1 Kings 12:20-13:34, Acts 9:26-43, Psalms 132:1-18, Proverbs 17:6
Today is the 14th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and I’m glad that we can take the next step forward together as we continue to move our way through the Scriptures this year. Yesterday we kind of began to slide downward as we reached the end of Solomon’s life in our Old Testament reading from First Kings. And we have seen Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, become king. We have seen 10 of the tribes of Israel revolt against Rehoboam. So, things are a bit of a mess. And then when we were in Acts yesterday we finally begin to understand who Saul is and how he’s becoming the apostle Paul and begun to pick up that story. So, we’ll continue with both of those stories. We’re reading from the Good News translation this week. So, 1 Kings, chapter 12 verse 20 2 through 13 verse 34 today.
Commentary:
Alright. So, in first Kings you can see what we’ve been saying, that we reached an apex and then we started to go down the other side. And it’s happened rather quickly. Solomon disappears from the scene and then we can kinda get confused because there’s two Kings in Israel now and there’s two different countries and the king’s names are very similar. Jeroboam is the king of Israel in the North, the 10 tribes. Rehoboam is king of Judah in the south. Rehoboam happens to reign in the territory that encompasses the holy city of Jerusalem, where God’s temple is. Jeroboam has some concerns in that regard. So, he’s a newly minted king and he’s just beginning to establish his government and everything is just kind of getting figured out and what it’s gonna look like. And he begins to realize, you know what, if the people keep making pilgrimages down to Jerusalem to worship God, that’s where their heart and allegiance is gonna lie. They’ll eventually get sick of me. I’ll do something that will tic them off and they’ll get mad. That’s what happens in a political arena. And, so, if their hearts allegiance is to Jerusalem and go down there, when they get sick of me, they’ll just throw me out and kill me and, you know, reunite. So, even though Jeroboam had a prophetic utterance and was anointed the king and God told him to follow in His ways, Jeroboam immediately doesn’t do that. He erects two temples, one in Dan, one in Bethel. So, in other words, at the northern point of his boundaries and at the southern point of his boundaries. He builds to temples and puts in a golden calf…how original…in the temple and tells the people, you don’t need to go to Jerusalem anymore. Here are your gods that brought you out of the land of Egypt. And, so, a new story starts to be told and the people begin to worship at these altars. Now the altar that was in Bethel, in the southern…at the southern border…that has been destroyed but the temple and the altar that existed in Dan that was built by Jeroboam, the ruins of that place exist until this very day. Saw it just a few months ago. So, kind of looking out in front of us as to how this is all going to play out and to give us some context for some of the things that we’ve encountered already and will encounter, Jeroboam is beginning to lead the people to tell a new story. So, they’re trying to worship the God of Abraham, the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, but obviously now there’s this golden calf represented so, there’s a new story being told and they will continue to worship in the customs that they’ve always continued but they’ll be nuanced and, eventually, the capital city of the northern kingdom will become this city called Samaria. And because these stories are getting convoluted, eventually, these people will be known as Samaritans and this is how that all kind of began.
In the book of Acts, there’s some apprehension about Saul, right, this guy that’s gonna become the apostle Paul. He’s had this experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus and his life is been transformed, actually, tipped upside down. He’s not really…I mean there’s this moment where is not sure what he supposed to do or what he supposed to believe because he’s been so diligent and devout in persecuting the church and now he’s finding out that was completely misguided. So, he’s gotta reframe and rewire everything that he believes. And you can see the apprehension in the early believers because they know what…they know Saul’s reputation. I mean, he was there when Stephen was killed. So, they know is reputation. So, you can understand why they would be a little apprehensive about this guy, why they wouldn’t just open arms trust him because, even if he’s speaking the language, he could just be a spy, right? Like, he could be really trying to get deep inside the inner workings of the early church so that he could name names, so that all of the top brass, right, everybody who’s important could be discovered and then persecuted. So, we can understand that Saul, at this point, he’s gotta be going through an awful lot. His paradigms have completely shifted. And those formerly his friends now want to kill him. Those who would be his brothers and sisters in the Lord our are very skeptical about him. So, he’s got a period here where he’s kind of isolated. And when we get to the letter to the Galatians, Paul will say what he did, that he went away, that he went away for several years to work this all out. And during that time Jesus, Jesus literally ministered to him and shared the gospel with him. He will continually claim throughout the rest of his life that the gospel that he is preaching was given to him directly by Jesus. And we’ll see some of the controversy and conflict that that comes about because of that as the early church is trying to navigate who actually can be in this church. But I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got plenty of time for that.
Prayer:
Father, we sit here with what You have given us from Your word today and we stay present in that and invite Your Holy Spirit to plant that deep in our lives, even though we’re just following some stories, understanding choices and decisions that people made. We know that we will follow these stories to their conclusion and see where those roads lead and then our lives are informed about the choices that we’re making. So, Holy Spirit, come, lead us into all truth we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for here is tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
For all of us who are gathered here
I pray for power and an end to fear
Please cleanse our hearts both within and without
Give us faith that knows no doubt
And fill our lips with words of life
That bring us peace and end to strife
Please fill our hearts with kindness too
Make us daily more like you
Respect for others as we ourselves
Lord set us free from our own private hells
Keep us humble make us pure
When life gets rough help us endure
And help us to live dear Lord for you
Abundant joy with problems few
And when were tempted Lord to stray
Give us eyes to see things your way
For there are times when we act like fools
We need your help just to obey the rules
Oh Lord leaders faithfully through this gale
To productive lives and not fail
With help from you each day we’ll grow
And if that’s true then it should show
We walk in bondage striving to be free
To that each day dear Lord for the
blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to
give a shout out to David Florez. Haven’t heard from you in a while to see what’s
happening on the Western front. And also, Byron in Florida. Shout out to you
too. Anyway, once again Brian thanks again for this wonderful podcast for God’s
Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ ya’ll. All right. Bye-bye.
Hey DAB family this is Jocelyn in Atlanta. I am feeling super emotional right now and trying to be mindful that these are just emotions and that is not real. I’m feeling attacked at work. I am actually a manager at my job and I am on the opposite end of what’s going on with pastor Gene and sharing Jesus. This morning I heard so many people praying at the end of the podcast. And…for Walta and Slave of Jesus and Pastor Gene, you guys just spoke __ this morning and I needed to hear that. And thank you. I know that God is in control and I pray against any attack of the enemy to divide any of us against each other, any of us as human beings against each other, and I claim in the name of Jesus, protection and peace and unity over all of us and all of our relationships and interactions with anyone we come in contact with. Able, thank you for calling it after 11 years. I’m just gonna to leave it there guys. I love you. I am so thankful for this ministry and am so thankful to be able to share with other people. I love you. And just remember, God is on the throne. And I have to remind myself of that too. I love you guys. Have a great day.
Hi. This is Lisa in Texas. I’ve been listening for six years and I just wanted to call and give some encouragement to Cheyenne. I heard her story many years ago. She was asking for prayers for her son JJ who is 28 years old who has problems with addiction. And Cheyenne, I just want you to know that I called in about two years ago and asked for prayers for my son James. He is also 28 years old. He was also struggling at that time with a horrible, life altering addiction. It just looked like his life was going to be ruined. And I just want you to know that, since that day when people started praying with me that he has just been better and better. So, I want to give a praise to all the people, a shout out to God, and thank all the people at the Daily Audio Bible who prayed. I just want to give you some encouragement and pray for you today. And these are some of the prayers that I prayed for my son. And he’s not completely healed but he is doing so much better then when I first called in two years ago. And I will continue to pray for JJ every day until you call back in and give that same praise. Lord God, please be with JJ today. Your word says in the book of Joel that you can restore the years that the __ is defeated. So, we’re going to stand on that promise today Lord for JJ and all the people who are praying for their sons and daughters on the Daily Audio Bible, that You will restore the years that they were away from their family that loves them. And Ezekiel gave us a beautiful picture of how to bring our children back from exile. So, we’re going to stand on these promises today, loving You and trusting You in Jesus name. Have a great day DABbers.
Hi. This is Steve from New Hampshire. I’m calling in regards to Jim from New Hampshire’s call that came in on Monday the 11th, which today is. And when you were requesting prayer regards to the well situation, I was immediately, the Scripture was quickened to me that said, spring up oh well. And I pray that for you brother. And I say it again, spring up oh well. And also, you made a comment how there are, obviously, needs around the world that are more important and greater urgency than your situation, yet I am reminded that the bank of heaven, God’s provision, God’s…whatever it is we need from God, He’s never depleted. When we receive from Him there is no and to His provision and I’m just so encouraged in that and there’s no request too big or too small for our God. So, I just want to encourage you Jim in that regard and I also just pray for financial provision to do all that needs to be done. Praying that the blessing of God just sweeps through your house in Jesus name. Amen.