2 Samuel 18:1-19:10, John 20:1-31, Psalms 119:153-176, Proverbs 16:14-15
Today is the 1st day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and welcome to a brand-new month. Today is the 152nd day of the year and the first day of the 6th month of the year. So, we’re just getting going in the 6th month which leaves us…well…leaves us seven months to go with the five months behind us. For me to think about that, t’s like wait a minute, how did that happen so fast? But it just does step-by-step day by day and we have covered so much ground in the Bible and so much of really having a look at ourselves as the Bible becomes a mirror into our souls that we should be able to look back at the beginning of the year and see that, yeah, the Bible…if you do this every day it really actually does change the way we look and feel. I mean, we can still fall under the old ruts, we can make a mess of things but now we clearly know better, and we know where a lot of these roads that we have been on for so long, we know where they’re going. And, so, the Bible indeed is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. And, so, here we are moving into the sixth month together. We have been working our way through second Samuel, which is where we’ll pick up today. King David is on the run from his son Absalom who is trying to kill him. And that’s the weird thing. David was just a shepherd boy tending sheep and he just so quickly became a national hero when Goliath fell, and he’s had to be like a fugitive and on the run from Saul and now from his own son Absalom. So, it’s not like he doesn’t have experience being on the run, but being on the run from your own son, what a horrible thing. But as we recall, David taking Bathsheba the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers Uriah the Hittite, that just really undermined David in his own family. And, so, it’s come to this. Absalom wants his dad dead so he can take his throne. And that’s where we pick up the story. David’s on the run and Absalom is in pursuit. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Second Samuel chapter 18 verse 1 through 19 verse 10.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in today’s reading we have one death, and we have one resurrection. What a way to begin our sixth month of the year. In the book of second Samuel, we have the death of Absalom. The battle between the forces of Israel under Absalom’s command and the forces loyal to David who were protecting him…well…they met in the woods and a lot of people died. In fact, the Bible tells us 20,000 people died over this. One of those people happened to be the king’s son and the Prince of Israel, Absalom who had beautiful hair and it was his downfall. Hung him up in a tree and he was killed while hanging from that tree. And from the narrative, we see that when King David lost his son he lost heart, like he wept bitterly to the point that all of those people, all of those who were trying to keep him alive and stay loyal to him came creeping back in ashamed like they had done something wrong. This is one of those situations where you look at King David and go man, like there’s just no…how do you respond correctly when you’ve lost a child and it’s so convoluted that that child wanted to kill you? Now that child is dead but that’s still your son. And then all the people who are loyal to you are grateful to be still alive but you’re so heartbroken over the loss of your child that you have this kind of erratic feeling like it would better off if I had died because the pain is so great. And, so, that is what we’re seeing happen in the life of the king as the people restore him to the throne and he takes over the kingdom again. And as we move toward the end of second Samuel, we’ll watch David now after this. We’ve gotten to see David go through a lot of trauma and a lot of hardship and then just a lot of heartbreaking stuff and then we’ve been able to witness his responses and his character and integrity, or for that matter lack of character and integrity the whole way. And, so, there’s so much for us to learn about ourselves. And we’ll take the next step forward in King David’s life as we…as we come back to the Scriptures tomorrow.
And then when we flip over into the book of John today, we have the accounting of the resurrection of Jesus. It is a beautiful retelling. This is the one retelling of the resurrection when Mary is in the garden and she…she comes face-to-face with Jesus not recognizing Him. She recognizes Him as a gardener and that is…I just find that to be beautiful. The whole thing. Our whole journey started in a garden back on January 1st when we were in the garden of Eden and with the resurrection of Jesus so much has been restored to mankind. And, so, for her to see him as a gardener is very poetic and very very beautiful. And, so, let’s meditate upon and drink in this story today of the resurrection, because as we’ve said a number of times this is the last time we’re coming this way and the last time we’re moving through these stories this year. And we will be concluding the gospel of John, with the final thoughts of Jesus in tomorrow’s reading. And, so, tomorrow we finish the four Gospels, which will award us that Gospels badge if we’re using the Daily Audio Bible app and keeping track of our readings but we can talk about that more then. Let us rejoice today as we meditate upon the resurrection.
Prayer:
Jesus, we love You. We thank You. We adore You. We worship You, we bow before You, and humble ourselves under Your authority and ask that You lead us. We ask Spirit of truth that You lead us into all truth as Jesus promised us, that You would guide our steps and direct our ways and that we would slow down enough to pay attention. We pray this in the beautiful name of the risen Savior Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi everyone, this is Susan from Canada God’s Yellow Flower calling and I just want to share such a beautiful praise report. I’m three weeks past my surgery now but recovery is very very slow but it’s progressing which I’m just so thankful for. Anyway, I have two sisters and we are very close. One lives five hours from here and she came and helped while I was in the hospital and stayed, you know, for a long time looking after the place and my son and did a wonderful job. Unbeknownst to me they had works in the plans to bring my sister down from the Yukon which is by Alaska, and I live by Toronto right on the opposite side of the country. And yesterday they surprised me with bringing my sister Diane and my niece down from the Yukon to here. I was so shocked I screamed. Oh, what a delight. What a delight. God is so good. I’ll tell you I haven’t seen my sister Diana since COVID because, you know, it’s the same with everybody right? And I’ve just been missing the three of us being together so much. I just praise God. Thank Him for wonderful sisters and family and all your prayers as well. Praise the Lord.
Hey DAB family this is Danny from Southern Oregon. Hey, I live in a really small town with farmers ranches and dairymen and when tragedy strikes it really affects our whole community and we just had another tragedy. So, I’m lifting both of these up to my DAB family and ask you to pray. The first one happened in the middle of March where a 15-year-old boy named Jesse was driving his car at a high rate of speed and hit a tree and he has some brain damage. He’s not able to walk or talk. He had a helmet on thankfully or he probably would be dead. But he is a twin, and they celebrated their 16th birthday recently. It’s just been really hard on the twin. It’s been hard on the parents. He is in Randall’s Children’s Hospital in Oregon and it’s just quite a distance from where we live. So, it’s hard on the family to go back and forth. And then two days ago we have a 12-year-old boy ironically also named Jesse who was walking down the street with his sister, and he was hit by a car. He’s got a broken pelvis, broken ankles and he is also in Randall’s Children’s Hospital and his dad is a single dad of five I believe and it’s just been very very difficult for that family also. So, if you guys could please pray for both Jesse’s from Bonanza I would really appreciate it. Our community is really just wrapping our loving arms around these families, but you know we just we need prayer for these guys. So, thank you so much. I love you. Bye.
Greetings DAB family this is Pamela Hopeful in Oregon it’s May 30th and I just listened to the prayer request from the father in Southampton England for his daughter Emily that’s being bullied and I just wanted you to know that I am praying for you and for her and I understand that we can certainly ask for prayer for her to be free from this mistreatment but in the heart I began to think that Jesus told us that we would face trials and tribulation and that He would equip us and so to face those. And, so, right now I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus that Emily would be equipped with power upon high, that she would be strengthened in her inner woman, and that she would be able to be…able to look at these people and have assurance in her heart that the things that they say to her don’t go into her heart, that she is approved and accepted by the Lord Jesus and that You would grow her into a strong and mighty woman of God, that she would be able to have Power over the intended hurt. And I pray for You dad too, that You would be able to give her over to the hands of the Lord daily and watch Him do what He’s famous for in Your daughter’s life. Love you all family. I pray for you. Have a blessed day.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Tara in Montana. and I would just appreciate your prayers for my daughter. We just celebrated graduation yesterday which is a happy time for many many families and Tori has a bit of a broken heart and is quite angry. Her dad which was my husband died a year ago and I think she blames me for that. I sent her home to take him to the doctor and she ended up having to do CPR and he died. So, there’s trauma there. And obviously he was not here with us for graduation. And Tori is quite angry with me, and she didn’t want me a graduation. She hasn’t really talked much with me, and I have three other children and it’s just a very disheartening and troubling and full of conflict on her end time. So, I would appreciate prayers for her heart, for our family, and for my heart as well. Thank you.
Hey DAB fam this is K from Columbus OH I’m calling…I’m just praying for the mom. I did not hear a name, but you asked for prayers for your daughter who’s in 7th grade and wasn’t making great choices but now she’s deciding to and the friends that she decided not to be friends with did beat her up. God we come before You right now in the name of Jesus. I ask that You give this daughter spirit of David to be courageous when everything is falling apart. When it seems like all hell is breaking loose God give her the spirit of David, that You will surround her with Your angels, that no matter what we see what her daughter sees in the natural those kids are going to hear a roar from You the lion of Judah and they will back the heck up and they will not touch her, they will be scared and they will flee. The daughter’s not even going to understand what’s going on, but God I ask that You just deposit that strength and that power and that holy boldness in her heart, that she will realize that God came and fought for me, He came to see him above me. Middle school is hard. My oldest son went to the same thing he did not want to tell me what was going on, but I prayed over him I fasted over him I anointed him with oil. Each and every day I had to trust that God heard my prayers and that He was taking care of my children and He did. So God I ask You go before this daughter and this mother and that she will make ways plain, those crooked ways straight, and that You would remove those bullies that are attacking her God, that You would do what You need to do, that they have to go before the principal’s office, whoever, make it plane God that she doesn’t have to deal with them and she doesn’t have to live in fear, but I thank You that she gets up each and every morning and that she decides to worship You to go to school knowing that this is what she’s going to have to…