1 Samuel 17:1-18:4, John 8:21-30, Psalms 111:1-10, Proverbs 15:11
Today is the 15th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today. And we’re here to take the next step forward as we continue our adventure and the journey that the Bible is as we take steps everyday through the entire Bible in a year. And, so, let’s take that next step. We are reading from the book of 1 Samuel in our Old Testament reading. And we’ve met the first king of Israel. His name is Saul. And we’ve also met this other character named David. And David and Saul’s lives are intertwined in fascinating ways. And they bring out fascinating things in each other and today we’ll find out why David is even on the radar. 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 1 through 18 verse 4 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, now we have an understanding of how David and Saul’s lives became entwined with each other. And we’ll get to know David very well, but we have to pay attention to how the story went, right? So David is the youngest son in his family. His brothers are off to war and David is a shepherd. He’s kind of running back and forth. So, when David steps forward and slays Goliath, he goes from complete obscurity to national hero in moments. And we’ve already gotten to know Saul a bit and we know that one of his primary character defects is his complete fear of man. And David will make Saul a very insecure man. But we’ll have a front row seat to watching all of that play out. But we also get some clues into David’s character. So, here’s this young, well-built, very good-looking kid and he’s the youngest kid in his family, right? So, when he gets to the battle line to find his brothers, he’s appalled at what this Philistine, right? This uncircumcised Philistine is shouting. And then he starts to hear the rumors what the king will do. The man who kills this Philistine, his family will never pay taxes and he’ll marry the king’s daughter. Well David being just this young man, vital and vibrant, he’s thinking, that sounds like a pretty good deal. So, he’s asking questions. Now Goliath is certainly taunting and trying to discourage the entire army of Israel and this one man is being successful in that endeavor. This one man is intimidating the entire army of Israel. But Goliath doesn’t intimidate David. But David has some taunting and discouragement to deal with that’s way closer to home than this Philistine. He has this to deal with from his own family. So, it’s David’s own brother Eliab who’s like, why did you come here? And who did you leave those few little scattered sheep with and I know your arrogance and your evil heart. I mean, that’s pretty strong stuff to be saying even if you are picking on your little brother. So, we see that David has had to deal with this stuff in his life and he’s had to spend a lot of time alone. He’s a shepherd and we’ve learned that he’s had to come up against a lion and a bear. So, he’s learned how to take care of himself. He’s learned how to be stealthy and he’s become lethal with a slingshot. And I remember we were standing in the Valley of Elah just a couple months ago when we were in Israel. Was a beautiful day, spring flowers covering the countryside. And we all walked down into the Valley of Elah to the brook. There’s an ancient creek - just one - running through the valley. And I remember on this trip we had a giant of our own. We had a man, his name is Mike, and I can’t remember how tall he…he was like almost seven feet tall, right? So, way, way, way taller than me. Way taller than anybody else. And I’m looking at this guy going, man, if he stands down here in the creek, he can make a lot of money taking selfies all day. But I remember thinking, man, Goliath would have been an imposing character, almost three feet taller than that. But this kid, David, wasn’t intimidated. So, he grabs some rocks. And you know I’ve heard the story of David and Goliath my entire life. And, so, in my mind, I was always enamored that David had a shepherd’s bag. I remember this as a kid. I wanted a shepherd’s bag, whatever that was. I thought that was cool. I mean, what do you put in shepherd’s bag? David took rocks. And in my mind’s eye these are like golf-ball size rocks. But that wouldn’t have been the case. It would have been small, small rocks because when David slung the rock it sunk into the forehead of Goliath like a bullet. So, you can only imagine the story being re-told all over Israel and David becoming legendary. And we’ll watch the effects that fame has on David and how his life is altered because he has killed the giant Goliath over the coming days. But we begin to see the contrast between Saul and David right away. Saul is hiding in the baggage at his coronation. David is going down into the Valley of Elah to face a giant. So, the way that they look at the world is very different. They’re on very different paths even though their lives are enmeshed. And we’ll learn a lot about ourselves as we continue to take this journey through their stories.
Prayer:
So, Father, we thank You for your Word. We thank You for these stories that are full of nuances because our lives are full of nuances. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us through this story. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here, so be sure to check in and check it out.
Stop by the Prayer Wall. See what people are asking for prayer for. Maybe pray for them. Maybe you have some things you want to be prayed over. It’s a great community of prayer there. Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop while you’re at the website. There are a number of resources there to take you on the journey through the Scriptures in a year, including the Promised Land films. And I mention them because the Valley of Elah, we’ve shot that and filmed it very extensively, so you can get a good look of what that all looks like for yourself and make this story come alive, as well as so many of the other locations that we’ve visited as we’ve taken the journey so far through the Scriptures. So that’s available in the Daily Audio Bible shop.
If you wanna partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. Thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 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 and Praise:
Hello DAB family. This is Michael from Texas, Fort Worth Texas. It is May 11th and this is my day three calling in for marriages. Marriages were created by the Lord. He meant for us to be together, that man would have a mate. So, he created woman from man. And we are to leave our parents to cleave to each other. So, I’m just reiterating that we just…are meant to be together…that’s what…God has created us to be together and to love our mates and to be supportive of each other and to be there for each other in good and bad. So, I just want to lift up marriages to You Jesus and Lord to give us strength to get through every day to be an encouragement to our mates, to be supportive, to be a friend, to be their soulmate, to be their lover, and just to be a listening ear. Even though you may not want to listen but you listen because that is your mate because the devil will try to steal and try to throw a curve at you anytime he can. Just like today for me. My wife, she got up this morning and she was just starting to get on me about something. And I’m just saying, okay, what’s going on here? And I just…I held my tongue, and you know…I just…I’ve learned to listen and not say anything and just be…and pray and cry out to the Lord, Hey Lord, I need some help here. What should I say? What should I do? What’s my reaction? So, I just try to be still in the situation. But, okay, my time is running up. I ramble…
Hello DAB family. This is Michael from Texas again. Sorry I’m calling back in but there was some people I wanted to call on and pray for. And because it takes me so long to see what I need to say…sorry…and I apologize. I need to get better at doing this but sometimes I feel like I’m just stumbling along, mumbling. Anyways, I wanted to say thanks to Trinal, I think that’s her name, for reminding us where God’s heart is for his people. And I appreciate that word. It’s just something I wrote down and I wanted to call and mention that. And also Victoria from Ohio, she called in one time very distressed and didn’t think that the Lord was anywhere near her. She thought that she wasn’t, He’s not listening, but you know He’s there all the time, no matter when you feel He’s not listening, He’s there. He just, you have to cry out to reach out get on your knees and just pray and read the word and listen to Brian’s reading of the word and trust me sister, He’s there for you. And you have thousands, I mean tens of thousands of people in this community praying for you. We’re all praying for you sister. And I wanted to say thanks to Deborah from Northern California for your words of encouragement that God loves us no matter what. God is never too busy and He loves us. He doesn’t have time to be dis__ing us. Oh my, that just kind of blew me away, those words. And thank you. Thank you so much for that…for those words Deborah. I appreciate that. That’s all I have time for today folks. Keep it flowin’. I love you guys. Victoria S., you are awesome. I love you when call and pray. I wish I could pray like that when I call in. Thank you, sister. Love you. Bye.
Hi neighbors. It’s Lisa the Encourager. I was really encouraged today by the reading on May 8th that Brian did regarding Samuel and Eli. And I just wanted to share this with you and I hope it will be a blessing. So, I really, obviously, heard this story before and, you know, how God is calling out to Samuel and Eli tells him several times that it’s not him. And then he goes back and he inquires again and he tells him the Lord is talking to you Samuel and so you need to speak to Him. And, so, he gives Samuel these words. He says, tell the Lord when he speaks to you, speak for your servant is listening. And I heard those words and I said, you know what, I’m to write that down in my journal and remember that because I think all of us should be calling out to God and asking Him to speak to us and then in turn say that we are Your servants and we’re listening God and just make a profession of that. And I just love those words that he said. I never really thought about them before. So, I’m going to make that my mission and just listening to the Lord and asking Him to speak to me through the Holy Spirit. So, I just want to pray for all of us that will be able to be encouraged that way. So, dear God I thank You so much for the word of God and how it speaks to us in so many different profound ways when we’ve heard it before but we listen intently to different parts of the Bible that speak to us God. And I just pray that…
Father in heaven, thank You for Your salvation. Thank You for loving us and for giving us Jesus, for allowing Him to suffer. Thank You for saving us by putting people in our lives who loved us with Your love and who shared the Good News with us. Thank You for giving us the faith so that we could believe in You. And right now, Father, we lift up every person in our lives who does not yet believe, who does not follow You yet. We especially lift up to You those who have persecuted us because of our faith in You. We bless them in the name of Jesus and we ask that Your Holy Spirit will stir in them and will draw them to Jesus. Please grant us wisdom and perseverance to keep on praying for them and keep on loving them. Let Your Holy Spirit fill us so that we can bear the fruit of the Spirit instead of what our flesh wants to do. And we ask that each one will open their heart to You, that You will soften their heart, especially for this one family member that somebody asked us to pray for whose near-death and doesn’t yet know You. And I’m asking for my uncle. He’s had a very hard heart toward You and toward me talking about You. I lift up all of our family and friends that need You yet hold their arms and hold you…