Jonah 1:1-4:11, Revelation 5:1-14, Psalms 133:1-3, Proverbs 29:26-27
Today is the 14th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you. 10 days and it will be Christmas Eve and I pray that you are immersing yourself in this Advent season, this season of longing, this season of waiting and watching for the arrival of the Savior. And as we move through this season of Advent we’re moving rapidly through a lot of territory in the Scriptures. As we’ve mentioned several times. We’ve kind of reached our destination in the New Testament. We’re in the book of Revelation and that will carry us into the end of the year, but the Old Testament, we are moving rapidly and we read the book of Obadiah in its entirety yesterday. We’re gonna read another book in its entirety today and this one is called the book of Jonah.
Introduction to
the book of Jonah:
Jonah, this one is one of the minor prophets and it’s a book of prophecy that has a twist. Jonah was a prophet and he lived in the northern kingdom of Israel. And where he lived was basically due west of the southern portion of the Sea of Galilee and he lived during the reign of King Jeroboam the second, who continue to lead the people into idolatry. Now, whereas most of the prophets of the Bible called their own people to repentance, Jonah’s mission was to go to the city of Nineveh, which was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. And the ruins of ancient Nineveh are located near the modern city of Mosul in Iraq. And unfortunately, many of those ancient ruins were damaged or destroyed in recent years by Isis. So, you can imagine…you can imagine that Jonah was not pleased. And the thing is Jonah, the story we’re about to read is…you know…it’s a famous story, so we probably know the lay of the land and he was not pleased. God commanded him to go to a people who were considered enemies, I mean mortal enemies of Israel and for that matter enemies of God’s. So, to Jonah’s way of thinking, God was sending him to God’s enemies. As the story goes, rather than obeying, Jonah fled in the opposite direction and got himself to the Mediterranean coast at Joppa, which is now kind of a coastal suburb of Tel Aviv. And as we probably are all aware, Jonah ended up in the belly of a great fish. And after three days of repentance he was spewed out on the shore alive. And, so, for Christians there are obviously foreshadowing’s of Jesus in this story. But Jonah also contains parallels with our own lives. When we allow fear and pride to lead us into disobedience we will certainly find ourselves just like Jonah, we will be on the run from God. And the thing that we need to learn from Jonah and from our own stories is that running from God is not possible. And even though Jonah was swallowed in the open sea by a great fish, that great fish ended up being his salvation, right? He would have drowned in that storm. Even though being inside the belly of a great fish would have been terrifying and probably terribly uncomfortable and all kinds of things, God used the fish to deliver Jonah alive and well back on dry land. And we’ve all run from God at times, and we may find that life has swallowed us alive because of it, but we may also find that what engulfed us was actually transporting us in the end, back to firm footing, we can walk with God in obedience once again. So, we’ll read the entirety of Jonah today from the New International version, which is what we’re reading from this week. Jonah 1:1 through 4:11.
Commentary:
Brian: Okay. So, we usually read the proverb right here, but I’ve got a little friend standing next to me. Hey buddy. How are you right now?
Ezekiel: Good
Brian: Want to help read some of the Daily Audio Bible today?
Ezekiel: Yeah
Brian: Want to do the proverb?
Ezekiel: Yeah
Brian: Okay
Ezekiel: Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that one gets justice. The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.
Brian: Yes. Out of the mouth of babes.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another day in Your word and surprises even. You’ve instructed us to have the faith of a child. And, so, when You here the Scriptures from the mouth of a child it is a special indeed. So, we thank You Father. We thank You for all that You have done and all that You have yet to do in this year and in our lives. We ask that You plant the Scriptures deep within, that they might yield the fruit of the spirit in our lives. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
Brian: Thank you for reading with us today buddy.
Ezekiel: Your welcome.
Brian: You excited for Christmas to be here.
Ezekiel: Yeah.
Brian: Its coming very soon, ha?
Ezekiel: Yeah.
Brian: We’re counting down the days.
Ezekiel: Yeah.
Brian: I think you just brought some Christmas cheer into a lot of people’s lives who are listening to you today.
Ezekiel: [yawns]
Brian: You tired? You want to go back to sleep?
Ezekiel: [giggling]
Brian: You just want to hang out here some more?
Okay. Okay….so…we’ll just hang out here. dailyaudiobible.com…hold on….let me just get everything situated. Okay. So, dailyaudiobible.com is the website and its home base and it’s all things Christmas right now around here.
And, so, we’ve been talking about the family Christmas Box. Those are available. The family Christmas album, that’s available. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards with our word for the year, “Hope” on the front of them and they’re beautiful. That’s available. All this is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop in the Christmas section. So, certainly check that out while supplies last.
There are other resources that we have in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that make for really wonderful Christmas presents. Check out the Lifestyle section in the Shop where all of our writing instruments and our Daily Audio Bible journal, those all live in the Lifestyle section. And just some wonderful stuff, great gift giving ideas.
We’ve also been talking about the More Gathering for women that’s coming up this April. That is a fantastic gift idea and you can find out all of the details. I mean, we’ve been talking about it for a couple weeks, so, you kind of probably know some of the details but you can get more details at moregathering.com or at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section.
We’re also taking the Christmas calls for this year and that runs through the end of the week, which is tomorrow. So, if you’ve been kind of procrastinating now would be the time to pick up that phone and wish your Daily Audio Bible family holiday cheer, merry Christmas and whatever it is the that you have to say about your journey. This is always a beautiful beautiful time in this community. Christmas time is a beautiful time around the world, but it is a beautiful time in this community because we’ve been journeying together the whole year. So, you can use any of the prayer request lines to also call in your holiday greeting. 877-942-4253 if you are in the Americas. If you’re in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. If you are in Australia 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial. And like I’ve been saying, just the only thing is don’t call in with a prayer request and then tag on like a holiday greeting at the end or vice versa. Make them separate and then we’ll be able to get everything to where it goes. But every year those are there. There are those that hear this every day and then wait and then miss out. And, so, don’t do that. Make sure you call in one of those numbers and be a part of the family Christmas for this year.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. I thank you. Thank you. We would not be here doing what we are doing if we didn’t do it together. And, so, thank you. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner of the app or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment or a holiday greeting you can use any of those numbers that we named a little bit ago.
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:
You are everything that’s anything
and everything that’s anything is nothing without you
Giving tender mercies every day made new
mold and shape this broken vessel according to your will
speak to my inner restlessness tell it peace be still
hide me under the shadow of your wing while you mend my broken heart
fill me with your word and son while your spirit leads me to a brand-new start
thank you father for not throwing me away for that’s truly what I deserve
but I’m fully committed 100% and it’s only you that I’ll serve
I will lift my little light way up high and let the whole world know
that for me there is no other way and I’m glad it is so
for you are everything that’s anything
and everything that’s anything is nothing without you
full of tender mercies every day made new
mold and shape this broken vessel according to your will
speak to my inner restlessness tell it peace be still
praises glory and honor forever to you are due
for giving us tender mercies every day made new
blindtony1016@gmail.com. Happy holidays everybody. And once again, I want to give a shout out to Asia and Matthias and baby G and mom and I hope that you’re keeping the faith and you’re hanging in there and know that the best is still yet to come. Anyway, know you’re loved, thought of and prayer for every day. And once again, thank you Brian and the Hardin family. Thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow throughout the earth. Keep it flowin’ y’all. Alright. Bye-bye.
Hi this is Deb, the Faithful Wandering Widow of the Word. This message goes out to Dr. John. My heart goes out to you as your mother is in hospice. My prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit would be encamped around her, that God’s peace would be around her, that comfort would be within her body. Lord, I just ask that you would be with John’s mom and just be with her son supernaturally during his last moments. And I pray that you’d be with the entire family, that she would give them comfort, that you would be with them, that you would just love on them Lord and be with them. In Jesus’ name.
Hello DAB family, this is Linda from Alberta calling today. I just…I was driving along and felt compelled to call in. I wanted to call and talk specifically to the mothers of children who are deep in their addictions right now. And I know how very difficult it is and especially at this holiday season. There so many celebrations going on. And maybe you live somewhere where it’s cold like I do. And if your child is active, my heart really goes out to you and I want you to know that I am, every single day, praying for your child. And often the Lord just prompts me to pray for you. We have had recovery in our family for a while now and this Christmas isn’t as difficult as it has been in the past. And I just want to tell you that to give you some hope and also to let you know that I will be praying for you and I’m very very sad that you are experiencing what you are experiencing. Okay? I love you all and if I don’t call in again, Merry Christmas to everybody. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Sheila from Massachusetts. I just wanted to share a quick story about the way that God works and how important this community is. The other day I said to my husband, I can’t imagine what it would be like if the Daily Audio Bible didn’t exist. My husband and I both started following Brian the first year that this started. Gosh, I’m not even sure how many years that is now, but the thought of it not being there…it just…I don’t know what I would do without it. I don’t always call in but I am always listening and always praying. I feel like this is my family and I know everybody here. That was just verified for me. I was listening. James from Southern California, you called in and prayed for me and lifted one of my prayer requests just this week. And your analogy with the generals in the Army and the promotions in the Army, it just…it resonated with me and it gave me what I needed at that time. To know that I’m being prayed for during this time of spiritual warfare and it just hit home to me how important our connections are to the Daily Audio Bible family and Brian and Jill and China. I’ve done China’s Chronological Bible with her and, gosh, I just want to thank you for the time that you guys give to this, the dedication that your family has, and every one of my brothers and sisters in the Daily Audio Bible family. You’re so important to me. We’re so important to each other. And God bless all of you in this holiday season. I love each and every one of you. Thank you so much for what you give to me and I’m sure praying for you all as well. Have a great day.