2 Samuel 13:1-39, John 17:1-26, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 16:6-7
Today is the 28th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today, wonderful to come around the Global Campfire together, wonderful to have a Global Campfire to come to, an oasis, a safe serene space carved out…ahhh…just to let God speak through the Scriptures and just exhale and have a place away from any chaos or anything coming to distract us. We have this place together and I’m glad to be in it with you for the next step forward. And that next step forward will take us back into the book of second Samuel. We’ve kind of just moved through the Bathsheba story and it’s a sordid story to be certain and we were just talking about how things are never really the same David’s family after this. And we will begin to see that today. Second Samuel chapter 13.
Commentary:
Okay. So, from the book of Second Samuel, we see that things in David’s family have not improved in any way. They have only gotten worse after these choices that David made involving Bathsheba, the taking of another man’s wife and then the killing of that husband. Respect seems to be somewhat diminished if not lost among David’s children. And, so, we…we encountered a story today that involved three of David’s children in particular, a son named Amnon, a daughter named Tamar and a son named Absalom who was the brother of Tamar. We read the story. We don’t need to go back through the details. Tamar is raped by Amnon. Absalom…Absalom is infuriated…like he can’t stand that this has happened, and he cannot stand his brother Amnon for what he did. And David didn’t do much of anything. And even Absalom under the circumstances is just kind of consoling Tamar, like “you have to just…you have to begin to move on from this place.” But Absalom…Absalom’s plotting justice, justice that the king’s not going to give, justice that’s just not gonna happen any other way, it appears, because two years go by, right? Two years go by and it’s like everything is just brushed under the rug and we’re moving on and that’s when Absalom has his plan to have a feast and the feast does happen and Amnon is killed, which certainly disrupts the royal family, to say the least. So, there’s a great amount of grief and mourning. We can read it and go, “well that was justice.” But the only one that’s fleeing now is Absalom. So, Absalom has perpetrated the killing of Amnon his brother who’s a prince and its justice, but Absalom has to flee. As it turns out, though, Absalom is the grandson of the king of Geshur. And the capital city of Geshur has been associated with…with some ruins in the Galilee region. Actually, it is believed that Geshur and the New Testament city of Beth-Saida, which some of Jesus’ disciples called a hometown and that Jesus visited and performed miracles in, that they are the same. So, they share the same ruins. They just come from a different time. So, Absalom’s back at his grandfather’s palace and protected there for three years after…after the death of Amnon. And that’s kinda where we leave off. We’re not done though. We’re on a slide that’s sliding downward in David’s family and we’re not…were not done with the story of Absalom, who it appears has lost pretty much all respect for his father the king, David.
When we turn into the gospel of John, we are at John chapter 17, and this is a famous chapter. This is known as Jesus High Priestly Prayer, a prayer that He prays over His disciples and through His disciples over all of us who believe, and He is asking the Father to make us one as they are one. So, in the words of Jesus, so I’m quoting out of the gospel of John here, “I am no longer going to be in the world, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father protect them by your name which you gave me so that they may be one as we are one.” And then a couple verses…verses later Jesus says, “I am praying not only for them but also for those who believe in Me through their message.” That will be us friends. That would be us. “May they all be one as You Father are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be one in us so that the world may believe that You’ve sent me.” What Jesus is talking about here is an intertwining that should blow our minds - “so that they may be one as we are one?” Well, our understanding of how “one” Jesus is with the Father is that there one in the same. So, this isn’t something that we can just talk over in the next three minutes. This is something we’re gonna have to kind of really think about and meditate upon over the course of days, maybe weeks, maybe months. This is something we invite the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth about. What would that be like, that we the body are one as They are one? How do we even start to think about that? We can think, well…the reference here is about unity, that we’ll all be united, believe in the same thing in the same direction. If that’s the deal then this prayer has not yet been answered, right? All we have to look around is to know that that’s not how we are operating almost ever. And if that’s the case, and it is in fact Jesus desire as He prays to the Father that we become one as They are one, then the path that we are on, it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever…like it doesn’t seem like we’re moving in the right direction, even as…as the body much less humanity. How do we even begin to get our minds around that concept though? We have to…we have to begin to think of ways in which we are united, we are one. So, for example, every human being alive on this planet today is one with every other human being. We are one as the human race. The things that keep us alive on this planet are the thing to keep all of us as the human race as one together alive. For example, we have beating hearts. If that stops, we cease to be on this planet alive, at least as we know it. And that is true of all human beings. We are all one in that reality. What we are typically programmed to do in this world and in this world system in the cultures is to generally, from birth almost, become aware of our distinctions, our differences, the things that we can look at and say, “that is different than me. We are not one. We are distinctly different in this area.” But once we find one area that we are distinctly different in, say for example, we have theological differences, say, with another brother or sister, they…they are seeing things a certain way that we don’t think is accurate, we will often take that distinctive and then type up a label and put the label on that person so that we can dismiss that person and everybody who thinks the way that they do as not one with us. Is that true though because that person still has a beating heart, bloods pumping through their veins, they have a brain, they have eyes and mouth and ears that are situated on a head, they walk upright, they look human, they are human, they are still part of the human race. Our label or judgment cannot change that. We are still one with them is humanity. And we need to think about the body of Christ. Is it, we who made the body or is it we who were grafted into the body and are simply lucky to be here at all? If it is the latter, then we don’t have anything to type with, we don’t have any labels, we don’t have any anything. Our identity is one in Christ. Our allegiance is to Jesus. We may be evolving in our understanding of Jesus, our relationship with God. That would be a default of being alive, right? We’re…we’re learning, we’re growing. I am in love and am attempting to use my life to become one with my wife. And sometimes it feels like that and sometimes it doesn’t. But we’ve decided no matter what it feels like, this is the this is the trajectory of our lives is to become one. And marriage is another fantastic way to begin to think about this concept. What we begin to realize is, it’s not about pointing out our distinctives and carving out all our territory…territory to protect that. It’s more about focusing on our similarities and working to strengthen these things while using our differences to challenge the status quo. Like we can always be about the business of refining this oneness that Jesus is speaking about, but we have to think about what it even looks like because if we just look out over the body of Christ across the world, we…we would see just about as many divisions as there are in the world. We continue to try to carve out our distinctives in one way or another, while ignoring our similarities, which is where we probably should be starting. If are clear on our similarities than we can celebrate our distinctives because their gifts from God, their beautiful things that serve all of us together. And, so, I probably have talked that three minutes or more, but let’s meditate upon this because if we do, we begin to think about becoming one as a body, which Paul talks about. Like I’m not suggesting something extra biblical here, like we’re gonna, we’re gonn approach all of this from different perspectives when we begin to read Paul and his description of what Jesus is doing in this world by making the body of Christ. So, this idea of…of us becoming one is something that we actually do need to give thought to because it’s a posture that is supposed to be our normal.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit we invite You into this. Conceptually we can maybe understand the concept. The process…we…we don’t. It it’s a mystery. And, so, we have to surrender and open ourselves. And maybe that’s all there is to it, is that we surrender our identity to You and You bestow an identity upon us, the identity of a son or a daughter of the most-high God, and when we come into contact with our brothers and sisters in the world, it’s not about our distinctive, the things that we need to argue about, it’s about the fact that we are all children of the most-high God here and there is no label we can slap on each other change that. You and You alone are the eternal judge. And, so, Holy Spirit come lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask expectantly. 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:
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. I…I’m Sydney from Tennessee. I am just calling. I’ve been driving and listening trying to catch up on Daily Audio Bible and listening to the prayer requests and praying along and a thought just occurred to me. I…as I’m listening to some of your stories and…and how the…the struggles that everybody is going through I’m just blown away by how this community pulls together and prays for everybody who needs it. I…I…it reminds me of the story of Moses when they’re fighting and he’s only winning when they’re lifting up his arms. And I feel like this community stands in the gap when we’re too week to make it through our own battles. And I just was overcome…and just with joy and happiness that this is truly a community that follows that example. So, I guess I just want to thank everybody for being so loving and I guess for showing the way that the Kingdom of God should work. I love you all. I thank you for calling in. I’m praying with you and for you and thank you to Brian and Jill and family for putting on this wonderful podcast for everybody. Have a blessed day. Thanks.
Hey DAB family this is Byron out in Florida. My wife went to go visit her mother’s grave the other day and on her way to the site she came across an old man that was visiting his wife’s grave and they got to talking and it turned out they had been married for quite a long time and he had this to say about his wife, that she was a fighter, that they had diagnosed her with cancer and had given her only two months to live but she continued to live another 27 before she died. Later on that evening my wife had severe pains in her abdomen so we went to the emergency room where they did some scans and urged us to see a specialist as soon as we could. Came back from seeing that specialist today and it turns out that one of my wife ovaries is significantly enlarged. The recommendation is to remove the ovaries along with the rest of the sexual apparatus and to test it to see if there is cancer and if any additional action needs to be taken. So, given the circumstances and the little things that God has done we have great assurance about all this, great comfort. My God has always been faithful to me, and to my family and he will continue to be even in this situation, but nothing goes right without prayer and that’s where you my DAB family come in. Please pray for my wife for healing, for the doctor and nurses and assistants, that everything goes well with the surgery. It’s going to be happening on Friday January 4th. And pray for my wife’s husband that he does the right thing, says the right thing, takes care of everything that needs to be taken care of so my wife can do the main job of healing. Thank you all for always being there. I love you all and will talk to you soon. Bye.
I have only called in one time before. Been listening for about 10 years but this is not about me. I…my wife’s not doing well. She’s been fighting leukemia for 10 years now and in the past year it’s gone south. She’s in the hospital now and the doctors helping out, paying attention to blood tests and results. But it’s in God’s hands now. There’s nothing that you and I or the doctor can do. It’s all in God’s hands and His healing touch. So, will be praying for my wife Tanya. Also, be praying for my family. We have to find a house soon. Our landlord is selling the house. He’s not being mean about it. It’s just part of life. The housing market has gone up. And, so, we are able to…he’s able to make some money and I don’t blame him, but we have a large family and it’s hard to find a rent house. But be praying for me because I can’t be with my wife. I’m taking care of the kids while her mother is with her and I can’t be by her side. So, just be playing for my family. Thank you.
Hi everyone, how are you doing? I hope you’re doing great. I hope that throughout your challenges and your ups and downs in life that you always keep trusting in God. I pray that no matter what is going on in your life would derail you from the right path which is in Christ, and which is Christ. I pray that you will always keep leaning on him even though if I win his heart, it would be so nice to rely on other things than Christ. But it is…Christ is the only way. I pray that He will help you and…and make you strong in Him in the name of Jesus. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
Good morning DAB this is Pamela from Texas. I started out in January listening to Jill Chronological but now I’ve become a double DABber and I’m listening to Brian as well. I listened this morning to May 25th about just wanting to say I love the analogy about not wanting to put God in a box. If we could all just remember that God just wants to be close to us and have a relationship with us and be in our heart and with us and that our body is the temple and that we need to treat it as a temple of God because He is living there with us. Also, I want to ask prayer for my oldest daughter Christy who is addicted to meth. She struggles with it, and she is having to mandatory go back to a rehab for three months and she’s not happy. But I’m praying that God will work with her and through the counselors there and she will finally get rid of this addiction. And I hope with your prayers and my prayers that she can overcome this. I thank you so much and pray for all of you and thank you for this podcast. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Have a great day.