01/31/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 12:14-13:16, Matthew 20:29-21:22, Psalms 25:16-22, Proverbs 6:12-15

Today is the 31st day of January and we all know what that means. This is the last day of the first month of the year. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. Congratulations by the way. We’re about to complete our first full month together and I don’t know about you but God is speaking to me through His word this month. I have pages and pages of journal notes and I am eager, I am hungry for all that God will speak to us throughout the rest of this year, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves or behind ourselves. Let’s be here now doing what we’re doing, which is taking the next step forward and allowing God’s word to open up to us. We’re reading from the common English Bible this week and we’re picking up the story of the plagues and the Egyptians and we’re coming to a conclusion on that pretty dramatic retelling of God freeing his people from slavery. Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 through 13 verse 16 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Exodus the final plague descended upon Egypt, which was the death of the firstborn, which certainly caused the Egyptians to drive the Israelites out. So, we’re just completing our first month together, like our first month in the Bible. And, so, we can stand here together around this global campfire and look backward and see just how much ground we have covered in 31 days. And we end this month on a pretty high note, freedom. So, let’s, look at the lay of the land as we close this month and begin to begin the second month of the year. Let’s just kind of orient ourselves. So, the children of Israel have just been set free from slavery and almost immediately God is handing down traditions that they are to follow in all of their future generations. So, all of the sudden ritual begins to come into the story immediately and this gives us a pretty good opportunity to talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament and what’s going on. So, here in the book of Exodus we’re millennia from the birth of Jesus. So, where we sit in the book of Exodus is a couple of thousand years before Jesus was born and where we sit today is a couple of thousand years after. So, where we are in the continuum is that Jesus is kind of in the middle of the scenario, which is a great metaphor. We could probably come up with something cool to talk about that, but that’s just where it is in time. Jesus, from where we are to where Moses was, Jesus was kind of in the middle there. So, the children of Israel are just walking into their freedom, but before they will have their promised land they have to completely be transformed, right? They’re slaves, this is all they know. For 430 years all they’ve known is slavery. So, they have to be washed clean of that identity and set up a whole infrastructure and culture that would allow them to be free people, independent people. So, what’s going to come later is that God is going to give them the law, right? And it will be extensive, and we will read it in its entirety. And that Mosaic law will govern the culture and the people, and this will still be going on when Jesus comes, which moves us into the book of Matthew.

And we get to the opportunity to look at this law, this thing that kind of encompasses how they are to behave and relate to God and one another. Jesus was born into that system and He grew up and began to minister from that context, that paradigm. And yet His entire ministry, He’s critiquing the religious system, right? Like that’s what he’s critiquing. And, so, Jesus, God in the flesh, comes and critiques what has become of the law and what has been…and how it has been used to, in some ways, re-enslave the people, but that was not its intention. And we get clues about that in today’s reading from Exodus because the people have just been set free and they are walking out of Egypt out into the desert and God begins to give them traditions. This is what you’re supposed to do every year on this day. And the reason is so that they won’t forget what happened. So, he’s baking in ritual into their culture and He flat out tells them, the reason is so that in future generations when your children ask you, “why are we doing this stuff”, you can tell them, “it’s because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.” So, God is instituting rituals and customs and He will institute laws. And, you know, some of them will be archaic to our way of living in the world today, but they weren’t at the time, they were contemporary at the time. So, God will give these laws and we can read them and go, “the law, the law, man there’s just so many rules regulations, who could ever live up to this”? And that would be true, no one will be able to perfectly obey the law because the law wasn’t only about behavior modification, like this is what you can do, and this is what you can’t do within your physical body. This is how you are to behave, right? God was instituting the laws that were connected to the heart so that the Hebrew people could live their lives and have constant reminders in every conceivable way about where they came from, who they are, who God is, and where they’re going. It was baked in. By the time that Jesus had come the children of Israel had been through exiles, many of the tribes were utterly gone, they disappeared, they’d been assimilated into other people groups. And the law remained but it wasn’t this thing connected to the heart that continually reminded people of their identity. It was the rules, it was the rules that you must obey so that a vengeful God will not come down and smite you and it was also used to control the population.

So, Jesus, God, the same being who gave the law came in person at a specific time and used His ministry in many ways to critique what had become of the law. So, Jesus comes in and starts saying things and starts breaking traditions and starts rattling the cages and getting people angry with Him, but what does He have to say about it? “I’m looking for people with eyes to see and ears to hear”. And, of course, it was the religious establishment that didn’t have either of those. And they conspired and successfully killed Jesus, which is the territory that we’re moving into in the book of Matthew and that we’ll be seeing for the first time in the coming days.

That’s the lay of the land in the Bible. Now we’re 2000 years in the future. And we have to critique ourselves because so often it still does boil back down to the rules. Maybe we’re not following the Mosaic law anymore, but we’ve distilled Jesus teachings down to do’s and don'ts and somehow feel like it’s our responsibility to troll everything from the Internet to our church pews as appointed deputies to sniff out sin. And yet Jesus response to that would be sniff out your own sin. Believe me, it smells enough, you don’t gotta go smell the sin of everybody else or in his own vernacular, “get the log out of your own eye before you try to get the speck out of your brothers.” So, the month of January has given us a swift kick in the pants on a number of levels and has touched a lot of places inside of us and has brought us a lot of context for the story that we’re not only living through as we read the Bible, but the story we’re living in in our lives. And if we’ll just let it come like we are, day by day, wave after wave as every day we come in out of the cold and come into the warmth of the global campfire, each and every day were given something. We don’t have to assimilate all of this all of the time. Like, so much has happened in January alone in the Bible that we could just start over and keep doing January the whole year. There’s enough here. What we need to do is relax. God will bring us what we need to live into today. Let’s live into what the Scriptures bring us today. If we can live into what he brings us each and every day in the course of the year He will touch everything.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for this month. You are big on commemorating and remembering things. And, so, we commemorate and we remember that we have journeyed one month together in this year and we have 11 to go and we are committing ourselves because You are speaking to us and things are shifting and its unexplainable because You’re working from within. So, come Holy Spirit we mark this day. We have made it a month. Give us the strength the commitment the endurance and perseverance to continue for the next month. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected

You can visit the Daily Audio Bible shop. There are number of resources that are available to take you through this journey, like the Daily Audio Bible journals or the Blackwing writing paraphernalia that I’m a big fan of and use every day. These are resources to commemorate, to write down so that you can review remember who you are, where you’ve come from, who God is, where you’re going. God told the children of Israel, “write these things down” and He baked in rituals and customs so that they wouldn’t forget. So, this is just a modern version of that. And, of course, you can go anywhere you want, buy whatever journal you want and whatever you want to write with, that’s fine. We have these resources available for this purpose. God’s gonna speak, we should be taking notes, and if we’re gonna read the Bible then God is speaking.

There are other resources available, like some of the things we were just talking about as we were contextualizing where we are and looking at the life of Jesus. Yeah, I mean, there’s a longer discussion about this beautiful Savior and what He means to our humanity because we’re so often living our lives confused and waiting to die basically, when Jesus transforms the way we are supposed to be human. And that discussion can be found in the resource called “Sneezing Jesus”. And all of the resources that we’ve ever created at Daily Audio Bible have been to further the journey, to make it go deeper, to allow this transformation to be permanent, to create irreversible change in our lives. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If you’ve gone through this month and light, and life has come into your world and you’re beginning to find a rhythm that this is bringing life to you, then thank you for being life-giving because what we’ve done and what we are doing is something that we are doing together, right? Makes no sense for me to do this by myself. I could be my introverted self and just do it quietly. We’re in this together and what we’ve done we’ve done together, and it’s been pretty remarkable. And, so, if it’s been a life-giving thing to you, then thank you for being a life-giving source back to the community. There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner 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, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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:

Hello Daily Audio Bible, this is Isabel from Australia. The Lord’s just been really burning in my heart to pray for Margo from Australia who’s gone to her mission trip with her husband. Margo, the Lord is with you, don’t ever feel that you’re by yourself. He has called you and your husband, you’re not alone, the Lord’s with you, all your Daily Audio Bible family are praying for you too and we love you. You know, just keep your chin up, just keep on trusting in the Lord. I’ve been praying for you and I know that the Lord is with you and just don’t stress and just be happy and just see God’s heart through all of this, that you’re now doing the service for the Lord, you’re being obedient to Him and see God’s heart through all of this and God will bless you. In the beginning it’s hard but then later you’ll get used to the people and you’ll start loving the people the way the Lord us. May God bless you and your husband. I’ll be continuing praying for both of you and that the Lord keeps on, you know, healing your heart and your anxiety about everything because I know it’s a big change, but the Lord’s with you and where with you too. We love you Margo. Bye. God bless you

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Julie from Albany. Thank you for your prayers for my younger brother. This morning I’m calling…I’m calling for you Angela in California. Angela, as I was listening this morning to other prayers some things that Mike from London was saying I felt were…you just can’t replace these words. First of all, I’m just…shame…I just agree with this. God feels our pain. God can heal all. Always pray, lean on Him. Let Him be there for you. Just believe. He will take care of us but here’s the kicker, we have to let Him. Our prayers don’t go unanswered. So, pray, be in peace. I pray that the Lord heal your depression, I pray that He heal all those bad thoughts that you’re having, I pray that He bless you and lead you in the path to get the right help that you need to get you through this. And there is no…nothing bad in that. As a nurse of 35 years I say it’s okay and pray that the Lord…I pray that the Lord will direct you in that path because you are beautiful, you are irreplaceable. God doesn’t make junk. So, I hear you and I’m praying for you Angela and I’m gonna to pray and pray and pray and pray for you that all will be well. This too shall pass. Just believe, just pray to Him Angela with all of your heart and soul. We love you.

Hi family, I’m just calling for Angela from California. Now, you called in saying that you had suicidal thoughts and you wanted to take you live. And I’m just calling to, number one, cancel the assignment over her life from the enemy and I bind him right now and I cast him out. All of you evil spirits, suicide spirits, spirits of torment, spirits of depression, out in Jesus’ name and I ask Lord for the peace that surpasses all understanding to come over Angela, that she may be strengthened and that she can get through this because with God all things are possible. Lord, thank You, thank You for the family, thank You for this Daily Audio Bible and we trust You and we love You. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Shantae calling from Metro Detroit and I am calling in today to say hello to everybody. And I can’t stress it enough, if you are going through something and you have burdens, give them to the Lord, but also call into the DAB, let us pray for you because when I called in last time and many times previously as well with my prayer requests and I hang up the phone and instantly I feel God’s peace in such an intense level and it’s all of our prayers just joined together. There’s power in numbers and we don’t have to go to this alone. When you call in, that’s with Brian tells you when you call into the hotline or whatever you want to call it, our family line or whatever. But anyway, so I really encourage you all to call in and just want to let you all know that I’m doing much better. My circumstances haven’t changed all that much but by perspective and God’s peace is just upon me and each time I have anxious thoughts I just give them to the Lord and I just really encourage you all, call in, let us know how you’re doing and know that you are loved, know that there are thousands upon thousands praying for you. So, I will talk with y’all later. Love you all. Bye-bye.

Hi good morning, this is Bridget from New York City again. I just heard Angela’s prayer request. Today is January 24th. Angela, I’m just gonna to lift you up in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank You for Angela’s life. I thank You that You’ve given her purpose on this earth Lord and I just I pray Father for her to see Your purpose for her life Father God. Father, You’ve chosen her, Your word says that You’ve chosen her to be a vessel of You light Father God. Your word says that Your Holy Spirit resides within her Father God. I just pray for Your Holy Spirit to give her strength, to give her mental strength, to give her emotional strength, to give her physical strength Father. Lord, Holy Spirit can revive what is dead inside of her. So, I pray for light. I pray that You would just desire light. I pray that Your generational legend would be light, that Your story would be a story of light, that Your children would see light, that You would want and desire light for God does not call the dead, He calls the living. You are living Angela. May the Lord bless You. The word says, “may the Lord bless You, keep You, You may not be harmed.” Father, God, calm her mind. Lord, surround her with warming angels, Father. Bless her mind Father that she may take every word captive and give it back to You Lord and that every word that comes to a at her Father that she will lift up the shield of faith and know that You are with her and that she would remember Your words and the love that You pour into her Father God. Angela, the Lord calls us to call out on…

He there this is a call for Angela in California. You called the prayer line on January 24th and you were talking about your mental illness with depression and your thoughts of suicide. And Angela, I am so thankful that you called in. It’s so good for those of us who don’t struggle with depression to hear what its really like so that we can have compassion. My mother struggles with bipolar disorder and I get really frustrated when I don’t understand when she’s in a depressive episode. So, thank you so much for your honesty and your vulnerability. Angela, I just pray for you that God gives you peace. You’re clinging onto Him and I promise you He won’t snuff you out. Continue to cling onto Him. And Angela amid a prayer of you Numbers 6:24-26. “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” Angela keep holding on and keep putting one foot in front of the other. The Lord is there with you, and He loves you and He wants to take you into His bosom and heal you completely. Hang in there, friend, and call us back. Bye-bye.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday January 31, 2019 (NIV)

Exodus 12:14-13:16

14 “This day will be a day of remembering for you. You will observe it as a festival to the Lord. You will observe it in every generation as a regulation for all time. 15 You will eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses because anyone who eats leavened bread anytime during those seven days will be cut off from Israel. 16 The first day and the seventh day will be a holy occasion for you. No work at all should be done on those days, except for preparing the food that everyone is going to eat. That is the only work you may do. 17 You should observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because on this precise day I brought you out of the land of Egypt in military formation. You should observe this day in every generation as a regulation for all time. 18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you should eat unleavened bread. 19 For seven days no yeast should be found in your houses because whoever eats leavened bread will be cut off from the Israelite community, whether the person is an immigrant or a native of the land. 20 You should not eat anything made with yeast in all your settlements. You should eat only unleavened bread.”

21 Then Moses called together all of Israel’s elders and said to them, “Go pick out one of the flock for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood that is in the bowl, and touch the beam above the door and the two doorposts with the blood in the bowl. None of you should go out the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord comes by to strike down the Egyptians and sees the blood on the beam above the door and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door. He won’t let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you down. 24 You should observe this ritual as a regulation for all time for you and your children. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord has promised to give you, be sure that you observe this ritual. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ 27 you will say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. When he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.’” The people then bowed down and worshipped. 28 The Israelites went and did exactly what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron to do.

Death of Egypt’s oldest children

29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the first offspring in the land of Egypt, from the oldest child of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the oldest child of the prisoner in jail, and all the first offspring of the animals. 30 When Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the Egyptians got up that night, a terrible cry of agony rang out across Egypt because every house had someone in it who had died. 31 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron that night and said, “Get up! Get away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go! Worship the Lord, as you said! 32 You can even take your flocks and herds, as you asked. Just go! And bring a blessing on me as well!”

Israel set free

33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the land because they thought, We’ll all be dead. 34 So the people picked up their bread dough before the yeast made it rise, with their bread pans wrapped in their robes on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites did as Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for their silver and gold jewelry as well as their clothing. 36 The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the people so that they let them have whatever they asked for. And so they robbed the Egyptians.

37 The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth. They numbered about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 A diverse crowd also went up with them along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 They baked unleavened cakes from the dough they had brought out of Egypt. The dough didn’t rise because they were driven out of Egypt and they couldn’t wait. In fact, they didn’t have time to prepare any food for themselves.

40 The length of time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 41 At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that precise day, all the Lord’s people in military formation left the land of Egypt. 42 For the Lord, that was a night of intent watching, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For all Israelites in every generation, this same night is a time of intent watching to honor the Lord.

Instructions for observing Passover

43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the regulation for the Passover. No foreigner may eat it. 44 However, any slave who has been bought may eat it after he’s been circumcised. 45 No temporary foreign resident or day laborer may eat it. 46 It should be eaten in one house. You shouldn’t take any of the meat outside the house, and you shouldn’t break the bones. 47 The whole Israelite community should observe it. 48 If an immigrant who lives with you wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, then he and all his males should be circumcised. Then he may join in observing it. He should be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. 49 There will be one Instruction for the native and for the immigrant who lives with you.

50 All the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 On that precise day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in military formation.

13 The Lord said to Moses: Dedicate to me all your oldest children. Each first offspring from any Israelite womb belongs to me, whether human or animal.

Unleavened bread

Moses said to the people, “Remember this day which is the day that you came out of Egypt, out of the place you were slaves, because the Lord acted with power to bring you out of there. No leavened bread may be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib,[a] you are going to leave. The Lord will bring you to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. It is the land that the Lord promised your ancestors to give to you, a land full of milk and honey. You should perform this ritual in this month. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. The seventh day is a festival to the Lord. Only unleavened bread should be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread and no yeast should be seen among you in your whole country. You should explain to your child on that day, ‘It’s because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

“It will be a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead so that you will often discuss the Lord’s Instruction, for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with great power. 10 So you should follow this regulation at its appointed time every year.

Dedication of Israel’s oldest offspring

11 “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you as promised to you and your ancestors, 12 you should set aside for the Lord whatever comes out of the womb first. All of the first males born to your animal belong to the Lord. 13 But every first male donkey you should ransom with a sheep. If you don’t ransom it, you must break its neck. You should ransom every oldest male among your children. 14 When in the future your child asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you should answer, ‘The Lord brought us with great power out of Egypt, out of the place we were slaves. 15 When Pharaoh refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the oldest offspring in the land of Egypt, from the oldest sons to the oldest male animals. That is why I offer to the Lord as a sacrifice every male that first comes out of the womb. But I ransom my oldest sons.’ 16 It will be a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with great power.”

Footnotes:

  1. Exodus 13:4 March–April, named Nisan after the exile
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Matthew 20:29-21:22

Healing of two blind men

29 As Jesus and his disciples were going out of Jericho a large crowd followed him. 30 When two blind men sitting along the road heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Show us mercy, Lord, Son of David!”

31 Now the crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But they shouted even louder, “Show us mercy, Lord, Son of David!”

32 Jesus stopped in his tracks and called to them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

33 “Lord, we want to see,” they replied.

34 Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they were able to see, and they followed him.

Entry into Jerusalem

21 When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. He said to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anybody says anything to you, say that the Lord needs it.” He sent them off right away. Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said, Say to Daughter Zion,Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey’s offspring.[a] The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them.

Now a large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord![b] Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. 11 The crowds answered, “It’s the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Cleansing the temple

12 Then Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. 13 He said to them, “It’s written, My house will be called a house of prayer.[c] But you’ve made it a hideout for crooks.”

14 People who were blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and legal experts saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were angry. 16 They said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” he answered. “Haven’t you ever read, From the mouths of babies and infants you’ve arranged praise for yourself? [d] 17 Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.

Cursing the fig tree

18 Early in the morning as Jesus was returning to the city, he was hungry. 19 He saw a fig tree along the road, but when he came to it, he found nothing except leaves. Then he said to it, “You’ll never again bear fruit!” The fig tree dried up at once.

20 When the disciples saw it, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree dry up so fast?” they asked.

21 Jesus responded, “I assure you that if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. You will even say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the lake.’ And it will happen. 22  If you have faith, you will receive whatever you pray for.”

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Psalm 25:16-22

16 Turn to me, God, and have mercy on me
because I’m alone and suffering.
17 My heart’s troubles keep getting bigger—
set me free from my distress!
18 Look at my suffering and trouble—
forgive all my sins!
19 Look at how many enemies I have
and how violently they hate me!
20 Please protect my life! Deliver me!
Don’t let me be put to shame
because I take refuge in you.
21 Let integrity and virtue guard me
because I hope in you.

22 Please, God, save Israel from all its troubles!

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Proverbs 6:12-15

12 Worthless people and guilty people
go around with crooked talk.
13 They wink their eyes, gesture with their feet,
and point with their fingers.
14 Their hearts are corrupt and determined to do evil;
they create controversies all the time.
15 Therefore, sudden disaster will come upon them;
they will be quickly broken beyond healing.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

01/30/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 10:1-12:13, Matthew 20:1-28, Psalms 25:1-15, Proverbs 6:6-11

Today is the 30th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today, right in the middle of the week taking the next step forward and moving to the back half of the week and the last couple of days of this first month of the year and I guess that describes where we are time. But where we are in the Bible is that plagues are falling on the land of Egypt and Pharaoh is resisting allowing God’s people to go free and we’ll pick up that story where we left off yesterday. Exodus chapter 10 verse 1 through 12 verse 13 today and we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Exodus, the plagues continue to visit the Egyptians and we’ve watched a sort of a systematic dismantling of Egypt right before our eyes through these plagues. And if we just pause for a second, we can remember that Moses did come to Pharaoh in the first place and simply say, “let my people go, like, this is what the Lord’s telling us to do”. Obviously, Pharaoh didn’t do that and we’ve already talked about the fact that he thought he was a deity himself, the son of God, the gods of Egypt were the most powerful gods on the known world. And, so, he couldn’t imagine somebody coming in and doing that. And, so, he resisted but he had the opportunity, that’s the thing. Like this wasn’t an arbitrary judgment. He had the opportunity, this didn’t have to happen, and we’ll see that so much when we get a little bit further into our year and we get into the books of prophecy, we’ll see the same kind of thing where it didn’t have to go this way. Like, we’re on the Hebrew side as we read the Bible, so we want the Hebrew people to be set free, but what was visited upon the Egyptians was pretty difficult to bear. And, I mean, the fundamental issue came down to who was the more powerful God. And in today’s reading, you know, Pharaoh’s advisors and the leaders of Egypt they were getting this message pretty clear and they went to Pharaoh and they’re like, “don’t you get it, like, don’t you see that Egypt is being destroyed”. But Pharaoh just wouldn’t be humiliated in front of his people. Like, his pride was destroying the nation of Egypt, but he wouldn’t humble himself even in the face of these like overwhelmingly powerful signs. So, locusts came and covered Egypt and then nothing was left, right? Not a single leaf was left uneaten and the trees and the plants throughout Egypt were devastated. So, one more thing coming against Egypt to destroy it and once again Pharaoh comes to Aaron and Moses and says, “I’ve sinned and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah”, but at the end of our reading today something really pretty ominous happened because God is telling Moses that there’s only one more plague and that you won’t be asking to leave after this goes down, you’re going to be chased away. And, so, Pharaoh has one final negotiation, right? Just take your kids, take you people, but leave your livestock. And Moses is like, “we’re taking everything, like, this is what God’s told us to do”. And Pharaoh warns Moses, “never come back to see me again. The day you see my face you will die.” And that’s pretty close to where we ended today. And if we’re watching this on film this is where the ominous drone undertone starts to play because it's…Egypt is gonna have to face a devastation like they’ve never known, as if the plagues that were coming against them weren’t enough. And, so, we’ll get to that tomorrow.

And we have to notice that, and we probably have noticed this along the way because we’re reading Old Testament and New Testament, so, we’re juxtaposing this Pharaoh story with the ministry of Jesus, and we have to notice that Pharaoh and Jesus are like opposites in attitude and actions. And we can see that contrast pretty starkly because of the sections of the Scriptures that were reading juxtaposed against each other, but this contrast should allow us to look inside ourselves. When we see the posture of Pharaoh we see pride and we see arrogance and all of these things that we don’t see in the life of Jesus. And, so, if we look at our lives through each of those lenses, we find that we’ve got pride and arrogance in our own lives. We can find that pretty easy and that is not Christlike. That’s actually more Pharaoh like. Jesus invites us to look at our purpose in terms of how it is that we can serve one another, how we can help whoever needs help pretty much whenever they need it. Like, whenever it’s within our power to help we should, we should serve. This is what Jesus was saying in our reading today, even as He’s being asked to give the right-hand and left-hand seat to two of his disciples by their mom in his kingdom. So, even as He’s on His way to a cross He’s being asked to give these positions of authority to these sons. And it’s here that Jesus is like, “look, I’m I came to serve, that’s what this is about. I came to serve. And, so, if you want to follow after me, if you want to be like me then that’s what you need to do too.” So, it’s interesting because now we’re further in the story, we’re 2000 years away from this event and we have 2000 years of experience in theology to inform us and what’s interesting is that when we accept Christ we determine to serve Him like He’s wanting to be…like this is the purpose, like He’ come to earth and He’s died for the sins of the world and now He’s back up in heaven and he’s looking down upon the earth so that He can look down and see people serving Him. And, so, we get up every day and hopefully go through our day serving Jesus so that He can look down upon us seeing us serve Him well when He never came to be served, He came to serve. You know, so, put a spoon of that in your coffee and stir it around. I happen to be drinking tea today, but I’ll put that in my tea and stir it around because we spend so much of our lives trying to do the right thing so Jesus will look down upon us and see us serving Him when we ignore everyone around us and aren’t servants. And yet, it’s Jesus who said, “if you do this to the least of these, you do it to me.” And, so, if we want to serve Jesus then we have to serve those who need help. So, that should give us pause before we lay into our spouse today and destroy them with our words because we are doing it in the name of Jesus. We are serving Jesus as we go through this day and if we’re spitting things out of our mouths that are more Pharaoh like than Christlike then we have found ourselves on the wide path that leads to destruction and not the narrow path that leads to life, right? When we go off on anybody or when we just walk by anything that we have the power to do something, anything, about. And this isn’t just about handing money to a person who is, you know, has a sign out on the side of the highway. It may be exactly about that, but it doesn’t mean just those kinds of things where you’re like, “oh, I gotta…I gotta help these down and out people.” Everybody’s struggling friends. Everybody’s struggling. Like, we…we’re spending all of our time trying to pretend and portray to the world that we’re not, but we’re all struggling, but we don’t have to, we can serve one another, like we can face outward and stop facing inward at everything that we might be dealing with and start looking outward and serving one another, and then being served by one another. And then we have Christ in action on this planet and that can start right this second in your life. This day can be completely different for you if you’ll face outward, if we’ll look outward and start paying attention to what’s going on around us and start seeing the world through the eyes of our Savior. And there are enough of us on this planet who believe that we have the power to change the world, like immediately, but rather than paying attention to what’s not being done let’s commit our lives to us not being the weak link, to us actually being Christ and Christ-like, the hands and feet of Jesus in this world.

Prayer:

Jesus…Jesus, we invite you into that. It’s so hard to be vigilant and stay in that kind of heart and mind space all of the time because we have so many responsibilities and obligations. And this is a good time for us to consider this word that you have given us this year, “Maintain” because now we see like, ahhh, I could probably be Christlike if I would pay more attention, but I don’t really have any space to pay attention to anything other than what I’m obligated to in my own life. I have so much I’ve got to maintain that I can’t fully live into being Christlike. So we have to examine our lives and understand that our lives can only be as big as what we can maintain and if we’re not building enough margin in our lives to be Christlike than what is the point. Like, what’s the point of all this? We might as well just jump back out into the world and kill or be killed and try to live it up as long as we can. What’s the point if we’re not trying to become Christlike? And if there’s no room in our lives to become Christlike…well…what…what are we supposed to do with that? We’re gonna have to get rid of some of the obligations and responsibilities so that we can maintain a life that can be used by God instead of a life that’s just running around moving things from this place to that trying to pay for everything. So, Holy Spirit, come. We ask in the name of Jesus that you transform us and change us from the inside out and we begin by repenting. Repentance means that we will change our mind, that we will change our inner selves, and we can do that when we are exposed to the truth. When the truth comes crashing in then we can see it and move in that direction. You are showing us the truth. So, come Holy Spirit, may we chase you with all of our hearts. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song:

To Be Like You - Hillsong

Humble King

Holy One

Friend of sinners

God’s own Son

God in flesh

Among men

You walked my road

You understand

Servant King

Friend to me

You saved my soul

Washed my feet

Here I’ll bow

Give all to You

Lord I want

To be like You

All I want

All I need

More of You

Less of me

Take this life

Lord it’s Yours

Have my heart

Have it all

I will walk

In Your ways

Love Your word

Seek Your face

My reward

My sole pursuit

To know You more

To be like You

Jesus Jesus

All I want is to be like You

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday January 30, 2019 (NIV)

Exodus 10:1-12:13

Invasion of locusts

10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. I’ve made him and his officials stubborn so that I can show them my signs and so that you can tell your children and grandchildren how I overpowered the Egyptians with the signs I did among them. You will know that I am the Lord.”

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the Hebrews’ God, says: How long will you refuse to respect me? Let my people go so that they can worship me. Otherwise, if you refuse to let my people go, I’m going to bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the landscape so that you won’t be able to see the ground. They will eat the last bit of vegetation that was left after the hail. They will eat all your trees growing in the fields. The locusts will fill your houses and all your officials’ houses and all the Egyptians’ houses. Your parents and even your grandparents have never seen anything like it during their entire lifetimes in this fertile land.” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.

Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man trap us in a corner like this? Let the people go so that they can worship the Lord their God. Don’t you get it? Egypt is being destroyed!”

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go! Worship the Lord your God! But who exactly is going with you?”

Moses said, “We’ll go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we all must observe the Lord’s festival.”

10 Pharaoh said to them, “Yes, the Lord will be with you, all right, especially if I let your children go with you! Obviously, you are plotting some evil scheme. 11 No way! Only your men can go and worship the Lord, because that’s what you asked for.” Then Pharaoh had them chased out of his presence.

12 Then the Lord said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt so that the locusts will swarm over the land of Egypt and eat all of the land’s grain and everything that the hail left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his shepherd’s rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow over the land all that day and all that night. When morning came, the east wind had carried in the locusts. 14 The locusts swarmed over the whole land of Egypt and settled on the whole country. Such a huge swarming of locusts had never happened before and would never happen ever again. 15 They covered the whole landscape so that the land turned black with them. They ate all of the land’s grain and all of the orchards’ fruit that the hail had left. Nothing green was left in any orchard or in any grain field in the whole land of Egypt.

16 Pharaoh called urgently for Moses and Aaron and said, “I’ve sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 17 Please forgive my sin this time. Pray to the Lord your God just to take this deathly disaster away from me.”

18 So Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. 19 The Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind that lifted the locusts and drove them into the Reed Sea.[a] Not a single locust was left in the whole country of Egypt. 20 But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wouldn’t let the Israelites go.

Darkness covers Egypt

21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over the land of Egypt, a darkness that you can feel.” 22 So Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and an intense darkness fell on the whole land of Egypt for three days. 23 People couldn’t see each other, and they couldn’t go anywhere for three days. But the Israelites all had light where they lived.

24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go! Worship the Lord! Only your flocks and herds need to stay behind. Even your children can go with you.”

25 But Moses said, “You need to let us have sacrifices and entirely burned offerings to present to the Lord our God. 26 So our livestock must go with us. Not one animal can be left behind. We’ll need some of them for worshipping the Lord our God. We won’t know which to use to worship the Lord until we get there.”

27 But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wasn’t willing to let them go. 28 Pharaoh said to him, “Get out of here! Make sure you never see my face again, because the next time you see my face you will die.”

29 Moses said, “You’ve said it! I’ll never see your face again!”

God announces the final disaster

11 The Lord said to Moses, “I’ll bring one more disaster on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he’ll let you go from here. In fact, when he lets you go, he’ll eagerly chase you out of here. Tell every man to ask his neighbor and every woman to ask her neighbor for all their silver and gold jewelry.” The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the Hebrew people. In addition, Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people even came to honor Moses as a great and important man in the land.

Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: At midnight I’ll go throughout Egypt. Every oldest child in the land of Egypt will die, from the oldest child of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the oldest child of the servant woman by the millstones, and all the first offspring of the animals. Then a terrible cry of agony will echo through the whole land of Egypt unlike any heard before or that ever will be again. But as for the Israelites, not even a dog will growl at them, at the people, or at their animals. By this, you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. Then all your officials will come down to me, bow to me, and say, ‘Get out, you and all your followers!’ After that I’ll leave.” Then Moses, furious, left Pharaoh.

The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen to you so that I can perform even more amazing acts in the land of Egypt.” 10 Now Moses and Aaron did all these amazing acts in front of Pharaoh, but the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he didn’t let the Israelites go from his land.

First Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month will be the first month; it will be the first month of the year for you.[b] Tell the whole Israelite community: On the tenth day of this month they must take a lamb for each household, a lamb per house. If a household is too small for a lamb, it should share one with a neighbor nearby. You should divide the lamb in proportion to the number of people who will be eating it. Your lamb should be a flawless year-old male. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You should keep close watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month. At twilight on that day, the whole assembled Israelite community should slaughter their lambs. They should take some of the blood and smear it on the two doorposts and on the beam over the door of the houses in which they are eating. That same night they should eat the meat roasted over the fire. They should eat it along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Don’t eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over fire with its head, legs, and internal organs. 10 Don’t let any of it remain until morning, and burn any of it left over in the morning. 11 This is how you should eat it. You should be dressed, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. You should eat the meal in a hurry. It is the Passover of the Lord. 12 I’ll pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I’ll strike down every oldest child in the land of Egypt, both humans and animals. I’ll impose judgments on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be your sign on the houses where you live. Whenever I see the blood, I’ll pass over[c] you. No plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Footnotes:

  1. Exodus 10:19 Or Red Sea
  2. Exodus 12:2 March–April; cf Exod 13:4
  3. Exodus 12:13 Heb verb of the noun Passover
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Matthew 20:1-28

Workers in the vineyard

20 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After he agreed with the workers to pay them a denarion,[a] he sent them into his vineyard.

“Then he went out around nine in the morning and saw others standing around the marketplace doing nothing. He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.’ And they went.

“Again around noon and then at three in the afternoon, he did the same thing. Around five in the afternoon he went and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you just standing around here doing nothing all day long?’

“‘Because nobody has hired us,’ they replied.

“He responded, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and moving on finally to the first.’ When those who were hired at five in the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarion. 11 When they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 ‘These who were hired last worked one hour, and they received the same pay as we did even though we had to work the whole day in the hot sun.’

13 “But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion? 14  Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. 15  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I’m generous?’ 16  So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”

Jesus predicts his death and resurrection

17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve aside by themselves on the road. He told them, 18 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Human One[b] will be handed over to the chief priests and legal experts. They will condemn him to death. 19  They will hand him over to the Gentiles to be ridiculed, tortured, and crucified. But he will be raised on the third day.”

Request from James and John’s mother

20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus along with her sons. Bowing before him, she asked a favor of him.

21 “What do you want?” he asked.

She responded, “Say that these two sons of mine will sit, one on your right hand and one on your left, in your kingdom.”

22 Jesus replied, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Can you drink from the cup that I’m about to drink from?”

They said to him, “We can.”

23 He said to them, “You will drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left hand isn’t mine to give. It belongs to those for whom my Father prepared it.”

24 Now when the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that those who rule the Gentiles show off their authority over them and their high-ranking officials order them around. 26  But that’s not the way it will be with you. Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant. 27  Whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave— 28 just as the Human One[c] didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.”

Footnotes:

  1. Matthew 20:2 A denarion was a typical day’s wage.
  2. Matthew 20:18 Or Son of Man
  3. Matthew 20:28 Or Son of Man
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Psalm 25:1-15

Psalm 25[a]

Of David.

25 I offer my life[b] to you, Lord.
My God, I trust you.
Please don’t let me be put to shame!
Don’t let my enemies rejoice over me!
For that matter,
don’t let anyone who hopes in you
be put to shame;
instead, let those who are treacherous without excuse be put to shame.

Make your ways known to me, Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth—teach it to me—
because you are the God who saves me.
I put my hope in you all day long.
Lord, remember your compassion and faithful love—
they are forever!
But don’t remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoing.
Remember me only according to your faithful love
for the sake of your goodness, Lord.

The Lord is good and does the right thing;
he teaches sinners which way they should go.
God guides the weak to justice,
teaching them his way.
10 All the Lord’s paths are loving and faithful
for those who keep his covenant and laws.
11 Please, for the sake of your good name, Lord, forgive my sins, which are many!

12 Where are the ones who honor the Lord?
God will teach them which path to take.
13 They will live a good life,
and their descendants will possess the land.
14 The Lord counsels those who honor him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are always looking to the Lord
because he will free my feet from the net.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 25:1 Ps 25 is an alphabetic acrostic poem; see the note at Pss 9–10.
  2. Psalm 25:1 Or soul; also in 25:13, 20
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Proverbs 6:6-11

Go to the ant, you lazy person;
observe its ways and grow wise.
The ant has no commander, officer, or ruler.
Even so, it gets its food in summer;
gathers its provisions at harvest.
How long, lazy person, will you lie down?
When will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the arms to lie down—
11 and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
destitution like a warrior.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

01/29/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 8:1-9:35, Matthew 19:13-30, Psalms 24:1-10, Proverbs 6:1-5

Today is the 29th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and like every day of my life and hopefully of yours too, it’s great to be together here with you for these few minutes that we can step aside from all the chaos and distractions and just…just breathe…just sit…just let God’s word speak to us. And, so, that’s what we’re here to do and that’s what we will do. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week and we find ourselves in the middle of a pretty dramatic situation where plagues are descending upon Egypt and God is setting His people free. Exodus chapter 8 and 9 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, today in the book of Exodus the plagues began to devastate the Egyptians and, you know, we probably have all heard of the plagues sent upon Egypt. This is a pretty famous story. But now, we’re kind of reading it order and as it happened, and Pharaoh had been warned and God had even given signs to warn Pharaoh. The thing is, Pharaoh could not get his mind around at all the idea of a God that was higher than himself and the gods of Egypt, right? So, any God coming into his land and saying, you know, do anything whether it be let my people go or have oatmeal for breakfast, like, no god gets to come into this land and tell Pharaoh what to do. And, so, he’s bristled and thinks himself as a son of God himself. So, there’s this struggle that is happening in today’s reading. So, the Nile River, the freshwater source was turned to blood, and the frogs invaded the land, and the gnats swarm infested Egypt, and then flies, which I hate by the way, pestered and contaminated the countryside, and the Egyptian livestock died, and boils and sores begin to break out on the Egyptian population, and then this legendary hail fell from the sky that destroyed the crops. And every single time Pharaoh summoned Moses and begged for help and relief, right? He asked him, “pray for me.” And, so, Moses did pray and then the plagues were relieved and then at each turn Pharaoh hardened his heart. He thought the whole thing over and was like, “who is this foreign God coming into my land trying to take over not only my land but also to push me around?” So, you think about it. Even though they were being devastated systematically it hardened his heart. And, I mean, it’s not like we don’t do the same thing. It’s not like, you know, if somebody comes at us with a demand and their coming kind of invading our space with this demand, it’s very easy for us to resist and harden our hearts toward them even if what they’re telling us is the absolute truth. So, this is what’s going on here only a grand, a much grander stage.

And then in our reading from the New Testament from the book of Matthew there’s a story that’s also a very famous story that’s known as the story of the rich young ruler. And, so, this rich young ruler who’s, you know, we can look at this person as arrogant or we can look at this person as anything, but the Scripture reference to this guy is that he is actually devout and trying his very best to follow the Mosaic law and serve God. And, so, he comes to Jesus and he’s got questions about eternal life. What do I need to do? What good must I do to have eternal life. That’s the question. It’s fair. So, like this guy’s devoutly serving God and comes to Jesus to ask this important question. And Jesus tells him to obey the great commandments and the guys like, you know, I have, I’ve tried my best to do everything that I’ve been taught. So then Jesus says to him, “if you want to be perfect, go get rid of everything”, well He says, “go, sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and then come, follow me.” And I see that every year and I’m like, man, Jesus is inviting this rich young ruler to become a disciple, “come and follow me” is what He says to everybody who becomes His disciple. But in this case the man had a lot and any he was saddened but he walked away. And, so, in this encounter we see Jesus doing what He always does. Like, He takes stock of the situation, what’s being presented to Him and then He goes around behind all of that to what’s really going on. And we’ve talked about this before because we go out into the world and we present something but then there’s this interior monologue or this interior life that we have. Jesus is after that life, the true one, the real one, right, the unspoken one, the one that is within us not the one that we are presenting. And, so, we watch this over and over and over because that’s what Jesus is after, the truth, what is real. And, so, in this particular story with the rich young ruler, Jesus invited him to get rid of the one thing that gave him status and security, like the one thing that was giving him an identity outside of God. This is a devout person obeying the rules trying to follow God but he’s got this thing, his wealth in this case, between him and God. It’s like this idol and his life and Jesus is after it. So, that gives us an opportunity. Maybe that’s not our issue. Maybe we don’t need to go sell all that we have and give it to the poor because that’s not the thing that’s between us and God. But what are we valuing more than a relationship with God? I mean, that’s a stark thought because our initial reaction is nothing but that's…that may not be as accurate as we think. What are we valuing more than our relationship with God? Because as stark as that is, that’s where to find the idols in our lives. And in the story of the rich young ruler we realize once again a true life of faith is going to be and has always been an all or nothing proposition. And that’s the thing that we’ll see distinctly as we continue to journey into the Gospels.

Prayer:

Father once again here we are with plenty…plenty to consider. You’ve brought up plenty of things in these stories for us to look at, the way that we resist and harden our hearts, the way that we allow idols to continue to dwell between us and You. These are big things. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come and we continue to open ourselves up. Nothing is off limits to You. You can go anywhere in our lives that You want to go, You can touch anything in our lives that You need to touch because we trust You. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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:

Hi, this is Protect You with His Wings from Virginia. I’m calling on 23 January. I have two shout-outs and one prayer request. Christina with a bumpy dog, I believe your name is Christina, I just started listening to the Daily Audio Bible this fall, so I didn’t write your name down, I’m sorry, I think you have leukemia. You were calling from a hospital, you were let out for Christmas. I heard your call and I haven’t heard you in a while. I would like to hear your voice and I’m praying for you. Jeff from Virginia you called about a restored relationship your father and grandfather. I’m praying for you and my prayer request is also for restored relationship with my father. I’m also asking for prayer for my dad’s salvation. He’s 76 years old and his health is failing. I don’t really have much of a relationship with my dad. I love my father. He is not only an atheist, but he’s verbally abusive to anyone who is of faith and believes in God. He’s extremely toxic, he’s very manipulative. My mom’s an alcoholic and is codependent upon him. I have been counseled by a trusted pastor, a social worker counselor and several women in the faith who are women ministry leaders. They’ve all advised me to set boundaries which he’s crossed. And, so, I’ve been advised to stay away. I cannot reach him, but I know God can and I’m asking for your prayers Daily Audio Bible faithful believers. Fellow prayers in the Lord, please pray for my dad’s salvation. Please pray for a restored relationship. God bless this wonderful podcast. Thank you Brian, Jill, China and all of those behind the scenes. God bless you.

Hello this is Anne from Charlotte North Carolina and I just wanted to thank everybody that calls in and shares prayer requests and praise reports because it helps me feel trust in community. And I wanted to respond to many people but today is to Tim from Michigan. And Tim I was so moved, and I had to call. You said that you are listening with us now and you are hoping for enough faith to become a Christian. And I wanted to encourage you that, I think you already have enough faith. And many decades ago when I became a Christian I just got alone and I got down on my knees and I asked God if He was real and Jesus was really the King of Kings and Lord of lords and the Savior of the world and I wanted to know Him, I wanted to give my life to Him, I wanted Him to be real to me, I wanted Him to save me and forgive me my sins and asked Him if He would do that. And He did. And He will for you too. All you have to do is have enough faith to speak that question of asking God and telling Him those things. It’s not hard. It just…it does take humbling ourselves enough to admit that we need God, where he is God and we’re not. I like thinking of when we have to go to sleep every night, it’s one way God reminds us that He’s God…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is Sherry who Loves to Worship in Southpass Cal and I just want to tell you how much I love, love, love you all. I just am amazed at this wonderful family that we have. Thank you, Brian, and all that is behind him lifting his hands to make this possible. And I love your readings and I can’t live without it. I’ve been doing this since, I think, spring of 2009 and it’s so exciting. Just wanted to lift up…well…first of all I want to thank Miguel for praying for my pastor back in the day when you were asking for prayer requests for our churches or pastors and so I just wanted to let you know that it was really heavy on my pastor’s heart at of the time, it’s been years, we’d been kind of homeless, we’d been renting halls and things like that and we are now in our own building and you prayed for that and thank you so much. And then I wanted to lift up Margo from, actually she’s now in the UK heading to Liberia. And I just wanted to tell her that I have been praying for you nonstop and daily ever since you let us know that you have this call upon you and your husbands lives. And I just want to say you are courageous. I know that is hard to follow the call. I can’t know exactly what you’re going through, you know, but it just kind of lets us know when we are…don’t have anything or comforts around us that we really look forward to what is ahead. And as that’s the hope and you’re gonna be sharing that. So, I’m about of time, so I just want to say I love you, I’m praying for you and God bless you.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Stanley from Maryland. I haven’t called in a long time. I’d like to call and just pay for…pray for others. For a long time, I’ve __ calling and I don’t know…just thinking may be like it’s too busy…I’m too busy…or I just can’t do it, I don’t know. But I’d like to pray for those who are affected by shame and guilt and pride because these are things that I’m asking God to help me to deal with. So, God, I know that I can’t deal with these things on my own, pride, shame, guilt, frustration with life and I feel like I’m flailing and anxious all the time and I want to stop because I know that there is rest with You and I want to live in the present and be able to enjoy the call that You have on my life and not be so worried about the future and what’s missing. Help me God, help others, help others who are facing disappointment, things that they can’t control. Help us to release these things to You and to seek Your help and ask for help and to get rid of our pride in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi everyone, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Beth calling from the Bay Area and I’m calling in again. I called last week as well for prayer but today I was listening to this guy who called in. I’m sorry I don’t remember your name but you’re from South Africa, but you live in London. And I just want to say thank you and praise God for your encouragement and your message of hope, it was exactly what I needed to hear, that God’s already answered my prayer before I even spoke it. And it reminded me of the day I was diagnosed with breast cancer about a month ago. That morning Brian read Psalm 131. And I’m reading it from The Message Version but is says, “I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.” And that was exactly what I needed to hear that morning, that like a weaned child with its mother I am to be content. And the Lord told me that he’s __ . I heard him tell me that, not audibly, but I knew it and that was when I knew even before I was diagnosed…before I heard the diagnosis. But anyway, I know the Lord is with me, I know He’s going to use this, and I would just appreciate everyone’s continued prayers but I just want to thank everyone who calls in and encourages one another. And I just love this family so much. I love you all. Have a good night. Bye.

Oh, my goodness, hello my Daily Audio Bible family. This is God’s Girl in East Texas. I’ve had stomach surgery since I last caught talked to guys and had a hernia fixed, but my God reigns. And I was thinking about when my little five-year-old grandson was here the other night. We were trying to go to sleep and he kept talking and he says, “Kiki”, he calls me Kiki, “can we please listen to the Daily Audio Bible?” So, I turned it on and it just helps him and it’s so cute because every time I turn the Bible on, give it about 10 minutes, he’s is out like a light. The soothing word of God, that’s how I take it. It’s the word of God is such a medicine for our souls and our minds and in these last days it just seems like things are getting worse, but our God reigns, and He wants us to stay faithful to Him. I love each and every one of you. Happy new year. Brian and your family, the Lord bless you and happy new year to you. Thank you for this beautiful and precious ministry. My husband drives a truck, he’s on the road all the time and he listens to it as well. So, our families connected in so many ways to keep the Lord our God close as possible. But I just wanted to call in and tell you guys I love you and Jesus bless you and keep looking up. Our redemption draws nigh. Bye-bye.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday January 29, 2019 (NIV)

Exodus 8-9

Invasion of frogs

[a] Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him: This is what the Lord says: Let my people go so that they can worship me. If you refuse to let them go, then I’ll send a plague of frogs over your whole country. The Nile will overflow with frogs. They’ll get into your palace, into your bedroom and onto your bed, into your officials’ houses, and among all your people, and even into your ovens and bread pans. The frogs will crawl up on you, your people, and all your officials.” And[b] the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your shepherd’s rod over the rivers, the canals, and the marshes, and make the frogs crawl up all over the land of Egypt.’” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt. The frogs crawled up and covered the land of Egypt. However, the Egyptian religious experts were able to do the same thing by their secret knowledge. They too made frogs crawl up onto the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “If you pray to the Lord to get rid of the frogs from me and my people, then I’ll let the people go so that they can offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

Moses said to Pharaoh, “Have it your way. When should I pray for you and your officials and your people to remove the frogs from your houses, courtyards, and fields? They’ll stay only in the Nile.”

10 Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow!”

Moses said, “Just as you say! That way you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God. 11 The frogs will leave you, your houses, your officials, and your people. They’ll stay only in the Nile.” 12 After Moses and Aaron had left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs that the Lord had brought on Pharaoh. 13 The Lord did as Moses asked. The frogs died inside the houses, out in the yards, and in the fields. 14 They gathered them together in big piles, and the land began to stink. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that the disaster was over, he became stubborn again and wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Swarming lice

16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your shepherd’s rod and hit the land’s dirt so that lice[c] appear in the whole land of Egypt.’” 17 They did this. Aaron stretched out his hand with his shepherd’s rod, hit the land’s dirt, and lice appeared on both people and animals. All the land’s dirt turned into lice throughout the whole land of Egypt.

18 The religious experts[d] tried to produce lice by their secret knowledge, but they weren’t able to do it. There were lice on people and animals. 19 The religious experts said to Pharaoh, “This is something only God could do!” But Pharaoh was stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Insects fill Egypt

20 The Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes out to the water. Say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go so that they can worship me. 21 If you refuse to let my people go, I’ll send swarms of insects[e] on you, your officials, your people, and your houses. All Egyptian houses will be filled with swarms of insects and also the ground that they cover. 22 But on that day I’ll set apart the land of Goshen, where my people live. No swarms of insects will come there so you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. 23 I’ll put a barrier between my people and your people. This sign will happen tomorrow.” 24 The Lord did this. Great swarms of insects came into the houses of Pharaoh and his officials and into the whole land of Egypt. The land was ruined by the insects.

25 Then Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, offer sacrifices to your God within the land.”

26 Moses replied, “It wouldn’t be right to do that, because the sacrifices that we offer to the Lord our God will offend Egyptians. If we openly offer sacrifices that offend Egyptians, won’t they stone us to death? 27 We need to go for a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God as he has ordered us.”

28 So Pharaoh said, “I’ll let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the desert, provided you don’t go too far away and you pray for me.”

29 Moses said, “I’ll leave you now, and I’ll pray to the Lord. Tomorrow the swarms of insects will leave Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. Just don’t let Pharaoh lie to us again and not let the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

30 So Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. 31 The Lord did as Moses asked and removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, from his officials, and from his people. Not one insect remained. 32 But Pharaoh was stubborn once again, and he wouldn’t let the people go.

Animals sick and dying

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord, the Hebrews’ God, says: Let my people go so that they can worship me. If you refuse to let them go and you continue to hold them back, the Lord will send a very deadly disease on your livestock in the field: on horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, and flocks. But the Lord will distinguish Israel’s livestock from Egypt’s livestock so that not one that belongs to the Israelites will die.” The Lord set a time and said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.” And the next day the Lord did it. All of the Egyptian livestock died, but not one animal that belonged to the Israelites died. Pharaoh asked around and found out that not one of Israel’s livestock had died. But Pharaoh was stubborn, and he wouldn’t let the people go.

Skin sores and blisters

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of ashes from a furnace and have Moses throw it up in the air in front of Pharaoh. The ashes will turn to soot over the whole land of Egypt. It will cause skin sores that will break out in blisters on people and animals in the whole land of Egypt.” 10 So they took ashes from the furnace, and they stood in front of Pharaoh. Moses threw the ash up in the air, and it caused skin sores and blisters to break out on people and animals. 11 The religious experts[f] couldn’t stand up to Moses because of the skin sores, because there were skin sores on the religious experts as well as on all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn, and Pharaoh wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had said to Moses.

Hail and thunder

13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh. Say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they can worship me. 14 This time I’m going to send all my plagues on you, your officials, and your people so that you will know that there is no one like me in the whole world. 15 By now I could have used my power to strike you and your people with a deadly disease so that you would have disappeared from the earth. 16 But I’ve left you standing for this reason: in order to show you my power and in order to make my name known in the whole world. 17 You are still abusing your power against my people, and you refuse to let them go. 18 Tomorrow at this time I’ll cause the heaviest hail to fall on Egypt that has ever fallen from the day Egypt was founded until now. 19 So bring under shelter your livestock and all that belongs to you that is out in the open. Every person or animal that is out in the open field and isn’t brought inside will die when the hail rains down on them.” 20 Some of Pharaoh’s officials who took the Lord’s word seriously rushed to bring their servants and livestock inside for shelter. 21 Others who didn’t take the Lord’s word to heart left their servants and livestock out in the open field.

22 The Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall on the whole land of Egypt, on people and animals and all the grain in the fields in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses raised his shepherd’s rod toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. The Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 The hail and the lightning flashing in the middle of the hail were so severe that there had been nothing like it in the entire land of Egypt since it first became a nation. 25 The hail beat down everything that was in the open field throughout the entire land of Egypt, both people and animals. The hail also beat down all the grain in the fields, and it shattered every tree out in the field. 26 The only place where hail didn’t fall was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived.

27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I’ve sinned. The Lord is right, and I and my people are wrong. 28 Pray to the Lord! Enough of God’s thunder and hail! I’m going to let you go. You don’t need to stay here any longer.”

29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I’ve left the city, I’ll spread out my hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and the hail will stop and won’t return so that you will know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 30 But I know that you and your officials still don’t take the Lord God seriously.” (31 Now the flax and the barley were destroyed, because the barley had ears of grain and the flax had buds. 32 But both durum and spelt wheat weren’t ruined, because they hadn’t come up.) 33 Moses left Pharaoh and the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and the hail stopped, and the rain stopped pouring down on the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he sinned again. Pharaoh and his officials became stubborn. 35 Because of his stubbornness, Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had told Moses.

Footnotes:

  1. Exodus 8:1 7:26 in Heb
  2. Exodus 8:5 8:1 in Heb
  3. Exodus 8:16 Heb uncertain
  4. Exodus 8:18 Or magicians
  5. Exodus 8:21 Heb uncertain
  6. Exodus 9:11 Or magicians
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Matthew 19:13-30

Jesus blesses children

13 Some people brought children to Jesus so that he would place his hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded them. 14 “Allow the children to come to me,” Jesus said. “Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children.” 15 Then he blessed the children and went away from there.

A rich man’s question

16 A man approached him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?”

17 Jesus said, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There’s only one who is good. If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments.”

18 The man said, “Which ones?”

Then Jesus said, “Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. 19 Honor your father and mother,[a] and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”[b]

20 The young man replied, “I’ve kept all these. What am I still missing?”

21 Jesus said, “If you want to be complete, go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me.”

22 But when the young man heard this, he went away saddened, because he had many possessions.

Teaching about giving up things

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I assure you that it will be very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24  In fact, it’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”

25 When his disciples heard this, they were stunned. “Then who can be saved?” they asked.

26 Jesus looked at them carefully and said, “It’s impossible for human beings. But all things are possible for God.”

27 Then Peter replied, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you. What will we have?”

28 Jesus said to them, “I assure you who have followed me that, when everything is made new, when the Human One[c] sits on his magnificent throne, you also will sit on twelve thrones overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And all who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, or farms because of my name will receive one hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Psalm 24

Psalm 24

A psalm of David.

24 The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,
the world and its inhabitants too.
Because God is the one who established it on the seas;
God set it firmly on the waters.

Who can ascend the Lord’s mountain?
Who can stand in his holy sanctuary?
Only the one with clean hands and a pure heart;
the one who hasn’t made false promises,
the one who hasn’t sworn dishonestly.
That kind of person receives blessings from the Lord
and righteousness from the God who saves.
And that’s how things are
with the generation that seeks him—
that seeks the face of Jacob’s God.[a] Selah

Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
Who is this glorious king?
The Lord—strong and powerful!
The Lord—powerful in battle!
Mighty gates: lift up your heads!
Ancient doors: rise up high!
So the glorious king can enter!
10 Who is this glorious king?
The Lord of heavenly forces—
he is the glorious king! Selah

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 24:6 LXX, Syr; MT seek your face, Jacob
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Proverbs 6:1-5

Wise advice

My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor
or shake hands in agreement with a stranger,
you will be trapped by your words;
you will be caught by your words.
Do this, my son, to get out of it,
for you have come under the control of your neighbor.
So go, humble yourself,[a] and pester your neighbor.
Don’t give sleep to your eyes
or slumber to your eyelids.
Get yourself free like a gazelle from a hunter,
like a bird from the hand of a fowler.

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 6:3 Heb uncertain
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

01/28/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 5:22-7:25, Matthew 18:21-19:12, Psalms 23:1-6, Proverbs 5:22-23

Today is the 28th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we kind of launch into the work week and prepare to take the next step as God’s word is washing into our lives. And, so, we can exhale whatever’s going on and just inhale some serenity allowing God to speak through His word. And then we’ll go back into whatever it is that we’ve got going on that might be overwhelming us, but we won’t go back alone, and we’ll have some perspective. So, from the Common English Bible this week, we’re picking up with the story of Moses, Exodus chapter 5 verse 22 through 7 verse 25 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So as we begin this this workweek we have some profound things to talk about in the New Testament. Peter comes in Jesus and he’s wanting to know, you know, like, what would be the generous…how to be merciful…how to look at the world, you know, how to let go of things, how many times should I forgive is his question. Like seven? Like if I forgave a person seven times of the same thing, like that would be long-suffering. So, he’s not like wrong. And, so, Jesus is, “no, like 77 times” or in some translations “70×7”. And I actually, when I was younger, got hung up on that number. I grew up in the church as I’ve mentioned and, you know, when I was younger I multiplied 70×7 and came up with 490 and really thought like you forgive people 490 times and then your good until somebody told me that that’s how many times that God would forgive me, 490 times and then I was scared to death for a long time because, you know, you sin every day, so you run…as a little kid thinking…I’m just…like…I won’t be able to make it…I won’t be able to make it into an adult before I’m like doomed. So, Jesus is talking about forgiveness and all of this and then he launches into this story. So, like to illustrate what He’s talking about. And sometimes Jesus will launch into a story and we’re like, “okay, we’re on a Jesus parable again”, not knowing that He’s telling a story to illustrate what He was already talking about. So, in this case Peter was asking Him about forgiveness and then Jesus launches into this story to illustrate what He’s talking about. And the story was about a servant who owed a lot, right, like an insurmountable amount. And he was gonna lose everything, like he was gonna be sold, like everything to pay the debt and the king forgave all of the debt. So, the king forgave him everything and let him go free. And then he goes to a person who owes him a significantly much less amount and throws that guy into prison. This is Jesus illustration to answer Peter’s question about forgiveness. What makes this so riveting and like impossible to ignore…like we literally ignore this at our own peril and the rest of our year will not work, like if we do not understand where we are being led by the Scriptures right now because God is going after some things at the beginning of the year because this is what the Bible’s bringing up. So, what Jesus tells Peter then after telling this story is that this is how it works. Yeah, I mean I’m pausing on purpose. Jesus is telling Peter that the story that he just told him, that’s how it works, and He sums it up by saying, “my heavenly Father” right? So, this is God, this is…this is God “will also do the same to you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart”, right? So. Jesus is eliminating this social veneer over the top, like wherever…like we’re all good…we’re all good…like and everybody’s pretending everything is good when you are raging inside, right, when you have just absolute… like its just tearing you up inside. Jesus is eliminating that option because it’s not real. He specifies, “from your heart”, right, so it’s got to be real. I realize you open up the can of worms about forgiveness and then everybody has a reason why there are certain people that cannot be forgiven for what they’ve done. And look, I’ve been in ministry a long time, I’ve been in pastoral ministry long time. People are capable of doing things that you really can’t even imagine, things that scar other people for their whole lives until they’re actually able to reach this point right here and let it go. So, like, I’m not in any way saying it didn't…like…that you don’t have a right to feel the way that you feel about forgiveness if you’re holding onto something. That’s not my argument, but I would remind us of the story of Joseph that we just came through and remind us all that he had every reason, every reason to hold onto unforgiveness and he didn’t, and we saw where that story led. And now we have the Savior of the world speaking from his own lips, telling a story that illustrates the same thing. So, this isn’t an optional thing in God’s kingdom, and there is a reason, and it has nothing to do with us letting other people go free for what they did to us or our family and everything to do with us allowing God to set us free from what happened. Forgiveness offers us…and look…I’m not trying to make this sound like…oh…it’s just so easy… all you gotta do is pray this magic prayer and all the pains gonna go away and you’re gonna be great. That’s not…I’m not saying there isn’t a process. What I’m saying is, Jesus has like laid down the gauntlet here on forgiveness and this isn’t the last time He’s gonna do it. So, we might as well get used to the fact that He's…like that God, through the Scriptures, is going after this and this is not the last time it’s gonna come up. Forgiveness isn’t letting anybody get away with anything. We’re not the Sovereign One, right? So, yeah, maybe injustice has happened to us and we feel like we need to make it right, either through bitterness and unforgiveness or through some sort of retribution. And yet, even if we pursue that and achieve that and they suffer for it, it still doesn’t set us free. Forgiveness is what sets us free. And forgiveness isn’t like disavowing that things happened. Forgiveness is saying, “I, inside of myself cannot carry this around anymore because this, even though it was unjust is poisoning me and I have to move on.” So, I can carry this entanglement and this anger and this rage and this bitterness the rest of my life or I can let it go, which is not saying it didn’t happen. It’s saying, “I can’t do anything more. I release all of it to God.” God is the judge. God can handle what needs to be handled. I can’t carry this because it’s destroying all my relationships and my life. And when I realize how much mercy I’m consuming on any given day, how much forgiveness I need to survive then I begin to realize how much mercy I need to offer because Jesus said that we’ll be forgiven the same way we forgive. So, what’s happening here is that Jesus is reaching out a hand of invitation and if we reach back and take it, yeah it might be painful to go back to things and let things go, but we’re moving forward and leaving these things behind.

Prayer:

Jesus, in an environment like this one we’re wrapped around the world but we’re holding what You’re saying in the Scriptures in common then how we bring this into our own life story is different for every single one of us in different cultures and in different contexts. And, so, Father, like the right words can’t come from just my mouth alone. Your Holy Spirit has to flood throughout this earth and invade earbuds on trains and in cars and wherever this may be Your Holy Spirit is. And, so, Holy Spirit come. It’s really easy to just keep taking steps forward, day by day and make our way through the Bible. With this particular issue, You just won’t let it go. And, so, how will we maintain our life and live into our life if we’re not gonna let You in here? So, come Holy Spirit into the areas of unforgiveness that we’re holding against ourselves and that we’re holding against others. This is not going to get us anywhere. And, so, we need to stop and begin to release. Come Holy Spirit, we pray this in Your holy and mighty name. Amen.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday January 28, 2019 (NIV)

Exodus 5:22-7:25

22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “My Lord, why have you abused this people? Why did you send me for this? 23 Ever since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has abused this people. And you’ve done absolutely nothing to rescue your people.”

God reassures Moses

The Lord replied to Moses, “Now you will see what I’ll do to Pharaoh. In fact, he’ll be so eager to let them go that he’ll drive them out of his land by force.”

God also said to Moses: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty,[a] but I didn’t reveal myself to them by my name ‘The Lord.’ I also set up my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan where they lived as immigrants. I’ve also heard the cry of grief of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have turned into slaves, and I’ve remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I’ll bring you out from Egyptian forced labor. I’ll rescue you from your slavery to them. I’ll set you free with great power and with momentous events of justice. I’ll take you as my people, and I’ll be your God. You will know that I, the Lord, am your God, who has freed you from Egyptian forced labor. I’ll bring you into the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I’ll give it to you as your possession. I am the Lord.’” Moses told this to the Israelites. But they didn’t listen to Moses, because of their complete exhaustion and their hard labor.

10 Then the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go and tell Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, to let the Israelites out of his land.”

12 But Moses said to the Lord, “The Israelites haven’t even listened to me. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen to me, especially since I’m not a very good speaker?” 13 Nevertheless, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, giving them orders to let the Israelites go from the land of Egypt.

Family line of Moses and Aaron

14 These were the leaders of their households.

The descendants of Reuben, Israel’s oldest son: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

These were Reuben’s clans. 15 The Simeonites: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, a Canaanite woman’s son. These were Simeon’s clans.

16 These were the Levites’ names by their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. 17 The Gershonites: Libni and Shimei and their clans. 18 The Kohathites: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years. 19 The Merarites: Mahli and Mushi. These were the Levite clans by their generations.

20 Amram married Jochebed, his father’s sister. She gave birth to Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. 21 The Izharites: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. 22 The Uzzielites: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri. 23 Aaron married Elisheba, Amminadab’s daughter and Nahshon’s sister. She gave birth to Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 24 The Korahites: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans. 25 Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of Putiel’s daughters. She gave birth to Phinehas. These were the leaders of Levite households by their clans.

26 It was this same Aaron and Moses whom the Lord commanded, “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in military formation.” 27 It was also this same Moses and Aaron who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

28 At the time the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 the Lord said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, everything that I’ve said to you.”

30 But Moses replied to the Lord, “Look, I’m not a very good speaker. How is Pharaoh ever going to listen to me?”

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I’ve made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You will say everything that I command you, and your brother Aaron will tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites out of his land. But I’ll make Pharaoh stubborn, and I’ll perform many of my signs and amazing acts in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh refuses to listen to you, then I’ll act against Egypt and I’ll bring my people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in military formation by momentous events of justice. The Egyptians will come to know that I am the Lord, when I act against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.” Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Turning rods into snakes

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Do one of your amazing acts,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your shepherd’s rod and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will turn into a cobra.’”[b]

10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw down his shepherd’s rod in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it turned into a cobra. 11 Then Pharaoh called together his wise men and wizards, and Egypt’s religious experts[c] did the same thing by using their secret knowledge. 12 Each one threw down his rod, and they turned into cobras. But then Aaron’s rod swallowed up each of their rods. 13 However, Pharaoh remained stubborn. He wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Water into blood

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh is stubborn. He still refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning. As he is going out to the water, make sure you stand at the bank of the Nile River so you will run into him. Bring along the shepherd’s rod that turned into a snake. 16 Say to him, The Lord, the Hebrews’ God, has sent me to you with this message: Let my people go so that they can worship me in the desert. Up to now you still haven’t listened. 17 This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord. I’m now going to hit the water of the Nile River with this rod in my hand, and it will turn into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile are going to die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians won’t be able to drink water from the Nile.” 19 The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your shepherd’s rod and stretch out your hand over Egypt’s waters—over their rivers, their canals, their marshes, and all their bodies of water—so that they turn into blood. There will be blood all over the land of Egypt, even in wooden and stone containers.’”

20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded. He raised the shepherd’s rod and hit the water in the Nile in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile began to stink so that the Egyptians couldn’t drink water from the Nile. There was blood all over the land of Egypt. 22 But the Egyptian religious experts did the same thing with their secret knowledge. As a result, Pharaoh remained stubborn, and he wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had said. 23 Pharaoh turned and went back to his palace. He wasn’t impressed even by this. 24 Meanwhile, all the Egyptians had to dig for drinking water along the banks of the Nile River, because they couldn’t drink the water of the Nile itself. 25 Seven days went by after the Lord had struck the Nile River.

Footnotes:

  1. Exodus 6:3 Heb El Shaddai or God of the Mountain
  2. Exodus 7:9 Or serpent
  3. Exodus 7:11 Or magicians
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Matthew 18:21-19:12

Parable of the unforgiving servant

21 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”

22 Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy-seven times.[a] 23 Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold.[b] 25 Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. 26 But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 27 The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan.

28 “When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred coins.[c] He grabbed him around the throat and said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’

29 “Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he threw him into prison until he paid back his debt.

31 “When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were deeply offended. They came and told their master all that happened. 32 His master called the first servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 His master was furious and handed him over to the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole debt.

35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Teaching about divorce

19 When Jesus finished saying these things, he left Galilee and came to the area of Judea on the east side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them. Some Pharisees came to him. In order to test him, they said, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

Jesus answered, “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the creator made them male and female?[d] And God said, ‘Because of this a man should leave his father and mother and be joined together with his wife, and the two will be one flesh.’[e] So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, humans must not pull apart what God has put together.”

The Pharisees said to him, “Then why did Moses command us to give a divorce certificate and divorce her?[f]

Jesus replied, “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives because your hearts are unyielding. But it wasn’t that way from the beginning. I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

10 His disciples said to him, “If that’s the way things are between a man and his wife, then it’s better not to marry.”

11 He replied, “Not everybody can accept this teaching, but only those who have received the ability to accept it. 12  For there are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from birth. And there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by other people. And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of heaven. Those who can accept it should accept it.”

Footnotes:

  1. Matthew 18:22 Or seventy times seven
  2. Matthew 18:24 Or ten thousand talanta, an amount equal to the wages for sixty million days
  3. Matthew 18:28 Or one hundred denaria, an amount equal to the wages for one hundred days
  4. Matthew 19:4 Gen 1:27; 5:2
  5. Matthew 19:5 Gen 2:24
  6. Matthew 19:7 Deut 24:1
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Psalm 23

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd.
I lack nothing.
He lets me rest in grassy meadows;
he leads me to restful waters;
he keeps me [a] alive.
He guides me in proper paths
for the sake of his good name.

Even when I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger because you are with me.
Your rod and your staff—
they protect me.

You set a table for me
right in front of my enemies.
You bathe my head in oil;
my cup is so full it spills over!
Yes, goodness and faithful love
will pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will live[b] in the Lord’s house
as long as I live.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 23:3 Or my soul
  2. Psalm 23:6 LXX; MT I will return
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Proverbs 5:22-23

22 The wicked will be caught by their own evil acts,
grabbed by the ropes of their own sin.
23 Those without instruction will die,
misled by their own stupidity.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

01/27/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 4:1-5:21, Matthew 18:1–20, Psalms 22:19-31, Proverbs 5:15-21

Today is the 27th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and, of course, it’s a pleasure and an honor as it is every day to be here with you. And here we are, at the threshold of a shiny, sparkly, brand-new week and we’ll get to step into it together and live into it together and allow God’s word to speak to us in all things. And, so, this week we’ll read from the Common English Bible and we’re just kind of really getting ourselves going in the story of Moses and we’ll be traveling with Moses for quite a while. So, we’re just geting to know him pretty well, we’re getting to know his story. We’ll go back into the book of Exodus and pick up where we left off yesterday, Exodus chapter 4 verse 1 through 5:21 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for this new week. And we joke about it being shiny and sparkly every time we come to a new week, but it’s not really a joke, it’s true, it’s brand-new. it hasn’t been lived into yet. And, so, we’re stepping into this new week and we’re inviting You because we don’t want to make any decisions that we haven’t counselled with You on and we don’t want the thoughts that would pull us away from You to dominate our week this week, and we don’t want our actions to not reflect Your kingdom. And, so, we need You, and we invite You because this may be a shiny, sparkly, new week, but in order for this week to remain sparkly we’ll have to live into it and make it sparkle and we cannot do that without You. So, come Holy Spirit we pray into all that is coming our way in the coming week. May we reflect Your glory upon the earth and reveal Your kingdom in all of our thoughts, words and deeds we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected as we continue to take steps forward that are gonna, very soon, lead us out of the month of January. Already, I can hardly believe it, how fast this is going, but I say that every year and you probably do too. Here we are. Like were about to get into month number two. So, stay connected, see what’s going on around here.

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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 Broderick from Indiana. I’m just calling in today. I believe it was Margo from Australia and…gee…you just called in and you were asking for prayers for just discernment and just having some hard times with just facing maybe some home sickness or some jet lag and I just want to give this word of encouragement to you or to anyone else that’s just really having a hard time with going into the work or the area of your life that God’s calling you to where we’re being persecuted for it or where He’s just calling us to do difficult things. And when you called in you reminded me of, I think it’s the parable of the seller, Matthew chapter 13 verses 1 through 23. I just think this is a really cool parable because it just really shows a great picture of like what the stages of what our faith goes through sometimes. And I just wanted to remind you of that and just have you take heart in that and I just wanted to encourage you and anyone else who’s going through the same thing and let all you guys know that I’m praying for you and I really love this family community that has…

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Stephanie from Colorado. I’m a longtime listener and first-time caller. I am so thankful for this community, it’s been so life-giving for the past six years for me. So, I’m calling in today just to encourage anyone who has been struggling with infertility. It’s a very, very, difficult thing. My husband and I prayed for a baby for two years and month after month it was just two weeks of heartbreak and then two weeks of hoping and the cycle just repeated. And, you know, in the meantime all of our friends and all our family members were announcing pregnancies. And it’s tough, it’s so hard, so hard. So, so right now I just want to speak to God’s faithfulness. We prayed for two years and I have a beautiful five-month-old able and feeding food right now and that to me is just a miracle. It’s just a miracle that he’s here and God is so faithful, God is so good. So, don’t give up. I know it’s so hard, don’t give up. Don’t stop saying, don’t stop speaking, and don’t stop being faithful. Don’t lose hope because God is so good, and I just want to encourage you today. Be blessed.

Hello guys, my name is Aaron, I’m 20 years old. This is my first year doing the Daily Audio Bible and today Brian was talking about the story of Joseph and reflecting on how we can enter in seasons of testing with the mindset that God is good and knowing that He is doing something in that. And it had me reflecting back on a time in my life not too long ago when I lost my father to cancer. And it was a very hard time in my life and the lives of my families who always serve the Lord, and everybody took it differently. My sister kind of had the mindset that if God took her dad she would be done with God. And I looked at things a little differently, that God was trying to do something and although it hurt, I was going to trust Him to show me what it was that He was trying to do. And because of that the life of my dad was able to bless a lot of people and turn a lot of hearts toward Christ. And it was such a powerful experience that I’ll always remember. So, I just want to encourage everybody. God is good and is always on your side and He has your best interest in mind all the time. God bless everybody. Take care. Goodbye.

Hi everyone, this is Sarah from Pennsylvania. I was just listening to the reading on the 20th and I heard God’s Light requesting prayer, was just diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, having a lot of trouble. I am a fellow MS suffer and I actually called in last summer when I was diagnosed, and I felt hopeless a lot of the times. I felt just like you. I was terrified, but God got me through it and I won’t say that I never felt hopeless because that’s not true, I absolutely did, but that hope always came back and I know it will for you too. I’m praying for you, praying for understanding for your girlfriend, for a capable medical team. And just know that you are valuable no matter what your disability is, what your condition is, where you are in this disease. You are valuable and worthy of life and just please don’t end that. Praying for you. Love you. Good luck. Call back in and keep us updated.

Hey DAB brothers and sisters, this is Byron out in Florida. I’m calling for Keisha in Maryland. Keisha, I heard you call and the concern that you and your husband have about being able to pay your mortgage and how you needed some money, miracle you said to be able to settle that. And I could hear the stress and pain in your voice. I just want to let you know that I’m praying for ya and that is gonna be okay. It reminded me of the story of Elijah being sent to the land and Zarephath. And he runs upon a window who tells him that since there’s a famine in the land she’d gonna make a small cake for her and her son. They need it because they’re gonna die. That’s where she’s at. And I think the words that Elijah gives next to the widow are directed to you too. He said, “don’t be afraid.” Don’t be afraid. God’s got you, you’re going to be all right. It’s going to be all good. And I encourage you, if you have some money that you do have available, find a way to give. If you haven’t been giving up to this point, go ahead and give and see how God shows up for you. Worship God in your giving. I went through bankruptcy last year, it was not fun but the one thing God taught me through that is that if you have love you are not bankrupt, you have the love of Jesus. So, live like it and worship Him and see how He comes through. See how He gives you that peace that transforms your reliance from needing a little bit of money to having His abundant love. So, I’m praying for you. Be strong, it’s going to be okay. Love you.

Hi audio Daily Bible family this is can Kanesha out of Atlanta. I’m calling for, I believe it was, Julie. I heard your prayer request for your babies. Sounds like they were premature or they’re in NICU and one has a surgery coming up. So, I just wanted to let you know that your prayer request…I heard your prayer request and it touched my heart because I too am a parent of a premature baby, he’s now eight. But it is an emotional roller coaster that we go through when they are in the hospital and we have to leave them there in the NICU unit. And, so, I was just calling in to let you know that I am praying for you and your family and also that it was good to hear the Prodigal and Dr. John call back in. I’m praying for you both as I pray for a lot of you. I just can’t remember everyone’s names. And also, I am asking for prayer again for my daughter. The last time I called in she was going through things where she had started using drugs and alcohol. Well, there was an accident where the vehicle hydroplaned. And, of course, she’s okay, but in the midst of all of that she had to try to get help while they were on the highway and there were police involved and even though she wasn’t drunk or like that or anything, she passed her breathalyzer and all of that. In some kind of way, she got charged with DUI. Drugs, I’m not sure. And, so, I’m just asking for prayer for when she goes to court the charges are dismissed because she didn’t have anything on her, she was the designated driver. We just don’t know why the officer padded her charges but…

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday January 27, 2019 (NIV)

Exodus 4:1-5:21

Signs of power

Then Moses replied, “But what if they don’t believe me or pay attention to me? They might say to me, ‘The Lord didn’t appear to you!’”

The Lord said to him, “What’s that in your hand?”

Moses replied, “A shepherd’s rod.”

The Lord said, “Throw it down on the ground.” So Moses threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake. Moses jumped back from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out and grab the snake by the tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a rod in his hand. “Do this so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God has in fact appeared to you.”

Again, the Lord said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your coat.” So Moses put his hand inside his coat. When he took his hand out, his hand had a skin disease flaky like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your coat.” So Moses put his hand back inside his coat. When he took it back out again, the skin of his hand had returned to normal. “If they won’t believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second sign. If they won’t believe even these two signs or pay attention to you, then take some water from the Nile River and pour it out on dry ground. The water that you take from the Nile will turn into blood on the dry ground.”

10 But Moses said to the Lord, “My Lord, I’ve never been able to speak well, not yesterday, not the day before, and certainly not now since you’ve been talking to your servant. I have a slow mouth and a thick tongue.”

11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives people the ability to speak? Who’s responsible for making them unable to speak or hard of hearing, sighted or blind? Isn’t it I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I’ll help you speak, and I’ll teach you what you should say.”

13 But Moses said, “Please, my Lord, just send someone else.”

14 Then the Lord got angry at Moses and said, “What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak very well. He’s on his way out to meet you now, and he’s looking forward to seeing you. 15 Speak to him and tell him what he’s supposed to say. I’ll help both of you speak, and I’ll teach both of you what to do. 16 Aaron will speak for you to the people. He’ll be a spokesperson for you, and you will be like God for him. 17 Take this shepherd’s rod with you too so that you can do the signs.”

Moses goes back to Egypt

18 Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me go back to my family in Egypt and see whether or not they are still living.”

Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt because everyone there who wanted to kill you has died.” 20 So Moses took his wife and his children, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. Moses also carried the shepherd’s rod from God in his hand.

21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure that you appear before Pharaoh and do all the amazing acts that I’ve given you the power to do. But I’ll make him stubborn so that he won’t let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my oldest son. 23 I said to you, “Let my son go so he could worship me.” But you refused to let him go. As a result, now I’m going to kill your oldest son.’”

24 During their journey, as they camped overnight, the Lord met Moses[a] and tried to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a sharp-edged flint stone and cut off her son’s foreskin. Then she touched Moses’ genitals[b] with it, and she said, “You are my bridegroom because of bloodshed.” 26 So the Lord let him alone. At that time, she announced, “A bridegroom because of bloodshed by circumcision.”

27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he went, and Aaron met him at God’s mountain and greeted him with a kiss. 28 Moses told Aaron what the Lord had said about his mission and all the signs that the Lord had told him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron called together all the Israelite elders. 30 Aaron told them everything that the Lord had told to Moses, and he performed the signs in front of the people. 31 The people believed. When they heard that the Lord had paid attention to the Israelites and had seen their oppression, they bowed down and worshipped.

First meeting with Pharaoh

Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: ‘Let my people go so that they can hold a festival for me in the desert.’”

But Pharaoh said, “Who is this Lord whom I’m supposed to obey by letting Israel go? I don’t know this Lord, and I certainly won’t let Israel go.”

Then they said, “The Hebrews’ God has appeared to us. Let us go on a three-day journey into the desert so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. Otherwise, the Lord will give us a deadly disease or violence.”

The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you making the people slack off from their work? Do the hard work yourselves!” Pharaoh continued, “The land’s people are now numerous. Yet you want them to stop their hard work?”

On the very same day Pharaoh commanded the people’s slave masters and supervisors, “Don’t supply the people with the straw they need to make bricks like you did before. Let them go out and gather the straw for themselves. But still make sure that they produce the same number of bricks as they made before. Don’t reduce the number! They are weak and lazy, and that’s why they cry, ‘Let’s go and offer sacrifices to our God.’ Make the men’s work so hard that it’s all they can do, and they can’t focus on these empty lies.”

10 So the people’s slave masters and supervisors came out and spoke to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says, ‘I’m not giving you straw anymore. 11 Go and get the straw on your own, wherever you can find it. But your work won’t be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people spread out all through the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The slave masters drove them hard and said, “Make sure you make the same daily quota as when you had the straw.” 14 The Israelite supervisors, whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them, were also beaten and asked, “Why didn’t you produce the same number of bricks yesterday and today as you did before?”

15 Then the Israelite supervisors came and pleaded to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is supplied to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look at how your servants are being beaten! Your own people are to blame!”

17 Pharaoh replied, “You are lazy bums, nothing but lazy bums. That’s why you say, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’ 18 Go and get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you still need to make the same number of bricks.”

19 The Israelite supervisors saw how impossible their situation was when they were commanded, “Don’t reduce your daily quota of bricks.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them. 21 The supervisors said to them, “Let the Lord see and judge what you’ve done! You’ve made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants. You’ve given them a reason to kill us.”

Footnotes:

  1. Exodus 4:24 Or him
  2. Exodus 4:25 Or his feet
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Matthew 18:1-20

Greatest in the kingdom

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then he called a little child over to sit among the disciples, and said, “I assure you that if you don’t turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Falling into sin

“As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake. How terrible it is for the world because of the things that cause people to trip and fall into sin! Such things have to happen, but how terrible it is for the person who causes those things to happen! If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life crippled or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with two hands or two feet. If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life with one eye than to be cast into a burning hell with two eyes.

Parable of the lost sheep

10 “Be careful that you don’t look down on one of these little ones. I say to you that their angels in heaven are always looking into the face of my Father who is in heaven.[a] 12 What do you think? If someone had one hundred sheep and one of them wandered off, wouldn’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillsides and go in search for the one that wandered off? 13 If he finds it, I assure you that he is happier about having that one sheep than about the ninety-nine who didn’t wander off. 14 In the same way, my Father who is in heaven doesn’t want to lose one of these little ones.

Sinning brother or sister

15 “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and correct them when you are alone together. If they listen to you, then you’ve won over your brother or sister. 16  But if they won’t listen, take with you one or two others so that every word may be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.[b] 17  But if they still won’t pay attention, report it to the church. If they won’t pay attention even to the church, treat them as you would a Gentile and tax collector. 18  I assure you that whatever you fasten on earth will be fastened in heaven. And whatever you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven. 19  Again I assure you that if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, then my Father who is in heaven will do it for you. 20  For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.”

Footnotes:

  1. Matthew 18:10 18:11 is omitted in most critical editions of the Gk New Testament For the Human One has come to save the lost.
  2. Matthew 18:16 Deut 19:15
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Psalm 22:19-31

19 But you, Lord! Don’t be far away!
You are my strength!
Come quick and help me!
20 Deliver me[a] from the sword.
Deliver my life from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion.
From the horns of the wild oxen
you have answered me!

22 I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
I will praise you in the very center of the congregation!
23 All of you who revere the Lord—praise him!
All of you who are Jacob’s descendants—honor him!
All of you who are all Israel’s offspring—
stand in awe of him!
24 Because he didn’t despise or detest
the suffering of the one who suffered—
he didn’t hide his face from me.
No, he listened when I cried out to him for help.

25 I offer praise in the great congregation
because of you;
I will fulfill my promises
in the presence of those who honor God.
26 Let all those who are suffering eat and be full!
Let all who seek the Lord praise him!
I pray your hearts live forever!
27 Every part of the earth
will remember and come back to the Lord;
every family among all the nations will worship you.
28 Because the right to rule belongs to the Lord,
he rules all nations.
29 Indeed, all the earth’s powerful
will worship him;[b]
all who are descending to the dust
will kneel before him;
my being also lives for him.[c]
30 Future descendants will serve him;
generations to come will be told about my Lord.
31 They will proclaim God’s righteousness
to those not yet born,
telling them what God has done.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 22:20 Or my soul; also in 22:29
  2. Psalm 22:29 Correction; MT All the earth’s powerful have eaten and will worship.
  3. Psalm 22:29 Correction with LXX; Heb uncertain
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Proverbs 5:15-21

15 Drink water from your own cistern,
gushing water from your own well.
16 Should your fountains flood outside,
streams of water in the public squares?
17 They are yours alone,
not for you as well as strangers.
18 May your spring be blessed.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 She is a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts intoxicate you all the time;
always be drunk on her love.

20 Why, my son, should you lose your senses with a mysterious woman
and embrace the breasts of a foreign female?

21 The Lord’s eyes watch over every person’s path,
observing all their ways.

Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible