Genesis 8:1-10:32, Matthew 4:12-25, Psalm 4:1-8, Proverbs 1:20-23
Today is the fourth day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you on the fourth day of our journey and it takes a minute to get moved in, but we are establishing the rhythm that will carry us through the year, and part of that rhythm is apparent, we’re reading from the Old Testament and then the New Testament and then the Psalms and then the Proverbs each day. And since we began four different books on day one, we’ve been talking about the different books that we’re reading. So, we talked about Genesis and then Matthew. And yesterday, we talked about Psalms and so when we get to the Proverbs reading, we’ll talk about the Proverbs and then we’ll be moved in to the territory that we’re covering right now. So, let’s get started we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today, Genesis chapters 8, 9 and 10.
Introduction to Proverbs:
Okay so, this brings us to our reading from Proverbs today, the last of the books that we’re moving into and so let’s talk about Proverbs. We have already talked about Proverbs being the voice of wisdom, the fact that it is practical and speaks practically to our human existence. The book of Proverbs is a part of a grouping of books that are found in the Old Testament, that are found in the Bible. So, when we talked about Genesis, we said they’re a part of, Genesis is a part of a grouping of books known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Proverbs is a part of a grouping of books known as wisdom literature. This is the genre of the book of Proverbs and the other books that are in the wisdom literature found in the Bible would be Ecclesiastes, Job, and part of Psalms. So, they’re called wisdom literature because, because of their style, because the genre. They’re intended to concisely speak a lesson that is valuable for shaping the way that we live our lives. So, for example, the Gospels, like the book of Matthew that we’re reading in the New Testament, this is in narrative style. So, it reads like a story, this happen and then next this happened and although I may skip around some, we’re kind of basically following a storyline. Wisdom literature, whether direct statement or in a parable type form, is trying to teach a specific lesson. It’s clear what it’s trying to teach and the book of Proverbs or the Proverbs that are found collected together in a book known as Proverbs are largely attributed to Solomon, who was known as the wisest man on earth, a person that we’ll get to know pretty well, as we continue the journey into the Bible. There are other voices in the book of Proverbs, including the voice of wisdom itself or herself I should say because that’s how the book of Proverbs introduces the voice of wisdom to us, in a feminine voice as we’ll see. Now were dealing with a lot of ancient books as we read the Bible. So, try to piece together how all of these books came to be and when they came to be and by whom, who was involved and what was going on, sometimes that’s difficult, in fact more than sometimes, it’s typically difficult. So, scholars look at these texts from all different kinds of angles trying to say what can be said and leaving conjecture and speculation to people who do that sort of thing. It seems that the Proverbs probably began as oral tradition. A lot of the sayings, probably, because it’s human wisdom of the ages, a lot of these sayings probably predate even Solomon but were eventually collected together and Solomon had a great hand in that, but it seems as if the collection that we now know as the book of Proverbs may not have been collected together in a collection like this until around the time of King Hezekiah, which is also somebody that we have the fortune of getting to know as we continue the Bible. Now, obviously the book of Proverbs is in the Bible and so, the spiritual and religious connotations are there, it’s included in the canon of Scripture. The Proverbs speaks very directly and very deeply to the human experience, the experience of our lives and offers the wisdom of the ages to us. Proverbs tells us whatever you do, get wisdom. And we just stop there, whatever you do, get wisdom because wisdom is a more valuable thing than anything else you could go after and the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the starting point of wisdom. And so today, Proverbs chapter 1 verses 20-23.
Commentary:
Okay, so in the book of Genesis we have experienced the flood and the end of the flood. In the book of Matthew, we are beginning to see the development of the ministry of Jesus, we are seeing that he is beginning to call together a band of brothers that are known as the disciples, but he’s calling them right away from their vocation. Most of these guys are around the Sea of Galilee and are fishermen by trade, He’s calling them and what we witness, that’s pretty extraordinary is, He’s calling to them and they’re leaving everything behind to follow after Him, which is an important distinction about being a disciple. It doesn’t mean that we need to get skilled in fishing and buy a boat and then wait for the call Jesus so that we can leave it all behind. It means that we’re not holding on to anything so tightly that it prohibits us from following Jesus, which is an important thing to think about and the Psalms tell us to think, tremble and do not sin, when you are on your beds search our hearts and be silent. One of the things for us to consider in our relationship with God is exactly what is it that’s in our lives that prohibits us from going all in, because we’re gonna see in great detail in the Scriptures that that’s what’s required, that we go all in and the Scriptures will show us that that’s exactly what God did on our behalf. He went all in on us and came in person, in the person of Jesus, which we’re beginning to learn about in the book of Matthew.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word and we invite Your Holy Spirit into what we’ve read today and we ask again as we will ask over and over that You will plant the Scriptures in the soil of our hearts and that we may collaborate with You in weeding out the things that don’t belong there, so that we are good soil, so that the fruit of the Spirit is abundant and spilling out from us into the world. And so, we invite Your Holy Spirit here even at the beginning of the year to begin to reveal to us the things that would prohibit us, things that may be in our lives that are find, they’re not evil or anything like that, they’re just distractions. Give us perspective, give us a glimpse of what life could be like if we became openhanded and then there is nothing that we are clinging to too tightly that we are looking to, to bring us life. Nothing other than You, Holy Spirit, we invite You into that as we continue our journey forward and we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it is the website and it is where you find out what’s going on around here and now, we’re moved into the different books so we talked about Psalms yesterday. We talked about Proverbs today. I just want to remind you that there are companions to the Daily Audio Bible. The Daily Audio Psalm, which is about five minutes a day. The Daily Audio Proverb, allowing us to go through the entire book of Proverbs each month just a couple of minutes a day, a chapter a day. So, these are kind of like, if the Daily Audio Bible is this Community that we’re coming together and we’re immersing ourselves in the Scriptures than Daily Audio Psalm and Daily Audio Proverb are like vitamins. One that we can take a lunch and one that we could take at dinner, depending on when it is that we’re engaging with the Scriptures in the rhythm of our lives, the resource is there and it makes a difference. If we start interacting with wisdom, for example, in the book of Proverbs and it becomes a rhythm and it’s something that we invest a couple of minutes a day toward but we keep pouring this unfiltered wisdom, wisdom that has stood the test of time, wisdom that is ancient and deep and very applicable to our lives. We start pouring that into our hearts, it’s gonna do something. We’re gonna start being able to recall things when we face sets of circumstances where we have, tried-and-true reactions, we begin to realize that we live reactionary so much of the time. So, much of our lives is spent reacting to something somebody has done toward us, or some set of circumstances that have materialized and are right in front of us, problems that we have to deal with. If we are wise though and if we are pouring wisdom into our lives, we don’t have to just react blindly, allowing emotion to take over, like maybe somebody says something to us at work or at home that we don’t like, and so our tried-and-true reaction is to get big and get strong and get loud and put it down and get into a big fight, when wisdom might tell us to handle this a completely different way. So, Daily Audio Proverb and Daily Audio Psalms are available in the Daily Audio Bible app, so check them out.
And speaking of the app, if you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app, you can download it free from whatever app store is applicable to the device that you’re using. The Daily Audio Bible app was developed and continues to be developed over years with the intention that the Community around the Global Campfire here is in the palm of our hands. So, with the app, that’s where you find the Hotline button where we can share from anywhere in the world. The app allows you to track your progress as we move through the Scriptures. So, if there is a missed day, somewhere along the way, you can kind of find that and check off the days that you’ve listened to.
And I’ve been mentioning over the last couple days the different groupings that are in the Bible. The Bible is broken down for, for ease of understanding the genres and the material that we’re going through. So, as we complete different sections of the Bible and as we’re kind of checking off the days that were listened to, listening to, when we reach a threshold where we’ve completed a section, then the app gives us an achievement, a little badge that shows us, we have completed that section of the Bible and it helps, it helps us engage and it helps us to kind of understand and interact with what we’re reading. So, if you’re not already, this is a great time right here at the beginning of the year to look at the Daily Audio Bible app and it’s free. There are no gimmicks about it. Its mission is to help us on the journey through the Bible and to connect us together in Community, while we’re doing it. So, check that out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you are using the 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 that we were just talking about in the app, the little red Hotline 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.