January 2021 – Page 5 – A Walk Through The Word

January 14, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday January 14, 2021 (NIV)

Genesis 30:1-31:16

30 When Rachel saw that she wasn’t having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister. She pleaded with Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

²Then Jacob became furious with Rachel. “Am I God?” he asked. “He’s the one who has kept you from having children!”

³Then Rachel told him, “Take my maid, Bilhah, and sleep with her. She will bear children for me,^[a] and through her I can have a family, too.” ⁴So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. ⁵Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son. ⁶Rachel named him Dan,^[b] for she said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son.” ⁷Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. ⁸Rachel named him Naphtali,^[c] for she said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I’m winning!”

⁹Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she took her servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰Soon Zilpah presented him with a son. ¹¹Leah named him Gad,^[d] for she said, “How fortunate I am!” ¹²Then Zilpah gave Jacob a second son. ¹³And Leah named him Asher,^[e] for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.”

¹⁴One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought them to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵But Leah angrily replied, “Wasn’t it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son’s mandrakes, too?”

Rachel answered, “I will let Jacob sleep with you tonight if you give me some of the mandrakes.”

¹⁶So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. “You must come and sleep with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid for you with some mandrakes that my son found.” So that night he slept with Leah. ¹⁷And God answered Leah’s prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. ¹⁸She named him Issachar,^[f] for she said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.” ¹⁹Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. ²⁰She named him Zebulun,^[g] for she said, “God has given me a good reward. Now my husband will treat me with respect, for I have given him six sons.” ²¹Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by enabling her to have children. ²³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “God has removed my disgrace,” she said. ²⁴And she named him Joseph,^[h] for she said, “May the Lord add yet another son to my family.”

Jacob’s Wealth Increases

²⁵Soon after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Please release me so I can go home to my own country. ²⁶Let me take my wives and children, for I have earned them by serving you, and let me be on my way. You certainly know how hard I have worked for you.”

²⁷“Please listen to me,” Laban replied. “I have become wealthy, for^[i] the Lord has blessed me because of you. ²⁸Tell me how much I owe you. Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.”

²⁹Jacob replied, “You know how hard I’ve worked for you, and how your flocks and herds have grown under my care. ³⁰You had little indeed before I came, but your wealth has increased enormously. The Lord has blessed you through everything I’ve done. But now, what about me? When can I start providing for my own family?”

³¹“What wages do you want?” Laban asked again.

Jacob replied, “Don’t give me anything. Just do this one thing, and I’ll continue to tend and watch over your flocks. ³²Let me inspect your flocks today and remove all the sheep and goats that are speckled or spotted, along with all the black sheep. Give these to me as my wages. ³³In the future, when you check on the animals you have given me as my wages, you’ll see that I have been honest. If you find in my flock any goats without speckles or spots, or any sheep that are not black, you will know that I have stolen them from you.”

³⁴“All right,” Laban replied. “It will be as you say.” ³⁵But that very day Laban went out and removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted or had white patches, and all the black sheep. He placed them in the care of his own sons, ³⁶who took them a three-days’ journey from where Jacob was. Meanwhile, Jacob stayed and cared for the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷Then Jacob took some fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off strips of bark, making white streaks on them. ³⁸Then he placed these peeled branches in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, for that was where they mated. ³⁹And when they mated in front of the white-streaked branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰Jacob separated those lambs from Laban’s flock. And at mating time he turned the flock to face Laban’s animals that were streaked or black. This is how he built his own flock instead of increasing Laban’s.

⁴¹Whenever the stronger females were ready to mate, Jacob would place the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of them. Then they would mate in front of the branches. ⁴²But he didn’t do this with the weaker ones, so the weaker lambs belonged to Laban, and the stronger ones were Jacob’s. ⁴³As a result, Jacob became very wealthy, with large flocks of sheep and goats, female and male servants, and many camels and donkeys.

Jacob Flees from Laban

31 But Jacob soon learned that Laban’s sons were grumbling about him. “Jacob has robbed our father of everything!” they said. “He has gained all his wealth at our father’s expense.” ²And Jacob began to notice a change in Laban’s attitude toward him.

³Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.”

⁴So Jacob called Rachel and Leah out to the field where he was watching his flock. ⁵He said to them, “I have noticed that your father’s attitude toward me has changed. But the God of my father has been with me. ⁶You know how hard I have worked for your father, ⁷but he has cheated me, changing my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to do me any harm. ⁸For if he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ the whole flock began to produce speckled young. And when he changed his mind and said, ‘The striped animals will be your wages,’ then the whole flock produced striped young. ⁹In this way, God has taken your father’s animals and given them to me.

¹⁰“One time during the mating season, I had a dream and saw that the male goats mating with the females were streaked, speckled, and spotted. ¹¹Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Yes, here I am.’

¹²“The angel said, ‘Look up, and you will see that only the streaked, speckled, and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock. For I have seen how Laban has treated you. ¹³I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel,^[j] the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”

¹⁴Rachel and Leah responded, “That’s fine with us! We won’t inherit any of our father’s wealth anyway. ¹⁵He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us. ¹⁶All the wealth God has given you from our father legally belongs to us and our children. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you.”

Footnotes:

30:3 Hebrew bear children on my knees.
30:6 Dan means “he judged” or “he vindicated.”
30:8 Naphtali means “my struggle.”
30:11 Gad means “good fortune.”
30:13 Asher means “happy.”
30:18 Issachar sounds like a Hebrew term that means “reward.”
30:20 Zebulun probably means “honor.”
30:24 Joseph means “may he add.”
30:27 Or I have learned by divination that.
31:13 As in Greek version and an Aramaic Targum; Hebrew reads the God of Bethel.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 10:1-23

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

10 Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil^[a] spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. ²Here are the names of the twelve apostles:

first, Simon (also called Peter),
then Andrew (Peter’s brother),
James (son of Zebedee),
John (James’s brother),
³Philip,
Bartholomew,
Thomas,
Matthew (the tax collector),
James (son of Alphaeus),
Thaddaeus,^[b]
⁴Simon (the zealot^[c]),
Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).

⁵Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, ⁶but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. ⁷Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.^[d] ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!

⁹“Don’t take any money in your money belts—no gold, silver, or even copper coins. ¹⁰Don’t carry a traveler’s bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to be fed.

¹¹“Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. ¹²When you enter the home, give it your blessing. ¹³If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. ¹⁴If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day.

¹⁶“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. ¹⁷But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. ¹⁸You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.^[e] ¹⁹When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. ²⁰For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹“A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. ²²And all nations will hate you because you are my followers.^[f] But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. ²³When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man^[g] will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel.

Footnotes:

10:1 Greek unclean.
10:3 Other manuscripts read Lebbaeus; still others read Lebbaeus who is called Thaddaeus.
10:4 Greek the Cananean, an Aramaic term for Jewish nationalists.
10:7 Or has come, or is coming soon.
10:18 Or But this will be your testimony against the rulers and other unbelievers.
10:22 Greek on account of my name.
10:23 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 12

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by an eight-stringed instrument.^[a]

¹Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!
The faithful have vanished from the earth!
²Neighbors lie to each other,
speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.
³May the Lord cut off their flattering lips
and silence their boastful tongues.
⁴They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.
Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”

⁵The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless,
and I have heard the groans of the poor.
Now I will rise up to rescue them,
as they have longed for me to do.”
⁶The Lord’s promises are pure,
like silver refined in a furnace,
purified seven times over.
⁷Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed,
preserving them forever from this lying generation,
⁸even though the wicked strut about,
and evil is praised throughout the land.

Footnotes:

12:Title Hebrew according to the sheminith.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:13-15

¹³Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding.
¹⁴For wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and her wages are better than gold.
¹⁵Wisdom is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 13, 2021

01/13/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 28:1-29:35, Matthew 9:18-38, Psalms 11:1-7, Proverbs 3:11-12

Today is the 13^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a delight to be here with you today as we move through the middle of the week and continue our journey forward. And, so, let’s get into the Scriptures. We’re reading from the New Living translation and we’ve been reading from the book of Genesis, obviously and we have met Abraham then we’ve met his son of promise, Isaac, we have met Isaac’s children, Jacob and Esau and we are transitioning into that generation, the grand children of Abraham. Genesis chapter 28 and 29 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today we have encountered a very famous story, the stairway to Heaven story, where Jacob sees a stairway to heaven. And he is in a place called Bethel. And, so, many of us know the story of have heard the story, you know, from Sunday school, or whatever, but the context is that Jacob is on the run from Esau, having left his family, moving north to find Laban who’s his mother’s brother’s, his uncle. That’s when he sees this stairway to heaven and it won’t be the last time that Jacob comes by this way, but it will be quite a long time. We spanned some 14 years in our reading today. So, Jacob gets to Laban and then the trickery begins. And we we’re mentioning that. There’s like this kind of trickery in this family going on and it spans many generations. So, Jacob’s in love with Rachel, He makes a deal that he’ll work for his uncle for seven years, in order to marry Rachel and the deal is done. Seven years goes by, right? The wedding happens and a wedding night happens, and Jacob wakes up to find the wrong girl. So, he’s going to get both of the sisters as wives in the end but he’s gonna have to work another seven years for the woman that he loves. 14 years for two wives who are sisters. Like we’re in a different time right now. This is thousands of years ago but even thousands of years ago, you can only imagine the family dynamics there. And it’s even more complicated because Jacob loves Rachel. This is the woman that he wanted to be with, but Rachel isn’t having any children. It’s Leah the firstborn sister who is having children. So, you can only imagine the animosity and the bitterness that is beginning to build, and we will see it unfold. But by the time we finished our reading in Genesis today Jacob had not only left his family and made it all the way to Laban, he had been there for 14 years and children were born to him - Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah. These names should sound somewhat familiar if we have any familiarity with the Bible at all. These children will grow up to become adults and have tribes of their own. We have met the beginning of four of the 12 tribes of Israel today.

In the book of Matthew today we’re…we’re seeing Jesus move around the countryside and in…and in and among the villages and the villagers and he does quite a bit of healing today, many miraculous things. And…and by the way, these stories that we’re reading in the book of Matthew, most of them we will also encounter, nuanced a little bit differently, but we will also see them in Mark and in Luke. So, we have plenty of time as we take our journey together through the Bible, but also as we move through the Gospels for several months just sitting at the feet of Jesus. We’ll have plenty of time to examine lots of things from lots of perspectives. But what we see is Jesus healing. So, that like there’s a resurrection story today, there’s the one with the issue of blood, which is a very famous story today, and then we encounter two blind men who were just screaming to Jesus to “have mercy, would he have mercy” and…and he heals them. One thing of note about the miraculous, at least as it relates to Jesus is what he says to the blind men, “don’t tell anyone about this.” And the Bible says, but instead, they went out and told everybody basically. But what we need to notice is Jesus posture. Like you would think a miracle worker, that could get something really going quick. News could spread very, very quickly and Jesus could get an enormous amount of power very very quickly, but He’s not looking for that. What we see is Jesus isn’t playing the world’s game at all. It’s like He’s marching to the beat of a different drummer. He’s…he’s living as a human being was intended to live. Yes, we know where the story goes, and we know that Jesus will…will hang from across and die and be resurrected and we…we often make that the long and short of the story with Jesus, like that…that He came to die, He did and that was that. But there’s these three decades of His life, right? And there’s these three years of his ministry, before all of that happened. And, so, looking into what Jesus message was about and looking into the way that He conducted Himself reveals something really profound. Let’s think about it. It was just less than two weeks ago that we began this journey and we got to the book of Genesis chapter 3 and we…we saw the…the serpent in the tree and member that story and how the whole complexion of the story changed when mankind realized that it was naked and ashamed and so it’s been hiding ever since. We talked about deception and then as we’ve continued through the book of Genesis and all of the readings that we’ve done so far we've…we’ve seen the results. Like we’ve seen the flood. We’ve seen all kinds of really difficult things, and we will continue to see them. We see the effects of mankind’s trade. God, union with God and perfection was what we were intended to have. Instead, we change…traded it for knowledge, a knowledge of good and evil. And, so, what we see beginning to happen upon the earth in the Bible is mankind’s knowledge doing what man’s kinds knowledge can do. Here’s an example from the book of Matthew. Jesus is doing these miracles and the religious people, they were known as Pharisees or Sadducees, but the Pharisees out and among the people, the leaders, the spiritual caretakers of the people say about Jesus, “He casts out demons, because He’s empowered by the prince of demons.” Okay. They have lost the plot and they are in charge of the spiritual welfare of the people. They do not in any way recognize this is God made flesh right in front of them. They can only see that He has some surprising powers and they’re trying to figure out what His game is. And, so, they’re saying these things not understanding that they’re saying them about the God they serve and the God that they are leading people to worship. Like that’s how twisted the trade was. Like we can have all the knowledge of good and evil that we want but if we don’t have God we are just here trying to make it work and we make it work by subjugating each other. And that doesn’t work. So, Jesus, He’s here doing something totally different looking for something completely different. For Jesus, healing the miraculous, the restoration of things is just normal. He doesn’t need it broadcasted all over the place. It’s just normal. Wholeness is supposed to be normal. Healing and health is supposed to be normal. So, I encourage us to continue to listen closely, listen closely to the words of the Savior. Listen closely to the stories. Look into those stories and watch what Jesus is doing. Remember this. Before that tree incident with the serpent in Genesis 3 sin was not a category and Adam and Eve were upon this earth sinless and in perfect union with God. It was as it was supposed to be. Thousands of years, thousands of years passed and that had not happened again until Jesus came. Jesus shows us what a restored sinless, integrated, humanity looks like in union with God. He didn’t only come to die. He also showed us how to live.

Prayer:

Jesus, we enter into that. We so often want You as an add-on. We want to live the life that we want to live but we want You in our back pocket as a get out…a get out of jail free card or some kind of insurance of something or another when You have invited us out of the world and in and to actual life. But it's…a transition is…is gonna be rocky. We’re gonna have to surrender so many things and learn how much we are clinging to and how little faith we might have. But we’re ready to learn. And we’re gonna have to learn that moving in this direction, the path of restoration, the path of sanctification, the path that leads, the path that leads to wholeness, that is going to by default set us apart. By default we are simply not going to be playing the same game anymore. And that can be a lonely path. And we see that borne out in Your ministry and in Your life. So, Come Holy Spirit, show us what it’s gonna look like to become Christlike and what that’s gonna mean. As we begin to just ponder surrender. We pray this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it…it’s the websites, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. I say that most every day.

I mentioned yesterday the Promised Land films and just the opportunity to kinda zoom in and see some of these places and I mean, like I can’t ignore it. We were in Bethel today, right? With the stairway to heaven, and Jacob seeing this and setting up a memorial stone. This is a place. This is an actual place. We have filmed this actual place. And the geography is so fascinating because indeed the geography looks like a stairway all around. All around the area, the tiered kind of staircase steps of the of the earth rising up. And, so, these are places that you can see. We’ve created this resource for that purpose. I mean all of the resources we create at the Daily Audio Bible are to take the journey of the Bible in a year deeper, more comprehensive. How much can we learn about ourselves and about the Bible and about the God of the Bible and about the God that’s beyond it all, the most-high God who is our Father? This is the goal. So, kind of seeing some of these places and knowing, “yeah, this is a place on earth. This isn’t a fairytale I’m reading. This is an actual archaeological place.” And seeing what it looks like is really helpful, at least it has been for me. So, reminding you the Promised Land films are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We will send you the DVD edition. You will instantly have access to the downloads, to the high-definition downloads of the films. And, yeah, dive deeper. Check that out. It’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the music and films section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you humbly and profoundly as we get launched into this new year for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here. And this is year 16. So, we’ve been a community for a long time but we wouldn’t exist if we were not in this together. And that has always been true. And, so, the beautiful thing is that we have been in this together. So, if Daily Audio Bible is bringing life to you, if it’s bringing like some kind of awakening, the Bible is actually doing what the Bible does, then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, 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, the little red button at the top 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:

Hello, my names Alexis I’m 15 I just started listening to Daily Audio Bible in about the middle of last year and I am really appreciative for this platform and for Brian and it’s really helped me grow closer to God. And lately I’ve just been feeling like a failure to be honest. Like, I’m fearing man more than I’m fearing God and it’s really been hindering me from like…there’s so many things that I know God wants me to do but I just care more about what the world thinks of me than what God thinks of me and it’s just not good. So, I’d really appreciate your prayers for spiritual maturity and boldness of the Spirit. Yeah, that’s what I really need. And I’m sure my mom is listening to this. So, hi mom. Love you. Okay, thank you. Bye.

Good afternoon everybody this is God’s Smile here. Well, it’s chucking it down with rain again. Well, I like a fine mist. But I woke up this morning when I coddled to the bathroom really early hours and there was this beautiful…I…I often look out of the front bedroom window when I’m up for a few minutes and try and stretch my legs a little…and so I was looking at this beautiful layer of frost because we don’t really get snow especially where we are in England because we’re by…by the sea…by Southport sea and not far from the salt there. You know it doesn’t really last unless we get a lot of snow which is nothing compared to the Canadians. So, what was I saying? Oh, losing me train of thought. So, it was really nice. And I thought, I’ll take a photograph of that later on. And, so, later on I get up and it’s all gone. Our weather is so unpredictable. But I just wanted to call in and say thank you Facebook DAB Friends for Peter’s request for prayer. Thank you, thank you, thank you for holding me. I’m up today, the first time in weeks. Isn’t that wonderful? I’ve been up with Tom a little bit, but I haven’t been up and been able to color. Now that Tom’s back home the Lord’s said, “go on, get up there or get down there.” And, so, I’ve had two hours where I’ve been doing my two most favorite things which is the color and listen to DAB. So, isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t God just wonderful? Times ticking away again. So, I send you my love. I send you so much love. Kiss kiss. Love God’s Smile.

Hello everyone I am Rachel from Oregon and I’ve been with you guys for a few months now and I have been listening even more consistently for this last month and I’ve only called in one other time to pray for a couple people but I just want to say that I really really appreciate this community. And I usually don’t get into podcasts or anything audio or videos whenever people refer me to all of them, but I discovered this one on my own and I’m so glad I did because it really encourages me and ministers to me a lot and I just appreciate it. Brian thank you so much for ministering to us so faithfully every day so many years of your life now. And all you guys out there, thank you so much for being so vulnerable and honest and open and genuine. I can hear people’s heart cries for the Lord and just really encourages me as another broken human that there’s this wonderful community of people out there who love Jesus who really really need Jesus and aren’t afraid to admit it because I really really need Jesus. I am so broken, but I really appreciate all you guys and just know that I’ve been praying for so many of you even though I don’t call in, even though you guys feel so…so low/ And all the things that some of you are going through. I’m praying right there with you. I am your sister in prayer and Christ is interceding for you and I look forward to meeting all of you in the kingdom of heaven someday. I feel like you guys are actually my family. And it’s amazing. I love you. Thank you for everything.

Good morning this is Steve from South Carolina. I just started listening to the Daily Audio Bible just a couple of days ago, beginning of the year and I feel like I found a brand-new community and I thank you for that. I thank you for welcoming me. Two things I’d like to share I’d like you to pray about with me if you would. One is, today is my last day of official work after many, many, many years in Christian ministry. I’d appreciate your prayers for God’s reassignment and new adventures ahead. And secondly, my daughter has aggressive breast cancer. And as you might imagine I’m very concerned for her and her well-being. So, pray for a miracle of healing if you would please. And thank you so very much for doing what you’re doing. Thanks for being a praying community and a caring community. And thanks for believing God for great things in 2021.

Hello DAB family this is Greg and on behalf of my wife Begita from southwest Sweden. There’s snow on the ground here and that speaks of God’s promises. We thank you Brian for the promise of this year and thank you for the past year of your and China’s readings. China congratulations on the imminent arrival of your first baby a few months to go and we are really glad about that. And to hear Jill’s voice. I listen to DAB chronological today. Sorry I’m still working on being a double DABber. And she’s such a bright spot. The…the…the warmth and the light of the DAB campfire definitely flows through her voice as it does yours Brian and did through China. So, yeah, my prayer request was regarding how to reach people in a small community here where we live where people are largely indoors. You know, it’s northern country Sweden, so it gets dark early and so on. And even as I was making the prayer request wondering what to say DAB here a knock came at the door and it was a local businessman who wanted some carton boxes that we had. And I’m just thanking God for the He answers prayer even before it’s out of our months. You know, so we had a good chat with him, and I was able to ask him what His faith in Jesus is. But I’m just praying for different ways of outreach, whether it’s making tracks or community events anything such that we can do. But that’s partly why…why we’re here. And I just want to thank you once again for this community and what God has done through you in my life and my wife. All right, God bless and will catch up later in the year. But I will be listening. I now.

Hi this is Emerald Stone. I’m gonna call myself Emerald Stone because I’m from the Emerald Island of Ireland. I think this is my fifth year since I began to listen to the Daily Audio Bible. It’s so lovely to hear so many accents from around the world. I’ve heard Australian and English accents and lots of American accents. I don’t know if I’ve heard many Irish accents but I think I heard Brian before saying he was in Ireland. I just wanted to introduce myself and say happy new year to everybody. And I’m on day five. I’m two days behind but it’s just great to hear everyone and to start something fresh and new. And God bless the Hardin family. God bless our world at this time. Praying for our nation of Ireland going through level V lockdown again and the numbers are increasing. So, just very aware of that in these days and to be praying for the world at this time and in particular America as well. And thank you for your prayers in the past. And I just want to wish everyone a happy new year and I’ll call in again. It’s great to download the new app and see this new feature on it as well, which I’ve never tried before in order to give the prayer requests in. So, that’s really handy. So, God bless, and I’ll be praying for those people who have rang in with the prayers. Bye.

January 13, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday January 13, 2021 (NIV)

Genesis 28-29

28 So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, “You must not marry any of these Canaanite women. ²Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban’s daughters. ³May God Almighty^[a] bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants multiply and become many nations! ⁴May God pass on to you and your descendants^[b] the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where you are now living as a foreigner, for God gave this land to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.

⁶Esau knew that his father, Isaac, had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ⁷He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸It was now very clear to Esau that his father did not like the local Canaanite women. ⁹So Esau visited his uncle Ishmael’s family and married one of Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife’s name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. ¹²As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

¹³At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. ¹⁴Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” ¹⁷But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

¹⁸The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. ¹⁹He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, ²¹and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. ²²And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”

Jacob Arrives at Paddan-Aram

29 Then Jacob hurried on, finally arriving in the land of the east. ²He saw a well in the distance. Three flocks of sheep and goats lay in an open field beside it, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well.

³It was the custom there to wait for all the flocks to arrive before removing the stone and watering the animals. Afterward the stone would be placed back over the mouth of the well. ⁴Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked, “Where are you from, my friends?”

“We are from Haran,” they answered.

⁵“Do you know a man there named Laban, the grandson of Nahor?” he asked.

“Yes, we do,” they replied.

⁶“Is he doing well?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, he’s well,” they answered. “Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the flock now.”

⁷Jacob said, “Look, it’s still broad daylight—too early to round up the animals. Why don’t you water the sheep and goats so they can get back out to pasture?”

⁸“We can’t water the animals until all the flocks have arrived,” they replied. “Then the shepherds move the stone from the mouth of the well, and we water all the sheep and goats.”

⁹Jacob was still talking with them when Rachel arrived with her father’s flock, for she was a shepherd. ¹⁰And because Rachel was his cousin—the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother—and because the sheep and goats belonged to his uncle Laban, Jacob went over to the well and moved the stone from its mouth and watered his uncle’s flock. ¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and he wept aloud. ¹²He explained to Rachel that he was her cousin on her father’s side—the son of her aunt Rebekah. So Rachel quickly ran and told her father, Laban.

¹³As soon as Laban heard that his nephew Jacob had arrived, he ran out to meet him. He embraced and kissed him and brought him home. When Jacob had told him his story, ¹⁴Laban exclaimed, “You really are my own flesh and blood!”

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

After Jacob had stayed with Laban for about a month, ¹⁵Laban said to him, “You shouldn’t work for me without pay just because we are relatives. Tell me how much your wages should be.”

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters. The older daughter was named Leah, and the younger one was Rachel. ¹⁷There was no sparkle in Leah’s eyes,^[c] but Rachel had a beautiful figure and a lovely face. ¹⁸Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, “I’ll work for you for seven years if you’ll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife.”

¹⁹“Agreed!” Laban replied. “I’d rather give her to you than to anyone else. Stay and work with me.” ²⁰So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.

²¹Finally, the time came for him to marry her. “I have fulfilled my agreement,” Jacob said to Laban. “Now give me my wife so I can sleep with her.”

²²So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood and prepared a wedding feast. ²³But that night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her. ²⁴(Laban had given Leah a servant, Zilpah, to be her maid.)

²⁵But when Jacob woke up in the morning—it was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob raged at Laban. “I worked seven years for Rachel! Why have you tricked me?”

²⁶“It’s not our custom here to marry off a younger daughter ahead of the firstborn,” Laban replied. ²⁷“But wait until the bridal week is over; then we’ll give you Rachel, too—provided you promise to work another seven years for me.”

²⁸So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel, too. ²⁹(Laban gave Rachel a servant, Bilhah, to be her maid.) ³⁰So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her much more than Leah. He then stayed and worked for Laban the additional seven years.

Jacob’s Many Children

³¹When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children, but Rachel could not conceive. ³²So Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,^[d] for she said, “The Lord has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me.”

³³She soon became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Simeon,^[e] for she said, “The Lord heard that I was unloved and has given me another son.”

³⁴Then she became pregnant a third time and gave birth to another son. He was named Levi,^[f] for she said, “Surely this time my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!”

³⁵Once again Leah became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She named him Judah,^[g] for she said, “Now I will praise the Lord!” And then she stopped having children.

Footnotes:

28:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai.
28:4 Hebrew seed; also in 28:13, 14.
29:17 Or Leah had dull eyes, or Leah had soft eyes. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
29:32 Reuben means “Look, a son!” It also sounds like the Hebrew for “He has seen my misery.”
29:33 Simeon probably means “one who hears.”
29:34 Levi sounds like a Hebrew term that means “being attached” or “feeling affection for.”
29:35 Judah is related to the Hebrew term for “praise.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 9:18-38

Jesus Heals in Response to Faith

¹⁸As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him. “My daughter has just died,” he said, “but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.”

¹⁹So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. ²⁰Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, ²¹for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. ²⁴“Get out!” he told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” But the crowd laughed at him. ²⁵After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! ²⁶The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.

Jesus Heals the Blind

²⁷After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

²⁸They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”

“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”

²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” ³⁰Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! Jesus sternly warned them, “Don’t tell anyone about this.” ³¹But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.

³²When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn’t speak was brought to Jesus. ³³So Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!” they exclaimed.

³⁴But the Pharisees said, “He can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons.”

The Need for Workers

³⁵Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. ³⁸So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 11

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
²The wicked are stringing their bows
and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.
They shoot from the shadows
at those whose hearts are right.
³The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
What can the righteous do?”

⁴But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
the Lord still rules from heaven.
He watches everyone closely,
examining every person on earth.
⁵The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.
He hates those who love violence.
⁶He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,
punishing them with scorching winds.
⁷For the righteous Lord loves justice.
The virtuous will see his face.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:11-12

¹¹My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline,
and don’t be upset when he corrects you.
¹²For the Lord corrects those he loves,
just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.^[a]

Footnotes:

3:12 Greek version reads loves, / and he punishes those he accepts as his children. Compare Heb 12:6.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 12, 2021

01/12/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 26:17-27:46, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalms 10:16-18, Proverbs 3:9-10

Today is the 12^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today…today as we continue our journey forward in and through the…the first month of this year, the month of January. And we are…we’re well on our way. And, so, as is our custom day by day step-by-step, we enter into a rhythm that allows us to come around this Global Campfire as a community and hear the Scriptures spoken over us, and give some things to think about and meditate upon and to know that we’re not alone in this endeavor no matter what time you might be listening to Daily Audio Bible no matter what time you click play somebody else in the world is also there. There’s never a time when this isn’t…when this isn’t just going out into the world. And, so, that is a beautiful thing to know. We’re not in this together and we’re pushing into this second week approaching in a few days the center of the first month. And we are on a journey and we’re not alone and that is a beautiful thing. So, let’s dive in and take that next step. We…we’re reading about Jacob and Esau yesterday and sort of the conniving of a birthright away from the firstborn son Esau that was given to Jacob and…well… we’ll continue that story. Genesis chapter 26 verse 17 through 27 verse 46. And we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. Once again, the book of Proverbs, the voice of wisdom is speaking to us and we can hear these phrases and these stanzas of wisdom and take them to hearty, actually pay close close attention to what’s being said and promised, or just kinda let it go by us and “yeah yeah yeah, I kinda know that. I know I should honor the Lord with my wealth. Like I’ve been told that all along.” And yeah, we probably have. But there’s more to this story. “Honor the Lord with your wealth and the best part of everything you produce.” In other words, your best…your best goes to God and in exchange he will fill your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine. And we may be like, “well…I don’t need a barn of grain.” If you were in the time that these words…that these words are being spoken that would be a promise that you’re going to be okay, that your needs will not only be met but you will have a surplus and you will be able to use that surplus wisely to not only care for and preserve your own family, but to care for and preserve others. So what God is essentially telling us, what wisdom is speaking to us is of our utter dependence upon God. What we may be able to accumulate in this life on our own without God, the Bible will tell us over and over things like “that will be moth-eaten, that will be destroyed, that will disappear like a vapor.” But walking with God the most-high, who owns the earth, like created the earth has a claim to the planet as well as the universe and all of its resources. Like we have all these boundary lines for our planets. And God permits all of this is if we have ownership, but this is God’s world, He made it, He owns it. So, certainly he can get us the resources that we need if we trust in Him by giving our best first. And again we can just look at wisdom here and the voice of wisdom and we could say, “I don’t believe that” and not try, not even…not even make an attempt to see if it’s real or we can listen to the voice of wisdom and watch it play out in our lives.

And then we zoom back to where we began today in the book of Genesis and we traveled along with Isaac and him having to move around and find a settled place where he could be with his family. And then we watched the animosity grow between Jacob and Esau. And we are at the point now where Jacob has finagled the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn for himself. And Esau is obviously furious, so furious that he’s consoling himself by making plans to kill his brother. And, so, Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, wants Jacob to flee back to her family, back to her brother and his name is Laban. And we met Laban. Remember when the servant of Abraham went to find Rebekah and when he put the nose ring and the bracelets on her, and she went home. It was Laban who came to see the servant and make the inquiries. So, Rebekah is telling her son Jacob, “go back to my brother Laban” and that’s what he’s going to do. And we are also starting to get a small sense of geography. Some places are being named. And again, you know, you read the place names or even the people names in the Bible and it's…there so unfamiliar to the culture that we live in and we just kind of glaze over it all. We don’t have a map. We don’t know the geography. We don’t know where things are. And, so, we just imagine in our minds but we’re beginning to hear of places, places like Beersheba, the well of the oath. That’s an important place that actually until this very day still exists, and it will become the southern border of a future nation of Israel - from Dan to Beersheba. So, we’re starting to get a sense that Beersheba’s here in the South. And it is. It’s right on…right on the edge of the desert. These places exist. You can see many of the places that we’re gonna visit in the Bible in a resource that we…that we worked on for five years. It’s called Promised Land and it’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We’ll send you some…a couple of DVDs but we’ll also give you the digital version of it right on the spot. And basically, what it is is over 70 different locations that are biblical verified archaeological locations that…that major things happen in in the Bible, like Beersheba. That’s one of them. And, so, you can see these places, not just in a static kind of one-dimensional photograph, but actually filmed where you can kinda get a sense of the scope and the space all around it. More like a 360 kind of view of what the place looks like today and that the place existed and has stories that have been told for thousands of years from that place. So, there is a resource in the Daily Audio Bible shop that can take this journey even deeper and give you a visual of many of the places that we are reading about and will read about in the Bible. So, check that out.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the different nuances and all of the different complexions, all of the different angles that it comes to us in, whether that be a narrative story or whether that be in spoken wisdom unfiltered into our lives or whether that be in stanzas of adoration and worship in the Psalms. All of the issues of life begin to emerge as we immerse ourselves in the Bible. And, so, we open ourselves and say, Holy Spirit come plant the words in our lives that we might yield the fruit of the Holy Spirit in…in our lives and that it may be visible transformation to those around us we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find what’s going on around here.

And, yeah, the Daily Audio Bible Shop, we were just talking about this. This is where you can find resources like the Promised Land films and take your journey as deep as you want to go and as wide as you want to go. But dive in. The Bible is also intriguing and so powerful in our lives if we hadn’t noticed that already. The Bible’s been speaking volumes to us right out of the gate and it doesn’t stop it just continues to speak all the way through the year. And, so, often it speaks things that we need right when we need them. And that has just so profoundly beautiful to watch, just to watch God work through it in us so that we’re hearing things when we need to hear them and they’re changing us. So, check out the resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage and grateful, humbly grateful for everyone who has clicked that link. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if that’s your preference, 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, the little red button up at the top and share from there, 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 DAB family God bless you all. Jeff Scepter, a longtime listener but your wife is a newbie and she just completed I think you said her first year or something like that. I am praying for the wisdom of the Lord to be upon her in the name of Jesus and I’m believing in the name of Jesus that she is going to thrive in this community as you have been. Praise you Jesus. And welcome, welcome, welcome to your wife in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah Lita. Grace filled DeCastro you’re returning to work as a teaching assistant. I am praying for you sister in the name of Jesus for you and those around you. I am praying for the children in the name of Jesus. Hope from the Heartland you first called in to share you know how much you enjoyed doing Instacart and listening to the Christmas party and then your following message was about losing your mom. I am so so sorry. I am praying for the peace of God to be upon you all. I am praying for that comforter to just cover you in His love in the name of Jesus. Airport Missionary you called in sharing your gratitude and how thankful you are in regard to the job that had been prayed for for you and how interesting the experience has been. And I am praying with you sister I am praying for you and I am praying for all those lives that you are touching along the way. Zinab from London God bless you. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I can just say welcome. You know, the DAB community has been amazing in my life and I know it will be for yours and your double DABber. Hooray. Yay! God bless you. Esther from Orlando. I love you all.

Hey DAB family this is Tiffany in New Mexico. I wanted to call in because yesterday I was sick. I’m actually still a little sick but after spending half the morning just laying in bed watching Hallmark movies it suddenly dawned on me that I could be better spending my time getting on the app and going to the Prayer Wall and praying for people. And I know that Brian mentions it quite frequently, but I just wanted to remind you guys that there are so many prayer needs on the Prayer Wall. And it’s…it’s the people that may be afraid to actually call in with a prayer request or some people just need more immediate prayer. So, I just wanted to encourage each of you that if you just have a couple minutes each day to go on to the Prayer Wall and just meet some of these prayer needs because that’s what we are, where a family that prays for one another. So, anyway it blessed my…the rest of my day yesterday being sick in bed and I just thought I might remind you guys that it could also be a blessing for you as well. So, anyway. Love you all. Take care. Bye.

Happy new year Brian and fellow DABbers and I’m so deeply invested in this community that I am now a triple DABber. The saying goes that the third time is a charm and I was definitely charmed by little Ezekiel at DABK. Oh, my word Zeke is a wonder kid I tell you. It warms my heart to hear him read in such pureness and innocence and he is so eager to read the Bible. The interaction with his mom is just adorable. Good job Brian and Jill. God bless you. Okay a big shout out to those who continue to pray for our children and grandchildren, especially Duane who has been so consistent over the years. Know that I pray for your voice too. And Rose, I love your prayers. I offer up a yes and amen for all the prayers that come in for kids and grandkids. Okay, the Christmas party was off the chart. Like Cherry I enjoyed the party with an active imagination sitting by the campfire throwing on the log here and there and partying without even having to practice social distancing. How about that? One last thing before I run out of time. Mike, that was a beautiful statement you made to Brian and I join thoughts with you to continue praying that the Lord will protect him from burnout. When you mentioned that he’s always here for the community I thought of the…the post man, the postman slogan which says rain sleet or snow nothing stops this man of God. And Brian you are very much appreciated and loved. Well, I gotta go running out of time. So, Charm DABber out. Peace on.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community this is Diane Olive Braun, and I am an encourager, just one of many, many, many, many. So, I so love this community and I’m gathering around the campfire and putting my logs on warming my hands and my heart. Oh, today I listened to the January 7^th 2021. O, what can I say? What can I say? Forgiveness. Oh, thank you Brian, thank you Jill, thank you Ezekiel. Oh Ezekiel, breathing in and say Jesus forgives me. Breathe out all this junk. I just…I’m so sorry. I’ve been so touchy, fretful, resentful. I’ve been so offended. When someone offends me, I get so angry. Jesus says take no offense. And Abraham and Sarah, they were so quick to obey. I’ve been slow to obey. I’m gonna delight myself in…

Hello, I’m Metoo and I’m coming from India, a small place named New Bombay. This is the very first time that I’m listening to the Daily Audio Bible and this has been seven days now and I’m listening to Brian and it has been very encouraging. And also, has been guiding me as well. I look forward to complete the…the whole Bible and towards the end of the year and I look forward and believe that there will be a lot of books and the words from God from the Lord that will guide us each day. This has been a really good seven days and I look forward to hearing each and every session of the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you so much. God bless you all for doing such a great job. God bless you all with wisdom and I thank you…

Hi DAB family this is Lisa from Missouri. I’m calling in because two years ago today I started listening to the DAB. I accidentally came across the app, downloaded it and started listening. I caught up for the six days that I missed. Listening to the DAB and listening to Brian and listening to the prayers of the community and the encouragement and the stories that the DAB community has shared has played a huge part in what God has done in my life over the last two years, how God has transformed my heart and transformed me from the inside out. I re-dedicated my heart can’t May…in May of 2019. I grew up in a Christian home. I went to church. I was saved at a young age but because…but I did stray from that for some years and…but God drew me back and I just want to thank Brian. Thank you Brian for your faithfulness to us, for teaching us and showing us who God really is and how much he loves us. If you’re new to this community and you just started listening, hang in there. Keep listening. God will move in your life. He will open your heart and you will receive so much from him. Hang in there. Keep listening. God bless everyone. Have a…

January 12, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday January 12, 2021 (NIV)

Genesis 26:17-27:46

¹⁷So Isaac moved away to the Gerar Valley, where he set up their tents and settled down. ¹⁸He reopened the wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham’s death. Isaac also restored the names Abraham had given them.

¹⁹Isaac’s servants also dug in the Gerar Valley and discovered a well of fresh water. ²⁰But then the shepherds from Gerar came and claimed the spring. “This is our water,” they said, and they argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So Isaac named the well Esek (which means “argument”). ²¹Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a dispute over it. So Isaac named it Sitnah (which means “hostility”). ²²Abandoning that one, Isaac moved on and dug another well. This time there was no dispute over it, so Isaac named the place Rehoboth (which means “open space”), for he said, “At last the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.”

²³From there Isaac moved to Beersheba, ²⁴where the Lord appeared to him on the night of his arrival. “I am the God of your father, Abraham,” he said. “Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you. I will multiply your descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will do this because of my promise to Abraham, my servant.” ²⁵Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. He set up his camp at that place, and his servants dug another well.

Isaac’s Covenant with Abimelech

²⁶One day King Abimelech came from Gerar with his adviser, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander. ²⁷“Why have you come here?” Isaac asked. “You obviously hate me, since you kicked me off your land.”

²⁸They replied, “We can plainly see that the Lord is with you. So we want to enter into a sworn treaty with you. Let’s make a covenant. ²⁹Swear that you will not harm us, just as we have never troubled you. We have always treated you well, and we sent you away from us in peace. And now look how the Lord has blessed you!”

³⁰So Isaac prepared a covenant feast to celebrate the treaty, and they ate and drank together. ³¹Early the next morning, they each took a solemn oath not to interfere with each other. Then Isaac sent them home again, and they left him in peace.

³²That very day Isaac’s servants came and told him about a new well they had dug. “We’ve found water!” they exclaimed. ³³So Isaac named the well Shibah (which means “oath”). And to this day the town that grew up there is called Beersheba (which means “well of the oath”).

³⁴At the age of forty, Esau married two Hittite wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon. ³⁵But Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing

27 One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, “My son.”

“Yes, Father?” Esau replied.

²“I am an old man now,” Isaac said, “and I don’t know when I may die. ³Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows, and go out into the open country to hunt some wild game for me. ⁴Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.”

⁵But Rebekah overheard what Isaac had said to his son Esau. So when Esau left to hunt for the wild game, ⁶she said to her son Jacob, “Listen. I overheard your father say to Esau, ⁷‘Bring me some wild game and prepare me a delicious meal. Then I will bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ ⁸Now, my son, listen to me. Do exactly as I tell you. ⁹Go out to the flocks, and bring me two fine young goats. I’ll use them to prepare your father’s favorite dish. ¹⁰Then take the food to your father so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.”

¹¹“But look,” Jacob replied to Rebekah, “my brother, Esau, is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. ¹²What if my father touches me? He’ll see that I’m trying to trick him, and then he’ll curse me instead of blessing me.”

¹³But his mother replied, “Then let the curse fall on me, my son! Just do what I tell you. Go out and get the goats for me!”

¹⁴So Jacob went out and got the young goats for his mother. Rebekah took them and prepared a delicious meal, just the way Isaac liked it. ¹⁵Then she took Esau’s favorite clothes, which were there in the house, and gave them to her younger son, Jacob. ¹⁶She covered his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skin of the young goats. ¹⁷Then she gave Jacob the delicious meal, including freshly baked bread.

¹⁸So Jacob took the food to his father. “My father?” he said.

“Yes, my son,” Isaac answered. “Who are you—Esau or Jacob?”

¹⁹Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your firstborn son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.”

²⁰Isaac asked, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God put it in my path!” Jacob replied.

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.” ²²So Jacob went closer to his father, and Isaac touched him. “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s,” Isaac said. ²³But he did not recognize Jacob, because Jacob’s hands felt hairy just like Esau’s. So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob. ²⁴“But are you really my son Esau?” he asked.

“Yes, I am,” Jacob replied.

²⁵Then Isaac said, “Now, my son, bring me the wild game. Let me eat it, and then I will give you my blessing.” So Jacob took the food to his father, and Isaac ate it. He also drank the wine that Jacob served him. ²⁶Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come a little closer and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. He said, “Ah! The smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which the Lord has blessed!

²⁸“From the dew of heaven
and the richness of the earth,
may God always give you abundant harvests of grain
and bountiful new wine.
²⁹May many nations become your servants,
and may they bow down to you.
May you be the master over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
All who curse you will be cursed,
and all who bless you will be blessed.”

³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and almost before Jacob had left his father, Esau returned from his hunt. ³¹Esau prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father. Then he said, “Sit up, my father, and eat my wild game so you can give me your blessing.”

³²But Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

Esau replied, “It’s your son, your firstborn son, Esau.”

³³Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said, “Then who just served me wild game? I have already eaten it, and I blessed him just before you came. And yes, that blessing must stand!”

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry. “Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!” he begged.

³⁵But Isaac said, “Your brother was here, and he tricked me. He has taken away your blessing.”

³⁶Esau exclaimed, “No wonder his name is Jacob, for now he has cheated me twice.^[a] First he took my rights as the firstborn, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?”

³⁷Isaac said to Esau, “I have made Jacob your master and have declared that all his brothers will be his servants. I have guaranteed him an abundance of grain and wine—what is left for me to give you, my son?”

³⁸Esau pleaded, “But do you have only one blessing? Oh my father, bless me, too!” Then Esau broke down and wept.

³⁹Finally, his father, Isaac, said to him,

“You will live away from the richness of the earth,
and away from the dew of the heaven above.
⁴⁰You will live by your sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you decide to break free,
you will shake his yoke from your neck.”

Jacob Flees to Paddan-Aram

⁴¹From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme: “I will soon be mourning my father’s death. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob.”

⁴²But Rebekah heard about Esau’s plans. So she sent for Jacob and told him, “Listen, Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you. ⁴³So listen carefully, my son. Get ready and flee to my brother, Laban, in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay there with him until your brother cools off. ⁴⁵When he calms down and forgets what you have done to him, I will send for you to come back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.”

Footnotes:

27:36 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and “deceiver.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 9:1-17

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

9 Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. ²Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.”

³But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?”

⁴Jesus knew^[a] what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? ⁶So I will prove to you that the Son of Man^[b] has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

⁷And the man jumped up and went home! ⁸Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for giving humans such authority.

Jesus Calls Matthew

⁹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. ¹¹But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?^[c]”

¹²When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” ¹³Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’^[d] For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

A Discussion about Fasting

¹⁴One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast^[e] like we do and the Pharisees do?”

¹⁵Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

¹⁷“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”

Footnotes:

9:4 Some manuscripts read saw.
9:6 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
9:11 Greek with tax collectors and sinners?
9:13 Hos 6:6 (Greek version).
9:14 Some manuscripts read fast often.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 10:16-18

¹⁶The Lord is king forever and ever!
The godless nations will vanish from the land.
¹⁷Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
¹⁸You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
so mere people can no longer terrify them.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:9-10

⁹Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the best part of everything you produce.
¹⁰Then he will fill your barns with grain,
and your vats will overflow with good wine.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 11, 2021

01/11/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 24:52-26:16, Matthew 8:18-34, Psalms 10:1-15, Proverbs 3:7-8

Today is the 11^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we continue our journey and sail out of the harbor and into the deep. And right now we’re kind of sailing through the territory of the book of Genesis and the book of Matthew. So, we’re just getting going but we are definitely on our way. So, let’s get to it. We’re reading from the New Living translation this week and by way of reminder we’re in the book of Genesis, obviously but we are hearing of the story of Abraham’s family. And this family although we…we get to know a lot of people and maybe at times it seems tedious or whatever, this shapes the Bible. This family is an important piece of the story, irreplaceable piece of the story for that matter. So, we have Abraham and his wife Sarah, and they were old, too old to have children anyway, as we recall. And a miracle baby was born. His name was Isaac. Now Isaac has grown up. Abraham is very elderly and it’s time for Isaac to have a wife and that’s where we are. A servant has been sent back to Abraham’s people to find a wife for Isaac. And the servant has found someone that meets the criteria completely and her name is Rebekah and the family has agreed to let Rebecca go back and become Isaac’s wife and that’s kind of where we find ourselves. Genesis chapter 24 verse 52 through 26 verse 16 today.

Commentary:

Okay. As I have said already many times this year, but as we say many times during our journey the book of Proverbs really can say in awful lot in a sentence or two. It just…all of the trimmings, all of the trappings, all of the nuances are largely not there. The direct, unfiltered truth of wisdom’s voice is usually what cuts through. And, so, today, “don’t be impressed with your own wisdom”, right? Like, don’t think you know more than you think you know. Don’t think you’ve experienced more than you think you have. That’s not really wisdom. Wisdom actually knows when it doesn’t know. So, wisdom says instead of that, “fear the Lord and turn away from evil.” Now, we know that. Like we all know that. So, we can be like, “that’s just common knowledge. That’s common wisdom.” But what wisdom is saying here is that that leads somewhere. “Fear the Lord and turn away from evil”, that is a path, that’s a trajectory and where that road leads is “healing for your body and strength for your bones”. So, we probably hadn’t put that all together before. But when we walk the path that reveres and holds in awe and esteem the fear of the Lord and we turn away from what we know is evil then we’re bringing healing to ourselves, healing to our bones, strength for our bones, healing for our bodies. And you could go, “I don’t know how those things all work, how does that even…how do they have anything to do with each other?” What harm is there in testing this? What harm is there in fearing the Lord and turning away from evil and seeing if the byproduct is healing for our body and strength for our bones?

And then let’s go back to Genesis. This is the point now where we have met a number of people obviously in the book of Genesis, but we have begun to focus our attention on the family and the family line, the descendants of Abraham. And I’ve said many times, like this guy Abraham and his wife Sarah and their son of promise Isaac, like they…they are a part of the rest of the story. And, so, it’s very important that we not forget that and as these descendants, as the coming generations are introduced to us, at this point it’s really vital that we remember and pay attention to who they are. So, Abraham had children. We’ve read about his children, but the firstborn, like the one with the rights, the one that was inheriting everything, the one through whom the promise would continue, his name was Isaac. He’s the one that was on Mount Moriah with Abraham, right, where God said, “bring your son and give him…give him as a sacrifice. Like, we’ve gone through that story. That’s Isaac. As Abraham was getting old Isaac needed a spouse and a servant was sent back to the people, the family of Abraham. And Rebekah became Isaac’s wife. So, this is second-generation now. The children of Abraham, the child of Abraham. Today Rebekah had twins and there was an early prophecy, prophetic word basically, they’ll be at odds with one another throughout their lifetimes. Their names were Jacob and Esau, right? And Esau saw…sold his birthright. So, now we are at the grand children of Abraham. There’s also some things that we are beginning to start to observe about some of these people. With Abraham, we saw him twice claim that his wife Sarah was his sister to protect himself from harm. And certainly, this is part of the culture, this is part of what was necessary to do to survive the kinds of things that these men feared. However, we see trickery here. We saw that Abraham went to King Abimelech at Arar and tricked him that his wife Sarah was his sister and that brought about a big scandal. So, today Isaac and Rebekah, the next generation, go to the same town with the same King making the same claim, “she’s my sister.” And, so, there’s like a little bit of trickery going on here. And then when Rebekah has the twins, and they get old enough we see that Jacob practices some trickery of his own with his brother Esau. That trickery isn’t going to turn out to be a good thing. And in the end that trickery will be revisited upon Jacob. And I want to kinda give a spoiler, not because…because this isn’t like a novel that we’re reading, this is the Scriptures, and so understanding who these people are and how they play into the grand scheme of things does become important because so many of these stories, we will revisit them as they are revisited in the future in the Bible. So, we may jump a thousand years forward in the Bible referring back to the times that we are reading right now. So, I’m trying to keep us on track. So, Jacob and his trickery and the trickery that eventually is visited upon him actually creates a people that we will recognize. Here’s why. Someday Jacobs can grow up…and we’re gonna watch this all happen in the Scriptures…this will all play out in detail, but it’s nice to know where this is going. Jacob will eventually be married and will eventually have children, 12 of them to be specific. Jacob’s name will eventually be changed. His name will become Israel and his kids are the children of Israel and they indeed permeate every page of the rest of the Bible. That’s where we are and that’s where this is going. And, so, it’s important for us to hold on to the story, hold onto the context because it brings out so much meaning, it clicks so much of these disjointed feeling stories together. We begin understand we’re talking about the same family here. We’re going through many, many, many generations of this family. But it is this family, the family of Abraham that touches the rest of the Bible and touches the rest of the world up until today.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word and we thank You for context. Context in life brings clarity, understanding, meaning, and purpose. And Your word has plenty of context it’s just that we’ve never really taken the time to really dive into it and understand it. It’s a big book full of all kinds of confusing things but that’s not the case this year. As we sail across this year, we look to Your Holy Spirit to give us context as well as teaching and correction and rebuke and truth and comfort and healing. You have always loved us, and we will see that as this story continues to play out. So, come Holy Spirit we pray and plant the words that we read today deep inside of our hearts that they might one day yield a crop, that they might bring fruit into our lives we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s how you stay connected, stay…stay tuned. So, do all those things.

Check out the Community section. There are links there to all of the different social media channels that we are on. The Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and Instagram page, Daily Audio Bible women’s page, links to the transcripts. If you didn’t know…like if you…if you wanted to look back and read something, you can go back and listen to the prayer requests by reading them or stuff that we’re talking about, there’s links to that in the Community section. So, check that out. We have just a dedicated team of people who do this every day just transcribing…transcribing into written form, the Daily Audio Bible. So, you can see that at the…in the Community section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Thank you humbly, profoundly, deeply for your partnership. Probably goes without saying but I have said it hundreds and hundreds of times over the years…yeah…the reality is if we weren’t in this together, we wouldn’t be in this at all. And, so, thank you that we are in this together as we take the journey through the year. So, there’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if that’s your preference, 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, that’s the red button up at the top, that looks kind of like a red hotline button. Just press that and you can share from anywhere in the world or there are numbers that you can call depending on where you are in the world. In the Americas 877-942-4253. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 or 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:

Hi this is Leanne calling from northern Michigan. Hey, I am calling in response to the woman who called from London who was Muslim and converted to Christianity and is doing chronological and the daily readings for…with Brian and I am doing the same thing. And sister, I just want to say welcome to the family. O…you just got me in the heart and you’re asking for prayer for support. And, so, Father God I lift this woman up to You. I don’t remember her name but Father You know her, and I thank You that You have freed her that You are growing her. I just pray for Your hand of protection upon her Father, that You would help her to eagerly seek You, that Your word would come alive and speak truth into her life. Just bless her, bless her may she feel supported and feel Your love. And we just ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Father God thank you so much for this day that you have given us. Thank you for the place you have placed us. Thank you for our homes and our villages, cities, towns, wherever it is Lord that…that we are, our workplaces. Father God we…we ask you to bless and to protect our homes and our workplaces and our cities and towns and villages. We ask you to protect our countries Lord and we pray for wisdom for our leaders be they our workplace leaders our city leaders our area leaders or…or country leaders those…those who have to make decisions. I pray Lord that you’d be giving them wisdom on how best to combat whatever situation they’re facing. I pray especially in this time of coronavirus that you’d give them the wisdom on when to put measures in place and when to ease those measures. And we pray that you’d be giving them the strength to make those hard decisions and that you’d be guiding them Lord. Father thank you so much for our health services. Thank you for all those healthcare professionals. Thank you for their training and thank you for their experience and thank you Lord for our hospitals and our surgeries and our care homes and all those other places. We ask you to protect those as well into be giving our workers strength and energy and wisdom as they as their…as they face their…

Daily Audio Bible family this is David from Tyrone and this is my first time calling in but it’s actually my third year of going through the Bible with you. This community means a lot to me and I wanted to know that I pray for you every day and especially those that are hurting and have nowhere else to go. And I really want to thank Brian and his family for this ministry. It’s…it’s meant a lot to me over the years. A week ago, I was so looking forward to the new year and putting 2020 behind us but on January 1my mother of 78 years suddenly died of a massive heart attack. I bring this to the camp for two reasons, one I would really appreciate your prayers for my family and second, I just wanted to share something. My mom and I always ended our calls and goodbyes with I love you. So, the last thing I said to her the morning she died was I love you and the last thing she said to me was I love you. And what I’ve learned from this is just never wait until tomorrow to reconcile with people that you’re separated from or…or have disagreements from because you just truly never know if there’s going to be a tomorrow. And I just don’t want any of my DAB family to die or lose a loved one with regrets or bitterness. I know my mom’s in heaven just because of her walk and faith with the Lord and I also know that I will see her one day in heaven and my hope is that someday I will see all of you in heaven as well. And goodbye.

Hello friends and fellow children of the kingdom of God this is Sean here from Australia just checking in. This is my first prayer on the DAB. I want to give a shout out to Natalie for introducing me to this wonderful community and helping…helping put me toward the light of Jesus Christ and our Lord. Thank you. It’s been a long journey for me. I…I’ve managed to escape the clutches of the enemy and I give thanks to God every day for that. And the Lord has saved me…and very recently in fact. And I want to give thanks to all of you who for your ongoing support and all of you who struggle with drugs, alcohol, pornography, as I did. I want you to know that you’re not alone and God has a plan for you and just be patient and put your trust and your faith in Him because He will deliver you like He did for me. Thank you everyone. See ya.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family my name is Aretha and I’m in Taylor South Carolina and on September the 8^th my mom died from Covid and I have had such a rough time just bouncing back. I feel stuck, I get angry. I’m just…I just feel hopeless at times. And I know God is with me but sometimes it seems like I can feel His presence but sometimes I can’t. Family, I need your prayers because I have my family that I need to take care of, and I can’t take care of them in this state. I can’t take care of myself in the state. And it’s like my mind is…just…I can’t get together. And I know that God has a purpose for me if I’m still here but I was very, very close to my mom and it just seems so hard, sometimes even unbearable to even go on. And I just think to myself, Lord how long will I be here suffering like this for my mom? So, I need prayers family. I need prayers. Pray for my nephew that my mom had since he was two weeks old. He’s living with me and he needs your prayers as well. His name is Denzil. Please pray for us family because we need you. And I just thank you for this…this opportunity to be able to share this with you guys and just please keep me in your prayers. Thank you.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family my name is Victoria Overcomer and I live in __ Ohio. I found Daily Audio Bible online the beginning of last year and have been listening every day and it…it’s just awesome the way Brian reads and brings the word of God to life. But I have never called. But the reason why am calling today is because Zinab __ called from London and Zinab when I heard your name, I knew that you and I we come from the same country __ West Africa. Zinab I just want to let you know that you are not alone in…in this journey. I was also born and raised as a Muslim. My father built a mosque in our compound. I used to pray five daily prayers, but the Lord saved me, and I will never go back. I love the Lord Jesus and His grace and mercy upon my life. And all of my siblings, my brothers and sisters they’ve also come to know Jesus Christ. And I just…just keep want to encourage you. Keep the faith. I mean, it’s amazing what Jesus can do in your life when you walk with Him, when you just trust Him. It’s amazing at how He can transform your life and I’m just grateful in time for how He…

January 11, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday January 11, 2021 (NIV)

Genesis 24:52-26:16

⁵²When Abraham’s servant heard their answer, he bowed down to the ground and worshiped the Lord. ⁵³Then he brought out silver and gold jewelry and clothing and presented them to Rebekah. He also gave expensive presents to her brother and mother. ⁵⁴Then they ate their meal, and the servant and the men with him stayed there overnight.

But early the next morning, Abraham’s servant said, “Send me back to my master.”

⁵⁵“But we want Rebekah to stay with us at least ten days,” her brother and mother said. “Then she can go.”

⁵⁶But he said, “Don’t delay me. The Lord has made my mission successful; now send me back so I can return to my master.”

⁵⁷“Well,” they said, “we’ll call Rebekah and ask her what she thinks.” ⁵⁸So they called Rebekah. “Are you willing to go with this man?” they asked her.

And she replied, “Yes, I will go.”

⁵⁹So they said good-bye to Rebekah and sent her away with Abraham’s servant and his men. The woman who had been Rebekah’s childhood nurse went along with her. ⁶⁰They gave her this blessing as she parted:

“Our sister, may you become
the mother of many millions!
May your descendants be strong
and conquer the cities of their enemies.”

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her servant girls mounted the camels and followed the man. So Abraham’s servant took Rebekah and went on his way.

⁶²Meanwhile, Isaac, whose home was in the Negev, had returned from Beer-lahai-roi. ⁶³One evening as he was walking and meditating in the fields, he looked up and saw the camels coming. ⁶⁴When Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac, she quickly dismounted from her camel. ⁶⁵“Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?” she asked the servant.

And he replied, “It is my master.” So Rebekah covered her face with her veil. ⁶⁶Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.

⁶⁷And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife. He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.

The Death of Abraham

25 Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah. ²She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s descendants were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites. ⁴Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. These were all descendants of Abraham through Keturah.

⁵Abraham gave everything he owned to his son Isaac. ⁶But before he died, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off to a land in the east, away from Isaac.

⁷Abraham lived for 175 years, ⁸and he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life. He breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death. ⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. ¹⁰This was the field Abraham had purchased from the Hittites and where he had buried his wife Sarah. ¹¹After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who settled near Beer-lahai-roi in the Negev.

Ishmael’s Descendants

¹²This is the account of the family of Ishmael, the son of Abraham through Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian servant. ¹³Here is a list, by their names and clans, of Ishmael’s descendants: The oldest was Nebaioth, followed by Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These twelve sons of Ishmael became the founders of twelve tribes named after them, listed according to the places they settled and camped. ¹⁷Ishmael lived for 137 years. Then he breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death. ¹⁸Ishmael’s descendants occupied the region from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt in the direction of Asshur. There they lived in open hostility toward all their relatives.^[a]

The Births of Esau and Jacob

¹⁹This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham. ²⁰When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. ²²But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the Lord about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.

²³And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”

²⁴And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! ²⁵The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.^[b] ²⁶Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.^[c] Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

Esau Sells His Birthright

²⁷As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. ³⁰Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)

³¹“All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”

³²“Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”

³³But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

Isaac Deceives Abimelech

26 A severe famine now struck the land, as had happened before in Abraham’s time. So Isaac moved to Gerar, where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.

²The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. ³Live here as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants,^[d] just as I solemnly promised Abraham, your father. ⁴I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. ⁵I will do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees, and instructions.” ⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷When the men who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.” ⁸But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah.

⁹Immediately, Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is obviously your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

“Because I was afraid someone would kill me to get her from me,” Isaac replied.

¹⁰“How could you do this to us?” Abimelech exclaimed. “One of my people might easily have taken your wife and slept with her, and you would have made us guilty of great sin.”

¹¹Then Abimelech issued a public proclamation: “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death!”

Conflict over Water Rights

¹²When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the Lord blessed him. ¹³He became a very rich man, and his wealth continued to grow. ¹⁴He acquired so many flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and servants that the Philistines became jealous of him. ¹⁵So the Philistines filled up all of Isaac’s wells with dirt. These were the wells that had been dug by the servants of his father, Abraham.

¹⁶Finally, Abimelech ordered Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too powerful for us.”

Footnotes:

25:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
25:25 Esau sounds like a Hebrew term that means “hair.”
25:26 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and “deceiver.”
26:3 Hebrew seed; also in 26:4, 24.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 8:18-34

The Cost of Following Jesus

¹⁸When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.

¹⁹Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

²⁰But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man^[a] has no place even to lay his head.”

²¹Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.^[b]”

Jesus Calms the Storm

²³Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. ²⁴Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

²⁶Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

²⁷The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

Jesus Heals Two Demon-Possessed Men

²⁸When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes,^[c] two men who were possessed by demons met him. They came out of the tombs and were so violent that no one could go through that area.

²⁹They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?”

³⁰There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. ³¹So the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”

³²“All right, go!” Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.

³³The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men. ³⁴Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.

Footnotes:

8:20 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
8:22 Greek Let the dead bury their own dead.
8:28 Other manuscripts read Gerasenes; still others read Gergesenes. Compare Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 10:1-15

Psalm 10

¹O Lord, why do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide when I am in trouble?
²The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor.
Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
³For they brag about their evil desires;
they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.

⁴The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
⁵Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
⁶They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”

⁷Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.^[a]
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
⁸They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless victims.
⁹Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
¹⁰Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
¹¹The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”

¹²Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
¹³Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
They think, “God will never call us to account.”
¹⁴But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.

¹⁵Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed.

Footnotes:

10:7 Greek version reads cursing and bitterness. Compare Rom 3:14.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:7-8

⁷Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.
Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
⁸Then you will have healing for your body
and strength for your bones.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 10, 2021

01/10/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalms 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is the 10^th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you as we greet a brand-new week, a shiny sparkly new week that we are entering into as we continue to move into this brand-new year that we have together. So, it is wonderful. We are falling into a rhythm and it is a meaningful one. Every day we come around the Global Campfire together as a community and hear the word of God spoken over us, and then it becomes a part of who we are, it becomes a part of the soil, the fabric of our lives and it yields a crop. We’re planting seeds right now that are going to come up and it will be the fruit of the spirit, like it will be good in our lives. It will be perspective and context in our lives. And, so, we got a good thing going here and let’s dive into our next week together. We’ll read from the New Living Translation this week and pick up where we left off yesterday. Genesis chapter 23 verse 1 through 24 verse 51.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You for bringing us into this brand-new week. We thank You for what wisdom has told us today, that we should trust You with our whole hearts. That’s all of us, that we should trust You with who we are and not depend on what we think we know, not depend on our own understanding. We should seek Your will in all that we’re doing, and You will show us which path to take because we will be walking with You at this point, and You will be pointing out the beauty of life together with You. You know all of the hidden vistas, You know all of the secret lookouts, You know all of the cool places of life, and You have invited us to walk through life with You, the most-high God. And, so, often we’re just so busy trying to appease our fellow human beings and get some sort of identity from them when You have invited us into an adventure. So, come Holy Spirit, help us. This begins by trusting You with everything and not thinking that we’re gonna figure it all out but knowing that You know it all. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can access pretty much all of this as well using the app. But this is where we get connected. This is where we stay connected. This is home base. It’s the home of the Global Campfire. It's…well…I mean we’re a virtual community. We are far-flung. We are all over the earth. And, so, this is the place that we can come back together and be together. So, be aware of that and check it out.

Check out the community section, either via the app or the…the website and that…that’s where the Prayer Wall is. There’s always someone to pray for, always, and there are always people praying. So, you can always reach out for prayer. So, be aware of that and…yeah…pray for each other. That’s what we do here. It’s one of the distinctives. It’s one of the beautiful things that we do here, is just accept people where they are on their journey and no matter…no matter where they’ve been or how this is all gonna play out, we’re…we’re willing to accept each other where we are on the journey right now knowing that everybody’s in process, none of…none of us have…have reached perfection and just to accept…accept each other where we are and be willing to walk the path and pray for one another and encourage one another. We’re very very good at that here maybe better than anywhere I have ever seen. In fact, not maybe, better than anywhere I’ve ever seen. And, so, we love one another well and there are places like the Prayer Wall to always have a place to reach. So, be aware of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you. I thank you profoundly. If what’s happening here, God’s word spoken read fresh every day and given into the world and community built around that rhythm, encouragement and prayer for one another, if this brings life to you than thank you for being life-giving. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re 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, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app 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 Daily Audio Bible friends this is Kimberly calling from __ first of all I just wanted to welcome any new listeners and just want to know…just wanted you to know that I’ve been praying for you for this new year that you would be truly blessed by this podcast as we…we all are that listen. Along the way you will find that people share wonderful manifestations of the way that this podcast has changed their lives. And, so, I pray that that is…is your case. I…I pray truly that you are blessed and that your relationship with God it grows so much deeper this year than you could ever imagine. Second thing is I just heard Hope calling from the Heartland and I just love your prayer and hope I…I heard about your mom and I wanted to offer my condolences, that I just so appreciate the blessing that you gave of your perspective on her passing. And I often think about what heaven will be like because none of us have seen each other for the most part. I guess at the More gathering and things like that we’ve seen each other’s faces but to a large extent most of us haven’t met or seen each other’s faces but guess what? In heaven we’re gonna know each other and we’re gonna know Hope’s mom. And as I’m driving to work on this beautiful beautiful January morning, I’m just in of the beauty that God has given us on this side of heaven. We had a nor’easter last night and dropped quite a bit of snow and it was a powerful storm and the clouds are low over the town as I drive in the sage brush is covered with snow and it’s just…

Hi DABber family this is Tonja with a J in South Florida and I am so excited. It is January 5^th of 2021 and I did it. I did it, I did it, I did it thank you Brian thank you Jill and China. God bless you and your baby girl. I actually did the Bible in a year. And to anyone who thinks you can’t do it just listen and if you…if you forget a week or day…I actually forgot…almost forgot a month because I just was busy with life but I caught up and today I finished the Bible in a year. And I can’t wait I’m already started January with everybody. I am just so happy to be around the campfire and we really our family here. And I did the Bible for the first time in my whole life in the year. I…I’m so excited and even my hubby is getting excited and…and you know…let’s pray to get him listening to this every day as well and…and I’m just…I love the way Brian that you explain what you’re going to say and then you read the Scriptures and then you talk afterwards. It’s very educational. I can’t wait. This is my second year and I’m going nowhere. Stick to everyone. Stick to it. If you fall behind just…no…listen to two or three. I mean lately I’ve been listening to ten a day because I was behind in November and December. And oh I’m just so happy. It is an accomplishment. It was my goal I wanted last year, and I reached it. Thank you very much. I…I love everyone and I love listening to you all and I pray with you all when you pray. I’m just so happy that I’m…I’m crying. How stupid. Anyway…so, have a lovely day and you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. This is Tonja with a J and have a good day. Bye-bye.

Good morning this is Daniel in Arizona. Good morning family. It is the 6^th of January I’m trying into work and I just felt overly compelled by the Holy Spirit to reach out and I’m sorry if I butcher your name. I have some…I do have some hearing problems. So, Zinab in London. I just I heard you call, your first call in to the Daily Audio Bible and I just want to let you know welcome, welcome welcome to this great and wonderful community where we can come together and learn more about Jesus, about the Bible and what…how great it is to be in community with each other with our great Savior. Welcome and I’m just praying for you. My heart goes out to you. And I know that you were saying that you come from a Muslim background and from a lot of stories and that I’ve read and people that I met there could be some…there can be some great rejection. And I just wanted to welcome you with open arms and that we will be continuing, that I encourage everyone in this community to be praying for our…our…our friend here and just encouragement and love. And I just felt so compelled by the Holy Spirit to reach out to you and to know that this is just a wonderful place to be and that we can walk in the freedom of Jesus. And thank you for…for reaching out and may the Lord bless you that may He keep you and as we journey together in 2021.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. Hallelujah to God and grace and peace be to all of you. I am calling in this morning for our sister Zinab from London to welcome you sister to this community and just tell you that it’s going to be fantastic journey, to encourage you to lift you up and tilt you know that you will be well loved here. Zinab I encourage you to continue in this journey to be faithful to it to God’s word and faithful to the prayer and the prayers of the community. Love you, we encourage you, we look forward to hearing from you, Zinab. So, blessings to you all.

Good morning DAB family its January 6^th and this is Amazed by Grace Sally in Massachusetts. Just wanting to wish you all a wonderful blessed new year as we walk in the Lord together. And I was just so blessed by our Christmas party. So good to hear all of your encouragements and just thankful that I can be out of this body, part of this ministry. And today as Brian was introducing the reading, he mentioned how important it is for us to grow in awareness of God’s presence and our dependence on Him. And that just really struck me because that is so true how much we need to be aware. God is always with us He will never forsake us. And I and we are so dependent on His love and grace and His spirit to guide us. So, thank you for that reminder Brian. And I am thankful that we have this ministry of the Daily Audio Bible to encourage and to support each other. Isn’t it wonderful that God made us a body, a body that can support and encourage each other? So, I pray for each of us as we go into the new year that we will grow in our awareness of God’s wonderful loving presence and our total dependence upon Him. And I’m thankful for the call from our sister in London who is a recent Muslim convert. We do support you and we do love you and we’re so thankful that you joined us. We pray for you to grow in your walk with God along with us as we each need to grow. And again, thank you for all those, Brian, Jill who make this ministry possible and each one who puts a log on the fire. Thank you and thank you God.

Hey guys I actually just found the Daily Audio Bible app. This year I want…one of my things for the new year was that I wanted to read my whole Bible this year and so I found this, and it has just been such a blessing in my life and I am…I’m just so overwhelmed and amazed at how fast God has worked in my life and the amount of love that I feel from this whole community. So, I’d just like to say thank you and I’d like to thank God for kind of showing me and giving me all of you. It’s actually…I’m coming up on my last ever semester of college in a couple of days and I’m already feeling pretty overwhelmed and stressed out about it. So, if anyone wants to take a couple seconds out of their day and just shoot a prayer for me that’d be very appreciated. Just thank you all.

January 10, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday January 10, 2021 (NIV)

Genesis 23:1-24:51

The Burial of Sarah

23 When Sarah was 127 years old, ²she died at Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her.

³Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hittite elders, ⁴“Here I am, a stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so I can give my wife a proper burial.”

⁵The Hittites replied to Abraham, ⁶“Listen, my lord, you are an honored prince among us. Choose the finest of our tombs and bury her there. No one here will refuse to help you in this way.”

⁷Then Abraham bowed low before the Hittites ⁸and said, “Since you are willing to help me in this way, be so kind as to ask Ephron son of Zohar ⁹to let me buy his cave at Machpelah, down at the end of his field. I will pay the full price in the presence of witnesses, so I will have a permanent burial place for my family.”

¹⁰Ephron was sitting there among the others, and he answered Abraham as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the Hittite elders of the town. ¹¹“No, my lord,” he said to Abraham, “please listen to me. I will give you the field and the cave. Here in the presence of my people, I give it to you. Go and bury your dead.”

¹²Abraham again bowed low before the citizens of the land, ¹³and he replied to Ephron as everyone listened. “No, listen to me. I will buy it from you. Let me pay the full price for the field so I can bury my dead there.”

¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵“My lord, please listen to me. The land is worth 400 pieces^[a] of silver, but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead.”

¹⁶So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and paid the amount he had suggested—400 pieces of silver, weighed according to the market standard. The Hittite elders witnessed the transaction.

¹⁷So Abraham bought the plot of land belonging to Ephron at Machpelah, near Mamre. This included the field itself, the cave that was in it, and all the surrounding trees. ¹⁸It was transferred to Abraham as his permanent possession in the presence of the Hittite elders at the city gate. ¹⁹Then Abraham buried his wife, Sarah, there in Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre (also called Hebron). ²⁰So the field and the cave were transferred from the Hittites to Abraham for use as a permanent burial place.

A Wife for Isaac

24 Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. ²One day Abraham said to his oldest servant, the man in charge of his household, “Take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh. ³Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. ⁴Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.”

⁵The servant asked, “But what if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to travel so far from home? Should I then take Isaac there to live among your relatives in the land you came from?”

⁶“No!” Abraham responded. “Be careful never to take my son there. ⁷For the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and my native land, solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants.^[b] He will send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son. ⁸If she is unwilling to come back with you, then you are free from this oath of mine. But under no circumstances are you to take my son there.”

⁹So the servant took an oath by putting his hand under the thigh of his master, Abraham. He swore to follow Abraham’s instructions. ¹⁰Then he loaded ten of Abraham’s camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master, and he traveled to distant Aram-naharaim. There he went to the town where Abraham’s brother Nahor had settled. ¹¹He made the camels kneel beside a well just outside the town. It was evening, and the women were coming out to draw water.

¹²“O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. ¹³See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.”

¹⁵Before he had finished praying, he saw a young woman named Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor and his wife, Milcah. ¹⁶Rebekah was very beautiful and old enough to be married, but she was still a virgin. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up again. ¹⁷Running over to her, the servant said, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.”

¹⁸“Yes, my lord,” she answered, “have a drink.” And she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink. ¹⁹When she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough to drink.” ²⁰So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw water for all his camels.

²¹The servant watched her in silence, wondering whether or not the Lord had given him success in his mission. ²²Then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracelets^[c] for her wrists.

²³“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “And please tell me, would your father have any room to put us up for the night?”

²⁴“I am the daughter of Bethuel,” she replied. “My grandparents are Nahor and Milcah. ²⁵Yes, we have plenty of straw and feed for the camels, and we have room for guests.”

²⁶The man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. ²⁷“Praise the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham,” he said. “The Lord has shown unfailing love and faithfulness to my master, for he has led me straight to my master’s relatives.”

²⁸The young woman ran home to tell her family everything that had happened. ²⁹Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, who ran out to meet the man at the spring. ³⁰He had seen the nose-ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man had said. So he rushed out to the spring, where the man was still standing beside his camels. ³¹Laban said to him, “Come and stay with us, you who are blessed by the Lord! Why are you standing here outside the town when I have a room all ready for you and a place prepared for the camels?”

³²So the man went home with Laban, and Laban unloaded the camels, gave him straw for their bedding, fed them, and provided water for the man and the camel drivers to wash their feet. ³³Then food was served. But Abraham’s servant said, “I don’t want to eat until I have told you why I have come.”

“All right,” Laban said, “tell us.”

³⁴“I am Abraham’s servant,” he explained. ³⁵“And the Lord has greatly blessed my master; he has become a wealthy man. The Lord has given him flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, a fortune in silver and gold, and many male and female servants and camels and donkeys.

³⁶“When Sarah, my master’s wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master’s son, and my master has given him everything he owns. ³⁷And my master made me take an oath. He said, ‘Do not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. ³⁸Go instead to my father’s house, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son.’

³⁹“But I said to my master, ‘What if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to go back with me?’ ⁴⁰He responded, ‘The Lord, in whose presence I have lived, will send his angel with you and will make your mission successful. Yes, you must find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family. ⁴¹Then you will have fulfilled your obligation. But if you go to my relatives and they refuse to let her go with you, you will be free from my oath.’

⁴²“So today when I came to the spring, I prayed this prayer: ‘O Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please give me success on this mission. ⁴³See, I am standing here beside this spring. This is my request. When a young woman comes to draw water, I will say to her, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.” ⁴⁴If she says, “Yes, have a drink, and I will draw water for your camels, too,” let her be the one you have selected to be the wife of my master’s son.’

⁴⁵“Before I had finished praying in my heart, I saw Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ ⁴⁶She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’ So I drank, and then she watered the camels.

⁴⁷“Then I asked, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘I am the daughter of Bethuel, and my grandparents are Nahor and Milcah.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists.

⁴⁸“Then I bowed low and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham, because he had led me straight to my master’s niece to be his son’s wife. ⁴⁹So tell me—will you or won’t you show unfailing love and faithfulness to my master? Please tell me yes or no, and then I’ll know what to do next.”

⁵⁰Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The Lord has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say. ⁵¹Here is Rebekah; take her and go. Yes, let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.”

Footnotes:

23:15 Hebrew 400 shekels, about 10 pounds or 4.6 kilograms in weight; also in 23:16.
24:7 Hebrew seed; also in 24:60.
24:22 Hebrew a gold nose-ring weighing a beka [0.2 ounces or 6 grams] and two gold bracelets weighing 10 [shekels] [4 ounces or 114 grams].

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 8:1-17

Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy

8 Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. ²Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”

³Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.^[a] This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

The Faith of a Roman Officer

⁵When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer^[b] came and pleaded with him, ⁶“Lord, my young servant^[c] lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

⁷Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

⁸But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. ⁹I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! ¹¹And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. ¹²But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

Jesus Heals Many People

¹⁴When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. ¹⁵But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.

¹⁶That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. ¹⁷This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said,

“He took our sicknesses
and removed our diseases.”^[d]

Footnotes:

8:4 See Lev 14:2-32.
8:5 Greek a centurion; similarly in 8:8, 13.
8:6 Or child; also in 8:13.
8:17 Isa 53:4.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 9:13-20

¹³Lord, have mercy on me.
See how my enemies torment me.
Snatch me back from the jaws of death.
¹⁴Save me so I can praise you publicly at Jerusalem’s gates,
so I can rejoice that you have rescued me.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into the pit they dug for others.
Their own feet have been caught in the trap they set.
¹⁶The Lord is known for his justice.
The wicked are trapped by their own deeds. Quiet Interlude^[a]

¹⁷The wicked will go down to the grave.^[b]
This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.
¹⁸But the needy will not be ignored forever;
the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed.

¹⁹Arise, O Lord!
Do not let mere mortals defy you!
Judge the nations!
²⁰Make them tremble in fear, O Lord.
Let the nations know they are merely human. Interlude

Footnotes:

9:16 Hebrew Higgaion Selah. The meaning of this phrase is uncertain.
9:17 Hebrew to Sheol.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:1-6

Trusting in the Lord

3 My child,^[a] never forget the things I have taught you.
Store my commands in your heart.
²If you do this, you will live many years,
and your life will be satisfying.
³Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
⁴Then you will find favor with both God and people,
and you will earn a good reputation.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
⁶Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

Footnotes:

3:1 Hebrew My son; also in 3:11, 21.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 10, 2021

12/09/2020 DAB Transcript

Genesis 20:1-22:24, Matthew 7:15-29, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 2:16-22

Today is the 9^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we move to bring to a close the first full week of this brand-new year. And look at us we’re sailing. We’re sailing like the shore is still within sight, but it’s becoming smaller and smaller and it will be just a little line on the horizon, and we’ll sail out into the deep together for the rest of this year, letting the Bible do what the Bible does. So, let's…let’s dive in. We’re reading in the book of Genesis. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Genesis chapter 20, 21 and 22 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, I have just one thing that I want to mention today, and it comes from the book of Matthew and it comes from the lips of Jesus the Savior, God in flesh, right? The human God, God in flesh to rescue us, but to model for us and to teach us how to live said something very profound. Think about it for second, do you know who you know. I mean that’s not really a trick question. Like if you know somebody you know that you know them, right? I mean there may be people that are acquaintances or that you’ve met, and you can say, “I think…I think I know that guy. I think I know that lady.” But you know the people that you know, right? Because you have some sort of relationship with them and the people that you know well, like the people that are in your family, or whatever and you can say, “yes, I know them well. Obviously, we’re in a relationship together. We’re married. Or obviously we’re in a relationship together, these are my children, or these are my parents. And then our friends we’ve been with for years and years, yes, of course, we know that we know them. So, it’s not confusing about who we actually know because we know them. There are other people in this world, obviously billions of them that we don’t know. And there are people that we don’t know, but we know about them, right? So, there may be celebrities or famous people from years gone by or people who have passed away, or whatever that…that we’re discovering in this lifetime. And, so, we study maybe history maybe music maybe acting maybe science, maybe whatever. And, so, we can read about them and get to know them through what has been said about them. For that matter we could do a PhD on them and start becoming a lecturer about their life and their times and their choices and their decisions. We could know everything there is to know that could be known about them, but we don’t know them. We’ve never met them. So, we know who we know, and we know who we know about, and there is a difference between the two. And even if we know everything that could be known about somebody, but they’re gone, they’re a part of history or we’ve never met them, they’re a celebrity we never could get them. Because we know what could be known about them doesn’t mean we know them. And even if we go all around the world talking about them and teaching about them that does not mean we know them. So, that in mind hear again the words of Jesus, “not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? Then I will announce to them. I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers.” It can sound harsh, but it’s not. What God is saying here is, “I want to know you and I want you to know me and knowing about me isn’t the same thing as knowing me. You know when you know somebody, and you know when you know about somebody.” So, Jesus is making a profound distinction here and it’s important that we pay attention to this distinction right at the beginning of the year because it is our goal here to allow the Bible to reveal God to us that we might know Him, walk with Him. We will see examples of this molded…modeled for us. Knowing God and knowing about God are different. So, the goal of our year together, indeed, is to read every word, every verse, every chapter, every book of the Bible. But let’s understand that filling our head full of knowledge and then stopping at knowing everything we can know about God isn’t the same. And we will watch many people over many thousands of years take that leap of faith into a relationship and then tell us about it. We will see it unfold. We’ll see where all of the pathways lead. But right here, Jesus right at the beginning of this year is saying, “you can prophesy on my name, you can cast out demons in my name, you can do miracles in my name, and still not know me. And, so, let’s remember as we go forward. Knowing about God is different than knowing God. An activity for God, performance for God, doing things in the name of God, is also different than knowing God. Now, I’m not saying you can’t know God without knowing about Him and I’m not saying you cannot know God without that changing your life into action. We will see that borne out in the Scripture. It’s just that what we will see is that God wants a relationship with us. He doesn’t want robots who are studying Him like He’s a lab project. And you may be here and you’re…you’re irreligious really. You’re just trying to find out what the Bible says and see if it makes any difference. Or maybe you’re a longtime believer but have never really thought about it in these terms before. And you end up going like, “so where do I go from here?” And, you know, yes, certainly we could…we could pray a sinner’s prayer right now, but relationships usually start with “hi.” That’s usually how something starts, “hello”, right? We’re not usually…we don’t usually say hello to people we don’t believe in. It starts there. You…you believe Him, and you say hello and then you begin to realize that God has been saying hello to you your whole life waiting for you to see that and say hello back. So, as we go through the Bible learning about God let’s take the initiative to begin to have conversations with God maybe even about what we’re learning about Him. If we want to know somebody, we need to get to know them and hear from them themselves. Otherwise, all we have is hearsay. And God wants to be known.

Prayer:

Jesus as we end this week, we enter into that, enter into some of those distinctions. Makes us think about what we’ve been calling our relationship with You, makes us re-examine some things. And sometimes that can be disruptive and sometimes that can just be, “a-ha” the lights are going on. You have come for us because You loved us first even while we were Your enemies. That is what the Scriptures tell us about You. If that’s true then You didn’t just want us to acknowledge You and then obey a bunch of rules. You wanted a relationship. You wanted it bad enough to die for it. So may we pay attention to that and stop trying to study You at an arms-length trying to figure out Your will and Your ways when we have You. You are here waiting for the conversation to begin. And, so, come Holy Spirit into this we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And there’s always something or another going on around here. So, just explore, explore.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there that were intended and created either for the journey we are on or have come out of the journey that we are on. There are written resources, there are books in the Shop that take this journey deeper. I think of…of the book Reframe right now because we were just exploring some of those very themes out of the Scriptures. And reframe…Reframe is a book that I’ve written really to explore what we’re talking about when we say we’re in a relationship with God. Like…what does…what does that look like? How you live into that? How does it take shape in your life? What does it even really mean? And maybe even more importantly, exploring some of the things that it doesn’t mean that we’ve thought perhaps that it does mean. Same kinds of things we were talking about. Like, you’re not in a relationship with anybody just because you read their biography, right, or you read an article. You haven’t met that person and you’re not in a relationship with them and they don’t know who you are. We know what relationships look like. We are hardwired as a species for relationship. So, we know when we are in a relationship, we know when we are not. Actually, even more than that we know when we’re in a life-giving relationship and we know when we’re not. And, so, this is kind of coded into us. We know what relationships look like, but we try to be in a relationship with God in ways that wouldn’t work in a relationship with anybody. And, so, Reframe, is more of a deep dive into this subject matter that we’re talking about today. So, check that out. You can certainly get it from the Daily Audio Bible Shop but you can get it anywhere you can get a book or anywhere they get audiobooks. Check out reframe.

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the hotline button in the app 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:

I just heard Hope from the Heartland and she was expressing how it had been on her heart to pray for those who are alone at…at a time as we have experienced this past year where we’re not able to have loved ones around us at…at the time of our passing. And there…there are so many out there that are going through this. And I remember my grandfather when he passed a few years ago, he was singing at the top of his lungs to Jesus just…just making up songs from his heart and I remember him looking to a corner of the room and he kept saying, “don’t you see them? Don’t you see them?” And I remember just a feeling that that’s how…how I want to be someday. And my father has come very close to death about three different times. The past four months he had Covid for about 53 days and he made it through but I remember just praying and asking the Lord that He would just give him a special dispensation that everyone who was in the room witnessing his passing would just be changed forever. And I just pray that right now Lord Jesus over every individual who knows You, who might be alone in that final hour. God I pray that You just give them something special and unique that they are passing would change the lives of those around them forever.

Hi this is Teresa from Indiana calling for Holly in the Heartland. I just want you to know that when I heard your message I just started crying because I’m a geriatric nurse and I see it every day that the families can’t see their loved ones and my residents can see their family members and…but I want you to know that I’m a Christian, I love Jesus and I’m praying for them and I’m loving hem and I’m sneaking them hugs and issues and I scooped your mama up and I loved her for you. I loved her for you. And I know that Jesus was with her. And I just want you to know that there’s a lot of good Christian nurses that are loving these little people in the time that they can’t see their daughters and their sons to get that love. And…and we’re giving them lots of prayers. Lots of prayers are going up and lots of love is being gave and I just wanted you to know that. Be blessed. Bye.

This is my first time using the app and I’m using this feature to record a prayer request. Please pray for my son who is applying to do medicine in the UK and in…in some of the universities in the UK. We’re praying for God to help us get a home free status because we are living in Hong Kong but we have regular contacts with the UK and we have some reasons to give to the universities to say that we…we could applied for home status, home free status. The difference between home fees and international fees is huge and we can’t really afford it. So, we need the Lord to give us a miracle so that the universities would allow us to pay home fees which…which…which will…which will be much much easier for us. But it would take probably a miracle. We have done all that we could. We have supplied all the documents but it’s up to the universities now. So, let’s pray please for…for my son that he can do medicine in one of the universities of his choice. In fact, one of the universities of God’s choice and that we would be able to pay home fees instead of the international fees. Thank you very much. Sorry, this is a little bit long. I…I just want to try this out. I don’t know if anyone can hear me or how is this going to be received. But yeah, just blessings to all. Thank you very much for praying and I’m trusting in God in this. Thank you. Thank you all.

Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever. Father God thank You that You are our Father, that You are…that we are family and that You love us. And I pray Lord that…that in those times when we feel isolated when we feel alone, I pray Lord that we would…we would know You love. Father God I pray for all of those who are isolating who are alone or feel lonely. I pray Lord that they would reach out to You and that You would meet them and that they would be comforting presence. I pray Lord for opportunities for people to connect to each other. Father God help us to be honest with each other. Help us…help us to get through each day Lord. Thank You for each breath, thank You for every blessing. Open our eyes to see the beauty of your world. Open our eyes to appreciate everything we have. May your name be praised and glorified in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Yes, I’m calling for the first time. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for about a dozen years but first time calling the prayer line. My name’s Paul and looking for prayer for my children. Both of my wife’s and I kids have told us of told us that they don’t like us, and they don’t want to be a part of this family. One’s aged 19 almost 20 with special needs and the other one is 15 and also identifies as trans gender which is a whole other ball of wax so to speak a burden to consider and we ask for your prayers for my children, my family, my wife and I…my wife and me as we seek wisdom, as we look for God’s Spirit to envelop our family with the love and the grace and mercy shown us in Jesus Christ, the Lord of all lords. I guess that’s about all I’m asking for. But it’s tough when you hear your kids tell you they don’t…they don’t want to be with you, they don’t like you. They’ve had every kind of opportunity and resources at their disposal and maybe that’s part of the problem, I don’t know but I thank you in advance for your prayers for…for my kids. God’s grace in Jesus be with you all.

Good morning daily audio Bible family this is Debbie in Des Moines. I listen…sorry…several years on and end and for some reason I just…I just went away for a couple years and I missed you guys so much. And God brought me back to you. I just want to let everybody know that please call in, please say your prayer requests. It’s very important. It’s important to stay connected to each other. We are family and going through life together is so much easier when you have your family and God. So, please stay connected. Shame on me for not staying connected. It made my life difficult and I’m so glad to be back. I love you guys.

Genesis 30:1-31:16

Jacob’s Wealth Increases

Jacob Flees from Laban

Footnotes:

Matthew 10:1-23

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

Footnotes:

Psalm 12

Psalm 12

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by an eight-stringed instrument.[a]

Footnotes:

Proverbs 3:13-15

Genesis 28-29

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

Jacob Arrives at Paddan-Aram

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

Jacob’s Many Children

Footnotes:

Matthew 9:18-38

Jesus Heals in Response to Faith

Jesus Heals the Blind

The Need for Workers

Psalm 11

Psalm 11

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

Proverbs 3:11-12

Footnotes:

Genesis 26:17-27:46

Isaac’s Covenant with Abimelech

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing

Jacob Flees to Paddan-Aram

Footnotes:

Matthew 9:1-17

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

Jesus Calls Matthew

A Discussion about Fasting

Footnotes:

Psalm 10:16-18

Proverbs 3:9-10

Genesis 24:52-26:16

The Death of Abraham

Ishmael’s Descendants

The Births of Esau and Jacob

Esau Sells His Birthright

Isaac Deceives Abimelech

Conflict over Water Rights

Footnotes:

Matthew 8:18-34

The Cost of Following Jesus

Jesus Calms the Storm

Jesus Heals Two Demon-Possessed Men

Footnotes:

Psalm 10:1-15

Psalm 10

Footnotes:

Proverbs 3:7-8

Genesis 23:1-24:51

The Burial of Sarah

A Wife for Isaac

Footnotes:

Matthew 8:1-17

Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy

The Faith of a Roman Officer

Jesus Heals Many People

Footnotes:

Psalm 9:13-20

Footnotes:

Proverbs 3:1-6

Trusting in the Lord

Footnotes:

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by an eight-stringed instrument.^[a]