01/21/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 42:18-43:34, Matt 13:47-14:12, Ps 18:16-36, Pr 4:7-10

Today is the 21st day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today, 21 days into our journey. That’s three weeks. Seems like longer doesn’t it? Just three weeks though and look at all that we have covered in three weeks in the Scriptures, and how much sound wisdom and advice there is for living our lives. So, let’s dive in and take the next step. That will lead us back into the book of Genesis. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and we are covering the story of Joseph, who was trafficked by his brothers into slavery in Egypt and the story made a turn and now Joseph is second in command only to Pharaoh but famine has descended upon the land and his brothers of come from Canaan to get grain and Joseph has spotted them and incarcerated them. And let’s find out what happens next. Genesis chapter 42 verse 18 through 43 verse 34.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about what’s going on in Egypt in the book of Genesis. Joseph’s brothers have returned because they ran out of food and starvation is upon them. And they brought Benjamin Joseph’s blood brother, like full-blown brother is along with them and Joseph is obviously moved to tears. He hasn’t seen his little brother in so long. And you can imagine the love and the loneliness and all of the years that have transpired between them in the…what has been lost. And then he has his other brothers there who are responsible for that loss. So, it’s interesting what’s going on because Joseph’s heart for his family is apparent to us as we’re reading the story but not apparent to the brothers at all. They don’t even know that this is Joseph. So, Joseph is actually being quite shrewd. He’s kind of drawing this out. He…he hasn’t just revealed himself, “hey, I’m your brother” and then like killed them all for what they did to him or put them in prison or sold them into slavery for several years so they can see what it felt like. He’s not doing those things. He’s observing them. And this is a wise move. This is wisdom in action here. He’s not revealing the whole story. They don’t know who he is. In fact, he’s going through all of the trappings of showing them that he’s not their brother by working through an interpreter and the whole thing because he’s watching them to see where their hearts truly are as opposed to just talk. We will find so often in the Bible that talk is cheap. And don’t we know that from our lives? But your character, your integrity, the way you actually live your life, that’s saying the truth. That’s the story behind the story that Jesus talks about when he’s looking for the truth and revealing the kingdom. So, Joseph is looking for the truth of their hearts, not the truth of the moment or not something that they could say to pacify him, the truth of the matter. And we will obviously get the next installment of this story tomorrow.

Then in the book of Matthew Jesus is continuing with His parables about the kingdom and that’s been going on for the last couple of days where illustration after illustration is given with the intention of revealing the kingdom because this is what Jesus says, “the kingdom of heaven is like” and then He tells the story. So, we have one of those today, “the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish, and when it was full the fishermen pulled it up on the shore and they sat down and collected the good in the…in the baskets and through the bad away. And this is how it will be at the end of the age” according to Jesus. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. This is Jesus describing the kingdom of heaven. So, if the kingdom of heaven with this particular illustration is like fishermen out fishing and they fill up their nets and they bring all the fish ashore and then they separate them all, the ones that they can sell and the ones that they can’t they throw them back, then we can learn a couple of things. Like we can learn them from all of these stories that Jesus is telling. One this is happening. It’s not coming. It will continue to come into its fullness but it’s happening, not something we’re waiting for, something we are supposed to be participating in. Second, it’s all happening all at the same time. You have to have eyes to see and ears to hear the kingdom. And once you can see it you realize that it is indeed happening right alongside everything else that’s happening. And in the end, it will all get sorted out. So, we’re not waiting for this great army to come in and just destroy everything and establish a kingdom. We are that kingdom. We are those people and the way we take over is by our love and by our endurance, by our witness, that we stand as a witness to the world there is a better way, a kingdom that we are all invited to be a part of, God’s kingdom, a place where identity is not achieved by comparison, and that we have all that we need and are satisfied knowing that we are children of the most-high God. This is a radical shift. This is a radical shift for the people who are hearing Jesus, but it is a pretty disruptive radical shift for us because ironically, we’re mostly waiting for…we’re mostly waiting for God to do something, when in effect God is sort of waiting for us to do something. And we could look at all the imagery in the book of Revelation for example and go, “like, well no, there is going to be some kind of go cosmic humongous upheaval and battle.” Yeah, this is the very very end when God eradicates evil as a category on earth and anyone who wants to hold onto their evil gets what they want and they also get destroyed because they wouldn’t give up their evil. But what Jesus is talking about to the people who are listening to Him is the same thing He’s talking about when we hear it from the Scriptures. “this thing is happening if we would have eyes to see and ears to hear.” And how do we do that? We’ve been talking about that, seeing what’s going on behind what is presented, looking and observing ourselves for the way we present a false image of who we are in order to be liked. Like developing a personality, a mask that we wear around that’s curated for everybody instead of being true. What if we could all live true? That is the invitation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the way humans were designed to live, without all this baggage that we waste our precious lives on. And the way that we will begin to see what we need to see and hear what we need to hear will be to pursue wisdom. We are watching Jesus teach wisdom. We are watching Joseph use wisdom.

And then from the Proverbs wisdom speaks and I quote, “the beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom.” So, in other words, set your mind upon it. Pursue it. I continue to quote, “though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her and she will exalt you. Embrace her and she will honor you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown. Listen my son. Accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.”

Prayer:

Father we acknowledged this, we acknowledge what’s coming up out of the pages of the Bible, we acknowledge and ask, we need this wisdom, and we want to pursue this wisdom and we need the help of Your Holy Spirit to guide us toward this wisdom and we need to learn to stop reacting. When something happens, we need to stop and think about wisdom and then move forward. Show us how to be patient. Show us how to reach for You in all things instead of just trying to be quick and immediate or maybe we get…we’ve gotten offended and so we go to battle so quickly and destroy relationships. And this is a year where we’re amending things. This is a year where we’re allowing You to mend us from within. And, so, we have to slow down. It doesn’t mean we have to slow all of life down. It’s like at warp speed and it could certainly use a little slowing down, but it means that we take a beat, a second, before we start spouting off things in response. We take a beat and consider what wisdom might look like and what wisdom might say. Come Holy Spirit we pray into all of this. We would love nothing more than to focus upon wisdom this year and get to the end of this journey knowing that we have slowly but surely become wise. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Commentary:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And, so, yeah, stay tuned and stay connected. We’re a community going through this together. And, so, it’s good to be connected in any way that we can or any way that we want to.

So, check out the Community section of the website. I was talking about that yesterday. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives and that is an important component, just a holy, sacred component of what we do is a community here, is pray for one another. And prayer at the Prayer Wall, that…that’s constant. It never…it never stops. So, check that out.

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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:

Hello everyone. Alexis hello it’s so great to meet you. This is God’s Grace for Japan. And oh man when I heard your message Alexis to the family, I felt you so hard. I remember when I was your age, and I was so isolated from my peer group because I just really wanted to be closer to God and because I loved Jesus, but that alone was enough to make me feel really estranged from what everybody around me was into. And it’s I think probably the world you’re in is probably more difficult than my world was back then and you’re in the right place. And I’m so happy that you’re here. And just the fact that you’re asking for that prayer and that you’re reaching for Him, I know you won’t be disappointed. He says a Luke, “if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” As long as you keep asking, He will pour it out. Just don’t stop asking. And if you feel stuck you know you have us to call into and ask for prayer. You know, you have so many Big Brothers and sisters here to hold you up and to encourage you. This is such a hard world but I’m already just so grateful that God has inspired this passion in your heart, just this desire to walk in His path. The Daily Audio…the Daily Audio Proverb is also a fantastic small, short tool if you’re looking for wisdom right now in this insanity. I encourage you to utilize that and I’m praying for you. I’m so happy to hear your voice and don’t be afraid. It’s a great journey. Bye bye. God bless everyone.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family it’s James here from the UK and I have just woken up this morning with an incredible sense of God just wanting to speak to I think quite a few people out there within the DAB family to let you know that your prayers are really important to Him. And I think this might be especially for some of those people who are maybe further on in years and are feeling like they’re not important anymore and all the decisions are being made by a younger generation and…and they’re not bringing heard. You’ve got to know that your wisdom and your prayer life and what you’re able to do in supporting younger generations by praying for us is really…is really important. And you are really important, and you are really valued by Jesus. I want to thank you for your prayers. Your prayers over us, over our families when we pray in with our requests, thank you for what you’re able to do. Thank you for your wisdom. And whoever you are who’s maybe thinking right now that you don’t matter that you don’t count, you absolutely do. Amen.

Hello everybody at Daily Audio Bible this is Matt from Michigan. I’m fairly new to Daily Audio Bible but I’ve been reading the daily Bible for quite some time and I’m really enjoying the prayers and…and all the love that you guys share. I’m glad to be at the fire with you. And I wanted to say to All the Treasures from Wyoming, that God definitely does delight in you and I tell my grandchildren he sings over us. When I sing…I’ll hold them and rock them and hold their head on my shoulder tell them then sing songs to them and tell them how much I love them and I tell them, “you know Jesus sings over us. He sings over us. He rejoices over us with singing.” So, He delights in all of us. We’re like flowers to Him. So, God bless you. And I’m so glad to be a part of Daily Audio Bible at the fire. That’s my log for the day. God bless. Bye bye.

Good morning DAB family this is Zainab from London. I’m just calling to say thank you all for your encouraging words for your prayer. You make me feel so welcome and I am part of this family now and I just thank you for all your prayers and encouraging words. I’ve been really really enjoying everything. I’ve been listening to Ezekiel. He’s so funny. I…I…I’ve been…I’ve been following the chronological as well as well as the proverbs and the psalms. So, I’ve been everywhere. I’m just enjoying everything, spending more time trying to know…to get closer and closer to God and I’m so thankful for all your commentary and the way the Bible is explained, especially today Brian explaining what blaspheming means. Oh my god it just throws so much light on what…what it really means and how we can easily blaspheme if we’re not careful. So, thank you so much. I benefited so much today about the act of blaspheming. You know, thank you and I know so many people will benefit from it today. So, I thank you, I thank you so much. I look forward every day to…to join you to join __ up every midnight to wait for, you know…I normally read by my…my…my daily reading at midnight as well as during the day…

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Beautifully Broken. Hey, I’m just calling to encourage all the new listeners that have joined on for this year. I’m starting my 4th year with Daily Audio Bible with Brian. I’ve listened for three years. And now this year I’m also doing DABC and I’ve added Psalms and Proverbs. None of that was planned. It just happened and it starts to get pretty addictive, which I think is a good addiction. But I just want to encourage new people. I want to say that with my first year those years ago when I started my intent was to go through the Bible in a year and I did it pretty poorly that first year. I fell asleep as I would listen to it. I did it often as rote. A lot of times it was just a check off my list. I missed a lot of days. I got way behind, caught up, didn’t maybe listen to everything. I just want you to know I didn’t give up. I didn’t let that make me feel like, well because I wasn’t doing it well, I just stopped. I think that’s a huge lie of the enemy. Push through, persevere through. Don’t worry if you miss large chunks, just pick up where you were. If you do you feel like you want to go back and…and make that up, do. But just don’t stop. Just keep getting up. It is life changing and the enemy does not want you to succeed at this. So, just keep on keeping on friends. This is so worth it. It is amazing and it will absolutely change your life in ways you cannot imagine.

Hi family this is Victoria from the beautiful rolling Hills of north western Missouri. I called a few weeks ago and asked for prayer for my dear from Joni and her son Thomas who had an accident at work related to his…he’s on the spectrum and there was something going on with his meds. There was an incident, and he harmed a man. And, so, now everything is in court. So, I have an update and some more prayer petitions please. So, the update is that Thomas’s court date was January 5 and Joni and her husband Ron, Thomas’s parents, are being named in the civil case. So, that’s not good I don’t think but what is good is that the judge wanted a couple of weeks to decide what he will rule. So, I think that’s fabulous. Hallelujah for delays when it comes to God and working things. And, so, we have more time. They, let’s see, Thomas’s next court…his trial is January 25 and 26. Some good news. He had a reduction of felonies and misdemeanors and some were even dropped. So, thank you Lord. Joni says she’s in constant prayer or she may fall apart. So, I ask…I ask you family if you’d help me pray that God will…will lead everything here. He will fill the heart, the mind, the Spirit of this judge and all those involved with mercy, understanding, and forgiveness. I pray that everything is led by God and that He moves the heart of the judge with compassion. Thank you, friends. Amen.