The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 126: David's Victories (2026)

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

Fr. Mike emphasizes how King David's victories in battle are part of his calling to establish Israel as a kingdom. He also reminds us that the recapitulation of the events we read about 1 Chronicles 10-11, is not repetitive, it served a specific purpose for the people of Israel. Today we read 2 Samuel 8, 1 Chronicles 10-11 and Psalm 60. 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.

Hi, my name's 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 today. Today is day 126. We are reading from 2nd Samuel, Chapter 8, as well as First Chronicles, chapters 10 and 11. We're also praying Psalm 60.

As always, I'm reading from the revised standard version, Catholic edition. And I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe and then it's done. As I said, it's day 126. We're reading 2nd Samuel, chapter 8, First Chronicles chapters 10 and 11. And we are praying Psalm 60. The book of 2nd Samuel chapter 8, David's Wars. After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Mithagama out of the hand of the Philistines. And he defeated Moab and measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground.

Two lines he measured to be put to death, and one full line to be spared. And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute. David also defeated Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, the king of Zobha, as he went to restore his power at the River Euphrates. And David took from him a thousand and seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for a hundred chariots. And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Haddadeser, king of Zobah, David slew 22,000 men of the Syrians.

Then David put garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went, and David took the shields of gold which were carried by the servants of Hadadazar and brought them to Jerusalem. And from Betah and Berothai, cities of Hadadazer, King David took very much bronze. When Toy, King of Hamath, heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hededazer, Toy sent his son Joram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him because he had fought

against Hedadadazer and defeated him, for Hedadezor had often been at war with Toy, and Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. These also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold which he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

And David won a name for himself. When he returned, he slew 18,000 Edomites in the valley of salt, and he put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. David's officers.

So David reigned over the Lord. all Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people, and Joab, the son of Zeruai, was over the army, and Jehochefat, the son of Ahilud, was recorder. And Zedok, the son of Ahutub, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiyah, were priests, and Saraya was secretary, and Beniah, the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherathites and the Pelothites, and David's sons were priests. The first book of Chronicles, Chapter 10, The Death of Saul and His Sons. Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount Giloa.

And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abidnaab and Malkeshua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard upon Saul, and the archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and make sport of me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died.

Thus Saul died. He and his three sons, and all his house died together. And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa, and they stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people,

and they put his armor in the temple of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. But when all Jabash Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. And they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. So, Saul died for his unfaithfulness. He was unfaithful to the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance, and did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore, the Lord slew him, and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.

Chapter 11. David anointed King of all Israel. Then all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron and said, Behold, we are your bone and flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you that led out and brought in Israel, and the Lord your God said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord,

and they anointed David, king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. David's army captures Jerusalem. And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus. where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of that land, the inhabitants of Jabus, said to David, you will not come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David. David said, whoever shall strike the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander. And Joab, the son of Zeruaya, went up first, so he became chief. And David dwelt in the stronghold. Therefore, it was called the city of David.

and he built the city roundabout from the millo in complete circuit, and Joab repaired the rest of the city, and David became greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. David's mighty men and their exploits. Now, these are the chiefs of David's mighty men, who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel,

to make him king according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. This is an account of David's mighty men. DeShobion, a hackmanite, was chief of the three. He wielded his spear against 300 whom he slew at one time. And next to him, among the three mighty men, was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, the Ahoyte. He was with David at Pasdamim when the Philistines were gathered there for battle. There was a plot of ground full of barley, and the men fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and slew the Philistines, and the Lord saved them by a great victory. Three of the

the 30 chief men went down to the rock to David at the cave of Adulam, when the army of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Raffaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. And David said longingly, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and took and brought it to David.

But David would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, Far be it from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the lifeblood of these men? For at the risk of their lives, they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men. Now Abashai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the thirty,

and he wielded his spear against three hundred men and slew them and won a name beside the three. He was most renowned of the thirty, and became their commander, but he did not attain to the three. And Beniah, the son of Jojahida, was a valiant man of Kabzil, a doer of great deeds. He struck two aerials of Moab. He also went down and slew a line in a pit on a day when the snow had fallen. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature five cubits tall.

The Egyptian had in his hand a spear like a weaver's beam. But Benaya went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear. These things did Beniah, the son of Johydha, and won a name beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.

The mighty men of the armies were Asahel, the brother of Joab, Al-Khanan, the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, Shemoth of Harod, Helez, the Pelanite, Ira, the son of Ikesh, of Tikoa, Abiyazar, of Anathath, Sivakai the Hushethite

Eli the Ahahite Mahurai of Netofah Helaide the son of Ba'ana of Netofa Ithai the son of ribai of Gibbya of the Benjaminites Benaya of Purathon Hurai of the Brooks of Gaash

Abiel the Arbethite Azmaveth of Bahram Iliaba of Shaal Baon Hashim the Gizanite Jonathan son of Shaghi the Ha'arite Ahiam the son of Sakhar the Hararite. Elafal, the son of Ur. Heifer, the Mechrethite. Ahijah, the Pelanite. Hezro of Carmel.

Naarai, the son of Esbaai. Joel, the brother of Nathan. Mibhar, the son of Hagri. Zalek, the Ammonite. Naharai, of Beiroth, the armor-bearer of Joab, the son of Zuraia. Ira, the Ithrae, the Ithrae, Gereb, the ithite, Uriah, the Hittite, Zabad, the son of Alaya, Adina. the son of Shiza, the Rubinite, a leader of the Rubinites, and thirty with him. Hanan, the son of Maaka, and Josaphat, the myth knight, Uzaya, the Ashtarathite, Shama and Jayaal, the sons of Hotham, the Erorite, Jadaeel, the son of Shimri, and Jolla, his brother, the Tizite, Eliel, the Mahavai, and Jashavaya, the sons of El-Naham, and Ithma, the Moabite, Eliel and Jaisal, the Mizobite.

The book of Psalms, chapter 60. Prayer for National Victory after defeat To the choir master according to the Shushan, Eduth, a victim of David, for instruction, when he strove with Aram Nakhahram and with the Aram Zobah, and when Joab on his return killed 12,000 of Edom in the valley of salt. Oh God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses. You have been angry.

Oh, restore us. You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open. Repair its breeches for it totters. You have made your people suffer hard things. You have given us wine to drink that made us real. You have set up a banner for those who fear you, to rally to it from the bow. That your beloved may be delivered. Give victory by your right hand and answer us. God has spoken in his sanctuary. With exaltation, I will divide up Shechem and portion out the valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is my helmet. Judah is my septu.

Mowab is my wash basin. Upon Edom, I cast my shoe. Over Philistia, I shout in triumph. Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies. Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the help of man. With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes. Father in heaven, we give you and we do know that with you, we can do valiantly. Without you, we can do nothing. If we remain in you, then all things are possible. If we remain in you, then we can bear fruit and fruit that will last. And yet if we remove ourselves from you, if we remove ourselves from your presence and from your power, from your help, from your holiness, then there is nothing that we can do. We can bear no fruit

and we can make no difference in our lives. So we need you, God, not only for existence, but also for perseverance, need you not only for fruitfulness, but also for faithfulness. So please, Lord God, help us to be faithful and fruitful. Help us to persevere and to be yours forever. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Awesome. So this is so great. This is such a gift. Okay, so Second Samuel, Chapter 8, what do we have? We have David's conquering. We have this picture. Remember, under King Saul, there was this loose confederation of these 12 tribes of Israel. Now, David is bringing them together and united. He's establishing a kingdom. And he's establishing a kingdom by basically defeating all the nations around them. He's defeating

the peoples around them. And that's one of the ways that David is establishing not only himself as a king, but Israel as a kingdom. And that is massively important. Now, it's also really unique to notice that I mentioned yesterday that while Second Samuel and, well, you know, Samuel, the books of Samuel, and the books of kings are kind of written, I don't want to say contemporaneously, but a lot more, a lot closer to the actual events. Whereas Chronicles is written after the fact, it's written far into the future after the Babylonian exile, most likely by Ezra the scribe. And so what we hear today in chapter 11 and in chapter 10 and 11 in Chronicles is the story

we heard. We heard the death of King Saul and the defeat of his sons. We also in chapter 11 see the David being anointed king of Israel, which is the story we heard at the beginning of Second Samuel. So a little bit of recapitulation. Now, it's not the same story. Keep this in mind. You might think, gosh, this is just repeating the same thing we've already heard.

It might be repeating some of the same events. But here I invite you to pay close attention to the reason and motivation why they are repeating, why Ezra the scribe would be writing in First and Second Chronicles all these tales is because he is proposing to the people a vision for a future. He's writing of this past so they can have a clear sense of, okay, God is present with us now, and he can build up, he can establish, he's leading us to the place where we are going to have a king, or we are going to have temple worship. And so that's what he's emphasizing. And he's casting a vision for these people. He is, he is a truly, Ezra is a vision castor and he's casting this vision by reminding the people their pedigree by reminding them

where they came from and also reminding them that here's David who didn't do this on his own but he had around him this David's mighty men and their exploits which is just remarkable I I love later on we're going to hear more about those people like eleazar the son of dodo and um the hackmanites and all the other three it's the mighty three the three big ones oh man they're awesome but I want to highlight one name of the 30 one of the three of the three of the three mighty men of the armies. His name is Uriah the Hittite. He is. He is here and we're going to find out more about Yeraya, unfortunately, in the days to come. Because Yerai the Hittite was married to a woman named Bathsheba. In First Chronicles, Uriah the Hittite is named as one of the mighty men of

King David. And we're going to find out in 2nd Samuel that Yariah the Hittite was the husband of the woman that David had committed adultery with and that he ultimately, David ultimately arranged Uriah the Hittite, one of his mighty men. He arranged the death of Eurya the Hittite. And so we see these lines crossing. We see these paths as they unfold in our story. And as we follow the story, keep this in mind is that everything that's happening in the books called the Bible, all that's happening is, again, not just arbitrary and it's not just kind of incidental, but it is for our direction, for our education, and for vision, Ezra's writing Chronicles, to give the people of God a vision for the future and how to live right now. And so also, that's what we're doing,

right? We're receiving a vision for the future as well as how to live right now. Okay, so we keep trucking along in Second Samuel and First Chronicles. We just give God praise and please know that I'm praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.