Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Makes Jesus a Good King? | Historical Books | 2 Samuel 21:15-22

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Why are we obsessed with kings? What makes Jesus a good king? Will you submit to him? In today's episode, Keith shares how 2 Samuel 21:15-22 points to King Jesus, who fights our battles for us. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Samuel 21:15-22

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. We are fascinated and often obsessed with royalty, and specifically kings. Think of television shows like The Crown or Game of Thrones, or movies like Lord of the Rings, or America's fascination with the British royal family. Why does the world tune in to watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Die, or William and Catherine, or Harry and Megan?

Why did the world obsess over the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the subsequent coronation of King Charles? Why, in 2025, in the age of democracy, are there still 43 countries with monarchies? Why do some of the most famous stories in literature focus on kings? For example, think of King Arthur and Camelot or Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia. I think a large part of our fascination and obsession is because the truest story the world is ever known is about a king. about the true king. Of course, I'm talking about the biblical story. It's the story of the reign and rule of the greatest king. The prototype every other king is measured by, and that of course is Jesus, who's called the King of Kings. Before we dig in, let's pray for our time together. God, I pray that you

would open your word that we might understand it, and that you would open our hearts that we might be transformed by your word. Amen. So let's start at the beginning of the Bible and then move quickly to where we are in 2 Samuel. And Genesis 1 and 2 declares that God, Yahweh, is the creator king, who takes up his reign in Eden, with his image bearers, Adam and Eve, living in the garden, and ruling under God's authority. In Deuteronomy 17, before the Israelites enter the promised land, God describes the ideal king. According to Moses, the ideal king would demonstrate humility, depend on God, not himself. The ideal king wouldn't accumulate great wealth or many wives or great armies so that he would not lust for power or money or sex. Instead, he would be

devoted to God's word, both knowing it and following it. This meant that the king would know that he serves at God's pleasure. He serves a higher purpose than his own personal ambition. When Israel settled in the promised land, instead of being content to let God be their king, they wanted a human king, so they could be like the other nations. They didn't choose their king based on God's criteria, but the worlds. Samuel told them in chapter 8 that the king they demanded would end up oppressing them. The king would heavily tax them, taking away their wealth. He take their sons and make them soldiers who fought his battles. He'd take their daughters and make them work in his royal palace. Samuel warned them that the king they wanted would turn them into slaves. Here's 1 Samuel 8, verse 19.

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No, they said, we want a king over us. then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and to fight our battles. Now remember that last line. They want a king to fight their battles and defeat their enemies. 1 Samuel 9 identifies Israel's first king as Saul, who is described as a head taller than anyone else. Saul looked impressive by the world standards. He looked like a great warrior who could stand up to Israel's enemies. And then later in chapter 9, we're told that Saul is supposed to deliver Israel from all. all their enemies, specifically the Philistines. But does Saul do that? No. Time after time, he shrinks back, such as when he lets David go out and fight Goliath instead of doing that himself.

Time after time, Saul disobeys God, such as when he refuses to destroy the Amalekites. For this and other reasons, God rejects Saul as king, and the prophet Samuel anoints David as the next king of Israel. So the question second Samuel is asking is, who may be? serve as king over Israel, will David succeed where Saul failed? After Saul's death, his top general, Abner, is working to make David king. And it says in 2 Samuel 3, Abner conferred with the elders of Israel and said, for some time you have wanted to make David your king. Now do it. For the Lord promised David, by my servant David, I will rescue my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies. So Abner says that God is promised that David will be the king that defeats

God's enemies, and that's exactly what David does. After being made king over the whole nation, we read that under David's leadership, Israel defeats the Philistines. And that brings us to the passage for today in the second half of 2 Samuel 21. And there we find four very brief episodes sharing how David and his soldiers defeated the Philistines. I think the author wanted to remind this before the end of the book that the good king wins God's battles by relying on God's wisdom and God's power. The descriptions of these battles, they're not much to read. They look like they could have come out of a military report. There's a list of names and places and the weapons that were used and the results of the battle. But here's why this is important. In fact, it's very important to us.

God promised David that one of his descendants would sit on an eternal throne and be the great king of his The angel told Mary that the one she would give birth to. And this is in Luke chapter 1. The angel says, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son. And you were to call him Jesus.

Now catch this. He will be great and will be called son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. So Jesus is the ideal and perfect king who sits on the eternal throne. He's the king who defeats our enemies. The easiest place to see this is in the book of Colossians.

It says that he forgave all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. Now catch this. Verse 15. Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. See, Jesus has defeated our enemies through his death and resurrection,

and based on his victory, he calls us to enter the battle. In 1 John 2, it says that all genuine Christians have won the battle with the evil one. In Luke 1019, Jesus said to his disciples, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you. In Ephesians 6, it tells us that we should always enter spiritual battle dressed in God's armor. It starts by saying, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms.

Paul tells us that people are never our enemy. Our enemies are the dark spiritual forces at work in the world. And then Paul goes on to list the pieces of armor that God provides. God provides for us Christians a belt of truth and a breastplate of righteousness and the sandals of the gospel of peace and a shield of faith and a helmet of salvation, and the only offensive weapon, which is the sword of the spirit or the word of God. And in the book of Revelation, we're told that Jesus is the Lamb and the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings who has defeated the beast and those who oppose God.

Revelation 7, they will wage war against the lamb, but the lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and with him will be his called, his chosen, his faithful followers. The king won, the king's people won. In Revelation 12 were told they triumphed over their enemies by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. We are fascinated, even obsessed with kings, because the truest story in the universe is rooted in a king who delivers us from our enemies. But I'm also very aware that we are wary of kings. And I get why. I mean, just think of the fictional kings in the crown or the game of thrones. Those kings are often corrupt, power hungry, and selfish. But in spite of that, don't you find that

even in the larger culture, there's a strong desire to have some sort of leader who could lead us to a better world? Even if people disagree on the cause of the problem the world faces, we all know that our world has a problem, a big problem. Our world is not the way it's supposed to be. We don't need more kings like Saul who used his power for his own selfish ambition. We need kings like David, or more to the point, we need a king like the one that David pointed to. We need a king like Jesus. We need a compassionate king, a wise king, a powerful king, who can heal what is wrong with our world. Well, Jesus is the compassionate king who cares for the needy and the broken. He seeks out those on the margins. Jesus is the wise king, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.

Jesus is the humble king. He chooses to be made like us in every way. Jesus is the powerful king, who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus is the suffering king, giving his life for others. See, kings like to spill the blood of him. their enemies, but King Jesus's blood was spilled for his enemies. Let the stories of King David encourage you to trust in King Jesus, to defeat all your enemies. Jesus, I pray, I pray that our hope and our trust would be in you. The battle belongs to the Lord. And all the spiritual enemies we face, Father, will we fight them in the name of Jesus,

who is our king, our Savior, and our hope. Amen. Thank you.