Haggai 1:1-2:23, Revelation 11:1-19, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 30:15-16
Today is the 20th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is an honor to be here with you today as we come around the Global Campfire on a busy week, this being Christmas week and just kinda let it all go for a second as we come together and warm ourselves by the fire but take the next step forward. And our steps forward are definitely leading us to the end of the year. And it’s like if we were taking a voyage and we had sailed, we left the shore a long time ago and we’ve been in the deep for a long time but we can see land now. We can see our destination. And it’s great to be here with you so we can see it together. And the way that we will get to our destination is the next step forward. And, so, that will lead us back into the book of Revelation in the New Testament. That’s where we’ll be until the end of the year, but today we have reached the 10th out of the 12 books that are known as the minor prophets, and we’re gonna read a whole book again today. This is the book of Haggai.
Introduction to the book of Haggai:
And if you noticed a little bit of a trend with these minor prophets we don’t have a lot of personal information about who they were. There are some things known about each one of these people. There are even traditions and legends about some of them. And although we don’t have a ton of information about Haggai’s life there is a lot of information about the context for this prophecy. So, we undoubtedly remember the conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the 10 tribes that were carried away and disappeared. We will also undoubtedly remember, we spent so much time on these, that the Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah and destroyed Jerusalem, deporting its people into exile. We remember when we read from Jeremiah that the Lord spoke to those exiles that they should thrive and prosper, where they are while they’re waiting. It’s gonna take 70 years. Haggai was among the first who were able to return from the Babylonian exile and go back to Jerusalem, probably in the first wave to go back to Jerusalem, which would’ve been in complete rubble, would’ve been a disaster. We know that Haggai probably wasn’t just more like a lowly common…commoner because in Haggai we see that the message was delivered to important people, people that we’ve already met. Like this message was delivered to Zerubbabel who was the governor of Judah. And we learned of Zerubbabel’s story when…when we read Ezra and Nehemiah. And this message was also given to Joshua who was the high priest at the time. So, he could have been just a commoner but having access and being able to deliver a prophetic message, and then having that prophetic message understood and accepted and then preserved, yeah, he probably had reason and stature to have access to the leadership. And the reason for the message that we’re about to…to read is to motivate the people, to kinda get them moving, but to…to really come to grasp this, we need to go back. So, Babylon conquered Jerusalem. We’ve read that over and over…like a references to it over and over. We have experienced this story and this happened historically in 586 BC as people are being exiled and deported away from Jerusalem. And Babylon itself was then conquered by the Persian Empire. And that happened historically in 539 BC. And it’s the Persian king Cyrus that allows the first people to leave exile and return to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild for the glory of the Lord. And that happened under Zerubbabel’s leadership and that happens somewhere around 538 BC. Haggai message comes 18 years later in 520 BC. And I’m like rattling off all these dates and it can be like how do we know this. It’s in the prophecy. Some…some of the most precisely dated statements that are in the Bible are in Haggai because the dates are in the book. August 29th through December 18th 520 BC. So, for 18 years people have been able to return and come out of exile and…and to rebuild and yet the temple 18 years later is still incomplete. And there have been plenty of opposition and intimidation, both political and just physical intimidation. Some of those stories we’ve already read as we’ve moved through those stories, but the threats had stalled the efforts and so the people started like building their own homes and building their own lives and actually not paying attention to the fact that the temple had always been the centerpiece of the people. It was like the centerpiece of all of God’s people, the place where God would dwell among his people and this place is to finished. And, so, Haggai brings a voice from the Lord that is essentially going “why…why are you building luxury and homes? And why are you building a life for yourself when the centerpiece of your life in this culture is still in ruins”, which is the temple. And through Haggai it’s revealed that since the people have come back they’ve been working really hard to rebuild all kinds of things and to have all kinds of crops and care for themselves, etc. etc. but they’ve…they been thwarted all along the way. Haggai is revealing that that is because they’ve neglected the centerpiece, the temple. And, so, if we zoom out and just kind of look at the situation, the people have been using their energy and their freedoms to try to make a life of their own on their own without the centerpiece, without the temple, without God in their midst. But that was not working. They were working hard but gaining little ground because they were putting themselves first and ignoring God and…and the place where God would dwell. And they learned that if they had put their trust in God first, God would’ve flooded the prosperity of the surrounding nations into the temple. So, their work would’ve yielded more had they put God first in their efforts instead of being self-absorbed and in their own strength trying to build a life for themselves which, again, these minor prophets…we’re like, “what is going on here?” But they’re like, boom! Once you understand the context you realize this stuff is still going on. This stuff is in my own heart. I find myself doing these kinds of things. I need to pay attention and listen because we can spin our wheels and work as hard as we possibly can to make gain for ourselves, as hard as we possibly can and it feels like we’re just inching our way along when maybe we’re forgetting that there is one who would lead us if we would get our priorities straight and really truly understand it, really truly isn’t all about us, then maybe our efforts would yield so much more. Not only for our own well-being and happiness but for God’s kingdom in this world. And, so, we will read in its entirety the book of Haggai.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for taking us through the book of Haggai today, reminding us yet again in our own strength we can hope for so little. In Your strength nothing is impossible. We thank You for the reminder from Psalm 139 today that there is nowhere we can flee, there is nowhere that we can go to escape You. Wherever we go You are there and that is so comforting. And may we embrace that reality and truth. We have never been alone. We will never be abandoned. You are with us and we are grateful and deeply, deeply thankful that You care so much about us. How can that even be? And yet this week is a celebration of just the lengths You have been willing to go to in order to capture our attention and our hearts. And, so, as we continue these days toward Christmas, as we continue through this Advent season of longing and paying attention to our hearts we long for You, long for Your return, we long for all things to be made new. Our heart cries out for this. We know that something’s not right. And we know that only You can redeem and restore. And, so, our hope is in You. There is no other hope. But there needs to be no other hope. You are our hope and You are the God of heaven’s armies and You are our Father. And, so, we hope in You. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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This is Christmas week. And, so, all of us are kind of moving our hearts and minds and probably bodies with all of the last minute things to do. As we navigate this week let’s remember to stay immersed in this season of Advent, stay immersed in these stories that we have been tracking with, not only in the Bible but as we move through this season. Super easy this week, the Christmas week to get pulled in all kinds of directions, all kinds of last minute things, all of the different kind of anxieties that come up, all kinds of people maybe traveling into town or us traveling out of town or just all of the last minute things. Let’s just make sure we stay rooted and grounded in the story that makes Christmas even a holiday, makes it even possible, the arrival of Christ in this world to rescue us. And, so, let’s keep our hearts tethered to that story as we navigate all of the other little side stories that are going on in our lives.
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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:
Dear Lord thank You for this day, thank You for all You’ve given us. I pray for Jimmy and Mrs. Bell. And that she’s doing fine with Mr. Bell and Jimmy finds a home. Mr. Row because he’s out of the hospital and his family. Bliss because she’s still really sick and Josh. And I pray for my mom my grandma and my aunt because six years ago on the 23rd of December their dad died, and my grandpa’s husband died. So, I pray…I pray that you help them with that. Amen.
Hi DAB family it’s James here from the UK. It’s been I don’t know a couple of months since I called in and I just want to say a huge thank you for your prayers. At the time when I had called in, I was in a really low place and life had got tough, really really tough. And, you know, my wife and I we’re still together, we’re still trying to push through. We’ve really benefited from so many things recently but counseling and just a chance to really recognize and appreciate how important we are to each other again. And, so, I think that’s in no small part due to the prayer support that I’ve had that been coming my way. And there’s many people out there that…just supporting many of us, many of us couples in prayer. I just want to pray for anyone that’s going through challenges with their marriage at the moment, and just trying to work it all out and ask, you know, what’s the point, where am I going with this? And I tell you, the point is to stand supportive even when things are difficult, even when you’re sometimes pitted against each other, to recognize that we haven’t got a huge amount of time on this planet and we’ve got to try and make the most of it in terms of what we do to speak into one another’s lives, to lift each other, to break through the coldness that can happen in life, the sadness that can happen in life, to embrace each other and to show God’s love to each other. Amen.
Good morning, everyone it’s Susan from Canada Gods Yellow Flower. I love you my dear family. And today is December 16th and Brian spoke on Micah 6…excuse me…to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord. And yes, like when Brian says we do that sometimes, but those words hit me right in the gut and I want to live them constantly. So, I just pray Holy Spirit that you would convict me whenever I am about to do something against that verse. I want to do justice. I want to love mercy. And I want to walk humbly with God every day of my life, but I need your help. So, I just pray this for myself and for everyone else who was convicted buy these desires of God that we should all do as God wills and one day hear those words, well done my good and faithful servant. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Good evening, DABbers this is God’s chosen from Georgia. Thank you, Brian for that reading today. And what really got me was the question you asked, what gifts are we giving to Jesus? What are we giving to the Lord? And it got me thinking, what do we have in our hands, what have we bought to give to Him, what is the gift that you are going to give to Him? And I think of so many mothers at this time who are either hurting for their children and all whose hearts are broken, what do they have that they want to bring to Jesus? In the midst of their despair, in the midst of their calamity, in the midst of their brokenness what do they have that they want to give to Jesus? And, so, Lord I pray this evening that you will look into all hearts that are broken, all those whose hopes have been crushed, those who do not even have anything to bring, those who are angry, those who seem to be lost completely, those who are in doubt of your love. I pray that in a divine way you will visit each of them during this season. I pray that your love would overshadow their heart. Amen.
Hey DAB fan this is Dawn Rising in Michigan and I just wanted to call and tell you a story of failure and God’s love. So, the scene is I was in a grocery store after work with my kids and I was standing in line and the checkout person was extremely chatty with a woman in front of me and I was just annoyed, right? I wanted to get home, wanted to get on with my day. And here’s this woman and she had $200 in whiskey sitting on the belt and was talking…just complaining. She was complaining about the…you know… she doesn’t have a car, she could only be…use the bus and it’s always late and it doesn’t drop her off in the right spot and just kept going on and just was complaining. And here she is buying all this alcohol. And I just…you know…in my mind I was like, yeah, she’s probably getting ready for a party. But then I was listening, and she said that her best friend just died and she didn’t have any friends around her because when she moved up here with her husband her husband died. And, so, she was completely alone, and she was just going to get through the holidays with all of that alcohol. And she wanted it in a bag, so she wasn’t embarrassed when she rode the bus home. And I need to tell you of my absolute failing. Instead of having compassion and warmth and sadness and everything that she was going through I was annoyed. I just wanted to get through the line. And, so, I completely failed her, and I have just been sobbing for days about this because God has convicted me and showed me of my shortcomings. So, although I did not do God’s will for this woman, I’m coming on here to ask you to pray for her to pray for someone who can intercede for her and to stand in the gap in her time of sorrow. And I know that’s you family. Thank you.