1 Kings 2:1-3:2, Acts 5:1-42, Psalms 125:1-5, Proverbs 16:25
Today is the 7th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we dive into this week and move through it together. Yesterday as we began this week, we …we began a new book called first Kings. And, so, we’re getting moved into that. It…it basically picks up where Second Samuel left off. And, so, we see one more kind of attempt. David’s getting older, his son Adonijah wants to be the king. And, so, he’s trying to like be proactive about it and get some of the powerful people behind him and see if he can’t get himself declared king somehow, which creates quite a bit of drama because David had promised Bathsheba that Solomon her son would become king. And, so, he does…he does, but it’s kind of weird. There’s rival, sort of people looking for the kingdom, but David puts Solomon on the throne. And, once that’s firmly established, like that Solomon has access to the throne room and the throne and is sitting on the throne and the attendants are attending him as the king, once all that gets back to Adonijah and all of his buddies who are wanting him to be king…well…Adonijah gets left alone pretty quickly. Everybody splits in all kinds of directions. They don’t want king Solomon to know. They don’t want any kind of purge to happen, and they don’t want to be involved in it. They don’t want to be purged. Adonijah has to run into the temple and grab the horns for mercy because he doesn’t want to be purged. But Solomon lets him live long as long as he’ll be honorable. And, so, that’s where we are. David, the king is older now, very very old and is about to pass away and has installed King Solomon on his throne. And, so, we pick up the story. First Kings chapter 2 verse 1 through 3, verse 2 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of First Kings we…well…we’re just getting moved into the book of First Kings and for that matter in the book of Acts we’re pretty much getting moved into the book of Acts as well. So, in first Kings we said goodbye to King David today. And, you know, as we’ve mentioned before sometimes the Bible…like we can be traveling along with a figure for so long that it’s like we know them and then the Bible’s like, “and then they died.” And that’s kind of the story. David has a conversation with Solomon privately about correcting some injustices that still remain and then he died and then Solomon’s on the throne and we saw that this transfer of power was not a smooth transition completely. Nothing was the same after Bathsheba. Like after David took another man’s wife and then had that man killed noth…nothing was ever the same again and his family, or his family line. And, so, David did die but one of the princes, like the eldest son, the prince of Israel also died today, Adonijah, the son of David who had expected to be king and who had…was in the process of trying to get himself declared king. He’s bummed about all this. Solomon is on the throne. He’s disappointed by this and he’s thinking, how can he get some notoriety and how can he, you know, how can he save face here. And he’s got this idea because they had gone and got this beautiful girl, and her name was Abishag. And she's…they searched the whole country for this beautiful girl to come in warm the king’s body. Like king David’s old. So, she’s a beautiful young woman. Normally we know kinda how those things go but that’s, that wasn’t the purpose. It was just for her to serve the king, keep him warm. And, so, she had done that. She was the last one to be the servant and attendant of the king. And, so, Adonijah like, “man, if I can marry her, not only is she beautiful respectable, she’s the last servant of the king. Like, who knows what the king might have whispered in her ear. Like, who knows how this could all turn around if we get everything in line and work it out just right.” Solomon, sort of sees what’s going on and that…and that’s the end of Adonijah. So, Joab the general of David is dead. Adonijah the son of David is dead. David’s personal priest has been sent into retirement. And then that one guy from Shimei who was like…remember when David was fleeing from Saul…from Absalom and there’s this guy throwing rocks at him and throwing dirt at him and throwing dust up in the air and cursing him and cursing him for what he did to the house of Saul. And…well…he’s kinda grounded to Jerusalem. And he doesn’t stay where he supposed to stay. So, he’s dead too. So, Solomon is now pretty much in firm grasp of the kingdom, but he has no idea what he’s gotten himself into. He is in so far over his head and he’s only just beginning to realize that. And we’ll see him realize that and we’ll see the steps that he takes as we continue the journey forward.
And then we flip into the book of Acts what we mostly see is intimidation. What we see is the good news spreading and people being added day by day and…and people holding together everything in common and…but as the gospel is preached there’s this same kind of intimidation that was against Jesus. And, so, there are those who do believe, and they are together, and they are a community, and they are moving forward and then there are also those who believe but are secretive about it because they are afraid of the social repercussions that could be brought against them. And then there are those who flat out do not believe and it’s pretty much the people in charge…like the religious leaders are against the apostles in the same way that they are against Jesus. And, so, they get beaten, they get held in prison. All this kind of stuff happens. And then we met…met this figure at the very end of our reading named Gamaliel and he’s part of the Council. He’s part of the elders of…of Israel, and he mentions a couple of other situations where charismatic type figures who had a following had come in and they were announcing themselves to be this or that or the other but…but they were all killed eventually, and all of their followers scattered. And, so, Gamaliel’s basically like, “if these apostles, if these people who seem to be…that God seems to be performing signs and wonders through, if there’s really nothing to this the same thing will happen. They’ll get killed and their followers will scatter. But if this actually is a move of God there’s nothing any…I mean nothing any of us can do.” That’s not exactly what they believe. Like, the Council is gonna do everything conceivable to diminish this name of Jesus because…well…they…they sorta turn their hand today. They don’t want to be held responsible for the death of Jesus and that’s what the apostles are preaching. And, so, they’re trying to shut this whole thing down as quickly as possible. Gamaliel is an interesting character because like we’ve pretty much read everything about him in the Bible, but he’s a teacher and he teaches students, and he has a very zealous student named Saul. And we’re gonna be meeting him soon.
Prayer:
Jesus, we thank You for another day to be together around this…this Global Campfire, to be together in a safe place that we come to every day, a small little oasis of time that we set aside that is a beautiful place. It is a beautiful place and there are so many days where we’re like, “I’m just too…there’s just too much going on.” But every time we come into this place its calm. Like all of the cares, all of the things that just completely distract us, we have permission to let them go. It’s like they can survive a ½ an hour. We can…we can go get them back and be all full of anxiety if we want but we can have the freedom of a ½ an hour of peace that very well might change our perspective altogether so that we are re-oriented to You. And, so, we are so grateful for the rhythm of life together in community as we move through the Scriptures. And, so, is as our custom almost every day, Come Holy Spirit, this is our ask, this is our request, that You would lead us into all truth and that we would have eyes to see and ears to hear it. We pray this in the mighty and victorious name of Jesus. 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:
Hello Daily Audio Bible my name is Elena and I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening to Daily Audio Bible for a little over a year now and just felt really moved to pray for two women in particular. I just heard their prayer request on the June 2nd recording. I’m really sorry, I’m not recalling names, but the first woman called in, she’s a single mom of three and the father of her children doesn’t have the relationship that she’d like him to have with her children. Her father also has dementia, and she lost her mother not too long ago. I lift her up to You and pray that she would receive Your restoration and peace as she seeks You. I…I just feel that that desire to and need to rest in You Lord and that she wants Your help. And I just love her heart for that God, and I know that You see everything she’s been through and that You are there to give her rest. And, so, I pray in this season she would find that peace and that rest in You as You cover her and I pray You would cover her children Lord and as they draw near to You, I know You will draw near to them and that You are a good provider, a good Father and You will give them everything that they need to keep running the race Lord. I pray that she would find encouragement in this season Lord and that she would know You are a God who sees her. And I also pray for restoration in her relationships. I also wanted to lift up the woman who called a couple of people after her. June is a hard month for this woman, and I lift her up to You and pray that she would find peace and she would fight answers in You, the only…You’re the only one who can provide us answers this side of heaven Lord. And, so, I pray that she would find hope in knowing that her mother was victorious in Christ even in death. Thank You…
Hello this is In Love with Jesus asking you to come along beside me and pray for my daughter. I’m asking the Father for divine rescue for her who’s struggling with mental health and physical health problems. This has been going on for many many years and I confess, I get tired, and I get scared as my husband and I are getting older and worry for her living on her own. Her illnesses have created an isolation where she doesn’t have any friends, no longer goes to church yet still loves…loves the Lord but is hoping to…to die by disease. So, she’s constantly seeking out doctors and to do more health investigations. So, I'm…I’m just asking you that if the Lord prompts you that you will be willing to come alongside us as a family. It’s just really really painful. And I just…we just need help. So, thank you for praying. God bless.
Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Blessings Flow, that she lost many family members and also for other people who have lost family members during this particular time. And I want to also pray for Running Desperately to Jesus and Running Desperately for Jesus and all the…the…the members that she’s lost in June and how it affected her. Just want to encourage you all I want to play with you all that God be with you and…and…and strengthen you because I…when I think of…of June and when I think of this sickness, I remember when I was…went to work one day and told not to even unpack my bag because my mother was dying. And I…and then later on when I finally moved on home, I wind up losing her and I…she died before I got home but God told me that she was gonna die that weekend. The same way I just want to pray with you all that He touch you all like He touched me because I was just so grieved by it, I couldn’t eat but God, this wonderful God touched me and then He began to show me how she got her new body and that new body that she’s smiling because she’s got this new body. Gracious Father I pray for those who lost their loved ones, those who lost them through this pandemic and those who are going through the grieving process. Father I ask that You be with them like You were with me Lord and You just show up and You comfort and You strengthen Lord and You continue to…to show them Your word and that You love them and that You took them and the reason that You took them is it’s time to get their new body and that we one day will get to be with them for us to keep our eyes on You and keep looking for the joy that You have in showing us that You have…
Hi this is Carmen from Canada. I called a few weeks ago asking for prayer for my son who lives on the streets and has multiple health problems and addiction and mental health problems. Anyways, he was found dead yesterday. So, our family’s dealing with that. So, I’m just asking for prayer for strength and for my faith. This is really tough obviously. I’d seen him a lot more than normal recently and a few days ago he had actually asked for his dad to bring him a Bible. But it was a bit too late at night. He was really trying to make a change, you know, showing…talking about going to detox. He had asked me if I would go to church with him once things opened up from COVID. And he’s not gone to church for a long time but he said if I’d go to…there’s a specific church he was interested in going to and would I go with him once the services started again. There’s definitely a lot of spiritual battle going on within him. He thought demons were bothering him and we were able to pray with him and get him anointed with oil when all of this happened within the last month but his fight is over and I know where he is but it’s incredibly sad not to be able to see him for a long time. And, yeah, I just so many prayers for so much of his life and so many answered prayers. So, this isn’t what we expected to happen. Thank you for your prayers.
Good evening Daily Audio Bible this is Blessings Flow in Pennsylvania and wanted to join in prayer for our brother George Powell who is…heard your prayer brother. You are currently incarcerated. Pray that…may your…even though your body’s there may your heart and mind and soul be free. And I wanted to pray over you Isaiah 40 - they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And I thank You God that You are good to those who wait. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lord I just pray for grace for our brother as he waits on You. I ask that You’d strengthen him. I ask that You’d remove any shame. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. We love you brother.