2 Samuel 13:1-39, John 17:1-26, Psalms 119:81-96, Proverbs 16:6-7
Today is the 28th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire as we move forward, taking the next step. And in the Old Testament that leads us back into the book of second Samuel, where we have been learning about King David. And the story has gotten kind of sorted and kind of dark because there’s been some really, really grievous things that the king has been able to do. I mean, specifically he’s taken another man’s wife. Her name is Bathsheba and…and the…the man who was married to her, his name was Uriah and he’s one of the loyalist people in the kingdom. And yet David had him killed in battle. And, so, this has not gone well. There is a disintegration that is beginning to take place within the family of David. And, so, we will continue with that story today. Second Samuel chapter 13 and we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, second Samuel we got some serious drama, I mean serious family issues going on in the family of the king and this all begins with an action by the king himself, the adulteress taking of Bathsheba. So, I mean like here’s the deal. At this time, you know, the king had many wives and many concubines. When we get to Solomon’s reign, I mean we’ll see that it’s like 300 wives and 700 concubines. So, David has plenty of female companionship. And it may seem like this is craziness, but at this time in this world that we’re reading about there are practical reasons for this. This is the king. And, so, for the house of David, for the house of the king to endure there needs to be lots of offspring. And we’ve seen it in the Bible, but it’s also historically accurate. A lot of times when there is a usurper, somebody takes over, you…either one country takes over another country or somebody rises up in a coup or whatever then there’s an attempt to wipe the house out, like kill everybody. So, the more there are the more spread out they are the more that the likelihood is that there is some kind of offspring left over. And we see that happen in the Bible. The point though is that David, the king of Israel who is a person who has actually gotten great character, we’ve watched his character in formation, has done some really stupid things in this matter. And this never needed to happen. He never needed to take Bathsheba. He never needed to take somebody else’s wife. He had no shortage of companionship if that’s what he was after. Nevertheless, what happened here is an undermining, the beginning of a disintegration. Like it’s as if inside the family, respect for the king has been lost because of this. And, so, we see one of David’s daughters being raped by one of David’s sons and we see another son, Absalom, plot and wait for two years to do away with that son, Amnon who had raped his sister Tamar. And we see this whole thing happen and Amnon is dead, one of the king’s sons is dead. And now Absalom has fled to the city of his grandparents up near the Galilee, to Geshur, which ironically, later on, much later on in the first century during Jesus time, this…this city or this area will be known as Bethsaida, a place Jesus frequented and did miracles in.
And speaking of Jesus, today we get to the 17th chapter of John, which is known as Jesus High Priestly Prayer. And, so, listen to these words right here from Jesus. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Did you…did you catch that? I mean, you’re probably thinking theologically about oneness right, but did you catch the first part of that? “I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” That us! That’s us! That’s me and that’s you! So, in this high priestly prayer Jesus is praying for us, that we may all be one. And, so, often we look at this in terms of unity. Although that word isn’t in here like we look at this like we will all be one we all get on the same page, like when we’re all thinking the same things and we have reached agreement on all things then we will be in unity and then will be able to do something, but when I read this it doesn’t sound like unity to me, “that they may all be one, just as you Father are in Me and I in you, that they also may be in Us so the world may believe that You have sent Me.” That doesn’t sound like just getting everybody uniform and on the same page. That sounds like an intertwining, like come…you in me and I in you and us in them…like this is an intertwining. Like…I’ve been married to Jill for a long time now. I think I could safely say that our lives are intertwined. We are individual, we are separate, but our lives are intertwined with each other to the point that if…man…just even saying it…like if something…if something happened to her I wouldn’t know how to find myself again very easily with without her. Like we are intertwined together in our lives. So, like yes, we are individual people with individual convictions and individual sensibilities, and we’re not always on the same page at all, but our lives are intertwined to the point that like knowing where I begin and end and…and how…what’s mine and hers…like it's…it’s all together because we are being made one. This is happening over time. This is happening over the course of our lifetimes. There are areas in our lives that we began completely polar opposites that we have become one on and this continues to happen because we are intertwined together. That’s more what I think Jesus is describing here, that they may all be one, just as You Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. We can be intertwined more intimately than even our marriage unions. We can be intertwined with God more deeply than even that relationship because we’re made for it. It’s how it’s supposed to be and this is what Jesus is describing and praying for. And He’s praying for us, that we may realize this is.
So, we have a path of David today, a path where he was utterly dependent on God and clinging to God just to survive through the next day to the point that he has become all powerful and has made choices that are undermining his authority, his kingdom and his family. And then we have Jesus the Savior praying over His friends to the Father and not only over His friends, but everyone who will believe through their word. So, praying for us as well, that we may be one, that we may find that being intertwined with God in the dance of life, a dance that will go on forever, a dance that will show us things that we can’t even fathom now because who knows what we will learn over the next 1 million years. Like what will you know like 14 billion years from now that you don’t know now? And to know that this intertwining never ends? So, yeah, we get some stark looks at a couple of different paths today. May we choose the path of Jesus.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit we invite You into that even as we are reading about You coming as a helper, You coming as the spirit of truth and leading us into all truth, even as that is still ringing in our ears from yesterday’s reading. We invite You into all of this. It’s almost overwhelming to consider that You would love us enough to want to be in an intertwined relationship with us. And, so, we take that on faith because we know we’re not worthy. And that’s kind of the point, is to understand we have no merit here, we have no ground to stand on. We are not worthy of an intertwining relationship with God. There’s nothing we will ever do to achieve that level where we can say, “I deserve this, You must come through, I am righteous, I am like You.” Like, it’s overwhelming how good You are, and we lose sight of it because a lot of times we don’t get what we want in the moment. Like we’re so childish. And yet, You have invited us into a mature, fully grown up, intertwined relationship that is never going to end. So, come Holy Spirit and awaken us to this reality today, now, that we might live in it and walk in it and be in it and be it from this day forward, for now on so that we don’t have to live less than. You’ve offered it all to us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name, we ask. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
I’m calling for Cheyenne whose praying for JJ and…and I want to pray for you Cheyenne. I heard your prayer on the community…community prayer line and I hear that you are feeling guilty and that your son is making you feel as if you don’t love him, if you don’t help him. But we know… Ad we know that these…when people are in a situation and their used to manipulating and using people, that they use those tactics. And we know that that guilt is false. The truth is you love JJ very much and we’re gonna pray. I just want to pray for you. Jesus, please help Cheyenne. Please help her to understand and to know the truth, that…that You love her and that she loves her son and we pray Lord that he would…would change and he would take some responsibility and he would do the things that are right. And I pray that You would help her to stand. She knows what’s right, she knows she can’t continue to pour resources into a person who is taking those and not being responsible with them. And we pray Lord Jesus that…that You just give her the…the courage to stand in that and that You would flood her with the truth of Your…of Your love for her and Your love for JJ. And Lord, help her to trust that You have him in Your hands and that You are ultimately responsible and that You will…that You will cause him to turn around. So, we pray these things over Cheyenne and JJ this morning…
Good morning my DAB family. Oh, I can’t tell you how much I love you all so much and I pray for each and every one of your prayer requests. I work very hard in keeping up-to-date and…but I love to hear from each and every one of you. I just want to lift up Rebecca from Michigan today and just thank her for calling in and being so transparent and loving the Lord so dearly. Rebecca, you are in my heart daily and I just ask dear heavenly Father You watch over Rebecca, that You bless her mightily with wisdom, to deal with her finances. If she needs another job or not Lord God, I just pray that You would provide. I pray that these debts that she has would be wiped out and Your…and that the glory would go to our precious Lord and Savior who provides us with all things. Just walk with all of us Lord as we go through the trials of…of living and…and just uplift us and bring us peace. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Hello this is Faith Walker of Tennessee. I’m calling in response to Zephaniah, 23-year-old Zephaniah who called on the 25th saying that she was drawn to the word of God through the Daily Audio Bible and how the Bible is just becoming more vivid to her through this podcast. And I just thank you Zephaniah for allowing the Lord to draw you near unto Him. The word of God says draw near unto God and He will draw near unto you. Just know that I am praying for you, the Daily Audio Bible is praying for you, and you have a family of…of Saints behind you praying for you that you continue to get to know God through the word of God, that you continue to grow. And I pray that all the things that are happening in your life will be set on…the…God’s will, that course of being in the center of God’s will. Your name is a biblical name it’s a minor prophet in the Bible. And Zephaniah was used to prophesy. He was to prophesy. He concealed…revealed things unto people. And it’s a Hebrew name. He was a Hebrew minor profit. And, so, you are carrying a name of a warrior, a word of God and I just believe there’s something to that. I was moved by your testimony. So, I will continue to pray for you. Be encouraged. The Bible says draw near to God in your youth and you are doing that. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Amen.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family my name is Terry first-time caller from Australia. Family, I’m just calling to ask for your prayers. For about 20 years, you know, since I was 13, I have struggled with pornography and porn addiction. And, you know, I’ve tried to get over it myself, I’ve tried to pray about it, I’ve tried to buy books and read books, by programs but none of all that has worked for me. You know, sometimes I manage to get away from it but, you know, then almost go on this binge. Really struggling. It messes up my relationships, it messes up my productivity. So, I’m just asking that you would help me in prayer. Pray for me as I pray for myself. I thank you so much for this community. I’ve been listening for a while now. Very inspiring, very encouraging. So, yeah, just asking that you join me in prayer, you know. And, yeah…
Hi family it’s Shannon from Texas and I need some urgent prayer. I thought I was taking a great leap of faith and move…to go…move to this city, Dallas, which was about three hours away. I got a job which was almost…more than double in pay. I’ve been speaking with these people for several weeks over some Zoom calls. I was really excited about the job. I was supposed to start tomorrow. I got a roommate and the roommate said that I could stay for a week for free and then pay the monthly payment. I’ve been getting everything ready in the house and getting everything unpacked and cleaned and getting ready to go to work tomorrow and I’ve been talking to these people and everything and was excited to start tomorrow and they emailed me today and said they have decided against hiring me because they decided against my background which they already said they knew about my background. They said that it would be fine, and they wanted to hire me anyway. So, now here I am. I’m all moved, I’m all unpacked, I’m already to go and now I don’t have a job. So, this kind of stuff has happened to me I cannot tell you how many times. I don’t want to say…I don’t know what that is…if it’s like…I don’t know what that is. So, disappointing. And here I am driving around in my car listening to “I still believe” trying to hang on and keep the faith. So, I really, really need prayer. I love you guys. Thank you for praying. Bye.
Hi this is Bart in Kentucky. God put some people on my heart to pray for and I’m gonna lift them up here in this prayer. Some of them we haven’t heard for a while in others we have. On the list in no particular order is such. Mike from Santa Clarita. Lord lift him up and we miss his praying your pray for us. David in Kansas, He Delights in Me, Amanda from Maine and who moved to Maryland. Sweet Patricia from New Orleans. Asia in Munich. Jamaica. Asia in Chicago. Kristi from Kentucky. Diane Olive Brown in Newburgh Indiana. Show Me God’s Love. Kevin from California, Southern California with your three boys, praying for you. Curtis from Cali. Angela. Kathy from Kentucky. Terry the Trucker, triple T. His Salvation is Mine from California. Sharon the Victorious, Prayer Warrior Princess, Carrie the painter from Alabama. Dash from Indiana. Lord we lift these people up. Jordan the teacher from Michigan. Pelham from Arab Alabama. Bonnie from Virginia. Angel from California. Shantey from Detroit, Metro Detroit. Cherry Chase Cherry Pie, Monica Fraley, Gloria from New York City. Lord lift all these people up. Please bless them, guide their steps, protect them. It’s in Jesus’ name that I pray. And I thank you. Amen. This is Bart from Kentucky and I’m walking in the light.