The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Introduction to the Royal Kingdom (with Jeff Cavins) (2025)
Wed, 16 Apr 2025
Welcome to the Royal Kingdom period! Jeff Cavins joins Fr. Mike to set the scene for this time period. They review the major players, and why the people of Israel asked for a king. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is the Bible in a Year podcast about?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story.
Chapter 2: What is the Royal Kingdom period and which books of the Bible does it cover?
Today, we are once again joined by Jeff Cavins. as we take our steps away from this last checkpoint we had, the first checkpoint, really, the messianic checkpoint of the Gospel of John. And now today we're taking that step into the royal kingdom. So that encompasses 1 and 2 Samuel, that encompasses the beginning of 1 Kings, as well as the books of Chronicles.
And so I'm really excited to have Jeff here with us today as we take this next step in this next time period. I hope and pray that the messianic checkpoint, those seven days we just experienced, of the gospel of John was a massive blessing to you, that sense of just being able to kind of pop your head up and say, okay, this is the fulfillment.
Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that we've been hearing, everything we've been reading, everything has been proclaimed to us. And now we're going back, back in time to 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and the books of Chronicles, as we see what's happened now that David unites the tribes into one kingdom. So Jeff, to orient us as we take these next steps, what do we need to know?
Sure. Well, it's good to be with you once again. Thanks.
You just told us what we need to know. Go.
One, two, three. Well, we're entering now, Father, a period, which on your Bible timeline chart is the purple period, and the purple stands for royalty, because... we're going to make a major, major shift here. And that's one of the reasons we're doing this, is we don't want people to get lost. We want them to know exactly where they are at.
And as you mentioned, the narrative books are 1 and 2 Samuel and part of 1 Kings. And In this period, as far as the big picture goes, we're going to see that Israel is going to ask for a king, and we can talk about that. But they're going to ask for a king, and during this period, we're going to see three kings. We're going to see the first king, Saul. He's going to reign for roughly 40 years.
And then David will be the second king, and he's going to reign for 40 years. And Solomon, his son, will be the third king, and he's going to reign for 40 years. And so we're going to be looking particularly at these three kings, but most importantly, David. And something happens between God and David, namely a covenant, and that's going to give us some structure for the rest of the story.
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Chapter 3: Why did the people of Israel ask for a king?
But I think it's really important, Father, for people to understand where we just came from in the green period, the conquest and judges. Yeah, definitely. You know, we have to ask ourselves, Why would they want a king? Why would they want a king at this point?
And if you remember back in Judges, we have that spiral where they go from sin to servitude to supplication to salvation and then silence, and then they continue it. And so in the book of Judges, we see a ever-spiraling, out-of-control iniquity by the leaders of Israel. So in chapter 3 through 5, you have Othniel, Ehud, and Deborah. They're pretty good.
And then in chapters 6 through 9, we have Gideon, not so good. Then chapters 10 through 12, we have bad, Jephthah, the very terrible story. And then we have in chapters 13 through 16, Samson, it gets worse. And then chapters 17 and 18, Micah builds a private temple with his own priests and everything. And then chapters 19 through 21 of Judges, it just gets plain ugly.
And it's at the end of this, after we have heard for four times in Judges that Israel did not have a king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's so interesting because we did that, the intro to conquest and judges together and talked about, yeah, it's going to get bad. It's going to get dark. It's going to, that we talked about that cycle and that the devastation that people experienced and how, how dark it would get. But I think a lot of people who have been journeying with us.
Didn't realize until the last couple of days that like, oh, my gosh, yeah, you weren't kidding. And they might have actually even forgotten that we had kind of prepped and said, just, you know, heads up warning. It gets horrible. I mean, it's it's it's absolutely devastating where God's people had fallen, how far they had fallen. And now that brings us to now.
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Chapter 4: Who were the three kings of Israel and what was their significance?
Yeah. So what we're doing now is we're going to pick up in 1 Samuel, and the very first thing that people are going to encounter is that Samuel comes on the scene. He's a young boy. He grows up. And there is, in the background, a division in the country that is taking place, because back in Judges, a civil war really broke out, and the tribes were against Benjamin. because of what he did.
And then we have Samuel being really the leader, or some would say the 13th judge. And the people come to Samuel in chapter 8, and they said, "'Now appoint for us a king.'" They said this to Samuel, "'Appoint for us a king to govern us like all other nations.'" And at that point, Samuel was very upset. It says that the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to govern us.
And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, no, listen. Listen to the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Now, I would have said, if I were God, I'd say, that's it. I'm done. I've tried. But God is saying, no,
No, give them what they want, and they want a king like all the other nations. But there's been some warnings about this. If, you know, way back when you were reading in Deuteronomy chapter 17, it actually said, and you read this, it said that when you come into the land, which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it, You're going to say, I want a king to rule over us.
And he says that a king should not have many horses, a king should not have many wives, and a king should not multiply silver and gold. And then when you read in 1 Samuel, after they ask for a king, God gives them sort of a warning. Again, he says, well... If you want a king, I want you to know something. This is the way of a king. They're going to take your sons and appoint them to his chariots.
They're going to take your daughters and your sons, put them to work. They're going to take your fields. They're going to tax you. And the people said, in Hebrew, bring it on. They said, whatever, whatever. We want a king.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
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Chapter 5: What warnings did God give about having a king?
Yeah, right. We want a king. And so they ended up with their first king, who is Saul. And of all places, he is from the midst of the civil war. He is from the tribe of Benjamin. And so he becomes the first king and he reigns for 40 years.
Well, that's remarkable too, because of the fact that at the end of Judges, what we heard was here's the The horror of the tribe of Benjamin and that it was happening in the midst of the tribe of Benjamin. And here, the first king is coming from that tribe. Now, when it comes to, you mentioned the three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon. I just need to say it. It's burning inside of me.
Which one brought gold? Which one brought frankincense? And which one brought myrrh? Is that... Those are the same. That's not the same three kings. OK, sorry. I just had to do it. I don't know. I just it was it was there. Yeah, that kind of landed flat anyway. So, you know, it's remarkable that that even with that warning of here's what's going to happen. And then we just see it.
We see it play out in real time, not only with Saul, but also with David and with Solomon. Even the highlight, David being the prototype king for the Messiah, he even also has this tendency towards doing exactly what God said he didn't want to happen but was going to happen.
Right. Well, what happens, you know, is it looks like Saul is going to be the king. And you have to remember, clear back in Genesis chapter 12, this seems like a long time ago now, doesn't it? Yeah. Where God promised three things. He said, you're going to receive land, there's going to be a royal dynasty, and there's going to be worldwide blessing.
Well, we're at the point now where they're in the land, first promise, check, but now there's going to be a royal dynasty that it's going to be created, and it looks like it could be Saul. But it's not, because Saul was disobedient a couple of times to the Lord, and it was literally ripped from him and given to this young David from Bethlehem.
And the next key point in our reading here is going to be 2 Samuel 7. Because 2 Samuel 7 is where God is going to make a covenant with David. And David comes to the Lord and says, hey, you've been traveling around in this tent all this time. I want to make you a permanent, beautiful structure. And it's almost humorous how God says, did I say I wasn't doing okay in the tent?
Did I ask you to build this structure? And God says something interesting to David. He says, I'm going to make your name great. which is a way in Hebrew of saying, I'm starting a royal dynasty. And you know, Father, who ends up on that seat of David later on. Right, right. Jesus. Jesus.
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Chapter 6: How does the covenant with David shape the royal kingdom story?
Yeah, sorry.
I should fill it in. That look in your eyes.
Oh, we should say it out loud. Yes, Solomon. No, wait, more and more to come after Solomon. You know, there is with this royal kingdom, there's so much promise and there is like there is truly promise. As you mentioned, here's the three promises in that covenant with Abraham. And here's the fulfillment. Well, a partial fulfillment. Here's the land. Here's the beginning of this royal dynasty.
And ultimately, again, through Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate Messiah. I know that we're mostly following first and second Samuel and first Kings here. But also, would you mind just giving us a little taste or peek into Chronicles? So here's what I mean. In Chronicles, I've been doing some reading on this to kind of get brushed up on getting my lens right. At that, Chronicles written...
even after the Babylonian exile. And so Chronicles is pointing out, written by people who say Ezra the scribe, that you would say it's pointing out here is David as the prototype Messiah or the prototype anointed one we're waiting for to reestablish that kingdom, as well as the role of temple worship.
Because here, you know, is after the Babylonian exile, we need to recapture and remember our history, right? And so, yes, we have first and second Samuel, we have Kings, but also here's Ezra saying, okay, let's go back and be reminded of the unfaithfulness. And that could be us again, because that's why we were brought into exile in the first place. And so here's a recapitulation in some ways.
I guess maybe my question would be two questions. One is what's one way that people can read Chronicles concurrently with Samuel and Kings and not be like, oh my gosh, this is the same story retold over again. Yeah. And then secondly, what is, yeah, I guess the same question. What's a good way to approach when it seems redundant, but we know that it's not being redundant.
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Chapter 7: What role does the book of Chronicles play alongside Samuel and Kings?
It's telling us another layer of truth.
Right. It's exactly right. And it's such a good question because it's something that we receive a lot. And that is, wait a minute, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Didn't we read this before? Yeah, you did, but it was a different version of it. Here's the easy way to remember it. You have 1 and 2 Samuel and the first part of 1 Kings as the narrative of the United Kingdom.
At the end of the United Kingdom, you're going to be taking readers through the divided kingdom. That's going to take place, that's the Black Period, where you're going to have a country called Israel to the north and Judah down in Jerusalem to the south. David will always be linked to the south in Jerusalem, to Judah.
So if you're going to read Chronicles, along with 1 and 2 Samuel and Kings, you have to understand that it is a revisiting of history, but it focuses on the southern kingdom of Judah, the kingdom that Jesus is going to be coming from, and the Chronicler has a way of telling all of the really good stuff about David and the king.
Because when you read 1 and 2 Samuel, you find the good and the bad about Saul, the good and the bad about David, and the good and bad about Solomon. But Chronicles sticks to the South and gives you kind of another perspective, another camera shot at all that you're going through in the South.
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Chapter 8: How should listeners approach the overlapping stories in Chronicles, Samuel, and Kings?
Yeah, and so some of those elements in Samuel as well as beginning of 1 Kings that do highlight the fact that even though these men are chosen by God, even though they are anointed, they're not perfect. And we've seen that consistently. The whole story right now has demonstrated so consistently that a person can be anointed by God, they can be called by God. Even the book of Judges, again,
Here is the Spirit of God upon Samson, who was not a good judge. Sorry, he was a good judge, wasn't necessarily a good man. And yeah, is there any kind of thing we can draw out from that when it comes to not just our own moral lives, but also paying attention to that as an element of Scripture, an element of God's story that we should be not forgetting, that we should remember?
Yeah. Well, I think that one thing that our followers here in Bible in a Year are realizing is that the Bible is not a candy-coated story. It is telling it from every angle, the good, bad, and the ugly, and that is life.
And if you took the United States right now in history, and it's the greatest nation, some would argue, in the history of the world, the richest, the most sophisticated, and so forth. Well, we can tell you a lot of stories that are not so good if you really want to know the whole history. And that's what you're getting when you look at the United Kingdom.
You're seeing Saul for 40 years, and Saul's role was really to unite the tribes, and he actually did a good job. But he was disobedient twice, and God takes the kingdom, gives it to David, and And David now is expanding the kingdom. He's a warrior, and he expands the kingdom, and God makes a covenant with him where they are one holy kingdom. They were a nation before that.
Now they are a kingdom made up of a larger bit of property and people. And then after that, Solomon is going to be the builder. So they all have different functions. We have a uniter in Saul. We have an expander in David with the covenant being made with David. A royal dynasty is established, meaning that someone from him, from his life, will be on the throne forever.
And that means that Solomon is the next king. One of Solomon's boys will be the next, the next, the next, the next, all the way to Jesus. And you can follow that in the genealogy. Mm-hmm. But every single one of these three kings had their downfalls, and Solomon perhaps was the worst. Because as he began his reign, what do we know Solomon for? We know him for his wisdom.
Yeah, we have the Proverbs and the wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiastes and so many wonderful books that we're going to be going through. But he disobeyed what was told earlier that a king should not do. A king should not have many chariots, much gold and silver, and many wives. And all three of those things are related to foreign alliances.
And what God is saying in this kingdom that is established is that the king of Israel should reflect how God rules and reigns. So you can read some of the Psalms here, and they are the kingly Psalms where God is saying, this is the way a king should rule. Well, after David, Solomon takes the reins, and he is not ruling the way God would rule. And you can find all of this in 1 Kings 10-11.
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