Judges 6:1-40, Luke 22:55-23:10, Psalms 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 14:5-6
Today is April 26th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is good to be here around the global campfire. I just threw another log on. It’s burning bright. I see that I’m not the only one that’s around here. Some logs have been thrown on and we keep this thing going constantly, day and night. So, I’m glad that we can take the next step forward in the Scriptures. We’re moving through the Judges and we’ll read Judges chapter 6 today. And we’ve been reading from the God’s Word translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Judges we read chapter 6 today, which launches us into the story of the Judge, Gideon. And man, it is quite a twisty-turn-y story that is out in front of us. But we laid the groundwork today by just simply understanding where we are in the story. The children of Israel are indeed in the Promised Land but they are indeed doing exactly what they swore to God that they wouldn’t do. Alright, so, all of the effort of the early leaders like Moses and Joshua have come to this. The people were constantly reminded of who they are and where they’ve come from and where they’re going. You know, they’ve built monument stones all over the place to retell the story. They know who they are but they have forgotten who they are. All of a sudden the story starts sounding familiar because we spend time in our lives in the same situation. We know who we are, but we’ve forgotten anyway. And what has subsequently happened is exactly what they were warned against, they have turned to other god’s. They have intermingled with the people around them and have turned to other gods, which was exactly what they were warned about and it. And it has caused their demise. They are no longer strong and feared, right? They’re just being completely taken over. And in this case, at this time, in Gideon’s time it’s Midian who has power over them and they like…they to come in with their friends and destroy the crops every year. This is how they keep the people under control and subservient. So, when we find Gideon he’s down in a wine press not crushing grapes or anything like that, he’s threshing wheat to stay hidden so that they can eat. And this is when God comes to him and says, you’re going to be the catalyst, you’re gonna set the people free. And Gideon’s response is very much like our own responses, I know the old stories but where is God now? And even if God is among us, who am I to do anything like that? Like, I’m the lowest of the low. My family is the least of the families in my tribe and I’m the least of my family. And also in many ways mimics the kinds of things that we say and the kinds of postures of heart that we have when where called. So, as we leave the story today, Gideon’s convinced that he has been visited by God. And God has confirmed to Gideon, strengthening his faith through some signs. Bit what is yet out in front of us is one of the most counterintuitive stories that we’ll find in the Bible and that we will unfold in the coming days.
Of course, in the gospel of Luke we are entering the territory of Christ’s last few days, the story of Jesus passion, the story of his arrest and his accusation and his trial and all of the maneuvering around all of that. And Jesus is sent from Pilate’s presence to King Herod’s presence. And Herod, he's…you know…he’s been wanting to see the magic show around Jesus, but Jesus isn’t doing anything. He’s just…he’s there…and so they mock him just like Pilate’s people had, just like the Jewish people had. I mean, the verbal contempt and abuse that Jesus is enduring is something that we often overlook because we know that he’s going to suffer so unspeakably in his body that we don’t always pay attention to the fact that he was beaten down with words as well. And, so, what we see as we conclude today’s reading is that Herod and all of his friends and soldiers treat Jesus with contempt, that they scorn Him, they make fun of Him, they ridicule Him, and then they throw a royal robe over the top of Him and send Him back to Pilate, which is an inside joke, right? So, the accusation that the Jewish people, the Jewish religious leaders have brought to pilot is that Jesus is guilty of insurrection, that he’s stirring up problems for the Empire. And one of the ways that this is happening is that people are calling Him the king of the Jews. He’s claiming that He’s a king. So, Pilate asks Him about this and then sends Him to Herod and Herod asks Him about this and then at the end of the day, because Jesus is talking much, Herod puts this royal robe on Jesus and sends Him back to Herod. And the joke is that Herod has indeed found Jesus to be the king of the Jews, which would be an inside joke and irony because Herod was the king of the Jews. So, Herod’s sending Jesus back to Pilate to say, oh my gosh, we found the king of the Jews. This is really the king of the Jews. This crazy present from Galilee who won’t say a word, He is the king of the Jews. So, we see just the constant ridicule and verbal abuse that Jesus is undergoing and, I mean, I find it hard to imagine that anyone hasn’t had anything mean ever said to them in their lives. But when you’re in those kind of moments where it’s just beating down upon you, words are coming like fists, I mean, that just…that weakens you and tears you down. And, so, we need to understand that Jesus is suffering. Jesus is suffering in His mind and His body and His Spirit. He is enduring much even before whips start cracking and skin starts being torn. He’s still suffering. He’s watching His friends abandon Him. He’s watching His friends deny Him. It’s important that we don’t skip this stuff. We can we can think, well, I’ve read the story a thousand times. I mean, it’s like, it’s everywhere and we’ve already read it several times this year in the Gospels. And, so, we can kind of tune out, when actually we need to try to tune in, because a slow and careful understanding of all of the different facets of Jesus suffering, the different things that He went through verbally, physically, spiritually, they give us incredible clues about the heart of God and especially about the heart of God toward His people, which means me and you. And we’re watching God in the flesh endure all of this as a human being, which is simply demonstrating clearly that God is willing to go there with us. And there is nothing that he isn’t willing to go through and into with us, that there is nothing, humanly speaking, that he didn’t already endure, which makes it very, very difficult for us to begin shaking our fists at the sky and claiming that He’s abandoned us and doesn’t know what we’re going through. That’s just not the truth. And we believe that we’re literally believing a lie. And that lie is going to do nothing but isolate us from God. So, may we pay attention as we move through this story in Luke’s gospel.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the stories and the people that we meet along the way and the kind of questions that they had because they’re the same kinds of things we’re asking. The same kinds of stories that are being told in the Scriptures are the same kinds of stories that we walk through in our own lives. And Your word gives us such counsel. So, come Holy Spirit, as we continue to take this journey through Your word in community. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
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And I have to tell you about something that we have in the Daily Audio Bible shop that won’t last long simply because we have so few. But let’s go back to the beginning and let me tell you the story real quick. I’ve told this story every time I talk about the Daily Audio Bible journals because, you know, because December 2016, we were, we were in the final weeks of my mom’s life. And it was Christmas time. It was one of the strangest Christmas celebrations I have…I mean…it’s just the strangest of celebrations ever. My mom, she had been in and out of a mental hospital and that was just a horrible, horrible experience as she declined into becoming less and less tethered to any kind of reality, where, you know, her kind of dementia had kind of spread…I’m not sure of the right terminology…not sure spread is the right word… it’s that she was declining into it and miserable…horrified…having a really hard time. And during this time she finally got out of that hospital was in a regular hospital and the funny thing is, even though she’s intensive care and really failing fast, it was almost a relief because it was so hard to move through that stuff. And, so, it’s the Christmas season and Jill and I are trying to be in the Christmas spirit and we had just gotten back from Israel in November. And, so, iIt was just kind of moving through this Christmas celebration that looked so different. All the materialism that goes along Christmas and all the gift giving and stuff like that juts seemed so much less important than some of the other things were going on. And we went for a drive and went to an art gallery in this little town in the rolling hills here called Leapers Fork and I found these Black Wing pencils. I’ve told that story, how those pencils were a rescue because I found them intriguing. They were just the most interesting pencils I’d ever seen. And I read their story and I was intrigued and I bought a box of them and then I bought another box of them and started journaling with a pencil. And the pencils kind of became a rescue. They were just this cathartic thing. Sharpening a well-crafted pencil with really strong graphite and writing old school. Just kind of going back to childhood almost and writing with a pencil. I fell in love with it. I fell in love with all the tactile aspects of it. And it rejuvenated my journaling process. And I tried…you know…I’ve filled journals over the years with whatever I could write with. And I’ve tried the digital thing, keeping a digital journal, which is not quite as…I don’t know…it’s not quite as satisfying, at least to me. And then I found these and I just began to Journal. And, so, with a pencil I journaled the last weeks of my mom’s life and I’ve captured that and at some point I’ll go back and read all of that, but I captured it all. But it got me thinking. We were in the process of wanting to design specific journals for writing in any way. And, so, we continued that process and made the new Daily Audio Bible journals, which are elegant and really beautiful to fill with the story of your life and all that God is doing in your life and we paired them with the Black Wing pencils, made them available. I called up Black Wing and just asked them, you know, what do we gotta do? And, so, they let us make them available. So, all that story is telling you how we have journals and Black Wing pencils and all the writing paraphernalia in the shop and why, why we have them because they’re just a great thing to write with. And we encourage journaling. We encourage memorial stones as it were from the Bible. We encourage writing things down so that we don’t forget them. But as I was becoming intrigued with these Black Wing pencils, I realized okay, they have these three main pencils and their amazing, but every three months they come out with a special addition. And, so, we started collecting them…I mean…almost a year ago now. And, so, we’ve been collecting these special addition Black Wing pencils. What happens with these things? And I did not realize this. But what happens with these things is there made in limited quantities anyway. And when they’re sold out you can never get them again because Black Wing doesn’t make them again. So, all of the dealers who deal with Black Wing pencils all across the world, if they want these they can get them but that’s all they’re ever going to get. And I had heard these were like collectors additions and I went on eBay and looked and sure enough they are…once…they are like…I mean…people pay hundreds of dollars for a box of certain black wing pencils. And soon as these additions sell out then they escalate and escalate and escalate until there are none left. But those who have them have them. And, so, for the first time…we’re going to make our stash available. So, we have 24 boxes of the black wing 530, which is…which is a gold pencil, because each of these special editions have a specific meaning. So this one represents when gold was discovered in Northern California. And what we here in the United States would call the gold rush began and changed…it would just define California and changed the culture in the United States in the mid-1800s. And back then there was this word, eureka, right? I found it. I found what I was looking for. I stumbled upon gold. Tthat is what this pencil is meant to represent to those who write poems and write songs and draw pictures and write their lives out in words. These gold pencils represent eureka moment we’re you find gold. And as far as I can tell we may be the only place that has…like…I don’t think you can get them anywhere else. They were a special edition a year ago but those of you who have fallen in love with journaling like this, or you’ve just been intrigued by it, we have a couple dozen boxes. That’s all we have, that’s all we can get, that’s all there is. And we’re not jacking them up like collector additions. We’re just making them available. And, I mean, I can only really talk about this today…like I don’t think they’ll be around tomorrow. So, if you’ve been thinking about journaling, this is a good way to jump in and start writing the story of your life. And if you’ve been journaling, how you are journaling, what you are journaling with this part of that story. And you can find all of this, the journals, all of the writing paraphernalia, including for a very limited time, the special edition Black Wing 530, the gold, the Eureka pencil. And these are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop in the lifestyle section. So, check that out.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey Daily Audio Bible family. This is Andrea D. From Kentucky and I’m calling to ask prayer for my friend and mentor Mark O. Mark O. is overcoming stage IV cancer, was on hospice three times last year. Anyway, he is victorious and I would like for you to agree with me in prayer over him and ask your friends and family to pray for him, that God would give him a second run in life. So, Father right now I just come before you in agreement with your people right here listening on the Daily Audio Bible family. And I ask that they would pray in agreement and that Mark’s body would be completely healed and made whole so that he will not die but live and to declare the works of Yahweh, that he will have a second, third, fourth, fifth run in this life and that he would be glorifying you. I ask that you would send him people that can help him and just minister to him. So, Father, right now we just come into agreement with the global body of Yeshua that he was healed in Jesus name. And if anyone else is suffering stage IV cancer, we come into agreement for their healing as well and we thank you for the testimonies that have already come around for the people who have already been healed in Jesus name from stage IV cancer. So, we plead blood of Jesus, that tumors are shrunk and all the cancer is healed and pray that life would be flooded into his body. And we pray this in Yeshua’s’ name. Thank you for praying with me. Amen.
David was a shepherd boy the least of all his brothers
But God chose him to be the king ahead of all the others
You think that he was sent to __ he was just a kid that he didn’t have a prayer
Not just against Goliath but against the lion and the bear
God was with him all the way and God never let them down
From the time and he was just a boy till they put them in the ground
He believed in God with all his heart His faith was very strong
He saw God’s feet consistently and would repent when he was wrong
He was a poet and a musician he was a leader who actually took part
He wasn’t afraid to cry and dance yet he still had a warriors heart
He made some bad decisions as a father king and man
But he was humble as he served the Lord and would yield to God’s demand
God, David refused to strike God’s anointed
But he killed a man who did
His son once tried to take his throne
And David ran away and hid
He said that if God is for me he will bring me back again
If not I still accept as will for God’s always been my friend
God said in his word that David was a man after is very own heart
Help me God to be like him, let your spirit not depart
For I too have Goliath and they taught me every day
They speak about your word and your son in a very disrespectful way
I’ll fight them if you want me to I know the victory is mine
How dare they taught the living God are the foolish, nuts, or just blind
Help me be like David and always seek your face
And don’t let my indiscretions turn victory into disgrace
Help me watch where you pray and listen for your voice
My hearts complete with you my God you always be first choice
Make me more like David let your spirit not depart
And make me more like Jesus too they both had your own heart
Blindtony1016@gmail.com. Thank you, Brian for this wonderful…
Good evening Daily Audio Bible family. This is Prosperous Pam from the San Francisco Bay Area. I am just seeking prayer for, and this is hard for me to do, so please, please, please, please keep me lifted. Agree with me in the name of Jesus…this request. I just ask that you all pray for me. I am, it’s very difficult for me to seek out help, seek out prayer requests, seek out anything, to be vulnerable to share what’s going on, but I am trusting in the name of Jesus that the body of Christ is real and that…this is the first time am doing this. Please keep me in prayer. I’m going through a lot and it’s very, very difficult. I’m older. I’m an older woman and I still have not had much support my life. I’m 50 years old, African-American, college-educated woman in Silicon Valley. I’ve done a lot of things, it doesn’t even matter to me about Silicon Valley or anything because. Like, I’ve been out of work for like a year and I’m going through this process of where God…I want to know what God wants for me but it’s hard. I’ve been pressing, pressing through and now, where I am now, it’s like I don’t have any energy anymore. So, I’m praying for, I’m praying, I’m asking for you all to agree with me in prayer that God propels me, He keeps me lifted, and His will, His perfect will will be done. The desire and fire that I have in my heart, that he put in my heart, will continue until His perfect will. And I just need…I pray that you guys agree with me because I don’t…this is very hard for me to do. I have never done this. And, like, I‘m already nervous. Like who’s going to hear it? Because I’m so private, but am lifting this up to Christ in the name of Jesus that you all will agree with me in prayer and that God is going to get me through this.
Hi this is Victoria S. I’m just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for my sister, the one whose, I think her name is Melody Faith from Canada, about her son who’s addicted to drugs and her and her husband has been praying for him and everything. I want to pray for him also and I just want to encourage her to continue to pray, continue to trust God because God is a great deliver and the enemy is trying to steal our kids but the Bible says that the prayers of the fervent, the effectual prayers of the righteous avail him much. And we, as mothers and fathers, we can pour into our kids. Let’s trust and ask God to help pour into them so that they can fight the good fight of faith. Gracious Father we praise You today, we magnify You Lord. Oh Lord we glorify Your name. Lord, we ask You to touch this Young man. We ask You to bless him with a haircut Lord in the name of Jesus. Lord we just ask You to heal his body. Oh Lord You take away the desires of those drugs. Oh Lord from them and all the kids that are being affected Lord. You touch him Lord. You give him the strength Lord. You help him to remember what his parents bored into him, that he has a Savior that loves him. Oh Lord in the name of Jesus touch our kids as they go off to school. Touch their minds Lord and keep them father. Touch those that are having depression problems. Touch those who are going through challenges Lord. Oh Lord touch those marriages Lord. Oh Lord in the name of Jesus You work Your miracle Lord. You work it out for the good in those marriages Lord. You bless those husbands. You bless those wives and You bless those kids Lord to receive from their parents that they may be the children Your calling them to be. Oh Lord we continue to thank You for Brian and Jill and all of the DABbers Lord and the Young lady whose little daughter…I think her name is…
Hi. This is Thirsty Charles from Sydney. I’ve given myself that name because of this amazing thing that God’s been doing my life this year. He’s just making me so thirsty for His word and this community and prayer and that’s a real blessing that’s been given through listening to the Daily Audio Bible. So, thank you all for your prayers that you’ve been praying. It’s been an amazing blessing to be a part of that this year. I just started listening in February. And through all of that my husband and I are just desperate to be a part of that and have you guys pray for us. We’re looking at some big life decisions, starting a new family maybe, buying a house, things like this. And we’re just finding a way, starting to lean ourselves financially and our desires and that sort of thing in these decisions. So, we just pray that we would be leaning on God’s will and following His full will when we make these. And just desperately love to have you guys pray for us so that we can be confident that it’s God’s will when we make these choices and not our own. Thank you, thank you, thank you all very much for all of your input. And thank you Brian and the team. This has just been just a life changing, I guess, year and that’s coming from someone who’s been a Christian my entire life. I’m just so blessed. And thank you Lord Jesus for delivering this to me. Thanks for your prayers.