1 Kings 20:1-21:29, Acts 12:24-13:15, Psalms 137:1-9, Proverbs 17:16
Today is the 19th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today from the lush, rolling hills of Tennessee and excited, excited that we’re here around the Global Campfire, excited for our next step forward. And that next step leads us back to where we left off and that happens to at this point be in the book of first Kings where we are moving chronologically through all of the different leaders of the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah, or the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah, the northern and southern kingdoms. Today we’ll read first Kings chapter 20 and 21.
Commentary:
Okay, so we just read the 137th Psalm, a Psalm or song of lament from the Israelites who were in exile. And that is actually out in front of us. That’s still in the future as we move through the Bible. But this Psalm is showing us where the story is going. So…so really to appreciate and even to consider in our own lives, we just need to remind ourselves of the story that we’re on or in. We started this journey back in the book of Genesis back in the month of January and we’ve the moving day by day step-by-step since then. And, so, we’ve moved through a lot of territory and learned about a lot of people and a lot of things. We met Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We saw Jacob change…his name changed to Israel. And he had children, and they were the children of Israel. And we followed the story of Joseph and the slavery in Egypt and the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and the wilderness journey and that conquering of the promised land and the time of the judges and then finally they wanted a king, and so we met King Saul and all of his story and the intermingling with king David who was his successor, and then all the intrigue of David’s life and then king Solomon brought us to this kind of mountaintop apex moment and we…we…it just went by so fast. We talked about it. Like we just reached the top of this story. It’s kind of gonna slide downward from here. And that’s where we are in the story now. We’re watching the fact that the children of Israel, they decided to divide themselves into two nations - the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah - each having their own government, their own monarch, their own king. We’ve seen at times they’ve been friendly toward one another. They are family after all. We’ve seen other times where they are absolutely at war with each other. We have begun to see the prophetic voices in and among the kings like Elijah. We even watched the Lord rescue Samaria from Benhadad the Syrian king, only to watch king Ahab kill Naboth to get his property. Although once he was confronted he was repentant. Nevertheless, this kingdom that we spent our time in today, the northern kingdom with the capital city of Samaria, eventually…eventually they won’t be able to hold out. Eventually the northern kingdom of Israel will be conquered by the Assyrian Empire and following that the kingdom of Judah will have its time in exile. They will be conquered by the Babylonian Empire. And, so, we get into Psalm 137 today and it’s a song written from exile because exile was the way of building an empire in those days. One of the methods used for conquering and resettling the people. So, in the case of the northern kingdom…and we’ll go through all the story and talk about this again when we get there. The Assyrians conquered the northern 10 tribes of Israel and displaced them, carted them off, made them leave their homeland, made them settle in a different land, a different land that had been conquered by the Assyrian Empire. They…they were moving people around, intermingling people displacing them from this possession of a homeland so that over the course of centuries as the generations would continue, because people were still going to continue to have children and families, eventually the homeland and the story and the identity of it would be forgotten so that all that would be left of it would be the stories of the Empire. This is the posture that this Psalm, Psalm 137 is written, from people who have been conquered and have had to gather whatever they could and be forcibly removed from their homeland and re-settled somewhere else. Families being split apart, people being lost never to be seen again, drug away into a new land where you’re supposed to build a new life as part of this empire that just conquered you. When we know that and we begin to read this Psalm it’s so sad. By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down. There and wept when we remembered Zion. On the Willows nearby we hung our harps. Those who captured us told us to sing. They told us to entertain them. Sing as a song about Zion. How can we sing a song to the Lord in a foreign land? May I never be able to play the harp again if I forget you Jerusalem. May I never be able to sing again if I do not remember you, if I do not think of you as my greatest joy. Now we can appreciate where this Psalm is coming from. It’s coming from a deep place of disorientated pain and anguish that everything seems lost, that they are now in a place they don’t even recognize, told build a life and entertain the people with the songs of their homeland. We can certainly appreciate the depth of emotion that’s coming from the Psalms today. But have we…have we ever felt that way? Now certainly most of us have never had the experience of being conquered and being on the run for our lives. Although I know that’s true of…of many that I have heard from in the community around the Global Campfire throughout the years. So, I know some people have actually had that experience and can read this Psalm in a way that most of us can’t. But we can understand the situation. Even though we haven’t been conquered and on the run for our lives we have felt like life has tipped upside down and we don’t recognize what’s going on exactly anymore. We don’t know exactly where we are or how we got here. What’s familiar is not familiar and we’re in a world where we see people that should be familiar, but something’s changed…likes things changed. Things changed through death or things changed through betrayal. And all the sudden the people we thought we knew we didn’t or any kind of thing that crushes our spirit. We’ve faced these kinds of pain before where we feel disoriented enough to not know what we’re looking at and not know exactly where to go from here. The Psalm we read today allows us to have language. It allows us to see that we’re not alone, not the only ones who have these kinds of feelings or that have ever felt this way. And as with so many beautiful things in the Bible, Psalm 137 doesn’t put a bow on what’s going on. It’s simply acknowledging what’s going on. In other words, it’s simply being honest about what’s going on. And maybe there’s a lesson in there for us when we feel that way, when we have those feelings exile, when we feel disoriented and upside down and confused. Maybe the first move is to get honest, honest with what we’re feeling and what it’s connected to and what it actually feels like to be in it instead of numbing it or running away from it, to be in it just for a minute to look at it in the eye, to look at it face to face, to see what this monster of emotion is. What is going on here? To be honest with ourselves and to be honest with God. Because when we find ourselves in these wilderness experiences where things are disoriented and upside down, usually we are closer to ourselves and to God then…then we realize and that we normally are. And, so, taking the pain of it, the experience of it and becoming honest in it and inviting God into it. If we remember, the wilderness was not the end of the story for the children of Israel. And even though exile is out in front of us in this story it’s not the end of their story either. And when we have these kinds of experiences and these kinds of emotions it’s not the end of our story either. It’s just that the fastest way through these kinds of things is to be honest and learn the lesson that is there for us so that it’s a place that we visited but never returned to. Our Psalm today, Psalm 137 is honest and may it compel us to be honest in the seasons that are disorienting to us.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. These things come, they go, they last, they’re short or long. We are disoriented, so we just don’t even know. And yet, You are always in north star. You are always the place to get oriented, the place to get right side up again, to get oriented again that we might see clearly. And, so, we run to You, father asking for Your interpretation of what’s going on. We’re making ourselves crazy trying to figure it out and we lose sight that…that there is a long story of life that we are walking through and this is but a chapter and so we stay stuck. We need You. We’re never gonna navigate anywhere successfully without You. And, so, Holy Spirit come into the seasons that are difficult and that are hard to understand and may we walk in complete trust in You as we put one foot in front of the other. We pray this in Jesus’ name. 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:
This is Doctor John in Illinois. I’m just calling in this morning for our sister Victoria Soldier with her sister-in-law. And how often that she has held up the DAB family and how many times that she’s made an effort to pray for people and be consistent in her prayer. And so, our sister, our dear sister is asking for help. So, I’ll be in agreement with you sister. God bless you for your caring and for your love and your grace and your mercy to all of us. And we share your hurt and your heartache but we want to share your joy and your hope in God’s perfect work. And this is a prayer also for Ethan who’s called in for help. He doesn’t know which way to go. He’s struggling with situations or maybe habits or just trying to make a change in his life and he’s having a hard time making those changes. So, brother, I want to pray with you too. Heavenly Father we just thank You for Your mercy to us. And I guess most of all God the gift that we have that You hear us and You’re mindful of our needs since You know our hearts. Your word says that You know our needs before we ask. So, Father I’m asking for my sister right now. I’m asking for my brother that You would meet their needs. And Father I guess most important that You would show Yourself to them, You reveal Yourself to them in a mighty way and give them the peace and assurance that You’re always there, that You’re always listening, that Your ways are not our ways, and Your thoughts are not our thoughts but they’re always good. And truly all things do work for good for them that love You and are called according to Your purpose. So, Father would You hear, would You listen? God, bless You DAB. God bless You sister and brother. Father we thank You for Your mercy to us in Jesus…
Hello this is Kay from Ohio I wanted to pray for Ethan. Man I don’t know how old you are but you remind me so much of both of my boys. So I’m gonna say my son instead of my brother. My son, I’m praying for you. I hear you. Oh God that You will restore, renew, refresh Your Spirit in him right now. He feels alone like…like he’s disappointed every. I can’t remember if he even mentioned himself but he's…he needs a breakthrough. God, he feels like the waves are crashing in on him. He can barely keep his head above waters. Oh God that you would come and see about him great Jehovah. Only you can do it. If you don’t do it, it can’t be done, and we know that you can do it. God come and see about Ethan. Let him feel your presence right now as the prayer request floods in about other people, that he will pray for them and feel that his problem starts to lessen because he took the focus off himself. But lord we ask that those prayer…answered prayers start coming in, that we’re praying for her my son Ethan, that he will feel You that he will draw closer to You and leave it at Your feet, and that heaviness on his heart will start to dissipate because he left it in Your hands, Your capable hands. Father, we know You’re able. We know You can do it. We asked that it ne in your divine will God and we’re asking for those suddenly and immediate prayers to come through in Jesus’ name. God bless you.
Hey DAB family this is DJ from Ohio. This is probably my second time calling, second year DABber but I always listen daily and pray for everyone. I’m calling because I just wanted to give everyone encouragement to keep praying. Prayer is so important, and it just really solidifies how well God can really do great things in our life. I really was thinking about first Kings 3:5-4 where God had appeared to Solomon in his dream at Gibeon and where He just said ask Me for what you need, and I will answer it. It also made me think about John 14, if you ask for anything in My name, I will do it. Just encourage everyone to go continue praying. Even when you feel like it’s not being heard or you feel like it’s just not going anywhere continue to pray, continue to stay faithful in God. Every day I write in my journal to stay prayerful, stay hopeful, and stay faithful. So, everyone continue to pray. God will see it through. He will continue to bless you, He will continue to bless us. And just remember that we call in daily to pray for others and we call in daily to ask for prayer for ourselves. So, prayer is so powerful. So, I just want to encourage you all to continue to pray. I love you all and…
Hey DAB this is White as Snow from Tennessee and just giving an update on my daughter Rachel who’s on the strict diet trying to heal herself with her stomach issues. She switched to potatoes. She was eating just fruit. Now she’s on potatoes so it’s a little better. But we just went on a trip and she kind of broke down at one point and confided in us that she deals with fear quite a bit. You know, she feels like she needs to be doing things but her mind, you know, is telling her that she can’t do it. So, just asking for prayers for that. We’re thankful that she kind of opened up to us and confided in us and, you know, we…and I’m thankful that we got to spend some time with her. But yeah, just appreciate your prayers with that. Thanks so much.
Hello this is Purchased and Owned by him from Texas my first time calling in. I’ve been listening for about a year now. Please pray for the salvation of my daughter Rebecca and family who live in the UK. My other daughter and her husband are going to visit them the first week of July. Also please pray for restoration and healing of my relationship with one of my sons. And here’s a prayer from Colossians 1. How about praise you, Lord for the love for each other that the Holy Spirit gives us. I ask you God to give us all spiritual wisdom and understanding so then the way we live will always honor and please you and that our lives by your power will produce every kind of good fruit. I also pray that we will be strengthened through all Your glorious power, that we will have the insurance and the patience we need to live in the way You want. May we be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that we can always be thanking You Abba Father for You have been enabled us to share in the inheritance that belongs to Your people for You have rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into Your Kingdom, the Kingdom of Your dear son Jesus who has purchased our freedom and forgiven us all of our sins. Amen.