Month: May 2017

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday May 18, 2017 (NIV)

1 Samuel 22-23

David in Judah and Moab

22 So David escaped from that place and fled to the cave at Adullam. When his brothers and all the rest of his family heard about it, they went to him. 2 Then everyone who was in trouble, in debt, or bitter about life joined him, and he became their commander. There were about four hundred men with him.

3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab. He asked the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay with you until I know what Elohim is going to do for me.” 4 He brought them to the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was living in his fortified camp.

5 “Don’t live in your fortified camp,” the prophet Gad told David. “Go to the land of Judah.” So David went to the forest of Hereth.

Saul Massacres the Priests at Nob

6 Saul heard that David and his men had been found. Saul was staying in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree at the worship site[a] with his spear in his hand and all his officials standing around him. 7 He said to his officials, “Listen here, men of Benjamin! Will Jesse’s son give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all officers over a regiment or a battalion of soldiers? 8 All of you are plotting against me, and no one informed me when my son entered into a loyalty pledge with Jesse’s son. No one felt sorry for me and informed me that my son has encouraged my servant David to ambush me, as he’s doing now.”

9 Then Doeg from Edom, standing with Saul’s officials, answered him, “I saw Jesse’s son when he came to Ahimelech, Ahitub’s son, in Nob. 10 Ahimelech prayed to Yahweh for David and gave him food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

11 Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelech, who was Ahitub’s son, and his entire family who were the priests in Nob. All of them came to the king. 12 Saul said, “Listen here, son of Ahitub!”

“Yes, sir?” he responded.

13 Saul asked him, “Why did you and Jesse’s son plot against me? You gave him bread and a sword and prayed to Elohim for him so that he can rise up against me and ambush me, as he’s doing now.”

14 Ahimelech asked the king, “But whom among all your officials can you trust like David? Your Majesty, he’s your son-in-law, the commander of your bodyguard. He’s honored in your own household. 15 Is this the first time I have prayed to Elohim for him? Not at all! You shouldn’t blame me or anyone in my family for this. I knew nothing at all about this.”

16 Saul said, “Ahimelech, you and your entire family are going to die.”

17 “Turn and kill Yahweh’s priests because they support David,” the king said to the runners standing around him. “When they knew David was fleeing, they didn’t inform me.” But the king’s men refused to attack Yahweh’s priests.

18 So the king said to Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests.” Doeg from Edom turned and attacked the priests, and that day he killed 85 men wearing the linen priestly ephod.[b] 19 He also killed the people of Nob, the city of the priests. Using his sword, he killed men and women, children and infants, cows, donkeys, and sheep.

20 But Ahimelech, Ahitub’s son, had one son who escaped. His name was Abiathar. He fled to David. 21 Abiathar told David that Saul had killed Yahweh’s priests.

22 David told Abiathar, “I knew that day when Doeg from Edom was there that he would be certain to tell Saul. I am the one responsible[c] for all the lives of your family. 23 Stay with me. Don’t be afraid. The one who is seeking my life is also seeking your life. However, you will be under my protection.”

David Saves the City of Keilah

23 David was asked, “Did you know that the Philistines are fighting against Keilah? They are robbing the threshing floors.”[d]

2 David asked Yahweh, “Should I go and attack these Philistines?”

“Go,” Yahweh told David, “attack the Philistines, and save Keilah.”

3 David’s men told him, “We’re afraid of staying here in Judah. How much more afraid do you think we’ll be if we go to Keilah against the Philistine army?”

4 David asked Yahweh again, and Yahweh answered him. He said, “Go to Keilah. I’m giving you the power to defeat the Philistines.”

5 David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines, drove off their livestock, and decisively defeated them. So David rescued the people who lived in Keilah.

6 When Ahimelech’s son Abiathar fled to David at Keilah, Abiathar brought a priestly ephod[e] with him.

7 When Saul was told that David went to Keilah, Saul said, “Elohim has delivered him into my hands. He has trapped himself by going into a city which has a gate with a double door held shut by a bar.” 8 So Saul called together all the troops to go to war and blockade Keilah, where David and his men were.

9 When David learned that Saul was planning to harm him, he told the priest Abiathar, “Bring the ephod.” 10 Then David said, “Yahweh Elohim of Israel, I have actually heard that Saul is going to come to Keilah and destroy the city on account of me. 11 Will the citizens of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come here as I have heard? Yahweh Elohim of Israel, please tell me.”

“He will come,” Yahweh answered.

12 “Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?” David asked.

“They will hand you over,” Yahweh answered.

13 So David and his men, about six hundred[f] in all, left Keilah. They went wherever they could go. Then Saul was told, “David has escaped from Keilah!” So he gave up the campaign. 14 David lived in fortified camps in the desert, and he lived in fortified camps in the mountains of the desert of Ziph. Saul was always searching for him, but Elohim didn’t let him capture David.

David in the Desert of Ziph

15 David was afraid because[g] Saul had come to kill him at Horesh in the desert of Ziph. 16 Saul’s son Jonathan came to David at Horesh. He strengthened David’s faith in Yahweh.[h] 17 “Don’t be afraid,” he told David, “my father Saul won’t find you. You will rule Israel, and I will be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows this.” 18 Both of them made a pledge in Yahweh’s presence. David stayed in Horesh, and Jonathan went home.

19 Then the men of Ziph went to Saul in Gibeah. They said, “David is hiding with us in fortified camps at Horesh on the hills of Hachilah, south of Jeshimon. 20 Come, Your Majesty, whenever you want. We will hand him over to you.”

21 Saul responded, “Yahweh bless you for feeling sorry for me! 22 Please make more plans, and watch where he goes. Who has seen him there? I’m told he’s very clever. 23 Watch and learn about all the hiding places where he may be hiding, and come back to me with the facts. Then I’ll go with you, and if he’s in the country, I’ll search for him among all the families of Judah.” 24 They left for Ziph ahead of Saul.

David in the Desert of Maon

David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the plains south of Jeshimon. 25 When Saul and his men came to look for him, David was told the news. So he went to his mountain stronghold in the desert of Maon. Saul heard about it and pursued David into the desert of Maon. 26 Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men went on the other side of the mountain. David was hurrying to get away from Saul, and Saul and his men were going around the mountain toward David and his men, trying to capture them. 27 Then a messenger came to Saul and said, “Come quickly! The Philistines are raiding the country.”

28 Saul gave up pursuing David and went to fight the Philistines. So that place was called Slippery Rock.[i] 29 From there David went to stay in the fortified camps of En Gedi.

Footnotes:

  1. 1 Samuel 22:6 Greek; Masoretic Text “at Ramah.”
  2. 1 Samuel 22:18 Ephod is a technical term for a part of the priest’s clothes. Its exact usage and shape are unknown.
  3. 1 Samuel 22:22 Greek; Masoretic Text “I turned.”
  4. 1 Samuel 23:1 A threshing floor is an outdoor area where grain is separated from its husks.
  5. 1 Samuel 23:6 Ephod is a technical term for a part of the priest’s clothes. Its exact usage and shape are unknown.
  6. 1 Samuel 23:13 Masoretic Text; Greek “four hundred.”
  7. 1 Samuel 23:15 Or “David saw that.”
  8. 1 Samuel 23:16 Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek; Masoretic Text “in Elohim.”
  9. 1 Samuel 23:28 1 Samuel 23:29 in English Bibles is 1 Samuel 24:1 in the Hebrew Bible.
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

John 10:1-21

Jesus, the Good Shepherd

10 “I can guarantee this truth: The person who doesn’t enter the sheep pen through the gate but climbs in somewhere else is a thief or a robber. 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep respond to his voice. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out of the pen. 4 After he has brought out all his sheep, he walks ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger. Instead, they will run away from a stranger because they don’t recognize his voice.” 6 Yeshua used this illustration as he talked to the people, but they didn’t understand what he meant.

7 Yeshua emphasized, “I can guarantee this truth: I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before I did were thieves or robbers. However, the sheep didn’t respond to them. 9 I am the gate. Those who enter the sheep pen through me will be saved. They will go in and out of the sheep pen and find food. 10 A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came so that my sheep will have life and so that they will have everything they need.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep. When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and quickly runs away. So the wolf drags the sheep away and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand is concerned about what he’s going to get paid and not about the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep as the Father knows me.[a] My sheep know me as I know the Father. 15 So I give my life for my sheep. 16 I also have other sheep that are not from this pen. I must lead them. They, too, will respond to my voice. So they will be one flock with one shepherd. 17 The Father loves me because I give my life in order to take it back again. 18 No one takes my life from me. I give my life of my own free will. I have the authority to give my life, and I have the authority to take my life back again. This is what my Father ordered me to do.”

19 The Jews were divided because of what Yeshua said. 20 Many of them said, “He’s possessed by a demon! He’s crazy! Why do you listen to him?” 21 Others said, “No one talks like this if he’s possessed by a demon. Can a demon give sight to the blind?”

Footnotes:

  1. John 10:14 The first part of verse 15 (in Greek) has been moved to verse 14 to express the complex Greek sentence structure more clearly in English.
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Psalm 115

Psalm 115

1 Don’t give glory to us, O Yahweh.
Don’t give glory to us.
Instead, give glory to your name
because of your mercy and faithfulness.
2 Why should other nations say, “Where is their Elohim?”
3 Our Elohim is in heaven.
He does whatever he wants.
4 Their idols are made of silver and gold.
They were made by human hands.[a]
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak.
They have eyes, but they cannot see.
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear.
They have noses, but they cannot smell.
7 They have hands, but they cannot feel.
They have feet, but they cannot walk.
They cannot even make a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make idols end up like them.
So does everyone who trusts them.

9 Israel, trust Yahweh.
He is your helper and your Magen.
10 Descendants of Aaron, trust Yahweh.
He is your helper and your Magen.
11 If you fear Yahweh, trust Yahweh.
He is your helper and your Magen.

12 Yahweh, who is always thinking about us, will bless us.
He will bless the descendants of Israel.
He will bless the descendants of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear Yahweh,
from the least important to the most important.
14 May Yahweh continue to bless you and your children.
15 You will be blessed by Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth.
16 The highest heaven belongs to Yahweh,
but he has given the earth to the descendants of Adam.
17 Those who are dead do not praise Yah,
nor do those who go into the silence of the grave.
18 But we will thank Yah now and forever.

Hallelujah!

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 115:4 Verses 4–8 are virtually identical in wording to Psalm 135:15–18.
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Proverbs 15:18-19

18 A hothead stirs up a fight,
but one who holds his temper calms disputes.
19 The path of lazy people is like a thorny hedge,
but the road of decent people is an open highway.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

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05/17/2017 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 20:1-21:15 ~ John 9:1-41 ~ Psalm 113:1-114:8  ~ Proverbs 15:15-17

Today is May 17th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It’s great to be here with you today and how is your week going?  Here we are in the middle of it all and we’ll turn a corner and head toward the backside of the week.  We’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week and we’re in the intriguing story right now with King Saul and a young David and just what gets brought up in the two of them because they are in proximity to each other and what that can mean for our lives.  So 1 Samuel chapter 20, verse 1 through 21, verse 15 today.  

Commentary

Okay, if it wasn’t clear that Saul wants to kill David (and it was clear, by the way), but if it wasn’t clear, it is very clear now.  And Jonathan, David’s best friend, the son of the king, the prince of Israel, he knows it’s true and so he has to help his best friend get away. It’s just a pretty sad scene because we’re seeing, like we talked about, where the insecurity and unsettledness and people-pleasing of Saul, the things that intimidate him are taking his life over and they are affecting the way that he leads.  So you see that Saul has become very obsessed about David.  He’s very jealous about David, but he is also very, very insecure and he’s isolating himself and he’s getting stranger and stranger and stranger as it goes because that is kind of how that works.  So his insecurity and his isolation are also turning into paranoia and just all kinds of things are going on inside of Saul.  

David, on the other hand, he didn’t deserve any of this.  He didn’t ask for any of this.  David had to grow up really fast all of a sudden.  One morning his father sends him to the battle lines to bring his brothers some supplies and see how things are going and the next thing you know he is like a national hero.  The next thing you know he’s killed the giant Goliath.  So it’s been a whirlwind ever since I’m sure with some really, really wonderful days, but David had to grow up fast.  He had to grow up in the limelight.  He had to grow up really fast and then all of a sudden now it is pretty clear he’s gone from national treasure, like national hero to fugitive, outlaw on the run and being pursued by the king of Israel, this one man.

So we see like a desperation.  He flies to a priest and gets himself a weapon and gets him a little bit of supplies and then he goes to Gath.  So he’s literally left the borderlands.  He’s left Israel and is seeking asylum with the Philistines.  He goes to Gath, which is this nearby city that happens to be the hometown of Goliath.  That’s how pressed in David is, ‘it would be more safe for me to go to Gath, the hometown of the giant that I killed, than to be in my own homeland right now.’  

So David has no really good options and really hasn’t done anything but be loyal, faithful, a good servant to the king, a good leader to the soldiers and David has become a warrior in the process with nowhere to go and King Achish, once they figure out who David is, it is not a good environment for David to maybe lay his head down to rest in so he has to pretend he’s insane just to get out of there.  And we’ll pick that story up tomorrow.  But it is just important to see kind of the diverging paths.  Everything that is happening in David’s life as far as him being on the run and an outlaw is completely a repercussion of Saul’s insecurity. Things that we let run rampant in us, the lies that we have believed all this time that pull us into isolation and can keep making us stranger and stranger, they affect people around us and we’re seeing that in Saul’s life and we’re seeing that in David’s life.  

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that.  We invite you into that because the things that are making us feel less than, I mean, whether they have any basis in truth or not, they melt away in your face.  So when we go to those places and we live in those places and we isolate ourselves, we’re essentially saying that you’re not capable of redeeming us.  There is no new start for us.  There is no mercy that is renewed in the morning for us.  There is no all things new for us.  That is pretty much what we’re saying.  And that is not true.  So we’re believing a lie and living into that and we’re watching where that road leads with Saul and we ask you to help us.  We need your Holy Spirit’s power in those places, those wounds and agreements that we have made covenant with and lived from for so long that were never true in the first place.  Come Holy Spirit into those places.  We invite you.  We reject those things.  We reject anything that is not from you or of you.  We reject anything in our lives that exalts itself above you.  We pursue you with our whole heart.  We love you, Lord.  Come Holy Spirit, speak truth into our lives.  Lead us on the path of life, we ask.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It’s the website.  I say it every day.  That’s where you find out what is going on around here and that is where the Prayer Wall is and that’s where resources are and that is where upcoming events are.  I guess the one upcoming event that we’re talking about right now, and I don’t think we’ll be talking about it too much more because I think it will be full, because it is getting pretty close now, we’re going to go back to this land of the Bible, the Valley of Elah that we talked about when David slew Goliath.  I mean, some of these places David has to flee to at this point are kind of back down from Jerusalem in what is called the lowlands, the Shfela, that area, and we’ll be in that area as well as every region pretty much north, south, east or west.  Every region of land we will certainly touch and visit and contextualize.  So you’re invited.  We’ll be going back in February, February 19th through March 4th.  You can get more information at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just kind of scroll down and look for the Israel 2018 icon, little banner, and that will take you where you need to go.  So you are invited.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It’s on the home page.  Thank you profoundly for your partnership in the community that we share and are together. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

And that’s it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi.  My name is Lynn and I love the Lord very much.  I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for about two years now and just really enjoy it.  I’m a first-time caller.  Thank you, Brian, for having this podcast available and thank you to all the prayer warriors out there who are praying for each other.  It is very comforting to listen to the prayer line and I too am praying for others as they call in.  Today I’m calling thanking God for my mom and my grandma who both loved the Lord very much and are with him now and I’m missing them today on Mother’s Day and I pray for all those  who are also missing their mothers this day especially and for you, Brian.  I know it is especially hard that first Mother’s Day. I also ask prayer request for my adult son who will be deployed to Afghanistan next week.  He serves in the Air Force Reserves and I just ask for prayers for his safety and for his family’s protection while he’s away.  I also ask for prayers for my younger adult son and his wife and they are going through a rough patch in their marriage right now.  I pray for healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and perseverance through the hard times.  Lord, protect their marriage.  Thank you, God, for being so faithful and so good.  I love you, dear Lord Jesus.  Amen.  

Hi Daily Audio Bible.  This is Sandy from New Hampshire.  I’m calling on Mother’s Day.  I’m letting you know, Hardin family, that you’re in my thoughts and prayers and sending you a hug.  It blessed my heart to hear different folks reaching out to you and that just touched my heart.  I’m calling today to encourage people that are discouraged, that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He comes to steal your joy.  He comes to destroy your trust in God and he comes to kill your faith.  And so I’m praying right now for people to have that assurance from the Lord that he is with you.  He has not forsaken you.  You are in the called and the beloved and he loves you.  I’m praying for you today.  So Father, in the name of Jesus, I give you thanks.  I give you praise for each and every person in the Daily Audio Bible family.  I pray, Father, for your Holy Spirit to speak in the hearts and to encourage.  Lord, what the enemy has sought to steal, kill and destroy, I pray, Father, that you will refresh, refuel and revive each soul, in Jesus’ mighty name, for your glory, Lord God.  This is Sandy in New Hampshire.  God bless you.  

Lee in New Jersey, I want to thank you again for your message on clarifying what it is I was trying to convey on the DAB Prayer Line.  I appreciate your prayers so much and I want you to know that I am standing in agreement with asking God for wisdom and to reveal his plan to you as well as the inappropriate stuff that your daughter and other children are being exposed to on the Internet.  I want to tell you that my brother __ had a very similar issue and what they did is they got one computer, a Mac, and put it in the living room in open space so that their two kids, when they need to do work, it is done in an open space and an open, controlled area and they monitor their time, so I hope that will help you.  Rose in Queens, I love you, too.  Will in Bozeman, MT, I’m praying for your brother’s cancer.  I pray for full recovery and just ask God to give you wisdom and protect you and your family.  Christy in Kentucky, your mama passed away.  Girlfriend, I don’t know what to say except that I am standing in the gap and I’m praying for you.  I want to thank Victorious Soldier.  I want to thank Richard and Francine in Canada for calling in.  Roselyn and Walta and Sheila in Texas, restoration of your marriage.  __ along with the ladies I just mentioned, thank you so much for calling in and sharing your testimony.  I think it is so important that while we call in for prayer reports, we also call in with stories of success and hope that that will bless you.  So just sending everybody my love and big hugs to you. Cheers!  Asia in Munich.  

Good morning Dabbers.  This is Walta, the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King. Guys, my beautiful mom, the one who showed me who God is and woman of faith, well, she has been diagnosed with colon cancer and today as I speak she is going into surgery for removal of a tumor. Please pray for my mom.  She is the best mom in the world.  Just pray for her to make it out safe and healed and that she will know that God is with her.  He will never leave her nor forsake her in this entire process and to be with us as we pray for her healing and safe surgery and healing after the surgery.  Thank you guys.  I love you. I love you all.  God bless.  

Hi, this is Christine with a bumpy dog in North Carolina.  I’ve been a long time listener and call in occasionally but I’m calling in today with a prayer request and a praise.  I just listened to the May 11th broadcast and heard Keith.  I’m so thankful that he called in and it’s so heartening that he said his son made poor choices in high school but now, as he’s in his 20s, he is maturing in his faith and can see Jesus in his heart.  I’m also calling, Jordan had called in several times with requests as a teacher to work with several difficult children in his class.  He’s praying to know when to push and yet keep a positive relationship between him and the students.  So it is with both of these that I call for my son who also has made poor choices in school. He has suffered the consequences and as a parent it really hurt to watch him do that and it also hurts to administer consequences here at home in support of the school, but I’m now praying for wisdom and discernment from the Holy Spirit as I speak to my son as he has seen several serious situations involving other students where he has not seen a consistent way of administering justice.  I’m praying for wisdom and discernment to know as a parent when I should speak up and model for him correct behavior and when I should be quiet and the ability to have that conversation with him about that delicate balance between mercy and justice as a follower of Christ.  Thank you again for your prayers.  

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday May 17, 2017 (NIV)

1 Samuel 20-21

David Makes a Promise to Jonathan

20 David fled from the pastures at Ramah, came to Jonathan, and asked, “What have I done? What crime am I guilty of? What sin have I committed against your father that he’s trying to kill me?”

2 Jonathan answered, “That’s unthinkable! You’re not going to die! My father does nothing without telling me, whether it’s important or not. Why should my father hide this from me? It’s just not that way.”

3 But David took an oath, saying, “Your father certainly knows that you support me, so he said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know about this. It will bring him distress.’ But I solemnly swear, as Yahweh and you live, I’m only one step away from death.”

4 Jonathan said to David, “I’ll do whatever you say.”

5 David replied, “Tomorrow is the New Moon Festival, when I should sit and eat at the king’s table. But let me go and hide in the countryside for two more nights. 6 If your father really misses me, tell him, ‘David repeatedly begged me to let him run to Bethlehem, his hometown, because his relatives are offering the annual sacrifice there.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good!’ then I will be safe. But if he gets really angry, then you’ll know for sure that he has decided to harm me. 8 Now, be kind to me. After all, you forced me into an agreement with Yahweh. If I have committed any crime, kill me yourself. Why bother taking me to your father?”

9 Jonathan answered, “That’s unthinkable! If I knew for sure that my father had decided to harm you, I would have told you about it.”

10 Then David asked, “Who will tell me whether or not your father gives you a harsh answer?”

11 Jonathan said, “Let’s go out into the country.” So they went out into the country.

12 “As Yahweh Elohim of Israel is my witness,” Jonathan continued, “I’ll find out in the next two or three days how my father feels about you. If he does feel kindly toward you, then I will send someone to tell you. 13 If my father plans to harm you and I fail to tell you and send you away safely, may Yahweh harm me even more. May Yahweh be with you as he used to be with my father. 14 But as long as I live, promise me that you will show me kindness because of Yahweh. And even when I die, 15 never stop being kind to my family. Yahweh will wipe each of David’s enemies off the face of the earth. 16 At that time, if Jonathan’s name[a] is cut off from David’s family, then may Yahweh punish David’s house.”[b]

17 Once again Jonathan swore an oath to David because of his love for David. He loved David as much as he loved himself. 18 “Tomorrow is the New Moon Festival,” Jonathan told him, “and you will be missed when your seat is empty. 19 The day after tomorrow you will be missed even more.[c] So go to the place where you hid on that other occasion, and stay by the rock. 20 I will shoot three arrows from beside it toward a target. 21 Then I will send out a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ Now, if I tell the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are next to you; get them,’ then come back with me. You will be safe, and there will be no trouble. I swear it, as Yahweh lives. 22 But if I tell the boy, ‘The arrows are next to you,’ then go, because Yahweh has sent you away. 23 We have made a promise to each other, and Yahweh is a witness between you and me forever.”

24 So David hid in the countryside. When the New Moon Festival came, King Saul sat down to eat the festival meal. 25 He sat in his usual seat by the wall, while Jonathan stood. Abner sat beside Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul didn’t say anything that day, thinking, “Something has happened to him so that he’s unclean.[d] He must be unclean.” 27 But on the second day of the month, David’s place was still empty.

Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal either yesterday or today?”

28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David repeatedly begged me to let him go to Bethlehem. 29 David said to me ‘Please let me go. Our relatives will offer a sacrifice in the city, and my brother ordered me to be there. If you will permit it, please let me go to see my brothers.’ This is why he hasn’t come to your banquet.”

30 Then Saul got angry with Jonathan. “Son of a crooked and rebellious woman!” he called Jonathan. “I know you’ve sided with Jesse’s son. You have no shame. You act as if you are your mother’s son but not mine.[e] 31 As long as Jesse’s son lives on earth, neither you nor your right to be king is secure. Now, send some men to bring him to me. He’s a dead man!”

32 Jonathan asked his father, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?”

33 Saul raised his spear to strike him. Then Jonathan knew his father was determined to kill David. 34 Jonathan got up from the table very angry and ate nothing that second day of the month. He was worried sick about David because Jonathan had been humiliated by his own father.

35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the country to the place he and David had agreed on. Jonathan had a young boy with him. 36 “Run,” he told the boy, “please find the arrows I shoot.”

The boy ran, and Jonathan shot the arrow over him. 37 When the boy reached the place where Jonathan’s arrow had landed, Jonathan called after him, “The arrows are next to you!” 38 Jonathan added, “Quick! Hurry up! Don’t stand there!” Jonathan’s young servant gathered the arrows and came to his master. 39 The boy had no idea what was going on, but Jonathan and David understood. 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy. He told the boy, “Take them back into town.”

41 When the boy had left, David came out from the south side of the rock and quickly bowed down three times with his face touching the ground. Then they kissed each other and cried together, but David cried the loudest.[f]

42 “Go in peace!” Jonathan told David. “We have both taken an oath in Yahweh’s name, saying, ‘Yahweh will be a witness between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’”[g]

So David left, and Jonathan went into the city.

David at Nob

21 [h]David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was trembling as he went to meet David. “Why are you alone?” he asked David. “Why is no one with you?”

2 “The king ordered me to do something,” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “and he told me, ‘No one must know anything about this mission I’m sending you on and about the orders I’ve given you. I’ve stationed[i] my young men at a certain place.’” 3 David added, “Now, what do you have to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.”

4 “I don’t have any ordinary bread,” the chief priest answered David. “But there is holy bread for the young men if they haven’t had sexual intercourse today.”

5 David answered the priest, “Of course women have been kept away from us as usual when we go on a mission. The young men’s bodies are kept holy even on ordinary campaigns. How much more then will their bodies be holy today?”

6 So the priest gave him holy bread because he only had the bread of the presence which had been taken from Yahweh’s presence and replaced with warm bread that day.

7 That same day one of Saul’s servants who was obligated to stay in Yahweh’s presence was there. His name was Doeg. A foreman for Saul’s shepherds, he was from Edom.

8 David asked Ahimelech, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I didn’t take either my spear or any other weapon because the king’s business was urgent.”

9 The chief priest answered, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Elah Valley, is here. It is wrapped in a cloth behind the priestly ephod.[j] If you want to take it, take it. There’s no other weapon here.”

David said, “There’s none like it. Let me have the sword.”

David at Gath

10 That day David left. He was still fleeing from Saul when he came to King Achish of Gath. 11 Achish’s officers asked, “Isn’t this David, the king of his country? He’s the one they used to sing about in the dances:

‘Saul has defeated thousands
but David tens of thousands.’”

12 When David realized what they had said, he was terrified of King Achish of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior when he was in their presence and acted insane as long as he was under their authority. He scribbled on the doors of the city gate and let his spit run down his beard.

14 Achish said to his officers, “Look at him! Don’t you see that he’s insane? Why bring him to me? 15 Do I have such a shortage of lunatics that you bring this man so that he can show me he is insane? Does this man have to come into my house?”

Footnotes:

  1. 1 Samuel 20:16 Greek; Masoretic Text omits “name.”
  2. 1 Samuel 20:16 Ancient scribal tradition; Masoretic Text “punish David’s enemies.” At times some scribes would alter the text when they thought it was disrespectful.
  3. 1 Samuel 20:19 Hebrew meaning uncertain.
  4. 1 Samuel 20:26 “Unclean” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God.
  5. 1 Samuel 20:30 English equivalent difficult.
  6. 1 Samuel 20:41 Hebrew meaning uncertain.
  7. 1 Samuel 20:42 1 Samuel 20:42b in English Bibles is 1 Samuel 21:1 in the Hebrew Bible.
  8. 1 Samuel 21:1 1 Samuel 21:1–15 in English Bibles is 1 Samuel 21:2–16 in the Hebrew Bible.
  9. 1 Samuel 21:2 Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek; Masoretic Text “I’ve informed.”
  10. 1 Samuel 21:9 Ephod is a technical term for a part of the priest’s clothes. Its exact usage and shape are unknown.
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

John 9

Jesus Gives Sight to a Blind Man

9 As Yeshua walked along, he saw a man who had been born blind. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, why was this man born blind? Did he or his parents sin?”

3 Yeshua answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. Instead, he was born blind so that God could show what he can do for him. 4 We must do what the one who sent me wants us to do while it is day. The night when no one can do anything is coming. 5 As long as I’m in the world, I’m light for the world.”

6 After Yeshua said this, he spit on the ground and mixed the spit with dirt. Then he smeared it on the man’s eyes 7 and told him, “Wash it off in the pool of Siloam.” (Siloam means “sent.”) The blind man washed it off and returned. He was able to see.

8 His neighbors and those who had previously seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

9 Some of them said, “He’s the one.” Others said, “No, he isn’t, but he looks like him.” But the man himself said, “I am the one.”

10 So they asked him, “How did you receive your sight?”

11 He replied, “The man people call Yeshua mixed some spit with dirt, smeared it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam, and wash it off.’ So I went there, washed it off, and received my sight.”

12 They asked him, “Where is that man?”

The man answered, “I don’t know.”

13 Some people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 The day when Yeshua mixed the spit and dirt and gave the man sight was a day of worship. 15 So the Pharisees asked the man again how he received his sight.

The man told the Pharisees, “He put a mixture of spit and dirt on my eyes. I washed it off, and now I can see.”

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “The man who did this is not from God because he doesn’t follow the traditions for the day of worship.” Other Pharisees asked, “How can a man who is a sinner perform miracles like these?” So the Pharisees were divided in their opinions.

17 They asked the man who had been born blind another question: “What do you say about the man who gave you sight?”

The man answered, “He’s a prophet.”

18 Until they talked to the man’s parents, the Jews didn’t believe that the man had been blind and had been given sight. 19 They asked his parents, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? Why can he see now?”

20 His parents replied, “We know that he’s our son and that he was born blind. 21 But we don’t know how he got his sight or who gave it to him. You’ll have to ask him. He’s old enough to answer for himself.” 22 (His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. The Jews had already agreed to put anyone who acknowledged that Yeshua was the Christ out of the synagogue. 23 That’s why his parents said, “You’ll have to ask him. He’s old enough.”)

24 So once again the Jews called the man who had been blind. They told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man who gave you sight is a sinner.”

25 The man responded, “I don’t know if he’s a sinner or not. But I do know one thing. I used to be blind, but now I can see.”

26 The Jews asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he give you sight?”

27 The man replied, “I’ve already told you, but you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear the story again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

28 The Jews yelled at him, “You’re his disciple, but we’re Moses’ disciples. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t know where this man came from.”

30 The man replied to them, “That’s amazing! You don’t know where he’s from. Yet, he gave me sight. 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners. Instead, he listens to people who are devout and who do what he wants. 32 Since the beginning of time, no one has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do anything like that.”

34 The Jews answered him, “You were born full of sin. Do you think you can teach us?” Then they threw him out of the synagogue.

35 Yeshua heard that the Jews had thrown the man out of the synagogue. So when Yeshua found the man, he asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 The man replied, “Sir, tell me who he is so that I can believe in him.”

37 Yeshua told him, “You’ve seen him. He is the person who is now talking with you.”

38 The man bowed in front of Yeshua and said, “I believe, Lord.”

39 Then Yeshua said, “I have come into this world to judge: Blind people will be given sight, and those who can see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with Yeshua heard this. So they asked him, “Do you think we’re blind?”

41 Yeshua told them, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be sinners. But now you say, ‘We see,’ so you continue to be sinners.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Psalm 113-114

Psalm 113

1 Hallelujah!

You servants of Yahweh, praise him.
Praise the name of Yahweh.
2 Thank the name of Yahweh now and forever.
3 From where the sun rises to where the sun sets,
the name of Yahweh should be praised.
4 Yahweh is high above all the nations.
His glory is above the heavens.
5 Who is like Yahweh our Elohim?
He is seated on his high throne.
6 He bends down to look at heaven and earth.
7 He lifts the poor from the dust.
He lifts the needy from a garbage heap.
8 He seats them with influential people,
with the influential leaders of his people.
9 He makes a woman who is in a childless home
a joyful mother.

Hallelujah!

Psalm 114

1 When Israel left Egypt,
when Jacob’s family left people who spoke a foreign language,
2 Judah became his holy place and Israel became his kingdom.
3 The Red Sea looked at this and ran away.
The Jordan River turned back.
4 The mountains jumped like rams.
The hills jumped like lambs.
5 Red Sea, why did you run away?
Jordan River, what made you turn back?
6 Mountains, what made you jump like rams?
Hills, what made you jump like lambs?
7 Earth, tremble in the presence of the Lord,
in the presence of the Elohim of Jacob.
8 He turns a rock into a pool filled with water
and turns flint into a spring flowing with water.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Proverbs 15:15-17

15 Every day is a terrible day for a miserable person,
but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

16 Better to have a little with the fear of Yahweh
than great treasure and turmoil.
17 Better to have a dish of vegetables where there is love
than juicy steaks where there is hate.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Posted on

05/16/2017 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 18:5-19:24 ~ John 8:31-59 ~ Psalm 112:1-10 ~ Proverbs 15:12-14

Today is May 16th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian.  It’s great to be here with you today.  It’s GREAT to be here with you today.  It’s good to be here with you every day as we take these steps, these steps that lead us forward through the whole Bible in a year as a community.  There are days that that is still a marvel to me, that it can even happen.  Even though we’ve been at this 12 years every day, it’s amazing that it can happen.  So I’m excited to take the next step forward into the life of David and continuing in the life of King Saul as we’re watching transition happen in the nation of Israel.  The chosen people of God who crossed the Jordan River as tribes and took the promised land are becoming more and more like a nation.  That introduces new sets of customs and certainly new intrigue and conflict.  So we continue that journey.  David shows up fully on the radar yesterday when he kills Goliath in the Valley of Elah and we’ll find out what happens next.  We’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week, 1 Samuel chapter 18, verse 5 through 19, verse 24 today.  

Commentary

Okay, so the conflict between Saul and David is pretty clear now, pretty clear why.  David is a young man, a really, really good looking man, a very shrewd man, very smart, kind of has some street skills.  He’s been thrust into the limelight.  We don’t know exactly what David had hoped or dreamed to ever become, but he wasn’t a firstborn son and he was in a small family and he was a shepherd, so his life was going to kind of unfold for him that way.  What had happened to him wasn’t even within reach, so he wasn’t exactly looking for these things but he wasn’t exactly running away from them either.  He was just trying to be faithful to the king.  I mean, who is not going to do that?  You’re a peasant plucked from the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden you’re the armor bearer for the king, so yeah, you’re going to take it seriously. And he does.  And he’s loyal and he’s faithful to King Saul.  

Saul is just nothing but jealous.  Everything that Saul does including making David his son-in-law, bringing him into the family and taking him on as a son is meant to ultimately hatch a plan to destroy David.  And we’ve seen this kind of character in Saul.  We’ve seen this stuff coming up earlier before he ever met David.  So we continue to watch Saul and we begin to see what his insecurities continue to do to him.  They continue to undermine him and it has led him to this really profound jealousy, murderous jealousy over David.  In today’s reading alone, Saul tried to kill David several times, both in hand-to-hand combat, trying to nail him to the wall with a spear, and then in other ways like sending him out into battle hoping that he’ll die in battle or sending the soldiers to kind of bring him even from his own bed so that he can be killed.  All this kind of stuff.  So we’re watching Saul come apart.  We’re watching him disintegrate because he has this profound character issue.  He is so insecure about everything that it is leading him into paranoia and fits of rage, all kinds of things.  

We can learn from that and we can also begin to look at the opposing, the opposite path in David at this point in David’s life.  David is trying to be true and he’s trying to be smart and he’s trying to be loyal to the king.  He’s trying to be loyal to God and he’s trying to be loyal to his people.  We can see that only makes it worse for Saul because David is shining.  David is living true and Saul is not.  

So as we watch this story continue to unfold, we’re watching two different pathways and those are paths, one of which we will walk, and we get to see where both pathways go.  

Prayer

Father, thank you for providing us such detail in this particular section of the history of your people.  As we get to know Saul and as we get to know David, we also get to know ourselves.  So we want to invite your Holy Spirit into that as we continue to move through the story.  So we invite your Holy Spirit to just show us the ways in which we behave like Saul and where that comes from and the insecurity and lack of identity that informs that and show us the ways that we’re walking a little more true, a little more like David and show us, God, how to be true and how to live right and righteous before you, loyal and faithful to you.  We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s where you find out what is going on around here and so be sure to check it out. Check out the resources that are available.  Check out the Prayer Wall that is always on and always available.  Yeah, check it out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then thank you because we wouldn’t all be here.  We wouldn’t have this community, this global campfire that is always burning and always available for us to kind of come in out of the dark and illuminate our path and come in out of the cold and warm ourselves and know that we’re not alone. That does not exist by itself. That exists because we do it together. So thank you.  I mean, thank you humbly, joyfully and deeply.  It’s a wonder what we’ve been able to do together. It’s a wonder that we can do this and be a community that we are, so thank you for your partnership.  There is a link on the home page at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you’re using the app, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, we are family.  We’re a community and if you’re dragging around some burdens that you don’t need to drag around by yourself, that is really what community is about and there are tens of thousands of people every single day who pray for each other.  So there is a number you can call – (877) 942-4253 and that can be your hotline.  You don’t have to go through it alone.  

And that’s it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi DAB family.  This is Blessed Beyond Measure in New Jersey.  Today is Saturday, May 12th.  I have read through the Bible a number of times and did not realize where the rift between Saul and his son Jonathan started.  Today’s passage from 1 Samuel explains where it began.  At the end of today’s Bible reading Brian’s commentary should be life-changing to everyone.  He reminded me to live into who God created me to be.  God did not create any of us to be insecure.  I believe he created us to be humble. Jesus who was all man and all God in humility, with courage was willing to give up his life as a man for all of our sins.  So DAB family members, if you know you are saved by God because you have accepted the gift of salvation through Christ’s death on the cross, burial and resurrection, then trust this.  You are no longer a slave to sin because you are, by rebirth in Christ, a child of God. Brian and the Hardin family, never give up reading the Word of God to us as your DAB family or anyone God puts in your path.  You have chosen to live into who God has created you to be.  This is Blessed Beyond Measure in New Jersey.  

Hi DAB family.  This is Christy from Kentucky.  I want to thank each of you who have prayed for my beautiful, beautiful mother.  As most of you probably know, she has gone to see Jesus.  Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and the only solace I have tonight is that she is finally spending Mother’s Day with her own mom who she lost at a young age and who she loved so very much.  The other day I found a card that her mother had sent to her on her birthday and I just realized what a celebration it must be finally seeing her sweet mom and dad, being there with my brother.  I tried not to be selfish.  I tried to let her go, but it wasn’t easy.  I have more questions than I do answers as I watched my mom suffer progressively.  One week, maybe 10 days before sitting and having coffee with her at the table talking to her and then every day watching her weaken more and more, being stripped of her health, her dignity, it was horrible and it is something I’ll never forget. I praise God that she came home. I praise God that she went peacefully to be with her Savior, but I still don’t understand the road to suffering. Such an amazing woman who loved so many, who served God faithfully.  I’m broken. I love each of you deeply.  

Hi, this is Victorious Soldier calling tonight to pray with some of the Dabbers.  I want to pray for Argent.  I want to pray for Amanda.  O my Lord, my sister, I definitely want to pray for you.  The enemy is trying to come into your marriage and he’s trying to destroy you, but God is faithful and he is faithful and he is just and he is able to do the impossible.  Lord, in the name of Jesus I ask that you touch Amanda.  O Lord, you touch her husband, Lord.  O Lord, you strengthen that marriage, Lord.  O Father, you touch that outside woman, Lord.  O God, you deliver her soul, Lord.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you teach her the sanctity of marriage, Lord.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you bless Amanda.  You bless her, Lord, and you strengthen her, Lord.  O God, you equip her for the battle, Lord.  In the name of Jesus, you bless her with a beautiful Mother’s Day.  O Lord, let her look to you knowing that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that worketh in her.  O Lord, we ask you to touch Brittany with the eye disease, Lord.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, Lord, you have your way.  Father, you can do anything but fail.  O Lord, we ask that you heal her, Lord.  We ask that you heal in the name of Jesus.  We ask that you guide and you protect and you keep her in your perfect peace with her mind staid on you.  O Lord, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we just thank you, Lord, for Jay in New Jersey and Blind Tony.  It is good to hear from you, Blind Tony.  And all of the people of God, continue Lord to bless Blind Tony.  Continue to open doors for him.  Continue to __ his healing, Lord.  O Father, give him the desires of his heart and let him keep his trust in you. Touch Brian, Lord, as this is his first Mother’s Day…

Hi, this message is for Brittany in Albuquerque.  My name is Rachel and I’m from St. Louis and Brittany, I wanted to call because I completely understand your situation.  I’m a 42-year-old mother of two and I also have the Stargardt eye disease. It was such a gift to hear your voice and to know there is someone else out there very similar to me and my situation. I love my husband and he’s awesome and he does so much to support my kids and I, but I also appreciate where you’re coming from with feeling like you wish you could do more to help with the driving and things of that nature.  Brittany, if you wanted to connect, you are welcome to email me at JeffandRachelShelton@gmail.com.  I would love to hear from you.  

Hello, my name is Tyler from Los Angeles.  I would like to pray for my mother today, Paula, on Mother’s Day. May God be with her and guide her. Thank you, Brian, for reading the Bible every single day and for your insights.  The Word of God is what we need for this journey of life.  It gives us the wisdom and I pray for all of us, that we can keep letting this light into our lives and be directed by the Word and share this light with everyone that crosses our paths.  God be with you, Brian and DAB family.  God bless you all.  

Posted on

05/15/2017 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 17:1-18:4 ~ John 8:21-30 ~ Psalm 111:1-10 ~ Proverbs 15:11

Today is May 15th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian. Like I say every day, it’s great to be here with you today.  How are you? Man, some mornings I’m like super tired, especially if a lot has been going on.  And a lot has been going on.  Ever get like that where it takes an extra little bit to kind of get fully locked and loaded into your day?  But I have found that the scriptures, no matter what, they kind of speak to the heart, speak to a different place inside of us so we’re going to pick up where we left off yesterday.  We’ve met David now and we’re going to get to know David really well and David and Saul’s interaction are going to become center stage pretty soon mostly because of what we’re about to read today.  So here we go, 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 1 through 18, verse 4 and we’re reading from the Names of God Bible this week.  

Commentary

Okay, so 1 Samuel, battle of David and Goliath where David kills Goliath, one of the most famous stories in all of the Bible launches us fully into the story of David.  The story of David and the story of Saul are going to be intertwined for a while and it’s going to get a little on the ugly side and we’ll understand this as we go forward, but it kind of starts here.  I mean, all of a sudden there is this kid David, a shepherd, a kid that has just been sent to check on his brothers who are in the army who all of a sudden becomes a military hero, a national hero and does something that everybody else was afraid to do, so all of a sudden with one event David goes from an obscure shepherd to a national celebrity and that is not exactly what David was even looking for.  I mean, all of this, according to the scriptures, was motivated first of all by Goliath’s defiance of God.  That is something David was hearing and listening to and wanted to fight against, but the pot was sweetened.  The person that could go kill Goliath was going to get to marry the king’s daughter and was going to find riches and was going to be elevated.  The status of the family was going to be elevated in class. So David would have gone out and fought Goliath just for the sake of defending God’s name, but this other stuff, he’s thinking I watch sheep, I’m never going to get a shot like this again.

So there is this valley, the Valley of Elah, it does exist.  All of these places that are mentioned identifying the valley, they exist too.  This valley was sort of like a borderland.  Actually, it was just kind of inside the borders of Israel at the time and there were cities along that valley on both sides of the valley that kind of wound their way and were the border between Philistia and Israel at the time, so the cities that are named Azekah and Sokoh and Ephes-dammim and Shaaraim.  Well, Ephes-dammim is just like an area.  There is nothing excavated there, but Azekah was at the far end of the Valley of Elah and then next would be Shaaraim and then next would be Sokoh and then on down the valley would be a place called Adullam and we’ll visit that place.  We visited it in the book of Genesis.  You’ll have to go look it up, but we’ll visit that place again with David.  He is going to need to spend some time there and we’ll understand as the story goes.  This is a real place where real events happened that kind of changed the course of the history of the Bible and the history of the Hebrew people as this man David begins to take prominence, begins to become known, begins to gain some momentum. He has quite the future in front of us.

So when you keep looking at Saul, even as we’re looking at David, because both of these figures in biblical history are true, you’ll see truly rich and deep mirrors into our own hearts and our own stories.  

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your Word and we thank you for the myriad of ways that it speaks to us, the different ways, the stories, the emotions, the drama, the intrigue, the history, all opening our hearts not only to our biblical ancestors, but to ourselves.  So we invite you, Father, as we continue to move forward.  By the power of your Holy Spirit, speak to us about the choices that we’re making and the places that we’re headed in our lives, because you’ve given us your Word to show us where those places go.  So come Holy Spirit and lead we ask.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It’s home base.  It’s definitely where you find out what is going on around here.  There is always something.  We’ve been talking for a little bit about the fact that we’ll be going back here, so we’ll be going back to the Valley of Elah, this place, this story, everything we just talked about.  We’ll get to see that when we’re back in the land of the Bible.  We’ll be going back in February of 2018, so February 19th through March 4th and just letting you know you can come. You can get all the details at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  Just kind of scroll down, look for Israel 2018.  There is a banner and you’ll find out what you need to know.  Or go to www.DailyAudioBibleIsrael.com.  That will be like a direct link to what you’re looking for.  Looking forward to sharing this time with you on the other side, in the land of the Bible.  So yeah, you’re invited.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the common mission that we share to continue to bring the spoken Word of God every single day, then thank you profoundly.  Thank you for your partnership.  There is a link.  It’s on the home page of www.DailyAudioBible.com.  If you use the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  And if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hello family.  This is Candace from Oregon.  Oh, it is so good to hear from you, Brian, every day, especially the reading of the Word and your comments about it.  I’m a bit behind.  I didn’t get to hear the last two community prayers so I’m just starting to catch up on that, so I just heard Jen from SoCal, your beautiful prayer for my daughter. I’m going to prevail upon you all to pray for all three of my children once again.  Lord, thank you for everything you are doing.  How many times over these 40 years that I’ve been a mom I have said to you, Lord, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, that they might come into relationship with you, Lord.  Please keep me, keep all of us parents from harming our children in any way. Help us not to be any stumbling block, but only a conduit, only an encouragement toward that relationship with you, Lord.  We ask these things in Jesus’ name.  Thank you, Lord, for this place where we can agree together on this.  We pray also for our grandchildren, Lord.  May they come to know you and walk with you.  May we be people who only encourage that and never, ever stand in the way of it.  Help us, Lord, to do good and not harm, in Jesus’ name.  

Hi everybody.  It’s Lisa the Encourager.  I’m calling tonight for my dear, sweet friend Christy from Kentucky.  She is going through a real battle with her mom and an illness that she’s going through and that is why she hasn’t been able to call in, I think, for a while.  For those of you who don’t know, her mom has been sick and she has posted some things on Facebook and we’ve been praying for her.  Christy draws these gorgeous pictures every, I don’t know how often she does them, but she paints them and incorporates our names with art while she’s praying for us in the community prayer and all the people out there in Daily Audio Bible.  I just wanted to say this to you, Christy, out of love, just wrote this for you.  I pray that God draws you a picture of all his love as he walks on water and reaches out to your troubled spirit and he points out to you a flock of birds with their vibrant tapestry of feathers in the sky reminding you, Christy, that you are even more valuable and precious to him. You are a lily in the valley and he is the refreshing beam, the sun of light that will hold you up.  God will part this water with his miraculous, comforting hand and never fail you because he will be the strength of your heart and portion forever.  His peace will transcend all understanding.  And I love you, I love you, I love you and I’m praying for you and your mom and your dad.  Amen.  

Hello everyone.  My name is Ashley and I’m calling from Virginia.  I have two prayer requests.  The first is my cousin went home to be with the Lord and we have every reason to believe that she is in heaven now based on her testimony of the work of Jesus Christ in her life, but her family is really struggling as she died of a heroin overdose.  So I just pray that you could wrap your arms around her family, her husband and her two little kids by just lifting them up in prayer.  And the second request is as Mother’s Day is coming, I am thankful for my mother, but I am just asking that the Lord would bless my husband and I with a baby We have been asking for this for almost three years and I just pray that God will open my womb and I ask that all of you will pray for that for me as well.  In Jesus’ name.  And thank you so much and God bless you all.  Bye-bye.

Hi, this is Diane from Pennsylvania.  I feel led to read this reading from The Message Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, the Way of Love. If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but a creaky, rusty gate.  If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain jump and it jumps but I don’t love I’m nothing.  If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr but I don’t love I’ve gone nowhere.  So no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.  Love never gives up.  Love cares more for others than for self.  Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.  Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always me first, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going on to the end.  Love never dies.  Inspired speech will be over someday, praying in tongues will end, understanding will reach its limit.  We know only a portion of the truth and what we say about God is always incomplete, but when the complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.  When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like an infant.  When I grew up I left the infant ways for good.  We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.

Hello my beautiful brothers and sisters.  This is Dawn calling from New York and I’m calling on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend and I just want to wish a Happy Mother’s Day and ask God to encourage all the moms who are working hard to love their families.  And I also wanted to remember that we have people among us who’ve lost moms this year.  I know it to be such a hard time.  It is a hard time, especially the first holiday without your mom on Mother’s Day. So we pray for you, Brian, and your family.  We pray for sweet Lana in Canada, you’ve lost your mom this year too, and so many others. So God have mercy on all of you and comfort you and we know it is a hard time.  And I would also like to pray for all among us who would like to be moms.  It is a tough holiday for people who wish they had children as the celebrations are going on all around, so dear Jesus, we ask you to have mercy on all of our sweet friends among us who have grieving hearts this weekend and we ask you for your encouragement to them and your comfort, Lord for those who lost moms, for those who wish they were moms, for those who might be estranged from their children, for those who might be having a hard time with them.  We ask you, O God, to please wrap your arms around them and comfort them.  We do ask you also, God, to please strengthen all those moms out there who are loving on their families and need that extra strength from you.  We thank you, God, for your grace among us.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.  

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday May 15, 2017 (NIV)

1 Samuel 17:1-18:4

David and Goliath

17 The Philistines assembled their armies for war. They assembled at Socoh, which is in Judah, and camped between Socoh and Azekah at Ephes Dammim. 2 So Saul and the army of Israel assembled and camped in the Elah Valley. They formed a battle line to fight the Philistines. 3 The Philistines were stationed on a hill on one side, and the Israelites were stationed on a hill on the other side. There was a ravine between the two of them.

4 The Philistine army’s champion came out of their camp. His name was Goliath from Gath. He was ten feet tall.[a] 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he wore a bronze coat of armor scales weighing 125 pounds. 6 On his legs he had bronze shin guards and on his back a bronze javelin. 7 The shaft of his spear was like the beam used by weavers. The head of his spear was made of 15 pounds of iron. The man who carried his shield walked ahead of him.

8 Goliath stood and called to the Israelites, “Why do you form a battle line? Am I not a Philistine, and aren’t you Saul’s servants? Choose a man, and let him come down to fight me. 9 If he can fight me and kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I overpower him and kill him, then you will be our slaves and serve us.” 10 The Philistine added, “I challenge the Israelite battle line today. Send out a man so that we can fight each other.” 11 When Saul and all the Israelites heard what this Philistine said, they were gripped with fear.

12 David was a son of a man named Jesse from the region of Ephrath and the city of Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s day he was an old man.[b] 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons joined Saul’s army for the battle. The firstborn was Eliab, the second was Abinadab, the third was Shammah, 14 and David was the youngest. The three oldest joined Saul’s army. 15 David went back and forth from Saul’s camp to Bethlehem, where he tended his father’s flock.

16 Each morning and evening for 40 days, the Philistine came forward and made his challenge.

17 Jesse told his son David, “Take this half-bushel of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers. Take them to your brothers in the camp right away. 18 And take these ten cheeses to the captain of the regiment. See how your brothers are doing, and bring back some news about them. 19 They, along with Saul and all the soldiers of Israel, are in the Elah Valley fighting the Philistines.”

20 David got up early in the morning and had someone else watch the sheep. He took the food and went, as Jesse ordered him. He went to the camp as the army was going out to the battle line shouting their war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines formed their battle lines facing each other. 22 David left the supplies behind in the hands of the quartermaster, ran to the battle line, and greeted his brothers. 23 While he was talking to them, the Philistine champion, Goliath from Gath, came from the battle lines of the Philistines. He repeated his words, and David heard them. 24 When all the men of Israel saw Goliath, they fled from him because they were terrified. 25 The men of Israel said, “Did you see that man coming from the Philistine lines? He keeps coming to challenge Israel. The king will make the man who kills this Philistine very rich. He will give his daughter to that man to marry and elevate the social status of his family.”[c]

26 David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and gets rid of Israel’s disgrace? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should challenge the army of Elohim Chay?”

27 The soldiers repeated to David how the man who kills Goliath would be treated.

28 Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard David talking to the men. Then Eliab became angry with David. “Why did you come here,” he asked him, “and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how overconfident and headstrong you are. You came here just to see the battle.”

29 “What have I done now?” David snapped at him. “Didn’t I merely ask a question?” 30 He turned to face another man and asked the same question, and the other soldiers gave him the same answer.

31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, who then sent for him. 32 David told Saul, “No one should be discouraged because of this. I will go and fight this Philistine.”

33 Saul responded to David, “You can’t fight this Philistine. You’re just a boy, but he’s been a warrior since he was your age.”

34 David replied to Saul, “I am a shepherd for my father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth. If it attacked me, I took hold of its mane, struck it, and killed it. 36 I have killed lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has challenged the army of Elohim Chay.” 37 David added, “Yahweh, who saved me from the lion and the bear, will save me from this Philistine.”

“Go,” Saul told David, “and may Yahweh be with you.”

38 Saul put his battle tunic on David; he put a bronze helmet on David’s head and dressed him in armor. 39 David fastened Saul’s sword over his clothes and tried to walk, but he had never practiced doing this. “I can’t walk in these things,” David told Saul. “I’ve never had any practice doing this.” So David took all those things off.

40 He took his stick with him, picked out five smooth stones from the riverbed, and put them in his shepherd’s bag. With a sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. 41 The Philistine, preceded by the man carrying his shield, was coming closer and closer to David. 42 When the Philistine got a good look at David, he despised him. After all, David was a young man with a healthy complexion and good looks.

43 The Philistine asked David, “Am I a dog that you come to attack me with sticks?” So the Philistine called on his gods to curse David. 44 “Come on,” the Philistine told David, “and I’ll give your body to the birds.”

45 David told the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Elohim of the army of Israel, whom you have insulted. 46 Today Yahweh will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head. And this day I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals. The whole world will know that Israel has an Elohim. 47 Then everyone gathered here will know that Yahweh can save without sword or spear, because Yahweh determines every battle’s outcome. He will hand all of you over to us.”

48 When the Philistine moved closer in order to attack, David quickly ran toward the opposing battle line to attack the Philistine. 49 Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, hurled it from his sling, and struck the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank into Goliath’s forehead, and he fell to the ground on his face. 50 So using only a sling and a stone, David proved to be stronger than the Philistine. David struck down and killed the Philistine, even though David didn’t have a sword in his hand. 51 David ran and stood over the Philistine. He took Goliath’s sword, pulled it out of its sheath, and made certain the Philistine was dead by cutting off his head.

When the Philistines saw their hero had been killed, they fled. 52 Then the soldiers of Israel and Judah rose up, shouted a battle cry, and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Wounded Philistines lay on the road to Shaaraim and all the way to Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites came back from their pursuit of the Philistines, they looted all the goods in the Philistine camp. 54 David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he kept Goliath’s armor in his tent.

55 As Saul watched David going out against the Philistine, he asked Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?”

Abner answered, “I solemnly swear, as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.”

56 The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.”

57 When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner brought him to Saul. David had the Philistine’s head in his hand.

58 Saul asked him, “Whose son are you, young man?”

“The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.

David’s Love for Jonathan

18 David finished talking to Saul. After that, Jonathan became David’s closest friend. He loved David as much as he loved himself. 2 (From that day on Saul kept David as his servant and didn’t let him go back to his family.) 3 So Jonathan made a pledge of mutual loyalty with David because he loved him as much as he loved himself. 4 Jonathan took off the coat he had on and gave it to David along with his battle tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

Footnotes:

  1. 1 Samuel 17:4 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek “seven feet tall.”
  2. 1 Samuel 17:12 Greek; Masoretic Text “he came a leader among men.”
  3. 1 Samuel 17:25 Hebrew meaning of “elevate the social status of his family” uncertain.
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

John 8:21-30

21 Yeshua spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, “I’m going away, and you’ll look for me. But you will die because of your sin. You can’t go where I’m going.”

22 Then the Jews asked, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means when he says, ‘You can’t go where I’m going’?”

23 Yeshua said to them, “You’re from below. I’m from above. You’re from this world. I’m not from this world. 24 For this reason I told you that you’ll die because of your sins. If you don’t believe that I am the one, you’ll die because of your sins.”

25 The Jews asked him, “Who did you say you are?”

Yeshua told them, “I am who I said I was from the beginning. 26 I have a lot I could say about you and a lot I could condemn you for. But the one who sent me is true. So I tell the world exactly what he has told me.” 27 (The Jews didn’t know that he was talking to them about the Father.)

28 So Yeshua told them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you’ll know that I am the one and that I can’t do anything on my own. Instead, I speak as the Father taught me. 29 Besides, the one who sent me is with me. He hasn’t left me by myself. I always do what pleases him.”

30 As Yeshua was saying this, many people believed in him.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Psalm 111

Psalm 111[a]

1 Hallelujah!

I will give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart
in the company of decent people and in the congregation.
2 Yahweh’s deeds are spectacular.
They should be studied by all who enjoy them.
3 His work is glorious and majestic.
His righteousness continues forever.
4 He has made his miracles unforgettable.
Yahweh is merciful and compassionate.
5 He provides food for those who fear him.
He always remembers his promise.[b]
6 He has revealed the power of his works to his people
by giving them the lands of other nations as an inheritance.
7 His works are done with truth and justice.
All his guiding principles are trustworthy.
8 They last forever and ever.
They are carried out with truth and decency.
9 He has sent salvation to his people.
He has ordered that his promise should continue forever.
His name is holy and terrifying.
10 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.
Good sense is shown by everyone who follows God’s guiding principles.
His praise continues forever.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 111:1 Psalm 111 is a poem in Hebrew alphabetical order.
  2. Psalm 111:5 Or “covenant.”
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Proverbs 15:11

11 If Sheol and Abaddon lie open in front of Yahweh
how much more the human heart!

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

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05/14/2017 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 15:1-16:23 ~ John 8:1-20 ~ Psalm 110:1-7 ~ Proverbs 15:8-10

Today is the 14th day of May.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible and welcome to a brand new week.  I love these restarts.  It is shiny and sparkly and new.  I say that maybe every week.  I don’t know how often I say it.  A lot, though, because it is this line of demarcation in my own life where it is like okay, we get new choices here.  We can live into this week.  It can be whatever we want it to be.  It is all going to be what it is based on how we choose what we say, what we do, how we live into it.  So we’ll get to Saturday of this week and we will have lived this week based on the choices that we make.  So here we are, stepping through the threshold of a brand new week.  

This week, well of course, we’re going to pick up where we left off, but we’ll read from the Names of God Bible this week which is a translation that preserves the Hebrew names that were used for God in the original manuscripts.  So for example, we might be talking about Yahweh instead of just a standard English translation of God, so there is much beauty in that.

We’ve been getting to know Israel’s first king, Saul.  Saul has been teaching us a lot about ourselves and that is where we’ll pick up the story.  1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 1 through 16:23 today.  

Commentary

There is this story in the book of John today about this woman caught in adultery, a famous, famous story, but there is a back story here.  This story is so beautiful.  It is so beautiful.  It shows the heart of Jesus which in turn shows us the heart of the Father.  

The religious leaders and the Pharisees are looking for ways.  They are for sure now against Jesus and some of it has to do with jealousy.  Some of it has to do with his willingness to break their traditions, their interpretation of the traditions, and some of it just has to do with the fact that he is gaining momentum and what he is teaching can unsettle everything.  This little tenuous power share that they have with the Romans, this could unhinge a lot of things.  And that is so ironic because Jesus is showing the narrow path that leads to life.  He is showing the way to look at things, the way to live into things, the way to be and they are just rejecting this because it would be such a colossal change and they would lose their authority and power.  But they are also trying to be devout to God and follow the traditions and wrestle with the traditions and Jesus is breaking them, so they are not buying it.  

So they are looking for ways.  They find this woman in the act of adultery.  She is not just an adulteress, somebody that was like this known sinner and they drag her in front.  They find her in bed.  She is in the act of adultery, so they barge in and they drag her and they probably drag her naked through the streets in front of Jesus, trying to humiliate her and put Jesus on the spot.  

There is this interesting thing in this culture about being naked in public. It is not just like a shameful thing for you if you’re standing out on the street naked.  It’s not just a shameful thing for you.  It is a shame on the one who sees you as well.  So we can go back all the way to the book of Genesis and Noah and Noah gets drunk and his son comes in and sees his father’s nakedness and it brings a curse upon him.  You’re not supposed to see a person naked that you’re not supposed to see naked. But under these circumstances the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they are dragging this woman out because under their tradition they should stone her.  She should be shamed, humiliated and dead, but they use this opportunity to try to trap Jesus.

So they bring this woman in front of Jesus probably naked.  He’s standing there.  She is standing there.  They are all standing there, but she is probably naked.  They want to know what they are supposed to do.  They are trying to trap Jesus and Jesus bends down and starts to write on the ground.  We have no idea what he’s writing on the ground.  The scripture doesn’t tell us at all what he is writing on the ground. There is lots of conjecture about what he is writing on the ground, but we don’t know.  He’s writing on the ground which means that he’s not shaming her and he’s not shaming himself by seeing her.  He’s simply writing on the ground and they keep asking him what they are supposed to do and finally he straightens up and them he says the famous words.  “The person who has no sin should go ahead and throw the first stone at her.”  “You want to follow this tradition, fine.  The person who has no sin should throw the first stone.”

This first person throwing the stone bit, this goes back into the Mosaic Law as well.  We’ve just spent a lot of time in the Mosaic Law as we were reading the Torah and you’ll remember there have to be a couple of witnesses.  It has to be solid and if it is a mortal thing, if capital punishment is involved here, then those witnesses have to witness and then be willing, based on the absolute truth that they’ve testified to, to be the first person to throw the stone that would do away with the offender.  So Jesus is taking the law that they are trying to use against him and twisting it back right side up and forcing them to face how twisted they’ve made things.  And so he says, “Yeah, okay.  Okay, the one who is sinless should throw the first stone.”  And then he bent back down and started writing on the ground again. And he’s writing on the ground as people, one by one leave until there is no one left.  

So here is Jesus writing on the ground and probably a naked woman standing there in front of him.  Here’s where it gets supremely beautiful.  Jesus then straightened up.  So that means he kind of got back up and faced her.  So she’s humiliated at what has just happened and she is shamed because she probably doesn’t have any clothes on and Jesus has been writing on the ground, but now it is just her and him and he’s looking at her.  Not looking at her to scope out the chances of getting busy with this lady.  He’s facing her in her shame and entering into the shame with her by being there with her, facing her.  And he asks her, “Where did they go?  Has anyone condemned you?”  And the woman says, “No one.  No one, Sir.” Then he says, “I don’t condemn you either.  Go and don’t do this anymore.”

It is so breathtakingly beautiful because that parallels our own stories. Our circumstances are all different, but if Jesus’ heart wasn’t ‘I don’t condemn you either, go from here and don’t do that anymore.  Don’t sin anymore,’ I would for sure, speaking from my own experience, not be here at all and I doubt you would either.  So as we begin this brand new shiny, sparkly week, may we wonder at the unstoppable love of God for us because that should change everything. Really.  I mean the way that this has gotten twisted is that we feel like we can do whatever we want and it doesn’t matter and God is aloof to it and indifferent to it anyway and he won’t condemn us and so we should just try to do better, when actually what happens in this story is such a lifesaving rescue. That is the story of my life and that is the story of your life.  So may we live into this week as if Jesus had just said go and sin no more.  I don’t condemn you.  Go from here and don’t do that anymore.  May we live this week as this woman must have lived her next week.

Prayer

Jesus, oh Savior, thank you for your kindness and your patience and your unstoppable love for us, pursuing us, following us everywhere we go.  We ask you to forgive us for the ways in which we’ve just trampled on the gift of your love.  This is a new week and you’re saying go and sin no more.  So Holy Spirit come and help us to do that.  It is not possible.  In our own strength it is not possible.  With your Holy Spirit, though, with the Divine inside of us, with you within us, well then it really is no longer we who live but you who lives within us.  And you are sinless and so that is within us and it becomes possible by your power and authority.  We thank you for your grace.  We thank you for your kindness and mercy and we want to respect that by living well. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base.  It’s the website so it’s where you find out what is going on.  The Prayer Wall is there and so I encourage you to check that out, make use of it.  And also lend your voice and your heart toward those in need of prayer.  It’s a great way to connect, so check that out. Resources are available there in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, so check those out for the journey through the scriptures.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website as well.  There is a link that lives right smack on the home page and I say every day thank you because I mean it every day.  We’re not here every day if we don’t do this together, so thank you for your partnership. You can use that link that is on the home page.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button.  That is in the lower right-hand corner of the app. The mailing address if that is your preference is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today.  I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Mothers are celebrating all around the earth for through them everything that lives and has breath is given birth.  We are amazed at their awesome power as we rest securely under the arms of their protection, nurtured by their love, their __ most powerful __.  They sacrifice their lives to give us life at all cost and they still peaceably __ loving us when everything is lost.  There are so many things I can say about a mother’s virtue.  Though each one of them is uniquely different, just about all of them is universally true.  There is no love like a mother’s love except the love of God and for that fact we celebrate you and today you’re given a great nod, a salute and humble veneration and recognition for all the fine work that you’ve done, the raising of your children and the many victories you’ve already won.  How you struggled through the years always giving it your best, trying hard to fully equip them to be prepared for every test.  Besides giving them value and the fact that you’ve given them birth, you’ve also given them a love for God and taught them the meaning of self-worth. I wonder if a mother’s job is ever really done because as long as you’re still alive, there is still more race to run. I pray that all your days are happy, filled with laughter and blessed, overflowing with provision and a noticeable asset of strength.  My heart and my love belong to you.  You also have my hand.  Know that I am here to support you in any way that I can.  Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers at the DAB.  And once again, my love and prayers to the Hardin family, especially Brian, for his perseverance in the face of much adversity and the Holy Spirit is flowing.  Keep it flowing y’all.  Alright, love you.  Again, Happy Mother’s Day everybody.  Goodbye.

Hey family.  This is Arjun from Florida.  __ calling specifically for Brian.  It is the Wednesday before Mother’s Day and so I’m hoping this will kind of get to you, Brian, before Mother’s Day because I know this is going to be the first Mother’s Day you have and your mom is not there.  Brian, I listened to both the Daily Audio Bible as well as just the broadcast where you talked about your mom.  You know, I don’t think my heart even has the capacity to be able to be moved to the extent of movement that was evoked by that broadcast.  I cannot imagine what it must be like.  It is a continuing process and I cannot imagine that.  I know that I speak for everyone here, Brian, when I say that you do have family.  You have tens of thousands of members of your family, Brian, and you have a God that in several places and in the book of Isaiah compares themselves to a mother.  Yes, he is our Heavenly Father, but he is also more compassionate, caring, and self-sacrificing than any mother or any of us can ever conceive of and I know the emotions are what they are and I hope that what I say at least brings some consolation, but the best I can say is Brian, I love you and I love that you’re always waiting for me tomorrow.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Amanda from Virginia, formerly from Maine because we moved.  I haven’t called in a while but this has probably been the most __ challenging, frustrating, I guess, year of our life, but God has been so part of it, and so I call today to ask for your prayers, please, for protection for my family.  A year ago my husband strayed and had an affair that lasted several months.  It nearly destroyed our family and if it wasn’t for the Lord and his mercy and just pulling Brian back and helping me to be loyal and to stay strong and to constantly pray for him, then we wouldn’t be restored as a family.  But now we face a different backlash.  The same girl has spent the last six months or so since my husband has left her and rejoined his family just trying to hurt me as much as possible and I’m just weak and frustrated.  We have gotten off all social media because she constantly attacks with nastiness and threats and trying to put doubt in my mind with my husband and sending screenshots of conversations they had.  She’s even adopted fake IDs that are supposed to be my husband’s and making messages back and forth to get me to leave my husband and going on with just…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Jay calling from New Jersey.  It’s been a while, so let’s pray.  Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we come to you Lord God thanking you, loving you, and praising your name.  Father, we thank you for life.  We thank you for health.  We thank you for strength.  God almighty, we adore you.  God, you are everything we need.  Without you, God, there is nothing.  Heavenly Father, we pray now for each and every member of the Daily Audio Bible family. We pray for Brian.  We pray for Jill.  God, we pray that you will bless them in a very special way, a way that can only be described as coming __.  Father, we pray for our family here as we start this day and some of us as we end our day, as some of us are in the middle of our day.  God, we thank you for the love that this community provides and we praise you Father.  We ask, Lord God, that you would touch each and every one of us in a way that only you know how in each and every situation so that we can glorify and edify you.  In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.  

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  My name is Brittany from Albuquerque.  I have a very rare eye disease called Stargardt.  It’s a juvenile form of macular degeneration.  Over time it causes blindness.  I’ve had this since I was 11.  I’m now 29 and considered legally blind although if you met me, you’d never know I had any disease until I told you, so many people don’t even know.  There are no current cures.  I don’t drive either so my husband has a pretty full plate being that we have two kids as well.  He doesn’t ever complain, but he does do a lot so I feel like a bad wife and mother at times even though it’s not my fault.  I get down and feel insecure often.  I thought getting a job would boost my confidence and I could feel relevant and like I’m helping contribute.  So please pray for me and pray I can find a job that I can actually do and be happy doing. Sorry, I’m reading so I could get this out.  I also pray for healing for my __.  Thank you all and have a blessed day.  

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday May 14, 2017 (NIV)

1 Samuel 15-16

Saul Disobeys the Lord

15 Samuel told Saul, “Yahweh sent me to anoint you king of his people Israel. Now listen to Yahweh’s words. 2 This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth says: I will punish Amalek for what they did to Israel. They blocked Israel’s way after the Israelites came from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek. Claim everything they have for God by destroying it. Don’t spare them, but kill men and women, infants and children, cows and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

4 Saul organized the troops, and he counted them at Telaim: 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Get away from the Amalekites so that I won’t destroy you with them. You were kind to all the Israelites when they came from Egypt.” So the Kenites left the Amalekites.

7 Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur, east of Egypt. 8 He captured King Agag of Amalek alive. But he claimed all the people for God by destroying them. 9 Saul and the army spared Agag and the best sheep and cows, the fattened animals, the lambs, and all the best property. The army refused to claim them for God by destroying them. But everything that was worthless and weak the army did claim for God and destroy.

The Lord Rejects Saul

10 Then Yahweh spoke to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I made Saul king. He turned away from me and did not carry out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he prayed to Yahweh all night. 12 Early in the morning he got up to meet Saul. Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel to set up a monument in his honor. Then he left there and went to Gilgal.”

13 Samuel came to Saul, who said, “Yahweh bless you. I carried out Yahweh’s instructions.”

14 However, Samuel asked,

“But what is this sound of sheep in my ears
and this sound of cows that I hear?”

15 Saul answered, “The army brought them from the Amalekites. They spared the best sheep and cows to sacrifice to Yahweh your Elohim. But the rest they claimed for God and destroyed.”

16 “Be quiet,” Samuel told Saul, “and let me tell you what Yahweh told me last night.”

“Speak,” Saul replied.

17 Samuel said, “Even though you don’t consider yourself great, you were the head of Israel’s tribes. Yahweh anointed you king of Israel. 18 And Yahweh sent you on a mission. He said, ‘Claim those sinners, the Amalekites, for me by destroying them. Wage war against them until they’re wiped out.’ 19 Why didn’t you obey Yahweh? Why have you taken their belongings and done what Yahweh considers evil?”

20 “But I did obey Yahweh,” Saul told Samuel. “I went where Yahweh sent me, brought back King Agag of Amalek, and claimed the Amalekites for God. 21 The army took some of their belongings—the best sheep and cows were claimed for God—in order to sacrifice to Yahweh your Elohim in Gilgal.”

22 Then Samuel said,

“Is Yahweh as delighted with burnt offerings and sacrifices
as he would be with your obedience?
To follow instructions is better than to sacrifice.
To obey is better than sacrificing the fat of rams.
23 The sin of black magic is rebellion.
Wickedness and idolatry are arrogance.
Because you rejected the word of Yahweh,
he rejects you as king.”

24 Then Saul told Samuel, “I have sinned by not following Yahweh’s command or your instructions. I was afraid of the people and listened to them. 25 Now please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship Yahweh.”

26 Samuel told Saul, “I will not go back with you because you rejected what Yahweh told you. So Yahweh rejects you as king of Israel.” 27 When Samuel turned to leave, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel told him, “Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today. He has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. 29 In addition, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind, because he is not a mortal who changes his mind.”

30 Saul replied, “I have sinned! Now please honor me in front of the leaders of my people and in front of Israel. Come back with me, and let me worship Yahweh your Elohim.” 31 Then Samuel turned and followed Saul, and Saul worshiped Yahweh.

32 “Bring me King Agag of Amalek,” Samuel said.

Agag came to him trembling.[a] “Surely, the bitterness of death is past,”[b] Agag said.

33 But Samuel said, “As your sword made women childless, so your mother will be made childless among women.” And Samuel cut Agag in pieces in the presence of Yahweh at Gilgal.

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went to his home at Gibeah. 35 Samuel didn’t see Saul again before he died, though Samuel mourned over Saul. And Yahweh regretted that he had made Saul king of Israel.

David Chosen to Be King

16 Yahweh asked Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul now that I have rejected him as king of Israel? Fill a flask with olive oil and go. I’m sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem because I’ve selected one of his sons to be king.”

2 “How can I go?” Samuel asked. “When Saul hears about it, he’ll kill me.”

Yahweh said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I’ve come to sacrifice to Yahweh.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice. I will reveal to you what you should do, and you will anoint for me the one I point out to you.”

4 Samuel did what Yahweh told him. When he came to Bethlehem, the leaders of the city, trembling with fear, greeted him and said, “May peace be with you.”

5 “Greetings,” he replied, “I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Perform the ceremonies to make yourselves holy, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He performed the ceremonies for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they came, he saw Eliab and thought, “Certainly, here in Yahweh’s presence is his anointed king.”

7 But Yahweh told Samuel, “Don’t look at his appearance or how tall he is, because I have rejected him. Elohim does not see as humans see.[c] Humans look at outward appearances, but Yahweh looks into the heart.”

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and brought him to Samuel. But Samuel said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one either.”

9 Then Jesse had Shammah come to Samuel. “Yahweh has not chosen this one either,” Samuel said. 10 So Jesse brought seven more of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel told Jesse, “Yahweh has not chosen any of these. 11 Are these all the sons you have?”

“There’s still the youngest one,” Jesse answered. “He’s tending the sheep.”

Samuel told Jesse, “Send someone to get him. We won’t continue until he gets here.”

12 So Jesse sent for him. He had a healthy complexion, attractive eyes, and a handsome appearance. Yahweh said, “Go ahead, anoint him. He is the one.” 13 Samuel took the flask of olive oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers. The Ruach Yahweh came over David and stayed with him from that day on. Then Samuel left for Ramah.

David Plays the Lyre for Saul

14 Now, the Ruach Yahweh had left Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh tormented him. 15 Saul’s officials told him, “An evil spirit from Elohim is tormenting you. 16 Your Majesty, why don’t you command us to look for a man who can play the lyre well? When the evil spirit from Elohim comes to you, he’ll strum a tune, and you’ll feel better.”

17 Saul told his officials, “Please find me a man who can play well and bring him to me.”

18 One of the officials said, “I know one of Jesse’s sons from Bethlehem who can play well. He’s a courageous man and a warrior. He has a way with words, he is handsome, and Yahweh is with him.”

19 Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”

20 Jesse took six bushels of bread, a full wineskin, and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul. 21 David came to Saul and served him. Saul loved him very much and made David his armorbearer. 22 Saul sent this message to Jesse, “Please let David stay with me because I have grown fond of him.”

23 Whenever Elohim’s spirit came to Saul, David took the lyre and strummed a tune. Saul got relief from his terror and felt better, and the evil spirit left him.

Footnotes:

  1. 1 Samuel 15:32 Or “Agag came to him in shackles.”
  2. 1 Samuel 15:32 Hebrew meaning uncertain.
  3. 1 Samuel 16:7 Greek; Masoretic Text “Not that which humans see.”
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

John 8:1-20

A Woman Caught in Adultery

8 Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them.

3 The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone 4 and asked Yeshua, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. 5 In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him.

Yeshua bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.

9 One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Yeshua was left alone with the woman. 10 Then Yeshua straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?”

11 The woman answered, “No one, sir.”

Yeshua said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.”

Jesus Speaks with the Pharisees about His Father

12 Yeshua spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have a life filled with light and will never live in the dark.”

13 The Pharisees said to him, “You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony isn’t true.”

14 Yeshua replied to them, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I’m going. However, you don’t know where I came from or where I’m going. 15 You judge the way humans do. I don’t judge anyone. 16 Even if I do judge, my judgment is valid because I don’t make it on my own. I make my judgment with the Father who sent me. 17 Your own teachings say that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I testify on my own behalf, and so does the Father who sent me.”

19 The Pharisees asked him, “Where is your father?”

Yeshua replied, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

20 Yeshua spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury area of the temple courtyard. No one arrested him, because his time had not yet come.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Psalm 110

Psalm 110

A psalm by David.

1 Yahweh said to my Lord,
“Sit in the highest position in heaven
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

2 Yahweh will extend your powerful scepter from Zion.
Rule your enemies who surround you.

3 Your people will volunteer when you call up your army.
Your young people will come to you in holy splendor
like dew in the early morning.[a]

4 Yahweh has taken an oath and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever, in the way Melchizedek was a priest.”

5 Adonay is at your right side.
He will crush kings on the day of his anger.
6 He will pass judgment on the nations
and fill them with dead bodies.
Throughout the earth he will crush their heads.
7 He will drink from the brook along the road.
He will hold his head high.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 110:3 Or “You have the dew of your youth.”
Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

Proverbs 15:8-10

8 A sacrifice brought by wicked people is disgusting to Yahweh,
but the prayers of decent people please him.
9 The way of wicked people is disgusting to Yahweh,
but he loves those who pursue righteousness.

10 Discipline is a terrible burden to anyone who leaves the right path.
Anyone who hates a warning will die.

Names of God Bible (NOG)

The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.

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05/13/2017 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 14:1-52 ~ John 7:31-53 ~ Psalm 109:1-31 ~ Proverbs 15:5-7

Today is May 13th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I am Brian and it is wonderful, truly, to be here with you today like we do every day, right?  One step forward every day takes us through the whole Bible every year.  So off we go into the wild frontier, as it were, in the life of King Saul, the first king of Israel, and his goings and comings and what that means to our lives.  We’ve been reading from the God’s Word translation this week, which is what we’ll continue to do since today is still this week, even though we’re closing down another week, another one of our weeks together today.  So 1 Samuel chapter 14, verse 1 through verse 52 today.  

Commentary

The Philistines are a people who are pretty strong and are like the nemesis of Israel.  They are in conflict with each other quite often and now that there is this new king, it is just amping everything up.  Israel has just been this anomaly, they didn’t look like everyone else.  They weren’t conducting their culture like everyone else.  It was just this interesting thing that hadn’t been seen before.  Once they got a king, they started resembling everybody else and so that just brought some conflict into the picture.  

We’re getting to know King Saul a little bit and we can see that as a person he’s an insecure person which makes him an insecure leader.  He’s very, very focused on what people think about him. He wants people to look at him and his leadership as strong and to love him.  He is very insecure inside.  We saw all that developing, even in his coronation and in all the stuff we’ve already read.  So what happens today is Jonathan, Saul’s son, the prince of Israel, is making moves and the moves that he makes cause the Philistines to scatter and then everybody goes into battle.  It is pretty clear that Jonathan has instigated this because they did a search of who was missing.  All of a sudden Jonathan is on the radar.  He has won this very, very important victory.  Saul now needs to show his strength and wisdom and leadership. So he makes everybody take an oath not to eat, which proves to be kind of counterproductive.  Saul is trying to seem spiritual but on a practical level these people are burning calories like crazy.  They are in war.  They are running and they are fighting and they are falling and they are getting up and they covering terrain, so they are exhausted.  

Jonathan just doesn’t even know about this, so he eats some honey and that is going to cause Saul to kill his son because he has made this oath and he has to save face and he has to be full of righteous indignation.  He has to be the king.  At this point, the army is like no, no, no.  Jonathan is responsible for this victory.  He should not die.  He is the prince.  So Saul, he has to be humbled in the moment, but he also keeps his son, but that begins to drive a wedge between King Saul and his son and we’ll see that re-emerge later.

What we can see developing here is just a simple fact.  Our insecurities, if they are the lead in our lives, if we’re leading from our insecurities, and I don’t mean just leadership like leadership of people, I mean like within ourselves in our own lives, if that is the lead story, our insecurity is our lead story and that informs all of our choices and decisions, we start looking like Saul pretty quick.  Maybe the circumstances are different, but the thing that motivates the circumstances and leads us into the choices that we make comes from the same place.  

It doesn’t work.  If we just look at the choices that we’ve made out of insecurities, out of what everybody else is going to think about us, out of comparison to each other, we can see that we entangle ourselves like crazy.  We obligate ourselves to things that we don’t want to do or that we don’t feel compelled to be involved in because we want to please everybody.  Or our insecurities pull us within ourselves and we withdraw and isolate from others because they are so much better, they’re doing so many wonderful things and we’re not.  You can play this out in any of a myriad of circumstances in your life, in our lives.  

Our insecurities, if that is the lead story on who we are, then it is not the truth.  It is just the truth we’re inventing.  It’s the truth we’re settling for.  It’s sort of the easy way because it lets us withdraw.  We don’t actually have to live into who we were created to be and it’s not going to work.  I mean, look at the situations in your own lives that are being informed and chosen out of insecurity.  They are not working.  It doesn’t work that way.  We were created to have an identity bestowed upon us by our creator and he has bestowed that identity upon us –  God’s children created in his image.  That is who you are.  The rest of this stuff is fabrication.  

It just starts with one wound, one hurt, one something or another in your life at some point that begins to inform every other decision and then we start making these strange obligations and decisions and responsibilities and compulsions and addictions and it is all coming from this place that we’re seeing in Saul.  So let’s consider today.  Is the lead story my insecurity?  Is that the thing that is actually out there that everybody can see except for me? And I’m trying to cover it over with this personality and image and aura and it is not working and I’m miserable and I’m probably not fooling anyone anyway?  Maybe I can be true.  Maybe I can just be true.  Maybe I can be a child of God created in his image and maybe that is enough.  Let’s consider it today.  And as we continue through the life of Saul, we’re going to watch everything we just talked about.  We’re going to watch it all play out so we’ll get a very, very clear picture of where those roads go.  So let’s invite the Holy Spirit to come.  

Prayer

We do that, Jesus, come.  Come into those places.  Holy Spirit, is the lead story of my life, the main presentation of who I am coming from, my hurts, my insecurities, my comparison?  Is that what has been going on here?  Because that would explain a lot.  Right now I get this vision of freedom, that it could be true, that I really can be true.  I just am a person created in your image and you love me and you’ve rescued me and you’re inviting me forward toward wholeness.  You’re inviting me through the process of sanctification every single day to become more and more who I really am and that is whole.  And yet all this other stuff just completely diminishes and clouds that out.  So I’m here. I’m here.  I’m thinking this through and I’m inviting your Holy Spirit because I don’t want that.  I don’t even like what that sounds like.  So come Jesus, by the power of your Holy Spirit give me vision for who I really am and show me how to walk that path toward my own wholeness that is who I was really created to be.  Show me how to disentangle myself from all of the kudzu that has risen up and wound itself around me and entangled me so that I don’t really even know where I am anymore. Help me.  God, help me.  I want to be true.  I want to reflect your glory into this world.  Come Holy Spirit, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

SONG played on today’s DAB “No Longer Slaves” Bethel Music https://itun.es/us/6IP64

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday May 13, 2017 (NIV)

1 Samuel 14

Jonathan Defeats the Philistines

14 One day Saul’s son Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Let’s go to the Philistine military post on the other side.” But Jonathan didn’t tell his father he was going.

2 Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree at Migron. He had with him about 600 men 3 in addition to Ahijah, the son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub, who was the son of Phinehas and the grandson of Eli, the Lord’s priest at Shiloh. Ahijah was wearing the priestly ephod.[a]

The troops didn’t know Jonathan had left. 4 There was a cliff on each side of the mountain pass where Jonathan searched for a way to cross over to attack the Philistine military post. The name of one cliff was Bozez, and the name of the other was Seneh. 5 One cliff stood like a pillar on the north facing Michmash, the other stood south facing Geba.

6 Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Let’s go to the military post of these uncircumcised people. Maybe the Lord will act on our behalf. The Lord can win a victory with a few men as well as with many.”

7 His armorbearer answered him, “Do whatever you have in mind. Go ahead! I agree with you.”

8 Jonathan continued, “Listen, we’ll cross over to the Philistines and show ourselves to them. 9 If they say to us, ‘Stay where you are until we come to you,’ then we’ll stay where we are and not go up to them. 10 But if they say to us, ‘Come up here,’ then we’ll go up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has handed them over to us.”

11 So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine troops. The Philistines said, “Look, some Hebrews are coming out of the holes they were hiding in.”

12 “Come up here,” the men of the military post said to Jonathan and his armorbearer. “We have something to show you.”

Jonathan told his armorbearer, “Follow me up to the military post because the Lord has handed the troops over to Israel.”

13 Jonathan climbed up the cliff, and his armorbearer followed him. Jonathan struck down the Philistines. His armorbearer, who was behind him, finished killing them. 14 In their first slaughter Jonathan and his armorbearer killed about twenty men within about a hundred yards. 15 There was panic among the army in the field and all the troops in the military post. The raiding party also trembled in fear. The earth shook, and there was a panic sent from God.

16 Saul’s watchmen at Gibeah in Benjamin could see the crowd in the Philistine camp dispersing in all directions.

17 “Look around,” Saul told the troops who were with him, “and see who has left our camp.” They looked and found that Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there.

18 Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the priestly ephod,” because Ahijah carried the ephod in front of Israel that day. [b] 19 While Saul was talking to the priest, the confusion in the Philistine camp grew worse and worse. Then Saul said to the priest, “Remove your hand from the ephod.” [c] 20 Saul and all the troops with him assembled and went into battle. They found Philistine soldiers killing their fellow soldiers in wild confusion. 21 The Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before this and had been stationed in the camp now joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. 22 When all the men of Israel who had been hiding in the mountains of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they also pursued the Philistines in battle. 23 So the Lord saved Israel that day.

Saul’s Curse

Now, the battle moved beyond Beth Aven. 24 Israel’s soldiers were driven hard that day. Saul made the troops swear, “Cursed is anyone who eats food before the evening comes and before I’ve gotten revenge on my enemies.” So none of his troops tasted any food. 25 The entire land had honeycombs,[d] and there was honey on the ground. 26 When the troops entered the woods, the honey was flowing. But no one put his hand to his mouth, because the troops were afraid of violating their oath.

27 Jonathan hadn’t heard that his father forced the troops to take an oath. So he stretched out the tip of the staff he had in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb. When he put it to his mouth, his eyes lit up. 28 Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father forced the troops to take a solemn oath: ‘Cursed is anyone who eats food today.’”

Now, the army was exhausted. 29 Jonathan answered, “My father has brought trouble to the country. See how my eyes lit up when I tasted a little of this honey? 30 If only the troops had eaten some of the enemies’ food, which they found today. We would have killed more Philistines.”

31 That day they struck down the Philistines from Michmash to Aijalon, but the troops were thoroughly exhausted. 32 So the troops seized the Philistines’ belongings. They took sheep, cows, and calves, and butchered them on the ground. The troops ate the meat with blood still in it. 33 Some soldiers told Saul, “The troops are sinning against the Lord by eating meat with blood in it.”

Saul replied, “You have been unfaithful. Roll a large rock over to me now.” 34 Then Saul said, “Spread out through the troops, and tell them, ‘Each of you, bring me your ox or your sheep, and butcher it here, and eat. But don’t sin against the Lord by eating meat with blood in it.’”

So each of the soldiers brought his ox with him that night and butchered it there.

35 Then Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first time he had built an altar to the Lord.

36 Saul said to his men, “Let’s attack the Philistines tonight and take their possessions until the light of dawn. And let’s not leave any of them alive.”

“Do whatever you think is best,” they responded.

But the priest said, “Let’s consult God first.”

37 Then Saul asked God, “Should I attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to Israel?” But he received no answer that day.

38 So Saul ordered all the leaders of the troops, “Come here! Find out what sin was committed today. 39 I solemnly swear, as the Lord and Savior of Israel lives, even if it is my son Jonathan who did it, he must die.” But not one of the soldiers replied.

40 Saul told all Israel, “You stand on one side, and my son Jonathan and I will stand on the other side.”

“Do whatever you think is best,” the troops responded to Saul.

41 Then Saul said to the Lord, “O God of Israel, why didn’t you answer me today? If this sin is mine or my son Jonathan’s, Lord God of Israel, let the priest draw Urim. But if it is in your people Israel,[e] let him draw Thummim.” Jonathan and Saul were chosen, and the people were freed from guilt.

42 “Choose between me and my son Jonathan,” Saul said. Then Jonathan was chosen.

43 “Tell me,” Saul asked Jonathan. “What did you do?”

So Jonathan told him, “I tasted a little honey on the tip of the staff I had in my hand. And for that I am to die?”

44 Saul said, “May God do worse things to me than are in this curse if you do not die, Jonathan!”

45 The troops asked Saul, “Should Jonathan die after he has won this great victory in Israel? That would be unthinkable! We solemnly swear, as the Lord lives, not a single hair of his head will fall to the ground, because he has done this with God’s help today.” So the troops rescued Jonathan from death. 46 Then Saul stopped pursuing the Philistines. So the Philistines returned to their own land.

Summary of Saul’s Reign

47 When Saul had taken over the kingdom of Israel, he fought against his enemies on every side—against Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he was victorious. 48 He acted forcefully and defeated Amalek. He rescued Israel from the enemies who looted their possessions.

49 Saul’s sons were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua. The names of his two daughters were Merab (the firstborn daughter) and Michal (the younger daughter). 50 The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Saul’s uncle Ner. 51 Kish (Saul’s father) and Ner (Abner’s father) were the sons of Abiel.

52 There was intense warfare with the Philistines as long as Saul lived. Whenever any warrior or any skilled fighting man came to Saul’s attention, Saul would enlist him in the army.

Footnotes:

  1. 1 Samuel 14:3 Ephod is a technical term for a part of the priest’s clothes. Its exact usage and shape are unknown.
  2. 1 Samuel 14:19 Greek; Masoretic Text problematic: “Bring the ark of God because the ark of God that day and the sons of Israel.”
  3. 1 Samuel 14:20 Hebrew meaning uncertain.
  4. 1 Samuel 14:25 Or “The entire land came into the woods.”
  5. 1 Samuel 14:41 “Why didn’t you . . . your people Israel” Greek, Latin; Masoretic Text omits these words.
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

John 7:31-53

31 However, many people in the crowd believed in him. They asked, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more miracles than this man has?”

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd saying things like this about him. So the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Jesus.

33 Jesus said, “I will still be with you for a little while. Then I’ll go to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you won’t find me. You can’t go where I’m going.”

35 The Jews said among themselves, “Where does this man intend to go so that we won’t find him? Does he mean that he’ll live with the Jews who are scattered among the Greeks and that he’ll teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean when he says, ‘You will look for me, but you won’t find me,’ and ‘You can’t go where I’m going’?”

37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus was standing in the temple courtyard. He said loudly, “Whoever is thirsty must come to me to drink. 38 As Scripture says, ‘Streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.’” 39 Jesus said this about the Spirit, whom his believers would receive. The Spirit was not yet evident, as it would be after Jesus had been glorified.

40 After some of the crowd heard Jesus say these words, they said, “This man is certainly the prophet.” 41 Other people said, “This man is the Messiah.” Still other people asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Doesn’t Scripture say that the Messiah will come from the descendants of David and from the village of Bethlehem, where David lived?” 43 So the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but they couldn’t.

45 When the temple guards returned, the chief priests and Pharisees asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Jesus?”

46 The temple guards answered, “No human has ever spoken like this man.”

47 The Pharisees asked the temple guards, “Have you been deceived too? 48 Has any ruler or any Pharisee believed in him? 49 This crowd is cursed because it doesn’t know Moses’ Teachings.”

50 One of those Pharisees was Nicodemus, who had previously visited Jesus. Nicodemus asked them, 51 “Do Moses’ Teachings enable us to judge a person without first hearing that person’s side of the story? We can’t judge a person without finding out what that person has done.”

52 They asked Nicodemus, “Are you saying this because you’re from Galilee? Study the Scriptures, and you’ll see that no prophet comes from Galilee.”[a]

53 Then each of them went home.

Footnotes:

  1. John 7:52 John 7:53–8:11 is not found in many manuscripts and some translations. Some manuscripts place these verses between 7:36 and 7:37. Other manuscripts place them between 7:44 and 7:45. Others place them after 21:25, and some place them between Luke 21:38 and 22:1.
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

Psalm 109

Psalm 109

For the choir director; a psalm by David.

1 O God, whom I praise, do not turn a deaf ear to me.
2 Wicked and deceitful people have opened their mouths against me.
They speak against me with lying tongues.
3 They surround me with hateful words.
They fight against me for no reason.
4 In return for my love, they accuse me,
but I pray for them.[a]
5 They reward me with evil instead of good
and with hatred instead of love.

6 I said, “Appoint the evil one to oppose him.
Let Satan stand beside him.
7 When he stands trial,
let him be found guilty.
Let his prayer be considered sinful.
8 Let his days be few in number.
Let someone else take his position.

9 “Let his children become fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children wander around and beg.
Let them seek help far from their ruined homes.
11 Let a creditor take everything he owns.
Let strangers steal what he has worked for.
12 Let no one be kind to him anymore.
Let no one show any pity to his fatherless children.
13 Let his descendants be cut off
and their family name be wiped out by the next generation.
14 Let the Lord remember the guilt of his ancestors
and not wipe out his mother’s sin.
15 Let their guilt and sin always remain on record
in front of the Lord.
Let the Lord remove every memory of him[b] from the earth,
16 because he did not remember to be kind.

“He drove oppressed, needy,
and brokenhearted people to their graves.
17 He loved to put curses on others,
so he, too, was cursed.
He did not like to bless others,
so he never received a blessing.
18 He wore cursing as though it were clothing,
so cursing entered his body like water
and his bones like oil.
19 Let cursing be his clothing,
a belt he always wears.”

20 This is how the Lord rewards those who accuse me,
those who say evil things against me.

21 O Lord Almighty, deal with me out of the goodness of your name.
Rescue me because of your mercy.
22 I am oppressed and needy.
I can feel the pain in my heart.
23 I fade away like a lengthening shadow.
I have been shaken off like a grasshopper.
24 My knees give way because I have been fasting.
My body has become lean, without any fat.
25 I have become the victim of my enemies’ insults.
They look at me and shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God.
Save me because of your mercy.
27 Then they will know that this is your doing,
that you, O Lord, are the one who saved me.
28 They may curse, but you will bless.
Let those who attack me be ashamed,
but let me rejoice.
29 Let those who accuse me wear disgrace as though it were clothing.
Let them be wrapped in their shame as though it were a robe.

30 With my mouth I will give many thanks to the Lord.
I will praise him among many people,
31 because he stands beside needy people
to save them from those who would condemn them to death.

Psalm 110

A psalm by David.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 109:4 Or “but I am a man of prayer.”
  2. Psalm 109:15 Or “them.”
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

Proverbs 15:5-7

5 A stubborn fool despises his father’s discipline,
but whoever appreciates a warning shows good sense.
6 Great treasure is in the house of a righteous person,
but trouble comes along with the income of a wicked person.
7 The lips of wise people spread knowledge,
but a foolish attitude does not.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group