Jeremiah 26:1-27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalms 85:1-13, Proverbs 25:16
Today is the 15th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is a joy to be here with you right…right now wherever you are. I’m here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. Whatever rolling hills or flat planes or high mountains or seacoasts that you are at, it is a joy that we live at a time that we can reach out and be together. Even though geography separates us, we are united in spirit as we continue our journey through the Scriptures. And that is remarkable. So, let’s take that remarkable technology and this remarkable time and dive in and take the next step forward on our voyage through the Scriptures this year. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Jeremiah chapters 26 and 27 today.
Commentary:
Alright. So, in the book of Jeremiah today, God has instructed the prophet to do some things that he most assuredly would rather not do. Like he’s kind of in a no-win situation that could be life-threatening and as it turns out was life-threatening and yet God told the prophet to do it. Basically, God told Jeremiah, go into the temple courtyard, like go to the holiest place in the world and tell the people that what they’re gonna have to do to survive ultimately is to surrender to Babylon an invading nation in order to keep the city of Jerusalem and the temple…like to keep things from being essentially being bulldozed, although they did have bulldozers, but essentially from being flattened and burned down completely they’re gonna need to surrender the invading army and that God had sent prophets for a long time telling people to change their ways, but they won’t. And so, it’s God’s intention to destroy the temple. Okay, the people that are at the temple have come from all over the place. This is a central place of worship, like, this is God’s temple. And, so, here’s Jeremiah in the courtyards of God’s temple saying these things. And I mean, can you imagine? Like the people there are trying to worship God and they’re hearing this voice tell them of destruction and surrender and they’re just not on board. And, so, a mob forms and Jeremiah’s life is in danger and ultimately reason comes in Jeremiah isn’t executed, but the…the thing that God tells Jeremiah to do next is like just as hard, just as difficult. So, he’s gone to the holy site and spoken the word of the Lord, and now he’s on his way over basically to, like the capital building, the palace complex because there are ambassadors from all of the nearby countries having a summit in Jerusalem. And Jeremiah is going over to these ambassadors and Israel’s included…Judah’s included in this to tell them the same thing. All of you nations surrender to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Those are some pretty hard things. One, to the people of faith who have decided that God operates in a certain way and in a certain way only and wouldn’t be saying these things. So, they reject the word of the Lord. And then he goes to the ambassadors of nations saying surrender. Like if they take that message back the nations aren’t gonna surrender. We rarely have examples of that throughout history. Usually that’s what war is about, right, fighting over boundaries or the threat from another. So, Jeremiah is like in a no-win situation with the religious people and in a no-win situation with…with the political people. Why? Like, why is he putting Jeremiah whose a loyal servant who keeps doing things and saying things that he doesn’t want to do and doesn’t really want to say but it’s like fire in his bones and he has to speak the word of the Lord, why is God putting him in these no-win situations? We have that answer. I quote, and this is God speaking from the Scriptures, “perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways, then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.” So, basically Jeremiah’s been saying this stuff is gonna happen for a long time and now he’s being…like things are getting amped up and he has to speak to high-ranking political figures and he has to speak to religious…the elite religious leaders and they don’t believe him, but the message ultimately is, “if you’ll repent…in other words, if you’ll change your mind about where you’re going, then I the most-high God will also change my mind about what’s gonna happen to you.” In a way Jeremiah then becomes like an icon, a representation of God’s patience, of God’s long-suffering, of God’s mercy. The potential for repentance still exists. It’s not too late. But what we see in Jeremiah is very similar to what we see in Jesus, right? The people do not respond to Jeremiah and want to do away with Jeremiah. They reject his message, very similar to what the story of Jesus in the Gospels is like. He’s bringing the message and the words of the Lord and showing a new way of life on earth, but especially the religious people will not tolerate it, reject it, and do away with Jesus. It’s funny how we can read the words of doom and destruction and picture God as just in a really, really bad mood and wanting to kill people when really the people are bringing upon themselves their own destruction and God is coming to say, “it will be too late but it’s not yet too late. You could still turn this thing around even though I know you’re not going to.” So, remember where we are here because what we’re reading is a part of a prophetic book, right? And, so, this story is gonna continue tomorrow and tomorrow we’re gonna reach likely the most quoted piece of Scripture in the world right now, maybe second only to John 3:16. And it’s important that we see how we get to that important Scripture so that once again we have context because the context is everything here.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the people that we have gotten to meet throughout this year in Your word, stories that we’ve gotten to follow along with and travel with. We thank You for the dusty miles in the Scriptures. And indeed, there have been dusty miles in our lives this year. Very, very strange times that You’ve chosen us to live in. And it’s very easy to get distracted by all that and distracted by what’s happening to us and why You won’t just make it go away when maybe You are calling us to examine our ways and giving us an opportunity to change course, to change direction, to understand why it is that You have good plans for us. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us ponder this, to continue to think it over throughout this day, even as we continue to reflect upon yesterday and where our hearts passions and where our hearts desires are focused. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the mighty name of Jesus we ask. 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:
Hi Daily Audio Bible family my name’s Matt I’m from Pennsylvania this is the first time I’ve ever called in. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for several years and I was just calling for prayer for a new job that I just God. It’s the same company, same title, same pay but I…I just got a new assignment really is what I should say and it’s just really daunting. I feel like I’m…I’m in over my head in a lot of respects and I’m just asking for prayer from all you folks out there that I’ll be able to rise to the occasion and do this job to the glory of God and be successful in it. Thank you.
Saul one day was willing to kill his own son but then the next day was unwilling to kill the heathen king Agag even though God had demanded it. We must never be two-sided. Plants must be tied to a stick as they grow to keep them straight and we too must remain tied to the Lord as we grow for it is only He they can keep us straight. It is the sail and not the gale that determines our course. Don’t let comfort overshadow commitment for the tempter without works closely with the traitor within to ensure our defeat. The spirit will always crowd for faith, but the soul will always reach for unbelief. What’s in your wallet? blindtony1016@gmail.com. Like to give a shout out to Mark Creed, know you are thought of, that your loved very much and prayed for daily. Hope all is well and once again Brian and the Hardin family thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow keep it flowin’ y’all. All right. Bye-bye.
What about DAB family, Mike in Awe here in Kansas City Missouri. After yesterday October 10ths reading there was a first time caller asking for prayer saying that people at his school were treating him bad without cause and it was really hurting them asking for his family to pray for him. I’m praying for you today brother. Reminded me of the plight of Joseph and David. Joseph when he was sold into slavery and locked up after Potiphar’s wife lied on him and David how Saul was trying to kill him for no reason. And David wrote a lot of the Psalms out of that place saying why are they seeking my life without cause. In the likeness of those two patriarchs, Lord I ask You to bless my brother, lift him up out of this situation and put those people that are causing this pain to shame Lord. Help them to see the error of their ways. Help them to see the prayer that he’s playing for them Lord like he’s following the command of Jesus to pray for Your enemy…pray for his enemies. Help them to see that and turn to repentance and return to You ultimately Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Aloha this is Robin from Hawaii. I listen every day and pray along but sometimes God just taps you on the shoulder and says you need to pray extra hard for this person and that happened today when I heard Christina call about her wedding. Lord I lift up Christina and her fiancé and her parents and this wedding. God it’s gonna look different than what Christina had envisioned but I pray that it will be even more magical than she can imagine right now. Lord I pray that she is able to hand over the details to You and that You arrange it and that just as You turned water into wine at a wedding You can do the same for this wedding. So, Lord we lift it up to You and we look forward to hearing how…how You work it all out for her. And after she called a gentleman called about his nephew who had been gunned down. Dear Lord, what a tragedy for this family to go through losing four family members in the…in the past just…four years. God, I pray Your love upon this family. Just cover them with Your wings. And may they somehow find hope in the midst of such extreme sadness. Lord I pray for justice to be done. I pray for the person that killed him to be to be brought to justice. And Lord I pray for Your hand on our nation and especially though upon this family and all families like this that are hurting in such major ways. Thank You, Daily Audio Bible. Love You all. Aloha Kalakaua - God is love.
Dear God’s Smile it breaks my heart to hear the pain in your voice, but even to the pain I hear a smile, the smile of God coming through you and I can’t wait to one day be worshiping in heaven with you. I pray Lord Jesus, bring comfort and peace. Give her endurance Lord through these times of pain. I ask that You would fill her heart with joy, that the joy of the Lord would give…be her strength and that You would fill her mouth continually with praises for Your glorious name. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning family my name is Regis I’m calling from Nairobi Kenya. The reason I’m calling today is first of all to thank everyone who prayed for my daughter __ who had eczema and it was really spreading and it was really affecting her so much. Thank you so much for everyone who prayed, those who called in and those who prayed without calling. I know you prayed. I know we pray for each other. Thank you, so much. May God bless you and may God grant you your heart desires. Thank you so much everyone. Thank you, family. There’s a lot of progress her skin is improving, and we thank God for that and I know it’s because of your prayers. I wanted to give you this update and to thank everyone of you. Thank you and may God bless you. The second reason I’m calling for is to pray for God’s smile. I’ve just heard today the 12th of October she called in, and usually when she calls she’s very happy and smiling but today when she called she was very in pain I think and I pray Lord that you will heal God’s Smile and I pray that you will be her healer and you’ll restore health back to normal Father. Father we stop that morphine and whatever pain, whatever the reason she’s feeling pain father we stop it in Jesus’ mighty name. I counsel all the pain. I pray Almighty God that God’s Smile will bring always the smile that she brings when she calls. We thank you and honor you. We pray for Peter. We bless him. And we thank you for your grace and…and for your healing power on her in Jesus’ mighty name we pray. Amen. Regis here calling from Nairobi. I love you. Bye-bye.