Malachi 1:1-2:17, Revelation 21:1-27, Psalms 149:1-9, Proverbs 31:10-24
Today is the 30th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian. New Year’s Eve Eve, right? It was like a week ago and it was Christmas Eve Eve. Seems like a bit more than a week ago but here we are. And as we take the next step forward, which there’s only two steps left in this voyage but today we will begin the final book that we will encounter. We have involved ourselves in every other book of the Bible up to this point. Today we will begin the book of Malachi, which we will obviously conclude tomorrow.
Introduction to the book of Malachi:
Malachi’s the last book of the Old Testament. It’s the last book in the grouping known as the minor prophets. So, it’s the 12th of the 12 Minor Prophets. So, it’s pretty clear where we are in our journey through the Bible. Malachi, the word, means my messenger, which is why scholars have debated about this book. It’s title, is this somebody’s name or does this book mean my messenger? It…it’s referring to the contents of the book. A traditional assumption an assumption that we’ll work on is that Malachi was a prophet of God. It's…it’s likely that Malachi was contemporary with Ezra and Nehemiah, but there’s nothing known about Malachi outside of the book of Malachi. Based on the subject matter, Malachi lived probably about a century after the Persians defeated the Babylonians and then started allowing the exiles, the Babylonian exiles to return to their homeland. And we have covered that territory in Ezra and Nehemiah. And it had been about 50 years since the temple was rebuilt. And we remember Haggai and the last book that we read Zacharia speaking to the rebuilding of the temple, and all of these promises that once that happens, then the treasures of the world will begin flowing into Jerusalem and into the temple. And, so, the temple has been rebuilt. It’s been rebuilt for like 50 years. The people are indeed in their ancestral ancient homeland, but none of this kind of prominence and elevation, this treasure flowing, like this hasn’t happened. And, so, people are becoming discouraged about it. They’re not being restored to their former glory. They’re just a tiny little province in the Persian Empire. And because of this, the people were losing their passion for God and His law, and we’ve witnessed many times on our journey through the Scriptures what happens when that happens, right? It’s a downward spiral that just keeps going down until all is lost. And, so, there is moral decline and there is spiritual decline. Some of the things noted in Malachi, are that, you know, sacrifices were supposed to be perfect, perfect unblemished animals but the priests were…were offering blind and blemished sacrifices and the Mosaic law was becoming less and less of the north star for the people. So, it’s into that kind of environment and scenario that…that Malachi comes. And Malachi is probably the last prophet of the Old Testament age. And like other prophets it’s a call to return to God. Interestingly, after Malachi, there isn’t a prophet like for 400 years. There is no prophet of God speaking on behalf of God to the people until a voice crying out in the wilderness comes and prepares the way of the Lord and this person was known as John the Baptist. And in the coming days because we’ll be moving into a new year, we’ll…we’ll get introduced to John the Baptist as we begin the Gospels again. And generally, with the coming of John the Baptist we…we see sort of a change, a new era beginning what we would call the New Testament era. And this is how the Bible is laid out. You might wonder what happened in those 400 years. I have definitely wondered like what happened in those 400 years. And the history of those 400 years is easily available. There are writings that come from within that 400-year period. We…well some of those writings we know as the apocryphal books. And depending on the Christian tradition that you are involved in those books may be included in…in the Scriptures that you have. They are certainly included in a lot of Bibles and referred to in a lot of traditions while in other traditions they’re…they’re basically ignored, maybe even held suspect, like there some kind of inappropriate books. I don't…I don’t think that’s true. A number of the books in the apocryphal are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. I read them several years ago. A lot of them are in narrative form like much of the…the rest of the Bible where we’re reading kind of a story of events and people and where their journey led them, which is historically interesting if you’re into that sort of thing. Now listen, I’m not suggesting you read the Apocrypha. That is entirely up to you. I’m just saying if you’re kind of curious what happens between the Old and the New Testament, there are writings from that period of time. They have generally not been included in the canon of Scripture. So, many people do not see them as Scripture, but that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable and from the time period that’s biblical and from the people that we’ve been traveling with through the entire Bible. And, so, I guess that's…that’s that. Take it or leave it. What we will not leave behind is our next step forward in the Scriptures. And, so, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Malachi chapters 1 and 2.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the days of this year. Each and every day we have come here around this Global Campfire to hear from Your word and to allow it to speak to us and direct and guide us and we thank You for that. And we thank You for bringing us here into the book of Malachi, the last book that we will encounter this year. We will conclude all of the books tomorrow. And, so, this is a moment of reflection right here, one more step to go. Thank You. We thank You and we worship You, thank You for Your faithfulness to us this year. Thank You for bringing us through so much. Thank You for teaching us so much. And we begin to look with anticipation for all that You have yet to speak to us as we continue our journey into the new year. But right now, with one step left to go we are thankful, we are grateful, and we honor and worship You in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it’s home of the Global Campfire and so is the app of course, the Daily Audio Bible app. You just press the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that opens a drawer and you can navigate to different places and get connected in any way that you want to.
But I guess the immediate thing that is going on around here, this is New Year’s Eve Eve. I just can’t believe how fast it all went. We’re going to complete the Bible tomorrow for this year. Our journey is pretty close to the end. Of course, it’s a journey that just begins again the next day, but it really is a line of demarcation, right? It is a momentous thing to navigate through a year of life, and it is a wondrous thing to navigate through the Bible in a year and allow that to be incorporated into how we navigate life in a year. And we have…well…we’ve done our navigating. We’re about to come in for landing. And, so, I’m thinking a lot about that. We’ve been talking about finishing strong and finishing well and just acknowledging that to begin strong, to begin well, means that we finish what we were doing before properly and well and with excellence. And, so, here we are together one more day and we’ll conclude the Bible together. What a beautiful thing. What a joy this has been.
So, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in this year then we’re fairly…fairly close to being…well…we’ve got one day left of this year and then we’ll be into a new year, but I thank you with all humility and really with awe…with awe that all of these years, seven days a week, all of these years we’ve been here together taking this journey and I’m grateful. So, there is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If 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 or there are a number of numbers that you can use depending on where you are in the world. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you not be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Tyler from Oklahoma I just wanted to call and say thank you for doing what you do that’s stepping into prayer and give a praise report. I recently called about a friend of mine who cuts my hair and her husband contracted COVID and he was put in the hospital and placed on a ventilator and…and literally nearly died. And until just…like just recently he is out of the hospital, he is in a rehabilitation center and he’s walking and talking and should…should probably return to work within the next few weeks I would imagine. The word says we conquer by the blood of the lamb and the word of His…and the word of our testimony. And this is testimony. So, thank you everyone for your prayer. That family really appreciates it. Have a great…
Good morning DAB family I just want to pray for Josie. I heard her message this morning and regarding her husband that he’s facing a health crisis in the hospital. And I just want to lift them up Lord and…and…and let your arms surround them as they go through this crisis together. And I just want to encourage couples. I know a couple years ago I invited my husband to start listening to the DAB so we could do it together and have this same message, same Bible study together. And it’s just been a blessing in our life Lord, and I just want to thank you for that. Thank… And I just want to encourage other couples. If your spouse is…is not listening to the DAB with you, just encourage that…that you guys start that together. And I just want to give that to Josie to Lord, while they’re even in the hospital room that…that maybe she’ll play the DAB with him and that that will give them comfort together as they face this crisis and this health crisis Lord. We just want to lift up all those things to you because we know that you’re the ultimate healer and it can be a body healer and it can be a spirit healer. I just want to give that to…to Josie and just bless her and give her the strength to get through this health crisis in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Hi DAB this is Gigi from g-ville. I wanted to let you all know that Alisa is growing well. She’s head down. We’ve got six more weeks to go and it’s very exciting. I was calling in for some prayer because I hurt my pelvis somehow and we’re trying to paint a house and it’s pretty difficult with limping and not being able to walk and not being able to sleep. I went to a chiropractor and not much difference so I’m going to physical therapy this week and my prayer is that it would be really led by God and that the physical therapist would have real insight into what’s causing all the pain in…in the pelvis area. And I will be going back to school very soon. So, I need to be able to walk. So…so, yeah that’s my prayer. If you guys could agree with me that this…this…I know…I don’t know if the physical therapy will be the answer but I know that God knows what the answer is. So, I am praying that I will we see that understanding and his healing in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you, guys. Bye.
Hello, my Daily Audio Bible family I would just like to express my love for this family and all that it had in store for me since listening beginning in 2011 and taking me 12 seasons to understand how blessed I am. I knew I was blessed, or I wouldn’t have stayed with it, but I mean just ecstatically blessed I am to have this to listen to. And it’s become a really good habit. If I can’t download it or if I have a glitch in my system I just have a little bit of a meltdown of not being able to listen to it when I want to listen to it, which is first thing in the morning while I’m getting ready to work. And double DABbing for two years and just loving it, loving it, loving it. And I just so appreciate every single person that has anything to do with this production because it is a production. It’s not just a podcast. It is a production. And I love you…I love you Jill, I love you Brian, I love China, I love Max, I love Ezekiel, I love every aspect of this family and I’m sorry I can’t remember the other boy’s names. And I’m just…love the Hardin’s, period. Amen. Happy new year. We will all be together in 2022. I love you.
Good afternoon family this is Incognito but not to God. I just completed listening to community prayer I believe the 26th…24th. I’m sorry it’s the 26th. Anyway, just really want to reach out to my family to pray for my daughter Genesis. She’s only 12 years old and she’s really struggling. Her world is rapidly becoming dark. She’s becoming withdrawn. She’s been bullied for a very long time and the sad part is that she’s been bullied at church, she’s been bullied at school, she’s been bullied in my family. So, she is just done. And I really, I'm…I’m hurting for my child. She’s becoming more aggressive, and angry towards those that hurt her. And I…it’s just…just spiraling like, you know, out of control and I need help and prayer for my child. Eyes of a Dove, I believe that’s your name, I’ve been praying for Brayden and fasting with you. If you don’t mind adding my…my Genesis to your list and praying that you will p[ray for my Genesis too as I pray for you because she’s struggling with all those things, identity as well. She just…she’s just…oh…so upset and depressed that life has been so hard on her. So, I just want to pray for everyone for all the prayers that are going up, I…
Hello everybody we’re sending you a very merry blessed Christmas. This is God’s Smile here and Peter and Tom. Hello Tom. Welcome to…he’s home for Christmas. Yeah. Welcome to DAB. Let’s sing. [singing starts] Thank you for saving me. What can I say? You are my everything and I will sing your praise. You shared your love for me. What can I say? You took my sin and shame a sinner called by name. Great is the Lord. Great is the Lord. For we know your truth has set us free. You set your hope in me [singing stops]. We’re so thankful today for the gift of life, for the gift of life in Jesus. And times ticking away again. Say goodbye Peter. Bye-bye Peter. Say goodbye Tom. See you later. And kiss kiss from me…