The Bible by David Alley

by David Alley

Self-Improvement Christianity Religion

Season 1

2 Chronicles 1- Solomon Asks for Wisdom | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Chronicles Chapter 1, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.

S1 · E367

Mar 22, 2023

15:46

The Bible: 1 Chronicles Chapter 29

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 29, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 29 the public speech to all Israel continues from the previous chapter. This is the second time Solomon is declared king. The first time was in a rush in response to Adonijah’s rebellion. But now done properly at length, with full state endorsement, and the approval of his father, Solomon is becoming king. In verse 10 David starts a prayer, a kind of “ordination prayer” for Solomon. Part of it is used in modern day liturgies. In his prayer, David says the following, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and we have given you of your own.” Here we see a little bit of David’s theology. We are only giving back to God what he already gave us first. These things are discussed in this video. The book of 1 Chronicles is finished for us, but Chronicles is really one account from the original author's perspective in two scrolls. And so the story continues. The breakup here is probably a natural place to break a scroll for readability. Big scrolls are harder to handle.

S1 · E366

Mar 21, 2023

10:26

The Bible: 1 Chronicles Chapter 28

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 28, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 28 we have David conducting a final handing over to Solomon speech. In 1 Chronicles 22 we had a private speech from David to Solomon, but now we have a public speech in front of the entire nation. This makes everything said official, but it also makes what is commanded a requirement of the new leader, which everyone knows. So the legitimacy of Solomon’s reign is connected to doing the things David says here. This is in a type of way, an ordination process. Here we learn that the plans for the temple were given to David by the Spirit, so in a similar way that Moses got the plans for the tabernacle from God, these plans come from God too. The pattern here is the same pattern as the tabernacle, a series of three rooms teaching us about increasing intimacy with God. The three rooms as The outer courts The Holy Place The Most Holy Place We are brought into the Most Holy place by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can have intimacy with God… what a remarkable thing? And yet, most believers remain in the outer courts, never seeking to know God.

S1 · E365

Mar 20, 2023

9:59

1 Chronicles 27 - Military Divisions and Leaders | Bible Podcast, David Alley,Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 27, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 27 we see that David not only ordered the temple, its priests, musicians and guards, but also ordered the military. When people know what to expect, they organise their lives around it and feel safe. Davids sets up 12 military divisions, under 12 leaders, some names we already know such as Benaiah, son of Jehoida. Each division is on duty one month of the year, and has 24,000 soldiers. In total 288,000 men are involved in active military duty each year. But the rest of the nation, more than 1 million men, are reservists. One of the division leaders, was Asahel, killed by Abner when the two nations were merging in 2 Samuel 2:18-32. But this occurred before David was king of all Israel, he was king of Judah only at that point. How is this possible? He would have been dead long before this point right? The answer is that David instituted this system that grew to become what is described here…. Zebadiah, his son after him, ran this division, as this chapter explains. So there was not only priestly systems in place, but military systems too. In the same way, each of us are in Christ’s standing army. We fight the enemies of the cross, which are not people, but are things of the worlds which hinder the gospel. We fight principalities with prayer and righteousness. We are all called to this high responsibility.

S1 · E364

Mar 19, 2023

13:51

1 Chronicles 26 - Gatekeepers and Other Levites | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 26, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 26 we discuss doorkeepers. In some bible translations, the doorkeepers are called the porters. Regardless, they have the task of guarding the ports, of being security for the temple and have some basic level of logistical responsibility. Of great interest here is the inclusion of Obed-Edom in the list of doorkeepers. This man was a Gittite, (a Philistine from Gath) who had the ark in his home for three months and was blessed as a result. (2 Sam 6:11) Now, he and his family are to be in the Lord’s home, just as the Lord was in his home. This is how it works … if you make a place for God, the Lord makes a place for you. And of course he is the only non Levite in all of the lists of rosters, and a non Israelite. Because he opened his home to God, he was included in Israel. Many people make the mistake that God has to accept them first, but he has already done that… he has. To have God’s presence in your life, you must accept him and then experience what comes as a result. The breakup for gatekeepers is different because it reflects rostered locations - the gates. It seems that rather than having 24 courses as for the priests and the musicians, they obtained a location to guard. Obed-Edom and his 62 sons were to guard the south gate and the storehouse in turn. This section reminds me of Psalm 84:10. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” It is better to be at the door of the temple for a small time, than outside for any amount of time. In a sense, we are all called to be doorkeepers and guardians of the Lord’s treasures. We are not supposed to watch them be eroded around us by culture, but to guard them in our hearts, and guard them for our children, and guard them for society and culture. We can guard them through our prayers, and our moral upright stance, and our resistance to cultural drift.

S1 · E363

Mar 18, 2023

13:55

1 Chronicles 25 - Musicians and their Duties | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 25, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 25 lots were also cast for musicians as they were for priests. And there were also 24 groups of musicians rostered on at the temple. All the musicians were descendants of three men, Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman. Of the 24 groups, 4 came from Asaph, 6 from Jeduthun and 14 from Heman. Asaph is the same as the Asaph of the psalms. This chapter says they were rostered on to “prophesy” with stringed instruments, but how? Matthew Henry says it is because they were singing the words of prophecies written by the prophets. This is true in the same way that when a preacher speaks of Christ’s return he is prophesying, but he didn’t invent the prophecy. However, some musicians, notably Asaph wrote psalms too, so they may be prophets in the more usual sense. David is also considered a prophets, and Peter said so in his day of Pentecost sermon in Acts 2-3 In the NT, not only are we all priests, but we are all worshippers, and while not all of us may be musicians, we are to sing and prophesy the wonders of Christ. Between us all Christ is never failed to be worshipped.

S1 · E362

Mar 17, 2023

13:30

The Bible: 1 Chronicles Chapter 24

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 24, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 24 lots are cast to work out the twenty-four group roster of priests who were to serve and in what order. Of Aaron’s four sons, two died and their descendants are not a part of this, and of the other two, two thirds are from Eleazar. But the jobs given out, and the order of them is by lot, so is fairly distributed as God decided. The casting of lots was a way of deciding, kind of like rolling a dice. Because God was able to determine the outcome, it was a way of giving him the choice. This was done in Acts 1 when they decided which of the two were to be the apostle to replace Judas. Today we might decide a matter by a coin toss, such as to start a football game, but this is merely practical, but these decisions were thoughtful, and the outcome considered genuinely God given. According to Matthew Henry - this verse explains they put the 16 names of the families for Eleazar in one jar, and the eight for Ithamar in the other. They then cast lots for one jar or the other, and then pulled out a name to create the order of 24. These are the twenty-four courses of priests who were rostered on, a practice which continued in various forms through to the time of Christ and beyond until the ending of the temple. In Luke 1 as an example, John the Baptist's father, of the eighth course here, the group of Abijah, was rostered on. Each course was rostered on for one week only… 8 days, with the Sabbath’s overlapping. In the NT, we are all priests, and these passages show us that we are all to give of our time and contribution towards the work of the Lord. Between us all, the work is done.

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Mar 16, 2023

13:37

1 Chronicles 23 - Levites and their Duties | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 23, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 23 begins a four chapter discussion on the preparations for temple worship. David is not just focussed on building a building, but on building an entire system of worship for God. THe building was magnificent, but it is what happens there that is the most important, so we have four chapters to that, whereas we only had one chapter on the building. We know the church is people, and not physical things. You can have a church without physical structures, but you cannot have a church without people. This is why the church thrives and grows in places where it isn’t allowed to exist. Even in the Maldives, believers go fishing so as to have church in a boat, because they have no legal right to exist. So the intangibles, the worship, the people, these are the things of most significance. Here there is a census of Levites. In Numbers 4, there were 8,580 Levites… and now 38,000. It has grown by almost five times. Also in the catastrophic census of Israel that David took, the Levites and Benjamites were skipped, but now we have this number, but he only counts the over thirties, and doesn’t anger the Lord. David sets up 6000 officers and judges, 4000 doorkeepers and a praise and worship team of another 4000. These were all on a roster as we shall see. And of course churches still have rosters today. The rest of them, 24000 assisted in the temple - helping the priests with sacrifices etc. The next three chapters will go through the dividing up of the jobs of these groups. The first of these was the priestly division. The next three chapters will discuss how these groups were divided up for their tasks and what it means for us today.

S1 · E360

Mar 15, 2023

10:42

1 Chronicles 22 - David Prepares for the Temple | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 22, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 22 we cover David’s extensive preparations to build a temple for God. And this is why it should be known as David’s temple. David is a figure of Christ, and the temple is a symbol of Christ who said he would “tear down this temple and rebuild it in three days.” But interestingly, Solomon’s name is a representation of peace (Shalom) and through Christ we have peace. Solomon would probably not have thought to have built a temple except he was instructed to do so. And undoubtedly no-one else may have either. David’s inquiring mind, and heart filled with spirit-led initiative is unique in the history of Israel. Also we attempt some type of estimate at the value of the preparations, which seems to be on the high side, to be in the trillions of dollars. Is that right? The question to us is, like David, are we willing to build God’s house. Is our heart and soul set to follow God, and arise to build the sanctuary, and bring the ark there. This speaks not of physical buildings, but of the people of God, the body of Christ, which together is a temple. The true glory of God cannot be revealed to the world until it inhabits God’s house, his church, his people. We see that David was the true driving force behind the temple, with his ideas, his preparations and his verbal encouragements and commands.

S1 · E359

Mar 14, 2023

12:43

1 Chronicles 21 -David's Sin and its Consequences |Bible Podcast, David Alley,Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 1 Chronicles Chapter 21, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer. In 1 Chronicles 21 we have the other census account, the first coming from 2 Samuel 24. There seems to be conflicting information between them, but by proper scrutiny of them both, we can harmonize and gain additional perspectives. This video will talk about the two accounts, and their harmonization, plus what lessons we might learn for today. Isaac Marshmallow has written a comprehensive explanation about the discrepancies over the two different tallies. In 2 Samuel 24 it numbers all Israel at 1.3 million people. The account here numbered them at 1.1 million, a difference of 200,000 people. Also, This account says David paid 600 shekels for the site of Arunah the JEbusite. The 2 Samuel passage says that he paid 50 shekels, but it was for the cattle. There isn’t a discrepancy here, because there are two different things being paid for, the total of them being 650 shekels. According to the rules for Census taking, those under 20 were not to be counted, but David did such a thing, so the differing totals were including the under 20’s in the Samuel account and without the under 20’s in the Chronicles account. Isaac’s full explanation is at https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.co... The king is now counting all Israel, including the under 20’s, which he was not supposed to do according to the rules of Exodus 30:11-16. If this was done wrongly, the risk was a plague as Exodus 30:12 points out. This site - the threshing floor of Aruna (or Ornan) the Jebusite is the site of Mt Moriah, where Abraham sacrificed the lamb on behalf of Isaac. This ties into the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf that stopped the plague of sin for all humanity. …. Also the site of the temple.

S1 · E358

Mar 13, 2023

16:42

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