Day 196: Control

Welcome to Day 196 of the Bible 365 Podcast! I'm so excited you are joining me on this journey through the entire Bible this year. Reminder that each episode in 2026 will have a brand new devotional.

Today we'll be reading through I Chronicles 19-21; Romans 2:25-29, 3:1-8; Psalm 11; and Proverbs 19:10-12. Invite a family member or friend to join you as we grow in our knowledge of God through His Word.

I'm so glad that you are here!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to day 196 of the Bible 365 podcast. My name is Randy Goudow and today we're going to be reading through 1 Chronicles chapters 19 through 21, Romans chapter 2, verses 25 through 29, and chapter 3, verses 1 through 8, Psalm chapter 11, and Proverbs chapter 19 verses 10 through 12. The translation I'm using throughout this podcast is the Berean Standard Bible, also known as the BSB. Let's read. 1 Chronicles chapter 19. Sometime later, Nahash, king of the Ammonites, died and was succeeded by his son. And David said, I will show kindness to Hanan, son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. So David sent messengers to console Hanan concerning his father. But when David's servants arrived in the land of the Ammonites to console him, the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanan, Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Have not his servants come to you to explore the land, spy it out, and overthrow it? So Hanan took David's servants, shaved their beards, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away. When someone came and told David about his men, he sent messengers to meet them, since the men had been thoroughly humiliated. The king told them, Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown back, and then return. When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, Hanan and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Aram Naaraam, Aramaica, and Zobah. So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, as well as the king of Maiaca with his troops, who came and camped near Medaba while the Ammonites were mustered from their cities and marched out for battle. On hearing this, David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men. The Ammonites marched out and arrayed themselves for battle at the entrance to the city, while the kings who had come stayed by themselves in the open country. When Joab saw the battle lines before him and behind him, he selected some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Arameans. And he placed the rest of the troops under the command of his brother Abishai, who arrayed them against the Ammonites. If the Arameans are too strong for me, said Joab, then you will come to my rescue. And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to your rescue. Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God. May the Lord do what is good in his sight. So Joab and his troops advanced to fight the Arameans, who fled before him. When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they too fled before Joab's brother Abashai, and they entered the city. So Joab went back to Jerusalem. When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers to bring more Arameans from beyond the Euphrates, with Shophak the commander of Hadadezer's army leading them. When this was reported to David, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, advanced toward the Arameans, and arrayed for battle against them. When David lined up to engage them in battle, they fought against him. But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers. He also killed Shophak, the commander of their army. When Hadadezer's subjects saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him. So the Arameans were unwilling to help the Ammonites any more. In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem, and Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it. Then David took the crown from the head of their king. It was found to weigh a talon of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David's head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city. David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes, and he did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem. Sometime later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gizer. At that time Sibekai the Hushethite killed Sipai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued. Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan, son of Jaer, killed Lamai, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimei, killed him. So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants. 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report, so that I may know their number. But Joab replied, May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My Lord the king, are they not all servants of my Lord? Why does my Lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel? Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and traveled throughout Israel, and then he returned to Jerusalem. And Joab reported to David the total number of the troops. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah. But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count, because the king's command was detestable to him. This command was also evil in the sight of God, so he struck Israel. Then David said to God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now I beg you to take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly. And the Lord instructed Gad, David's seer, Go and tell David that this is what the Lord says. I am offering you three options, choose one of them, and I will carry it out against you. So Gad went and said to David, This is what the Lord says. You must choose between three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies and overtaken by their swords, or three days of the sword of the Lord, days of plague upon the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel. Now then, decide how I should reply to him who sent me. David answered Gad, I am deeply distressed. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hands of men. So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented from the calamity, and he said to the angel who was destroying the people, Enough, withdraw your hand now. At that time the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. When David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell face down. And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, please let your hand fall upon me and my father's house, but do not let this plague remain upon your people. Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked out and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed face down before David. Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the Lord, sell it to me for the full price, so that the plague upon the people may be halted. Ornan said to David, Take it, may my Lord the King do whatever seems good to him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all. No, replied King David, I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the Lord what belongs to you, nor will I offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing. So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the sight. And there he built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the Lord, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. Then the Lord spoke to the angel, who put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. For the tabernacle of the Lord that Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering were presently at the high place in Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord. Romans 2, verses 25-29. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise does not come from men, but from God. Romans chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. What then is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Certainly not. Let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, so that you may be proved right when you speak and victorious when you judge. But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict his wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms. Certainly not. In that case, how could God judge the world? However, if my falsehood accentuates God's truthfulness to the increase of his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, let us do evil that good may result? Their condemnation is deserved. Psalm chapter 11. In the Lord I take refuge. How then can you say to me, Flee like a bird to your mountain? For behold, the wicked bend their bows, they set their arrow on the string to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord is on his heavenly throne, his eyes are watching closely. They examine the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, his soul hates the lover of violence. On the wicked he will rain down fiery coals and sulfur. A scorching wind will be their portion. For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice, the upright will see his face. Proverbs nineteen verses ten through twelve. Luxury is unseemly for a fool. How much worse for a slave to rule over princes? A man's insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense. A king's rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. Today's devotional is coming from Proverbs chapter 19, verse eleven, which we just read, but I feel this is so appropriate for the world, the culture, the environment that we live in today, where everything really is designed to make you angry, to make you just lose it, and to always be offended. It says a man's insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense. In the NLT, it says, sensible people control their temper. They earn respect by overlooking wrongs. Look at that first sentence. Sensible people control their temper. You know, it doesn't matter if you control your temper, when your temper does not need to be controlled. It's when you are at the point where you're like, all right, I am about to lose it. That is where we find out if you are someone who is sensible or not. Sensible people control their temper. Let's now look at that second line in the BSB. And his virtue is to overlook an offense. And the NLT, they earn respect by overlooking wrongs. Why do you overlook a wrong? Why would you be willing to overlook an offense? Because it will help you to be sensible and control your temper. If you don't overlook that wrong, if you don't overlook that offense, then it's possible that you are going to lose control. And therefore, not have much insight and not be sensible. Let's pray. Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus, and my prayer today for all of our listeners, for every one of us, is that we would be sensible people who control their temper, and that we would also be people who earn respect by overlooking wrongs. Draw us close by the presence of your Holy Spirit and reveal your Son to us. We ask all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Well, I sure hope you enjoyed today's devotional. If you're getting something out of the Bible 365 podcast, consider sharing it with your family and with your friends. Please continue to pray for me. I am praying for you. Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow with day 1970.