Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalms 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-23
Today is the 4th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it is wonderful to be here with you as we move toward the end of our week today and enjoy our weekend. It’s an honor to be able to take the next step forward on our journey through the Scriptures. We take 365 steps and boom we’re at the end of the Bible. And today we’ll be taking the 124th step forward. And we’ve been reading from the Common English Bible this week, which is what we’ll do today. And we have been working our way through the book of Judges, meeting the 13 different judges that are named in this book who led Israel after Joshua died and we’ll be concluding that look tomorrow and there’s one more story to tell. And buckle up. It’s a doozy. So, today, Judges chapters 19 and 20.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we move our way to the conclusion of the book of Judges we end with a story of carnage, one of my least favorite stories to read actually, because it talks about the Civil War and pretty much the entire annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin. And as we conclude the book of Judges tomorrow we’ll see that as this fact settles on the people it’s profound as they realize or we’re basically not 12 tribes anymore, we’re 11. And it’s a pretty hard story with some pretty hard choices that were made that systematically culminated in this civil war. I mean we began the story hearing about a guy in the Ephraim Highlands, who had a concubine who left her husband and returned to her father in Bethlehem. And from there we hear of the choices that were systematically made that led to this catastrophic thing happening. And, you know, it’s a disruptive story. It’s supposed to be a disruptive story. Like, when you are disrupted by the Bible, when you’re like, “ooo…like…I don’t wanna think about that…like…I don’t like how this makes me feel. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do this. Where is God in the story? Why is this story in the Bible?” When that’s happening, it’s happening on purpose. The Bible doesn’t just exist to somehow give you every instruction for every detail of your life. The Bible is inviting you to press through to God, the God of the Bible and Bible is going to disrupt you in ways that make you wrestle because this is how we grow. This is how life works. This is how we grow. So, what can we possibly learn from such a dark story? There’s plenty of things to learn. We can see the anarchy that had befallen the people. This city of Gibeah where all of the concubine…you know…where this concubine was essentially abused to death, its ruins still exists. We filmed them, what is there, and they can be found in the Promised Land films. It’s not really an accessible place. It’s definitely not a place you can go and tour. And really even though archaeologically Gibeah has been identified it’s not an archaeological site. It’s kind of a contentious place because, if you kind of know a little bit about the about the modern story of Israel’s formation then there was time when Jordan controlled have of Jerusalem, which also encompassed the area of Gibeah and there was a palace that was being built on the site of Gibeah of Benjamin and then war broke out and the Israelis were able to be victorious and take the rest of Jerusalem and this territory where this palace was being built was abandoned then and then it’s just kind of been sitting there since the 60s. So, it’s not really an archaeological site and it’s not really in the safest of places to tour it, but we have filmed it. Yeah, there’s places that you can go to look down upon Gibeon and we’ve done that on different Israel tours that we’ve been a part. It’s just such a sad story and, you know, it’s rooted in geography and it’s the kind of story that goes viral, right? So, even as the events in Gibeah happened and the man divided the concubine and sent parts of her to 12 tribes, that went viral and brought, you know, almost a half million people together to talk about it. And if you go back through the story once again, when we find these problematic pieces of Scripture, we start blaming God for all this stuff. And then we look back into the Scripture and we find like, no God didn’t command any of this to happen. The story just begins in the backwaters of Ephraim somewhere far away and then we watch compounding decisions that seem insignificant that eventually lead to this kind of an outcome and we have to wonder about the carnage that we’ve inflicted upon the world through the systematic seemingly meaningful choices that we’ve made. Now, not to the degree that we’re talking about in Gibeah. Man, that one slighted word, that one false lie, that one mean look. One thing leads to another and before you know it like you can be walking in from work, say hi to your spouse, everything’s fine. Five minutes later for seemingly no reason it can be World War III because somebody said something the wrong way. And we can see like just the simplest decisions, they can lead to things and it gives us a sense of the weightiness that everything we do matters in some way or another. Every choice that we make is creating our day. Every decision and interaction that we have is creating our world and everything matters. And we’ll see if there’s any redemption in this story. In fact, I’ll just tell you. There is redemption in the story. We’ll begin to see that redemption as we conclude the book of Judges tomorrow as the reality that a tribe is missing from Israel due to Civil War, as that begins to settle in, then plans can be made to try to save Benjamin. But then as we move forward out of the time of the judges and into the time of the monarchy, into the time of Kings, we’ll see that Israel has a first king, his name is Saul. He’s not the greatest of Kings and he has a lot to teach us about ourselves as we get into his story. But what we will find is that the first king of Israel comes from the tribe of Benjamin from the city of Gibeah.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your words. We thank You that it’s willing to disrupt us. It’s not trying to be false to us, it’s trying to be a friend that speaks the truth into our lives and sometimes that requires us to be disrupted so that we are set off of our even balance and we have to invite You to come and lead us. And, so, we thank You for these kinds of disruptions and we ask that You help us to slow down and pay attention to what we’re doing and what we’re saying, slowing down enough to walk with You in all things because everything matters, everything adds up to something and we have watched how small meaningless, seemingly meaningless, things do add up to conflict in our own lives and we’re just seeing this at a macro level in the Scriptures. And, so Holy Spirit come, help us to choose well what we do and what we say today. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And that is 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 Steve from Texas. I’m calling to congratulate Ben and China and their wedding, and I’ve come to pray that God as a hedge of protection around this couple at all times and that God be in the midst of their marriage above all, that God unites them above all, keep this family together above all in Jesus Christ name, I bless this marriage. In Jesus Christ name I cast the enemy out of this marriage. In Jesus Christ name may the Holy Spirit be the primary guide and the wisdom __, and the wisdom of how they will raise their children, and the wisdom in every situation and every move. I seal this marriage in the blood of Jesus. I seal this marriage in Jesus Christ. Amen. And thanks Jesus. Praise the Lord for China. I praise the Lord for Ben. I praise the Lord for the DAB family.
Hello this is Not Shaken. I’m calling for my son. I’m calling again for my son Bryan and his drug use…drug abuse that is ruining his life and hurting his family. His two little girls that I’ve been concerned about for being cared for by a family member, but they still need him. And he has gotten himself locked up. He went into a store without a shirt on and they…they wouldn’t allow him to come in and he became combative and was fighting. And I’m just glad no one was hurt. But he’s in jail and I’m just praying that everyone would please pray for him. It’s been so long, and I feel so alone. __ he’s been going through this and he is…when he’s off drugs he’s an amazing person. He just isn’t able to stick with it and I just pray that this is the last time, that once and for all he will decide what he needs to do a stick with it and that God will bless him and that he can be a father again. Lord Jesus please help us. Amen. This is Not Shaken. You for your prayers.
Hi DAB family, this is John from Montréal calling in. First of all, I want to thank Brian and Jill for this amazing place for everyone who listens and calls in and makes this community what it is. I’ve been listening for over ten years now and it’s an integral part of my walk with God as I listen daily on commutes. Today I’m calling to ask for help. I’m in a serious situation. My marriage is on the verge of failure and I’m at a loss as where to go from here. Communication is completely broken down between my wife and I am just really lost. And just to compound the issue, my position was eliminated last week. And, so, now I find myself also without a job and a family to support. So, it’s an extremely trying time for me. I’m holding onto God, but things just look so dark right now and it’s hard to see the other side of the situation. So, I’m asking for all of you to pray for me and my wife and my children, that God would just give us wisdom and discernment and also that he would just break through the lies that Satan has just placed in our lives about who we are, about our relationship and where we go from here. So, I thank you all for praying. I’m praying for you all and God bless.
Family, hi, this Erin from Michigan. Let’s pray please. Father God, oh I need You. I need You to lift up my friend, the man I teach with. Lord, wrap Your arms around him. His daughter has died. His daughter has died of a drug overdose Lord God and I can’t…I can’t even…I can’t even imagine how he’s feeling, I can’t imagine what’s running through his head. He’s been raising her child as a grandpa Father, You know, because she just wouldn’t do it. She wasn’t taking care of him. He wasn’t gonna get what he needed to be a strong good boy and now she’s dead. And now…and now that little boy doesn’t have a mother and my friend, this man I teach with, he doesn’t know You Lord and I want You to reach through his fog of not knowing what to do or what he needs. Lord, just reach through that and wrap Yourself around him. Send Your Holy Spirit Lord God to comfort him. He won’t accept it if he knows it’s coming from You Lord God but just do it anyway, just wrap him up Lord God and help my friend. Let my friend know that You are real and that You have him, You’re holding him. Lord God, help me to be a support to my friend. Help me know what to say. Help me know how to support him and Lord God most of all, help me be a picture of Your love for my friend. In Your holy and precious name to You be all the glory. Amen. Thanks family. I love You.