1 Samuel 18:5-19:24, John 8:31-59, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 15:12-14
Today is the 16th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. It is always a pleasure and an honor to take the next step forward together. To come around the global campfire as a community. Come in out of the chaos that life can bring us, warm ourselves around this fire and allow God’s Word to wash into our hearts and wash over our lives. So, we read the story of David and Goliath yesterday, which shows us how David… How his life intersected with King Saul’s life. And their lives will be intertwined for a while now. And it’s gonna get a little weird. But what we need to observe is the different men’s reactions. How the story plays out, the character of David, the character of Saul. We’ll find ourselves in both of these people and there’s much to learn because we’re watching where two roads lead. So, we’ll pick up with the story. 1 Samuel 18:5-19:24 today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in 1 Samuel we see now the animosity between Saul and David. We see that David makes Saul insecure. He fears him. But we’ve had enough time with Saul to see that he fears a lot of things. And that totally clouds his leadership. So, Saul fears David. And a lot of times when we fear someone or what they have the potential to do to us in a negative way, we’re really fearing what we’re capable of doing. And we’ve seen Saul be erratic when he’s afraid of people. David, on the other hand, is actually loyal to Saul, to his king. He does not think of himself as anything. He’s been thrust into the spotlight. But he’s actually trying to serve the king and the kingdom well. So, Saul sends him on missions in hopes that David will get killed. And David is loyal to the mission and then is successful and its confusing why Saul would be so upset. So, we’ll watch the story continue to play out in its entirety and we’ll talk about it as we go. Because, like I said yesterday, in Saul and David we see two different people with very different characters. And we’ll find elements of our own character in both of these people. And what makes this portion of the Bible so helpful to us is that we can recognize these things and then we can watch this story play out. We can see where both of these roads lead, which allows us to have foresight on the paths that we are choosing.
In the book of John, we see Jesus simply speaking the truth and we see the reaction or the repercussions of the truth on the Jews that he is speaking to. He’s basically saying, Look, you are claiming to be children of Abraham, you are claiming to be children of God. And yet, here I am. I have been sent here specifically and you can’t find that I’ve sinned. You can’t accuse me of something. And you certainly can’t accuse me of grandstanding or trying to make a name for myself or trying to become popular among you. I’ve never tried to do that and I’m not trying to do that now. That’s not why I’m here. I’ve been sent here by the Father. I’m here to show you the way. I’m here to tell you the truth. And the truth is that you are claiming something that you are not. You are claiming to be children of God, but you want to kill me. And if you believed in who I was, if you believed what I’m telling you, you certainly wouldn’t want to be killing me. So, you are not who you say you are. So, Jesus is just speaking the truth. And he’s telling them the truth will set them free. And this doesn’t go over well with them, right? If someone said that to you, if they actually were speaking the truth to you but you didn’t see it or you didn’t wanna see it, that would be the same kind of reaction. Because the truth is going to bring a reaction, but it’s not always a positive one. Sometimes the truth confronts us. Sometimes it’s not just like, ah, the truth. There, now I see the light. Now there’s the way. Ah, awesome. Sometimes it confronts us. Sometimes it will stand right in the middle of our path and confront us on the way that we’re going. And sometimes we pick up rocks and throw the rocks at the truth just like the people were picking up rocks to throw at Jesus. Which is simply our denial of the truth. It’s just us saying, I don’t want that. I don’t wanna hear that. It’s just like Jesus said, you’re a slave. You’re a slave…the truth will make you free. But you’re saying, no I wanna be a slave.
And then we get to the Proverb today. A joyful heart, right? And we’ve been talking through the Proverbs when it speaks of our hearts. A joyful heart makes a face cheerful. I think we know that. But a sad heart produces not a downturned face. A sad heart produces a broken spirit. So, if we’re in a season where we feel sad hearted now, what we can get from this Proverb is that our joy is missing. Which allows us to then begin to invite the Holy Spirit. Where did it go? What is going on? What has robbed us of our joy? If we will meditate on that and invite the Holy Spirit into that, maybe journal about that, actually give some space to that. We can continue to be sad hearted if we want, right? We can continue in this depression and anxiety. We can continue to be downtrodden, we can continue to be sad hearted. But it will continue to produce a broken spirit. So, things aren’t going to just get better until we begin to invite God into what has taken our joy. Once we can begin to name that, then we can begin to make the changes necessary so that we can have a joyful heart, which will make our face cheerful. So, there are plenty of things to think about in the Scriptures today.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You. There’s so much here. We ask You to come and show us what has taken our joy. Show us the places that the truth has been standing in the path confronting us and we’ve been throwing rocks. Come Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
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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:
Hi DAB family. It’s Mother’s Day morning at about 2:35. This is Donna calling from De Pere, Wisconsin. I am unable to sleep. I’ve been going through chemotherapy. So, I had it Friday, May 4th. It took me eight days to recover…not recover…but go through the horrors of receiving the chemo and processing it through my body. I get chemo again next Friday, May 18th and am wondering if you would all be willing to pray for me. I have a chronic low white blood count and the special chemo I’ve gotten in the past has helped to raise my white blood count level. I have a 15-year-old son, Tyler, who has been sick vomiting since he learned that I’ve had to go get chemo again for my white blood count level that is dangerously low. So, it’s very hard to pray for myself when I’m stuck. So, I just ask for you all, if you would pray for me and for my son. I have a very simple life when I’m not getting chemo and I would just like to get back to that simple life. And I just love you all and I thank you for the podcast Jill and Brian and I pray for all of you callers who call in. You encourage me. And keep calling in so I can continue to pray for you all as well. I love you.
All around me God there’s snoring
I feel your spirit in be pouring
I feel great strength your holy power
I feel like screaming Lord on me shower
give me more Lord give me more
Lord please shut and lock the door
Lock in your Spirit deep within
Letting no demon enter in
I feel you surging there is no sin
There is no beginning there is no end
Flowing like a river Lord
I know within I’ve been restored
Satan’s lost he’s been defeated
Through Christ’s blood it’s all been completed
The Scripture says he’s like a lion
But with no teeth he’ll soon be dyin’
Sometimes his roar would make me run
But I run no more cause I know God’s son
He gives me power as I believe
And if I don’t believe then I won’t receive
But I do believe and I have received
So by his roar I am not deceived
In my heart I celebrate
Cause God has help me elevate
He helps me walk in integrity tempted yet not sin
All powers been given me and Satan has no win
In my life he’s been evicted the door has been locked and shut
Jesus has empowered me to kick his ly’n but
blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Drew from the bay area and Michelle from LA and also Asia. Hope all is well. And, once again Brian, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.
Dear Lord, our amazing friend, Abba Father. You are God hears and answers prayer and we are amazed at Your mercy and grace toward us Lord because we know we don’t deserve it, but You’ve covered up over all of our sins and now we can be the new Adam. And when You look at us, you look at someone as spotless, as Your very own son. You see is as Your own son. Lord, I pray and lift up everyone in this community whose hearing this and who listens every day to Your word together. I pray Lord that You’ll break the stronghold of addiction that is wreaking havoc because we know that really You took care of all that at the cross. So, Lord, I pray for these dear ones, that they will turn away from that and find that what they’re desperate for is You Yourself and that somehow this whole addiction situation would be broken. I pray Lord for Connie from Ohio in particular because…not about addiction…but about loss. Lord, you are near to the brokenhearted. This dear one who’s lost her mom, her four-month old friend baby, her husband of 27 years who abruptly left her. Lord, be near to her, bind up all her wounds, be her husband, be her everything. In Jesus’ name I pray and I claim her peace.
Hey DAB family, this is Byron out in Florida hope you all are doing well. Right now, in our Bible reading were going through the book of Samuel and hearing the story of Saul and David, which is one of my favorite parts of Scripture during the year but it’s also been convicting over the years because the stories of Saul’s insecurities kind of mirror some of my own. And I always struggle with how to deal with those particular items. Well, this year…last year around this time a lady called in and gave some words of wisdom concerning this part of the Scripture that resonated with me so well that I wanted to repeat them this year so others can take advantage of it. And I’ve been meditating on it all year long. But what she said essentially was that the contrast between Saul and David gives us a picture of how to deal with insecurity, whereas Saul was beset by insecurity David was humble. So, humility becomes a cure for insecurity. And that was counterintuitive to me but it stuck with me and it really is true. So, I’ll invite you, as we go through this portion of the Scripture to see that contrast and ask God to really bring you a humble heart, to relieve you of your fears and bring you to the next level of what God has for you. So, I pray for everyone who takes advantage of that. I love you all. Talk to you later.