1 Kings 1:1-53, Acts 4:1-37, Psalms 124:1-8, Proverbs 16:24
Today is the 6th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today. So, we find ourselves at an end and at a beginning. We are at the end of the week, but we are beginning a new book.
Introduction to the book of first Kings:
So, we concluded the book in the Old Testament, the book of second Samuel yesterday. So, just kinda trying to give us a little bit of an overview and a little bit of a look into the territory that we’re heading into. Let’s…let’s just kind of review. When we started first Samuel we talked about how first and second Samuel and then this book that we’re going into now, first Kings, first and second Kings, were all one document. First Samuel, second Samuel, first Kings, second Kings. So, they’ve been broken apart over time for various reasons and we talked about them in…in the books of Samuel but we’re not like heading into completely new territory. This was all one document. So, as we move into the book of first Kings, we will…we will immediately find the end of David’s reign and pick up the story with his son Solomon who will become king. And it’s a pretty dramatic story. And in the days ahead under Solomon’s reign we’re actually going to reach a mountaintop, like an apex, we’re gonna reach the height of everything we’ve been working for, working toward since the beginning of our year together. So, the Bible has led us through all different eras and stories and formation of a people, the Hebrew people, the people that He chose and we’ve met their leaders. And then in this recent time in the book of Samuel and stuff we saw kingship, right? So, we saw a monarchy emerge that had never existed before. But now the people of Israel have a king over them to rule all of the tribes. And Solomon will lead this era to its apex to the greatest time of ancient Israel. But before his reign is done a down…like we reached the top and we start going down the other side. And, so, a steady slide downward begins to happen. And before we’re done, we’ll watch a number of things happen. Israel will no longer be one nation before this is over. It will split apart into two - the northern kingdom of Israel the southern kingdom of Judah. And, at times they will even be at war with each other. They become two different people and they begin to head in two different directions. But before all of its over the slide will take them down the other side until there’s no kingdoms left. It’s going to take some time. We’ll read the stories and their details, but as we do read these stories, we’ll find that our lives are embedded into these stories. We often find ourselves in the same kind of back-and-forth, back-and-forth back and forth, back and forth that ends up kind of…well…bringing Israel to its own disintegration. But the same thing happens in our own lives. And, so, here we go. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week, which is today. First Kings chapter 1.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us safely and successfully to the end of another week and safely, and successfully into some new territory, into a brand-new book in the Old Testament and we thank You for that. And Father, we mimic the Psalms today, “if You had not been on our side…if You had not been on our side what would we do? We would have been swallowed alive. The floodwaters would’ve swept us away. And, so, here at the end of the week we acknowledge You, that You have sustained us, that You have carried us, that although we have faced or maybe even are facing what we consider to be tremendous difficulties, if You weren’t here we wouldn’t be talking about it we would have been utterly washed away. You have sustained us, and we put our trust in You. We surrender to You. You can fight our battles, but we can’t. So, our hope is in You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. 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.