1 Samuel 29:1-31:13, John 11:55-12:19, Psalms 118:1-18, Proverbs 15:24-26
Today is the 21st day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today for the next step forward as we continue to move through the Scriptures. And today we will wrap up the book of 1 Samuel by reading the last couple of chapters. Chapters 29 through 31. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we have completed the book of 1 Samuel, which will allow us to begin the book of 2 Samuel tomorrow. And we end the book of 1 Samuel with King Saul’s death. 1 Samuel deals largely with the rise of King Saul and his life. And, of course, David becomes a part of that story because their lives get intertwined after David kills Goliath and Saul gets incredibly paranoid and jealous of him. But 1 Samuel ends with the death of King Saul in battle with the Philistines. And all of these places, the place where the battle took place on Mount Gilboa and the Jezreel Valley, that’s for real. That’s a real place. When Saul and his sons’ bodies were discovered and taken and hung from the walls of Beth-shan that’s also a real place. We spent some time wandering around and just marveling at the spectacular ruins that are there just a couple months ago. Ziklag, David’s town that was raided by the Amalekites, that’s a real place too. Pretty far away from the Jezreel Valley. So, we see this three day journey that David and his men have to embark upon to leave the battle lines as they were commanded to do. And that would have been a very strenuous journey for three days. It’s pretty far. Ziklag would be down toward the Negev, down in the transition zone that’s more arid, whereas the Jezreel Valley’s way up north in the Galilee region. So it’s not surprising that some of the soldiers, some of David’s men, were really exhausted. They had just made this very, very strenuous journey very quickly, got back to their town, found their town on fire so their hearts were demoralized, adding to their exhaustion. And then they’re taking of, trying to find what might be left of the life that they knew. Of course, David was able to recover everything. And we will turn the page and begin 2 Samuel tomorrow and pick up the story of David.
Of course, in the gospel of John we kind of recognize what’s going on. We recognize that it’s Passover. We recognize that Jesus is coming into town and he had ridden in on a donkey, so we know that this is the passion narrative. And I wanna invite us to drink deeply. This will be the last time that we come through this territory this year. It won’t be long before we conclude the gospels as we prepare to conclude the Gospel of John and then we’ll be moving from there into the story that happens next, the story after Jesus’ resurrection. So as we go through this narrative for the final time this year through the eyes of John let’s pay attention and give it the reverence that it is due.
Prayer:
And so Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your Word. We do this most every day because we are thankful for Your Word, all of the things that it speaks into our souls, all the things that it instructs us in, all of the contexts and history that it allows us to experience. And so as we make this turn, we reflect back on Saul. There’s been so much of his life we can find in ourselves. And yet as we turn the page, begin to move into the life of David, we’ll see the same thing. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us
And Jesus, as we experience the final time this year the story of Your willing sacrifice on our behalf in order that the world might be restored, we thank You and we pay attention and we consider deeply and we invite Your Holy Spirit to reveal just what a change in the world this story brings. What Your sacrifice brought to the world was our salvation. Our lives are intertwined with that story. And, so, come Holy Spirit as we move into it, we pray. In Jesus name. 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 Daily Audio Bible family. This is Joyce and California. I sound a little different cause I have a cold but I just wanted to say I love you all and that tomorrow, May 19th, I’ll be walking across the stage for my graduation from medical school. I just wanted to thank you guys so much cause it’s been such a journey and you all have loved me so well and prayed for me so much. And I can’t thank you enough. I just wanted to pray God’s blessings over each and every single one of you. Just know that as I walk across the stage I’m going to be praising God for each and every single one of you. So, thank you so much and especially Brian and Jill. I thank them so much for building this community, for being obedient to God, and for the More Gathering, which was absolutely amazing. It was amazing because I got to see so many of my beautiful sisters and to meet a lot of you. Thank you so much and may God bless each and every one of us as we step into what He has for us as a community and us individually. May God bless you all. I love you so much. All right, this is Joyce in California. I’ll catch you later. Bye-bye.
Hi neighbors. It’s Lisa the Encourager. I was truly inspired today by what Brian read in Psalms 115 verse 17. And I’ll just repeat it real quick. It says, it is not the dead praise the Lord nor any of those descending into silence of death but we will bless the Lord both now and forever. Halleluiah. And I just wanted to use this opportunity to praise and have adoration for my God right now as I am on this earth and encourage all of you, right now, to even think about something that you can praise God about, no matter what you’re going through or what you’re facing right now because it says once we’re dead we don’t have that opportunity except for when we’re in heaven to praise Him, but we want to praise Him now so that when we are face to face with God that he can be pleased with what we did here on earth. So, I just want to encourage each of You to praise Him. I want to praise Him for that beautiful trees because I live in an area with some beautiful gorgeous lush trees. We’ve got a lot of rain and the green leaves are gorgeous and I just want to praise You God for providing the trees that provide the fruit, and the flowers, the food for us and it gives us shade. I just want to praise You God for that. I want to praise You God for the trees. They give the birds and the squirrels a home and a canopy for all those habitats. I want to praise You God for the wood that people get from the trees that people can make furniture with, the playmates that they are for the kids to climb in these trees God. I praise You for that. And I just want to praise You God for how they change and all the beautiful colors of the seasons. I just even read God that patients that see a tree outside their window heal faster. So, I praise You God for that. I praise You for everything…
Hi. This is Scottish Tom again from the Cleveland Ohio area. I actually planned to call for the women from Ohio and I didn’t quite catch her name but you were originally from the Ukraine and you said that your mom had been they diagnosed with breast cancer. I just wanted to let you know that I am praying for your mom and I’m also praying for you. I understand your pain. I know how hard it can be being so far away. I’m in the same situation myself. And some people are saying, why aren’t you over there? You know, why are you over here? With your mom. You know, I know it’s hard. My mom understands and I’m sure your mom does too, that you can’t just quit your job and leave your life will be here for an un-definite time. We are hoping to get over once she pulls through or if worse comes to the worse she knows we’ll be there and I’m sure your mom does as well. So, I’m praying for your mom but I’m also praying for you because I do understand your pain. Please keep us informed. Bye everybody.
Hello my family. This is Janice calling from Goodyear Arizona. And I finally had my back surgery. Turned out to be a little more complicated than they thought and blah blah blah. It was about six weeks ago. I’m still in a lot of pain and at this point. Worse pain than before the surgery. And I know this is going to be slow going. I just pray that you would reach out on my behalf to our heavenly Father for His healing hands to touch me and for me to have patience and learn what I’m supposed to during this process. And most importantly, that I can be all better and can ride my bike with my grandson. So, I love you all. Thank you for praying for me and I listen and pray for you every day too. Bye family.