Jonah 1:1-4:11, Revelation 5:1-14, Psalms 133:1-3, Proverbs 29:26-27
Today is the 14th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s awesome to be here with you today around the Global Campfire that is burning hot and warming us and giving a nice firelight glow onto each of our faces as we warm ourselves together and come into our oasis, our place of peace for the day where we let everything else go. It’s all there. It will still be there in a few minutes. But we need this time to exhale and give ourselves permission to just relax and allow the word of God to wash over us and inform our day and the next choices and conversations that we need to have. So, it is lovely to be here with you today around the Global Campfire. And as we take this next step forward, we are encountering yet another one of the minor prophets. We will read it in its entirety today and it is a super famous story that we probably have all heard before. Maybe we didn’t know it was book of the Bible. But if you’ve ever heard the story of Jonah and the whale then that is the territory we are heading into as we read in its entirety….
Introduction to the book of Jonah:
…the book of Jonah, which is a supremely interesting story in and of itself, but a very very immediate story when we apply it to our lives. Jonah was a prophet and he lived in the northern kingdom of Israel. We remember the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Jonah was in the northern kingdom just…just west of the southern part of the Sea of Galilee is where he…he came from, and he lived during the reign of King Jeroboam the second. Where things start to shift as far as the story goes that most of the prophets that we read of in the Bible were called to their own people and they were called with a message from God that was ultimately a message of repentance - return come back, repent, change your mind, turn around, come home. Jonah was a prophet, but he…he was not invited by God to speak a message similar to that to his own people. He was asked to go to the city…the city of Nineveh. And Nineveh is like one of the largest cities at that time. So, we think of Mexico City or New York City or Los Angeles or Sydney or London or any of the large metropolitan areas in the world. So, this is a small-town man, a prophet, but a small town person who’s invited to a major city with a message for the whole city and it so happens that those people are not friends of Israel. They are the enemies of Israel. Therefore, they are considered the enemies of God. Why is God telling this small-town Galilean prophet to go to a major metropolitan area that is an enemy of Israel and an enemy of God to tell them to repent and return to the Lord? He does not want to do it. What if God has mercy upon His own enemies? What if He has mercy if they do repent and He has mercy upon Israel’s enemies? What’s it gonna look like when he gets back home? And…it's…it’s not like he had a little hike through the mountains to get to the nearby village. He had to go a thousand miles and there are no airplanes or cars. The ruins of Nineveh still exist today. They’re near the city of Mosul in Iraq and a lot of the ruins of Nineveh have been destroyed during kind of the reign of ISIS in that territory. So, Jo…Jo…Jonah does not want to do this and he decides he’s not going to do this. And, so, he actually goes in the opposite direction. He goes toward the Mediterranean Sea to catch a ship. He’s literally going in the opposite direction of where God has told him to go. He’s running from God in the opposite direction. And we know how the story goes. We will read the whole story in just a second. He ends up in a fish. He ends up alive. He ends up obeying. And we’ll see that all play out. But we might just need to consider this even before we read Jonah so that as we read Jonah we can apply this to our lives. There are times in our lives where we feel as if the Lord is instructing us to move in a certain direction for a certain purpose or to behave in a certain way or to say certain things, to take on a certain posture that we don’t want to do. And sometimes He wants us to be loving to our enemies. Imagine that since it’s commanded over and over and over throughout the Scriptures. Sometimes He actually asks us to do that. And for all kinds of reasons, we decide He didn’t say that or for all kinds of reasons we decide we can’t do that or for other reasons we decide we’re not going to do that. And then we find ourselves on the run going in the opposite direction. And I don’t know. I can’t speak for everyone. I can speak from my own life. If I have ever found myself in that position, running in the opposite direction from what I truly believe supposed to do it feels like life begins to swallow me alive. And it usually isn’t until I cry out to God for mercy and repentance that that…that that ever really lets up. Maybe that’s just me. I doubt it. But maybe that’s just me. So, I can really relate in different seasons of my life as I look back to the story of Jonah. We probably all can. And, so, with that in mind, we’re reading from the New International Version this week and we will read the four chapters of the book of Jonah in their entirety today.
Prayer:
Father we thank you for your word. We thank you for the book of Jonah. Again, a story, an entire book that we were able to read in one sitting and apply it to our lives. And we confess Lord, we have run in the opposite direction on many occasions in many different kinds of ways and we have borne what that…that brings. We have reaped what we have sown. And in the end as we move through Jonah. We find you have pity and compassion regardless of our prejudices against people that we consider our enemies. You love them and that is stark because it’s easy for us to think that you love us and that you put up with us and that you can handle our sin and those that we love. They’re all in, but once we get further and further…further out to people who maybe don’t believe the way we that we do or don’t function or live in the same kind of culture that we do it’s so easy for us to treat them as our enemies, especially if they’re treating us as their enemies. And yet we read the book of Jonah and we see clearly a posture that emerges from the Scripture that is not the same. And, so, Holy Spirit come as we consider our own thoughts, words and deeds, the things that we do, the things that we leave undone. Help us to remember this is not about our rights and this is not about our wrongs. This is about us, humbling ourselves under your sovereignty and working in collaboration with you in this world. Holy Spirit help us to understand that this is the way to peace, this is the way to actual life, this is a way to be true. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com, that is and always has been home base its where you find out what’s going on around here. If you’re using the app you can find out what’s going on around here as well.
And it’s been Christmas time. It’s Christmastime everywhere. And, so, there are a number of resources that…that are for Christmas like the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box 2021. That is available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas section.
The brand-new Promised Land, photographs from the land of the Bible. That’s also available in the Christmas section.
And the Christmas music that we have produced over the years for your listening pleasure, wherever it is that you get music, wherever you download music into your device or stream music on your device. You can find…well the new Christmas album for this year called Christmas Time. That’s by Maxwell Hardin. We also have Family Christmas and you can find that by searching for my name Brian Hardin. And then O holy night, the single that we released last year with Jill. You can find that by looking for Jill Parr. So, add those to your streaming or listening festivities, your background, your atmosphere for the holidays. They are made for the community here for just that. So, check those things out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. And I thank you. If what we’re doing here, showing up every day taken the next step forward together, immersing ourselves in the rhythm of the Bible each year, if that has been life-giving to you then thank you, thank you humbly for your partnership. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If using 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, the little red button up 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 good morning family this is Hope in Nebraska and I just want to thank you guys so much for your prayers. Been listening to all of your encouragements. I just want to say, you know, it’s just amazing how God puts people in your path, you know, when you're…you’re struggling, you’re having a hard moment, hard time. And there was a woman today, she…she approached me with such kindness, and I was just, you know, almost in tears, you know, it was so beautiful. And I just wanna say I pray that for all of you, that the Lord will put somebody in your path that will show you some kindness. And I hope you guys all have a great day. And I love you all.
Greetings Daily Audio Bible family I’ve called in a few times and posted on the Prayer Wall about being a caregiver for my mom with dementia and transitioning her into a memory care facility. Today is December 9th and I moved my mom in earlier this week over the course of Sunday and Monday. And after giving her just a few days to get acclimated and adjusted in the new place I went and visited her to spend some time with her today. And I’m calling in with a bit of a praise report. You know, despite how hard a decision this is and, you know, how sad I’ve been, you know, not having my mom at home with me and, you know, even despite some of her confusion about what was going on during her move I’m happy to share that she seems happy. She’s still a little confused about why she’s there but I feel really comfortable with the caregivers at the facility. When I went to see her today she was very happy and chipper and telling me stories about friends that she met, how she’s been playing the piano for her, you know, neighbors in the building and just meeting people. And, so, it just made things a lot lighter for me. I’m still, you know, missing her very much and, you know, still, you know, obviously just worried and want her to be happy but I’m going to see her today and seeing her, you know, not afraid and not sad and, you know, not confining herself to her apartment just really made me feel that much better about the decision. So, I think…
Good morning DAB family today is December 8th 2021. Family I had craniotomy surgery February 27th 2018 to remove a brain tumor that had swollen and caused my brain to swell and damaged my optic nerve. And you guys, that being said we have not put a Christmas tree up since then. We haven’t put a Christmas tree up since 2017. And you guys, I was just in a deep depression. I was like why should I put a tree up if I can’t see it because I have boys and they…they wouldn’t, you know, they wouldn’t appreciate it like I did…they wouldn’t have wanted perfect like I would want it. And I was just depressed because I couldn’t __ bit. But as the time go by you guys, I’m thankful for what I do have. I’m thankful for the __ who has never left my side. I’m thankful for the family who have, the family and friends who have left me because God was just making room for my new family, which is my DAB family. That being said, you guys, we put our Christmas tree up last night and it is beautiful and I’m so thankful. Thank you to Brian and Jill for this podcast. Thank you for everybody who continues to pray for each other. And I hope everybody have a Merry Christmas. I love you guys.
Hello this is Donna northern…His Northern California Warrior Princess and calling for a praise report. A…months ago…over the summer I called in with some prayer requests about a…business dealings that were going on that were really really negative and I needed courage. And I wanted to thank you my prayer warriors because I was able to send in the legal paperwork that was needed and now it’s just going through the process. So, continue please, I…for prayers of covering, that really the people that are involved in this lack of integrity and unethical business dealings need God, need please to be saved. So, I’m praying for that. At the same time, I also, if they’re not willing to do that is just, you know, just that they’re…this be used in a way that helps them get to that place or that shows them that get’s to that place that tears down ego and pride. And I pray, pray, pray that I stay steadfast during this process. Most importantly though I was convicted. Hearing Brian’s message at the beginning here where it says well done you don’t have to carry everything by yourself. I’ve been listening for six years, and I was journaling yesterday, and the Lord just really cleared…clarified for me that problems are never too small, that He cares about every single solitary hair on my head. But I grew up in a household where they said don’t tell anyone your secrets and there’s a lot of shame and pride and ego from that upbringing. And, so, I thank you Brian, I thank you all of my family here on DAB and listening every day as I’m __ self. I’m literally…
__ again. I’ve called in once before. My name is Crystal. I’m from Texas and I’m just asking for prayers for…for myself and my family. Anybody out there. I’ve been standing for my marriage for a couple years now. My husband for restoration of my husband soul, that he would turn back to God and away from his sinful lifestyle, that a restoration for our marriage and a love from God and for unity in my family we have in our children, that they would be restored and healed as well. Holidays are always difficult for us all as a family when he comes around. And I pray that God would give me the glory and the…and the joy to include everybody and that we would enjoy this holiday season and just focus on…on Jesus. And I…I just pray for a miracle turn around and…and love God. I’m so thankful. Even through my own trials and pain, I’m thankful for His love and I know that He’s with me and God is in control. Thank you guys. And I love listening to everybody. And I thank you for all your prayers.