The Bible by David Alley

by David Alley

Season 1

2 Chronicles 22 - Ahaziah's Reign in Judah | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 22, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 22 we find in the World English Bible translation an interesting numerical quirk. It seems Ahaziah’s father Jehoram died at 40 years of age, so how could Ahaziah be 42 when he became king? The answer is that this is a textual variation incorrectly translated. Many other translations say he was 22 when he became king, not 42. In this chapter Jehu arises in the north, zealous for the Lord, and kills a number of people including Jezebel in Samaria, and Ahaziah here too. Athaliah responds by killing all remaining members of the royal family. At first thought it seems like she is killing her own children. In reality, she was probably killing her son's half brothers. They were probably not her own children. There is thus a threat to the line of David, which was to lead to Christ, but the Lord preserves his line by rescuing Joash in miraculous circumstances. He grows up in the temple, in the Lord’s house. Here is a young boy whose father, and grandparents were evil, and his great granddad was Ahab, yet this event ended up turning him around so that he becomes good, under the influence of Jehoiada. What do you surround yourself with? Do you let your children grow up in the house of the Lord? Do you make sure they are always there in the services?

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Apr 11, 2023

10:04

The Bible: 2 Chronicles Chapter 20

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 20, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 20 Judah is attacked by an army coming from the desert, the area near the dead sea and south and west of there. Jehoshaphat calls the nation to prayer. It’s not often that a political leader calls a nation to prayer. This is what the King of England during the Dunkirk excavations in 1940. The series of events that saved the preserved 300,000 soldiers is nothing short of miraculous. The outcome here in this chapter was also miraculous. The battle was the Lord’s, and they were commanded not to fight. The enemy ended up turning on themselves and slaughtering each other. But if the Israelites had fought, the Lord would not have fought. There are situations like this in our lives, where was take on things that the Lord is willing to carry for us. Walking with Christ helps us to know the difference. This is a story of how the Lord defeated the enemies of Israel, and the people of God praised him. This is an incredible story, but is a lesson about the nature of spiritual warfare. So much of what comes against us today is defeated by thanksgiving and praise. Merlin Carothers wrote a book “From Prison to Praise” about this topic. When depression, or a lack of motivation, or bitterness or other forces are against you, thanksgiving is a key weapon given by Christ. The evil one cannot handle the praise of Christ, and lifting up the Lord causes these other things to flee from him.

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Apr 10, 2023

16:32

The Bible: 2 Chronicles Chapter 19

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 19, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 19 we cover Jehoshaphat, one of the good kings. And yet his life is a mixture. This mixture of serving God and also serving self is common, and hardly anyone in scripture is exceptionally one-eye for the Lord. Perhaps Daniel, or maybe Mary & Joseph. But it is rare. We too are a mixture. So what we see is that Christ’s discipline is at work in us because of this, but his love is also permanent and guaranteed because we strive to serve him too. Is there anything that you love, that Christ does not love?

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Apr 9, 2023

11:37

2 Chronicles 18 - Jehoshaphat and Ahab | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 18, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 18 the nation of Israel and Judah start to cooperate, but the Chronicler is down on this point, that the two nations worked together. IN the NT we are encouraged to work together, so why is it a big issue here? First, in gospel times, we are all serving Christ, nowhere are we encouraged to work together with pagans. Rather a house divided against itself cannot stand, says Christ. Here we have Ahab, a chief proponent of Baal, and Jehoshaphat for the Lord. This is a practical political alliance, but it would be like a church and a witches coven working together. Its not right. Sometimes we use the analogy that the tribes of Israel are like the denominations and together we are the people of God. That’s certainly fine as far as analogies go, but it has limitations, and we can see one of those limitations in a chapter like this. Jehoshaphat actually lets his son marry one of Ahab’s daughters - Athaliah, and that comes back to bite Judah later. Imagine letting your children marry into an evil family. The problem was that Jehosphabhat, and many of us today, do not recognise evil and sin for the seriousness that it is.

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Apr 8, 2023

14:11

2 Chronicles 17 - Jehoshaphat's Reign in Judah | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 17, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 17 During the reign of Asa, and Jehoshaphat, a huge number of kings were turned over in the Northern nation of Israel. There were about seven kings while only 2 reigned in the south. But eventually Ahab comes to be king up north bringing some stability there, and for the first time, the two nations begin to cooperate, Ahab with Jehoshaphat. This turns out to be bad in the chapters ahead according to the Chronicler. But meanwhile, Jehosphaphat sends preachers throughout the land. Now it is national policy to teach people about the Lord. Imagine that, a country that raises up specific people to go throughout the land and make sure everyone knows how to follow Christ. Do you know any nation like this? After this the Lord rewards Judah with incoming tribute from the Philistines and Arabia. So the message seems to be that if you put the Lord first, he strengthens your hands. In the NT this is the message of Christ in the sermon on the Mount - seek first the kingdom, and all these things will be added unto you. Jehoshaphat is an example. His father tore down idols, but Jehoshaphat teaches the Lord's way - he gives understanding.

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Apr 7, 2023

8:24

2 Chronicles 16 - Asa's War with Baasha of Israel |Bible Podcast, David Alley,Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 16, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 16 it says that Baasha attacks in the 36th year of Asa. But, according to 1 Kings 15 - Baasha rules from the 3rd to the 25th year of Asa, so he was dead 11 years by this point. The conclusion that seems most sensible and which historic church commentators like James Ussher and many others have concluded is that this is the 36th year after the divide of north and south, not the 36th year of Asa. These number differences can cause people of weak faith to struggle, but what is not wrong is the strength of the Biblical accounts. These stories have been so remarkably preserved for thousands of years, and old documents freshly discovered always concur and match. There is such a rock we can lean on in scripture. Two chapters ago, Asa cried out to the Lord when a million strong army came and they were victorious. But now the northern nation of Israel - the ten tribes - attacks one city of Ramah and they put their trust in the Syrians to sace them instead of the Lord. It works politically, but where is his trust in the Lord as before? When the Lord sends a messenger to confront Asa, He gets angry at the messenger. This happens regularly to us all the time too. We get angry at preachers because we don’t like what they say. Or people get angry at those who share the gospel because it seems like a personal attack. What is the Lord supposed to do? How old was Asa when he died? We don’t know. Some of these details are not clearly explained in the Bible. Some are suggesting he began to reign about 18-22 and therefore died around about 56-60.

S1 · E382

Apr 6, 2023

7:53

2 Chronicles 15 - Asa's Religious Reforms | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 15, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 15 King Asa gets a warning from the Lord’s prophet. The warning and encouragement for Asa comes on the tail of the great victory over Zerah the Cushite (Possibly Pharaoh Osorkon II). It is often after great victories and advances that we fall back. This happens from low level things such as dieting where after being good for a while, it's easy to reward yourself with a relapse, right through to national level things. Asa isn’t warned in the midst of failure, but at the peak of victory. The word of the prophet spurs them onto action - doing greater things than before. What things should we be spurred on to do by the Lord? He took the warning to heart, and obeyed, and even went so far as to depose the Queen Mother, which often had great influence over affairs. This was presumably a big deal, otherwise it wouldn't have been recorded. In recent times (Feb 2022) we saw the Queen of England strip her son Andrew of his titles and honours over criminal actions. This would have been hard to do for her, but was the right thing to do. What Asa did was more significant.

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Apr 5, 2023

7:47

2 Chronicles 14 - Asa's Reign in Judah | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 14, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 14 Asa becomes king and begins to put back in place things which have slipped in Judah. We know that if we stop having our prayer times it's hard to restart them, but easy to stop them. Or it's easy to slip into being on your phone all day, but hard to discipline yourself. And so here the king makes an effort to clean up a nation from false gods. He is rewarded for doing so with a great victory against Zerah the Cushite This is apparently the biggest army assembled in the bible, which has caused commentators to question the figure. And yet other ancient armies were assembled with similar numbers. For example, while the figure is in question, King Xerxes of the Persian empire also assembled a huge army to attack Greece. It was reported by Herotodus to have 2.5 million people. Another writer, Simonides wrote that he sent 4 million soldiers and a third Ctesias said it was only 800,000 soldiers. Even the minimum estimate by a somewhat contemporary writer was still a huge number. The only reason the number is questioned is because people lean towards disbelief. This battle is not recounted in the book of 1 Kings, so we have a story here of how the Lord hear the cry of one who called out to Him. If a giant army of a million soldiers approaches, would you cry out to the Lord? A number of experts think that Zerah the Cushite might be Osorkon II the 5th pharaoh of the 22nd dynasty. There are some things that don’t nearly fit, but future archaeological discoveries might make it clear if this is true. Either way, the point remains true, a victory over an insurmountable force is possible for weak or strong only with the Lord’s help. What insurmountable problem do you have right now? Time to seek the Lord.

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Apr 4, 2023

11:47

2 Chronicles 13 - Abijah's Reign in Judah | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 13, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 13 we discuss King Abijah, a short lived king of Judah. It says that Abijah followed the ways of Rehoboam and was not fully devoted to the Lord. Despite the fact that Abijah may have been half hearted in his personal walk with the Lord, he knows that Judah has the true way of worship, and he clearly points out the northern faults to them. The result is a huge slaughter against Israel losing half a million soldiers. The Lord’s nature is such that he listens to the prayers of weak believers too. It’s not only those of strength he hears. God is mindful of our weaknesses and if we needed to be righteous to have our prayers answered, no one would. Here the people of Judah cried out to the Lord in the middle of an ambush and the Lord delivered. Firstly, this is a huge battle with over half a million deaths. To put that in perspective, It is equivalent to the battle of Stalingrad where the German forces lost 500,000 men, including 91000 captured during the 6 months offensive. For an event spoken of so briefly, this was a major moment between the two nations. Perhaps at some future moment, archaeology from this battle will be discovered at Mt Zemaraim. Battles of this type don't tend to cause people to warm up to each other, but rather to increase suspicions. So the tribes are not brought together through this.

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Apr 3, 2023

10:01

2 Chronicles 12 - Shishak's Invasion of Judah | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 12, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 2 Chronicles 12 we are talking about someone who follows God, but acts without wisdom, and now he abandons the Lord. This is what a lack of wisdom will do to you, and in fact the essence of the foolishness is to abandon the Lord. We are talking about King Rehoboam There are many who grow up in church, or a christian home, so they have the tradition of Christianity, but not the heart. This is a battle each generation has to win for themselves, which means that you cannot rest on what your parents have given you. Nor can you expect your children will automatically pick up what you give to them. Your prayers for them give them the best chance of picking it up. So Shishak of Egypt is sent by the Lord to punish Judah, except he didn’t know that the Lord was punishing Rehoboam because of his sin against the Lord. The Lord can use people even without their knowledge. The temple at Karnak records the details and names 150 towns that Shishak attacked, but Jerusalem is not on the list. It seems Rehoboam bought him off with gold from the temple and spared Jerusalem. It would seem that Shishak is Pharaoh Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt. There is archaeology supporting this Pharaoh and the invasion of Judah. He is the first Pharaoh that is named in the Bible, because the previous Pharaoh’s are not named. This dynasty was from Libya. Chronicles notes that it wasn’t the king who humbled himself, but the princes of Israel. These are typically the rulers of the tribes of Israel - there were 12 of them in the days of the wilderness wandering. This makes sense given that the 150 towns listed in Egypt were mostly in Israel. Rehoboam became king at 41, reigned for 17 years, and died at 58.

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Apr 2, 2023

8:22

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