1 Kings 15:25-17:24, Acts 10:24-48, Psalms 134:1-3, Proverbs 17:9-11
Today is the 16th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we walk ourselves through the threshold of a new week and it’s all waiting for us like a gift and we get to unwrap it day by day. And one of the ways that we set our days correctly is to allow God’s word to speak to us and into our lives today. And, so, that’s what we’ll do here at the beginning of the week. We’ll read from the Amplified Bible this week and we’re in the book of first Kings. And at this point we are reviewing the different reigns of the different kings. And if you’ll remember from our reading last week, we ended Solomon’s reign, and then the next thing you know we have Israel dividing into two different kingdoms - the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And now we’re kind of beginning to review the different kings and what they did. And, so, if we hear so-and-so reigned in Israel, that’s the northern kingdom. If we hear so-and-so reigned in Judah, that’s the southern kingdom and that can help us follow what’s going on as we move through the different reigns of the kings and what they stood for and what they did and where they lead the people. So, first Kings chapter 15 verse 25 through 17 verse 24 today.
Commentary:
Alright. So, a couple things as we walk into our new week here in the Old Testament. We met the prophet Elijah who was obviously a very famous and prominent biblical figure. And, so, he has entered the scene and we’re kind of moving rapidly through different king’s reigns, so we’re not necessarily seeing the passage of time, but we’re many generations from Solomon at this point. And, so, King Ahab is in the North, he’s reigning in Israel and he’s married Jezebel who’s also a famous person and we’ll see why soon enough. And now we see that the northern kingdom has its own capital city. Like the northern kingdom of Israel was formed because of a rebellion against Solomon’s son Rehoboam in the South. Remember all of that from last week. And, so, now they’ve constructed their own capital city. It’s called Samaria. So, it is the Jerusalem of the North. In other words, this is a capital city, a defended walled city. The ruins of Samaria still exist today. It was one of the places that we’ve filmed in the Promised Land films. It’s not a place that we go to and tour. It’s a little inaccessible. It’s a place that we’ve filmed in the Promised Land films. And then Elijah shows up on the scene and predicts a famine, which happens, and he is instructed on what to do. And, so, he is sustained and then he ends up in the home of a widow, a Sidonian widow, she’s not a Hebrew at all and yet God sends him to this woman and she has to take an incredible step of faith because this profit shows up, asks for water, asks for a piece of bread, and she’s like, basically, “I can’t give you…I mean I’m making a piece of bread for my son and for myself, and then we’re gonna…then we don’t have any more food so we’re going to starve.” And Elijah is like, “make me a piece of bread too.” And, so, she has to believe like he’s a prophet, she has to step out in faith here and she also has to show hospitality, which is inbred into the culture. And, so, she takes this step of faith and she will be sustained as we’ve already seen. And not to diminish this, but we saw resurrection happen today. Elijah raises the widow’s son after he has died, which obviously makes Elijah one of the prominent and powerful prophets of ancient Israel.
And we get into the New Testament in the book of Acts, and we also have literally earth moving things happening here, like fundamental shifts in the entire way of seeing things is happening in the book of Acts. This began where Peter had this vision of a sheet coming down from heaven with all animals that were considered unclean, and he was instructed to eat them and he’s resisting this. But then these Gentile people show up and he’s told to go. And, so, what is happening here is that peters Hebrew mindset that God, Yahweh, is an exclusive God for the Hebrew people only, this isn’t the case. He has loving everyone in the world and welcoming everyone in the world. This is a big deal. Like, right now, and I’ll say this many times as we continue through the New Testament. most everybody listening to me right now is a Gentile as am I. So, it’s very, very easy to take for granted what is happening here in the New Testament, but it’s so monumental and so controversial and it’s going to cause such upheaval that it’s going to force the early church into its first real crisis. And coming out the other side of that crisis it’s never going to be the same again and it’s the fundamental question. And believe it or not, it’s still a fundamental question that we continue to battle over. Who gets to be in? Who gets to come to Jesus? Who gets to be in? In the ancient early church, many, the majority of the earliest people were Hebrew believers converting to following Jesus, but never converting out of Judaism. They would never do that. But including Gentiles in an exclusive religion, that’s a game changer. And, so, this is a little bit of a heads up. This is the first we’re kind of seeing this but this is gonna run as a sub theme all the way through the rest of the New Testament. It’s fundamental to how the church formed. And, so, we’ll watch that in the coming days and weeks and months.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for bringing us here into this new week and for helping us understand where we are in the stories that we’re reading and how it is that we can look at those stories and understand that really, things haven’t changed all that much in terms of the human heart. We’re wearing different clothes and we have different technology and, yeah, humanity has progressed a couple of thousand years and so we have different ways of thinking about things and we know some things now that weren’t known then, but our hearts and what we’re after and what we seek and why, what motivates us, these are very similar things. And, so, we find ourselves in the stories in the Bible. So, we invite You into this week with all that You will speak. We open ourselves. Come, Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi Daily Audio Bible, my name is Steph, I’m calling from San Diego. I’m 28 years old and I’m currently in a treatment program right now for veterans at the VA in La Jolla. I was just calling because I wanted to share with everybody that I have nine months…or excuse me…nine days…nine days…just nine days today and I just want to say a prayer for myself and from all my other fellow veterans here who are struggling with addiction and are struggling with mental health and PTSD and a lot of trauma. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for a few months now and I really enjoy it. I feel connected to those who call, and I really enjoy praying for others. I really enjoy what God’s doing in my life. You know, it took a lot of darkness, it took a really bad overdose for me to kind of get this help and I’m really grateful for it. So, yeah, so, like I just pray that we all remain strong and I really pray that I get it this time. You know, it’s pretty much a matter of life and death for me. And, so, I’m really invested in us. Thank you to everybody and I just pray for those who are suffering. I pray for those who are hurt and may need help. Thank you guys have a wonderful day from San Diego.
Hey this is Jaime Girl from Arizona and I’m calling, I’m a new listener. I was able to attend the More Gathering and that was just an amazing experience. I just have had a tumultuous year with a lot of adversity and a lot of health problems and I have created chaos in my life. I’m separated from my husband, estranged from my family and my friends and I know that a lot of it is my fault and a lot of it is not and I’m struggling to forgive and forget and I’m at a loss. I have very few people to pray with. And, so, I’m asking my Daily Audio Bible family to stand in the gap with me and pray that I will know which direction to turn, that I will feel Jesus holy presence in my life, that I will, despite having, a __ and a brain injury, that I would use my best judgment and I will follow the path that God has set for me. I’ve been a Christian for 50 years this year and God has never left me despite all of the twists and turns of life and I know that he loves me. And like Job, I stand and say though he slay me yet will I trust him. So, Daily Audio Bible buddies will you pray with me, that God will speak very clearly because my mind is upset and confused? And I just need His guidance and I need to know that it’s His voice and not that of the enemy. And Lord I hope that You would help me, help me find the path that You have for me so that I can be useful to You. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible friends.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family, my name is Fred and my wife, Sonia, and I are having an extremely difficult time in our marriage right now. I was in a dark, low place and the devil preyed on me and has caused significant damage and harm to the relationship with my wife. I love her so much and I ask that everyone please pray to God that she and I are able to heal and that we grow stronger in love together and rekindle what was once there. I love her so very much. She is my best friend. Thank you for your prayers.
Hi DAB family, this is Paula the Child Advocate from Los Angeles area calling. It’s been a while since I called, and I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers after we lost our home to the wildfires back in November. It’s been kind of a struggle off and on, but God has been so good to us and we feel so blessed and we’re just getting through things. So, thank you so much. I wanted to tell you how lovely it is when I listen to the DAB and I hear your voices and I recognize who you are. Even before you say your names I know you are. So, that’s a blessing to me and I’ve been listening to DAB for so many years I’ve kind of lost count. But when I started listening I called in my prayers specifically for my oldest child, Tyler, who was at the time in his early 30s, mid 30s, and he really wanted a wife. And I asked you to pray that God grant him a Christian wife and the prayer was answered. He found a most beautiful Christian woman, about a year and a half ago they were married. He went on a mission trip to Mexico and he met her there and they have been living in Mexico ever since because she cannot get a visa to come to the US. And that’s my prayer. Please, if you will pray for her that her visa will come through. They had been waiting and waiting to actually move from her small town in the __ to Tijuana so they could both find jobs. And my son actually crosses the border to San Diego every day because he has a job in San Diego crossing back to Tijuana to be with his wife. The government won’t tell us whether she is on the list. They just say the paperwork is in, she’s in a list. So, please family, please pray that she’ll get her appointment soon and that they can come back to LA and be with us where Tyler has a job waiting for him in LA as chaplain at a mission downtown on skid row. Thank you family. I pray for you all and I love you all. Bye for now.