Jeremiah 26:1-27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalms 85:1-13, Proverbs 25:16
Today is October 15th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today. I guess pretty close to the center, right? Center of another of our months together as we continue our journey through the Scriptures this year. And we’ll pick up where we left off. That’s what we do every day. We’re in the book of Jeremiah and we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Jeremiah, chapters 26 and 27 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so we are continuing to journey through the book of Jeremiah, who is a biblical prophet prophesying from Jerusalem during the takeover of the Babylonian empire and the exile of the people to Babylon. Like tomorrow…in tomorrow’s reading we’re going to finally reach the famous…the…one of the most famous verses in the Bible, Jeremiah 29:11, right? “I know the plans that I have for you.” So, I’m just saying, have you been watching this whole story of Jeremiah? Are we watching this story even in today’s reading that leads up to that? Have we been hearing Jeremiah offer warning after warning pleading with the people to repent, to change their mind, to go in a different direction to return to God? So, for starters, they could have done that, right? And then they didn’t have to be in exile. They could have done what the Lord invited them to do, repent, return, come home, come back, remember how you got here in the first place, but they didn’t. And, so, in today’s reading, if…if we get the picture of what’s happening here, we’ll see just how hard it would’ve been for Jeremiah to do and it would also make sense why a mob formed with the intention to kill him. Jeremiah has been prophesying repentance for decades, a couple of decades now and they…I mean he began when things were peaceful and prosperous and now there’s a war but he’s…same message. And it seems like nobody’s listening. And, so, God tells Jeremiah to go to the temple. So, the holiest place within the holiest city. He’s to go there and say, and I’m quoting…I’m quoting from Jeremiah, “if you will not listen to me and obey my word I have given you, and if you will not listen to my servants the prophets, for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them then I will destroy this temple as I destroyed Shiloh the place with the tabernacle was located and I will make Jerusalem an object of cursing in every nation on earth.” You have to imagine a prophet…it’s like how do we modernize the context here? This is a prophet going to the most important place in a nation, so a nation’s capital, an important place to give a prophecy that…a prophecy to surrender, a prophecy that foretells the destruction of this important building or place. In this case we’re talking about the temple of God in the holy city of Jerusalem. So, in terms of biblical importance, there’s no more important place in the Bible and this in terms of a structure, a building. Jeremiah foretells that one possible outcome is going to be the destruction of the temple. Did…did Jesus not the same thing? Did He not get in the same trouble? Because you don’t speak against the Lord’s temple. That had been determined to be blasphemy or blasphemous. Ironically, Jeremiah prophesied…prophesied the destruction of the Temple and the temple was destroyed. Jesus talked about the destruction of the temple which happened to be the second Temple. It was rebuilt later, and it was also again destroyed. And, so, in Jerusalem there is no temple, there’s just a platform where it used to be, at least at this point and it is a highly contentious piece of real estate. Now we could be like, “what an awful thing the Lord asked Jeremiah to do. He’s set up to fail. How you go into the holy city into the holy site and…and talk about destruction without somebody getting’ mad?” So, it’s like God asked Jeremiah to do something that’s going to get him killed. Why, what’s the point? Well, we find the point right before God tells Jeremiah what to say, which is what we…we just read about the destruction of the temple. The verse before that God tells Jeremiah this. “Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways, then I will change my mind about the disaster I am ready to pour out on them because of their sins.” So, in effect Jeremiah going into the holiest site in the holiest city and talking about its destruction was to tell the people about the outcome that was going to happen if they continue on the paths that they are walking, but there’s an alternative outcome. And if they would repent then He would change His mind about what’s gonna happen. In the end as we read, a mob formed with the intention of killing Jeremiah and there was a debate and in the end Jeremiah was spared and then he was invited to put a yoke on his neck and fasten it, sort of bind himself and go over to where a summit was happening in Jerusalem with King Zedekiah, the king of…of Judah in Jerusalem. But there were ambassadors from other countries there in Jerusalem from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. And Jeremiah was to speak in…in complete contradiction to what the other prophets were saying and he was to prophesy to all of them to surrender to Babylon instead of insisting on dying and to tell them that the other prophets were liars. So, yeah…Jeremiah had to step into a bunch of controversial stuff that is…who wants to do what he was asked to do? But he was the lone voice. He was the voice speaking for God offering a way out of destruction. And as it turns out nobody listened. And, so, exile did come. And we will continue that story tomorrow and encounter this famous passage, Jeremiah 29:11 in its context.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. Each and every day there are new things for us to explore and mine and plant and cultivate and water and nurture. There’s no shortage of wisdom available to us that applies directly to the motives of our own hearts and our own thoughts and our own words. And, so, we are grateful. We are also grateful for these stories, these examples that show us what it actually looks like to live a life of faith. We can look at Jeremiah and when we begin to understand the context of the things that he’s facing and the kinds of stuff that he has do, we can understand, “okay, this person has to be willing to die. This person is completely sold out to this message whether he likes the job or not. He is obedient.” And, so, often when contrast that to our own lives we’re just looking for the easiest path to anything. And, so, Holy Spirit come. Help us to rewire the way we think things should go, that we might walk with You understanding that in any circumstance we can still walk in freedom, freedom that cannot be taken from us, identity that cannot be taken from us. Even if we are to be killed it can’t be taken from us. And that is our intimacy and relationship and trust in You. And, so, we want to hear these words. When people are invited to repent and change their mind in…in response to repentance You will also change the trajectory? Like, that we can collaborate and create a different outcome, that that is even possible and that that’s outlined over and over in the Scriptures, thank You for that because it’s time to make some changes. Holy Spirit lead us into the awareness of what needs to change and the confidence and self-control and ability to make the change as we surrender to You, and repent. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello everyone in the Daily Audio Bible it’s been quite a few months since I called in last. My family and my husband and two small children and I moved across the country several months ago and it was in hopes of bettering our situation. And since we’ve gotten here things have just been extremely hard and our situation has gotten worse and worse. And it’s been really hard for me to find the motivation I guess to call in and I’m about 3 months or so behind on the readings and trying to catch up has been hard. My faith is really really struggling. I feel like my whole life I’ve just been kind of surviving through each hard season just waiting for things to get better even since my childhood. I just thought like hey if I could grow up then I…then I can make a better life. And I grew up and life just kept getting harder or it changed but stayed hard. And all the sacrifices we made to move across the country don’t even feel worth it anymore because things didn’t get better over here. And they’ve been getting worse and I’m just so exhausted. I’m just so exhausted of trying to survive through each season and I’ve been asking God for help for so long and it just doesn’t feel like He’s there. It doesn’t feel like He wants to help me. And I’m really struggling to hold on to my faith anymore and I’m honestly really struggling to find the point in my life anymore. And I just feel really defeated in every aspect like everything is against me and it’s really hard. So, I guess if you could pray for me and hope that I could see the course…
Good morning Daily Audio Bible community, To be a Blessing in California wanting to lift up Victoria Soldier. So, sorry for your loss. For Jesse and the challenges, you’re facing with your ADHD. As well As for Kathy from Kentucky. And the woman who called who’s at the last step of leaving her husband or resolving issues I should say around the domestic abuse and needing to find a place. I’m praying for you all. Praying for others as well. Just wanting you to know God is our refuge, He is our strong tower, that the righteous go in and they are protected. He keeps us He comforts us He upholds us. He blesses us, He looks upon us with tender love and He brings people into our lives. So, dear God I pray for everyone who is a part of this community. I pray especially for the ones that I mentioned and others who are in like circumstances. Dear God, will you please by Your Spirit draw into their lives, help them in making decisions, help them in being strong and receiving Your faith. And dear God that you would give them the hope and the courage and the strength that they need to move forward in all the activities you have before them. Love you much, folks. God bless you richly. To be a Blessing in California.
Hi, giving all praise glory and honor to my Lord and savior Jesus Christ who is the head of my life. This is Walking in the Wilderness in Georgia; Laura and I’m calling…I’m calling in to request prayer. I have a heavy heart this morning because my oldest who’s 34 who will shortly be 35 in a couple days is just so lost. And the only thing that gives me comfort is knowing that he has given his life to Christ many many years ago, raised in the church. He knows the Lord, but drugs and whatever chemical hormone imbalance in his brain is allowing him to walk a path that’s just not…that’s just not…it’s just conducive. And I have a granddaughter who’s 5, she just recently lost her mother at the age of 26. And my son, I thought this would be his bottom to get up and get his life right so that he can be the father to my granddaughter that he should be, that God has called him to be. And he’s just lost. He’s in and out of jail. He’s lost all of his friends because he’s burned bridges by stealing from them to, I guess continue his habits or whatever. And, so, I’m just asking for prayer for Christopher Nettles. I wasn’t going to say his name out loud, but you know what, I have to boldly…I have to boldly give him over to the Lord and I know that there is power in numbers. I’ve been lifting your children up and I pray that you lift my child up. Thank you, my DAB family. God bless. Peace.
Hello DAB family this is Sunset Cindy I’m calling October 10th and I wanted to give a praise report. Yesterday October 9th my prayer for my brother dairy Gary David aired. He’s homeless, drug addicted, we didn’t know where he was. Well, he called me this morning a day after you all prayed for him. Of course Jesus is in charge of his rescue. So, I’m very hopeful and very thankful. He’s still homeless. He said he's…he’s found a tent and a little propane heater, and he described his situation to me, and I said it’s going to get cold. We’re in the Pacific Northwest. And I said it’s going to get very wet and cold. And I told him that my DAB family was praying for him all over the world and he said thank you. And, so, I want to thank you and I want to praise and thank the Lord Jesus. He never takes His hands off his children. Love you. Bye.
Good morning, everybody it’s Susan from Canada God’s Yellow Flower calling, and I just heard James from the UK asking for prayer. So, let’s pray. Lord God James and his family are struggling. And I just pray your blessings upon them dear God. James’ plate is full to overflowing and he’s feeling very overwhelmed, and I pray dear God that You would just bring about peace and joy in his life. He has family concerns with his parents and his kids, and his wife. And I pray that You would be in the center of it all drawing them all together in Your love. I pray dear God that You would supply the strength and the wisdom that each and every one of them needs to overcome this difficult time. Be with them God in a very special way. Strengthen their faith and their love for You and each other in Jesus’ name I pray….
Hi this is Asia from Chicago. I know I haven’t called in in a while but I’m really struggling right now really, really, really, broke. So, yeah if you could just pray for a miracle. I just really…I know that God’s gonna provide for me but waiting on that is so hard and my anxiety is like crippling right now. So yeah, whoever hears this please pray for me. This is Asia from Chicago. Thank you, guys.