Ezra 1:1-2:70, 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, Psalm 27:7-14, Proverbs 20:22-23
Today is the 5th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today. Just like it’s great to be here with you every day because we get to come into this little place that we’ve made for ourselves that we call the Global Campfire and having that place, at least for me in my life, this one place that’s gonna be the word of God washing over us, ah, an oasis of calm in the storm. So glad to be in that place with you today as we take our next step forward in the Scriptures. We concluded 2 Chronicles yesterday and so that has us opening up a new book in the Old Testament.
Introduction to Ezra:
This is called Ezra and just in terms of like the history picking up where we left off. So, where 2 Chronicles ends Ezra pretty much picks up. The children of Israel and are in exile in Babylon. They were carried away. They rejected God, chased after other gods and now they live in Babylon, away from their homeland. And this book of Ezra, it’s about 80 years of time that’ll be covered in this book, and there will be three different kings involved: Cyrus the Great, Darius and then Artaxerxes, who begins to allow some return to the homeland. So, Cyrus starts things literally wanting the temple to God, rebuilt in Jerusalem for the worship of God. So, over 40,000 Israelites who had been in exile in Babylon, finally, make the trip back under the leadership of Zerubbabel to rebuild…rebuild Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem’s been in ruin for a while now and so, you have a major city that’s been depopulated and lies in ruins and so you imagine that nearby peoples will kind of move in and begin to take over, over time, and that’s indeed the scenario here. And so, you have these…these exiles returning to their homeland, who then face opposition and intimidation and politics, imagine that. But we’ll watch that despite that they have a mission. They have a test and they continue to move forward in that direction which becomes really, really helpful for us in our own lives, because these things happen to us, right. There’s politics involved at work or wherever, there’s intimidation, there’s opposition in this world and it’s really easy to get pulled in or sucked into things that really actually pull us off our task, off the direction that we’re going in. All kinds of distractions we get ourselves into, over the course of life that wastes so much of our energy and time. In this case we’ll see that despite it all, they’re gonna stay true to what they’re trying to accomplish and that can help us. And then Ezra will come back again with a second group of exiles before we reach our conclusion. And so, let’s dive in, we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week, Ezra chapters 1 and 2.
Commentary:
Okay, so in 1 Corinthians today, Paul talks about the gospel’s nonsensical values or properties. So, let’s just kind of sit with that for a second because what he’s saying is the truth. If we simply sit down and try to reason with logic, what we know and what we’ve experienced in this world, then you know, God coming to earth and being born of a woman and living a life and being executed and dying and rising from the dead, even though none of that is not…even though it’s so much different than nonsense to us, if we were just trying to make an intellectual exercise out of it, we’d say ‘yeah, that doesn’t really make sense,’ even as Gentiles, even as Gentiles, we say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but we have not immersed ourselves in the Hebrew story from which Christianity came. There’s plenty of stuff even in the Scriptures that we’re like why is that…like what is that matter? Why is that important now? That doesn’t make sense until you have context and then you say ‘okay I see what’s happening here.’ I see why these things matter. So, what Paul’s doing is essentially acknowledging the elephant in the room, yeah, basically it doesn’t make any sense. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Essentially Paul is saying you can pursue human wisdom all you want but God is well beyond anything we will ever be able to grasp or control, or even figure out fully. In fact, the least of God’s wisdom is greater than any human wisdom. So, God is choosing, according to Paul, to use the foolishness of mankind’s wisdom to reveal Himself. So, just quoting Paul here “the world with its wisdom, was unable to recognize God in terms of his own wisdom. So, God decided to use the nonsense of the good news we speak to save those who believe. Jews asked for miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but our message is that Christ was crucified. This offends Jewish people and makes no sense to people who are not Jewish.” In other words, Gentiles. So, Paul’s saying that Jews wants signs and wonders, and the Gentiles, they don’t really want anything it doesn’t make any sense. So, there’s a lot to go on, a lot of directions that we could go but as far as just like letting this seep in become a part of our thought processes today as we revisit what we’ve read and move through our day. It would be that we will not be able to hold God in our minds. We will not be able to sort out the mystery or the vastness of the most High, because we are not equal to the most high, and we do not have the capacity of the most High. Paul says God’s nonsense is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. And so, at the outset of this letter here, we can begin to get into that posture, where he’s coming from. By the standards of the world, we are talking nonsense when we talk about the good news. But when…when we have received the gift of eternal life and the guidance of the Spirit of truth, then, as Jesus says, we open our eyes, we open our ears and we see how things have flipped and how much of the world is complete nonsense. Just because we’ve been doing things for centuries a certain way doesn’t mean it’s not nonsense it just means it’s centuries of it. The good news brings us a better way of being a human being, a different way of looking at everything and we’ll be diving into that as we continue this letter.
Prayer:
And so, Holy Spirit come into that. And we certainly have made an intellectual exercise of it at times, really trying to get our theology right, trying to get all of the statements correct, jump through the hoops and do the steps correct. When the nonsense of the gospel is that You came for us and You achieved Your goal of rescuing humanity and anyone who chooses to participate is welcome and we choose to participate. And so, come Holy Spirit, and lead us into all truth. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayers and Encouragements:
Family, this is Saved by His Grace in Happy Valley with three very urgent prayer requests. Sort of a court of last resort. The first one is a young man named Carson, he’s about 10 years old, I think. He has successfully battled Lymphoma twice. And his family was rejoicing and suddenly another form of cancer has struck him and the people at St. Jude have said there’s nothing more we can do. We’ll arrange Hospice Care. Please, family, pray for Carson and complete healing. Another one is a little guy named Levi who is 3. He and his sister got into someone’s pool and he saved her but he drowned except that brought him back and now they’re struggling to bring all of him back. It has been a struggle. Please pray for Levi. And finally, my son Evan and his wife Lauren are having a divorce hearing tomorrow. There’s a five-year-old grandchild, Ronan involved and I pray that there will be forgiveness and healing and kindness and compassion. And that, I would love to see the marriage healed but if not at least let Ronan be cared for. Thank you.
Hello, today is August 1st and I was listening to July the 23rd and the lady called in The Disciple that He Loves from Ohio requesting prayer for her daughter that’s 15 and going through depression. Just wanted to pray for her daughter. Father, we do, just agree for all of us in this community for this daughter, Father. That’s just undergoing such depression Father, God that You would intervene. Father, that she would be set free that her mind would be renewed. Father, that she could get the help she needs, we know that You can supernaturally intervene. Or that You would just open doors that no one could open for her mom under the helps that she needs Father. We just lift her up, we do just pray for Your protection, that You will send guardian angels around this girl. We know that you will bring healing for deliverance that could only come from You. Father, for this ladies 15 year old daughter but also for other teenagers and other people God that are just desperate Father that don’t want to be here anymore. Lord, we know that’s such an attack from the enemy. We just pray that they would be able to take every thought captive Father. That You would bring healing and deliverance that only You can. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Hi DAB family this is GG from Gville. I’m pregnant. I’m in my second trimester and I don’t feel like I can do this. I can’t do this, I need…I need help. I need God’s help. My family’s really supportive my husbands really supportive but I have nursing school to go to in just a couple weeks and I’m hardly making it each day. And, it’s…I need…I need so much help. I, I need encouragement but I also need help that it’s gonna get better and that I’m gonna be able to go to school and I know that it’s not that bad, I don’t…I know other people, you know, just would be so happy to be having a baby right now, I just, I feel, I don’t know, a lot of mixed emotions. Ashamed and upset at myself for I don’t know, not dealing with this better. But, I don’t know what else to do. I feel like I’ve been trying everyday, anything I can do. And it’s such a struggle. If you guys could please pray for me to, if there’s something I could do. Lord help please. Amen.
Hi, this is Ivy it’s been a while since I put in a prayer request but I wanted to just mention that I am just so blessed and honored to have been apart of DAB for so long, I had no idea how long until I found an old note in my bible that referred to the date November 29th 2010 that’s when I started and I wished I would’ve stayed with that but as life goes on with so many it seems that we just either get busy, life gets in the way, I’m not sure what but. Today I am grateful that I’m back into it. I have been searching through my Bible for so many notes and again I’ve been so blessed with so many notes that I’ve kept in there, God has been so true to me. I am going to ask for prayer for my family, because it seems like it’s been under attack and I know why now because I’m back into the word and it seems like when you’re following the Lord, as you should Satan doesn’t like it and I’m just very blessed to know that God is on my side and my family’s side so I ask prayer for my family. There’s so much going on I can’t even begin to explain, please, please just pray for my family. My mother especially, she’s 91. She’s been attacked with all the prayers that she’s been praying for all of us so bless her Lord Jesus in your name I pray, and lift her up and everyone else on this site. Thank you.
Hello, I’m calling for the first time I’ve been a listener since 2011. I just want to first thank Brian and Jill for this ministry and this ministry has been such a blessing for me, and all those that are around me are affected by it also. And I just want to give praise and honor to our heavenly Father for this ministry also. Thank God for the DAB listeners and everything that we do daily together and help our walk in this life. And so, I want to pray for all the DAB listeners. Okay, and I want to pray that God would just meet every need whether it be spiritual, physical, mental or financial need or whatever the need be, I’m just praying that God would meet every need. And I just want to share this scripture for DAB members. I want to share this scripture that says Isiah 45 and 12: I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it and with my hands I stretch out the heavens. All the stars are at my command. And that’s the scripture coming from 45 Isaiah verse. I just want you to pray for my strength in the Lord. This has been a rough year. This is one of the roughest years of my life. And so, I’ve lost 3 members of my family. And I would just pray you guys would keep me in prayer. May name is Waters, I’m calling from Virginia. Have a blessed day, DAB members, DAB listeners and all the families. Look forward to hearing from you, so keep me in your prayer. Thank God for you. Chow.