Genesis 3:1-4:26, Matthew 2:13-3:6, Psalm 2:1-12, Proverbs 1:7-9
Today is the second day of January, which makes it day number two on our journey through the Bible this year. Step two of the 365 steps, welcome back. It is fantastic to be here with you today as we take the next step forward together, which is what we will repeatedly do all the way through this journey. And so, as we were talking about yesterday, we’re just moving in, we’re just getting into the rhythm and it takes a week to kind of get into this rhythm and get everything unpacked and get ourselves situated with what’s going on and get comfortable for the journey. And one of the things that we went through yesterday was the fact that the way that the Daily Audio Bible works is a little Old Testament a little bit from the New Testament a little bit from the Psalms and a little bit from the Proverbs each day and when we encounter a new book, when we finish one book and go into the next book, we always kind of fly over and give ourselves a little bit of orientation, a little bit of a overview of the territory that we’re heading into. And so, as we began the year yesterday, we began four different books so we’ll take four different days to kind of move into the rhythm that we’re in, we talked about the book of Genesis yesterday. When we get to our New Testament portion in the book of Matthew today, we’ll talk about Matthew and it won’t be long before we are acclimated but one thing, we do is to keep the main thing before us, which is the next step forward in the Scriptures. And so, let’s dive in. We began the book of Genesis yesterday by reading chapters 1 and two. Today, Genesis chapters three and four.
Introduction to Matthew:
Okay so, this brings us to our New Testament portion of our reading today and back into the book of Matthew, so, let’s talk about Matthew a little bit. If you remember yesterday when we started Genesis I said, Genesis is a part of a grouping of books known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, the first five books in the Old Testament. Matthew is similar, it is a part of a grouping of books, the first four books of the New Testament, known as the Gospels: Matthew Mark Luke and John. These are the four Gospels in the New Testament, Matthew is also part of kind of a sub group of the Gospels known as the synoptic Gospels, those being: Matthew, Mark and Luke. And by the way, all of these groupings they been made over time for reference sake, for consolidating the material, like the Gospels being, Matthew, Mark and Luke aren’t self-authenticated in the Bible that these are known as the Gospels or that the Torah is known as the Torah, but these groupings of been around a very, very long time so, they were just invented last night either. So, back to the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke they are known as the Synoptics because they are very, very similar they you have differences, but they’re very, very similar. They have a lot of the same stories, although they tell them and nuanced ways, some having more detail than others and the vast majority of biblical scholars would say that the original, the first gospel written was likely the gospel of Mark and then the gospel of Matthew and Luke following about a decade-ish later maybe 15 years, give or take. We…we have no have knowing like precise dates unless they’re given in the Scriptures and so most scholars believe that the…the writers of Matthew and Luke had the oral traditions that were going around the stories that were being told all over the place about Jesus, but also the gospel of Mark as the basis for the text. The gospel of Matthew is aimed at a Hebrew audience, Jewish people. And as we take our journey through the Bible, we’re gonna get really clear on biblical texts that are aimed specifically at Hebrew readers. For example, we understand that Matthew’s primary audience is Hebrew people because it quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures. What we know as the Old Testament, more than any of the other Gospels do and one of the primary things that the gospel of Matthew does is reveal the way in which Jesus fulfills prophecies of long ago, prophecies found in the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament. In fact, if you watch it’s really hard to not find Jesus fulfilling some sort of prophecy in the gospel of Matthew because it’s very repetitive but even beyond Jesus fulfilling ancient prophecies, we get our first chance to get to know Jesus in the first gospel, we begin to get an understanding or a sense of personality and the communication style of Jesus and his demeanor. There are over 20 parables that we encounter in the gospel of Matthew and a parable is sort of like an illustration story and it’s really beautiful. I mean, think about it, if you are presented with a page full of facts you can read those facts and that will be the data that you might need. But if you read those facts written into a narrative form that tells you a story and that connects to your heart and give you emotion and you can kind of see it in your mind, well then those facts actually might stick and cause change or growth in our lives. And we also need to remember that Jesus primarily was ministering to people who were illiterate, they weren’t scholars, they were disenfranchised, marginalized people who were trying to survive. So, Jesus using parables to communicate is beautiful but this teaching style of unpacking things through parable is also the style of a wisdom teacher, which is one of the things Jesus was known as. We as believers now, it’s easy enough for us to say now Jesus is the son of God, He’s the Savior of the world. But when Jesus came people didn’t understand all this and that’s part of what the New Testament unpacks for us is how we got here, how this came to be. So, Jesus was known as a lot of things, a wisdom teacher, a prophet, a apocalyptic profit, the Messiah and then of course, the son of God. The other thing to observe in Matthew as well as the rest of the Gospels, are the words that Jesus uses to describe and discuss the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, and the fact that it is near and the people hearing Jesus as he spoke these messages from village to village would’ve found such comfort because they were poor, marginalized, crushed people. So, to be told that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, tremendous encouragement there and that encouragement can come into our own lives and souls, maybe we’re feeling crushed by life and maybe it’s time for us to hear those words, the kingdom of heaven is among you. And so, with that, let’s dive into the New Testament for today, which will be Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 through 3 verse 6.
Commentary:
Okay so, we have just accomplished the second day’s reading. And from the book of Genesis, we were told profound things about what happened to us. So, we’re just on day two the context for the Scriptures are laid out as well as the context for life, human life on planet Earth until this very day is laid out. So, in the third chapter of Genesis we read the story that we, more popularly, know as the fall of man. Mankind’s willing decision to disobey God, which sets up our understanding for why we would read the Gospels and the story of the son of God made flesh in the person of Jesus. So, mankind, Adam and Eve, are made perfect, they are perfect people, sin is not a part of the story. They have perfect intimacy in union with one another and with God and with the creation that God had made and placed them in the middle of. And so, although it’s so short, we’re just getting started, we have a small glimpse into how it was supposed to be, shalom, this is a Hebrew word that we mostly know means peace, but shalom is this really encompassing thing, like the harmony and order of the world and the way that it was supposed to be, which certainly includes peace. So, the Lord had told Adam and Eve that they could eat from the tree of life like to be sustained forever, eternally but they were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And whether you’re a biblical scholar or not, it’s not hard to wonder about those trees. Why put that tree, like why make, why create this tree that nobody can eat from, why is that a part of the story at all. Why not just have it gone from the get-go, that is a question that has been attempted to be answered many, many times over many, many thousands of years. For me, it kind of boils down to this, think about love, think about relationship, think about your spouse that you love, or the person that you’re in love with, you can say to them, I love you. You can even say it super convincingly, I love you and that could be a lie. You can say something that isn’t true or we know from human history a person could be captured, enslaved, beaten down to the point that they would be willing to kiss your feet and tell you that they love you every time that they see you, even though they would do anything to escape you. People will conform their behavior and say anything depending on how dire the circumstances or the threats is. So actual, true, honest, real love is not something that somebody can beat you into doing and is not something that that can only be said, true love has to be given, it can’t even be bought right, people can sell their bodies and people can buy other people’s bodies or rent them for their own personal use. That’s not love. Love is given freely and it makes us vulnerable to the person that we love. We trust each other with each other’s hearts. Love, true love, true love, I’m seeing that scene from the Princess bride in my mind, but true love can’t be true if there’s no way out, if there’s no way out then we are enslaved in some sort of way. And this tree very well may have been the way out and they took it. And if we look at our own lives, we realize we have done the same thing over and over. They were deceived in the garden by the serpent, the serpent was offering a narrative to them that was a different reality than the one that they had lived in, they were living in perfection. The serpent came and said this God, you seem to love so much, He doesn’t want you eating from that tree because he knows that if you do, you will become like God, which is devastating deception because they already were. They were created in the image of God and were experiencing humanity as it was intended to be, perfect shalom. And the repercussions become very evident, very quickly. God comes in the cool of the evening looking for them. Where are you? And what was the response? I heard you coming, I was naked and so I hid. Does that not reflect our own lives, naked and ashamed, exposed and hiding? We’ve gotten so good at it over this, over the millennia that curating our lives and presenting only our best as our normal is sort of the way of things. We look at social media, we find that this is the place where we hide almost the most, but we are always curating and hiding something, naked, ashamed, hiding. And so, as the stories begin to come together and as we continue the stories in the New Testament, in the Gospels, we realize that Jesus, God made flesh came to restore us, we don’t have to hide anymore. We can be naked and unashamed before God. And isn’t that how true love works, naked and unashamed? We’ve been trying to be our own God for a long time and in the center of every soul we know this is not working but there is a way and Jesus will certainly reveal it to us, as we continue our journey through the New Testament.
Prayer:
And so Father, we thank You, thank You for bringing us two days now, just getting started but we thank You that we are here and You are speaking to us through the Scriptures which will not only orient us to You but also orient us to what is going on around us. So come, Holy Spirit and all the we’ve read today, plant it in our hearts. We’re at the beginning of this journey but we want to continue to plant seeds into the soil of our lives so that they yield a harvest, a better life, a life where we’re not hidden, where we’re not hiding and ashamed, but rather looking at the example that Jesus has provided for us. We learn how to be true. Come Jesus, we pray, in your name 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. We got a brand-new year and that’s what’s going on, we’re moving into this brand-new year. So, just as we’re going through the books that we’ve begun over the course of several days, we’ve just begun to unpack different things about the Daily Audio Bible over the next few days. So, you’re listening to the Daily Audio Bible right now. The Daily Audio Bible has a number of channels, you can go through the Bible chronologically with my wife Jill and my daughter China at Daily Audio Bible Chronological. Or there is Daily Audio Bible Kids going through the New Testament with my son Ezekiel, who is a kid and a pretty amazing one at that. So, Ezekiel certainly has a lot of kids listening to the New Testament before bedtime or on the way to school or whatever, but lots of adults listen to. It’s something very, very, very pure about hearing the Scriptures from the lips of a child. There’s also the Daily Audio Psalm which is basically a Psalm a day, a couple minutes a day pouring the Psalms into our lives. There’s also the Daily Audio Proverb. Proverbs, we haven’t talked about Proverbs yet but we will day after tomorrow because reading from the Proverbs is part of our daily rhythm. But we take a bite-size portion of the Proverbs and we’ll see that a bite-size is enough on plenty of days one sentence from the Proverbs can speak volumes into our lives. But Daily Audio Proverb goes through a chapter of Proverbs each day, five minutes or less we’re talking, which allows us to move through the entire book of Proverbs each month. It’s like a five minute or less investment of time but we are pouring unfiltered wisdom of the ages from the Scriptures into our minds and let and allow it to seep down into our hearts and as we get to know the voice of wisdom than when we find those crossroads where we need wisdom we have wisdom, we’ve been investing into achieving wisdom, which is indeed a worthwhile venture. The Bible tells us that wisdom is more valuable than any other thing that we could achieve. So, it’s worth it. And then we have several other channels that are in languages that are not English. For example, Daily Audio Bible in Española, our Spanish team has been at this over a decade, every day bringing the Scriptures in Spanish as well as the Psalms and the Proverbs. So, if Spanish is your native language and you want to move through in Spanish you can find those channels in the Daily Audio Bible app or using the online player. Also, we have the Scriptures in their entirety, as well as Psalms and Proverbs separately in French. There’s also a Daily Audio Bible Japanese and Arabic and Portuguese and Mandarin. So, if you speak those languages, you can check those out. There’s a lot of ways to engage with the Scriptures. So, check them out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, and we have a mission here and the mission is to bring the spoken Scriptures, read fresh every day and given freely to whoever will listen to them, wherever they may be on this planet, regardless of what time of day or night it might be and to build community around that rhythm so that this is not just a solitary endeavor that we’re going to slog through the Bible and finally read every word in it, but we’re going to do it together in community, we’re not alone. We don’t have to feel alone, either in the Scriptures or in life. And if that makes a difference in your life then thank you for your partnership, we’re a community, we’re in this together. If we weren’t in this together, we wouldn’t be in this at all. So, thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
And if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that is a little red button up at the top of the app screen, you can’t miss it. You hit that button and no matter where you are in the world, you can reach out for prayer 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello, it’s God is my Judge from Australia. And, I’m calling in for the first time. Today, after hearing, you know, that on the 21st of December that it was Brian’s parents anniversary and it just got me thinking, well, I chose that day to listen to, I was a little bit behind. And I chose that day cause it was also my wedding anniversary. In the 3rd in which I have been online and my husband has left me and each year it’s a difficult day just before Christmas. And I know that there’s many people out there who are experiencing similar problems. And my heart goes out to them, particularly Lord. I think of them and pray for them regularly. I just haven’t asked for prayer Lord, I am still fighting for my marriage, praying for marriage daily. I can’t say that I will ever stop. And I just, would appreciate the prayers of the DAB family all over the world. Yeah no, just thank you for everything, for all the shares, the thoughts you share and the prayers, it’s just helps me to, it just helps me with my walk with the Lord daily. Thank you.
Hello, my DAB family, this is Mark Street from Sydney, Australia. Today is the 26th, Boxing Day. And I just really wanted to ring in for a praise report. Just quickly, we found out on Christmas Day that my daughter had been exposed directly to somebody with COVID. And while we were at our Christmas party so, today, on Boxing Day, we decided we also needed to go and get a COVID test. So, we went to the COVID testing center at 630 in the morning, cause it opens at 7 and the lines are so long here as well. We were 1 and ½ hours in waiting and I said to my daughter, looks like I’m gonna miss out taking my mum to mass today, cause this is gonna take a couple more hours to get tested. And as I just finished saying that that statement, that I was gonna miss mass, one of the COVID testers opened up a second line and beckoned us to go through and we bypassed a whole heap of people, probably over an hour and 15 minutes from waiting. People looking envious and we legally got in and got tested within the next 15 minutes. And I was able to take my mother to mass and enjoy the rest of the day. So, praise God, he hears even the little things as you see. And my daughter was absolutely amazed and she said, it was when you said you were gonna miss mass, that’s when it happened and we were the first in the new line. So, praise God for all the little things. Love you, family. Mark Street from Sydney, Australia.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is Renzo in Florida. And I just wanna pray for the DABer, one of the DABers. Her name is Jody and I just pray, Father God, I just pray for Jody in Texas, Lord God, I just pray for her husband that is struggling with physical disease, Lord God. I just pray in the name of Jesus that You just completely heal Jody’s husband, Lord God. In Your name, it’s all Your power, Jesus, thank You for everything. And Father God, just pray to, I just pray that, You just help them to just keep seeking you and let them to feel Your presence God. Help them to not feel alone. And thank You Jesus for everything. In Your name we pray. Amen. Yeah, and DABers, if you guys could pray for me, I feel like, it’s like a weird time of the year cause like, the years ending and it’s like bitter sweet. Like, so like I’m happy and then I’m not because it’s like the end of the year. But I mean, I like, yeah, so if you guys could just pray for me as I go into the next year to just keep my eyes on Jesus’s face and keep seeking Him. And just pray for me as my future. And I want to encourage you guys with this verse, Isaiah 41:10 Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. God Bless you guys. Jesus loves you, I love you too. Thanks and have a great, hope you guys have a Happy New Year. God Bless you.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible, first-time caller, Kim from Indiana. I am asking if you would join me in prayer for my sister Tina. She had a double transplant last year and was doing well but graft host disease has taken over and attacked her bone marrow. She’s been told it’s a terminal condition and I just appreciate your prayers for her healing. I love you.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. I’m so happy to get to talk with you. I just finished Christmas. I want to say that I included a little card about DAB in all my Christmas cards. And I’ve actually had several people comment on that, I’ve done that for the past few years. I’ve been listening now for 13 years. I have very good memories of my husband waking early in the morning and reading Brian’s first book and starting to listen to DAB and that’s what got us listening so many years ago, and we’ve been doing it ever since. I got my dad to listen and one day he told me that one of his favorite parts is the prayer request at the end. And funny is that’s the thing that I would sometimes not listen all the way through and I asked him why and he said that it just really keeps his heart soft to hear other people and it keeps his heart humble and that really blessed me and now I always listen to the end or I try to. I wanted to pray for Josie in Texas and Father, I pray for Josie and her husband who is in the hospital and I pray Lord for physical and spiritual healing. I pray that You would meet all of their needs Father and that they would know You better Lord, through all of this. I pray for Emily and Jim in Texas and in Wales and their first Christmas apart and I just pray Lord, what a beautiful story how they both received DAB boxes and I just pray that You would prove to be their close, close friend during all this, and that they would know you better and love you more. Alright, talk to you soon, this is Mountain Girl in New Mexico.
Morning DAB family this is Jimmy from the East Coast calling for Irene. I am a little, a lot, behind I will…I will catch up. So, week between Christmas and new year. I’m calling for young lady name Irene who’s 17, born in Zambia and was adopted to a Caucasian family and he’s facing the reality that there are some people who will discriminate for your skin. I had a similar background. Not exactly the same but when I was young, I went to London, I lived with a Caucasian lady for a long time and had a wonderful, like introduction to the different world and though I still live with my…my birth family and I’m grown now, I’ve been treated very well and have myself a child and he’s mixed it and I feel, I get it. This past year has been best couple years been scary in my struggle was to just keep an open heart and not let it drag me down because don’t let the enemy’s sell you a narrative that everyone is bad or is awful. And you already know that because you’ve had those great, even down South had those great interactions and just know that God is with you and God is protecting you and God is brought you in the situation that you are for a reason and as a mechanism of love and change and he will always be there. I’m praying for you. I’m praying for you because I went to a college that is predominantly white too, so I know, just…just know that God loves you and know that your special. I’m praying for you always, always.