Genesis 1:1-2:25, Matthew 1:1-2:12, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 1:1-6
Today is January 1st. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Happy New Year, by the way. What a difference one day can bring. Right? Yesterday we were in a different year and most of us woke up this morning with the intention of walking into a new life in some way. Right? So, you’re getting all the right groceries because going to change your health habits. It’s like the first day at the gym for some of you, while others have different goals and resolutions. And some of you have turned toward your spirituality. This is the year I’m going to read the Bible cover to cover. And you’ve made that commitment to yourself, which has landed you here. Welcome.
You can certainly meet that objective. And in meeting that objective you’re going to find out there’s a lot more going on here at Daily Audio Bible, there’s a whole community, hundreds of thousands of us taking this journey through the Scriptures this year. And if you’re back, if you were here yesterday as we concluded the 12th year of the Daily Audio Bible, then welcome back. Whether this is year 13 for you or this is your 10th year or 5th year or 2nd year, welcome back. This year is going to be epic because the Bible is epic. And as we begin to take this journey together we’ll begin to peel back the layers and begin to understand who these strange people with strange names are, but they won’t be strange for long. We’re going to meet a lot of people, ancient people in ancient cultures with ancient customs, but we’re going to find that they weren’t looking for anything different than what we are looking for. They were trying to find God. And it won’t take long to realize these are antiquated and forgettable stories. They are us and we are them. And rather than forgetting them, we’ll realize that they are our spiritual ancestors and their stories have influenced the world as we know it. So, buckle in. This will be an epic journey. But before you buckle in you should take a look in the mirror. Take a good long look into your own eyes. Look at yourself. Think about how life is right now, because 365 days from now, and it will happen faster than you think, things will be different. Make a commitment to look at yourself in the mirror 365 days from now and you’ll see what I’m talking about. And, so, with that we begin a brand-new year.
And the way that the Daily Audio Bible works is that we’ll be moving through a little bit of the Old Testament, a bit of the New Testament, a bit from Psalms, and a bit from Proverbs every day as we move our way through the entire Bible this year. And, so, as we begin this brand-new year, I mean, we’ll be starting Matthew, we’ll be starting Genesis, we’ll be starting Psalms, and Proverbs today. Over the next few days I’ll be talking about the different themes of these books and then we’ll, kind of, do a flyover every time we come to a new book, just to give ourselves a little bit of context for what it is we’re going to read.
Genesis:
Let’s talk about Genesis. Genesis is the first book in the Bible, but it’s not just that. It’s also the first book in a series of books known as the Pentateuch or the Torah. These are the first five books in the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And these are known as the books of Moses. It’ll be little while before we meet Moses, but we will, soon enough. And Moses isn’t necessarily the person who wrote these books, but the traditions around these books and Moses’s go way, way, way back into antiquity. And often when we’re thinking about the book of Genesis and we here the book of Genesis, we think about the creation story and the origin of mankind. And, although this is one of the key components of Genesis, Genesis covers more history than any other book in the Bible. Millennium are covered in the book of Genesis. Actually, Genesis covers more time than the rest of the Old Testament put together. So, we’ll see, at the start, the creation, and go all the way until the children of Israel will meet, arrive in Egypt, and they grow into a mass of people that are becoming a nation. So, inside the first 11 chapters of Genesis we’ll cover a couple thousand years and a couple thousand miles. And then we’ll slow things down and cover a couple hundred years to the end of the book.
And, so, we begin. And we’ll read from the New International Version this week. Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2.
Commentary:
Okay. So, day one, we are often running. We have launched ourselves into an epic adventure that will lead us through the entire Bible and conclude 364 days from now, just 364 steps. And they go by so fast. It’s crazy how that works. We’ll blink a couple times and then it will be Valentine’s Day. And then we’ll blink a couple of times and will it it’ll be June. But we’ve taken the first step in. And there is so much for us in the first step alone.
We were told our origin story. We were told that we are made in the likeness and image of God as human beings and we get a brief glimpse at Eden. We get to peer back into a time when nothing is broken and nothing is lost and all is as it should be. So, we get the briefest glimpse of how things were always supposed to be for us. But, unfortunately, it’s only a brief glimpse. Today we get to peer into how things were always supposed to be for us and tomorrow we’ll begin to find out what happened.
And as we begin the book of Matthew, and I will talk about Matthew little bit more tomorrow, but we begin the Christmas story and that begins in the book of Matthew by a genealogy. And while most don’t consider reading lists of names to be riveting, this one’s kind of important. You actually might want to look at it again because every one of those names, every one of those people, we’re going to meet them, and we’re going to get to know a bit of their story as we travel through the Scriptures this year and understand their role in our spiritual ancestry. What we also got to meet in the book of Matthew, the most important person in human history, Jesus. And we’ll be spending quite a bit of time walking alongside him, sitting at his feet, listening to what He has to say about our lives here on planet Earth. And as we travel through the Gospels in the coming months we’ll see why it is that Jesus was so compelling. We’ll see how it came to be that He influenced the entire world until today. And we’ll reacquaint ourselves with why it is that He has shaped our hearts and lives.
In Psalms, we were given two divergent paths and shown where they will lead. And the Bible will do this to us often. It will continuously bring us to a crossroads and show us where the paths are going to go. And then we get to choose which path we’re going to walk down. And then it should come as no surprise when we reach our destination where we’ve gone. Psalms shows us that those who live righteously, who walk in the ways of the Lord, those people will be like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in season, and leaves do not wither, and whatever they do prospers. So that’s one way of living and one picture of where that road leads. But Psalms also tells us that’s not the way of the wicked. Those people are blown around in their lives like wind blows chaff. And in the final analysis, things won’t end up well.
And we launched into Proverbs today, which gave us words of introduction about what the book is all about. We read it to gain wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in how to behave prudently, and how to do what’s right, how to be just and fair. And the Proverbs will deliver on its promise. It will be able to speak, in one sentence, things that touch the very, very motives of our hearts. Wisdom that has come through the ages and stood the test of time and that is not antiquated in any way whatsoever, just as immediate now as it ever was. And getting Proverbs into our lives in understanding what it’s telling us and allowing it to counsel us is like pouring unfiltered wisdom into our hearts. It will rescue us many times as we contemplate the weighty decisions that he year can bring.
So, we’ve set sail. And this thick book known as the Bible that has been confusing to so many as opened itself up to us. And we’ll find it’s not that confusing at all when it’s read in its context. And a whole new world will open up to us as we move through this together.
Prayer:
So, Father, we thank You for another day to be here together as a community and allow Your word to wash over us. We thank You for a new year and, with it, the reminder that we can start over again. And, so, we begin this new year inviting Your Holy Spirit to speak to us through Your word and to change us from the inside out. Come, Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.
Announcements:
Okay. So, over the next several days, I’ll just be unpacking the Daily Audio Bible and how it works as we settle into the rhythm of this new year. But as we begin, I just want to say, welcome. Welcome to everyone that is here. I know many of you have stumbled over the new year line bruised and bloodied from all that’s been going on in your life and you’ve come here to make some sense of it all, to try to find out what the Bible actually says. And that was a good choice, because that’s what this community is all about. And some of you are here because you don’t feel you have anywhere else to go, either because of life circumstances or because of where you are in the world. Welcome. Some of you are here because of a New Year’s resolution, because you want to pay attention to your spirituality. Welcome. And so many of you, you were here yesterday, you were here all last year, maybe you’ve been here for years. It is so good to see you again.
This is a brand-new day. This is a brand-new year. And we can exhale and let go of everything that’s come before this moment and participate in what we know as sanctification, the daily step-by-step, moment by moment process of being made new again. This is going to be a year of hope and we’re going to find plenty of it in the Scriptures. And if we’ll stick with this rhythm, we’ll find it beginning to spill out over into our lives and out of our lives into the world. And I’m exhaling to. I am releasing the old year and I am breathless with anticipation over all that God will speak to us in this coming year through His word.
So, welcome. We have set sail and we’re all in this together. And our agenda is to read the Bible in its context and in its entirety and to invite God to speak through His word. So, no matter how it is that you ended up here, you are welcome here and you will find that to be true very quickly. No matter what has brought you here, it is a brand you day, and I am so excited to be on this journey with you.
I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Song:
Take Me Back - Urban Rescue
It’s the way You always lead me
Through the fire and the flood
Your voice breaks the silence and I
I will respond
Oh my Love don’t let me go
Take me back to where we started from
Oh my Love don’t let me go
Take me back
It’s the way You always find me
Though You see my wandering heart
Your light shines through the darkness and I
I will respond
Oh my Love don’t let me go
Take me back to where we started from
Oh my Love don’t me go
Oh take me back
Into the light, into the light we come
With open arms and open hearts
Into the light, into the light we run
With open arms, and open hearts
Oh my Love don’t let me go
Take me back to where we started from
Oh my Love don’t me go
Oh take me back