Isaiah 51:1-53:12, Ephesians 5:1-33, Psalms 69:19-36, Proverbs 24:7
Today is the 27th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we get into our work week and do what we do every day, take the next step forward together on our journey through the Bible. We’re kinda turning the corner in Isaiah. We’ve camped out in Isaiah for…for…for a bit here and there are 66 chapters in Isaiah and we’re at the 51st chapter. So, not too far to go. And in the New Testament, there are six chapters in the letter to the Ephesians. And we’re at the fifth chapter today. So, we’ll be finishing Ephesians tomorrow. But we’re here now and we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Isaiah 51, 52, and 53 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the letter to the Ephesians today we reach a pretty famous passage of Scripture that deals with wives and husbands, pretty well known. I’m heard it most of my life, seen it used as a child all the way through adulthood, all the way into ministry. Have seen it used in all kinds of…well all kinds of marital situations. And honestly for the most part, it’s always been to prove someone’s right, and it’s been used a lot for…well…yeah…to be corrective and to be right and even in some cases to be dominant. Like it's…it’s used in ways that aren’t particularly healthy and aren’t particularly what the passage is saying. So, let’s just look at this. “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.” That’s the portion I’ve heard more often than the second half so that the wife, the female partner becomes submissive to the male partner as the head of the household no matter what the husband is doing or no matter what the husband is like. It’s sort of like this de facto…well…you’re married. this is what you gotta do. The thing about this famous passage of Scripture is that it has more to say to the husband then it really does to the wife. And, so, being fair here, “husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church.” And, so, basically, yes, here are some instructions. They’re not one sided. It’s a reciprocal thing that works together. And, so, I’m a man and I’m a husband and I’m a father. And, so, that’s something that I have yet to master and don’t know that I ever will but at least that’s what I am, and that’s what I’ve been for a long time. And, so, I can say, husbands if you want your wives in submission then you better be in submission to Christ loving her, as Christ loved the church, loving her like Jesus does, then there’s not going to be a problem, typically in that area. A woman who is treasured and loved knowing that her husband is laying his life down for her is bringing Jesus to her is leading her to Jesus and she is also a believer, then there is not likely gonna be the kinds of problems that get these verses used for domination and to be right. Wives, if your husband is doing his best in that direction and that’s not even noticed, that’s just expected…because if that’s supposed to do that and you’re just supposed to receive it and there’s no respect there, that also grows bitterness. And, so, basically we can take Paul’s summary sentence where he literally says, “to sum up” and take this on board into our hearts as we consider our relationships. Paul says, “to sum up”, and he’s still speaking to the husband, “each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.” In my limited experience, although my experience has had an awful lot of conversations, and both of those things are happening, there’s a path forward from just about anything. And I’ve mentioned that I’ve basically…I’ve seen this passage used in, like I said, ways to be right, ways to become dominant, ways to get somebody into submission. And wives if…if you’re even on the receiving end of that and your husband isn’t loving you as Christ loved the church, which doesn’t mean he’s not gonna make mistakes, do stupid things, but if you’re in an abusive situation somehow, that you feel like, you can’t…there’s like nothing you can do, you just have to kind of take it and endure it and its physical abuse or verbal abuse or sexual abuse or whatever…that’s a good time to come back to this passage and understand what you should be expecting because what you should be expecting is that your spouse is leading you to Jesus, is…your spouse is loving you as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for…laid His life down for her. There’s nothing about abuse here. Jesus doesn’t abuse us. Jesus died for us that we might find freedom. Jesus isn’t going to physically abuse you, nor will He sexually abuse you, nor will He verbally abuse you. I put that out there just simply because of what I have experienced and seen. Jesus loves us all so much, and if we loved each other with the love of Christ with the love of the Lord, if we loved our neighbor, even our spouse as we love ourselves…ahh…if we would do that in our marriages just in our marriages, we could start dreaming about how the world is going to change because it would. We wouldn’t be passing down these generational behaviors to our children who are gonna be doing the same things that we do only with their own version and it just keeps going in a big circle. If we husbands would love our wives as Christ loved the church and wives if your husband is doing that, if you would realize that he’s a priest in your home, he’s there to bring you to Jesus and to love you with the love of the Lord, gosh, the…the whole landscape of relationships would change. And, so, we have a beautiful model here to look at. It just gets skewed when one side is trying to dominate the other side to be right about things when in truth we’re laying ourselves down, we’re laying down those rights and wrongs and submitting to Christ, which changes the atmosphere in any situation.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit we invite You into that. Nothing can be more tumultuous, nothing anymore trying and difficult than being in marriage. And yet it is gift that constantly exposes our own brokenness and our own desire for dominance and our own selfishness. So, may we take the passage in Ephesians today to heart, examining our own lives and not just trying to spend our lives changing our spouse when we’re not changing ourselves. Come Holy Spirit. This is a big one. We need Your help. And we ask for it 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.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good evening this is Tierra from Texas again. I just finished listening to today’s message and the first prayer that I heard was Casey from, I think he said Hawaii, and his wife Shamara. And if I am wrong, I am so sorry. But I just wanted to pray for his wife and him with them dealing with trauma and, you know, battling addiction and overcoming addiction. Father we come to You, and we just thank You for the Spirit that You’ve created within Casey and his wife, for Casey to have the heart to pray for his wife, for Shamara to have such a wonderful husband, for a couple, a marriage that you’ve blessed, for both of them to pray for each other and just to ask…ask for prayers from everyone else. I pray that the enemy has no entryway into their marriage, their relationship, has no way of attacking his wife. Sometimes with addiction there’s always a place for another addiction to take…take root. I pray that does not happen. In the name of Jesus, I pray that that is removed, any type of attacks or, you know, attempts to form another addiction that that is removed and that is not able to happen Father. And I pray in the name of Jesus that you just continue to heal from past trauma and grow and learn and move forward with relationship with You Father. These blessings I ask in Your son’s holy name Jesus. Amen.
Hi, my name is Maurine McIntosh from Alexandria VA. I just heard the wailing and the crying of a mother, grandmother for children. She mentioned the name of Dominique and Ariana. She said her whole household is sick. I pray for her this morning. __ Daily Audio Bible believers and worshippers let’s pray for her. Father, in the name of Jesus we come before You oh Lord as a group of believers asking dear Father that You would hear and answer the cry, the wails, the cry, the deep suffering of this household. We pray the blood of Jesus upon Dominique and Ariana. We speak healing and deliverance over them in the name of Jesus. Father, we thank You that Your hands are not short, and Your ears are not deaf Lord God and that You are the God who heals. You send forth Your word to heal every disease. Father, we pray that You will heal Dominique and Ariana and the entire household of this dear lady in the name of Jesus. We pray for courage and strength for her. Even as she trusts in You Lord God, she would know that You’ve heard her prayer. And I pray for every Daily Audio Bible listener and every believer in the body of Christ all over…
This is Sharon in Southern California. It’s been a while since I’ve called. A lot of things have been going on. Please pray for me and my family. My…my…my husband, he’s denying his alcoholism and it’s getting worse and I’m trying to help him get his VA benefits so that he can go into a program. But the reason why I’m really calling is because I just heard a call from a young lady who’s family is ill and she herself was so distraught she was crying and pleading with God to save her family. And I…I just want to pray. Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your blessings and thank You for allowing us to be able to come to You in prayer with our deepest most sincere issues and problems and trials and tribulations Lord. And I ask in Your sons, Jesus’ name, that You heale this family, that You comfort the woman who called. I didn’t catch her name Lord, but You know who she is, that You comfort her heart and bring her peace and…and heal the family, touch them Lord with Your loving and tender touch Lord and heal their bodies. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
Hello there DAB family this is Lavender Dream calling again. I don’t call in too much ‘cause I just listen and pray for everyone, but I just heard the Friday September 24th podcast. Thank you, pastor Brian always. And Maggie Mae, you absolutely touched my heart. I can hear your…your fear and your anguish over your family and I know that this is just what the enemy wants, to distract you from focusing on Jesus. I speak from my own personal experience as I’ve dealt with many health issues. And when I focus on Jesus, He…He’s brought me back from the brink of death several times. And I know that He is our great physician, and He gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding in the midst of the storm. So, I’m just praying that you can feel His presence, that you will focus on Him and trust that He has every one of your family members in His hands. And I also am asking for prayer for my grandson. We had to go to Boston yesterday. He has multiple disabilities. He was…he had a stroke in utero, and he is a quadriplegic and he needs surgery probably. So, I’m asking for prayer for him because surgery is risky for him with his brain…with his decreased brain development with anesthesia. So, please pray for him. His name is Jace. And I’m praying for all of you. I’ve heard…I don’t call in that much. I prefer to listen and pray for you. So, I’m praying for peace in my family and healing in all of yours from everything and…
Hey family this is Lazarus calling. I was calling to…but just heard Maggie Mae’s prayer request and she’s obviously torn to crap because the devil is attacking her entire family. And wow…my…my stuff seems so trivial by comparison. So, please family pray…pray for her. She’s just at…at the end of her rope. You can hear it and desperate. And any time we’re in desperate straits…straits we need to turn to the Lord. And sometimes that…all you see around you are flames and it’s just really hard. So, to that point, I’ve been…I’m bankrupt, I’m broke. I tried to schedule surgery and they want more money than I have. So, I’ve been needing it for years now and I’ve been putting it off and I’m in…I’m eating Percocet and taking it with vodka every day, several times a day and it’s not even working anymore. So, the pains incredible. And then I fell off a rail car bus in Denver the other day directly on my left shoulder which is in 1000 pieces already and I saw the face of God. So, no…just kidding…you’d __ never. But the Lord is with me I know but man it’s hard. I am under spiritual attack from dawn until dusk every day. And, so, I’ve cancelled my surgery, I…I’m losing my apartment, I don’t have any money and it just goes on and on. And I’m not whining. He’s got me. He’s trying to get my attention about something and just beats the crap out of me what it is because every day I get multiple kicks in __. Yeah…you’ll probably edit that out or not. But anyway, so it’s just…you wouldn’t want to be me. So, I pray for you all. I love you all. I thank you. And if there’s any way you got a second to throw up a little prayer for me I’d appreciate it. God bless. Make it a great day. God bless you. Amen.