Ezekiel 7:1-9:11, Hebrews 5:1-14, Psalm 105:1-15, Proverbs 26:28
Today is the third day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you just like it’s great to be here with you every day as we find our place around the Global Campfire and move forward together, which will lead us back into the book of Ezekiel, we’re just getting going in the book of Ezekiel. Today, Ezekiel chapters 7 and 8 and 9.
Commentary:
Okay, can we zoom in on the Proverb because again today we have one sentence that speaks literally volumes into our human experience. So, once again wisdom is calling from the crossroads and speaking to us what is true and what is right and it says it in a stark enough way that we can’t kind of make it a gray area. So, the Proverb says, a lying tongue hates its victims and a flattering mouth works ruin. So, I doubt that anyone within the sound of my voice doesn’t know what a lie is right, and a blatant untruth or more popularly, a partial truth that is nuanced in such a way that it is effectively a lie. So, if we’re on the same page about what that is, then what the voice of wisdom is saying, from the Holy Scriptures is that a lying tongue hates its victims, and it even uses the word victims as people who are on the receiving end of a lie. And we could be like yeah, well, what’s another translation for that, victimization of a person who is on the receiving end of a lie that can’t be right, but it is. I mean if we want to go absolutely literal. We are literally talking about and oppressed person who is crushed. That is what happens to the person on the receiving end of a lie, according to the voice of wisdom found in the Holy Scriptures. So could it be more stark and should we not, should we not pause for a second and just think about it because our culture is built on these nuances. These partial truths that get spun in all sorts of directions and then regurgitated as fact all over the place. All of the time. So, if we’re in the habit of puffing up the truth, like making the story more interesting than what it actually is and what actually happened or what the actual situation is then that’s a lie. If we’re diminishing the truth, making it less and using it to manipulate or if we’re simply lying so that we don’t get exposed, it’s a lie. And we are hating on the person we are peddling the lie to. I know that’s pretty hard-core. I didn’t write this book though; I’m reading this book and this is what the book of Proverbs says, in the same Proverb in the same sentence because this entire Proverb is one sentence it says a flattering mouth works ruin. So, being a liar is hating on the people we are lying to and a flattering mouth, so using flattery works ruin, which doesn’t mean words of affirmation, kindness, speaking something kind and affirming to somebody about something that they done is flattering and we should stop complementing each other. Flattery is that used in a manipulative way so that in one way or another we gain something, whether that be deeper access to this person or their life. Whether things that we want from them or need from them that force us to kind of use words that we wouldn’t normally use in a way that we don’t really mean. Yeah, basically we’re counseled very vividly against this type of behavior. It does not lead to a good outcome. It’s foolish. It’s not wisdom and we’re getting that conclusion from the voice of wisdom. And so, let’s just take this strong medicine like grown-ups and examine the ways that we are hating on people, that we are acting foolish, that we are setting up scenarios that don’t end well and maybe invite the Holy Spirit into the why. Why do we react this way, why do we do this, why do we embellish the truth, why do we diminish the truth, why are we always in a situation where we’re on the defense and we’re always lying to protect ourselves even when it’s not necessary, why are we doing these things, what is underneath that? Because as we talked about in the book of Hebrews, what was it yesterday, this is alive and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it can reach the place where soul and spirit divide. We basically flip the page and watch that exact thing happen to us. This is right at the level of our identity. This is as deep as it gets. Why do we do what we do when we know it’s not going to work out? And then as we’re considering, maybe we should also consider that we have been invited into a life of freedom. Freedom in Christ, which is freedom to be true because we’re not leeching an identity off of each other. We don’t need to lie to somebody else to make ourselves look better so that they look better at us. We are children of the most high God. There is no higher place to get, we have, there’s no aspiration for us that’s higher than that, we have an identity, basically, we have the identity of identities, we’re children of God. We actually don’t need to lie to each other or manipulate each other. We actually have freedom to be true.
Prayer:
So, Father, we invite You into that. It is a constant thing. It is a constant thing in the world that we live in as you know, it is a constant thing to be so deeply nuanced that it’s, that it’s a lie and we have participated in all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, but we’re hearing loud and clear from the voice of wisdom that this isn’t going to go anywhere and so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to reveal to us the wounds and motivations, the things that compel us in a direction that is not healthy or good or profitable. Come, Holy Spirit, as we contemplate this today, as we consider, as we even observe ourselves in these situations because their regular, they face us on a daily basis. And so, Holy Spirit come into this, we need You. We need You not only to expose this to ourselves but then to begin to change that, to be transformed in that area to allow sanctification in that area. Then we have to be aware and open to You. So, help us Holy Spirit. We pray, in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website and that is where you find out what’s going on around here, so do indeed stay in touch anyway you can anyway that you want to. Be familiar, as I say often and should, the Community section, this is where to get connected on social media, the channels that we participate in. It’s a good idea to follow Daily Audio Bible somewhere so that if there is an announcement or whatever, it can show up in your feed. But there are also groups there to connect and interact with and the Community section is where the ever-important Prayer Wall lives because the Prayer Wall is always there, always available and it’s situated inside this Community, so, it’s just with in the Community here. Always, you can go and find people to pray for and it’s so good for the soul to reach out in prayer for others, even people who we may never meet, people that we know by voice and that we know by heart. We can pray for one another, we’re not alone in this world, we’re a body, we’re a family, the family of God. It’s also a place to go if the bottom is fallen out of some aspect of your life and you’re just kind of in freefall and don’t know exactly how you’re gonna land, you don’t have to do that alone. People pray all the time at the Prayer Wall and so check that out, it’s in the Community section at dailyaudiobible.com or in the app you just push the little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and you can get to the Community section there.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website as well. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. The mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174. And thank you, humbly, humbly for your partnership, we wouldn’t be, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t here together. So, thank you.
And if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can at 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.