1 Chronicles 5: Prayer and Trust Go Together

Embark with me, Pastor Brandon, as we traverse the rich tapestry of 1 Chronicles chapter 5, discovering the intertwining of prayer and trust in the fabric of faith. Through the legacies etched in genealogies and the cautionary tale of Reuben's squandered birthright, we'll find that our lifelong hope must be firmly rooted in God's enduring promises. As we dissect the rise of Joseph's lineage, we'll reflect on the ripple effects of our deeds within the divine tapestry of time. I invite our Bible Breakdown community to share their insights, fostering a space where we can all flourish in spiritual sagacity. Together, let's uncover the profound ways our prayers and trust in God shape our existence, even when challenges cast shadows over our path.

In our intimate heart-to-heart, we confront the trials of surrendering personal wants to His grand design. It's a poignant reminder that true comfort comes from aligning our hearts with the Almighty's inscrutable wisdom rather than clinging to our own expectations. Through the sanctuary of prayer, we seek solace and courage to trust in God's sovereignty, as affirmed by the scriptural gem from 1 Chronicles 29:17. Closing with the assurance of God's unconditional love for His imperfect creations, this episode is an invitation to find tranquility in the knowledge that our flaws never diminish His grace. Let's traverse this spiritual journey together, reinforcing the inseparable bond between prayer and trust in our walk with the Lord.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. 1 Chronicles, chapter 5, and today's title is Prayer and Trust Go Together. Prayer and Trust Go Together Just like peanut butter and jelly man. They just go together every time. We're going to get into that in just a moment.

Speaker 1: 0:43

But, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel, make sure you leave us a five star review on the podcast and then, of course, we'll be all gathered together at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. Also, I would love for you to do me a favor. I know we gather in so many different places, but I would love for you to engage with us, and there are two main ways you can engage with us as we are going through God's work together. Number one is to comment on the devotions at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. The second one is on the YouTube channel. Make sure you leave us some likes, make sure you also comment. Let me know if you have a connection with the particular chapter we're going through, if you have a question, if you have a comment, if you have an angry outburst, put it all on there. We just want to engage together as we continue to grow this community of people that are just reading God's word. One chapter at a time. You may have an insight or something that you know about God's word that is going to help speak to all the rest of us. So always, please, let us know how you're engaging with God's work.

Speaker 1: 1:41

Well, today we're going to continue with 1st Chronicles, chapter 5, as, if you have your Bibles, we're going to open up with us which also, while you're doing that, I want to tell everybody. If you're listening to this on the podcast and nothing has changed for you, but if you're watching this on YouTube, as you can see, we've changed things around a little bit again. We are always doing that to the great frustration of the team that helps me put this stuff together. So please bear with us as we're just always experimenting and always looking at stuff. But thank you so much for joining us every day. I had someone tell me just this past weekend that this lady and her daughter listen to the podcast every day on the way to school. So if that's you, what's up? Please keep looking at the road. But, hi, it is so good to be going with you to school. I hope you have a wonderful day and I can't wait to share God's word with you today, because we're going to talk about prayer and trust go together. Yes, we are still going through the different genealogies, but all along the way there's interesting little things that continue to happen in God's word, and there's this little moment that's going to happen in here. While they are continuing to talk about their genealogy and remember, what they're doing is is they're reminding themselves of how they got here, who their family is, and that they are still connected to the promises of God. And I think that's important that we remember that, even when we go through difficult times, we're still connected to the promises of God. And the overall theme of First Chronicles is when God is with you, there's always hope. And as we're reading this, we're going to see how, even in difficult situations, prayer and trust work and they go together. So if you're ready, let's read this together.

Speaker 1: 3:14

First Chronicles, chapter five out of the New Living Translation says this the oldest son of Israel was Reuben, but since he dishonored his father by sleeping with one of his father's concubines Lord help us his birthright was given to the sons of his brother, joseph. For this reason, reuben is not listed in the genealogical records as the firstborn son. The descendants of Judah became the most powerful tribe and provided a ruler for the nation. The birthright belonged to Joseph, so you ever wondered why it happened like that? That would be why, and for real good reason. Right, alright, verse three. The sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel, were Hanok, palu, hezron and Karmie. The descendants of Joel were Shemaiah Gog, shime, micah, reha, be'el and Barah. Yes, he named one of his kids after a pagan. God Lord help us. Barah was the leader of the Reubenites, and when they were taken away into captivity, they were taken by King Teglah Palizer of Assyria. Barah's relatives are listed in the genealogical records by their clans Je'el the leader, zechariah Be'el, son of Hezaz, and the son of Shama, son of Joel.

Speaker 1: 4:30

The Reubenites lived in the area that stretches from Eor to Nebo and Ba'el-Mayon, and since they had so many livestock in the land of Gilead, they spread east toward the edge of the desert that stretches to the Euphrates River. During the reign of Saul, the Reubenites defeated the Hagerites in battle and they moved into the Hagerite settlements all along the eastern edge of Gilead. Next to the Reubenites, the descendants of Gad lived in the land of Baishon, as far east as Shalak. Joel was the leader of the land of Baishon and Shapham was the second in command, followed by Janai the Shaphat. Their descendants, the leaders of the seven clans, were Machel, meshalum, shiba, jeoriah, zechen, zia and Iber. These were all the descendants of Abahel, son of Huri, son of Jeora, son of Gilead, son of Machel, son of Jechehiah, son of Jehado, son of Booz Ahai, son of Jebedael, son of Juni, the leader of their clans. The Gadites lived in the land of Gilead and Baishon and in his villages throughout all the pastureland of Sharon. All of these were listed in the genealogical records during the days of King Jotham of Judah, the king of and King Jeroboam of Israel.

Speaker 1: 5:55

This is the part I want to get to. There were 44,760 capable warriors in the armies of Reuben Gad and Half-Tribe of Manasseh. They were all skilled in combat and armed with shields, swords and bows. They waged war against the Hagarites, the Jeharites, the Naphishites and the Nebuites. Rememberites means people of so like, for instance, that last one would be people of the nobads, which is an interesting name. They cried out to God during the battle and he answered their prayer because they trusted in him. So the Hagarites and all their lands and allies were defeated. The plunder taken from the Hagarites included 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep and goats, 2,000 donkeys and 100,000 captives. Many of the Hagarites were killed in battle because the Lord was fighting against them.

Speaker 1: 6:51

The people of Reuben, gad and Manasseh lived in their land until they were taken into exile. The Half-Tribe of Manasseh was very large and spread throughout the land of Baishan to Bahel, hermon, sinair and Mount Hermon. These were the leaders of their clans Ifr, ishi, el, el Ezel, jeremiah, hodevaia and Jahedel. These men had great reputations as mighty warriors and leaders of their clans. But these tribes were unfaithful to God, the God of their ancestors. They worshipped the gods of the nations that God had destroyed. So the God of Israel caused King Pa'u of Assyria, also known as Teglath Paleser, to invade the land and take away the people of Reuben, gad and the Half-Tribe of Manasseh as captives. The Assyrians exiled them to Helah, hebor, ha'ra and the Josan River, where they remain to this day.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Now, once again, remember all these names are there to help them. Remember that they have a heritage, that they're still connected, and these are our spiritual great, great, great, great, great great aunts and uncles. So we're part of something so much bigger than we can imagine. But notice right in here that when everything went south for the half-trival of Manasseh, gad and Reuben, the Bible says they were in a battle and they prayed and they asked God to help. And the Bible said because they prayed and because they trusted God to do something, god answered their prayer.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Now we have to make sure to live in the tension, because God always hears our prayer, but he doesn't always answer our prayer the way we would like for him to. We can have all the faith in the world, but at the same time, if God's sovereign will is to do something different, then because he loves us and because he has a plan that's bigger than us, he doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want to. So when we pray and we trust God, that doesn't necessarily mean we trust God to do it our way. We just trust God. Notice it says they cried out to God during the battle and he answered their prayer because they trusted in him. The Bible's quick to say it doesn't say what they prayed and asked God to do, and I'm sure though it was hey, do you mind if we don't die but it doesn't say that they trusted God to do it exactly the way they wanted. It's just they trusted God to do the right thing.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Can I tell you, when you're in the middle of a battle and I know that's very different Most likely the battles that you're going to face over the next season of your life is probably not going to be an invading army coming to take everything you got. But we all face battles. We all face situations in our life that we would like not to face. Do you know? One of the great ways that you can guarantee that God will do something in your life is to do two things. Number one is to pray, pray and ask God. The Bible says to pray, to pray and ask God for what you need. As a matter of fact, in Philippians it says be anxious for nothing, but with prayer, with asking and with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So the first thing we should always do is always pray. The second thing we do is that we trust God, but to remember, we're not trusting God that he's going to do it our way. We're just trusting God to do what's right, and that's the secret.

Speaker 1: 10:20

I've talked to many people who were really struggling in their relationship with God and just struggling with life in general, and they had all these other ideas, but when it really came down to it, they were brokenhearted because they really trusted God, but they trusted Him to do it their way. Can I tell you, if you're listening to this or you're watching this right now and you're struggling because you trusted God to do something, I want to ask you were you trusting God or were you trusting Him to do it your way? If you were trusting Him to do it your way, that's okay. That's called being human, right here. So there's no shame in that. It's just to realize are you disappointed with God because he is not? Are you disappointed with God because he didn't answer your prayer or because he didn't answer it the way you wanted Him to? Many times we're mad at God, but we're mad for the wrong reasons, and so I just want to encourage you to think through it.

Speaker 1: 11:07

If you're struggling, ask yourself why. Are you struggling? Because God chose to answer your prayer, but it wasn't with yes? Or it was yes, but or was it wait? Maybe a relationship that you really thought should work out when that relationship started to struggle, but he answered it by letting it come to an end. Maybe you prayed for someone to be healed and instead they passed away. God answered your prayer. They received the greatest healing ever. It just wasn't the healing that you were hoping for, can I tell you. I've been there. I've been there in all those situations, but you know what I've learned in time and I'm still having to learn all the time.

Speaker 1: 11:47

So if you're struggling with that, join the club I'm part of and that is growing in Christ to pray always, but always to trust God. And that trust says God. I have no idea what you're going to do, but I trust that, whatever it is, it's going to be the right thing. So I want to tell you that today, if you're struggling, choose to trust God that whatever it is he chooses to do, it will be the right thing and if you do, there's peace for you. Today let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you're with us more than we can imagine.

Speaker 1: 12:17

I pray today for everyone who is struggling. They're struggling, god, because they desperately want you to answer their prayer their way. First of all, I pray they'll feel no ounce of shame. It's called being human. You know us, lord, you know the worst parts about us and you love us anyway. But I pray you help us to change that desire from trusting for you to do it our way to simply trusting you, to trust that whatever you do is the right thing. And so we hold to that today and we thank you for all things. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Don't forget. God's word says in 1 Chronicles, 29, 17,. I know, my God, that you examine the hearts and you rejoice when you find integrity there. God knows you more than you realize and he's with you more than you can imagine. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 1 Chronicles, chapter 6.