Isaiah 25:1-28:13, Galatians 3:10-22, Psalms 61:1-8, Proverbs 23:17-18
Today is the 17th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s, like every day great to have some time together to come around the global campfire to release everything else that’s going on and to let God’s word speak and wash into our lives. And, so, we will continue with the next step which is the next step, the one in front of the one we took yesterday and that will lead us back out into the book of Isaiah. Today we’ll read chapter 25 verse 1 through 28 verse 13 and we’re reading from the New English Translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, this is what Paul had to say today from our reading from the letter to the Galatians, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us because it is written, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith. Alright, that’s just a couple of verses there, but those couple of verses pretty much encapsulate Paul’s theological position for presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to his fellow Hebrews, and his hope for the Gentiles, and it pretty much outlines what we would now call the doctrine of justification through faith. So, I mean, the way that the story of the apostle Paul goes, he ends up dying, he ends up being martyred, killed, executed for his convictions. So, we can surmise probably pretty steadfastly that he believed what he was talking about because he died for it, that he believed that Jesus had given him this revelation personally. So, Jesus comes to this Pharisee and begins revealing himself to this Pharisee, Saul, whose name becomes Paul. And we think, “well…Jesus just showed up, talked to Paul, told him how things were. Paul’s like, “hey that’s cool. Thanks for all that clarification. Sorry for persecuting the church. Off we go.” But that’s not how matters of belief and faith usually work in a person’s life. Usually, like changing the way that you believe is a process and slow and you tread lightly and there’s a bit of disruption involved to say the least. And, so, we have to imagine that Paul went through this. His scriptural understanding was disrupted by a revelation of Jesus Christ and as he accounts himself, he went away, like he spent a lot of time trying to figure this out way before he became a controversial figure in the early days of the church. And here’s the deal. From the book of Acts we know Saul – Paul – we know what kind of a person that he was. We understand that he was devout and dedicated to God, but his understanding of that led him to believe that he should persecute and stamp out people who were following Jesus. So, this is an about-face. This is a disruptive thing. Paul’s experiences with Jesus flew in the face of all that he thought that he knew about God and all of the traditions of his people who were God’s chosen people, right, and not to mention, this kind of unraveling his theological training. So, following Jesus forced Paul to go back through the whole story of the Hebrew people, which is his ethnicity and it forced him to consider Moses because Moses was the chief person people were adhering too. He lead the people into the promised land and the law came from him, or through him and his legacy. So, Paul has to think about the whole thing, the whole story while he’s coming to his conclusions about the law. So, Paul is looking to the story that happened before Moses for the answers, which of course would bring him to Abraham who entered into a covenant with God and through that covenant a relationship with Abraham’s offspring began, so a relationship with his chosen people began. And God made a promise to raise up a people through Abraham, through which all the nations of the world would be blessed. And, so, for Paul this promise found in the Hebrew Scriptures and known by Hebrew people, especially Hebrew scholars, this promise explicitly meant the Gentiles as well as the Hebrews - the non-Hebrews, as well as the Hebrews - all nations of the world will be blessed. And he realized that the whole story began with a promise and not a law, right, a promise and not rules, which was a big distinction for Paul, and we have seen it and we will e it throughout the rest of his writings. Abraham believed the promise through faith and God considered him righteous because he believed him, not because he obeyed a rule but because he trusted and put his faith in God. So, when this promise to Abraham was made there was no law. Abraham couldn’t have obeyed the Mosaic law. Moses wouldn’t be born for hundreds of years. 430 years to be specific according to the apostle Paul. So, if you’re following this line of reasoning, then the law isn’t something that could be the means that could make a person right before God, because Abraham and everybody who believed the promise after Abraham, including Moses didn’t have a lot to obeye in the first place. Alright, so we can look at this and we can go, “ok, that’s making some sense…I get it…like…I see the rub here…I see what’s going on.” But man, to the people who were hearing Paul, this sounded profoundly heretical, even blasphemous, which is interesting because he was simply telling his fellow Hebrews their own story and attempting to reveal Jesus in that story, which is why he says in our reading today, “is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise could be given because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to those who believe”, which is basically how we arrived at the doctrine of justification through faith. That has been passed down throughout the generations of the Christian faith and still impacts our hearts today.
Prayer:
Father, we enter into that. There’s a lot to process but where we enter it now is at the place where we actually live our lives because the truth is…the truth is we are constantly looking for the right rules and the right recipes, the right formulas, the way that it’s gotta be, the way that we gotta position ourselves. And for that matter, and probably more importantly, we spend a lot of our time looking at how everyone else should be positioned and how they should be living out their faith when what Paul is saying here, what we are reading here is, that’s not how it works. It works by faith, by believing in the promise and that core, deep, unmovable faith, unshakable faith in us changes the way we behave in this world. So, in so many instances throughout all of our history and throughout all of our lives, we’ve had the cart before the horse in so many profound ways. We’re hearing the message that Paul is speaking through Galatians and still find ourselves just as upside down wondering about the rules as they did. So, today Father we set aside all of that, all that we think that we know, all that we think we’re supposed to be doing, all that we think will get your attention and get You to do something and we exhale, and we simply obey what’s being said here. We believe, we have faith, You are the sovereign God, You have sent your son to rescue us, we have been rescued, we are your children, and this isn’t about following some subtle sort of program. This is about being in love. So, come Holy Spirit as we go through this day, may we rest in that. May we stop trying to figure out, “well, I messed this up so God’s not going to do that”, like, may we put that away and understand we are your children and we come running to You and we apologize, we repent for the things that have estranged us in any way. We want to be in lockstep with You in everything that we do. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible community, this is Diane Olive Brown calling from Newburgh, Indiana at 415 in the afternoon and I just finished my reading for September 11th and I had to eat some humble pie today and realize that I have this little quirk that when I want something I want it and I want it right away. And I realize that that’s not something that I can be proud of or brag about, and it’s kind of annoying to my family. And casting my care upon the Lord. When I have a son, who is addicted to drugs, casting him onto the Lord. He’s my care, my major care. And the girls, his sisters are trying to boss him around and boss me around. And Jeff is trying to get everyone to be in harmony and unity. And I realize that I’m a part of the problem because I can’t seem to be able to cast my care upon the Lord and leave it with Him. I did that. I did that one…one time and the Lord just made me feel how proud he was of me and he took…he did take care of David. So, this is a constant battle and no matter how many times I have to put it back in his hands, I’m doing that now. And, so I appreciate…I appreciate the Scriptures. I appreciate Brian. I appreciate my Daily Audio
Father God thank you, that you are Sovereign, thank you that you love us, thank you that you are a God of peace and love and hope. Lord, we lift up the country of Cameroon today we pray for peace in that nation. Lord we lift up its leaders and pray they would be seeking the best they for their country, that they’d be seeking peace. We thank you Lord for those who love you in leadership and we pray that they would be seeking justice, that they’d be loving mercy, and that they’d be walking humbly with you. Lord for those who don’t already know you we pray that they might come to know you, that You’d be speaking to their hearts and minds so that they would seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. Father God thank you so much for brother Xavier and the work he’s doing in Cameroon and the others like him who are working with children. Lord we pray your protection over those children and their families, and we pray Lord that you’d be providing their needs. And Father God we also pray for wisdom for Xavier and his colleagues and pray that that you’d be giving them wisdom on what to do, how best to bless these children, how best to help them cope with what’s going on. Father God, we pray for your healing touch in Cameroon for those who’ve been hurt physically, for those who’ve been hurt emotionally, for those who’ve been hurt mentally. We pray for your healing touch. Lord, thank you so much for brothers and sisters there and pray that you’d be watching over them and loving them making Cameroon a country of peace, hope, and love, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Every night as the stars look down their watchful gaze unblinking
the people sleep in cradled crown into soft pillows sinking
A few look back as restless thoughts as their minds meander
deeply pondered or lightly rocked
their souls our makers lander
sweet peace is not a gift to those who harbor thoughts ungracious
and ingratitude hurl and deathly throws against the one who saves them
how can it be the one who died has lost his life to save me
such selflessness does ill betide a savior lost unworthy
a lustful heart within my breast lurked always with loathing
inner black with falsehood dressed
a wolf in lambswool clothing
Though nothing in my hands I bring reads better nothing pleasant
For to my sin these hands still cling from history dark to present
but low beyond that darkening gloom a storm of light undying
for Jesus lives unbound untombed deaths jealous ends belying
thus every record every line of Gods holy indightment is rendered void and by
voice devine and banished by his lifes end
beyond the doorway God decreed that portal posed by death
I know for by his word set free I’ll praise with every breath
Oh magnify the Lord with me come sing with all creation
for greater end no eye can see I pray for our salvation.
Mighty warrior 917 or 919
Hello DABbers, good afternoon, this is Aby from Maryland today is September 13th 2019. I just wanted to put in a quick prayer request. I ran into one of my college mates and we were talking and he informed me that he recently has been diagnosed with a very rare auto immune disease that, you know, attacks his body. And this person is the most…he’s healthy…he works out, he eats right. It’s so hard to…it’s so hard for him to believe that this could happen to him. And I just want to lift him up in prayer. His name is Tossin. Please pray for him, that God restores good health. He said, if you have good health, if you have good health be thankful. And I want to encourage everyone, no matter what you may be going through, the most important thing right now is that we have good health and that is something to be thankful for. And for those who are going through some type of sickness, I lift you all up in the mighty name of Jesus. Our God, he’s the one who heals, I know that He has the power. He’s able to do exceedingly beyond what we can think for or ask for. And I pray the peace of God be you, the peace of God guard your heart, guard your mind, guard your body. In Jesus’ name. I love you all so much. It’s been a while since I’ve called in but I just want to thank you, thank Brian and his family. Everything going on with DABbers, you have been the rock for me in my walk, in my faith walking with God. So, thank you so much. Have a good day.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is To Be a blessing in California. I’m calling to ask that you join me in prayer for my friend’s cousin. I called a couple weeks ago and shared the story that her cousin’s son had been doing flips on the beach and landed on his neck. He is paralyzed. He is to be released from where he’s at and to be sent home, which is shocking to me but that’s what’s going to take place. Her friend, her cousin, excuse me, her cousin needs help knowing who to call to get the right resources available for him. The insurance company will not be paying for his care, his rehabilitation possibly, but not for the care that he needs, which is 24/7 care. So, if you would pray for her cousin that she would be given wisdom, that the right people would come to walk with her, that she would receive the support that she needs at this time. She lost her husband a couple of years ago. She has two other sons and now this…it seems to be like quite a bit handle. Thank you so much for joining me in prayer for her and also for my friend who is also looking to support her as she can. My friend is looking at how to have a relationship with Jesus. So, pray that she will receive the blessing of knowing him, and that God will give me the right words to say when we speak to invite her into that relationship and to show her. Thank you so much. God bless.
Good morning DABbers, I guess you could just call me Lost for right now and needing Jesus. I l know that he is the only way that I can get through this. I just got fired yesterday and they couldn’t tell me why, just that I wasn’t a good fit. And I had been there for a few months and I just don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know why this happened and I know that God is in control of all things, and he’s in control of this too and that he has something out there for me, but I just don’t know what and I don’t know where to go and I just pray so much for you guys. And, so, please pray for me. I love listening to your stories and your successes and just I have one if my own that I Just need you guys help with too. I just wish everyone the best. Thank you…