1 Kings 11:1-12:19, Acts 9:1-25, Psalms 131:1-3, Proverbs 17:4-5
Today is the 13th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today, as we gather, yet again, for the next step forward on our adventure through the Bible this year. And as we gather, yet again as a community, to do this together, what a joy that this can even happen. And so, what a joy to be here together with you today, as…as…as we step forward. And our next step, obviously, leads us back to the point that we left off and that leads us back into the book of First Kings and the reign of King Solomon. And we experienced this kind of mountaintop, apex moment, as all that Solomon desires to develop throughout Israel is developed and the nation’s brought to notoriety and prosperity, it just doesn’t last. And so, let’s continue our journey forward. Today, First Kings chapter 11 verse 1 through 12 verse 19.
Commentary:
Okay so, we have just gone through our reading for today and like any other day, we read the portions of Scripture that we read each day. But monumental things happen today that are shifting the story in both the Old and the New Testaments. And they kind of go understated a little bit, so that we can kind of just breeze right by and continue the story. When actually, major, major shifts in the stories have happened today, in both the Old and the New Testament. So, in the Old Testament, in First Kings we said goodbye to King Solomon. Solomon has reached the end of his life and the end of his reign, and in the space of one day’s reading, we have dramatic shifts. So, yesterday we’re reading about this pinnacle experience, where Israel is brought to their finest hour, under Solomon’s rule and reign and respect is worldwide. Dignitaries are coming from all over the world. Riches and abundance are everywhere. And then we flip the page into today and we see the whole thing beginning to slide downward, to begin to come apart. In the latter years of Solomon’s reign, he fell away from God, and he fell away from God because he fell in love with women. And we’re told that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, that’s a thousand women. I have spent my whole life trying to keep up with one. That’s a thousand women and it’s not a thousand Israelite women, it’s women from all over the world, who come from all different kinds of backgrounds, all different kinds of pagan traditions, and they bring all this into Jerusalem. And the king begins to worship false gods and then erect high places for these gods to be worshiped. So, Solomon, the wise one, brings idolatry into Jerusalem. This brings the prophetic utterance that the kingdom will be stripped away from the family of David. It won’t happen in Solomon’s lifetime, but the kingdom will be stripped away from Solomon’s son. So, in the course of time that happens and that happened within today’s reading. It’s just a little bit of a convoluted story because Solomon’s son is named Rehoboam and Solomon’s leader of the building forces was named Jeroboam. It was Jeroboam who received this prophecy that he would inherit the kingdom. When Solomon found out about that, he tried to kill Jeroboam who had to go into exile in Egypt. And then when Solomon died, Rehoboam was to ascend the throne of his father. And so, he went to the city of Shechem, and all the tribes gathered at Shechem to anoint him as the successor to his father on the throne of Israel, but they sent for Jeroboam to come back from Egypt, because there was a matter, an issue, that they needed to discuss with their proposed new King Rehoboam. And that was the fact that Solomon had driven them hard as they were advancing Israel, as they were building and developing. It was hard forced labor, under harsh conditions. And so, they were going to the new King and saying look, if you will recognize how hard your dad pushed everybody, if you will lighten that load to something that’s sustainable, then we will be your subjects, and you will be our king, and we will be your servants, and we will serve you. Jeroboam had been in charge of this labor. And so, he could speak to what the people were experiencing. And so, they’re presenting this to King Rehoboam, then seeks counsel, the counsel of his father Solomon and the counsel of the people that he had grown up with. The counsel of Solomon, his father, was that, he should listen to the people and lighten their load. If he would be a servant to them in the beginning, they would be a servant to him for life. But he also went to the guys that he grew up with and said, “What do you guys think.” And they’re like, you shouldn’t, basically, you shouldn’t be listening to these people. You don’t need to serve them, you’re their King. Tell them your father’s little finger was not as big as your waist, if they think it was hard under Solomon, it’s going to be so much more difficult under you. You will rule them with an iron fist. And that’s the advice he takes. So, when the people come back to hear what the king has, as a vision for them. He tells them that he has no intention whatsoever of lightening the load, if anything, he’s going to make it more difficult. And that, that right there, changed the whole story going forward. Now we could say, the systematic things that we just talked about are what made the story go forward, which is true. Solomon falling away, falling in love with women, building high places, undermining his family. All of these things work together, just like they work together in our own lives. But Rehoboam’s response to the people, that he has no intention of serving them, that they will serve him, and he will be harder than his father. That causes 10 of the tribes of Israel to basically blow their horns and say we are out of here. We, you are not our king. We are going home. We will figure this out, but you are not our king. This is Israel, friends, like this is the children of Israel. We’ve been traveling with them since they were born. Like, we’ve seen the whole story and they were united together as tribes. In this moment, they are dividing as tribes. Jeroboam, Solomon’s former leader of the labor force, becomes king of the 10 tribes in the north. And they will be called the kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom. Rehoboam is king of Judah in the south, the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, where Jerusalem is. This united tribes of Israel is no longer united, they have broken into two separate kingdoms: the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The king of the northern kingdom is Jeroboam, the king of the southern kingdom, is Rehoboam. And I’m not trying to talk slow and be redundant because I think we’re all dumb here. It’s just, it gets convoluted because the two kings names, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, are easy to confuse. And the monumental thing that’s happening here, this splitting of the kingdom’s, so that they’re two separate nations, who will at times be completely at odds with one another. This is how the story is going forward. So, understanding that the children of Israel are not united anymore, and that we’re going forward in the story, is now going to tell the story of two separate kingdoms. And we’re in the book of Kings and so, we’re learning of these kings, we now have double the kings to keep track of. Now, there are kings of Israel and kings of Judah and we’re turning into the territory where we see their intermingling and the different times that they reigned and how they overlapped, and how they conflict, how they were in conflict with each other. This is like really important, or we’ll get lost really, really fast and go, what are all these names. Who are all these people, what’s going on here? The kingdom has split. There are two nations now, Israel and Judah. And there are two kings, Jeroboam and Rehoboam. And we will continue with this drama as we go forward in the days ahead. But just understanding what’s happening here, will help us to not lose our place.
And then we flip over into the Book of Acts and another monumental story shifting thing happens. This Pharisee Saul, who stood there and watched Stephen be stoned to death, has unleashed his vicious hatred of Jesus upon those who follow Jesus. So, he’s been creating mayhem in Jerusalem, hauling people out of their homes and imprisoning them and putting them before the Sanhedrin. And he gets letters from the High Priest that give him permission to travel to Damascus, which is, which is a pretty good, a pretty good journey, when you don’t have a car or a plane or anything. So, he’s going to Damascus with permission to do the same thing in Damascus and haul these people back before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. His intention is to stamp out the memory of this name: Jesus. What happens today is monumental because this Saul, who’s trying to stamp out the name of Jesus, meets Jesus, on the road to Damascus. He has this experience that sends him to the ground with the bright light and he is blinded. And Jesus introduces himself. This Saul, as we probably all know, becomes the Apostle Paul. So, as we move through today’s reading, we are getting this introduction to how Paul, came to know Jesus. And we will be traveling alongside the Apostle Paul, throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, but also, well beyond the Book of Acts, we will be moving into the letters of the Apostle Paul. And so, understanding his origin story is very helpful because we have a long journey next to this guy. And we’re gonna get to know what he has to say and what he has to teach, quite well, as we continue the journey forward. And we’ll find out that what he has to say and what he has to teach, is fundamentally the foundation of Christian doctrine. And so, we’ll move through every chapter and every verse of all of that, as we move forward. So, this is a day that we could kind of just read through and go, okay, like any other day, we…we just move the stories forward, but it’s important for us to see. Major shifts have occurred now, in the Old and the New Testaments. And so, when we open up the Bible tomorrow, and we come around the Global Campfire, we’ve moved into new eras. The stories are taking on new complexions and it will be exciting for us to take this journey.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word and the many complexions that it, that it offers us. The many views and vistas, the many facets, all of the different angles that it can be looked at, all of the ways that it reflects back Your glory into our lives. So, as we move through today and see these monumental shifts taking place in the Old and the New Testament, we invite You, Holy Spirit, to plant the story as we’ve brought it to this point in our hearts. And then, we look forward to the twists and turns that are in front of us. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth. We ask in the name of Jesus. 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hey DABers, it’s Winter. I prayed to God that, whatever I pray today is something that needs to be interceded for. And I want to pray for my friend Quill. Quill almost committed suicide yesterday. And the only thing really, to stop them was the fact that they were, they wanted to say, please let go. They kept saying, please let go. I’m not really worth anything. I’m not, I’m just worthless. And nothing, nothing is going to get better with my situation. And they kept saying things like this and I kept stubbornly being myself, I kept stubbornly saying no, I’m not gonna let you go on this. You’re not gonna have to go alone. And, and I just pray that they can come to a position where not only do they know God but also to a position where they are ready to leave the things that are making them want to do this. I pray so much over Quill because they are, they’re such a gentle soul and they’ve just had a bad rap and bad circumstances. So, if you guys could pray with me for Quill, I’d really appreciate it. I’ve only know them for a short while but this would mean a lot to me. Thank you, God, please be with them. Amen.
Hello, DAB Family. This is Diana from Florida. And I want to pray for Christine from Oregon. And before I pray, Christina, I just want to tell you that God is doing such an amazing work in you. I know you were scared to call but I’m so grateful you did because it is a testimony of how God is changing you. You’ve been reading the Bible for 6 months, consistently through the DAB. And you’ve been on this journey for a year off and on and now, you’ve been more consistent. And God is changing you. He’s changing your desires, he’s doing exactly what the word says, which is changing your heart of stone and giving you a heart of flesh. He’s changing your desires, the things that you once hated now, you’re starting to love. And the things you once loved, now you’re starting to hate. And that is a testimony. Praise God for your life. And so, I want to encourage you in that. I know you started this journey to sobriety and it’s hard. It’s hard. You’re going through withdrawals and those are all very normal things. I implore you to find people in your corner that can really help support you in that journey. If there’s an AA group that you can join. That would also be very helpful. And this way, you can become sober in this particular area and God can continue to do His work in your life. Dear God, I pray for Christina, right now in Oregon. She’s on the opposite end of this nation from me. But God, You love her so much. And You are doing a mighty work in her, even if she doesn’t see it yet. You are changing her and I just praise God. I praise You God for her life. And I pray that You would help her succeed in this journey. Put the people around her who can help her see this through. In Jesus ..
Heavenly Father, we ask that You would be with Sherrie Youngword and Lord, she’s asking for miraculous healing or a correct diagnosis. And we just ask that Your hand of mercy and grace be in her life and in her medical situation, Lord. And there was also an anonymous caller, that has a niece getting married, which will create a rare occurrence of your family being together. And your asking prayers that healing and restoration of family, relationships would occur at this event. And Lord, we just come in agreement with her and ask that You would soften the hearts of these family members and this celebration of love. Lord, and that they would be able to use this time to heal and reconcile their relational strife that exists among them. And that’s in the precious name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Hello, DAB family. This is Adopted and Love. I called before. I’m going through a divorce; our first court date is in two weeks from yesterday. And I am full of anxiety and trying to give it all over to God. I’ve so many things going on, including a possible job change to be able to be more available for my kids. And I just don’t want to make any decisions without God, and I want to lean on Him in everything. And it’s not easy. I have to have faith that He’s gonna come through. And so, I’m just asking, asking for prayer that God would show up and He would make Himself abundantly known and be very clear, as I go through this and that He will hold me. Yeah, thank you.
Hey, DAB, it’s Christie from Ohio. I desperately need prayer. I’ve been drowning in stress with the uncertainty of my job. For the last year and a half, there’s been a round of layoffs and our company was just bought out by a larger company. And we’re gonna be restructuring a lot. But it’s all so new that the details given were very vague. For a while, I’ve struggled with am I gonna have a job, but when I look for something else, either I don’t find anything out there for me or anything that seems like I would like. Ideally, if my company could survive all of the turmoil, I’d like to stay because this is the first job, I’ve had that I’ve loved. Also, there’s a possibility that I could be promoted. But on the flip side, it just feels like there’s so much on shaky ground and some of the changes don’t feel good. And I work remotely and there’s not a lot of work in my area. And I’m also single so, for me, changing jobs usually means having to move away, uproot again. And I’m in my thirties now, and I’m just at the point in my life where I just need stability and I’m tired of constant change. And I just want a place I can belong. And I don’t want to leave my small town where I have friends and a church family that I can call home. I’ve been praying for an answer, but I just don’t feel God, I know He’s there, but it just doesn’t feel like, you know, any direction at the moment. But the stress is just making me physically sick and it’s hard to move forward and I just feel crushed by it. Just feel like I don’t really have anyone to talk about it with, so I just, prayers that I can figure out what the next steps are. Thanks.