The story focuses on Absalom’s eventual violent death. After receiving strategic intelligence from moles the had placed in Absalom’s inner circle, David plans for his forces to confront Absalom’s forces. Demonstrating his military brilliance, David had divided his army into three segments. At the same time, he ordered all three commanders of these units to go easy on Absalom. David’s armies handily defeated Absalom’s army. But Absalom was unscathed.

Unfortunately for him, however, he got caught when his mule could not navigate thick brush. Caught fast by a tree, Absalom was vulnerable. The first member of David’s army who saw him, though, did not lay a finger on him. He was afraid to harm the king’s son. When Joab, one of the three commanders, learned of this, in a rage he killed Absalom himself. The episode ends with David’s lamenting his son’s violent death, all but forgetting that his had won the decisive battle that would allow him to regain his throne.

This is the continuing saga of the events that plagued David’s adult children after Nathan the prophet had confronted him. In this episode, Absalom let’s all Israel know that he is now in charge of his father’s wives. Plus, as he decides what his next steps are now that David has fled Jerusalem, Absalom has to determine which strategy to follow. As he decides, he makes a fatal misstep, primarily because induced him to reject sound advice in favor of poor advice.

This Podcast features a story in which King David allows his estranged son, Absalom, to return to Jerusalem. But the father and son relationship is so soured that the two have almost no contact. In time, Absalom does much more than refuse to speak to his father. Absalom begins to solicit support from Israelite citizens in an effort to undermine his father. The plot eventually works. King David is forced to flee Jerusalem, thus allowing Absalom to take over. What had begun has a conflict in a single family has now affected all of Israel. A divided family has given way to a divided Israel. This is narrated in 2 Samuel 13 and 14.

This is the first of a series of treatments of terrible things that happened to David’s adult children after his affair with Bath-Sheba and having her husband killed. When the prophet, Nathan, confronted David about this, he relayed a story. David was angry about an actor in the story who had used his power and wealth to exploit a weaker man who happened to be poor. David issued a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy when he blurted out that the rich man needed to pay four times the punishment appropriate to this crime. David paid at least that much in terms of what his family had to endure.

This treatment deals with what Jesus said about the new covenant as reported in the Gospels, what St. Paul said about it in 1-2 Corinthians, and, above all, the what the Letter to the Hebrews said about it. In the latter book, the new covenant is a major theme. This is explicated in chapters 8 and 9 of the Letter to the Hebrews.

Jeremiah prophesies that after the return from Exile, God will establish a new covenant with a newly unified Israel. This covenant will involve God’s writing not on tablets but on the human heart. That means that religious instruction is no longer required—obedience will be automatic. As well, at the end of this prediction is the statement that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, never to fall again. This comes from Jeremiah, chapter 31.

The Podcast deals with the fact that in both Hebrew and Greek the word for “slave” is the same as the word for “servant.” Only context allows a translator to know which to choose. In this instance, Israel is rescued by God from slavery to the Egyptians. But their rescue is so that they may subsequently “serve” the God who saved them. Their response to God’s grace was articulated in the Mosaic Covenant given at Sinai. In effect, Israel had the choice to be a slave to Egypt or a servant of God.

In this Podcast I argue that both the Synagogue (=Judaism) and the Church (=Christianity) should view themselves as figured by canonical Israel (Israel as depicted in the Jewish Bible/Old Testament). Both movements were originally almost exclusively Jewish, though in time the Church became decreasingly Jewish and increasingly Gentile. Nevertheless, those origins were crucial and substantial. The Church’s subsequent belief that it had superseded Israel as God’s elect was a major theological (and biblical!) error, the consequences of which historically have been horrendous and a deep stain on the Church.

In this Podcast I summarize the book that I have recently written, which will be published by Wipf and Stock. It deals with numerous stories in the Old Testament that feature one segment of Israel at odds with another segment of Israel. I include a chapter that deals with what the prophetic materials say Israel’s struggle with unity. A final chapter treats division in the early group that followed Jesus and how divisive it was. In this final chapter, I also argue that Israel is a figure for the Church, which throughout her history and even today continues to “multiply divisions.”

In this Podcast we rehearse the two times Jacob exploits his older brother Esau, once by getting him to sell his birthright and again by using deception to steal his paternal blessing. However, Jacob does not get off the hook entirely for these dubious actions. When he goes to his mother’s family there are a series of incidents in which punishment mirrors the nature of his misdeeds. Jacob is victimized by his own appetite, like Esau had been; he was the victim of sibling rivalry, just as he had struggled with Esau; he was duped in a tent, just as his father had been; and he was threatened once again by someone “groping.” Jacob ended up being the “child of promise,” but was not unscathed.