Genesis 1:1-2:25, Matthew 1:1-2:12, Psalms 1:1-6, Proverbs 1:1-6
Today is January 1st welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Happy New Year. Welcome…welcome aboard. We are about to set sail on a journey that we will be on together for the next 365 days, a full year to allow the earth to move its way all the way around the sun, a full year to live into and live life together and a full year to insert the Scriptures into an important part of our day, every day, informing what the year is going to look like. And believe me, well, if this is your first go around, if this is the first time you’re like, “yup. This is going to be my year. I’m gonna read the whole Bible.” You’re gonna find that it…if you do that it’s gonna touch everything about your life. Sticking to this every day for this next year will be probably the most enlightening thing you’ve ever done in terms of learning about God certainly but learning about yourself and your context, and who God is and who you are and where this is all going. These things come from daily interaction with the Scriptures. So, welcome aboard. And welcome back to those of you who have been taking this journey each year for years. Today is day one of the 16th trip, the 16th year, the 16th time through the Bible in a year here at the Daily Audio Bible. And if you’ve taken more than one journey, then you know that there are similarities and there are profound differences in every year because we are different. We are growing. We are changing. And the Bible seems to have this way of being immediate and relevant and present and even pressing into and challenging some of the things that we do and say and think. And that’s a good thing because the Bible…the Bible’s a book, right? It’s this written book. It’s actually a book full of books, a collection of books that span thousands of years. And, so, we’re gonna meet a lot of people and we’re gonna watch their lives unfold, some in very short fashion, some in very long drawn out fashion. We’re gonna get to know a lot of people and we will watch the choices they make and where those roads lead only to find out how things changed. Those roads still go the same place. That gives us so much wisdom for the choices that we’re making because even the inconsequential choices go somewhere. And sometimes they go somewhere big that changes things altogether. We’ll see that in the Bible too. So, here we are…like opening the cover and getting to page 1. And all books have a beginning. And…and since the Bible is a book of books…well…there’s lots of beginnings. And every time we come to the beginning of a new book we’ll try to talk about what we’re reading, where it sits in history, what’s going on, why it’s going on, give ourselves a little bit of context because one of the primary things we’ll find about the Bible is that understanding it, interpreting it, applying it to our lives, making it make sense or have any kind of effect on today you need context. Without context the Bible can get confusing. With context the Bible can blossom and bloom into the best friend we have ever had. So, as we open to page one basically we find the words, “in the beginning.” And is there a better way to start the story of this year, “in the beginning.”
Introduction to the book of Genesis:
That’s how the book of Genesis starts, the first book that we will encounter in the grouping of books known as the Old Testament. And by the way, we’ll read a little bit of the Old Testament, a little bit of the New Testament, a little bit of the Psalms, and a little bit of the Proverbs each day as we make our way through the journey. But Genesis is famous for being the first book, “in the beginning.” And normally what we think about when we think about Genesis is that it…it tells the story of creation. Ironically, that’s like only a small part of the story of Genesis. The book of Genesis covers more time than any of the other books in the Bible. So, after we read the origin story, we’ll still have another 2500 years contained within the pages of Genesis, which is more time covered then the rest of the Old Testament combined. So, the first 11 chapters of Genesis will cover a couple thousand years and a couple thousand miles before slowing down and we’ll begin to focus on several specific generations of people that will…that we need to focus on because they shape the rest of the Bible and they influence our world until this very day. And I was just talking about groupings of books. Like the Old Testament is a grouping of books and the New Testament is a grouping of books, but there are subgroupings of these books within the larger…within the larger context. And, so, Genesis is a part of a group of books known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. And these books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And by the way, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app…and if you’re not, try it out. The Daily Audio Bible app is the portal into community here. It’s the…in the palm of your hand all things Daily Audio Bible. But within the Daily Audio Bible app you can check off the days that you’ve listened to. And as you stack those up each and every day as we move through these different groupings of books when we complete them, we will be awarded a badge that tells us you’ve completed this particular section of the Bible. So, this is where you are. This is what you completed. This is how many percent are completed of the New Testament and the Old Testament and the whole Bible. All that is right there to show us, to give us the sense that we’re progressing through because we are. So, make sure you have that as we begin this journey. And we will have plenty…we will have more than plenty to talk about as we make the journey, but I think I’ve given us enough of a flyover for right this minute. We’ve come here and we come here each day for the Scriptures, and we make a habit of making that the centerpiece because it is the centerpiece. It’s the reason that were here. And, so, let’s dive in on this January 1st on the first day of the year. We will read from the New Living Translation for the rest of this week and we will rotate, we change translations each week. And I can talk about that a little bit the end, but we’re at the beginning of today. Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today we read the story of creation, which is what Genesis is most famous for. But embedded in that narrative of the days of creation and what God was forming and fashioning we see over and over is that His intent was that it was good, that what He created was good. He looked at it and saw that it was good. And then when He created humanity in His own image. I mean that’s straight out of the book of Genesis, “let us create man in our own image.” So, when He creates mankind, He looks upon it and says this is very good. Like this exceptional, this is exceptionally good.” So, right from the beginning, right from the beginning of the story we are introduced to God and we are introduced to a God that creates good things and takes pleasure in good things. What we see is that this was the intent. This was the plan, that it is good, and that the creation was good even very good, exceptionally good. This is our starting point. But this needs to carry us forward, that God is good and what God does is good and just and right. And not only that, that God’s intention was for us to be very good. We’ll have to wait a couple of days. It’s not gonna take that long for us to figure out what happened to that plan. So, we’ll stay tuned here in the book of Genesis for the next couple of days.
We also began the book of Matthew today. And I mentioned earlier that, you know, when we come to the beginning of a new book we’ll talk about each of these books. The fact of the matter is that this is January 1st and we’re starting four new books as well as a brand-new year so there’s a lot of ground to cover. So, we’ll talk about Matthew tomorrow and then we’ll talk about the other two books, Psalms, the next day and Proverbs the day after that. Kind of getting ourselves moved in and just, yeah, unpacking our bags and getting settled in our quarters because this is gonna be a voyage that we’re on and we’re gonna sail out into the deep all the way across the year, but we’re just releasing the anchor, like we’re just getting out of harbor here. So, we are inside of land. We’re just getting settled in and we’ll do that over the next couple of days. But in the book of Matthew today we began reading the origin story of the birth of Jesus the Savior, the son of God, God made flesh. This God that we’ve read about in the book of Genesis, this good God with good intentions who had created an exceptional humanity in His own image…well…as the story goes, things get a little bit sideways and backwards and this God comes in person to make things right in the person of Jesus. And, so, that’s the narrative we are beginning in the book of Matthew. And, so, today, you know we had this little section of genealogy. And what we were doing is reading really the names from the beginning all the way to the generations that that led up to Jesus. And we read a bunch of names and they maybe weird names, but we’re gonna to get to know all of those people. This won’t be the last time we read their names. Some of them we’ll get to know very well.
Then we turn the book of Psalms today and where just told “O the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers.” Like right out of the gate we’re getting this profoundly simple but profoundly true advice. “Those who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate upon it, their lives are like trees planted along a riverbank.” Alright. So, that’s a metaphor we can understand. A good source of water, a good source of nourishment and they bear fruit in each season and their leaves don’t wither. Like that’s a good metaphor. We’ve just gone through a year of withering challenges, right? If our lives are planted and rooted by a riverbank with life-giving water, then it’s sustained us through this. And, so, if that’s not the case, then we’ve been withering, and we’ve stumbled and fell our way here to find some nourishment from the Bible to try to just keep going forward. And that’s fine because this is day one of being planted by a riverbank giving life-giving water and our leaves will never wither if we will stay rooted in that place. And the Bible will continually challenge that and show us how to do it.
And then we turn to the final section of Scripture, the Proverbs, and we learned why we would want to read the book of Proverbs. And what we’ll find is that the Proverbs can speak volumes in one sentence. It can just cut to the chase, cut right through all the crap and get right to the heart of the matter immediately. And, so, we’re told today the purpose of the Proverbs to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just and fair, to give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. I want that. My hands up. Like I’m on board with that. Are we not all on board with that? What would it look like to walk in wisdom this year, to be wise in the things that we say and think and do this year. That could be a profound game changer, to have wisdom at the ready instead of just reacting to everything that comes our way, to actually have foreknowledge and wisdom. And when things come flying at us we have the wherewithal to consult wisdom and understand we don’t have to get bowled away by this. We have choices and we’re going to make wise. And, so, this is day one and the Bible is already speaking about how to live this life as we go into the future. So, that’s our day. That’s our day one.
And I just want you to know I’m grateful. I’m grateful we have boarded this ship and we all are gonna…are gonna sail across the year together, and that over the next weeks, we will settle in and move into the year and settle into the rhythm of the Bible being a part of our lives every day and settle into the fact that this is not a solitary endeavor. We are not alone. There are tens and tens and tens of thousands of us who are taking this journey together and we’re gonna get to know each other. Surprising as that might be, we’re gonna get to know each other over the course of the year. So, many stories will unfold before us in each other’s lives that it won’t be too long before we realize we’re falling in love with each other because we’re a community centered around one goal and that goal is to go through the Bible together and allow it to shape our lives. So, we are a community that’s moving in the same direction and on the same page, literally. We’re all going through this together. And the truth of the matter is we’re all facing challenges, all of us. All of us are facing challenges. We all got here and boarded on this voyage for this year for a reason. Some of us have been taking the voyage for years. And we know how profoundly the Bible can impact a year. Some of us are just here for the first time having maybe grown up in the faith of the having been believers for a long time but acknowledging the fact that like 98% of believers in the world have never read the Bible, not the whole thing, not even anywhere close. And, so, this is the year. This is the year to find out what it really says. This is the year to let it speak on its own behalf in its own context.
And then…then there are those of you brothers and sisters who don’t even know why you’re here. This isn’t your thing. Religion is something that you’ve sworn off a long time ago. You don’t really want any of this…you’re just super curious about what an ancient holy book like…like it’s basically life’s not working out as it is, so there needs to be something else, and maybe that something else, who knows…who knows maybe that something else is in the Bible. Maybe there’s something there. What does it really say? What does it really mean? Where does it really lead people? How does it shape people’s convictions? Maybe that’s you. Welcome aboard. We are gonna have so much fun exploring those questions and peeking into those motivations and understandings.
And then there are those of you who have crawled here…and…your fingernails are bloody from just dragging yourself across the new year just…just committed to trying to make it through 2020. And you’re just here on your hands and knees, you have no more energy. Welcome. You have come to the right place. You are no longer alone, and you will not be alone during this journey at all. We all had a rough time of it last year. And…and maybe it’s not just last year maybe it’s the last decade or maybe it’s as long as you can remember, and this is that. Like, there’s…something’s got to give, something’s got to change. And, so, with all the hope that you had left your spending it here and saying, “I’m gonna give a shot to the Bible. I don’t even know what’s’s gonna happen or what’s really going on but I’m gonna give a shot to it because everything else is hopeless and this is it.
I get it. So many of us get it. That’s how so many of us got here just with nowhere else to turn. But that sort of sick feeling in our stomach that God is so angry at us. We’ve messed things up so bad that if He’s even there He’s mad. And how do you even find your way into some sort of relationship, some sort of understanding that He’s there and that…that He is actually good in that He does actually care and that He might actually look upon us as very good creations. Just doesn’t feel like that. Feels like He’s angry and that He’s mad and that we keep failing and we cannot get it together more than one day. Maybe we can hold it together for 24 hours but then we’re gonna fall down again in some sort of way, And, so, we live our lives believing there is a God and believing that He’s mad because we are failures. That’s not who God is. That’s not the God that the Bible will introduce and is introducing to us. That’s not what’s going on here. God, the Bible will tell us, is love. And love Jesus will tell us is how we are to be known, how the world will know that we are following Christ is by our love. And maybe you’re here and you don’t like even the name, the idea, the word Christian because that’s the last thing you have ever witnessed out of Christian people. That’s not what you’re gonna find here and I’m sorry about that actually. I think we all are. I think we’ve all had those experiences at one point or another. And it’s hard because it’s a broken world full of broken people and broken people break things. And we’re all guilty, all of us. But the way of Jesus is the pathway of love, loving your enemies, loving your neighbor as yourself, loving your God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength.
And, so, I’m telling you, just hang out here for a while. Just hang out here. Just rest here. What you’ll find is that this becomes an oasis. The Daily Audio Bible every day becomes an oasis for us. We call it the Global Campfire. We all just come here to a safe place, a calm serene space in our lives that we can turn to each day knowing that the chaos may be happening all around the world, but we have a safe place to gather that’s virus free, pandemic free, but we’re all here together healing, mending, growing, becoming. And it is a joy, it is an honor, a true privilege to take this journey with you. And I’m telling you, no matter how you got here, this may be your 15th trip through. No matter how you got here. You may have crawled across the finish line of the year like I said. If we’ll let it love will find a way.
Song:
Find Our Way - Paul Alan