is the king, he's also gentle, the king we can draw near to, not run from. In fact, in Ezekiel 33:11, God says something along these very lines about himself. He says, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.

He's a gentle King, and he's where the joy is.

Flowers brooming.

Blooming, not brooming.

The warm sun, deep cleaning, outdoor parties, extra allergy medicine. What comes to mind when you think of spring? To me, spring is about refreshment and beauty and fun and sunlight. And we're so excited that we have new TBR merch to kick off this lovely season. First out of the gate, our two new TBR temblers.

Listen, you're going to love them.

They're going to go great for all your outdoor activities. Then we've got our Bright and Cheery brand new He's Where the Joy is T-shirt. It is a great new wardrobe edition. Updated design. You're going to love it. It's popping. And we have a brand new collaboration with Dwelldifferently. They are a scripture memory organization, and we have a scripture memory kit to help you memorize Psalm 16:11. That's the very verse where the phrase, He's where the joy is, originated. So listen, I know I'm biased, but you got to check out our New Spring merch. It's all in our store at thebiblerecap. Com or click the link in the show notes. In every section of scripture we've recap together, I've asked you one important question. What was your God shot today? I can't express to you enough how learning who God is and what his character is can change your life. Want to invite you to dig deeper into this topic with me as I talk with Denise from KSBJ. To hear our conversation, just click the link in the show notes.