1 Samuel 29:1-31:13, John 11:55-12:19, Psalms 118:1-18, Proverbs 15:24-26
Today is the 21st day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is, like every single day, great to be here with you. What an honor to…yeah…just take our place around the Global Campfire, release everything else that’s going on and just exhale and take this time to be at peace. So, our adventures been taking us through the book of first Samuel, which has introduced us to Samuel, to Saul, Israel’s first King and to David, who Saul has tried to kill and number of occasions, forcing David to defect to the Philistines. Now the Philistines and the Israelites are gonna go into battle and David is expected to go and fight for the Philistines against his countrymen. While Saul, the king of Israel has visited us spiritist, a medium, and called up Samuel from beyond the grave who has told Saul that…well…in less than a day he will also be in the realm of the dead. So, how’s that for a set up for today’s reading because that’s right where we find ourselves. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. First Samuel chapters 29, 30, and 31 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so the…the portion of road that we’re walking down right now through the book of first Samuel is very dramatic, for that matter, as is what’s going on in the book of John in the New Testament. So, I mean, just today, Saul, the king of Israel, the very, very first King of Israel dies in battle. We’ve been walking alongside Saul since before he knew he was gonna be king back out looking for donkeys that had disappeared and coming back home finding out “you’re gonna be anointed the king of Israel.” The whole story. We’ve followed this story and we’ve just basically watched Saul disintegrate page by page. He’s dead now. And David, the primary person that Saul wanted to kill was about to go into battle, right, and then they were sent away. And they were sent when they had to walk three days. Like that’s how far it was and that’s right. David was staying in Ziklag. This is a place down in the South in a transition zone by the desert. They had to walk all the way up into the Jezreel Valley near the Galilee. So, yeah, that’s a long walk. This is the same…not exact same walk…but the same kind of walk Jesus would walk when He came down from the Galilea to go to Jerusalem. It’s a long ways. It’s a long ways to walk. So, David and his men. they get back to Ziklag and find out it’s burned to the ground. Like the Amalekites have raided and everything is gone. So, he has to deal with that in the exhaustion from like a three day march up to the battle and a three-day march back. And, so, they have to go to battle on their own in the South with the Amalekites, even as the Israelites and the Philistines are doing battle in the north where Saul has been killed. David doesn’t know this. Like David doesn’t know yet that Saul is dead. And we can read the story and go, “well good. He’s dead. Now David can become the king.” And we may even just assume, “like, that’s just how it goes.” But that’s not just how it goes as we’ll see in the days ahead. The king has died. Three of his sons, successors have died. And you don’t just elect a new king, right? It’s the house of Saul. So, who in his family? And a lot of times what you see in these ancient battles, right, is the destruction of the house of the king, like the wiping out of the family altogether so that there can be a new dynasty established. So, to assume that the nation of Israel is just gonna fall in line with the David, that's…that’s not exactly how it’s gonna go. It's…there’s some steps out in front of us and in those steps, we learn more and more things about ourselves.
Meanwhile, the religious elite in the book of John are looking for Jesus. I mean, after the resurrection of Lazarus and the rumors that are flying around and the eyewitness accounts that are happening, they decide that Jesus has to die basically, he’s got…he’s got to disappear. And they’ve even decided to see if they can do away with Lazarus and just kind of eliminate, right, sort of the wipe out the memory of these things that happened after the same fashion that new dynasties would wipe out the memory of the leaders who were before them. So, Jesus is kind of…kind of forced to be a little bit stealthy Himself, be very, very choosy about where He’s moving. And yet, he does come. He does come to Jerusalem for the Passover and He’s staying in Bethany, where Mary anoints Him as we see in the book of John. But this is a Passover like none other because Jesus isn’t leaving Jerusalem, not before a trial and an execution. And as I was mentioning yesterday, this…I mean where kind of at the front end of this story, but this is the last time we’ll move through this story and this year. So, let’s immerse ourselves in…in the story and in contemplating the story. And yes, the time that we would normally really, really focus our attention on this story would be holy week, right, leading up to Easter, which is what, a month and a half ago now? But really, when…when should we not contemplate the gift, the sacrifice, the humility, the story of Jesus last days? And, so yes, once again, I remind us, like as we’re going through this to understand that this isn’t going to be repetitive. This is the final journey through this story this year.
Prayer:
Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You for just…I mean there’s so much drama in today’s reading, it’s just riveting to understand this and to begin to watch how things are shaping up and how the sort of…the next move for the nation of Israel will begin to materialize even as we watch Your next move in the gospel of John, the move that will lead You down the pathway to the cross. We are thankful. We are thankful for Your word in our lives. We are thankful for Your sacrifice that has brought us eternal life and hope. We are thankful for each other, that we can move through the seasons of life together step by step, day by day as You lead and guide us throughout the earth. Come Holy Spirit into this day, into every thought, every word, every deed of our lives. May we be honoring to You in all that we do and say and think. We pray this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.