2 Kings 4:18-5:27, Acts 15:1-35, Psalms 141:1-10, Proverbs 17:23
Today is the 23rd day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we wind our way toward the end of another week and take the next step forward together. And that next step leads us every single day to the place that we left off and that happens to be second Kings right now. And today we’ll read second Kings chapter 4 verse 18 through 5 verse 27.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we have some pretty dramatic stories that we encountered today in the Old and in the…and in the New Testaments. In the Old Testament in second Kings we met this military commander, a Syrian commander. His name was Naaman. And, so, a reasonably powerful and famous story. I member learning this story all the way back in…in the Sunday school. So, Naaman’s a military commander but he has a skin disease, leprosy. He hears from a servant girl that there’s prophet in the land of Israel that can probably cure him. And, so, Naaman gets permission from his king and a letter sent to the Israelite king that Naaman should be cured in Israel. Of course, the king of Israel is like, am I a God? I don’t care. How can this…this guy is trying to pick a fight with us. What are we supposed to do with this? But the prophet Elisha hears about this and so that brings Naaman to Elisha’s house, which is where he was going in the first place. And Elisha just sends the word out to Naaman that he should go over to the Jordan River and dip himself seven times and he will be cured. And Naaman can’t get his mind around that. He was expecting something a little bit more religious in nature, something a little more ritualistic in some sort of way that he would be healed, where Elisha would stand before him and wave his hands and say some incantations and wave his hand over the spot and cure Naaman. But instead Elisha doesn’t even show his face. And, so, Naaman is insulted by this and then enraged by it. And, so, what is actually surfacing in Naaman here? Naaman feels slighted and he feels mad. Naaman’s pride has been hurt. And, so, he spews his venom. Like, aren’t there better rivers in our land. I’ll dip in those. What…what’s so special about the Jordan? And let’s get out of here. We’re not gonna do this. And that’s when Naaman’s servants come and speak reason to him and simply say, sir, like you know if Elisha the prophet, if he had come out and met with you and given you a list of really, really difficult things to accomplish that you might be healed you would’ve gone and done those things. Instead, he’s simply asked you to take a bath in the Jordan River on our way home. Like, what would be the downside to you just obeying Elisha? He didn’t give you something hard to do. He gave you something easy to do. And, so, Naaman does dip in the Jordan River and is cleansed as we know the story, but the thing is Naaman’s pride was about to send him all the way back home empty-handed. He was about to leave Elisha’s house still ill even though he had been given clear and simple instructions that would make him whole again. He was going to leave because of his pride and stay sick. Basically, when Naaman moved beyond his own pride, he found that all he had to do was simply obey. May we take the obvious lesson to heart my brothers and sisters. We all get in our own way in the same way.
Then we flip over to the book of Acts and we see one of the most monumental things that happen in the New Testament, and we’ve alluded to this before. We remember when Peter was in Joppa and Cornelius was in Caesarea and they both had visions and they both met up and the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius’s household and they were baptized into the faith and they were not Jews. They were Gentiles and the Holy Spirit had spoken. Well time has past and that debate has continued on and it’s come all the way to the point where we have…there are people saying two different things. One…one group of people is saying okay, to follow Jesus requires circumcision for males. It requires essentially conversion to Judaism to obey the Mosaic law, God’s law, and then follow Jesus as the Hebrew Messiah. This is the way that it works. So, those who may be Gentiles who want to come in our converting and becoming Jews and following the Jewish Messiah. On the other hand…actually, let me just…let me just read the…the different positions straight from the book of Acts. So one position is but some of the believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said the Gentiles must be circumcised and told to obey the law of Moses. So, that’s one side of a difficult situation, a difficult argument. That’s one side of the argument. This is how to deal with the Gentiles. The other side of the argument is this, and I read out of the book of Acts, after a long debate, Peter stood up and said my friends you know that a long time ago God chose me from among you to preach the good news to the Gentiles, so that they could hear and believe. And God, who knows the thoughts of everyone showed his approval of the Gentiles by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He had to us. He made no difference between us and them. He forgave their sins because they believed. So then why do you now want to put God to the test by laying a load on the backs of the believers which neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? No. We believe and are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they are. And…and…and, so, basically, there are the two sides of the argument and a decision has to be made because Gentiles are flocking to the message of the good news of Jesus. And, so, the book of Acts lets us know where they landed in this very first church council and that is that James spoke up and I quote from Acts. It is my opinion, James went on, that we should not trouble the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write a letter telling them not to eat any food that is ritually unclean because it has been offered to idols, to keep themselves from sexual immorality, and not to eat any animal that is been strangled or any blood. For the law of Moses has been read for a very long time in the synagogues every Sabbath, and his words are preached in every town. So, this was the decision. A letter was sent back and that’s how things went. This problem didn’t really go away, and we will find this problem cropping up in the letters as we continue our journey through the New Testament. These two different ways of thinking continue to exist and were in opposition to each other and we can’t understate how monumental of a thing that this is. Prior to this, the followers of Jesus, those who were believers and following Jesus were Jews. And they were following the teachings of a rabbi and so this was still thought to be Judaism. And Judaism had a special status in the Roman Empire because it was such an ancient religion. So, they were kind of given an exemption for their kind of worship because they worshiped one God, whereas the Roman Empire worshiped a pantheon of gods and you could worship whoever or whatever you wanted in the Roman Empire, but you did have to have a loyalty and allegiance to the gods that made the Empire great unless you were Jewish. So, a dilemma is…is advancing here because Gentiles are coming to faith in Jesus as Lord worshiping the one true God but they’re not Jewish. And now the Jews are saying they’re not Jewish. And, so, this distinction now between Christian and Jew is being carved. Jews are distancing themselves from people who believe in Jesus and Christians won’t participate in idolatry and worship the Roman gods. And, so, we will see marginalization occur and persecution occur. And, so, some very, very big decisions are being made today in the book of Acts.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit speaking. And most of us are recipients of this. Most of us are Gentile and we have grown up in the faith and learned of Jesus. And, so, we are supremely grateful for Your kindness toward us. And we see the monumental decisions that were made back in the first century and we are the recipients of the repercussions of that goodness. And, so, may we honor You, by being a light in the darkness in carrying the good news forward we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi, today is Monday June 19th I have never done one of these prayer requests or audios, but I just like I need all the prayers I can get from my family. I am asking for specifically prayers for my aunt, her name is Minnie, and she lost her son this weekend. He was found dead in his car. It looks like an overdose, and we don’t know how long he was in that car dead. And it is just tragic. You know, losing a child at all in any way is not easy and it is tragic but to find a child, you know, your son this way is devastating. And he has three young children 14, 16 and 10 and I’m just asking you to pray for them. Pray that they would not lose hope and, you know, that they would be reminded of God’s love and be comforted by Him. It’s hard for me right now to reconcile you know what I know and believe about a good God and a good father in this tragedy. And I know that it will pass, and I know that this is just my humanity. But please, please pray for my Aunt and her three grandbabies. Thank you.
Hey Daily Audio Bible Family good morning this is Learning to Completely Trust in the UK. I hope everyone is having a good morning. So, I have my son with me today. He is 16 years old. He finished high school and we were driving back from town and…and I asked him how does he feel about God and because we’ve had that discussion before and whether or not he believes in God. And he…he says yes. I think he said yes, he believes in God, but he also says I’m not fully convinced or something like that. And he just really hurt my heart. And, so, I’m in the kitchen and I’m thinking…I’m prayed, like God, you know, I’m not the best example for my kids in terms of, you know, believing in you because I doubt sometimes and all these different things that I’m guilty of doing. And I, you know, I said a little prayer asking God to forgive my soul and I just thought about all our other DAB families who are also struggling and I don’t know if there’s anyone that is there with me in kind of just explaining God and…and…and __ our children. And, so, I just thought I’d call in to my family to help me to pray that I’d be a good example to my children about God because I…I really do believe in Him. I’m convicted that there’s nothing that I could do without Him. ___ up to You dear Lord Jesus and ask that You help us that we who are convicted would be better examples for our children dear Lord Jesus. And we thank you for forgiving us ___ in Your loving hands dear God…
Hello my brothers and sisters of the Daily Audio Bible this is brother Stuart in phoenix AZ just calling to let you know of my progress after being out now for two months. I’m working on going to class so I can get my CDL that way I can travel around and meet people and can share God’s word. But I’m only going to do local driving for a while and then maybe regional. I was able to reconnect with my family in Las Vegas. Anyway, the timer’s going off so i just wanted to let you know that God is good. He’s moving me down the path to success. Keep me in your prayers and I’ll keep you in mind. Thank you in Jesus’ name Amen.
Hi, this is Ginger I’m joining the campfire from Indiana. I’m one of your quiet praying in the background people but today I found out that a dearest friend of mine has lost his job near Dallas TX. He’s not doing very well and i need your Daily Audio Bible prayer warriors to lift Barry up. Just let him see out of the darkness before his depression kicks in and let God help him find a new way to work, a new job, a new outlook. I ask this in the name of Jesus because He can do all and we place our faith in Him. I pray for you Barry and i pray for all the people in the DAB land. Again, bless you Father Jesus. Lord Jesus, we ask this in your name. Ginger signing off. Goodbye.