2 Kings 23:31-25:30, Acts 22:17-23:10, Psalms 2:1-12, Proverbs 18:13
Today is the 4th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s wonderful to be here with you today. It’s a special day, like it’s a national holiday in the United States but it’s also my wife Jill’s birthday. So, happy birthday, Jill. Jill kind of shares a birthday with the United States. So, a festive celebration all day and fireworks tonight. Enjoy your day. It’s wonderful to be here with you. No matter what the day may be or what the day may bring we come together around this global campfire and allow God’s word to have a space in our day and it affects the rest of our day. And, so, off we go. We’re reading from the book of second Kings as I’m sure you are aware, but we’ll be concluding the book of second Kings today. So, the books of the Kings are about concluded, and we will move into the books of Chronicles starting tomorrow. So, today from the Christian Standard Bible, which is what we’re reading from this week. Second Kings chapter 23 verse 31 through 25 verse 30.
Commentary:
Okay. So, even as we’re here on the 4th of July and really finding us pretty well squarely in the center of this year, we have to acknowledge, busy as a day as this might be for a lot of us, really important, really monumental things are happening that very much set up all of the places that we’re going to go as we continue our journey through the Bible. In the Old Testament what we saw today was Babylon invade the southern kingdom of Judah. So, just by way of reminder, the northern kingdom of Israel, those 10 tribes, they were conquered. We read of that story and we talked about it then, by the Assyrian Empire. Those 10 tribes disappeared as cohesive tribes from that point forward. They were carried into exile. So, all that remained of the people that we’ve been traveling with practically since the beginning of the year, like all the way through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, right, and then the story of Joseph and the people going to Egypt and becoming a people and the wilderness story and the promised land story, like all of the time that we’ve been spending in the Old Testament has been with these people. Today the only people left were Judah and Babylon invaded and conquered Jerusalem, the one city that had never fallen and the people were carried away into exile. So, what we have to understand is that the story that we’ve been following from the beginning of the Bible from Abraham, that story is over. The people were promised a land and they would live there in peace and harmony forever under his rule if they would simply obey him. And they simply did not. And, so, as we remember all of the blessings and the curses that were reported and recited on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, well the curses have come true and they have been removed from the land. There is no Israel anymore and there is no Judah anymore. We will continue to follow the stories of these people and some of them will be able to return and even rebuild back in their homeland, but it’s never going to be under their sovereign control like it was again. So, that’s kind of a big deal. There is much territory to just continue to go through. And even as we watched Babylon conquer Jerusalem and then install, you know, vasil Kings, who had allegiance to Babylon, we’ll see that this took some time before finally, through rebellion, Babylon came and just leveled Jerusalem. Some of the goings-on that are happening in this tumultuous time we will get into further depth when we get into the writings of the prophets who were actually speaking into the situation as it was happening. So we have that in front of us, but it’s important for us to realize we’re closing the books on part of the story and we have the perspective now, to know that if our allegiance and are reliance and our devotion is to God and God alone, and we humbly walk before the Lord, serving Him, then that a path, that’s a path that leads somewhere. If we don’t, like if we choose to live somewhere in the middle trying to live., like with 1 foot, like half of us aligned with God and the other half throughout really just kind of pursuing our own endeavors or if we’re just going to live in outright rebellion against the Lord, well then that’s a path and that goes somewhere. And as we sit here on the 4th of July closing the books on the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem, well, we’ve seen were both of those paths go and that allows us to choose where we might be headed and where it is we might want to end up
And then we can’t just breeze by what’s going on in the apostle Paul’s life in Jerusalem in the New Testament. So, we watched the destruction of Jerusalem in the Old Testament, but then we’re back in Jerusalem and the New Testament. So, what’s going on here? Well, what’s going on is that a lot of time has passed and a lot of rebuilding has been done and we’ll see that story kind of flesh itself out, like I said, as we continue forward. Paul is a Pharisee, trained as a Pharisee. He’s back in Jerusalem because he’s been all over the Roman Empire speaking the good news of Jesus and it’s causing a stir everywhere, especially among the Jewish people. So, Paul comes back to Jerusalem where he is known. Like at one time he was deeply respected as a zealous Pharisee truly trying to live up to the law and obey God. Now he’s considered an apostate who needs to be killed, and they’re trying to find a way to kill Paul. And, so, we see that Paul now would be dead for sure had it not been for the Roman guard, had it not been for the Roman military who have arrested Paul, but all that his arrest is doing is protecting him. And we’ll have to watch this as we go forward, but Paul is now before the high Council. Okay? He’s before the elitist of the elite, the most scholarly, the most brilliant people in all of the Hebrew culture as it related to their religion, right? So, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So, the Sanhedrin was made up of these two groups of people, the Pharisees who believed in resurrection, in God’s angels, in the existence of the spiritual realm, whereas the Sanhedrin, they denied those things. They essentially believed you have a human life and when you lay that life down in death you return to God. That’s that. Like there’s no other goings-on. So the thing is, Paul was a Pharisee, right? It would have been very, very difficult for him as a Pharisee to have had that encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and it make any sense to him because, had he been a Sadducee, like he wouldn’t have had the grid for this. It’s not like God couldn’t break in upon him, but he already believed in resurrection. So, when Jesus came to him on the road to Damascus, Jesus appearing to him in a way that he understood proved to him that how he had been following his spiritual path was correct. There had to be resurrection if Jesus was talking to him, right, because Jesus had been killed on a cross. So, Jif esus is talking to him on the road to Damascus, then He’s alive. So, this was persuasive, fundamentally, foundational persuasive to Paul. So, Paul goes before the Sanhedrin today, he realizes the fundamental issue is a fundamental rift that’s been going on in Judaism about resurrection and he’s able to say that I am on trial because of the resurrection. The reason that I am out around the Roman Empire, the known world, the reason I keep sailing around and going to different cities and talking about Jesus is the resurrection. So, he’d appealing to his fellow Pharisees who are on the same page about resurrection. They are not on the same page about Jesus of being resurrected, but they are on the same page about resurrection, which causes division, which simply exposes the deep canyon of a rift that existed in Judaism. So, we begin to see, you know, the disruptive time that the early church was born into. And once again it kind of takes off our rose-colored glasses about the early days, and the Holy Spirit came the tongues of fire and it was just all easy for everybody. People just wanted to be in the kingdom. That's…as we are seeing…that wasn’t the climate. Like, it was definitely a tumultuous time. And as we continue through the New Testament we’ll see that it only got worse. So, that’s the lay of the land and its pretty big. Like, these are pretty fundamental, contextual things that we should understand if we’re trying to understand the context of the Bible and what it might be speaking to us.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You, thank You for this day, this day that we certainly celebrate Jill on her birthday but also our independence here in our nation. We also pray for all of the nations of the world that You would come by the power of Your Holy Spirit and set us free, that we would throw away all of our ideologies and convictions and customs and rituals and cultures in favor of Your kingdom, that we might begin to see ourselves as citizens of the kingdom of God. And as we watch where the paths in the Scriptures are taking us, help us Holy Spirit to apply these things to our lives. We’ve seen paths in the Old Testament that led to victory against all odds, and we’ve also seen stories that led to complete destruction and they were all foretold, they were all in plain black and white before everyone and they chose and were choosing too. And even as we continue our journey along with the apostle Paul and we see the formation of the early church, we see that the issues that were plaguing people then are plaguing people now and we still need the power of Your Holy Spirit, but You are not withholding the power of Your Holy Spirit, we are rejecting it in favor of our own strength which continually causes disruption and division and that’s not the path we’re wanting to walk. So, come Holy Spirit. We can look at the world and we can point out all the evils and we can say if people would just get on the same page about this or that or the other then things could change, but it really does begin with us. And, so, Holy Spirit come to us and show us how You are transforming and changing the way that we see everything. Come Jesus we pray in Your mighty name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find out what’s up, what’s going on around here.
And what’s up immediately going on around here is that this Sunday, the 7th of July, is our annual Daily Audio Bible long walk. Little tradition we have here. Our own little holiday that we celebrate and it’s a beautiful, beautiful day to kinda take in so much of what we were just talking about. What path am I on? Where am I going? Where are you leading me? What’s happening? Because the crush of life, the world pulls us away from God and then when things go south or badly for us we’re mad at God when it was the fact that we followed the path, the way of the world. So, the 7th of July, the long walk is an opportunity go like, this one day I’m setting this one day, like it’s off the grid. No one, nothing is taking this day for me. Like, I’m circling this. I’m going and I’m checking out, I’m unplugging. I’m going away with God and I’m gonna go for a long walk and I’m gonna talk until I have nothing left to say and I’m gonna listen until He is done speaking. I’m gonna walk out of this day knowing where I am going for the rest of the year, knowing how to proceed. That’s the long walk and it’s something that we should be doing like every day on a regular basis, but the world, it’s very distracting. So, we need to remove those distractions for a day and reorient ourselves. Go somewhere beautiful. This is something that you do individually even though you will be doing it with tens of thousands of people. Go somewhere beautiful. Whether you just walk out your front door and it happens to be beautiful down the street or whether you need to get in your car and get out of town and go somewhere, wherever is calling to you. Go there and walk and talk and sit in silence and listen to the world and the life that is happening all around you, and you never even notice. That’s the long walk. What makes it a community experience is that you just, you know, take your phone or a camera or something and snap a picture, take a little video of a where you went and post that back to Facebook, so facebook.com/dailyaudiobible and then then we all get to kind of see our own long walks, we’ll see so many others like little windows into each other’s lives, little windows into your part of the world, your neck of the woods as we say here in the South. So, make plans for that. It’s Sunday this year, which makes it fairly convenient. I am looking forward to it and I’m looking forward to seeing all your pictures and your videos. It’s a highlight of the year for me. So, I’m looking forward to seeing that all open up.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It lives on the homepage. I thank you humbly and profoundly 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 the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253, 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.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi DAB family this is Claire in California. I’m on my second year listening to the DAB and this is actually the first year that I have been listening all the way through every day. I have a prayer request. Yesterday I got a diagnosis of ovarian cancer and I just need prayer against fear because there’s a lot of that and I would like prayer for an overwhelming strength of faith to come over me, that all doubt would just be pushed out. I would like prayer for the comfort of my little girl, she’s four and I just…she is…I’ve tried not to give her to many details but she’s very empathetic and she knows that something’s going on. So, I just…I want to pray comfort for her and that you…that __ would just help me to help her to find comfort in Him. And I just also would like to pray for blessings over my friends and family who are stepping up and being there for me. And it’s just overwhelming. Thank you so much for all of your support and thank you for this program, this podcast. It’s been a life changer for me. I love you all. Bye.
Hey Daily Audio Bible family, this is To Be a Blessing in California. I wanted to just let people know who are working driving trucks or cabs or buses or whatever that my prayers are with you. I was on the road today and admittedly flying along, it’s true. I was going 80 miles an hour and people were passing by. I had to move over to the slow lane because I was in their way and just made me think about the challenges that people who drive for a living have. So, know that you’re in my prayers. Terry the Trucker, I’m thinking about you and what you are facing. Wanted to let Blind Tony know that I’ve sure been enjoying your poetry and continue to pray for you. Lee, whenever I hear you’re talking, the first few seconds it brings a smile to my face because I know that you’re going to be saying some awesome prayers. And covetousness, boy I tell ya, I’ve that down in spades and asking God to relieve me of that. Rebecca, praying for you and your need for additional work. So, God bless you in your pursuits because I know He’s gonna take care of you. God bless each and every one of you. I’ll be in touch again. To Be a Blessing in California. Bye-bye.
Fill up the gifts within me Father
that I might truly be a blessing
help me Father clearly see my sins that need confessing
I’m hardheaded Father and I’m stubborn at times
and I’m very impatient with my old friend still committing stupid crimes
it’s really hard for me to believe that they really can’t see
that without your protection how dead they would be
but it’s always easy to see the splinter in someone else’s eye
help me Father to clearly see my own sins to accept them not deny
for we all fall short and that’s true without a doubt
but it’s also true that there’s no one that You can’t restore and bring out
from destructive behavior patterns and hardened heart
no one you can’t heal Father and no one you can’t grant a new start
but each man must work out his own salvation with fear and trembling and
meticulous care
help me to keep my focus on my own self because each man has his own cross to
bear
but each man also has his own gift
help me Father to use it and not to abuse it
to be a source of light and salt
and bring all my unproductive habits to a definitive screeching halt
you said if we freely confess our sins that you are faithful and just to
forgive us and cleanse us all unrighteousness
give me clean hands and a pure heart father so that I can offer to you my very
best
stir up the gifts within me and help me to truly be a blessing
and help me father clearly see those sins in my life that need confessing
blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Mike Greenberg and SarahJane behind the scenes, know you’re in my prayers every day and once again Brian and Hardin family, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit flow keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.
Hi this is Cherry from Claremore Oklahoma, the Tulsa area. Cherry and Greg. Greg’s sittin’ here by me right now. The reason I’m calling, he’s just been…well he’s a paratrooper in the military and like a lot of those guys, most of the paratroopers, he’s got…well he has three discs basically gone __ and through that he’s got neuropathy in the feet because of damaged nervous and things. And then he’s got something called cerebellar ataxia where the cerebellum is enlarged. __ and kinda causes some mobility issues. Then he had a brain bleed a year ago and he had two brain surgeries within two days and he’s just kind of been chewed up and spit out and for the first time in my life I do have this…this knowing that he’s gonna be restored, but right now…and he’s a fighter…I mean…this guy…I’ve seen him juts take bashings and don’t blink an eye but he’s in so much pain. I mean, he just sits there and like tears…not boohooing, but, you know, just the pain, tears streaming down. And this is just constant…chronic…it never ends. You don’t sleep at night. I just need prayer for his healing. However, I know God can do it like right now. And he’s just gotta have relief. It’s been too many years since this going on. So, you guy, I know you pray and that’s what I’m calling for and that’s what we need. And…I don’t know…I forgot to set my clock…it’s been over two minutes into this yet or not but, you want to just…[Greg’s voice] I love God.