1 Kings 18:1-46, Acts 11:1-30, Psalms 135:1-21, Proverbs 17:12-13
Today is the 17th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today and thrilled that we can gather around the Global Campfire and take another step forward together. That will lead us, the next step that is, will lead us back into the book of first Kings. And we need to remember that after Solomon’s reign Israel split into two different nations or kingdoms. The northern kingdom of Israel, which was 10 tribes and then the southern kingdom of Judah which was the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. And we are now chronicling the kings of both of those kingdoms and how they overlap and sometimes how they remain at war with each other, even though they’re the same people, people lead out of slavery and into the promised land and now they’re fighting against each other. But first Kings isn’t dissimilar kinda to books like the book of Judges. If you remember when we went to the book of Judges, sometimes we met a judge and we had a long story, a lot of information to process and talk about and then with other judges we get like a paragraph of what they did and when they did. That can be true in Kings as well. Some of these kings we’ll get to know they’ll be much more detail and story for us, whereas with some of the other kings we get a paragraph. But that’s we’re moving through, is a chronicling of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. And at this point we have also met the prophets Elijah who has prophesied a drought, or a famine in the land and then he goes into hiding worries being kept alive by the birds. And, so, we pick up the story. First Kings chapter 18.
Commentary:
Okay. Such big things happening in the Scriptures today. So, in the book of first Kings we have the showdown with Elijah that was kinda being set up in yesterday’s reading. So, it’s Elijah, the one prophet of God against 450 prophets of Baal. And you can imagine the scene, these people crying out to Baal to answer with fire from heaven and show His power and show that he’s the true God and they are cutting themselves and dancing around and just trying to whip things up into a frenzy. And Elijah’s just like maybe you need to be a little louder, maybe he’s doing something else, just maybe you need to press in. And they do. Nothing happens. At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah restores an altar, digs a ditch around it, covers the alter, the wood, the stones with water and fire comes from heaven, consuming the sacrifice. And everyone there saw it and they fell to the ground. It changed them. It disrupted them and changed them until they were confessing once again, “the Lord our God is the true and only God”, which invariably led to the demise of the prophets of Baal. Mount Caramel is a real place. In fact, there’s a monastery on the top of Mount Carmel that protects this place and commemorates what happened there. And the Kishon Valley, the stream running below the mountain is visible from the top of Mount Carmel. This happened in a place. And if we remember there was severe drought so bad that everyone was suffering looking for Elijah who had spoke the word of the Lord that began the drought. Elijah goes back atop Mount Carmel begins to pray. And we just read this. He sends his servant to look toward the sea because Mount Caramel’s not that far from the Mediterranean Sea. And after seven times the servant was sent comes back and says there’s a tiny little, tiny, tiny cloud, about the size of a man’s hand coming up out of the sea. And that’s when Elijah knew, like, okay tell the king he better get going back to Jezreel. And then Elijah is able to run and outpace the chariot as he runs from Mount Caramel back to Jezreel. I guess I probably have to look it…look it up on the map, but that's…that’s a long, long, long way to run. I’m gonna guess no less than 50 miles give or take. And the famine is brought to an end by the mighty power of the only true God. We have a massive display of God’s power that disrupts the people and turns their heart back to God. So, it's…it’s a mountaintop moment that happened on a mountaintop. If only it could last. We’ll have to see how this story continues to play out as we continue our journey tomorrow.
Then in the book of Acts, we are continuing a story that as we’ve already mentioned was so profound that it changed the early church and the reverberations of that shift echo until today. So, we remember yesterday of Cornelius and his household in Caesarea and Peter coming there beginning to share the gospel and the Holy Spirit falling upon them. News has spread as the book of Acts told us. News has spread very very quickly. So, by the time Peter gets back to Joppa people already know what happened. And as we can see right out of the gate where are some people there that are like, this is not supposed to happen. We are not supposed to extend fellowship and hospitality to outsiders or to Goyim, to Gentiles. But once Peter told the story everybody had to kinda come to the same sort of conclusion that Peter had come to, not only from his visions in Joppa but also…like Peter doesn’t have any power to force the Holy Spirit upon someone else. Nobody has that power, to just make someone receive the Holy Spirit. And at this time, they truly believe that the only people invited to receive the Holy Spirit were Jewish people. So, the Holy Spirit fell upon Gentiles, Cornelius’s household. Peter could only conclude what..what am I supposed to do? Like the Holy Spirit came upon them. God spoke. God’s Holy Spirit came upon them. So, who was I…who are any of us to denounce something that God has chosen to do? I don’t know…I mean this is one of the most pivotal moments in the Bible and in…in our church history, like a complete rewiring of their understanding. No longer were they like separate and chosen and put aside. But God was inviting everybody to the family to be set apart and put aside as holy people even Gentiles. And as we continue our journey through the New Testament, we’ll see that. This is a serious serious problem for some people and a point of exuberance and joy for others. All love Jesus but now we have a little bit of a rift between them and will see how this goes as we continue our journey.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We love You with all of our hearts. Help us to ingest and process and allow the Scriptures and the stories found in them deep into our hearts, that they may change us. And we thank You, that through Jesus all of us, even we who are Gentiles are welcome into Your family. Thank You. We don’t deserve this or anything. And, so, our hearts are grateful today. Come Holy Spirit. Well up from within us with gratefulness. And may we share kindness and compassion with those around us. None of us deserve this. Everyone is invited. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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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:
Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Jesus from beautiful South Florida, and I just want to wish you all a great start of your week. May the Lord mighty God will bless us in abundance each one of you. Well, this call this call is a better prayer request made by a brother named Demetrius. Demetrius from Portland OR you called on the community prayer on the 10th of this month. Today is the 13th and brother I have been praying for you since I heard your petition and it’s about your marriage and I want to tell you that I also going through the same circumstances, and I want to pray something over you brother, something that has been put in my heart. And yes, as husbands and men we want everything to be fixed right away. We want restoration, we want healing, we want it now. And that’s the way it works because we love our marriage, you know, we love our wives. But brother the Lord has come up to me and has shown me a different way to pray for marriage. And what I pray is restoration of a friendship of a unity of respect. Remember that before we become married, we are friends. And in that friendship, there is fruit that are blessings, that are good moments, that are memories. Once we get married, we come into this this journey, a journey that has a lot of trials, tribulations, responsibilities. And some of those responsibilities are up to us men to do as God has blessed us as the head of the family. So, brother Demetrius I want to tell you and I want you encourage you it’s something that has helped my life.
This is Eyes of a Dove. I was thinking to myself, I like to call in and pray for my daughter and for all the DABbers kids at every school that they be safe from mass shootings. And then I thought can God handle more than that? Could I pray for a greater coverage? What if I said the world? To God, if I ask Him to protect the world’s children in every school in every college in every technical program for all the children for the legions of angels to go, God said that every person could have a legion of angels to protect them. If that’s the case, I can pray and ask the Lord. Dear God, please protect all of the children from the demonic forces that seek to kill steal and destroy them. Father, that any person with guns or with killing on their mind would not be able to enter those schools, Father that You would supernaturally put a boundary around around these schools and around these children and that we would fear not for legions of angels protect our children. Father God, I ask it be Your way, that Your hand would come down like a hedge of protection a ring of fire around these children Lord God. Thank You for protecting our children. Thank You for giving us our children. They are gift from You. Father and I just pray for the children that have fear, Father that they would not fear but they would trust in You, trust that You are there to protect them keep them safe. Let the teachers not be afraid Father God but help them to be strong and courageous and wise in every situation. We thank You for our school teachers in our districts. Thank You Lord. Yeshem, Yeshua. Amen.
This is for Prairie Sky suffering from depression. I understand what you are going through. You’re at the bottom of the waves and all you can see around you are the dark wall of water closing in on every side but there is a horizon out there and when the waters of your life come you will see the glorious horizon, that future that God has for you. And until that time I pray as Paul prayed for the Colossians, that you will be strengthened with all might according to God’s glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Amen.
Hi DAB family this is Tammy from the Adirondacks. My husband and I just got done listening to the June 13th podcast. And Prairie Sky you called in. Your depression is just taking a toll on you from the sound of it and you’re not alone. I know where you’re at. But we just want to pray for you sister. Father God, we lift up Prairie Sky to you Lord. Lord you are the mighty physician, You are our healer, You are our comforter, You are our ever present help and tomes of trouble. And there’s nothing too big for You Father God that You cannot heal us from. And we’re asking dear Lord to just pour Your anointing down on Prairie Sky, lift this depression, fill her heart and her mind and her soul with Your peace and Your joy and Your love. Let her know that she is so worthy of all Your love and more, that she is Your daughter and that You love her, and You cherish her and that she is the righteousness of You Father God through Your son Jesus Christ. Sister, be encouraged. Be encouraged and just lean and press into the Father. Jesus take care of her and just watch over her and Your precious name we pray. Amen. If you need somebody to talk to, reach out to somebody to talk to, reach out to me reach out on the DAB, the Prayer Wall or Facebook or somehow if you need somebody to talk too. You’re not alone. You don’t have to go through this alone. God bless. Love you.
I’m praying for the father that I just heard on the Prayer Wall. He sounded broken. He hadn’t seen his daughters in four months, and he was saying how the courts wanted him to give all this money that he doesn’t have and he’s feeling lost and alone and estranged from his children. Dear heavenly Father please cover this man in Your blood in the blood of Jesus. Please give him the ability to look up and to hold on for just another moment. Lord, I ask I ask that You send help his way in an unexpected and miraculous way dear Jesus. I pray Lord. I pray that he will have an understanding that You Lord at the author and finisher of his fate and he will look to You. Amen.