2 Samuel 9:1-11-27, John 15:1-27, Psalm 119:49-64, Proverbs 16:1-3
Today is the 26th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m sorry…I was…I was like chewing something. Okay. I think I’m all in the clear now. I didn’t want to chew so close to your ear. So, here we are, the 26th day of May already to take the next step forward as we continue this journey. And first up, of course, we’ll be moving back into the Old Testament, which lands us back in second Samuel squarely in the life of King David. So, we’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version, the EHV, this week. Second Samuel 9, 10, and 11 today.
Commentary:
Okay. Second Kings today. It’s like we were going along so well. What happened? All of a sudden what happened? David has been this upstanding, upright, godly God-fearing king who brings justice to his people. The people respect David. They know what he went through with Saul and they watched his ascension to power and the way that he was humble in all of it. And the next thing we know, we flip the page and Bathsheba’s naked taking a bath and he sees her, and he sends for her and she comes and she’s another man’s wife and…I mean…she gets pregnant, so they get together. And it’s a difficult situation because it’s the king. So, does…you know, she doesn’t really have any say in the matter, her husband Uriah is off fighting a battle on behalf of King David while King David is sitting in the palace sleeping with his wife. And then it turns out she’s pregnant and she sends word back. So, now she is bearing a prince, the royal a royal child. And David’s got this situation. But he seems to be decisive about what he is going to do and it’s like what is going to do is only bad. He calls for Uriah the Hittite to come from the battle and what he’s gonna do is kinda give Uriah a furlough so that he can go home and be with his wife, get rested up, maybe cover-up the pregnancy. Not maybe. Cover-up the pregnancy and all that transpired to make her pregnant. But Uriah won’t behave after that fashion. He has honor for his fellow soldiers his king and the battle, the mission that they are on and he won't…he won’t do it. The irony is now, that Uriah is acting more like David than David. And David is acting more like Saul than anybody else in this situation. Saul tried to send David into battle lots of times to get him killed. Now David, after seeing that he’s not going to get Uriah to go home and cover this whole thing up, sends him back to the front lines where he will most certainly be killed. And he most certainly is killed. One of the little, little pieces of this story that is so fascinating is, later on when we kinda get to the end of David’s life and his reign we’ll meet a lot of names, like a big recap, all the different kinds of people that were involved in what they did and there will be the valiant soldiers…like the best of the best of the nation, they’ll be named, the mighty warriors, the mighty warriors of Israel, the mighty warriors of King David and Uriah the Hittite was one of them. One of the most loyal, dedicated gifted committed warriors David had. He had him killed to cover up what he had done, which looks way more like Saul. And we’ll continue this story because it hasn't…I mean we’re kind of in the middle of this story. So, we have some more territory to cover but what seems to become quite apparent in this story is very very similar warnings that came through Moses. When you get into that land and you don’t have anything to fight for anymore and all is going well, when you find that you are living in houses you didn’t build, and you’re eating from vineyards you didn’t plant, all is well all around you, prosperity is the norm then don’t forget who your God is because when you make that turn it may take a minute but it’s over. In so many ways that is what we see here. David has been a warrior, he has been fighting, he has been honorable, he’s been holding and clinging to God for his very life. So many times, he’s clinging to God as the only hope to stay alive and God has kept them alive, but now he has subdued his enemies. He has been blessed. He has everything that he could want, and he wants Bathsheba. He wants something he can’t have, he’s not supposed to have, but he’s got it all and peace is on every side, and there’s no reason to cling to God for dear life anymore. And, so, he gets himself to the position where this type of thing could happen. It doesn’t have to…I mean for us to apply this to our lives doesn’t have to be adultery, doesn’t not to be sexual, doesn’t not be anything like that. It could be anything that can distract us, anything that can make us self-sufficient, a decision that we make out of our own strength and out of our own power and out of our own means to do something, to do something despite God, to do something without consulting God, to do something that we might even know God would not approve of but we’re in a good place, we’re resourced well, we’re gonna do what we want to do because we’re not clinging for dear life. We’ve lost the plot of the wilderness, which is exactly what Moses was telling the children of Israel before they came into the promised land, “do not lose the plot of the wilderness. You are utterly dependent on God no matter what. And, so, when you get into the promised land and it doesn’t look like that anymore don’t forget.” David obviously has forgotten, at least for the moment, and we are guilty of the same so many times in our lives. So, let’s think about that because the thing that we continually pray for is blessing and relief from the pressures around us, but when the pressures are relieved we no longer need to cling in utter devotion to God, we have things back under control and we…we repeat the cycle. If we could get off that train, if we could just truly finally realize we are utterly dependent on God no matter what, no matter what the circumstance. Whether the circumstances are trying or whether we just have infinite abundance, we are still utterly dependent upon God. When we lose that plot…I mean…this is one of the central plots of the Bible. Like all…what…let’s just continue to watch. We’ll see what happens to a people when they lose that plot and then we can understand what happens to us because we’re in the middle of it right now. And as we can see from the story of David when you lose that plot, really really bad things can happen.
Prayer:
Father, we don’t want to lose that aspect of the story. It’s a central deep foundational part of our story. You have created us. You are our Creator. We are dependent upon You. We are not independent of You. We need You for survival. And You have only ever been willing to Father us, yet we just act like rebellious children most of the time. So, forgive us, because it is from Your hand that all good things that have ever happened in our lives have flowed, and we have no desire to dishonor or disrespect that in any way. But we do when we…when we get lost in our own story, when we get disoriented and upside down and start believing that we have control, and we have power and if You’re not gonna come through then we’re gonna come through. And we just get this thing so upside down and it has led us to the same place, some sort of destruction of our own making in some sort of way in our lives. And, so, we’re asking for forgiveness. We’re repenting, we’re changing our mind about this type of behavior. We repent. You are our only hope. We are utterly dependent on You for everything. Help us to remember this Father, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s 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, I’ll call myself Child of God. I’m a faithful listener since October of last year and first-time caller. I’ve begun journaling daily and logging prayer requests. Though I’ve been a Christian all my life the DAB has helped me grow so much spiritually, especially my prayer life. After hearing Momma D from Indiana’s request for prayer for healing for her marriage even after two years of petition because of being encouraged by God Smile’s story, I decided to ask the DAB family for prayers for my broken family. We live in a small rural town and our three married children with young families all live here too, serving the Lord faithfully. We have a 30-year family business. We’ve raised our family here. After our middle son finished college and joined our business conflict began plaguing us. I was constantly playing mediator in the roles of wife and mother. My husband feeling betrayed if I’d side with my son on issues. Our success has made him prideful and headstrong. Delegating the work and spending little time actually managing the business or being there yet unwilling to let go of any power and decision making. He had an affair 4 years ago, he blamed me for it, and it went on for two years. This shattered our world. My kids were our rock for me through it all. Counseling helped me but my husbands hardened heart became more hard and the relationship between him and our son became worse. Our son sought counseling, but his father refused. Our son left the business 1 year ago and now his father goes around painting him as ungrateful, unappreciative, and disloyal. Things have gotten very ugly. We’re now separated. Please pray for wisdom and direction as I navigate through this storm, for my husbands hardened heart to be softened and for my hurting children and grandchildren. Thank you.
Hey DAB family it’s His River and Rain here calling from the UK. I’ve just been listening to the 8th of May and I’ve just heard our sisters Viola’s voice and I just want to pray for her Lord. She’s a very servant, prayer-filled member of the DAB family and she’s always calling in to prayer over us, always calling in to, you know, just give her prayers and give her blessings and comfort to people, Lord. So, I just want to pray that our sister Viola and she’s such a God-filled woman, you know, spirit filled and…and everything and I just want to continue to say God just to bless her just to love on her, comfort her. She’s always praying for us all and I’m just so glad God that you’ve chosen her, you’ve chosen Viola to be part of this family, you’ve chosen her at this specific time to be with us all, to praying for us all. And God I just ask that You continue to bless her and continue to favor her, continue to just fill her with Your Holy Spirit and anything that she’s going through God cause she continues to pray for us, she continues to pray for…for, for the DAB family. I just ask that anything that she’s going through, Lord may you bless it Father God, may You heal and restore anything that she’s going through and just continue to just fill her up God so there’s, you know, less of us and, you know, less of me and more of You, less of me and more of You God in every situation. We ask the same for Viola God. We pray over her so much God and we thank You so much. And so, to sister Viola, we love you, we love you so much and I love hearing your voice, I smile every time I hear it. And I just want to give blessings and ask that God blesses you and favors you and keeps you. In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. You guys have been a huge encouragement to me just hearing everybody pray for each other. I just joined the family in late February, early March-ish and I’m play catch up. So, you guys are about a month ahead of where I am so now but I’m still hearing all the prayers and all the people who take a genuine interest in the life of their fellow Christians and…and those people hurting and…and trying to lift them up and…and I came here looking to just find a place to hear God’s word and…and I think God has brought me here to…just to soften my heart and give me a heart for others. And you guys demonstrated that so well and I want to say thank you. And…and just keep it up guys. And Have a great day.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible listeners Isaiah 66:16-20 Come and listen all you who fear God let me tell you what He has done for me. I cried out to Him with my mouth, His praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened. But God has surely listened and heard my voice and prayer. Praise be to God who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me. Psalm 67:1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us that our ways may be known on the earth…that Your ways Oh Lord may be known on the earth and Your salvation among all the nations. And I just want to praise God for what He has done. I had been praying for my youngest son Jordon who had gone…7 years ago had gone off on the wrong…the…the evil ways of this world. I mean he had…was bound by the enemy. And I never…my husband and I never stopped praying, we fasted, we prayed, we interceded, we always let him know that we were there for him, loved him and thank God last year he accepted Jesus all on his own through a YouTube video of a street preacher and now as of today he loves Jesus, he has surrendered his whole life. He has made King Jesus, king of his heart. He got married in February. He is having a baby and God is good. So, keep on praying for your sons and your daughters. Do not let the enemy take ‘em, you say no Satan you will not take my kids. My kids belong to God. Be like a dog on a bone, do not let go. Keep trusting in God with faith, tenacity and just keep on praying for your children. And ask God to guide you by His Spirit with what to do and how to help them in any way shape or form and pray for other believers to be placed in their life to be given the…the word of truth…