2 Samuel 13:1-39, John 17:1-26, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 16:6-7

Today is the 28^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward, settle into this week. Yesterday in the book of second Samuel, we read of Nathan, the prophet’s confrontation of David for the matter of Uriah the Hittite having him killed and taking his wife Bathsheba to be his own wife. And we mentioned yesterday that this is the turning points in David’s family. It’s like he’s lost respect at this point and we’ll begin to see things spiral for David as we begin to move forward. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today, second Samuel chapter 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we can see a clear distinction between life before Bathsheba and life after Bathsheba in David’s story before David took Bathsheba and her husband killed. And, so, in today’s reading from second Samuel some pretty terrible things happen in David’s personal life, things that no one, like no father would ever want to experience. His daughter, Tamar was raped by her brother Amnon. Amnon was then killed by his brother, Absalom, in revenge. Absalom was then exiled in Geshur for three years. And this is fascinating. Absalom’s mother was the daughter of the King of Geshur, which is in the north on the Sea of Galilee. It would later be known as Bethsaida, which is a city that some of the disciples of Jesus made as…called home and that Jesus did ministry in Bethsaida. So, we covered some ground, several years in today’s reading. And Absalom had been staying in Geshur and Amnon, of course, lost his life for raping his sister. And, so, after several years, David began to long to see his son Absalom again. And that’s where we leave the story. He will see Absalom again but things…things are not well between them and we will carry on with that story tomorrow.

And then in John’s Gospel, I mean, we’re nearing the end of the Gospels and where we’re situated now is the Jesus is having the last conversation with his friends at his Last Supper and we concluded this conversation today with a prayer. Jesus prayed a prayer over his friends, and it’s one of the most heartfelt prayers in the Bible and one of the most engaging things Jesus ever said. “This is the way to have eternal life”, Jesus said, “to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” It’s just simple. The way to eternal life is to know God, not to know about God, not to gather more information about God, not to get more the theology, not to get more doctrine, not to do more things on behalf of God, but to know God. The study of God and work for God, these are important, this is what we engage in everyday, it’s a natural outpouring of a life with God, but it’s not the other way around, right? Like, all of our activity for God isn’t necessarily making us closer to God. We actually draw near to God and all this activity is a byproduct. So, fundamentally, foundational, like bedrock in our faith, we must understand that knowing God in an intimate relationship and friendship is our primary purpose on the earth and leads us into eternal life. And then Jesus as he’s praying, and this prayer is known as His high priestly prayer, he says, “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world. I’m asking you to keep them safe from the evil one”. So, Jesus prayer wasn’t to ask the Father to remove his friends from planet Earth but instead to send them into the world armed with the truth of God’s word and the Spirit of truth within. And notice what Jesus said, “just as you sent me into the world I am sending them into the world.” Think about it. According to Jesus we are commissioned and sent into the world in the same way Jesus was. So, don’t listen to that…or don’t go back and reread that and diminish that as a metaphor for something that’s lesser than it really is. We are sent into the world as the Father sent Jesus. So, are we living from that place? Do our lives reflect that reality? And unless we think that this high priestly prayer is something that Jesus prayed over his disciples, and so that was like that put them in a different place and they have a different status and they got a commissioning and they got like a better version of the Holy Spirit than we can ever have, we just have to listen to Jesus, His own words. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message.” Jesus was praying for you. He was praying for me. We are them. And here’s what Jesus prayed over us. “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one as you are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” I mean, are we getting what…this is our Savior here speaking…like are we getting what he is saying because we subtly diminish the reality that Jesus is praying for all of the time. Most the time we look at this prayer for unity among us, like this is a prayer of unity, and it is. This isn’t just about getting along and playing nice together, this is about union. Jesus gave us the glory given to Him by the Father. That is mind boggling, but it was for a reason so that we could have union with God through Jesus. This is how Jesus said it, “as you are in Me, Father, and I am in You, I am in them and you are in me”. This is what being intertwined looks like. This is what union with God looks like. This is what collaboration and friendship and relationship looks like. This is what a relationship with God looks like, and it leads to eternal life. So, I mean, we’ve been examining what Jesus had to say at the Last Supper from the Gospel of John in depth over these last couple of days because this is the last time we’re gonna cover this territory and because it covers some of the most iconic verses in the Bible. After this, as we’ll see as we go forward in this week, Jesus will go to the garden of Gethsemane, He will be arrested, and we know how that story goes. So, this isn’t a bad time to, maybe on your own time, just go back and read John 13 through 17, reread this…all that Jesus has to say to His friends before He goes into His time of suffering in its entirety because the implications of what Jesus is saying here should irreversibly change us from the inside out. Like we should never look at the world the same again. It’s that big of a deal in our faith. And we should also consider the gravity of this conversation. This was the last time Jesus could have an intimate quiet conversation among friends. This is what He chose to say with the last moments of freedom He would experience. And what He had to say changed everything for them and we are included in it and it should change everything for us.

Prayer:

Jesus we take these things to heart, that You are in the Father and the Father is in You and the same is true for us because You are within us, that we are commissioned to go do what You did, to be Your hands and feet in this world, to be Your body in this world, to be operating in this world as You did, one body multiplied over and over and over encompassing this world becoming the body Christ. Allow us to get the eyes and the ears of the kingdom on this and begin to allow it to settle inside of us, who we really are and why we are really here. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, home base, certainly where you check in and find out what’s going on around here.

It’s where the Prayer Wall lives, it’s where the Daily Audio Bible shop, where there are resources available for this journey through the Bible in a year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. The link is on the homepage. Thank you humbly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or if the mail is your preference, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call, and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

2 Samuel 13:1-39, John 17:1-26, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 16:6-7

Today is the 28^th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward, settle into this week. Yesterday in the book of second Samuel, we read of Nathan, the prophet’s confrontation of David for the matter of Uriah the Hittite having him killed and taking his wife Bathsheba to be his own wife. And we mentioned yesterday that this is the turning points in David’s family. It’s like he’s lost respect at this point and we’ll begin to see things spiral for David as we begin to move forward. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today, second Samuel chapter 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we can see a clear distinction between life before Bathsheba and life after Bathsheba in David’s story before David took Bathsheba and her husband killed. And, so, in today’s reading from second Samuel some pretty terrible things happen in David’s personal life, things that no one, like no father would ever want to experience. His daughter, Tamar was raped by her brother Amnon. Amnon was then killed by his brother, Absalom, in revenge. Absalom was then exiled in Geshur for three years. And this is fascinating. Absalom’s mother was the daughter of the King of Geshur, which is in the north on the Sea of Galilee. It would later be known as Bethsaida, which is a city that some of the disciples of Jesus made as…called home and that Jesus did ministry in Bethsaida. So, we covered some ground, several years in today’s reading. And Absalom had been staying in Geshur and Amnon, of course, lost his life for raping his sister. And, so, after several years, David began to long to see his son Absalom again. And that’s where we leave the story. He will see Absalom again but things…things are not well between them and we will carry on with that story tomorrow.

And then in John’s Gospel, I mean, we’re nearing the end of the Gospels and where we’re situated now is the Jesus is having the last conversation with his friends at his Last Supper and we concluded this conversation today with a prayer. Jesus prayed a prayer over his friends, and it’s one of the most heartfelt prayers in the Bible and one of the most engaging things Jesus ever said. “This is the way to have eternal life”, Jesus said, “to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” It’s just simple. The way to eternal life is to know God, not to know about God, not to gather more information about God, not to get more the theology, not to get more doctrine, not to do more things on behalf of God, but to know God. The study of God and work for God, these are important, this is what we engage in everyday, it’s a natural outpouring of a life with God, but it’s not the other way around, right? Like, all of our activity for God isn’t necessarily making us closer to God. We actually draw near to God and all this activity is a byproduct. So, fundamentally, foundational, like bedrock in our faith, we must understand that knowing God in an intimate relationship and friendship is our primary purpose on the earth and leads us into eternal life. And then Jesus as he’s praying, and this prayer is known as His high priestly prayer, he says, “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world. I’m asking you to keep them safe from the evil one”. So, Jesus prayer wasn’t to ask the Father to remove his friends from planet Earth but instead to send them into the world armed with the truth of God’s word and the Spirit of truth within. And notice what Jesus said, “just as you sent me into the world I am sending them into the world.” Think about it. According to Jesus we are commissioned and sent into the world in the same way Jesus was. So, don’t listen to that…or don’t go back and reread that and diminish that as a metaphor for something that’s lesser than it really is. We are sent into the world as the Father sent Jesus. So, are we living from that place? Do our lives reflect that reality? And unless we think that this high priestly prayer is something that Jesus prayed over his disciples, and so that was like that put them in a different place and they have a different status and they got a commissioning and they got like a better version of the Holy Spirit than we can ever have, we just have to listen to Jesus, His own words. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message.” Jesus was praying for you. He was praying for me. We are them. And here’s what Jesus prayed over us. “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one as you are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” I mean, are we getting what…this is our Savior here speaking…like are we getting what he is saying because we subtly diminish the reality that Jesus is praying for all of the time. Most the time we look at this prayer for unity among us, like this is a prayer of unity, and it is. This isn’t just about getting along and playing nice together, this is about union. Jesus gave us the glory given to Him by the Father. That is mind boggling, but it was for a reason so that we could have union with God through Jesus. This is how Jesus said it, “as you are in Me, Father, and I am in You, I am in them and you are in me”. This is what being intertwined looks like. This is what union with God looks like. This is what collaboration and friendship and relationship looks like. This is what a relationship with God looks like, and it leads to eternal life. So, I mean, we’ve been examining what Jesus had to say at the Last Supper from the Gospel of John in depth over these last couple of days because this is the last time we’re gonna cover this territory and because it covers some of the most iconic verses in the Bible. After this, as we’ll see as we go forward in this week, Jesus will go to the garden of Gethsemane, He will be arrested, and we know how that story goes. So, this isn’t a bad time to, maybe on your own time, just go back and read John 13 through 17, reread this…all that Jesus has to say to His friends before He goes into His time of suffering in its entirety because the implications of what Jesus is saying here should irreversibly change us from the inside out. Like we should never look at the world the same again. It’s that big of a deal in our faith. And we should also consider the gravity of this conversation. This was the last time Jesus could have an intimate quiet conversation among friends. This is what He chose to say with the last moments of freedom He would experience. And what He had to say changed everything for them and we are included in it and it should change everything for us.

Prayer:

Jesus we take these things to heart, that You are in the Father and the Father is in You and the same is true for us because You are within us, that we are commissioned to go do what You did, to be Your hands and feet in this world, to be Your body in this world, to be operating in this world as You did, one body multiplied over and over and over encompassing this world becoming the body Christ. Allow us to get the eyes and the ears of the kingdom on this and begin to allow it to settle inside of us, who we really are and why we are really here. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, is the website, home base, certainly where you check in and find out what’s going on around here.

It’s where the Prayer Wall lives, it’s where the Daily Audio Bible shop, where there are resources available for this journey through the Bible in a year.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. The link is on the homepage. Thank you humbly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or if the mail is your preference, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call, and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.