09/25/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 45:11-48:11, Ephesians 4:1-16, Psalms 68:19-35, Proverbs 24:3-4

Today is the 25th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we come around the global campfire and throw on some logs and just be here together allowing God’s word to speak to us. And, as is the case every day, we pick up where we left off and that will take us back into the book of Isaiah. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 11 through 48 verse 11 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Jill and I, we have our youngest son, his name is Ezekiel and we just celebrated his birthday not too long ago and he turned seven years old. And, so he is at the magic age in a child’s life where he’s dreaming about what he might become, right? So, every day it seems like there’s something new. So, like driving past the hospital. And, so, he’ll say, “when I grow up I’m gonna be a doctor and I’m gonna work there” or “when I grow up I’m gonna drive a tractor” or “when I grew up I’m gonna read the Bible just like you daddy” or “I’m gonna be a space man” like he has all of the…his imagination is in full bloom, and when he grows up he’s going to be a lot of things. And Paul, as we’re moving to the Ephesians in our reading today was talking about, essentially that, growing up. And even though he, he was fully grown as a man, he was in prison, he was in chains. And, so, he kinda gave language to what growing up my look like. So, he says “be humble, be gentle, be patient, tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created with peace binding you together.” Okay, I look at that and I’m like, that is the ideal that is indeed what we’re going for. That’s what I’m going for. However, man nailing that hundred percent of the time, I’m certainly not there. So, to live into what Paul’s saying that the body of Christ is…like what’s supposed to be normal, because that’s the thing, what he’s outlining here. This is what supposed to be normal. This isn’t the exception to the rule, like, “oh…I was kind when somebody was mean to me” and that’s the exception to the rule but nine times out of ten I’m gonna be just as mean or meaner back. Like, what Paul’s describing here is what our lives are supposed to look like when their normal. So, to live into that we have to have a certain level of maturity that maybe even as adults we don’t have. Maybe we actually still have some growing up to do. So, how do we mature into men and women who are humble and gentle and patient with each other and making allowances for each other’s faults because…because we love each other and we do everything that we can to be united in the spirit knowing that we are bound together in Christ and creating peace because of that. Like, how do we grow up, how do we grow into, how do we become that? And then how does that become normal, like that’s normal? So, for Paul to mature like this wasn’t something that was just like, you know, your own personal endeavor that may or may not happen. God gave gifts to help – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers - and according to Paul, their role was and still is to equip and build the church, which are God’s people. Paul says this is part of the process. And quoting Paul here, “these ministries will continue until we are unified in faith and filled with the knowledge of the son of God until we stand mature.” Right? So, “grown up in his teachings and fully formed in the likeness of the Anointed our liberating King.” So, fully formed in the likeness of Jesus - Christlike. Okay. So, that’s what we’re growing up to look like, to be like. On this journey of faith that we are on we may be like children but when we grow up, we’re supposed to be like Jesus. And Paul says when we live into that idea that it is not only possible but necessary that we grow up and become Christlike and that we mature and that our normal is to prefer the other, right, is to love one another as we love ourselves. When that becomes our normal, according to the apostle Paul, and I’m quoting here, “then we will no longer be like children, tossed around here and there upon the ocean waves picked up by every gust of religious teaching spoken by liars or swindlers or deceivers. Instead by truth spoken in love we are to grow in every way into Him the Anointed one, the head.” So, if there’s one thing that we should take away from what we’re learning from the letter to the Ephesians today, it is that we can and must grow up. It’s required. And, so, now that we know that maturity is on the radar, it’s supposed to be happening and we’re supposed to be collaborating. Well now we should be thinking about. I mean, if I think about my growing up years, not so much my spiritually growing years, but like just growing and becoming a man, I would say it didn’t just…I didn’t turn 18 and then I was grown up, right? Like it happens on many levels, it happens on many different stages. It happens for many different reasons, right? We fall down, scrape our knee and realize falling down and scraping your knee hurts. And, so, we learn to be more cautious about falling down and scraping our knee. And like, this…this begins to happen in every area of our lives. Growing up spiritually isn’t different. It happens through experience. It happens through challenge. It happens through suffering. It happens through joy. It happens through life. And honestly, what we’re…what were really after when we think about growing up spiritually, what…what are you after? Think about that for a second. Have you ever thought what your…what your spiritual maturity will even look like? What we are ultimately after is what we’ve been heading toward our whole life. Spiritual maturity and growth is our desire to be in union with God. We want to become…like we sing this…we want to become more aware of His presence. We want to more fully understand what’s going on and why were in this story together with God called life. And that is a process. And that process is setting us apart and making us holy. It is sanctifying us. We are growing in every way more and more like Christ. Now, we’ve been talking about some things in the letter to the Ephesians that are just like these vistas that are too good to be true. This is one of them, that we can grow up and become like our Savior, right? That this is even a category for us, that it’s even a possibility for us, is too good to be true. Like this is unbelievable. What God would like is for us to all grow up and be humble and gentle and patient with each other and make allowance for each other’s faults because we love each other and to make every effort to keep ourselves united in the Spirit binding ourselves together with peace so that every day we grow in maturity to be more and more and more transformed into the likeness of Jesus. It's…it’s unbelievable that that’s even a category my life…like that that’s even possible for me or anyone, but it also reveals something amazing. God wants to work through His people. He wants to empower His people. He wants His children to grow up so that there’s not one Jesus running around this world, so that there are billions of Christlike children of the living God, sons and daughters of God upon this earth. And you are supposed to be one of them. And you are one of them - a son of God walking upon the earth, a daughter of God walking upon the earth. And there’s nothing you did to make it so. It was given to you freely so that you could grow up and be who you really are. Is that not a game changer? Like, am I the only one? I don’t think so though. So, live into that today. This is what growing up is supposed to look like, and it’s all available

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that. And we can very easily focus on our faults. We can very easily treat ourselves differently than You’ve invited us to treat everyone else. And, so, Holy Spirit, come and help us to be humble and gentle with ourselves, to be patient with ourselves, to make allowance for our faults because of Your love and help us to make every effort with ourselves to be united in Spirit so that we are a whole person who is being transformed into Your likeness. And as we feel Your compassion upon us, let us turn it out toward the world so that indeed we are being Your hands and feet upon this earth. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday September 25, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 45:11-48

11 So the Eternal One, who is the Holy One and Maker of Israel, says,

Eternal One: Are you really going to question Me about what will happen to My children,
or lecture Me about what I should do with the ones I made with My own hands?
12 It is I who made the very ground on which you stand,
I who shaped the human beings who walk around on it.
I pulled the sky and the heavens taut with My own hands,
and organized the army of stars that march across the night sky.
13 So it was perfectly right for me to raise up Cyrus;
I will make his road ahead straight and level,
So that he will rebuild My chosen place, My city Jerusalem,
and set My exiled people free
Without exacting a price or seeking a bribe.

So says the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.

14 Eternal One: I, the Eternal One, say to you things will change; the wealthy and strong
of your world—Egyptians, Cushites, Sabeans—will come under your control.
Their goods and services, their strongest warriors, will be yours,
deferring to you, as they follow in chains, saying,
“God is with you. There is no other God but yours.”

15 Cyrus: You have kept yourself hidden from others,
but You are indeed God, who saved Israel in the face of great challenges.
16 Those who worshiped others will be humiliated.
Those who craft idols will be embarrassed by their folly.
17 By contrast, Israel can stand tall. The Eternal has given them
a salvation that will never die, and they will never be embarrassed or ashamed.

18 Indeed, He who created the universe—heavens and earth—gave it form and shape.
The Eternal alone set it all in motion;
He didn’t make it a disorganized wasteland but made it a beautiful and comfortable home.

Eternal One: I am the Eternal One, and there is no other god who exists.
19 I didn’t whisper in secret or mumble in the darkness;
I didn’t say to Jacob’s children:
“Look around the desert and try to find Me.”
No, I am the Eternal One. I will speak clearly what is right and true.

20 Come, come. Gather around, all who survived among the nations.
They have no idea what a real God is
As they coddle their wooden idols,
and pray to worthless images that cannot save them.
21 Go ahead, talk among yourselves. Present your case.
Now, who declared what would happen long ago?
Who predicted how these events would turn out at this time?
Was it not I, the Eternal One? There is no other God but Me.
I alone am the righteous God and Savior. There is no other.

22 So turn your back on those idols and your face to Me.
I will save you, wherever you are, to the ends of the earth,
For I am God. There is none other.
23 I make this solemn vow; I have spoken a word—
faithful and true—and it will not return; it will be done.
My words have wings; they will be accomplished;
every knee will bow down to Me.
Every tongue will swear allegiance to Me.[a]

24 They will say of Me, “Only by the Eternal One shall I see things through.
Only by God shall I go with integrity and strength through life.”

Those who know that God is the source of life, integrity, and strength live lives marked by confidence and a calm assurance.

Now all those who burned with anger against God
will come to Him and be shamed.
25 Through the Eternal, all the descendants of Israel
will be vindicated and made glorious within the world.

46 Bel and Nebo wobble and duck, as their images
sway on the backs of oxen and donkeys—such a heavy burden
For the weary animals—as they are carried about.
These “gods” bow and sink together, unable to escape the coming invasion;
they march off into captivity.

The gods of the nations must have looked rather odd riding on the backs of animals. Even gods of the once-feared Babylonians, Bel and Nebo, are nothing but dead weight.

Eternal One: Listen, you who count yourselves among Jacob’s descendants,
all the remnant of Israel.
It is you, not I, who have been carried from before you were born.
Indeed, when you were still in the womb, I was taking care of you.
And when you are old, I will still be there, carrying you.
When your limbs grow tired, your eyes are weak,
And your hair a silvery gray, I will carry you as I always have.
I will carry you and save you.

Does anyone compare to Me? Can you find any likeness?
Who or what might be My equal or even close to Me?
What about those who use precious materials for gods—
hiring artisans to carefully craft gold, silver, jewels,
And exotic wood into a god—
then they bow down and worship it!
Their god is a mere object. They have to lug it around on their shoulders
before they can stand it up in its proper place.
It just sits there, unmoving until they pick it up again.
It never speaks, never answers.
It cannot help them, no matter how desperate they are.
Remember that—and don’t be tempted to conform!
Think about it, you rebels.
Remember the old days. For I am God; there is no other.
I am God; there are no other gods like Me.
10 From the beginning I declare how things will end;
from times long past, I tell what is yet to be, saying:
“My intentions will come to pass.
I will make things happen as I determine they should.”
11 I am the one who called Cyrus, the bird of prey from the east;
from a land far away I summoned him to do what I intend.
My word went out, and I will see it done.
My plan has been made, and I will see it through.

12 Listen closely, you strong-willed people
who have veered far from the right path.
13 It won’t be long until I make things right;
My salvation is getting closer and closer; it won’t be delayed.
I am ready to rescue Zion, My chosen place,
and display My beauty and splendor to Israel, My chosen people.

47 Eternal One: Ah, pretty virgin daughter, Miss Babylon,
come down and sit in the dust.
Sit on the ground where you belong: your throne is no more,
daughter of the Chaldeans, no longer all dainty, delicate.
And with those delicate fingers grab the heavy millstones and grind the grain.
Take off your lacy veil, lift your skirt, bare your legs, and
Cross the mud and muck of the river on foot like any other slave.
Everyone will see you naked; your humiliation will be most public.
I intend to make you pay, and no one will interfere.[b]

Israel: Our Savior, our hero—the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
by name—is the Holy One of Israel!
So you’d best go quietly, Babylon, daughter of the Chaldeans.
Slink off into the dark. No one will ever again call you Queen of All Lands.

Eternal One: Some time ago, I got fed up with My people.
I left My heritage to you, let you defeat them and take them away.
But you showed no mercy, abused and denigrated them;
you even made the elderly suffer beneath your heavy burden.
But You were carried away with your power,
thinking you would always be in charge.
You didn’t consider your limits or think about how all this would end.
You, pursuer of pleasure, resting in the thought,
“No one exists in the world of any consequence except me.
I’ll never feel as a widow or suffer the loss of my children.”
Despite all your magic and charms, all of a sudden, in a single day,
terror and death to the highest degree.
In the midst of it all, your children and husband, too, will be gone.
10 In your wickedness you thought you were immune,
so hidden away that no one could find your faults.
But your version of wisdom and knowledge were your undoing; you thought,
“No one exists in the world of any consequence except me.”
11 Evil will break upon you full force.
You won’t be able to hold it off or charm it away.
Disaster will fall and, even with all your wealth, you won’t stand a chance.
There’s no way to know what is coming; all of a sudden,
It will ruin all that you have and all that you are.
12 But keep trying your spells;
your magic and charms have brought you this far.
Maybe they’ll help in some way. Maybe they’ll incite fear.
13 All of your scheming has only exhausted you.
Let the astrologers step up and save you,
After all they chart the heavens, read the stars,
and predict the future month after month.
14 Look, they’re like dry straw that ignites in a flash and is burned away.
They cannot help you—they cannot help themselves
From the power of the flame.
And this is not some warm and cozy fire shared among friends!
15 So that’s what they’re worth to you—absolutely nothing,
even after all these years of working together.
They’re gone. No one’s left to rescue you.

48 Listen closely, you descendants of Jacob who are called Israel!
Hear this, you who trace your ancestors back to Judah,
Who take oaths in the name of the Eternal, and call on the God of Israel,
but do so dishonestly and inappropriately:
Your identity is wrapped up in the holy city,
and you claim to rely on the God of Israel,
The One who is called the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.

Eternal One: In times long past, I determined
and announced the things that would come.
Then suddenly I acted, and they indeed happened.
Long ago, I figured that you’d resist
(after all, you are a hard-headed and stubborn lot).
Way back then, I told you what would happen so that you wouldn’t claim
that some other god was responsible—that some figurine you crafted
From wood and molded metal commanded and accomplished it.
You’ve heard what I foretold; now you’ve seen what has happened—
do you agree that I’m God?
Well, from this moment, I am telling you new things,
secrets hidden that no one has known.
They are created now—brand new, never before announced, never before heard.
So you can’t claim, “Look, I already knew them.”
There’s no way you could have heard or known
because, even from long ago, you have never listened.
For I’ve always known that you are a conniving lot;
you’ve been a troublesome rebel from birth.

On account of My reputation, I hold back my anger;
for My own weighty grandeur, I am patient with you,
So that I don’t make an absolute break with you.
10 I have refined you, but not in the way silver is refined.
Instead, I try you in the furnace of suffering.

For God, suffering is not an end in itself. God uses suffering and hardship to purge the bad and foster the good in His covenant people.

11 But it is all on account of Me, not of you, that I act,
that I retain honor, that My glory is Mine alone, and not sullied.

Footnotes:

  1. 45:23 Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10–11
  2. 47:3 Meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Ephesians 4:1-16

As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you: Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you. Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created, with peace binding you together.

Now that Paul has described the new world as God would have it, he urges believers to live out their callings with humility, patience, and love: to walk as Jesus walked. These are the ways of Jesus. Paul encourages them to do whatever it takes to hold onto the unity that binds people together in peace. He does not ask them to create that unity; this has already been accomplished through the work of the Rescuer and His Spirit. Rather, he calls believers to guard that unity—a more modest but no less significant task—because that unity is founded on God’s oneness and work in the world.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were all called to pursue one hope. There is one Lord Jesus, one living faith, one ceremonial washing through baptism,[a] and one God—the Father over all who is above all, through all, and in all. This God has given to each of us grace in full measure according to the Anointed’s gift as the Scripture says,

When He ascended to the heights,
He put captivity in chains;
And in His triumph, He gave gifts to the people.[b]

(Well, when it says “He ascended,” then that must mean that He had descended earlier to the lower levels, that is, to the earth. 10 The One who descended is the same One who rose from the dead to ascend far above all the heavens so that He could fill all things.)

11 It was the risen One who handed down to us such gifted leaders—some emissaries,[c] some prophets, some evangelists, as well as some pastor-teachers— 12 so that God’s people would be thoroughly equipped to minister and build up the body of the Anointed One. 13 These ministries will continue until we are unified in faith and filled with the knowledge of the Son of God, until we stand mature in His teachings and fully formed in the likeness of the Anointed, our Liberating King. 14 Then we will no longer be like children, tossed around here and there upon ocean waves, picked up by every gust of religious teaching spoken by liars or swindlers or deceivers. 15 Instead, by truth spoken in love, we are to grow in every way into Him—the Anointed One, the head. 16 He joins and holds together the whole body with its ligaments providing the support needed so each part works to its proper design to form a healthy, growing, and mature body that builds itself up in love.

Footnotes:

  1. 4:5 Literally, immersion, in a rite of initiation and purification
  2. 4:8 Psalm 68:18
  3. 4:11 Literally, apostles
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 68:19-35

19 Blessed be the Lord
who carries our heavy loads every day,
the True God who is our salvation.

[pause]

20 We know our God is the God who delivers us,
and the Eternal, the Lord, is the One who saves us from the grip of death.

21 The True God will certainly shatter the skulls of those who oppose Him;
He’ll smash the hairy head of the man who continues on his sinful ways.
22 The Lord said,
“I will bring the enemy back from Bashan.
I will bring them back from the deepest parts of the sea,
23 So that you may plant your feet in their blood
and your dogs may lick up their portion of the foe.”
24 The solemn march in Your honor, O True God, has come into view;
the march that celebrates my God, my King, has come into the sanctuary.
25 The singers went first, and the musicians came last
between rows of girls who played tambourines.
26 Come, let us gather to bless the True God
and to praise the Eternal, He who is the fountain of Israel, the source of our life!
27 Look! There are the rulers of Benjamin, the youngest in the lead.
A great crowd follows
The princes of Judah,
the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

28 [Your God is the One who has given you strength];[a]
show Your power, O True God, as You have done for us.
29 Because of Your magnificent temple in Jerusalem,
many kings will line up to bring You gifts.
30 Reprimand the beasts in the tall grass,
the herds of bulls that are with the people’s calves,
Trampling over the pieces of silver.
He has driven out the people who love to be at war.
31 Ambassadors will come from Egypt;
the people of Ethiopia[b] will reach out their hands to the one True God.

32 Let all the kingdoms of the earth sing to the True God.
Sing songs of praise to the Lord.

[pause]

33 To Him who rides high up beyond the heavens, which have been since ancient times,
watch and listen. His voice speaks, and it is powerful and strong.
34 Attribute power to the one True God;
His royal splendor is evident over Israel,
and His power courses through the clouds.
35 O True God, You are awesome from the holy place where You dwell.
The True God of Israel Himself
grants strength and power to His people.

Blessed be our God!

Footnotes:

  1. 68:28 Other manuscripts read, “Call on Your strength, O God.”
  2. 68:31 Literally, Cush
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 24:3-4

Wisdom is required to build a house;
understanding is necessary to make it secure.
Knowledge is needed to furnish all the rooms
and fill them with beautiful treasures.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

09/24/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 43:14-45:10, Ephesians 3:1-21, Psalms 68:1-18, Proverbs 24:1-2

Today is the 24th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a joy to be here with you today to take the next step as we move deeper into this week and as we approach the end of this month and continue to take steps forward each day through the Scriptures. So, we’re continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah and we are continuing our adventure through the letter to the Ephesians as well as Psalms and Proverbs of course. And we’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Today, Isaiah chapter 43 verse 14 through 45 verse 10.

Commentary:

Alright. Since we started this letter to the Ephesians we’ve been talking about, you know, wide open vistas, we talked about that a lot yesterday, these beautiful places in the world here you can encounter beauty so pure, so pristine, so vast that it’s almost like you’re not looking at something real. It’s like it’s too good to be true and like at least for me that’s just like how the book of Ephesians reads. We just keep going up and up and we come to these vistas and it’s like we can drive right by the vista or we can park and go like, “this is gonna take a long while for me to sit here and soak in the implications of what’s being said.” So, in the letter today, Paul says, “specifically, the mystery is this: by trusting in the good news the Gentile outsiders are becoming fully enfranchised members of the same body, heirs alongside Israel and beneficiaries of the promise that has been fulfilled through Jesus the anointed.” Alright. So, that’s a verse in the Bible but it was a sentence in a letter and that sentence applies to every believer in the world Jew and Gentile alike. And the promise that’s given here is the riches of God’s blessings. So, we can sit here at this vista and go, “that is a beautiful thing and I need to think about that” but why would Go…I mean like…seriously…like I know myself and hardly ever can figure out why God would be so gracious to me, right? I mean, don’t feel that way? Like, why would He? I don’t deserve that. I’m thankful. I’m grateful. I receive it as a gift…I’m humbled by it. I don’t deserve it but according to the letter to the Ephesians there’s a reason and you better buckle up. Here’s what Paul says, “here’s His objective”, meaning God’s, “here’s God’s objective. Through the church, He intends now to make known His infinite and boundless wisdom to all rulers and authorities in heavenly realms. This has been his plan from the beginning, one that He has now accomplished through the Anointed one, Jesus our Lord.” So, have you ever thought about God’s goodness and His offering this goodness, an eternal life to you, in part because it makes His wisdom known and displays its unseen realms.? Okay, you see, we are at a big picture vista of our faith that is vastly beyond us. And because of His goodness, according to Paul, “Jesus faithfulness to God has made it possible for us to have the courage we need and the ability to approach the Father confidently.” Like, I know that we read scriptures like that and hear that kinda stuff to the point that it does not impact us anymore. But since we’re going through and pulling off at all these beautiful vistas, we should understand we are talking about the only, the one true, the Almighty Creator, God of all things, everything that we think we know and everything that we for sure don’t know, the God of all things. What Paul’s saying is, God has a master plan that is far bigger than we even are aware of, but He has come for us and freely welcomed us because we took Him at His word, we believed, we be put our faith in Him. He has brought us into His family, and we can approach Him confidently. Again, we’re talking about God, the God, I am that I am God. Think about the implications of knowing and being able to approach God, the only God, the Creator God. Like we can enter the presence of the Almighty God boldly and confidently as a son, as a daughter would with any loving parent. I…I don’t…I mean…what is better than that. Even Paul seems to not…like…he's…like…where do you go from there? And, so, Paul prays a prayer today just embracing all of that. And let’s go back over…let’s go back…let’s pray. Let’s pray the prayer of Paul today and allow that to begin to shape what our day looks like.

Prayer:

Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen we Your people. Fill our souls with the power of Your spirit so that through faith Jesus the Anointed One will reside in our hearts. And may love be the rich soil where our lives take root. May be the bedrock where our lives are founded so that together with all of Your people, we have the power to understand that the love of Jesus the Anointed One is infinitely long and wide and high and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God may Your fullness flood through our entire beings. And we pray this from the Scriptures in the name of Jesus, the Anointed One. Amen.

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday September 24, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

14 The Holy One of Israel, the Eternal One who redeemed you, says,

Eternal One: For your good, I will send another against Babylon
and make all of them outcasts from their own land;
The Chaldeans will set sail and try to escape on their celebrated ships.
15 For I am the Eternal, your Holy One. I am your King,
Creator of Israel, My people.

16 This is what the Eternal One says, the One who does the impossible,
the One who makes a path through the sea, a smooth road through tumultuous waters,
17 The One who drags out chariots and horses,
armies and warriors, and drowns them in the sea—
They will go down, never to rise again;
their lives are snuffed out like a candle wick:

The prophet appeals to a powerful memory: the exodus. He reminds God’s people—all descendants of slaves in Egypt—how God liberated them from oppression, how God devastated the powerful army that pursued them in order to take them back to the whip and lash, back to servitude in Egypt. Stories of the exodus have been told time after time for many generations; they are permanent fixtures in their minds. The prophet evokes these amazing memories to comfort them and assure them that what God is about to do is like what God did do for their ancestors centuries ago.

18 Eternal One: Don’t revel only in the past,
or spend all your time recounting the victories of days gone by.
19 Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak,
and you’re about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert;
Waters will flow where there had been none.
20 Wild animals in the fields will honor Me;
the wild dogs and surly birds will join in.
There will be water enough for My chosen people,
trickling springs and clear streams running through the desert.
21 My people, the ones whom I chose and created for My own,
will sing My praise.

22 In truth, you never really called upon me, did you, Jacob, My people?
So how then could you be tired of Me, Israel, My own?

23 You didn’t present Me with sheep for burnt offerings
or acknowledge Me in sacrifices.
I didn’t tire you by demanding so many gifts of offerings and incense.
24 No sweet cane, no money or glorious excess have you given to Me.
You didn’t even try to satisfy Me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Instead, you tired Me with your sins—bloodshed and lies, crimes and offenses;
you wore Me down with all your belligerence and faults.
25 So let’s get this clear: it’s for My own sake that I save you.
I am He who wipes the slate clean and erases your wrongdoing.
I will not call to mind your sins anymore.
26 Now help Me remember. Let’s get this settled.
State your case, and prove to Me that you are in the right.
27 From the very beginning your founding father sinned,
then your leaders defied My laws and instructions.
28 So I brought disgrace on the princes of your sanctuary, your priests.
I turned them over to barbarian assault,
Leaving Jacob to the batterers, Israel to humiliation.

44 Eternal One: Nevertheless, listen to Me, My people:
Jacob, My servant; Israel, My chosen.

The Eternal who made you,
who formed you in the womb and promised to help you, has this to say:

Eternal One: Don’t be afraid, My servant Jacob,
My dear Jeshurun—My chosen.
Like a devoted gardener, I will pour sweet water on parched land,
streams on hard-packed ground;
I will pour My spirit on your children and grandchildren—
and let My blessing flow to your descendants.
And they will sprout among the grasses, grow vibrant and tall
like the willow trees lining a riverbank.
One will call out: “I belong to the Eternal.”
Another will say, “Jacob is my people; Israel my honored name.”
Yet others will write “Property of the Eternal” on their hands.

The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
King of Israel, who paid their ransom, has this to say:

Eternal One: I am at the beginning and will be at the end.
There is no God except for Me.
If you know any God like Me, tell it now.
Declare and demonstrate any who can compare to Me.
Or if you know and have announced events before their time,
told what is to come, then speak so now.
Don’t be afraid. Let your minds be clear of fear.
Haven’t I announced events and revealed what is to come?
From the earliest days, I have done so. You know it—you have seen and know.
So, go ahead, My witnesses: is there a god out there other than Me?

Witnesses: There is no other rock like God. I don’t know a single one.

All of the nations that Israel encounters are involved in some form of idol worship. They imagine these gods and fashion these images in order to satisfy a desire—a God-given desire—to connect with something, with someone out there. Human beings know at some deep, intuitive level that God exists, life is sacred, and there are mysteries more profound than the daily grind. This is why every human civilization exhibits some form of religious life and devotion. But instead of seeking the God who is, people have a tendency to create the gods they want, gods that give them control over the complexities and problems of life. Israel is elected by God for a number of reasons. Perhaps two of the most significant are to bear witness to the one True God and to warn the nations against idolatry. According to Scripture, idol worship is not some neutral, unfortunate habit people get themselves into; it is more than just a waste of time, hope, and effort. It is a dangerous substitute—a counterfeit experience—that adversely misshapes and disorders their lives. To persist in idolatry is to give way to malevolent evils and to miss out on a relationship with the one True God.

But whoever does make an idol is not improved or enriched. On the contrary, their passing fancies contribute nothing of value or purpose. Those who look on at such misplaced attention don’t understand what they’re seeing, and the idol-makers will end up embarrassed at best. 10 It’s easy to say, “What pathetic idiocy! Who would do such a thing—make gods that are by definition worthless?” 11 The people who worship them will be shamed and humiliated. After all, people made those gods. Yet it happens all the time. So, let’s put these images, these figurines all together; stand them up—they will tremble with terror and be ashamed.

12 A metalworker shapes the raw materials into tools and then uses them to make little gods by hammering, bending, heating, and cooling the materials. And in the process, he gets tired and hungry; without water he soon grows faint. 13 Likewise, the woodworker measures and marks the wood, chisels and planes it down, marks it with a compass, and carves it until it looks a bit like a human—lovely, maybe—in order to put it in a house. 14 To take it back a bit further, perhaps he cuts down cedars or he carefully selects the cypress or oak himself, watches it, nurtures it until it is ready for his purpose. Perhaps he plants a pine; with sun and rain, it grows tall. 15 When it’s time to harvest, he uses some of the wood for fuel to stay warm, some to heat the oven and bake bread, and some to craft a god. Then the woodworker bows down and worships before the image he just made. 16-17 Do you see the irony? He sits around, warming himself and roasting dinner with wood from the same tree from which he crafted a god to which he bows and worships and prays—one time saying, “I am warmed by the wood fire”; another time saying, “O dear god, save me.”

18-19 So we see again how it is that they’re blind—their eyes shut to the truth in front of them, their hearts and minds refusing to think and really understand what’s going on. So without stopping to think about it, the fool says, “Gosh, I used half of the wood to build a fire, and baked the bread and roasted the meat over its hot coals. After I eat, I think I’ll use the rest of it to make a repulsive god. Maybe I’ll bow down to this leftover lumber.” 20 A fool like this is feeding on ashes—his addled mind and deceived heart lead him nowhere. He can’t figure out how to save himself, much less see the error of his ways and say, “Is this idol in my right hand just a lie?”

Eternal One: Let that be a lesson to you, My people.
21 Don’t forget it, Jacob; O Israel, remember—you are Mine.
I made you; you are My servant; I will not forget you.
22 I have swept away your wrongdoing, as wind sweeps a cloud from the sky:
I have cleared you of your sins, as the sun clears the morning mist.
I have rescued you; come back to Me.

23 Sing, starry sky and every constellation, for what the Eternal has done.
Shout for joy, dark soil underfoot and deep caverns below;
Erupt in joyful songs, mountains and forests, and every tree in them!
Sing joyfully, for the Eternal One has rescued Jacob, His people;
The splendor of God will be revealed in Israel.

24 The Eternal, your rescuing hero who formed you before birth, declares,

Eternal One: I am the Eternal, Creator of all there is and will be.
I alone stretched out the heavens and spread out the blue earth.
25 I confound the lying swindlers who claim to tell the future,
and I make the fortune-tellers look like fools.
I stop the highbrow intellectuals in their tracks,
and I show the fault of their reasoning.
26 But I stand behind the words of My servants,
and I accomplish what they predict.
The one who says about Jerusalem, “This place will be built up again”;
about Judah’s cities, “They will be restored”:
I confirm their predictions. They will rise from their ruins.
27 After all, I am the One who needs only to say “Dry up” to great waters,
and your rivers run dry.
28 I am the one who says of the Persian victor over Babylon,
“Cyrus is My shepherd. He will accomplish what I determine.”
My word goes out concerning Jerusalem:
“It will stand, a glorious city, again”
and of My house within it, “Restoration will begin at once.”

45 This is what the Eternal One says to His chosen agent, Cyrus the Persian.

God has a special mission for Cyrus, the Persian emperor: to lead the world and free His exiled people. The Scripture is clear: God, not kings, directs history. Kings—and sometimes their subjects—often need to be reminded of that. The Eternal, the one True God, stands above and behind human history, directing and orchestrating its events.

Eternal One: Not by his hand alone, but with his in Mine,
nations are vanquished, their leaders conquered;
Doors and gates open without a fight
and will not close.

(to Cyrus) I will go ahead of you and smooth the way, lower the heights,
break down bronze doors, and cut through iron bars.
I will give you hidden treasures
and wealth tucked away in secret places;
I will reveal them to you.
Then you will know that I am
the Eternal, the God of Israel, who calls you by name.
For the sake of My servant Jacob, My chosen people Israel,
I have called you by name, made you who you are,
And bestowed an honorable title on you, even though you don’t know Me.
I am the Eternal One; there is no other God but Me,
and even though you don’t know Me, I am preparing you for victory.
I am doing all this so that people all around the world
may know that I alone am the Eternal, the only God.
I form light and create darkness;
I make what is good, happy, and healthy, and I create woe.
I, the Eternal One, make them one and all.
Skies above, open up and let the clouds rain down righteousness!
Let the earth below sprout triumph and justice.
For I, the Eternal, have created them.

How bad it will be for anyone who disputes with the very One who created him!
After all, a human being is nothing more than one clay pot among many.
Imagine the clay saying to the potter, “What do you think you’re doing?”
or “You don’t have the hands for this.”
10 It’s as idiotic as asking a mother or father,
“What are you birthing or begetting?”

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Ephesians 3

For Paul there are two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles, or to put it another way, insiders and outsiders. The Prince of Peace is establishing peace where division and hostility once ruled unchallenged. In the Jerusalem temple, a stone wall separated Jewish from non-Jewish worshipers. According to Paul, the cross is God’s instrument to dismantle the wall, end the segregation, and make the two into one. God wants one people of God. That has been His plan all along.

Today walls continue to exist, erected strategically to separate people by race, religion, class, culture, and sex. Those who erect these walls, protect them, and maintain them will find that they are enemies of the gospel that brings all together into one worshiping family.

All this is exactly why I, Paul, am a prisoner of Jesus the Anointed, His representative to the outsider nations. You have heard, haven’t you, how God appointed me to bring you His message of grace? And how the mystery was made known to me in a revelation? I briefly wrote about it earlier. When you read what I have written, you will be better able to understand the depth of my insight into the mystery of the Anointed One, a mystery that has never before been shown to past generations. Only now are these secrets being revealed to God’s chosen emissaries[a] and prophets through the Holy Spirit. Specifically, the mystery is this: by trusting in the good news, the Gentile outsiders are becoming fully enfranchised members of the same body, heirs alongside Israel, and beneficiaries of the promise that has been fulfilled through Jesus the Anointed.

I became a servant and preacher of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace as He exercised His amazing power over me. I cannot think of anyone more unworthy to this cause than I, the least of the least of the saints. But here I am, a grace-made man, privileged to be an echo of His voice and a preacher to all the nations of the riches of the Anointed One, riches that no one ever imagined. I am privileged to enlighten all of Adam’s descendants to the mystery concealed from previous ages by God, the Creator of all, through Jesus the Anointed. 10 Here’s His objective: through the church, He intends now to make known His infinite and boundless wisdom to all rulers and authorities in heavenly realms. 11 This has been His plan from the beginning, one that He has now accomplished through the Anointed One, Jesus our Lord. 12 His faithfulness[b] to God has made it possible for us to have the courage we need and the ability to approach the Father confidently. 13 So I ask you not to become discouraged because I am jailed for speaking out on your behalf. In fact, my suffering is something that brings you glory.

14 It is for this reason that I bow my knees before the Father, 15 after whom all families in heaven above and on earth below receive their names, and pray:

16 Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit 17 so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together 18-19 with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.

This is a doxology of praise to the One with power that is beyond understanding.

20 Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us, 21 to Him be all glory in the church and in Jesus the Anointed from this generation to the next, forever and ever. Amen.

Footnotes:

  1. 3:5 Literally, apostles
  2. 3:12 Often translated “faith in Him.”
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 68:1-18

Psalm 68

For the worship leader. A song of David.

Psalm 68 is a hymn describing God as a Divine Warrior, marching from Sinai through the wilderness to make His home in Jerusalem.

May the True God rise up and show Himself;
may those who are united against Him be dispersed,
while the people who hate Him run away at the sight of Him.
As smoke disappears when it is blown by the wind,
may You blow away Your enemies forever.
As wax melts in the presence of fire,
may the wicked heart melt away in God’s presence.
But may those who are righteous rejoice
in the presence of the True God—so may they be glad and rejoice.
Yes, let them celebrate with joy!

Sing songs of praise to the name that belongs to the True God!
Let your voices ring out in songs of praise to Him, the One who rides through the deserted places.
His name is the Eternal;
celebrate in His glorious presence.

The True God who inhabits sacred space
is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows.
He makes a home for those who are alone.
He frees the prisoners and leads them to prosper.
Yet those who rebel against Him live in the barren land without His blessings and prosperity.

O True God, when You led Your enslaved people from Egypt,
when You journeyed with us through the wilderness,

[pause][a]

The whole world trembled! The sky poured down rain
at the power of Your presence; even Mount Sinai trembled in Your presence,
the presence of the True God, the God of Israel.
You sent a heavy downpour to soak the ground, O True God.
You refreshed the land—the land Your people would inherit—when it was parched and dry.
10 Your covenant people made their homes in the land,
and because You are so good, You provided for those crushed by poverty, O True God.

11 The Lord gives the word;
there are very many women ready to tell the good news:
12 “Kings who lead the armies are on the run!
They are on the run!
And the woman who stays at home is ready, too,
ready to enjoy the treasures that they’ve left behind!”
13 When they lay down among the campfires and open the saddlebags, imagine what they’ll find—
a beautiful dove, its wings covered with silver,
its feathers a shimmering gold.

14 When the Almighty scattered the kings from that place,
it was snowing in Zalmon.

15 O Mount Bashan, you mighty mountain of the True God;
mountain of many peaks, O Mount Bashan.
16 Why are you so jealous, O mountain of many peaks,
when you look at the mountain the True God has chosen as His dwelling place?
The Eternal will surely abide on Mount Zion forever.

17 The chariots of God are innumerable;
there are thousands upon thousands of them.
The Lord is in their midst, just as He was at Mount Sinai.
He has come into the holy place.
18 When You ascended the sacred mountain,
with Your prisoners in tow, Your captives in chains,
You sat in triumph receiving gifts from men,
Even from those who rebel against You, so that You, the Eternal God, might take up residence there.

Footnotes:

  1. 68:7 Literally, selah, likely a musical direction from a Hebrew root meaning “to lift up”
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 24:1-2

The abuse of alcohol is as ancient as the first batch of Egyptian beer or the first sip of Noah’s wine (Genesis 9:20–21). Its wide availability today has made for binge drinking on college campuses, underage drinking by young teens, drunk driving on city streets, and alcoholic rants and abuse in the home. The sage offers a tragic description of a young man who goes from drink to drink and cannot get his bearings in life. Too many people lose so much life in an alcoholic stupor.

24 Do not envy evil people
or seek their friendship;
For they are conniving and violent,
and all they talk about is causing trouble.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

09/23/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 41:17-43:13, Ephesians 2:1-22, Psalms 67:1-7, Proverbs 23:29-35

Today is the 23rd day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in our or on our adventure this year through the Scriptures. So, we’ve been working our way through the book of Isaiah and we are definitely in the back half of that book. And we are in the New Testament reading through the letter to the Ephesians, which contains some pretty earthmoving things, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 17 through 43 verse 13 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, I have traveled a lot in my lifetime. I’ve been lots of places all around the world and I’ve been some places in the world that are…that are so spectacular it’s hard to believe like…like the Isle of Skye in Scotland or Rocky Mountain National Park here in the United States, places that you can…like you’re driving and or your hiking but like around every corner is something even better than before…like it just keeps revealing itself to the point that you’re in such beauty that you’re…you’re like…you’re like in a postcard, right? You’re like in the painting. It’s so magnificent that you almost just can’t take it all in. And this is what the letter to the Ephesians will read like if we’ll let it because it’s gonna let us see why the gospel actually is such good news. Like, we call it that all the time, it’s just part of our subcultures. It’s the good news about Jesus, it’s the good news, it’s the story that God came to rescue mankind through Jesus, but the implications of what that means. Like…like we have that down but what does that mean? What does that do? What changes? Ephesians is one of these stops along the way as we take this travel through the Bible this year that lays that out in such a way that you’re looking at it and it’s like, “this is…this is more than good news…this is like too good.” Like, if this is all true, then this changes everything. So, Ephesians just lets us climb and we get these vistas and we’re in one of those beautiful places on earth that we’re looking at it and it’s like, “the color of that water can’t be real. The height of that peak…like how is this?” And you’re struck dumb basically because what are you gonna say? “That’s beautiful.” Like it’s more than beautiful. It’s like your heart cries out in worship at the glory of what God has created and we came to one of those kind of vistas in our faith today. So, Paul says, “it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You received it through faith. It was not our plan or effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it. Not one of us did. So, don’t go around bragging that you must’ve done something amazing for we are the product of His hand, heavens poetry etched on lives created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.” So, I read that. It’s a pretty common…pretty…it’s Ephesians 2:8-10. It’s…like many people have it memorized…like its famous. So, it’s foundational and we can just move right on by. But have you ever actually stopped, like not driving around that been but actually pulled over to look out across the valley. Have you ever contemplated the vastness of what Paul is saying here? This is way, way, way more than distilling this down into a theological concept. If this is true, then our salvation is not something that has anything to do with our good behavior and there is no way we could earn it with our good behavior anyway. It’s a gift. It can only be received, and it can only be received faith, which means actually like really deeply authentically believing that it is true. And it is…it’s a paradigm shifter. We didn’t choose God. God came for us personally. He drew near and when he did, we sensed it, that one moment, that one moment it all came clear. Like we were just looking out over this vastness, this beauty, and we saw it and it was too good to be true and we reached out and when God reached back it was with a gift, a gift of salvation that cannot be taken. Like, we can…we can reject it. We can throw it away, but it can’t be stolen from us. And since it’s not something that can be earned then we have nothing to brag about. Like, we didn’t earn it. Nobody can brag about it. It’s a humbling gift. We’re lucky to be here. And, so, becoming aware of that should just…it should change things. We should be in awe. We do not deserve, we have not earned, and we cannot earn this kind of kindness. And what kind of kindness are we even talking about, that God knows who you are, and He came for you. Like, that…that’s almost too good to be true, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, known and unknown knows you because you are a creation and He came for you. It’s like one of those vistas where, the more you look, the more you’re like, “this is surreal. This is unbelievable. I don’t every wanna leave this place. It’s too perfect. Like this is how it’s supposed to be.” But the more that we drink in, like when we sit in those beautiful places, the more that we do sit there, the more it reveals itself, the more we see. And in terms of what Paul is showing us spiritually, the more that we see the more that our lives are given context. And, so, from here we can see that our lives are supposed to be much more than we’re usually filling them with. Like, we’re made as masterpieces of God. Like let that just sink in. You feel like a masterpiece? Right? Like, do you feel like God’s masterpiece or do you feel like you’re anything but God’s masterpiece? Because it doesn’t matter how you feel. The reality is the reality. So, if it feels too good to be true and if it feels like it couldn’t be speaking of you, then you just need to keep lookin’ here. You need to think again because Paul said we were created anew, which means that God made us new again or that God renewed us and He did this so that we could accomplish the good things He planned long ago for us so. So, we can either read stuff like that go, “okay, here's…here’s my invitation to get work. I gotta be good.” That’s not the whole story. Our good behavior does not earn the gift. The gift is a gift. He didn’t offer us a free gift and then force us to earn it. It’s that our good works, our good behavior, our living into a righteous life becomes an automatic overflow of being in love with Jesus because of this gift that we did not deserve and cannot earn. We won the lottery as it were, the cosmic one, eternal life. And God planned this for us long ago. So, let’s just sit here with it today. Let’s just gaze out upon the beauty of what’s being described for us spiritually. God knows who we are. We’re supposed to be here. We’re supposed to be here enjoying His presence. We’re supposed to be here inviting others to experience this free gift that changes everything. And if the gospel is true, and I believe that it is, then this is how we’re supposed to be looking at ourselves. And this is how we’re supposed to be looking at the world.

Prayer:

Father, we sit here with this. We know that there’s more…like…we’re on this trail through Ephesians. So, we’re climbing upward and looking out at all of these grand vistas. But as we sit here at this parking spot we want to contemplate this today. No matter what we do, we can’t earn what You are offering us, which means You loved us when we were Your enemies, You love us when we are the betrayer. Like it’s too good. Your love is so vastly beyond anything that we can…like when we try to imitate You and we think we’re doing good we haven’t even scratched the surface of the depths of Your love for us. And You have bestowed upon us. This is magnificent, that we are intentionally created as a masterpiece. This is magnificent. And, so, we see that we’re not living in the glory that You have bestowed upon us. We’re living less and we’re sitting here looking at this reveal itself when we’re saying that there is so much more. So, come Holy Spirit as we sit with this today. Plant it deep within our hearts and lives changing the way that we look at ourselves, being humbled by Your generosity, and may this change the way we that we look at our brothers and sisters of the human race, everyone that we interact with today. Come Jesus. We pray in Your mighty name. Amen.

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The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday September 23, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 41:17-43:13

17 And when people thirst, when those poor souls with parched tongues
look in vain for something to drink,
I, the Eternal, the God of Israel, won’t leave them to suffer. I will respond
18 By making the hard, brown hills sparkle with streams of fresh water
and causing valleys to come alive with springs.
I will see that gentle pools wait on the desert floor for the weary traveler,
and great fountains bubble up from dry ground;
19 In the desert, I will plant cedars, woody acacias,
myrtles, and olive trees.
I will establish great cypresses to flourish in the desert places,
plant oaks and pine trees side by side.

20 They’ll see all this and understand. They’ll ponder together
and come to know that it is the power of the Eternal One that produced this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel created it.

21 Eternal One: Present your case. Lay out your arguments
and call your witnesses to appear before the King of Jacob.

God and Israel now become judge and jury as the nations bring their idols and make the case that their handmade gods can indeed predict the future.

22-23 Come on and bring your idols. Now tell us what is to come,
and while you’re at it, tell us what happened before.
Can you explain to us so that we, too, may understand?
Go ahead, tell us what the future holds.
Surely you can, if you are truly gods. Do good, or do bad.
Just do something—anything—to amaze or frighten us.
24 Sure enough, you are not gods; you are nothing at all.
You have nothing to show for your work or yourselves.
Fools! Only fools would choose you to be their god. Detestable.

25 Eternal One: I, the Lord, I have called up for service
one from the north, and he comes from the rising sun
and he will invoke My name.
He will render rulers like mud under his shoes,
trampling them down like so much clay.
26 Did any of you gods tell us about this long ago, so we would know?
Did any of you indicate to us that we might agree, “He is right”?
No, no one told us. No one made an announcement, and no one hears what you say.
27 I was the first to say to Zion, “Look, here they are!”
I sent a messenger to announce the good news to Jerusalem.
28 But I am looking, and there isn’t anyone.
I have asked around, and no one knows, no one can tell Me.
29 See here, all of these so-called gods are false;
their works are nothing;
These cast-metal images are like wind, sheer emptiness.

42 Eternal One: Look here, let Me present My servant;
I have taken hold of him. He is My chosen, and I delight in him.
I have put My Spirit on him; by this he will bring justice to the nations.

This poem is the first of several Servant Songs. God’s special Servant is described in various ways. In this song (42:1–9), the Servant is portrayed as one who faithfully establishes justice in the world and serves as a light for the nations. In the second song (49:1–13), the Servant is called from the womb and ordained to restore the nation of Israel and take salvation to the ends of the earth. In the third song (50:4–9), the Servant is portrayed as a teacher, intimately in touch with God, yet brutally beaten and disgraced by his enemies. In the fourth song (52:13–53:12), the suffering and rejection of God’s Servant takes priority over his other tasks; yet even in his suffering God is working to repair the world from the harm done by sin and evil.

Eternal One: He will not scream or yell,
crying out for all to hear.
What is bruised and bent, he will not break;
he will not blow out a smoldering candle.
Rather, he will faithfully turn his attention to doing justice.
And though he faces obstacles, resistance, and great pressure,
he will not crack; he will not give up until things are set right.
Even the coastlands wait patiently for his instruction.

God, the Eternal One, who made the starry skies,
stretched them tight above and around;
Who cast the shimmering globe of earth and filled it with life;
who gives breath and animates the people;
Who walks and talks with life-giving spirit has this to say:

Eternal One: I am the Eternal One. By righteousness I have called you.
I will take you by the hand and keep you safe.
You are given as a covenant between Me and the people:
a light for the nations, a shining beacon to the world.
You will open blind eyes so they will see again.
You will lead prisoners, blinking, out from caverns of captivity,
from cells pitch black with despair.
I am the Eternal One.
I Am is My name.
My beauty is unique, a weighty splendor all My own.
And nothing else—no idols could possibly gain My praise.
Look here, what’s done is done and gone.
The now is new, and there’s hope in the not-yet.
I will tell you what’s to come, even before the events are brand-new.

10 So make up a song like none other. Sing a new song to the Eternal.
And let His praise echo clear across the earth.
Let those who go to sea set sail with praise in the air.
Let those who live along the waters’ edge sing His praise.
11 Let desert places, urban and rural, wild and settled, sing!
Let the settlements of Kedar and those in the craggy cliffs of Sela join in the celebration.
The peaks of mountains, too, raise your voices with a great, glad cry.
12 Let them all give glory to the Eternal.
Let them praise the One who is, was, and will be heard along the coasts.
13 As a hero throws himself into battle, the Eternal will take on His enemies;
with passion, shouting out a deafening roar, He will power over them.

14 Eternal One: As a woman fiercely strains to give birth, I will gasp, pant, and cry out.
I have been quiet for a long time; I have held back in the face of it all.
Well, no more.
15 When My power is loosed, I will make level the heights
and render them bare.
I will dry up the rivers until bare islands appear,
and empty the sweet water from the pools.
16 I will escort the blind down roads they do not know,
guide them down paths they’ve never seen.
I will smooth their passage and light their way.
I will indeed do it—they are abandoned no more.

17 Meanwhile, those who put their stock in worthless images,
who worship things impotent and breakable
And say to idols, “You are our gods,”
will be turned away and mortified.

18 Eternal One: You, deaf to the world, hear!
You, blind in your eyes, look! And you will see.
19 My servant is as blind as any.
Who could be more deaf than the one who goes where I direct and tells what I want told?

The identity of the Servant is much debated. On the one hand, Isaiah often refers to God’s people, Israel, as “the servant of the Eternal” (41:8–9; 42:19; 45:4; especially 49:3). Yet at other times the Servant seems to be an individual, distinct from Israel, with a special mission to and for Israel. Early Christians hear these Servant Songs and reflect on Jesus’ significance; they better understand His role as the light of the world, teacher, and Suffering Servant of God. They see His life and ministry as the embodiment and representative of true Israel and therefore the fulfillment of these words. They use the prophet’s poetry to formulate songs and sermons that express not only Jesus’ unique relationship to God but also His unique career as the Light of the world.

Who is as blind as the one committed to do what the Eternal One wills,
the servant of the Eternal?
20 The seer-of-much nevertheless doesn’t get it;
privy to sound and speech and tone, he still doesn’t hear.
21 On account of God’s goodness, His right ways and deeds,
the Eternal was pleased to make the instruction grand and glorious.
22 But this people is compromised.
They’ve been plundered and robbed.
They have lost—things, liberty, place, and name.
They are all trapped in holes and tucked away in prisons.
They’ve been plundered and depleted with none to the rescue.
They’ve been stolen away with none to insist, “Give them back.”
23 Is there anyone who understands? Who, out of all of you, will pay attention,
understand, and take note concerning what’s to come?

God is the one who lies behind these events. He makes it possible for His people to be defeated and taken away.

24 Wasn’t it the Lord, because we turned our backs,
who gave up Jacob’s descendants, Israel, for robbery and plunder?
We refused to live as God would have us live. We did not heed
the instruction that God gave us through Moses so long ago.
25 That’s why God sent all fury against Jacob
in the shape of war, and we were burned.
We experienced all this;
Yet we didn’t get it. God’s people did not take it to heart.

43 Eternal One: Remember who created you, O Jacob?
Who shaped you, O Israel?
See, you have nothing to fear. I, who made you, will take you back.
I have chosen you, named you as My own.
When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm;
you will not be engulfed in raging rivers.
If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs,
keep going; you won’t be burned.
Because I, the Eternal One, am your God.
I am the Holy One of Israel, and I will save you.
I have traded in nations to win you back,
Egypt, Cush, and Seba, in exchange for your freedom.
Because you are special to Me and I love you,
I gladly give up other peoples in exchange for you;
They are trivial by comparison to your weighty significance.

5-6 So don’t be afraid. I am here.
I will reunite you with your children,
bringing them back from wherever in the world they are—East, West, North, or South.
No place will be able to hold you when I demand your release, when I order them,
“Bring My children—My sons and daughters—from far away.
Bring the ones who are called by My name;
the ones I made, shaped, and created for My profound glory.”
Even though they fail and seem blind and deaf (and not for lack of eyes or ears),
bring them out.

All the nations gather together; peoples from all over the world assemble.
Who among them could have forseen this?
Let them call their witnesses to make their case, prove they are in the right—
that it is the truth.

10 Eternal One: You are My witnesses; You are My proof.

You whom I chose for special purpose, My servant,
in order that you would know Me, trust Me, be faithful to Me,
Understand that I alone am God; no god was formed before Me,
and there will be no god after Me.
11 I, I am the Eternal;
there is no Savior except for Me,
12 I alone told that this victory would happen. Then I saved you and made it known.
No other god worked among you—You know the truth.
You can testify that it is so; as I declare, I alone am God.
13 Indeed, from day one, I am He. No one can wrest another from My hand.
I make things happen; who can turn them around?

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Ephesians 2

Often in his letters, Paul records his prayers for his churches. He is constantly talking with God about those he considers his spiritual children. He prays that God will grant them wisdom, knowledge, and great power. This is the same power that was at work when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him in heaven. Ultimately Paul knows all powers have been subjected to Jesus, the God-man, and He is destined to be head over all creation. In the resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate redemption of the cosmos has begun, and the church is the first act of God’s glorious drama.

As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions, wandering the course of this perverse world. You were the offspring of the prince of the power of air—oh, how he owned you, just as he still controls those living in disobedience. I’m not talking about the outsiders alone; we were all guilty of falling headlong for the persuasive passions of this world; we all have had our fill of indulging the flesh and mind, obeying impulses to follow perverse thoughts motivated by dark powers. As a result, our natural inclinations led us to be children of wrath, just like the rest of humankind.

But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us, united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace. He raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly realms with our beloved Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King. He did this for a reason: so that for all eternity we will stand as a living testimony to the incredible riches of His grace and kindness that He freely gives to us by uniting us with Jesus the Anointed. 8-9 For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing. 10 For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.

The relationship between faith and works is often misunderstood. Some think that salvation is God’s reward for good deeds. If that’s true, then it can’t possibly be a gift. If it were a reward, then heaven would be a place where people might compare notes on what they did to make it through the gates. But Paul is confident in the truth of the gospel. The truth is that salvation is God’s gift through Jesus. Grace and faith make salvation real in us. When we are transformed by grace, then we become His new creation and begin to live out the good works He has planned for us. Works, then, aren’t the cause of salvation; they are its result. To put it another way, works aren’t the means of salvation; they are its presence.

11 So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands. 12 You had absolutely no connection to the Anointed; you were strangers, separated from God’s people. You were aliens to the covenant they had with God; you were hopelessly stranded without God in a fractured world. 13 But now, because of Jesus the Anointed and His sacrifice, all of that has changed. God gathered you who were so far away and brought you near to Him by the royal blood of the Anointed, our Liberating King.

14 He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. 15 He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. 16 Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body.

17 The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. 18 By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. 19 And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. 20 You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries[a] with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. 21 The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit.

Footnotes:

  1. 2:20 Literally, apostles
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 67

Psalm 67

For the worship leader. A song accompanied by strings.

Psalm 67 echoes the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24–26) and invites all nations to join in praise to the one True God.

May God pour His grace and blessings into us
and turn His face to shine His light on us.

[pause][a]

So all those on earth will learn to follow Your way
and see Your saving power come to redeem all nations.
May all people live to praise You, Our True God;
may all come to praise You.

May all nations celebrate together, singing joy-filled songs of praise to You
because You judge the people fairly
and give guidance to all the nations of the earth.

[pause]

May the people praise You with their whole hearts, O God;
may every man, woman, and child on the earth praise You.

The land has supplied a bountiful harvest,
and the True God, our God, has poured out His blessings to us all.
God is the source of our blessings;
may every corner of the earth respect and revere Him.

Footnotes:

  1. 67:1 Literally, selah, likely a musical direction from a Hebrew root meaning “to lift up”
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 23:29-35

29 Who is wallowing in anguish? Who is full of sorrow?
Who has conflicts? Who has complaints?
Who has bruises and can’t remember where they came from?
Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 You know who: those who stay up late finishing off the wine,
those who can’t stop savoring spiced wines.
31 Look away from the enticing beauty of wine, the deep red hue;
ignore how it shimmers in the cup
and glides down your throat.
32 Eventually, when you least expect it, it strikes like a snake;
it stings like viper venom.
33 Your vision will blur, and you’ll imagine strange things;
you will say crazy, hurtful things and regret it later.
34 You will reel and stagger as if caught on a wave of seasickness,
as a sailor who holds on to a mast for dear life.
35 You will say, “They slapped me, but it didn’t hurt.
They beat me, and I didn’t feel a thing!
Whenever I wake up from this stupor,
I’ll have another drink!”

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

09/22/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 39:1-41:16, Ephesians 1:1-23, Psalms 66:1-20, Proverbs 23:25-28

Today is the 22nd day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we greet the new week, right by…metaphorically anyway…reaching out and twisting the knob and opening the door and walking in. And we’re just inside this new week and it’s all waiting to be revealed. Nothing has happened yet. So, we get this reset at the beginning of every week to think into and pray into the week before…before we go off in our own strength and find ourselves in a ditch by this Saturday. So, welcome to a new week. We’re doing the right thing by inviting God to speak through His word into this week and into this day. And this week we’ll read from the Voice Translation and we’re continuing our journey in Isaiah but when we get to the New Testament we will be beginning Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, known as Ephesians and we’ll talk about that when we get there, but first Isaiah chapter 39 verse 1 through 41 verse 16 today.

Introduction to the book of Ephesians:

Okay. So, yesterday as we concluded the week, we also concluded Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which means that we’re moving forward, which brings us to Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus or the Ephesians. And this letter is a lot different from many of the other letters of the apostle Paul, including Galatians, which we just concluded, which leads a number of biblical scholars to propose that this letter may not have been written by the apostle Paul, but had been written in the apostle Paul’s name. But then there’s other scholars who would argue that it’s the circumstances surrounding Ephesians and the way that these letters had been passed around from church to church to church and, you know, were copied and then passed down to other churches, it would have more to do with the nuances, the language nuances in Ephesians than the writer. So, the apostle Paul spent about three years in Ephesus among the community he’d established as a church and at that time Ephesus was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. So, it’s a port city. It’s a cosmopolitan city. It’s thriving, right? It’s importing all kinds of ideas and culture. And even though Paul wrote in letters specific instructions about specific things, he didn’t write this letter to combat false teaching, He didn’t write it to correct misbehavior in the church. These were people that he knew. He had spent a lot of time among them, which makes this letter even more compelling because what we get an Ephesians, unlike really any other place in the Bible, is the sense of the big big big big picture. These huge vistas of our faith lead us to consider the massive implications of what God has been and continues to do among His people, among us. But what makes this picture so captivating is where Paul wrote from because as we learned in the book of Acts, Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem, right? We remember this whole story. And then he was in Caesarea Marritima and he appealed to Caesar and then he was sent to Rome and it’s from Rome that Paul likely wrote Ephesians, probably somewhere in the vicinity of 60 A.D. So, knowing that Paul is in captivity, he is in prison when he writes this letter, it just makes what we’re reading all the more poignant, right? So, Paul is imprisoned and he’s writing a letter to boast, right, which we’ve seen in other places, or to defend himself against people who have come into the church and are teaching a nuanced gospel. You know, like if he’s speaking with all of this authority saying, “you do this and I will be with you in spirit” and all…like that’s kind of…that’s kind of tough when you are in prison and the entire world that you know is discrediting this teaching altogether, right? So, it’s very easy to go, “well, I’m not sure we need to obey this apostle who is going to be tried by the Emperor. And, so, Paul’s imprisonment probably cast doubt on the validity of his message and would have made it really difficult for many people to consider a life of faith in Jesus, right, because they didn’t want to end up like Paul imprisoned in Rome. But this didn’t discourage Paul from writing beyond circumstance and detailing a spiritual awareness that can’t be touched by prison bars, that can’t be touched by any trial of life at all. And, so, what we’re seeing in Ephesians is Paul pouring out his heart and his hope. There are passages in this letter that could be, maybe even should be pondered for days. I mean, I read the letter to the Ephesians and it’s just mind boggling. Like, if what he’s saying is true, the implications are mind boggling to our lives and it’s tremendously encouraging as it would’ve been intended. And, so, with that we begin. Ephesians chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us into this new week and into this new letter, the letter to the Ephesians. So, as we continue step-by-step, day by day, come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, allow us to rightfully divide the word of truth as the Scripture says. And we acknowledge, we can’t do that without You. This is Your word and we’re reading it but You will need to quicken our spirits and make us awake and aware to what You are speaking to us. Come, Holy Spirit we pray in this coming week. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

[Native flute playing] Hello…hello DABber’s my name is Cindy I’ve listened a long time. I’m a Native American and that was a native flute and I just wanted to speak peace over my family, peace over our bodies and peace over our minds. And you are a God that gives us a peace that passes all understanding because all around there’s war that’s raging but we trust in your word, we live in your word, we become your word. Help us to become your word Jesus. Holy Spirit, enable us, enable us to walk like you walk, walk with that piece. Would you fill us with your love today, that we would…that people would see that that’s the difference, that that peace and love radiates, that anyone that even that we pass could feel that that would be drawn to you? So, I just thank you for this family, I thank you for your word. You are the word Jesus. Please enlarge my daughter’s heart. Please reconcile us. I trust in you. Amen.

Hi, this is Abby from London it’s my first time calling in. First, I’ve got to say thank you to everybody who makes Daily Audio Bible happen, it’s been a huge encouragement to me in my life. But I really want to reach out to the community for prayer. And I’ve made a big mistake at work, a mistake that could have a 500,000 pounds impact and the worst of it is that it…the buck lies with my boss who’s also a Christian and I’m worried about the trouble that she may get in. I’m really praying for a breakthrough just for God to come in and intervene in this situation and to make that, you know, mistake go away and for us to find something different. I really appreciate the prayer of the community. Thank you.

Hello this is to Taria from Colorado. I just wanted to call and speak to the woman who was getting sober from meth. Good job. You’re doing a good job. I just want to tell you I also had an addiction to meth and I lost almost everything. My kids were taken away from me and I basically had to start from ground zero because I was selling and using for so long. And when I got sober I prayed and held onto the Lord and one day I asked Him to help me to forget all of the hurt and all of the pain I had caused other people and He told me that if he helped me to forget how it I remember what he saved me from. And I just want to give you hope. Since then I’ve been sober for about seven years now and He has restored everything to me. He’s restored my family. I have my kids back. He’s…I’ve got a good job I’ve got a home. And, so, I just want to let you know that there is hope and that if we hold onto Jesus He will restore your life and He will use all of the things that you’ve gone through for His good and for His glory and He will help others. So, just keep leaning on Jesus, keep asking for prayer because that is honestly the only way that I was able to get through it. Also, for the woman who just got released from the hospital after trying to commit suicide. I have been praying for you. I stopped everything and prayed for you and I know that God is going to be your strength during this time. Okay? Thank you. Bye.

Good morning family this is Bridget from New York City. Today is September 18th and I just…no…sorry…September 19th and I just listened to September 18th and wow Brian! Your commentary is just spot on and the conviction is amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for your boldness. Thank you that you question it and you challenge it and I appreciate that. I am very similar to you in always trying to dig deeper and seek more answers. And I think that, you know, yes, just seeking the God that wrote the book, that sent the book, that created us, that loves us, that just wants to have a relationship with us is just…it’s so hard to really grasp and it’s so profound. It doesn’t fit in my brain honestly but I’m thankful, I’m thankful. I’m just thankful for your commentary, I’m thankful for the word, I’m thankful for being sent to…to just to share this truth about this God loves us so much. Guys, if there’s anything you got from this today besides what Brian shared, which was amazing, know that God loves us so much. And I just get this image of Him dancing with us from birth until we leave. You know, I pray this blesses you all. May you all have a great day. God bless you. I love you family. I’m praying for you behind the scenes. Bye.

Good morning everyone, just want to call today and give a big shout out to all the truckers out there. Just want to tell you men that I’m praying for each and every one of you and that the Lord keeps us safe as we travel these highways. You know, it’s not always our driving we’re worried about, it’s the other people that we pass, each and every vehicle. You never know when something can happen. So, I just pray that the Lord keeps us all safe. I just want you all to know that as I drive down these roads myself I pray for y’all daily. So, we all have a blessed day men, and keep that rubber side down. You all in my prayers and I love you guys. Terry the trucker. Talk to you later.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday September 22, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 39:1-41:16

39 The man who was king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan (Baladan’s son), heard about Hezekiah—how he was so very sick and then got better. So he sent envoys to Hezekiah with letters and a gift. Hezekiah was delighted at the kind gesture from so great a king, so he welcomed his guests and showed them the best of Judah’s treasures and talents—silver and gold, precious spices, and oils that wafted the smells of paradise. He gave them a tour of his armory and showed them all of Judah’s military equipment and everything they’d stashed away for future need. Hezekiah held nothing back from their appreciative eyes. He showed them everything in his house and his kingdom.

When Isaiah the prophet heard about Hezekiah’s tour, he hurried to the palace and confronted Hezekiah.

Isaiah: What in the world have you done? Where did these people come from? And what did you talk with them about?

Hezekiah (puzzled by Isaiah’s obvious distress): They came from a great distance simply to extend kind wishes for my recovery from their king! They came from Babylon.

Isaiah: What did you show them? What have they seen in your palace?

Hezekiah: Well, everything. They have seen all that I own. I put all of my treasures on display. I didn’t hold back anything from them.

During Isaiah’s life, the Northern Kingdom (composed of ten Israelite tribes) flourishes and then falls, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah is battered by surrounding nations but persists. Eventually the Southern Kingdom itself falls, not to Assyria but to Babylon. Shockingly, the Babylonians destroy the capital and raze the temple where the Holy One of Israel is uniquely present with the people.

The Lord determines these events because their failings—as Isaiah described in such detail—and their refusal to correct their attitudes and behavior necessitate punishment on the order of national destruction. God’s covenant people have broken their part of the agreement and be-come unfit to live as people of Zion.

The scene has shifted. The situation has changed. The threat from Assyria now seems a distant memory. A new reality encompasses the people of God: Jerusalem and its glorious temple have been destroyed, and the key citizens of Judah have been carried off into exile by the Babylonians.

While tradition credits the entire book to Isaiah of Jerusalem, many scholars think these next 16 chapters are recorded by another prophet years later in the spirit of that great prophet of Jerusalem who proclaimed much of the previous writings. Whether this was Isaiah speaking in the future prophetically or another person used by the Spirit to continue Isaiah’s ministry, the traditions and ideas of Isaiah are so closely followed by the next chapters that they have been collected and included in this large book named after Isaiah. The time and circumstances are different, so the message is a bit different too. It is equally passionate about righteousness, Zion, and the Holy One of Israel. These events occur about two centuries after Isaiah’s death in the land of exile—Babylon.

Isaiah: Listen well to what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has said: “The time is coming when everything in your palace—everything of value kept, passed down, and stored by your ancestors to this present time—will be taken away to Babylon. Of everything that you showed this Babylonian contingent, nothing will be left. Absolutely nothing will remain here,” says the Eternal One. “Even some of your sons yet to be born will be taken to exile. They will be castrated and forced to serve in the Babylonian royal house.”

Hezekiah: The message you have spoken from the Eternal is good.

“At least,” Hezekiah thought to himself, “during my lifetime things will be peaceful and secure.”

40 “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.
“With gentle words, tender and kind,
Assure Jerusalem, this chosen city from long ago,
that her battles are over.
The terror, the bloodshed, the horror of My punishing work is done.
This place has paid for its guilt; iniquity is pardoned;
its term of incarceration is complete.
It has endured double the punishment it was due.”

A voice is wailing, “In the wilderness, get it ready! Prepare the way;
make it a straight shot. The Eternal would have it so.
Straighten the way in the wandering desert
to make the crooked road wide and straight for our God.[a]
Where there are steep valleys, treacherous descents,
raise the highway; lift it up;
bring down the dizzying heights.
Fill in the potholes and gullies, the rough places.
Iron out the shoulders flat and wide.
The Lord will be, really be, among us.
The radiant glory of the Lord will be revealed.
All flesh together will take it in. Believe it.
None other than God, the Eternal, has spoken.”[b]

During the time of Jesus, John the Baptist wanders around Israel in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets warning the people that they need to correct their attitudes and behaviors, to bring them better in line with what God expects and desires. He declares (warns, actually) that God is coming and will set things right. During the circumstances of exile, the people don’t fully understand who or what this voice in the wilderness will be; centuries later, as the early Christian community looks back over the life of Jesus and John, they recognize the anonymous voice.

A voice says, “Declare!”
But what shall I declare?
All life is like the grass.
All of its grace and beauty fades like the wild flowers in a field.

The grass withers, the flower fades
as the breath of the Eternal One blows away.
People are no different from grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
nothing lasts except the word of our God.
It will stand forever.[c]

Isaiah’s message is not just doom and gloom. God determines that His people may return home to rebuild their lives! God uses the new king, Cyrus of Persia, to accomplish this glorious restoration. God does not allow His punishment to last forever.

Now, in this new time, God smoothes the rocky way between Mesopotamia and all Israel; He makes the deserts between the present place of exile and their home just east of the Mediterranean Sea burst with sweet water and bloom with beauty and good things to eat. Treacherous roads and threatening beasts yield to God’s desire that they return safely.

In chapters 40–55, for the most part, the message is one of comfort and encouragement to God’s downtrodden and discouraged people. Many centuries later, these words will be understood in light of the Anointed One.

Ascend a high mountain,
you herald of good tidings, O Zion;
With a clear, strong voice make known to everyone
the joy that belongs to God’s chosen place,
O, Jerusalem, You herald of good tidings!
Make the news ring out! Don’t be afraid!
Say to these cities, this Judah: “Behold your God!”
10 The Lord, the Eternal, comes with power, with unstoppable might;
He will take control without question or delay.
He will see to it that wages are paid,
repairs are made, and all is set right again.
11 He will feed His fold like a shepherd;
He will gather together His lambs—the weak and the wobbly ones—into His arms.
He will carry them close to His bosom,
and tenderly lead like a shepherd the mother of her lambs.

12 Who has taken count and measured out all earth’s waters in a single, cupped palm
and determined heaven’s expanse with an outstretched hand?
Who has counted out exactly how many grains of dirt are here on earth,
and weighed the mountains and hills on scales?

13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Eternal One?
Can anyone claim to be His advisor?[d]
14 To whom did God turn for advice or instruction?
Whom did He consult about right and wrong?
Who directed Him down the path of justice or imparted to Him knowledge
or taught Him the way of understanding?

15 Face it; the nations are nothing but a drop in the bucket,
only a smidgen on the scales by the reckoning of God.
He can pick up entire islands as if they are grains of dirt.
16 Even if we had all the resources of Lebanon—
all of its trees to burn for fuel, all of its animals for burnt offerings—
How could we think that we’ve got enough to give to God?
17 All the countries of the world don’t add up to anything. In the eyes of God
they are less than nothing;
they are empty wastelands.

18 So would you try to find someone to compare to Him?
Can you think of anything that has a likeness to God?
19 An idol? Hardly. They are made by human hands.
Even if they are overlaid with gold, decorated with silver,
And shaped by the world’s best artisans,
they are subject to tarnish, tearing, and breaking.
20 Those who cannot afford such an extravagant offering
select a choice hardwood that will not rot,
And seek a skilled artisan to fashion an image
that will not totter and fall.

21 Don’t you know, haven’t you heard or even been told
from your earliest memories how the earth came to be?
22 Who else could have done it except God, enthroned high above the earth?
From such a vantage people seem like grasshoppers to Him.
Who else but God could stretch out the skies as if they were a curtain,
draw them tight, suspend them over our heads like the roof of a tent?
23 God reduces the rulers and judges,
the rich and powerful of the earth, to nothing;

24 They scarcely are planted, take root and start growing,
before God blows a withering breath,
And storm winds carry them away like chaff.

25 The Holy One asks, “Do you really think you can find
someone or something to compare to Me? My equal?”
26 Look at the myriad of stars and constellations above you.
Who set them to burning, each in its place?
Who knows those countless lights each by name?
They obediently shine, each in its place,
because God has the great strength and strong power to make it so.

27 Why, then, do you, Jacob, inheritors of God’s promise,
you, Israel, chosen of God—
Why do you say, “My troubled path is hidden from the Eternal;
God has lost all interest in My cause”?
28 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
The Eternal, the Everlasting God,
The Creator of the whole world, never gets tired or weary.
His wisdom is beyond understanding.
29 God strengthens the weary
and gives vitality to those worn down by age and care.
30 Young people will get tired;
strapping young men will stumble and fall.
31 But those who trust in the Eternal One will regain their strength.
They will soar on wings as eagles.
They will run—never winded, never weary.
They will walk—never tired, never faint.

41 Eternal One: Keep quiet and listen to Me, lands along the seacoast;
give the people of the nations a chance to regain their strength.
Let them come close, all together, to speak their minds and present their case;
let’s consider the facts and make a judgment.
Who brought up this eastern hero? Who called up his justice service?
He lays nations at his feet and makes an end of their kings.
With a thrust of his sword and the bend of his bow,
this hero turns kings and their armies into dust.
With agility and speed unmatched, he chases them down
and is himself unscathed, even though he is passing over unfamiliar land.
Who has performed these deeds and accomplished this purpose?
Who calls each generation into being from the first on down?

It is I, the Eternal One your God.
I am the first.
And to the very last, I am the One.

The lands along the seacoast have seen and are scared.
The ends of earth take to shaking and yet still they draw near.
They try to bolster each other up saying,
“Have courage, brother, have courage!”
Recognizing their mutual dependence, the artisan encourages the goldsmith;
the one who hammers the metal emboldens the one who welds,
Saying, “Looks good! Fine job!” and fastens the idols together with nails,
making it stand firm and stable.

The nations fashion new idols in the hopes these new gods will be able to protect them during the coming battles against the eastern hero, Cyrus of Persia. If powerful Babylon can fall before him and his mighty army, what chance do other nations have? But Israel has nothing to fear. For God’s covenant people, Cyrus’ rise to power is good news; his ascension and Babylon’s defeat are God’s answers to their anxious prayers. Cyrus’ campaign to build his empire is not simply the will of man or a coincidence of history; it is the outworking of God’s plan to redeem and restore His scattered people. It was God who sent His disobedient covenant partners into exile; it will be God who brings them back home.

Eternal One: But you, My servant, Israel,
Jacob whom I have chosen and descendant of My friend, Abraham,
I have reached to wherever you are in the farthest corners of earth,
and the most hidden places therein.
I have called to you and said, “You are my servant.
I have chosen you, not thrown you away!”
10 So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you;
don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, help you.
I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.
11 Look, everyone who hated you and sought to do you wrong
will be embarrassed and confused.
Whoever challenged you with hot-headed bluster
will become as if they never were, and nevermore will be.
12 You may go looking for them, but you won’t find them;
because those who tried to fight with you will become as if they never were.
13 After all, it is I, the Eternal One your God,
who has hold of your right hand,
Who whispers in your ear, “Don’t be afraid. I will help you.”

14 So don’t be afraid, Jacob, though you are nothing but a worm.
People of Israel, you little bug, you have nothing to fear.

Eternal One: I will help you. I am One who saves you,
the Holy One of Israel.
15 I will turn you into a formidable threshing sledge
with brand new sharp blades that will mow down entire mountains
and turn the hills into chaff.
16 You will separate value from waste, and a great wind
and a strong storm will take away what is useless and unimportant.
You will take joy in the Eternal.
You will glow with pride in the Holy One of Israel.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Ephesians 1

Paul, an emissary[a] of Jesus the Anointed, directly commissioned as His representative by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus][b] faithful in Jesus the Anointed.

May God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Anointed surround you with grace and peace.

This letter begins with praise and thanksgiving to

  • God the Father, who blesses us
  • Jesus, who redeems us
  • the Holy Spirit, who seals us.

Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who grants us every spiritual blessing in these heavenly realms where we live in the Anointed—not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done for us. God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world; He wanted us to live holy lives characterized by love, free from sin, and blameless before Him. He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us. Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved. Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace, which He has poured all over us. With all wisdom and insight, He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, 10 a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under the Anointed’s royal rule. In Him 11 we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will. 12 As a result, we—the first to place our hope in the Anointed One—will live in a way to bring Him glory and praise. 13 Because you, too, have heard the word of truth—the good news of your salvation—and because you believed in the One who is truth, your lives are marked with His seal. This is none other than the Holy Spirit who was promised 14 as the guarantee toward the inheritance we are to receive when He frees and rescues all who belong to Him. To God be all praise and glory!

This letter begins with praise and thanksgiving offered to God. Paul celebrates all the spiritual “blessings” available to all believers in Jesus, the Anointed One. This means that He is the one through whom God has acted to rescue the world. But more than that, He is the Lord to whom we belong and the spiritual place where all believers are presently located. In God’s purpose, heaven has come down to where we live so that we now occupy this wonderful realm where salvation is at work, where God’s truth and beauty are a reality, and where we wait as the rest of His plan is worked out.

15 This is why, when I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that is present in your community and of your great love for all God’s people, 16 I haven’t stopped thanking Him for you. I am continually speaking to Him on your behalf in my prayers. Here’s what I say:

17 God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, Father of Glory: I call out to You on behalf of Your people. Give them minds ready to receive wisdom and revelation so they will truly know You. 18 Open the eyes of their hearts, and let the light of Your truth flood in. Shine Your light on the hope You are calling them to embrace. Reveal to them the glorious riches You are preparing as their inheritance. 19 Let them see the full extent of Your power that is at work in those of us who believe, and may it be done according to Your might and power.

Friends, it is this same might and resurrection power that 20 He used in the Anointed One to raise Him from the dead and to position Him at His right hand in heaven. There is nothing over Him. 21 He’s above all rule, authority, power, and dominion; over every name invoked, over every title bestowed in this age and the next. 22 God has placed all things beneath His feet and anointed Him as the head over all things for His church. 23 This church is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Footnotes:

  1. 1:1 Literally, apostle
  2. 1:1 Some early manuscripts omit this portion.
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Psalm 66

Psalm 66

For the worship leader. A song.

Shout out to God, all the earth.
Erupt with joy to the one True God!
Sing of the glory due His name!
Offer Him the most magnificent praises!
Say to God, “All You have done is wondrous and causes fear!
Your power is mighty, and Your enemies pretend to submit to You.
The entire earth will bow down to worship You
and will sing glory-songs to You;
they will sing praises to Your name!

[pause][a]

Come and witness the True God’s endless works.
His miraculous deeds done on behalf of humanity inspire fear.
He transformed the sea into dry land;
our people passed through the river on foot!
Rejoice in Him; celebrate what He did there!
By His great might, He rules forever;
His eyes watch over all the nations,
so no one should go up against Him.

[pause]

Everyone, bless our True God!
Let praise-filled voices be heard near and far—at home and on foreign soil!
Praise the One who gives us life and keeps us safe,
who does not allow us to stumble in the darkness.
10 For You have put us to the test, O God;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
11 You trapped us with a snare;
You have laid upon our backs a heavy burden.
12 You allowed us to be conquered and let our enemies run over us.
We journeyed through dangers, through fire and flood,
But You led us finally to a safe place, a land rich and abundant.

13 I will come into Your temple with burnt offerings;
I will fulfill my promises to You—
14 The oaths that parted my lips
and were promises my mouth freely made when I was suffering and in anguish.
15 I will bring You my sacrifices—plump beasts
and the sweet smoke of consecrated rams—
I will also offer You bulls and goats.

[pause]

16 Come and listen, everyone who reveres the True God,
and I will tell you what He has done for me.
17 I cried out to Him with my mouth,
and I praised Him with my tongue.
18 If I entertain evil in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me.
19 But surely God has heard me;
He has paid attention to the urgency of my request.

20 May the True God be blessed,
for He did not turn away from my prayer
nor did He hold back His loyal love from me.

Footnotes:

  1. 66:4 Literally, selah, likely a musical direction from a Hebrew root meaning “to lift up”
The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Proverbs 23:25-28

25 So make your parents happy;
delight your mother—after all, she brought you into this world.

26 My son, devote yourself to me fully.
Observe my ways, and follow my directions:
27 Being drawn to a prostitute is like falling down into a deep well,
and being involved with a wicked woman is like descending into a narrow well.
You may never get out alive.
28 She waits for you, ready to ambush you like a thief
and ready to multiply unfaithfulness among men.

The Voice (VOICE)

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

09/21/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 37:1-38:22, Galatians 6:1-18, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 23:24

Today is the 21st day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and here we a We walked through another week together and so were closing…closing down another of the weeks that we have as we journey through the Bible. And we’re not out of September, so let’s just be present where we are. We’ve got another full week and a couple of days before we will be entering the final quarter of the year, but nevertheless we are here, the 21st day of September. And it’s the last day of the week. We’ve been reading from the New English Translation this week, which is what we’ll do today and continue our journey in the book of Isaiah. Today we’ll read chapter 37 and 38.

Prayer:

Thank You, father for another week in Your word. We are so grateful. We are so grateful to have Your word to wash into our lives and inform the choices and decisions that we have facing us and we are grateful that Your word challenges us to change, to repent, to transform from within. We invite Your Holy Spirit to continue that process and we pray that we will cooperate with that process. This the process of sanctification. This is us being set apart and made holy before You. This is our desire. You are our God and we love You. And, so, come Holy Spirit as we release this week and it becomes a part of history. We are here now and we invite Your presence as we move through this day and look forward with anticipation to all that You will speak to us in the coming days in the new week. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that that is home base for the virtual community that we are around the world. So that’s we’re you find out what’s going on around here.

That’s where the Prayer Wall lives and that’s where the Daily Audio Bible Shop lives. And, so, check out those resources there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the 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 a comment, you can press the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. Let’s have a great weekend. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Megan from California. I wanted to call in to pray for Nadine in New Jersey. I wanted to pray for Nadine and I wanted to pray for myself and really anyone who is struggling in their marriage, anyone who is experiencing abuse whether that be emotional, mental, physical abuse and their struggling and wresting with how to honor God especially when you have kids involved and you so badly want your marriage to work. God, I pray for all of us right now. So, family will join me in praying. Merciful God we cry out to You for marriages like Nadine’s and marriages like mine who are hurting. We know that Your word says that You hate divorce God but sometimes it seems like that’s the only answer. Please help us to see clearly God what Your will is and how You want us to honor You God. You also hate oppression Lord. Where You don’t want Your children to be oppressed. God please, I cry out to You for marriages that are hurting. Please help us Lord. Your word says that You hold…that the king’s heart is like a stream of river in Your hand…in the palm of Your hand and You can turn it however You wish. If You can change the hearts of kings Lord, You can chant surely change the…

This is my first time contacting you guys. My name’s Wade and I live in Japan. I’m a retired veteran living here. My life here just hasn’t been so great, and I suffer from depression pretty badly. I have a son, I’m divorced, he’s 15 and he suffers from Tourette syndrome and OCD and all these other issues. And my financial situation is really, really bad and I don’t know what to do anymore. I am…I’m ready to give up to be honest. So, I listen to your podcast every day and I listen to people praying when I don’t know…I pray too but I don’t know anymore. So, I guess I just want prayer. I don’t know how I’m gonna pay bills or…I’m not even a good father I don’t think anymore. This is how things have turned out. The worst part of it because of my financial situation I haven’t even been able to go back to America to see my mom in over 10 years and it’s just the worst feeling. Anyway, thank you Brian for your podcast because it does keep me going. Thank you all. God bless you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible the this is Carolyn from North Carolina and I am calling to give a praise report. I just married a wonderful man of God. I was instructed years ago by my pastor to write a list of all the attributes that I wanted my husband to have and to put it before me and pray on it. Well I put it on my refrigerator, I prayed, and I prayed for years and I stayed in the word, I stayed busy in the kingdom and my Boaz found me. Now, the enemy tried to stop this marriage and coming together for over a year and half, but I stayed faithful. God kept confirming. So, I just want to encourage you sisters who are waiting on your Boaz, that are waiting on a godly husband that will pray with you and pray for you, who you can submit to, and just prepare yourself to become a wife. Stay in the word, understand what the word says, study, and my God it will come to pass. Just want to encourage you sisters. Don’t get discouraged, don’t settle. God has your Boaz. Be encouraged.

Hi this is Valerie calling from south of __ . I just want to call for some of the DABbers. Dear Lord, I just want to pray for Allison Lord I just heard her call about feeling hopeless and just coming out from a suicide attempt Lord and just needing some guidance and some hope in her life. And Lord I just want to pray that she’ll be able to feel Your love in a changeable way, Lord. I pray that You will just put people in her path that will uplift her and point her toward You Lord and just encourage her as she goes about her day. Lord, You know that I’ve dealt with this in one of my children and sometimes You can feel so hopeless and so inadequate in helping someone Lord, but I know that You know all the answers Lord and that You love her much more than anyone else could. And she is Your child Lord and she’s reaching out for help. So, I do just want to lift her up Lord and Alison I just want to let You know that I will be praying for You whenever the Lord brings You to my mind I will say a prayer for encouragement and strength and again just mental clarity in knowing who You are as a child of God. And also, in these last few minutes I want to pray for the Young couple who is still in with a husband having leukemia. Lord I cannot imagine being 26 years old and getting a diagnosis like that. So, I just want to live this couple. I ask Lord that You give the doctor’s wisdom. I pray Lord that his nutrition is on track, so he has energy to fight these cancer cells. And Lord I’m going to continue to pray for them as well. My time is up. God bless all. Take care. Bye-bye.

Hi, DABbers this is Keira from Denver and I’m just calling for prayer. I’m feeling very needy for prayer and I’m really depressed. I’ve always been that kind of depressed kind of person, but I just feel like the sins that I’ve committed in my life are just weighing down so hard. And I called a couple times for different things and I haven’t heard them yet and that’s just making me feel more needy and maybe they just haven’t been played yet, I don’t know. But I have a trip coming up to visit hopefully find my son Nish who is homeless and Albuquerque and I’m going there with my mom at the end of this week and I’m really grateful for that. I really hope that I find him. And I really would like just prayer for peace and restoration of our relationship and with my mom and I just in general I just really like avoid people and social things in general and I would like prayer for that. Because I just…I just want to…I want to walk with God, I want to walk with Christ. I just need prayer. Please…I don’t know what else to pray. I love you all and thank you so much.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday September 21, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 37-38

37 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This is a day of distress, insults, and humiliation, as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. So pray for this remnant that remains.’”

When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard—these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”

When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. The king heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: 10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued? 12 Were the nations whom my predecessors destroyed—the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar—rescued by their gods? 13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: 16 “O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky and the earth. 17 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! 18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations and their lands. 19 They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them. 20 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 this is what the Lord says about him:

“The virgin daughter Zion
despises you—she makes fun of you;
daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head after you.
23 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?
At whom have you shouted
and looked so arrogantly?
At the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master,
‘With my many chariots I climbed up
the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions,
its thickest woods.
25 I dug wells
and drank water.
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
26 Certainly you must have heard!
Long ago I worked it out,
in ancient times I planned it,
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins.
27 Their residents are powerless;
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field
or green vegetation.
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops
when it is scorched by the east wind.
28 I know where you live
and everything you do
and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me
and the uproar you create has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose,
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back
the way you came.”

30 “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: This year you will eat what grows wild, and next year what grows on its own. But the year after that you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. 31 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit.

32 “For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;
survivors will come out of Mount Zion.
The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies will accomplish this.
33 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
‘He will not enter this city,
nor will he shoot an arrow here.
He will not attack it with his shielded warriors,
nor will he build siege works against it.
34 He will go back the way he came—
he will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.
35 I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’”

36 The Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 troops in the Assyrian camp. When they got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! 37 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. 38 One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

The Lord told Isaiah, “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life, and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’” 21 Isaiah ordered, “Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well.” 22 Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?” Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” And then the shadow went back ten steps.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanks

This is the prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then recovered from his illness:

10 “I thought,
‘In the middle of my life I must walk through the gates of Sheol,
I am deprived of the rest of my years.’
11 “I thought,
‘I will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living,
I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.
12 My dwelling place is removed and taken away from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth;
from the loom he cuts me off.
You turn day into night and end my life.
13 I cry out until morning;
like a lion he shatters all my bones;
you turn day into night and end my life.
14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky.
O sovereign master, I am oppressed;
help me!
15 What can I say?
He has decreed and acted.
I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief.
16 O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life;
may years of life be restored to me.
Restore my health and preserve my life.’
17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.
You delivered me from the Pit of oblivion.
For you removed all my sins from your sight.
18 Indeed Sheol does not give you thanks;
death does not praise you.
Those who descend into the Pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.
19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,
as I do today.
A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.
20 The Lord is about to deliver me,
and we will celebrate with music
for the rest of our lives in the Lord’s temple.”

New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Galatians 6

Support One Another

Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too. Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Let each one examine his own work. Then he can take pride in himself and not compare himself with someone else. For each one will carry his own load.

Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches it. Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.

Final Instructions and Benediction

11 See what big letters I make as I write to you with my own hand!

12 Those who want to make a good showing in external matters are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. 14 But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! 16 And all who will behave in accordance with this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on the Israel of God.

17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Psalm 65

Psalm 65

For the music director; a psalm of David, a song.

Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion.
Vows made to you are fulfilled.
You hear prayers;
all people approach you.
Our record of sins overwhelms me,
but you forgive our acts of rebellion.
How blessed is the one whom you choose,
and allow to live in your palace courts.
May we be satisfied with the good things of your house—
your holy palace.
You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,
O God, our savior.
All the ends of the earth trust in you,
as well as those living across the wide seas.
You created the mountains by your power,
and demonstrated your strength.
You calm the raging seas
and their roaring waves,
as well as the commotion made by the nations.
Even those living in the most remote areas are awestruck by your acts;
you cause those living in the east and west to praise you.
You visit the earth and give it rain;
you make it rich and fertile
with overflowing streams full of water.
You provide grain for them,
for you prepare the earth to yield its crops.
10 You saturate its furrows,
and soak its plowed ground.
With rain showers you soften its soil,
and make its crops grow.
11 You crown the year with your good blessings,
and you leave abundance in your wake.
12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture,
and the hills are clothed with joy.
13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Proverbs 23:24

24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly;
whoever fathers a wise child will have joy in him.

New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.