The Bible by David Alley

The Bible by David Alley

por David Alley
Superación personalCristianismoReligión
Temporada 1

1 Samuel 1 - Hannah's Prayer | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Samuel Chapter 1, read by Hannah Batley, followed by comments and prayer. 1 Samuel Chapter 1 gives us the backstory of the well known Biblical prophet Samuel. Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was barren and unable to have children. Her husband Elkanah’s second wife, Peninnah, would provoke Hannah to the point where the childless woman wept and refused to eat. Following a persistent prayer at the temple, Samuel was born, and once weaned, Hannah gave him back to the Lord at the temple, where Samuel would grow up and serve the Lord. Weaning often occurred at the point of 3-4 years of age. The Lord God hears the prayers of his people. God hadn’t forgotten Hannah, and he hasn’t forgotten you. Our heavenly father knows what is best for us, and in his time he will act. Today, if you have a request, bring it before God, lay it at his feet, and thank him that he has heard your prayer. Sometimes he will ask us to wait, and sometimes he has something else in mind, but one thing is certain, he knows what is best, and he does remember. A key aspect in this chapter is the determination in prayer of Hannah, this is something that we rarely experience, because we are not as desperate as Hannah was.
T1 · E237
28 oct 2022
9:47

Ruth 4 - Boaz Redeems Ruth | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Ruth 4 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Ruth 4 Boaz goes to the city gate to make a transaction on behalf of Ruth, but another stands in the way. After the details emerge, the other doesn't want to endanger his own estate so is not able and only Boaz can proceed. In Revelation 5:4-10 we see this about Christ... “4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Christ is descended from Judah, from Boaz, from David .... And yet is before them. He alone is worthy to open the scroll. Only he is capable of being our redeemer, none other is worthy. So a transaction to redeem Ruth occurs and Boaz removes his sandals. In the story of the prodigal son, the wayward son is given sandals by the Father. So here we see God represented as Boaz removing his sandals for our redemption, and we receive sandals as a sign of being included in the family, along with a ring (the Holy Spirit guaranteeing our inheritance) and a robe, Joseph’s robe” symbolising our inclusion in the family. The Kinsman redeemer in Ruth 4 is redeeming both the land and the bride. This is an incredible picture of Christ who redeems not just people back from their sins, which is the wife of Christ, but also redeems the land back from Satan to whom it was deeded. Jesus is not only our propitiation and atonement, but he is also ‘Christus Victor’, the one who conquers death, hell and triumphs over all the works of darkness. No longer can Satan tempt Christ offering him all the kingdoms of the world, now they are Christ’s. So the book of Ruth is also a key part of salvation history. Ruth is one of four women in the line of Christ, all of them with redemption in their histories. Rahab is an amorite, redeemed into Christ, Tamar is a Canaanite redeemed into Christ, Bath-Sheba is the wife of a Hittite redeemed into Christ, and Ruth is a Moabite redeemed into Christ. None of them seem to have Israelite backgrounds, yet hidden in this is a clue, that Christ is the redeemer of all people, and of all nations.
T1 · E236
27 oct 2022
10:58

Ruth 3 - Ruth's Plan with Boaz | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Ruth 3 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Ruth 3 The end of the barley harvest has arrived. It has been three months that Ruth has been gleaning and getting to know Boaz. Naomi advises Ruth to go to the threshing floor at night, uncover Boaz’ feet and lay down, asking him to cover her. She does this and after being surprised by her presence... who wouldn’t have been... he covers her and decides to take action in the morning to redeem her. Some people think that “feet” is a euphemism for genitals, but this seems like complete nonsense. Block noted in his commentary that the only significant textual variant in the entire book of Ruth is on this point where it could either say feet or foot. To me it is clearly getting at the actual feet, because to say uncover a foot means that too. Laying at someone’s feet is also an act of humility - the place to be when making a request of someone greater than yourself. We also must lay at the feet of Christ. In practical terms this means to serve those around us, and especially to serve and honour our spiritual leaders. Do you think that you can say you are at the feet of Christ when you despise spiritual leadership and undermine or despise your pastor? Christ is never wrong, but because our leaders are humans who do sometimes make even big mistakes, we think we don’t hold the same obligation to them. Yet the Lord who asks all people to honour their father and mother, regardless of their behaviors asks us to honour our spiritual leaders. If our heart is toward them, then we truly are at the feet of Christ.. She isn’t asking for sex, she is asking for covering. This is both a physical thing in that moment as they share a blanket for the night, but also in life as she is asking him to protect her. Spiritually this is where we come when we come to Christ. We ask him to spread his garment over us. In day-to-day terms the rubber meets the road in life in our relationships. God spreads the garment over people by having them come into relationship with others and walking with them. As a minister preaches and encourages, this is Christ’s word covering them. As they walk together with their pastor, and serve together in this mutual place, with a heart to honor, they are under covering.
T1 · E235
26 oct 2022
12:37

Ruth 2 - Ruth Meets Boaz Chapter | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Ruth 2 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Ruth 2 she asks her mother-in-law for permission to go and glean, or harvest on the fringes of the fields for the poor. Being able to glean on the margins was an allowance for the poor that God placed into the Laws of Moses in Leviticus 19:9-10. So it is Ruth that decides to make an effort to go and harvest barley, she isn’t dependent on her Mother in law, but actually supports her. How unusual this is for any time and any place? Imagine churches filled with people who took this attitude towards their pastors and spiritual leaders. Imagine how much would be achieved. Rather than being asked to harvest, they ask permission to harvest and go. Then Boaz was understanding. The real reason is that the Lord was in this scenario, and Boaz has seen how unusual her behaviour was in a good way. Boaz however also had a mother who was a foreigner, Rahab the woman from Jericho. So he knew that you cannot generalize about someone based on their nationality. This chapter has highlighted the principle of God working, if we also work. While God does work on his own, and occasionally we see something like the conversion of Saul which appears truly miraculous and sovereign, mostly God works through our work. So it is important that we seek the Lord for his will, and then actually work. Here we see that the Lord blessed Ruth, while she worked. In this story, Ruth was told by her mother in law to stay in the field of Boaz. But Boaz also said to stay in his field and there she would be safe. Boaz is a picture of Christ to us, and we are to remain in him. Christ said, “remain in me, and my words will remain in you.” John 15:4. If we do this we will bear “much fruit.” Also, if we remain in Christ it is a place of much safety.
T1 · E234
25 oct 2022
12:21

Ruth 1 - Naomi's Family Goes to Moab | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Ruth 1 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Ruth 1 we find a story with a tragic start and a very happy ending. If you were to remove the title and add this as another 4 chapters to the book of Judges it would fit it fine, but would change the tenor of Judges to have a much happier ending. This book is positive and highlights how good comes out of the bad, whereas the book of Judges doesn’t feel positive and ends on quite a down point. But which part of Judges does it fit in? Judges span over 350 years from the death of Joshua in about 1381 BC to King Saul in about 1050 BC. Probably during the Judge period of Ehud or Shamgar because Boaz is the son of Rahab from the Jericho story in Joshua, but is now quite old. Ruth is from Moab. Moab was an enemy of Israel, who had oppressed them at the time they had entered into the land of Israel. Moabites were not welcome in the presence of God according to Deuteronomy 23:3. The moabites worshipped the god Chemosh who required child sacrifice. Why Elimelech’s family was in Moab is a good question. Many people at this time are henotheists, they don’t worship as polygamists, but they seem to accept that other gods exist that they don’t worship. Ruth seems to be like this here and that isn’t surprising. Rather what is surprising is that like Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 35, she chooses to follow God, with no evidence of any benefit to her. So many people choose to follow the Lord because of the perceived benefits they are going to receive, not least is salvation from Hell. How few people follow God because of dedication to doing good. The meaning of names is significant in this book. Naomi means pleasant, but Mara means bitter. Yet out of bitterness comes redemption, and this is a mirror for much later when Mary gives birth to Christ.
T1 · E233
24 oct 2022
16:58

The Bible: Judges Chapter 21

In this video listen to Judges 21 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. Judges 21 is possibly the strangest chapter in the Bible? Everyone in Benjamin is dead except for 600 men. St Paul was a descendant of Benjamin, who here was nearly wiped out. This story outlines how they found wives for these men, given that they ha taken vows not to give wives to them. First one city had no participate in the battle, Jabesh Gilead. The inhabitants of the city of Jabesh Gilead were completely destroyed except for 400 virgin women. The 400 virgins provide wives for two thirds of the remaining Benjamites. They then arrange a strange kidnapping process to obtain the other 200. All of this is entertaining but very odd. The book concludes saying that there was no king, and everyone lived however they deemed right to them. The last sentence of the book is a good summary of the entire book of Judges. We could even further summarise it with one word, lawlessness. In the NT this word is in Greek anomia - without a law. Jesus spoke against people who lived as if there was no law. The Israelites had a very clearly spelled out law, and yet it seemed to have been forgotten. We too have the law written on our own hearts, but we ignore it and our own consciences. We have far less excuse that the people in the time of the Judges. At the end of Judges we realise there were few standout good people. Deborah was one, and Othniel and Ehud perhaps others… and if his vow is understood properly, Jephthah also. This comment by Block (1999) seems interesting at the end of the book of Judges: “​​No book in the Old Testament offers the modern church as telling a mirror as this book. From the jealousies of the Ephraimites to the religious pragmatism of the Danites, from the paganism of Gideon to the self-centeredness of Samson, and from the unmanliness of Barak to the violence against women by the men of Gibeah, all of the marks of Canaanite degeneracy are evident in the church and its leaders today… everywhere congregations and their leaders do what is right in their own eyes.”
T1 · E232
23 oct 2022
14:38

Psalms 55 - Cast Your Burden on the Lord | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Psalms 55 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Psalms 55 is another psalm about betrayal, but this time seems to be more personal than the previous psalm 54. This is about Ahithophel - David’s trusted friend and a precursor to Christ’s betrayal by Judas
T1 · E231
2 sept 2023
10:36

Judges 20 - The Wickedness of the Tribe of Dan | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Judges 20 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Judges 20 all Israel gathers at Mizpah, just a few miles from Gibeah, to go to war against Benjamin, an army of 400,000. The Levite gives a version of the story which is modified for effect and the Israelites are outraged and commit ten percent of their fighting men to this campaign. Benjamin has gone off the rails as a tribe. They would rather defend their own evil than defend the law of the Lord. So Israel attacks. Initially 22,000 Israelite men die in battle. Then another 18,000 additional men die bringing the total to 40,000 in total, symbolic of a big test. Then we see the mention of Phinehas the high priest consulting the Lord for them. Here we have one zealous for the Lord, the grandson of Aaron, but in the previous chapter is Jonathan the grandson of Moses who seemed to have no clue about what God required. This is also an indication about which part of the history of Judges this story appears. It is probably within the first 50 years after the conquest. Now 25,100 fighters from Benjamin die and the battle turns against them. In their zeal for what is right, the Israelites do a much better job destroying Benjamin than they had done removing the Canaanites from the land. Benjamin effectively disappears leaving only 600 men, no women or children. So in the book of Judges we see two tribes with issues, first Benjamin, and later Ephraim, both greatly humbled and cut down to size. It’s easy to judge the Israelites, and much harder to avoid the same sins ourselves. We all fall into them, and must learn to rely on the Lord and not assume His will in anything.
T1 · E231
22 oct 2022
16:40

The Bible: Judges Chapter 19

In this video listen to Judges 19 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Judges 19 is a story spanning three chapters. One writer Campbell called this narrative the “sewer of scripture.” It outlines how low people could get without proper guidance, and with hearts that did whatever they felt was right. This story was also in the early period of the Judges, after Joshua died, but before Phinehas died, according to the Pulpit commentary. So it indicates that things were bad early on, and only got worse. A Levite went to try to win his concubine back from her father’s house. Her father kept encouraging him to stay longer. That apparent strange behaviour is completely understandable in a world with no communication. He was probably not going to see his daughter again for a very long time. Even so, the Levite ends up leaving late in the day, which turns out to be a very dumb decision. While he knew there was danger travelling so late, he assumed he would be safe in Gibeah, an Isreaelite city, but it was the men of Gibeah who were the unsafe ones. And in Gibeah we have a very similar story to that of Sodom and Gomorrah. How could such a thing happen? Later the prophet Hosea to these things in chapter 9:1a & 9. “Do not rejoice, Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God… ​​They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.” Some people have used these types of things in the Bible to say the Bible approves of such things, but its a retelling of what actually happened, not a condoning of it, as is obvious if the entire Bible is taken together. Also, what type of spiritual adultery takes place in the hearts and minds of people today? People use the internet, and their popularity to push things into others which rob God of his glory. Also, the stranger, weirder and odder people get, the more attention they get, and rather than controlling themselves and glorifying God that way, they seek to glorify themselves.
T1 · E230
21 oct 2022
13:36

Judges 18 - The Idolatry of Micah and the Levite |Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Judges 18 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In Judges 18 it says in verse 1 says that the Inheritance of the tribe of Dan “had not Fallen to them.” In Joshua 19 the tribe of Dan actually DO have an inheritance allotted to them, but it seems they haven’t obtained it yet. This is placed immediately after Joshua’s death. In Judges 1:34-36 it also describes the failure of the Danites to push out the Amorites, so what we have here is an attempt to look for land elsewhere, rather than to obtain what God allocated with faith. So they are now going to try to take their own inheritance in their own strength outside of God’s will. The ephod and the idol from the previous chapter, are then used to enquire of the Lord. So now they believe they have the approval of God to do something which God never told them to do. This is going to have terrible future consequences for the Danites who would be the furthest tribe from Jerusalem of all the tribes. Later Jeroboam I would set up a golden calf in Dan to keep people away from Jerusalem. There is still no sense that the priest is doing anything wrong, nor do the Danites think so either. The priest is glad because he now has a ministry promotion. Do not work for ministry promotion, but rather to do the will of God. This all happens during a time when Israel has no king, records Samuel the author. Does a king fix these problems in the future? No, but when the hearts of people have God as their king in the long distant future, in the kingdom of heaven, it fixes it for those people. The city of Laish is burned with fire. This was renamed Dan. What seems like easy pickings for them, requiring little faith becomes a snare to all future generations and ultimately they become one of the lost ten tribes.
T1 · E229
20 oct 2022
17:03
97 de 120