1 Samuel 1:1-2:21, John 5:1-23, Psalms 105:37-45, Proverbs 14:28-29
Today is the 7th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful, a pleasure, an honor, a joy to be in your presence, to come around the global campfire together and come into the Lord’s presence together and allow His word to speak to us. And that’s what we’ve come to do and that’s what we will do. We concluded the book of Ruth yesterday and what a beautiful, beautiful story and it comes at such a good time. Just a needed exhale. And now we’re moving into the books of Samuel.
Introduction to the book of Samuel:
Samuel was the final judge of Israel and Samuel will lead us into the time of the monarchy. So, a time when there were kings in Israel. And theres two books of Samuel, the books of first and second Samuel, but they probably weren’t authored by the prophet Samuel. It’s not clear who the author is. Historically it seems that these…that this work…was written somewhere when the kingdom divided. So, if this your first trip through the Bible some of these references, you can be like, “I don’t know what we’re talking about.” We haven’t even come into the kingdom yet, right? So, Samuel’s gonna bring us to a time where kings rule in Israel, but after a time that gets a little bit convoluted as we will see, and the kingdom of Israel divides into two different kingdoms. It’s thought that this is kind of around the time that maybe when the story of Samuel was written down. A lot of scholars believe that this material was recorded by three different prophets of Israel - Samuel, Nathan and Gad - but we don’t know that for certain. We do know that the books of Samuel were written in Hebrew and they weren’t written as two different texts originally. Actually, first and second Samuel and first and second Kings were all grouped together as one continuous text. And then when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, which is called the Septuagint, the texts were then divided into four books and at that time they were known as the books of the kingdoms. And when the Old Testament was translated into Latin, which is called the Vulgate, then they became the books of the kings. So, at this time in the Bible we had first and second and third and fourth kings. So, kind of confusing to follow along with. But there’s more. What is now known as first and second Samuel was actually first and second Kings in the Latin translations and what we know as first, and second Kings was known as the third and fourth kings during that era. And then this was all changed to what we now understand, the books of Samuel, first and second Samuel, and the books of Kings, first and second Kings by those who translated and created the King James Bible in 1611. So, in terms of like ancient history, this change is more recent. So, Samuel, as we will see, was a very influential person. Last judge of Israel. He was also a prophet of God and he served before the Lord as a priest. And as we saw reading through the book of Judges, the land had kinda fallen into a form of anarchy. Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. And then Samuel steps in as a prophet and that begins to alleviate some of the anarchy because Samuel is speaking directly for God. And this is something that the children of Israel are more accustomed to historically. Now Israel desires to have a king. They don’t have one, but they desire one and Samuel will introduce kingship into the civilization and culture of Israel. And the first thing that will meet as you probably know, is named Saul. And then we’ll meet this boy, actually, named David who will later become a king and we’ll see up close and personal the conflict between Saul and David. And God warns the children of Israel not to take a king to rule over them, but, you know, as is usual and is as is often the case in our own lives, they’ll choose their own path and introduce kings into their culture. And, so, we’ll see spiritual guidance coming from the prophets, and national guidance coming from the king, but throughout the entire book what’s really happening here is that a man-made kingdom is being established with a king to rule over it, the kingdom of Israel. And from this point on that’s how it will be looked at until there are no kingdoms left. But we’ll get there. For now, we’ll begin the book of first Samuel and we’ll read chapter 1 verse 1 through chapter 2 verse 21 today. And we’re reading from the New English Translation, the NET Bible this week.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this new era in Your word where we will meet some men along the way. Right now, we are learning of Samuel. We were just introduced to him and as we take the journey forward and we learn of these kings, we will find so much of ourselves along the way. And, so, we look forward to that and the way that this mother, Hannah, gave her son to Your service and how, in spite of all of all of the evil going on around Samuel, he grew up righteous before You. And, so, we also look forward to all that You will speak to us through Samuel’s life. We invite You to come Holy Spirit. Plant the words that were spoken in Your word into our hearts today and as we meditate on them we ask that You give us clarity and direction in our choices and decisions. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
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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:
Hey Brian, hey Daily Audio Bible family. I am in nursing school and I am having such a hard time this semester. I am in my fourth or fifth semester I have one whole semester left after this one and I’m having such a hard time. I am stressed, and I am sorry. I’m stressed, and I am just trying to get through the finals. We’ve had a final every other day for three weeks now. My body is tired. My mind is tired but…but I want to push through. So, please pray for me. Give me strength. Give me…something. I will continue pushing forward. I’m not too sure whether or not this message will be heard or played but if it is, please pray for me and wish me well. I wish everyone else, you know, well as well. Not just for me, for my classmates as well because we’re all in this together and no one wants to be left behind. So, please send your prayers to me and my classmates in Texas. Thank you.
Hello friends this is Turtle from Oregon. I was listening to today’s podcast on May 4th. While Brian was claiming about God bringing a disruption to our lives there was a disruption in the audio and even though I’m sure it was unintended from a human perspective I think that God made a purposeful disruption to show us something…at least to me. He showed me His sense of humor for one thing. I love that about Him and He’s reminding us that disruptions are a part of life and in order to hear the right voice we have to keep our attention on the Lord God who loves us. Let us keep our attention on the One whose voice is truth. Lord, please help us to ignore the voices of the world and allow Your word to disrupt us and to lead us where we need to be, in a relationship with You. Thank You God. Thank You for this wonderful family. Amen.
Lord as I walk in your spirit today
please keep my pride and my ego at bay
They oft times surface and get in the way
negatively affecting the things that I say
lead me and guide me I don’t want to stray
I long to be yours Lord I want to obey
cause Satan is watching just waiting to slay
being cut off from you God is too much to pay
help me stay humble and spiritually led
it’s not just the words Lord it’s how they are said
and it’s not just the how Lord please teach me when
if the timing is not right in then the message won’t get in
the flow from my lips to the listener’s ear
may inflate my ego but the listener won’t hear
he’ll just get resentful and throw my words back
anger will enter in and we’ll both go off track
Lord what is my purpose as I go through this day
that’s a rhetorical question Lord show me the way
help me keep ego and pride out of the way
Place on my lips Lord the right words to say
help me walk upright and continually pray
I want to be yours Lord come whatever may
blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Victoria soldier, Pelham and along with Molly and Anderson, and Terry the truck driver and Lee from New Jersey. I hope all of you are well. Know you’re loved very much, prayed for daily, and thought of often. And once again Brian, I thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.
Hey you, yeah, you. Hey, I’m talking to you. Don’t be looking around trying to figure out…I’m talking to you. Why are you worrying? What are you worrying about…why are you worried? You know we serve a good, good Father who only gives good gifts, who commanded us not to worry about our lives. What are you worrying about? Whatever it is, God will take care of it. Correction, God has taken care of it. So, stop your worrying. You, by worrying, are not gonna fix anything. Name one thing that you worried about that through your worry was corrected. Instead, pray. Pray and believe and what you ask you shall receive.