Month: November 2020

Ezekiel 20:1-49, Hebrew 9:11-28, Psalms 107:1-43, Proverbs 27:11

Today is the 9^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we launch into another workday, another work week and just continue the rhythm day by day step-by-step through the Scriptures. So, we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week. And, of course, what we do every day is pick up where we left off yesterday. And, so, that will lead us back into the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and Hebrews, of course, in the New Testament. Bit first, Ezekiel chapter 20.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we look to the Bible, like as…as followers, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we look to the Bible…well…for lots of things, but one primary thing that we look to the Bible for is to explain and express the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s what informs our faith. And we who are following Jesus, we bring into that…I mean we learn a bunch of stuff along the way that we may not even know what the symbolism means or where it came from, it’s just…this is what we do and this is kind of what it means. And, so, we follow the rituals and traditions. And I guess that would be true of any generational religion. Like you pass your faith onto your children, your children pass it on to their children and so on and so forth. And, so, maybe you’ve gone to the same kind of church for the last 150 years in your family or 200 years in your family for all you know, or maybe even longer but so much is passed down that’s just kind of tilled into the soil of our lives and under…understanding. But let’s for a moment just become aware of the fact that there was a moment in time, like in time as we understand time, that Jesus came into this world and began to speak of the kingdom of God and did His earthly ministry and lived His earthly life, and then died in Jerusalem on a cross. And then as the Scriptures tell us three days later was resurrected and then another 40 days go by and then He’s ascended to the Father and He’s gone, at least in terms of like an earthly view. Certainly, we understand that God is everywhere, that He is all in all, that there is nowhere we can run from His Spirit…like we understand these things. We look to the Scriptures to remind us of these promises and of these realities that we are supposed to live. But that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is there was a period of earth time that Jesus was here and then he ascended to the Father and then wasn’t. And we know from the book of Acts kind of the lay of the land and the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the spread of the good news of the gospel. At that point there was no like generational passing down of the Christian faith. This was like first generation believers, right? Are you with me so far? So, with these first-generation believers, they had nothing to precede them in telling them that this good news that was being preached to them was rooted in anything. They had to take this giant leap of faith that in some ways flew in the face of their own traditions that they had been raised in. And in this case, this is the chosen people of God, the Hebrew people, the Jewish people. This is who Jesus was. This was the context that he ministered in. Okay. So, let’s pause here for a second and try…not to forget…but just to kinda set aside for a second everything that we think we know about our faith. And I’m not saying like we’re discarding it, of course. I’m saying we’re push…pushing it over here to the side for second just to try to remember what it was like before we knew anything about the good news or anything about Jesus at all. That’s really difficult for me because Jesus is like woven into my life for as long as I can possibly remember. And many of you are like that too, but let’s just set aside what we think that we know for one second. And the exercise here isn’t like to challenge our faith. It’s simply to put ourselves in the position of people, the first generation of people to believe that Jesus was the son of God, the Messiah who died to take away the sins of the world. Okay, are you pretending? So, we’re pretending we don’t know anything about anything. Now I’m gonna read from Hebrews just a couple of sentences from the beginning of our reading today. “But Christ came as a chief priest of the good things that are now here. Christ went through a better more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not part of this created world. He used His own blood, not the blood of goats and bulls for the sacrifice. He went into the most holy place and offered this sacrifice once and for all to free us forever.” Okay. That is a couple of sentences that explain the good news. But if you set aside what you think that you know and this is the first time you’re hearing this, wouldn’t you be saying, “what exactly are we talking about? Chief priest? Better, more perfect tent that wasn’t humanly made and isn’t a part of the created world? His own blood, not blood of bulls and goats? Sacrifice? Most holy place? What are we talking about?” And I’m gonna try to…I mean we could spend an hour talking about this and I wanna try to move us through but there are kind of two points to make here. Point number one is, the Christian faith that we share doesn’t make any sense divorced from its Jewish heritage. All of the things that we just talked about: chief priests, better perfect tent , not created by human hands, blood of bulls and goats, all of this stuff is rooted in Judaism, in the religion of the Jewish people begun with Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob and so on and so forth. The entire narrative of the Old Testament that we’ve been reading all year is what provides context for the things that are being said in Hebrews because Hebrews was written to Hebrews and without that context we have no rootedness in anything about why any of this symbolism represents anything that’s like earth changing in any way. So, if we’re reading through the Old Testament and you’re just like, “I don’t…man…can’t we get to the Jesus part? Like, can’t we get to some letters or something? Can’t we get to something that’s telling me more about how to live into my faith now instead of reading these 4000-year-old, 3000-year-old stories about an ancient people and a culture that apparently God was deeply involved in. He chose these people but doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with my life now as a believer. Yeah, I mean the thing is, the Old Testament as we know it, and we know it that way as Christian people, but if you were like a practicing jew you would…it’s the Torah, it is the Scriptures. It is the law and the prophets and the writings. It’s the Bible. But the thing is, if we skip that portion of the Scriptures than the New Testament, like it’s really murky. Like divorced from a Jewish heritage and a Hebrew con…context these things don’t make sense as to why they are important. So, point number one is, Hebrews was written for Hebrews. But as Gentiles reading Hebrews what we are seeing is an attempt to connect the dots, to take the ancient and evolving Jewish heritage over thousands of years and connect Jesus to the story -  why He is the fulfillment of a major part of that story. Point number two is to try to put ourselves in the position of a Hebrew who was devout, maybe not like Pharisee devout or Sadducees devout, or rabbinical, but a person who loves the Lord, followed the rituals of the culture and the law that is best as they could, and began to hear the story about Jesus. If we can under…if we can put ourselves in that position and understand that then we can see how the gospel was offensive and the challenges that it faced as it emerged. As we’ve read through the Old Testament, we’ve encountered sacrifices, lots and lots and lots of times. Sacrifices in the morning, sacrifices in the evening, sacrifices for fellowship, sacrifices for the atonement of sin, like lots of sacrifice, lots of spilling of blood, lots of an animal life exchanging…being exchanged for a human one. So, for thousands of years, this had been going on in the Hebrew culture. People would sacrifice animals to God as well as other things - drink offerings, grain offerings, like all of this stuff - continually sacrificing to God. And in this time, this tribal time in the world, and I think we could safely say this was a tribal time in the world since we’re talking about the 12 tribes of Israel. So, it was a tribal time. This sort of sacrifice, this was happening all over the known world among all of the people. Sacrifices were being sacrificed to idols, to god’s, to the local and national gods of the time. The way that it was set up in the Hebrew culture and the law was this continual reminder, this continual reminder that we…that…that God is there providing, and we must keep Him first, our first fruits. We must remember that everything has come from Him. This went on for millennia. Okay. So, like in the first century when Jesus was upon the earth this had been going on for thousands of years. It had been disrupted along the way by war and exile and all kinds of dispersion, had gone through all kinds of transformation, but the principal, the idea, the concept, the understanding was deeply rooted in the Mosaic law and therefore was deeply rooted into the culture. And that sacrificial system included things like a chief priest, like a tent, or a tabernacle or a temple. And the blood of bulls and goats were a part of the sacrificial system. And what the writer of Hebrews, actually what all of the people who were trying to share the good news to Hebrew people would’ve been saying is, “even though this has been going on for thousands of years, even though to remember the beginning of this is to remember the oral traditions passed down and the writings in the Torah to inform us of this, nobody was there at the beginning of this system. This is just been how it’s been for as long as we can remember, like for thousands of years.” What the good news of the gospel was saying is that, “the sacrificial system that has been going on for thousands of years has come to an end. The final sacrifice has been made. A new covenant has begun because of this final sacrifice and once and for all redemption from sin has been secured through Jesus Christ. The law, the Mosaic law has been fulfilled. It has been accomplished. It is finished”, as Jesus said moments before He died. If you put yourself in the position of a person who has been following a tradition and has followed  God and tried to do it devoutly throughout their lives in transmitted to their…their children because it had been transmitted to them, then even though you may be able to open up the Scriptures and show prophetic utterances that this would one day happen you might have expected it to be with a little bit more fanfare and this would seem hard to swallow. On the one hand, what great news would it be that the Messiah did come. On the other hand what awful news would it be to know that you totally missed that when God was doing a new thing and you didn’t see it coming at all? And on the one hand, what incredible news it would be. Like, sin isn’t a category now. It’s not the thing we’re…we’re battling. We don’t have to keep sacrificing animals to wash ourselves clean. We don’t have to have a most…a chief priest or a high priest who can once a year ago before God on our behalf…like we are allowed to go to God directly. He’s inviting us to have a direct experience with Him. The veil that separated us has been born. We are welcome in an we can approach him boldly as if we were actually a child of the most-high God because that’s what the gospel says that we are. So, if you’re hearing this for the first time and it begins to ignite something in you and you’re a first century Hebrew then he got dissonance going on. You got a conflict going on. You’re being pulled forward to believe that God is doing something remarkable, earth changing, certainly religion changing. But then you have millennia of tradition behind you and you’ve never known it any other way. And what kind of disruption would it cause if you didn’t follow the Mosaic law anymore since that was the way of the culture. Like your people had been marginalized for millennia among all the empires that had conquered them because you are an exclusive people. And now all the sudden the goals have been accomplished. Atonement is taken care of. The veil is torn. There is no separation from God anymore. Everyone is welcome. Like, this is a big shift. But it was a hoped-for shift. So, this at least allows us to enter into the tension that existed as the gospel was being born, as it was beginning to flourish in the world, but it also gives us insight into our own hearts because now we have thousands of years of tradition passed down. And I was talking to a pastor friend of mine I guess it was like a month ago about God doing a new thing and what these new things look like and how their disruptive to the old things and they don’t always makes sense and they’re often not fully perceived until after the fact until later. And this allows us to kinda zoom in into our own lives. We…we keep holding onto the traditions of our faith expecting certain things to work certain ways and we’re locked in when God may be wanting to do something new in us. And if He is that’s gonna be uncomfortable and its gonna be disruptive because it’s going to interrupt the status quo and we don’t like that. We don’t like that at all about anything usually. We certainly don’t like spiritual disruption. And, so, let’s just examine ourselves today. And, as we continue through the book of Hebrews let’s just examine ourselves and our faith. What are we holding onto because that’s what we’ve always held onto, that’s tradition? Those are the rituals; these are the things that we do. It doesn’t mean any of those things are wrong or should be discarded. It begins to peel us back like an onion and so we can see in our faith, are we holding on to God and the movements of His Spirit within us and in this world or have we built the cage of tradition that we will never leave and so nothing new can ever happen?

Prayer:

Father…O…we invite You into that. It’s so difficult because we would be willing to be disruptive and move…move from one certainty to another certainty if we could be certain that we’re moving in the certainly right direction. And yet that requires no faith at all. Faith requires us to reach beyond…beyond what we feel like we’re in control of and beyond what we feel like we have a grasp of. Faith is always beyond that. And, so, every time that we grow in faith, we’ve grown into it through these kinds of disruptions until we become aware of Your presence and what You’re doing and then it’s faith that pulls us forward. So, what are You doing in us or what would You like to be doing in us that we are preventing because we don’t want the status quo to be interrupted? Holy Spirit, this is kind of a testy thing. These are the kinds of things we just really don’t want to think about a lot of the time. And yet we’re being invited. We’re putting ourselves in the position of the people who first heard the good news and we’re seeing that they were supremely disrupted in order to take the leap of faith. And, so, why would it be any different in our lives? How else is it that we grow? Holy Spirit come. Lead us into all truth. This is a promise that we are holding onto. Lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base like I say every day, because it is home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. It’s the home of the Global Campfire. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. If you are using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, there are number of ways to reach out. Probably the easiest and primary way would be to hit the Hotline button in the app. So, at the top of the app screen no matter where you are in the app, there’s a little red button, looks kinda like a Hotline button because that’s what it’s supposed to look like because that’s what it is, and then press that button and share from wherever you are in the world or if you prefer to use the telephone there are a number of numbers that you can use. In the Americas 877-942-4253 would be the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

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:

Good morning family, hey it’s Drew from the Bay Area. I’m calling in today and I want to thank you for your prayers. Young Drew is doing much better and I have a grandson named Kayden but pray that I get to see him. Pray for me too. I’m really going through it. I want to thank Kitty…Kitty from Kentucky for…for your heartfelt message. And I want to say thank you for Faithful Hope who called in a message about Psalm 56. But I’m calling in for others and wanted to say a prayer for Mason who’s going through depression right now. Comfort Mason, lift him up Lord. Let him see the light of your love and let his mother be okay with what you’re going…with what Mason’s going through. Lord and we pray for Danny and Danny’s grandson Christopher. What a terrible thing that they are going through now but we know that your love and all things work together for good for those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Yes, Lord and we ask you to raise a Christopher that he may be a mighty warrior in your army. Yes, and we ask you to comfort Tony, Lord to cleanse his mind that give him hope. Let Christopher and Danny be an encouragement to Tony and Lord we pray for Dustin, whatever he may have to go through Lord that he would come to you and come to forgiveness. Lord what…what a terrible thing but we know your grace is greater and we thank you for Julie from Cali, a new listener and what she’s done for her…her in-laws and what she’s done for her mother and Lord we ask you to restore everything that she’s lost tenfold.

This is Cheryl from Ontario Looking Unto Jesus. I was so glad to hear from John today from South Sudan who just returned from Nigeria. I remember when he said he was leaving. I have been praying for him. So, it was good to hear of his safe return, especially in light of the turmoil in Nigeria which our sister from there has informed us often as to pray. Lord I pray for Nigeria. There are problems in so many places around the world and many places in Africa and we know that you are in control and will work out your purposes in the midst and in spite of these things. I pray for protection upon your people and that they would indeed tear down the idols and be yielding allegiance to you alone and that you would open the hearts and minds of many who don’t know you to turn to you. I pray for peace and stability for Nigeria and I pray that you would bless John and his family and the work that you have given him that the many seeds planted would sprout up to bring eternal benefits. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hi this is Audrey from Minnesota and I’m a first-time caller, but I am in my second year of listening to the Daily Audio Bible. So, today when Brian was reading out of Hebrews I looked up into the sky and I said God I am so confused about all this Melchizedek stuff and then in his expository afterwards he so clearly defined who Melchizedek was, who David was, and who Jesus is in that lineage. It just absolutely amazed me and once again made me so incredibly grateful for this format and for this family. I’ve thought about calling in so many times and I’ve had these imaginary ideas and thoughts of what I would say and maybe you guys have thought the same things too, but one thing that I’ve always wanted to say is that, I used to listen to this other podcast every morning, it was a news podcast. And one day it just didn’t work. And, so, I thought, “you know what? I used to read the Bible every day. I don’t know how I started listening to this news podcast every day.” But, somehow just this slippery slope. I stopped reading the Bible. So, I just happened along this podcast and it has completely changed my life. So, I’m back in the world again every single day and growing as a Christian. And it just goes to show the power of the word and what it does for…for you personally and for your whole life. So, I just want to say thank you to Brian and his team for all of the work that you do to just dig into the Bible and explain it to all of us so that we can learn and grow. It is just such a powerful tool and I’m so incredibly grateful.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Preston from Sunnyvale California I just want to pray for…in response to John from South Sudan. He left a…a message today. You are back in South Sudan after a month in Nigeria. I just want to lift up the country of Nigeria to the Lord. Here we go. Dear Father, dear Lord Jesus we thank You for Your sovereignty. We thank You that it is You in Your goodness who is the ruler of this world. We thank You that You have put Your son as the king and ruler of our lives and the ruler of our hearts Father. We thank You for the ability to give our hearts to You, that You and Your goodness allow us to connect directly to You through Your son Jesus Christ. Father, we lift up the country of Nigeria that has fallen away from You that denies Your sovereignty. Father, we ask that Your Holy Spirit would occupy the hearts of the Nigerian people and lead them back to recognizing Your…Your sovereignty as king over our souls Father. We ask the destruction, as John mentioned, the destruction of the altars to other gods Father, that in their place would be put altars to You Father. Jesus…in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

This is Gloria here calling in from Kampala here in Uganda East Africa and I’d like to pray for Running Desperately to Jesus. Father thank You for Your love that never fails. I thank You that Your mercies and graces are new every morning and that she…our beloved sister __ towards those graces that are new every morning. I thank You that there always enough and even when they’re not enough You did not leave us but facilitate us with the Holy Spirit and I thank You Holy Spirit that You’re going to fill her today. You’re going to pour out Your Spirit on her Lord. She’s going to feel Your eminent power. Your praises, Your mighty, mighty praises. And that she’s going to feel love. She’s going to feel worthy. She’s going to feel like Your child. So, Jesus I ask You to make a way where there seems to be no way. Father, whoever is feeling lonely, whoever’s feeling desperate I surrender them to You. I surrender them to Your loving loving loving loving hands. And I thank You Jesus that You’re doing a new thing in their lives. That You’re instilling life into their lives. Worthiness, wholeness and it’s only You who gives us all these beauties. So, thank You Jesus that You’re doing it again. May Your children testify of Your goodness Lord. Give them the new life. Give them the breath to desire You, desire, that passion. Reignite it again Lord. I ask You to send revival right now Lord into their life into every DAB listener right now who’s going through any situation. Jesus You’ve done it before, and I believe that You can do it again. Sister, you’re not alone. I was also on…on medication for depression but I’m now doing better and it’s because of this family of DAB family. I ask you to lean into it and you will be blessed. You will no longer feel lonely because we have your back. Trust me when I say that. God bless you. Bye-bye.

Ezekiel 18:1-19:14, Hebrews 9:1-10, Psalms 106:32-48, Proverbs 27:10

Today is the 8^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you as we reach out together, twist that knob, throw open the door, and walk through the threshold into a brand do shiny sparkly week. And I’m ready to walk into this brand-new shiny sparkly week. I always am because it’s a new start. And there may be spillover. We may have all kinds of little entanglements that are being carried over from the last week but how we deal with them, we can take a new approach if we want to. And that’s the reminder of a new week but that’s also the reminder of a new day. Yesterday may have been brutal and we may have handled everything incorrectly and we’ve got a lot of cleanup to do, but how we approach that in this new day or in this new week, that’s in our corner. Nobody’s gonna make us defend the positions we had yesterday. If we now realize we may have been incorrect or overreacted we can just walk into this new week humbly, we can just get clean and get true and walk into freedom. And, so, we’ve got us shiny sparkly new week out in front of us and let’s dive into it with all of our hearts. We’re gonna read from the God’s Word translation this week and we…we will be continuing the journey that we…that’s being pulled forward from last week in the book of Ezekiel and in the book of Hebrews. So, first obviously, we’ll read from the Old Testament. Ezekiel chapters 18 and 19 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for this brand-new week that we are walking into. And we are walking into it with the anticipation that You will lead and guide us. You are always doing this. You are always patient with us and we are humbly repentant for the times that we are just…it’s just too chaotic and we are spinning and we are…You are the last person on our mind and we are not…we are thinking about how we’re gonna cope and we’re thinking about how we’re gonna get through and we turn to You when it seems as if there’s no possible way that can happen instead of walking with You through everything knowing for sure we can navigate this. No matter how difficult or confusing it is we will get through. We won’t be trying to cope. We will be coping and overcoming because this is a state that is within us as opposed to us asserting our will upon those around us. So, may we be overcome by You, by Your very presence. May we be overwhelmed by Your presence instead of all of the things that are trying to distract us. Come Holy Spirit, well up from within as we become aware of Your guidance and leadership Your comfort. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is…it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, what the Initiatives are. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there as well as the Community section with the Prayer Wall and ways to get connected. So, check…check this out. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can…you can access all of these things from within the app by pressing the Drawer icon and that’s the little…little drawer looking icon in the upper left-hand corner and that’ll get you there. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well or using the app as well by pushing the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you humbly, thank you deeply for your partnership. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, little red button at the top. Hard to miss. It’s the only red button up there. So, that’s the one and you can press that and begin to share with no matter where you are in the world, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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:

Good morning my friends this is Aaron from sin city. Hope everyone’s doing well and blessed in these last and evil days. I just want to encourage everyone to be steadfast. Stay with the Lord, stay focused, stay encouraged because God is able to keep you from falling. Jude 24:25 says, “now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior. Be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever.” And remember also that God has not giving you a spirit of fear but love power and a sound mind. So, you’re going through marital difficulties you’re going through depression, you’re going through anxiety, you’re going through stresses in your life, children are backsliding, disobedient. Know that one, the word of God is right, and the word of God is being fulfilled and God is not so easy to forget what you’re going through. He loves you and He cares for you. So, as Peter says, “let’s cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us. And don’t worry. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything in supplication and prayer, giving of thanks let your requests be made known.” We just have to learn folks how to just give it to God and let Him deal with it, let Him handle it. Because He’s able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. God bless you. Have an awesome day, awesome week. Enjoy the month of November.

Do not boast about tomorrow because you do not know what a day may produce Proverbs 27:1. This is what the Lord says, let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches but let the one who boasts boast about this, that they have the understanding to know me that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, righteousness on earth. For in these things I delight declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24. Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth, a stranger not your own lives. Proverbs 27:2. Long ago the Lord said to Israel, I have loved you with an everlasting love. With unfailing kindness, I have drawn you to myself. Jeremiah 31:3. If you know how much the Lord loves you, you don’t have to sing your own praises, advertise your ability, vocalize your riches. You boast in the Lord God who has given new life, confidence, been your provider, guide, healer, redeemer and loves you with an everlasting love. So, Lord I lift you up today. I lift you up today O Lord and I thank you that you are the King of Kings and Savior of the world, the Creator, Redeemer, Defender and Healer, our Prince of Peace our indwelling God. Your Holy Spirit has anointed us. Your Spirit, You died to provide for us as a covering, down payment, infilling sanctified who releases us from any advantage or strategy of the enemy over our lives. Only because of you Lord do we have truth and life and have it and can enjoy it with you at our side ever filling us with strength and joy whatever comes. We have life and we have it abundant until it overflows into the life of all around us with blessing and encouragement, patients, kindness, goodness. Only in you Jesus, gentleness and self-control. So, we can walk humbly love mercy and be examples of God’s justice in this broken world. Love conquers everything. God’s love never…

Hello DAB family today is November 4^th and I just finished listening to the November 3^rd podcast and I’ve gotta tell you Brian’s comments and the end of that…the reading today pretty much epitomized why I love this community so much, why I listen, why I put a log…my own log on the campfire every month to keep the fires burning. If you haven’t heard it, basically it just reminds us to whom exactly we owe our allegiance, to which kingdom precisely, to which king exactly we owe our allegiance and what this is all about - to love one another as we have been loved. So, to that end, thank you Brian. Thank you for giving us this medium that keeps it really real and free the stuff of this world that weighs us down. Also, I just want to give a shout up Julie who I believe called in as a relatively new listener. Praying that what you have lost will start to be restored as you come back and into the word. Praying for the woman whose son was in that horrible incident. O…that’s terrible. I…I just lift you up sister and all of those who were involved. And thank you to the one who called in praying for our elderly patients…parents. Yeah…I’m one of those who has elderly parents in a situation. So, yeah, another reason why I love this community. We are all going through something and we are all going through it together. Thank you DAB.

Daily Audio Bible community I am a…almost a 3-year listener in Chicago in desperate need of prayer. It’s Wednesday, November 4^th and I’m just really struggling. I just feel like everything in my life is going badly. I’ve got several strained relationships in my family, horrible things that are happening with my son. Work is good and my health is good. And I know that I should just really be thankful. I’m blessed for the areas that are going good but the things are going bad just feel so heavy today. And I can’t stop crying. I can’t focus at work and I just need all the prayers to get. Thank you so much.

Hi family this is Biola from Maryland I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill God bless your ministry. China, I’m still prating for your pregnancy for a healthy pregnancy and that you and Ben will have that baby safely in the name of Jesus. Chris, it broke my heart to hear your prayer request and I pray that God will comfort you and your daughter over the passing of her mother in the name of Jesus. And I am also praying for the sisters that called in, Desiree and the other lady who can’t read her Bible because of cancer. Lord we know O God Lord that cancer is a thief because it was not caused by you Lord. And, so, in agreement with my brothers and sisters in the Daily Audio Bible we come against this cancer in the name of Jesus. Oh Lord of heaven I pray that You will arise with healing in your wings over these ladies O God, these precious daughters of yours O God and everyone in the DAB family battling with cancer or even Covid. Dan, I heard your prayer request about your sister-in-law who is battling Covid. I’m hoping in the name of Jesus that she’s fine now and she’s out of the woods. And I pray for everyone who is still suffering from Covid and is a member of the Daily Audio Bible. Father hear our cries over them and heal them in the name of Jesus. Margot I was chuckling when I heard your testimony. Isn’t that like our God?? You asked for a window, He gives you a balcony. Margot I’m praying for you and praying that God will prosper you in your ministry. I’m praying for all the missionaries from the world, that God would prosper them. I thank the sister that called in from Nigeria. God bless you my sister. Family whenever you remember Nigeria please pray for that country that God will intervene, stamp out corruption in that country and that God would comfort the hearts of those whose families of those who have lost their lives in the name of Jesus.

Ezekiel 16:42-17:24, Hebrew 8:1-13, Psalms 106:13-31, Proverbs 27:7-9

Today is the 7^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and I guess this…well…it’s the 7^th day of November, so I guess it’s our first full week that we’re about to complete in this 11^th month of the year. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week, which is today. Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 42 through 17 verse 24.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for this first week of this new month that we’re in as we continue our journey with You. And what a journey it has been. We began a journey thinking that we were going to go through the Bible and then we found each other, and we were going to the Bible in community. And then we…we learned things that You were speaking to us as a community and as individuals, only to find out You have been with us the whole time. You have been guiding and directing and protecting us the whole time. Even when we were Your enemies You still loved us. And, so, it’s been a year of discovery and this year, this disruptive year has forced to us to reconsider the old ways, and to reconsider where we’re going. And we can consider all we want but what we deeply want to consider is where You’re going because that’s where we want to go. That’s where we want to be. We want to be a part of what You are doing. And we thank You for Your word because it leads us on that path, it teaches us, it makes us aware of Your presence in our lives. And, so, we continue to be aware. Come Holy Spirit, well up from within as we become aware that You are within us, leading and directing and guiding us. May we see it clearly. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, indeed where you find out what’s happening around here. So, stay connected.

And as we say often, the Community section is a place to go to get connected. It’s is where the Prayer Wall is and lives. You can also check out the Shop. The Daily Audio Bible Shop is full of resources that…yeah…they are made to accompany our journey here. So, check that out as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com also. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. And I thank you humbly and with all of the gratitude that I can use out of my vocabulary. Thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. Thank you.

And, of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top, that looks remarkably or at least hopefully like a Hotline button. So, you can hit that no matter where you are the world, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DAB it’s __ J calling from Cleveland Ohio just saying hello to everybody wishing everybody well today. I know it’s been so many things going on. __ I’m praying for you all. It’s been a minute since I’ve called in. Been a heavy, heavy year. I shared with you guys some time ago that I had lost my mom __earlier this year in April. So, it’s been a tough, tough year but at the same time it’s been a wonderful year filled with joy. So, I’m reaching out to just pray for everybody today. A lot of polarization going on across our country our faith is polarized our passions are polarized the politics are polarizing the pandemic is polarizing but I…I…I chose today to turn that polarization into praise. Praise God for life for health for strength that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Thank God we don’t have to die on the cross when we have a cross to bear. God bless you all and stay safe and keep Jesus lifted up for He said he would draw all men unto him. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Kimberly calling. We…guys I’ve been listening to this podcast since I began teaching…well…since…I’ve been teaching for a long time…but since I’ve been…started teaching first grade back in 2012. It has just been the mainstay of my morning. It has been the meat of my morning to help guide my day and my week successfully through my teaching career and being able to prioritize the Lord. It’s just been a great…it’s just been a godsend. I listen to it while I…when I get up in the morning and when I’m getting ready and then on my way to work. So, anyway, I guess I’ll get to the point. The point is it’s that I’m very, very grateful for this program and we are supposed to be going back to a hybrid plan…we’re going to a hybrid plan on Monday. So, I just really covet your prayers. Of course, I teach little first-graders so it’s gonna be really interesting to see how we do with our masks and how we do with just being safe and respectful and being able to create a classroom community when we can’t be really close. And how in the world am I going to teach first-graders from a distance? So, please pray for me. I’m sure there’s just a lot of creative teachers out there who have that handled but doing first grade from a distance is not the most effective teaching strategy and it’s not best practices. I love, love, love, my job. I love teaching. I feel like that’s what the Lord put me on this earth to do. So, I pray that that shines through and I pray that we can come together as families and teachers to be able to best meet all of the needs of the whole child during this upcoming season. I covet your prayers over our…

Hi, this message is for Danny from Southern Oregon. It is November 3^rd and I just heard your call about your grandson playing hooky from school with his friends and his best friend killed the boy. Oh…it just really broke me down and I was just so compelled call in. I wanted to let you know that I’m gonna be praying for you. Danny I’m praying for your grandson Christopher. I’m praying for the young man who was murdered and his family. I’m praying for Tony who was next to the young man who got shot. I’m praying for Dustin who’s also the accused murderer. Oh my, Danny…I’m…I’m thankful that you’re a woman of God and I know that your prayers have helped to keep your grandson covered. I’m praying for all the family members and all the friends. I couldn’t imagine being a parent to any of the kids involved. It’s so heavy and I’m just praying that our Lord Jesus Christ bless these kids and bless the families. In Jesus name. If you all pray with me. So, Danny I wish you the best in your family. Keep your son…keep your grandson Christopher…keep him in prayer, keep him covered. And again, I’m just praying for all the kids involved. DAB family thank you so much for praying for everybody. I don’t call in. I’ve been a listener for year but this call…just hearing this call today just really got to me and I was just compelled to call him. So, I wanted to let you know Danny that I’ll be praying for you and everyone involved. Take care and God bless.

Hi this is Dorothy out in California October was pastor clergy appreciation month. I just wanted to thank Pastor Brian and his team for all their sacrifices they have made for them to make this possible for the world community. You are saving lives and I know you saved mine when I was…felt alone, I was lonely. When I felt like I couldn’t go another day I would turn on DAB and I felt I had community. So, I just want to thank you and…and this family. Okay. May God bless you and make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you peace. I __ that up but anyway. Thank you. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is Denise. I’m calling for my friend Amy. I heard you on November 4^th about your heartbreak and your pain that you’re having in your marriage. I called a few weeks ago about the loneliness that I was experiencing in mine and I know the heartbreak and the pain and the suffering of being in a relationship that’s just not seemed to be panning out and the loneliness that you feel. And again, Covid doesn’t help at all now that it’s the holidays. So, Amy I’m letting you know that I know how you feel, and I relate to you and just as I called in and asked for prayer many people at Daily Audio Bible prayed for me. I want to do the same for you. So, God is greater than this situation and He’s gonna renew, restore and even multiply the blessings. Dear heavenly Father I pray for my sister Amy Lord where she is right now. Comfort her heart like you comfort mine. Give her peace like you gave mine. Wrap your arms around her like you wrap your arms around me and let us both know that we were not alone. Lord I pray for her marriage and I pray for restoration. I pray for complete and total peace in that relationship God. I rebuke turmoil and I rebuke loneliness and heartache and I speak life on that relationship. I speak life at Amy. Lord let her fall totally and completely in love you with You as I’m trying to do God and watch over us both as we go forward in Your name. Amen. You’re gonna be all right sister. And I’m gonna be alright too. God bless.

Ezekiel 14:12-16:41, Hebrews 7:18-28, Psalms 106:1-12, Proverbs 27:4-6

Today is the 6^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a privilege and an honor and…and anything else that I can think of that I would be like that…all those things to be here with you today. All of these steps that we’ve taken, all of these days together, one by one step-by-step, they’ve brought us here. And sometimes you just realize, “man, I’ve taken the steps. I’ve made it here.” It’s remarkable. It’s remarkable we’ve been able to do this together in community. And, so, what a joy. And we’ve come here to do what we do every day, to dive in to the Scriptures, to come in out of the cold or whatever’s going on, the chaos of life and the world and all of our uncertainties and all of our speculations and just leave em’ at the door. They can stay there. We can pick em’ back up. We can carry em’ around. But when walk in here around the Global Campfire, those things, there’s just no place, there’s just no room for all of that this is where we come to the exhale, to breathe, to catch our breath, to find some peace and serenity and some truth and some focus as the word of God washes over us. So, let’s just leave everything behind and center ourselves as the Scriptures come for today. We’re reading the…from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week. Back into the book of Ezekiel. Today chapter 14 verse 12 through 16 verse 41.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we’re working through the books of prophecy, we can see that they, you know, they seem somewhat disjointed because they’re not narrative in form, at least not fully narrative in form. So, there the utterances of God through a profit, And, so, we can jump from one prophecy to the next prophecy to the next prophecy with kind of no context in between them. These are the utterances of God about certain things, His declarations. So, we can find them often when they’re back to back to back to be the issuance of some sort of judgment. And…and the details of what that judgment might look like or could look like, typically we hear the judgment that is that is coming and then we find that there’s an alternative - you don’t have to go that way - which is the sort of like the backdrop for life. We can head in a certain direction that leads to destruction, and then when it destroys us, we can’t be mad…it’s where we took ourselves. There was an alternative. We could’ve gone in another way. But we hear back to back to back all these words of woe and doom and destruction and just pain and suffering and sadness. And you…you start thinking God’s really an angry being very put out, very fed up. And, so, you get this kind of angry God, idea. And then…and listen…my hand is raised…like I’m waiving…literally…you can’t see me right now but I’m waving my hand. I grew…I mean I…I grew up thinking these kinds of things, that Jesus loved me, but His dad is just so thoroughly put out with me. Just…to go to the Father is like to go to a being with their arms folded, shaking their head in disappointment. And, you know, I know I’m not the only one. I know that. And, so…and a lot of things go into that. A lot of things play into that. But one of the things that plays into that is really some of…some of these words of judgment in the prophets. So, how does God feel? Like does He even feel? Apparently, He feels because we’re just talking about how we think He feels disappointed. But then we go into grace and we’re like, “he doesn’t really care about our sins. He’ll forgive our sins. He’s faithful and just to forgive our sins. So, He doesn’t really feel anything about those sins. So, you have this juxtaposition of His judgments in the prophecies and His faithfulness to grace and mercy. And then you’re like, “how does He actually really feel then? Like what's…or does He even feel? He’s God. Like does he feel in a way that a human being could understand? What’s going on here?” We find a piece of Scripture today in the book of Ezekiel that really does flesh this out in a way…like in His grace speaking through the prophet Ezekiel He gives us a picture that we can understand. And ironically, although this is thousands of years old, we still can understand very clearly the poignancy of what’s being said. And, so, in the 16^th chapter of Ezekiel God essentially says, look, this is your story. This is what happened. This is how you got here, and then He tells a story about a little baby girl that was born, an infant, a new born baby girl that didn’t even have her umbilical cord cut and nothing was done to care for her after her birth. And this kind of harkens back to ancient times, but not so ancient as you might think where the value of a male child is more than the value of a female child because of the work that a male child can produce as they age and grow, what their value and output is going to be. And then we even enter into a highly patriarchal worldview that has been part of world history, not just like religious history, world history for…for millennia. So, there were times then if a baby girl was born, she would be left to die. Just left. Not cared for, not loved, not attached, nothing. Just left in a field to die. Through the prophet Ezekiel God is saying to His people, “that was you”, which is striking imagery if we want to think of God as a fully patriarchal being. He’s going to the unloved, tossed out infant baby girl who wasn’t cared for at all, who had been left to die. And He came to this baby girl and said, “live! Live!, Live!” And she lived. And He cared for her and He nurtured her, and she grew up and He fell in love with her and she became His…His wife. Like, this is the imagery God is choosing to use to explain Himself to His people and why He feels the way that He does. He nurtured this relationship. He loved her. He lavished all the good things upon her. She became beautiful. She became a queen. They were in love. They were in a covenant together. And then she realized that other people were noticing her, that she was beautiful, that she was desirable. And, so, as the story goes, she prostituted herself. So, she broke the covenant and committed adultery, not once, not twice but repeatedly, over and over and over and over again. If we just cause there because we can understand what we’re talking about here, we can understand why that would bring about unbelievable upheaval in the heart of the person who’s being cheated on. But then it goes beyond that. It’s like she stepped out so bad to the point that she’ll commit adultery, that she’ll sleep with just about anybody, that she’ll show anybody anything, that she’s is open to any kind of liaison so much that it comes to the point that she’s acting like a prostitute but instead of actually just saying this is my vocation, “I’m a prostitute” she’s the one doing the paying and she’s paying with the goods and gifts that had been bestowed upon her by the one who really loved her. Okay, that takes things up a notch. If we put ourselves in that position, we’re like this is a no go. I would be so upset, right? Like I’d be so angry about this. I would be so hurt. My feelings would be frayed. This is what God is…this is the imagery God is using to describe Himself through the prophet toward His people. But wait, there’s more. Not only all of that but God and His beloved, the little baby girl who was left to die, that he nurtured back to life and health then married her and she became a queen and prostituted herself. They had had children and the children were sacrificed to other gods. And, so, through the prophet God’s like, “wasn’t it enough for you to just do what you did with all of your lovers? Did you have to burn my children, our children in the fire to a false god?” Okay. So, if we think it through from that perspective, we could understand why we would look at the situation and say, “judgment is gonna come on that situation eventually. That is wrong, very wrong. That will lead to destruction.” And, so, for God to come through a prophet and say, “that will lead to destruction.” That shouldn’t be a surprise. It doesn’t make God an angry God who got up on the wrong side of the bad and decided to smite, to just smite the first thing that He saw. The imagery that God is using, the way that it’s supposed to hit us is that we would open our eyes and understand God’s not an angry, spiteful being who gets up on the wrong side of the bed with lightning bolts in His right and left hands. He’s a brokenhearted lover. He’s a jealous God and He uses this imagery to show that He’s jealous for His people. This little girl represents His people it represented the Hebrew people thousands of years ago. We are His people. The little girl in this story is us. And, so, the mirror comes up when we start to think about that God could feel this way. And have we been the adulterer? Like have we…have we be added to that or have we been faithful as He has been faithful. Have we chased after other lovers? Have we just continued to buy toys? Have we been the one paying? Like, I…I realize that the analogy that’s been using Ezekiel is a very, very personal marital and sexual in nature and in this example, she’s the one doing the paying for the favors but do we just run from toy to toy to toy to toy to from distraction to distraction to distraction ignoring what we’re paying for and using the gifts that God has given us to do it. Ahh…that bring things a little more close and it leaves us in a position like the Bible often does where we need to allow this to settle into the soil, that we need the Holy Spirit to hover over that soil as this is sinking in, as we begin to see ourselves in the story and the role of God as the one who loved us when we were unloved, the one who wants nothing more than we would return to Him, that we would come back. Not that we would come back only to cheat again. We would come back into a faithful covenantal relationship.

Prayer:

Father, we come humbly into Your presence. We come aware that we have been unfaithful. We come with the awareness from Ezekiel that You’re not aloof about that. It's…You’re not indifferent to it. You want our best. You want our good. You want to bestow upon us all of the goodness of life forever. For while we are here upon this earth and for evermore to be in Your presence. And we seem to chase every little lie that promises life and we get so distracted and so confused that we don’t even realize that we have offended You, that we have betrayed You. And, so, our first responses is…is repentance, is humility, is to fall down before You with an awareness of what we’ve done and to sit with it, to sit with what it means to repent and change by sitting here and absorbing that we have broken Your heart. The irony is that we may need to sit there for a long time, but You don’t expect that we would stay there. That’s not Your goal. Your goal is our restoration and our restoration can only happen when we return to You. And, so, we are returning to You and humbling ourselves before You in taking this image of this priceless little baby girl who was left to die as the story of our own lives. You came and got us. We’re here because You came and got us. May that sink into the soil today changing us irreversibly. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song:

Ezekiel by Gungor

I found you naked
I found you lying there
In blood.

Your mother left you,
Your father threw you out.
Unloved.

I clothed your body
I washed the blood and dirt
From your hair.

I gave you jewelry
I gave you everything
I had.

I gave My heart
My heart, My love
I gave my heart,
My heart, My love

You became like
You were a stunning Bride
The world, they saw you
And how you loved their wives
My Bride

You broke My heart
My heart, My love
You broke My heart
My heart, My love.

You sold your body;
Exposed to all, My love
You slept with Stranger
You gave them everything we had.

Come back, My love
My love, come back.
Come back, My love.
My love, come back.

Ezekiel 12:1-14:11, Hebrews 7:1-17, Psalms 105:37-45, Proverbs 27:3

Today is the 5^th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is great to be here with you like every day. It’s always good to be in the presence of God’s people and realize that we are knit together as one body and together we’re taking this journey in community through the Scriptures. And, so, let’s get to it for today. We’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version. Ezekiel chapter 12 verse 1 through 14 verse 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Hebrews today we came across a name that we have come across before earlier in our reading of the Old Testament, that name is Melchizedek. And we talked about Melchizedek man like a couple of weeks into our journey back when we were in the book of Genesis. And we said, you know, later on this year we’re gonna come across his name again and begin to find out why this guy’s in the Bible. And this is one of these times when we’re gonna dive into something in the book of Hebrews, and it’s all Hebrew centric. Like we have to understand the Hebrew context for this to make any sense, which is true of so much of Christian theology. Like Jesus was Hebrew, He came in a Hebrew context, right? And He ministered in a Hebrew context. So, to try to get at the essence of the…the things He was commenting on and the things He was inviting people into is within that context. So, we have to understand that context for it to have any real…real meaning to we who are Gentiles. So, we first encounter Melchizedek in the book of Genesis chapter 14. And I will read. There’s just a couple of sentences. “And Melchizedek the king of Salem and a priest of God most high brought Abram some bread and wine. Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing. Blessed to be Abram God most high creator of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high, who has defeated your enemies for you. And Abram gave Melchizedek a 10^th of all the goods he had recovered.” Okay. So, we met Melchizedek in the book of Genesis and I just read everything there is about Melchizedek there is in the book of Genesis. So, the writer of Hebrews is right. There is no ancestry here. There is like no understanding of where this person came from or where they went. Then in the book of Psalms, chapter 110, we see Melchizedek again. “The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” The order of Melchizedek. Like what is that? Is that a group of some people who have special robes, like some kind of special color  lining or some sort of special belt or ring or…like how you get in the order of Melchizedek and who is Melchizedek since the Bible gives us so little? And in Psalm 110 this reference to Melchizedek is paralleling King David. So, why is this in the book of Hebrews and how is this connected to Jesus? So, basically we meet Melchizedek in the book of Genesis with Abraham and as we’ve learned from pretty much all of the writings of the apostle Paul, his conviction was that the whole thing starts with Abraham, not really, with Moses and the Torah. Abraham was the first person to receive the promise. So, this is where we find Melchizedek, with Abraham. But there’s significant time between Abraham and King David and then there’s significant time between King David and Jesus. And yet these are the times in the Scriptures when Melchizedek shows up. So, we could say that Melchizedek as a figure remained in the oral traditions of the Hebrew people and continued to capture their imagination all along. And I can remember a couple of years ago just going, “alright, I’ve heard the order of Melchizedek my whole life. What is the order of Melchizedek? How does this work? Who is this person? Like, what’s this doing in the Bible?” And you start going down that rabbit hole or that bunny trail or whatever you want to call you and it turns into a wormhole. Like you can get lost in it, things that people have thought over the millennia. It’s just vast and wild. And if that’s like right down your alley then this is the place to go for everything from pure science fiction to just really inter…interesting interpretations. But here is how we can tie it together from the Scriptures themselves. Melchizedek – Melchi - zedek does mean king of justice or king of righteousness as we’re told in Hebrews. He was the king of Salem, which also means the king of peace according to Hebrews. We can say that he is the very first priest of the most-high God, or El Elion that appears in any of the Bible. Like this is…this is midway through the book of Genesis. The Torah hasn’t been written and won’t be written for centuries. There is no Bible, at least as we now know it at all at this time. Rules for appointing priests out of the tribe of Levi, the descendants of Aaron, like none of this exists. Aaron hasn’t been born. He won’t be born for centuries. And yet we have this figure Melchizedek the priest of El Elion, the most-high God. So, if we just take the meanings of the names here, which is something that’s often done in biblical interpretations, trying to find the layers and we would…would end up saying Melchizedek was the first, named at least, righteous priests of the most high God, and a man who also happened to be the king of Salem or the king of peace. Ok, so that’s Genesis. Then if…if we jump a thousand years into the future and we come into King David’s time all the things that we said didn’t exist had come into existence, right? Moses came, people were let out of slavery, the Torah, the law was given, the Levites were appointed, how priests came to be priests had a process, they came from a specific tribe, the Levites, a set apart tribe that didn’t really own any property but were cared for by God’s people as they cared for God’s people and always continually reminded them who they were and who God was and where they’re going. And yet in Psalm 110 we see that David is being called a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek and David wasn’t a Levite. So, how does David get to be a priest forever to El Elion, the most-high God when he like…when God’s rules have been given and David is of the tribe of Judah not of the tribe of Levi? This is where it gets kid of really fascinating. So, Melchizedek was a priest of the most-high God, also the king of Salem. So, Melchizedek was a priest and a king, a priestly king. And David was king in Jerusalem. Jeru - Salem, same city. So, then the order of Melchizedek is a priestly king and David is being set apart to be a priestly king like Melchizedek despite tribal affiliation or the Mosaic law in the same city. So, if…if we’re following this line of reasoning than David’s role as a priestly king was a special exemption or a special exception - the order of Melchizedek. Okay, then Jesus, who is an ancestor, humanly speaking of the line of David seems to bring this fascination with Melchizedek, like to bring it to a conclusion. Jesus is a priestly king in the order of Melchizedek, a king of peace. And, so, since we’ve quoted Genesis and Psalms then let’s go back to, Hebrews, and I quote Hebrews. “And this became even clearer if another priest arises like Melchizedek who became a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement about physical descent but on the basis of the power of an endless life. For it has been testified in Scripture about him, you are a priest forever like Melchizedek.” So, if you’ve, you know, heard the name Melchizedek before in your faith journey and you wondered about that then here’s some ways to look at the order of Melchizedek and why that’s connected to Jesus. But if we go back one layer than this gives us a good glimpse of what…of how necessary the Hebrew perspective is in understanding the theology of our faith, at least. And then if we go back one more layer behind that even we’re beginning to understand Jesus as a priest, as a high priest, something that isn’t really part of our vernacular, an understanding of our faith right now but from a Hebrew perspective is irreplaceable. And, so, Hebrews is written to Hebrews, but it gives us the Hebrew context for the Christian faith and we’ve explored some of that today.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for that. We thank You that we can just mine the Scriptures, that we can continually go deeper and there is no end. And with the guidance of Your Holy Spirit then we…we get enlightened we become aware, we see more and more and more. Of course, trying to do this without the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, then everything just gets so weird so quick as we can see in all of the various interpretations over millennia about this figure named Melchizedek. And, so, what we’re asking for is that You lead us into all truth. We ask it often. You’ve offered…You’ve offered to do that. You’ve given it as a gift and a promise and so we want that. We want to walk toward the truth every day of our lives, every moment of our lives. And as we become aware of Your Holy Spirit’s guidance that’s exactly what’s happening. And, so, we thank You for this context as we move forward through the book of Hebrews and we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead and guide and direct us in everything that we should see and everything that we should come to understand and everything that we should be aware of. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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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:

Good morning DAB family this is John __ from South Sudan __ in Nigeria. For the past four months even though I was listening to the podcast but I couldn’t record any message. I wanted so badly to send messages to request prayer because I was right there in __ when all the mayhem was happening. But I thank all of you who have prayed and all the people who have brought up the request for prayer. I just came back yesterday to __ South Sudan and I’m right now going into a 14-day quarantine. But anyway, God is good. I have learned and what I sense in my spirit about my nation, Nigeria is that is to do what the angel of the Lord Gideon to do. He told Gideon to demolish the altar of Baal that was set up by his grandfather and then replace it with the altar of the Lord. I…I…I…I got a message and my spirit that Nigeria is suffering from evil alters that have been raised all over the nation and it is time believers begin to demolish these alters and replace it with the altar of the Lord.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family it’s Faithful hope in the UK. Firstly, just thank you so much to those of you who’ve been praying for me and for my children. It is greatly appreciated. Words cannot express how grateful I am for your prayers. So, thank you. As I was receiving those prayers, in a way, the Lord brought my attention to Psalm 56. I just wanted to share that with you. It says be merciful to me oh God for men hotly pursue me. All day long they press their attack. My slanderers pursue me all day long. Many are attacking me in their pride. When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God whose word I praise in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me. All day long they twist my words. They are always plotting to harm me. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps eager to take my life. On no account let them escape. In your anger God bring down the nations. Record my lament. List my tears on your scroll. Are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. In God whose word I praise the Lord whose word I praise in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? I am under vows to you oh God. I will present my thank offerings to you for you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling that I may walk before God in the light of life. And I thought that was for someone else and not just me at this time. God bless you. Love you all. Bye.

Hello and greetings to all the DAB family. This is Walking in the Light in Tennessee. I’ve been listening for about two years…a little over two years. I lost my husband about two years ago and just have found such an incredible resource in the Daily Audio Bible. I’ve shared the link with so many people, friends and family. Not sure who’s listening who’s not, but I know that it has certainly encouraged by soul and my heart and my spirit. I’m calling tonight because first of all I’ve been so lifted by so many of you and pray for so many of you. My heart has been touched by the songs, the messages, through prayers, the…even the struggles. You know, we are…we are common because of our struggles. But I wanted to call tonight because my oldest son, I have three sons, my oldest son has actually been going through a whole lot of things and putting me through a whole lot of things because of it. And I know that the enemy that takes opportunity and end roads through our families sometimes to discourage us and distress us. But I will be not discouraged. Even though I feel discouraged I refuse to surrender my joy because I understand that the joy of the Lord truly is my strength and it’s your strength too. And, so, just the first-time caller. So, delighted. I ask for prayers. Again, this is Walking in the Light in Tennessee. I’m so, so, so happy to be part of this Daily Audio Bible family. What a gift we have. And thank you all for listening and I hope to talk to you soon. Good night.

Hey guys this is Katie from Kentucky and I wanted to call in and just say thank you for everybody who calls and shares a bit of who they are. I remember when I was in high school and I had a very narrow view of what a Christian looked like and it was basically, you know, what I was raised with and the way I looked. When I hear all of your prayer requests, I realize that God is so much bigger and loves us all so much, but we all go through our own struggles. And coming to know Jesus does not mean that all those struggles go away immediately or even, I mean, there are things that last the rest of our lives. And I just want you guys to know that I am praying for you and praying with you but you’re also changing me so much with every call to hear parents praying for their children to hear children praying for their parents to hear people praying about drug addiction. You guys have opened my eyes to how much bigger God is then I had known before joining this community. So, thank you and I’m praying with you. Bye.

Good morning is Ganda I’m from Missouri. I’ve been fighting cancer since 2015…2014. I’m not feeling very good tonight. Just pray for strength and prayer for me if you could it would be appreciated. Again, Ganda from central Missouri. This is my second time calling but I’ve been a listener maybe two years. Thank you so much for providing this program since I have very little use of my hands and I can’t turn the page of the Bible anymore with this __. __ the Bible every day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.