Micah 1:1-4:13, Revelations 6:1-17, Psalm 134:1-3, Proverbs 30:1-4
Today is the 15th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. It’s great to be here with you every day or any day, and I’m glad that we have this place that we call the Global Campfire to…to be together and take the next step forward together. Yesterday, we were able to experience the book of Jonah in its entirety, which means that we get to move into some new territory yet again today and that territory will be the book of Micah and we’ll get to camp out here for a couple of days.
Introduction to the Book of Micah:
Micah is the sixth of the 12 minor prophets. And since we’re going through the entire Bible, then will go through all 12 of the minor prophets. So, we’re kind of approaching the halfway point through the minor prophets. We don’t know very much about Micah, outside of the book of Micah but we do know some things. Micah’s name means who is like God and we know from the text, he was from the town of Moresheth and many scholars associate that with Moresheth Gatt which would put him in the lowlands, the Shephelah among the southern villages in the kingdom of Judah. And as Micah begins, we’re told that the Lord gave His message to Micah of Moresheth during the years when Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Judah. The visions he saw concerned both Samaria and Jerusalem. But that gives us a bunch of information. The capital city of the northern kingdom was Samaria, the capital of the southern kingdom was Jerusalem, and the time of certain kings is named. So, we know who he is speaking about, and we know roughly when and that would put in probably in the early decades of the eighth century BC. We also know that Micah has a brief mention in the book of Jeremiah and that’s like a century later, so that lets us know that Micah’s prophecies were preserved and were still being referenced a century later. And Micah will follow the same general pattern that many of the prophets do; there are first prophetic utterances about doom and destruction and judgment, followed by a message of hope and restoration. In Micah this happens three times and within the text of Micah are promises of a coming deliverer, and that coming messianic deliverer is associated with Jesus. So, for example, in the book of Matthew, Micah is quoted, “but you O Bethlehem Efratah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah, yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past will come from you on my behalf.” And even Jesus, our Savior, quoted from the text in Micah describing…describing his own ministry, and the disruption that it brings. He says don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth, I came not to bring peace but a sword. This is Jesus quoting from the book of Micah. And what we’ll see in Micah is that God is angry, like He is very displeased with corruption, idolatry, rebellion and the exploitation of the less fortunate. He’s very displeased about it, but He’s even more passionate about putting things back together, about bringing hope and restoration for those who keep the covenant. So, with that, let’s begin the book of Micah, we’ve been reading from the English Standard Version this week, which is what will continue to do, Micah chapters 1 through 4 today.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for Your kindness, we thank You for Your love, we thank You for our lives, we thank You that we have the Scriptures, and they point us toward You, and that we have been welcome into an intimate relationship with You. We are beyond grateful. Words fail us. There is no vocabulary that can describe anything but a mere glimpse of Your power, Your might, Your Majesty. And yet You know each of us by name and are fathering us and leading us, and part of the way You are doing that is allowing us to come together and feast upon Your word each and every day. And we are grateful for this. And so, Holy Spirit, plant what we have read today into our lives, into our hearts, today and every day, that it might cleanse us and correct us and direct us forward, on the narrow path that leads to life. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is the website and its where you find out what’s going on around here. There’s always stuff but it’s Christmas time and so it’s Christmas that’s going on around here. And so, I will mention just for the last couple of days until well, until it’s Christmas week, that the Daily Audio Bible Family Christmas Box for 2022 is still available and we’ll still be shipping it. We’ll do are, kind of last Christmas shipping, at the very, very beginning of next week. And so, we’re down to these final days. And I invite you to check out all the stuff we’ve crammed into the box for this year. You can find it at dailyaudiobible.com or in the app by going to the Shop and in the Shop is a Christmas category and the Christmas box is in the Christmas category. And so, check that out. And our annual Christmas party is…is coming soon, within the next couple of days. So, watch out for that. That will just, that will just show up right where you go to get the Daily Audio Bible every day. That will just show up as an additional episode and so excited for our annual Christmas party. And so, try to get that out here with the next day or two if possible. So, watch for that.
And lastly, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If moving through the Bible in community around the Global Campfire has been life-giving this year. Thank you, humbly for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together as a community and so thank you, humbly. 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 P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hey DAB family, this is Danny from Southern Oregon. I have been just saturating myself with Hardin family. Brian, I am so glad that you mentioned Jill’s song Do You Hear What I Hear because I’ve never listened to it before and wow! Oh my gosh, it is so good. It’s the best rendition I have ever heard. And it’s so exciting, I just get, I just get like full of energy when I listen to it. Oh, and then I love her, O Holy Night too. I’ve been listening to that, since it came out and been going to sleep with Max’s Christmas album. And you know, our roads are pretty icy and snowy and it’s a little bit tense driving and so, I’ve been putting on your heart album while I’m driving and it just calms me, relaxes me, reminds me that God is with me, no matter what and I love it. And I’m also loving the sleep album. So, just want to thank you, whole family for everything that you do to make our lives better and bring us closer to Jesus. You guys are so amazing. Thank you.
Hello DAB family. Guess what, Dr. John from Jordon, New York and I am grandpa Dr. John. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Sarah had Ezra Keegan Scott Allie on November 27 after three days of induction, they elected to do a cesarean section, which was likely a really good idea because he was 9 pounds and 13 ounces. That little chunk-a-roo came out with the wrist roles. He is so stinking cute, and I see lots of babies and I know cute and he’s like pegging the cuteness scale. So anyway, thank you all for your prayers. Sarah and Ezra are both doing well. And Papa Joshua is popping buttons. So, as is Papa, I’m going by Papa and yeah, it’s awesome. So, thank you very much. Dr. John signing off, bye bye.
Hello fellow members of the Daily Audio Bible family. It is I, Lawrence the Slow Boat. Sometimes, I get behind but not lately. Sometimes, I actually turned the boat around and revisit prayers and people that I’ve stared on the DAB app. In doing this, I am struck by the troubles of man and especially our young men and by the anxieties, helplessness, and the deep grief of those who love them. Believe me, I have lived through this. So, I want to start by encouraging Mikayla from Gloucester for the love she shows her nephew Taylor. And I pray for Betty from Hamburg in the turmoil of her son Nathan’s mind after his period of catatonia. And also, for Rich in Arkansas, who on October 15th had not had one good word in the past week and cries out for help. And for Yolanda and her son bullied and beaten so cruelly. And for Kevin displaced to the United Kingdom, wondering if God has forgotten him. And for Brian and his son Mitchell, oh Brian, I know, I hear your torment as you feel you can do nothing for Mitchell. For the man, just released from 23 years in prison and who now feels so alone, my prayers for you be incense rising up to God’s throne.
Hello Daily Audio Bible friends and family. I’m Israel from Lancaster and I’m calling because I need prayer. I just got COVID and have been fortunate enough not to catch it, until now. However, I am concerned. So, I’m reaching out to my family in Christ. And I thank you in advance for your prayers. And just know, that I also pray for your petitions. And I want to thank Brian and the whole family, for what they do in this great ministry. I appreciate every one of you and love you as well and I thank you.
Good morning DAB family. This is Consider It Pure Joy in Ohio. Got the four mutts here, with their jiggling collars in the background. And I’m convicted by the fact that on December 6, I didn’t pray for People On the Water. You see, my 23-year-old, getting ready to graduate from college, has a very similar struggle. It’s not a struggle, it's…it’s maturity. Has the process that she’s going through, and she’s looked around the last four or five years, seen a lot of people who call themselves Christians, not be very Christian-like. She has been around relationships that have disappointed her. She’s seen really bad things happen to really good people. She’s just struggling with her purpose and what I thought I planned, and what God’s intent really is. Tate, I I appreciated your comments around meeting someone with skin on. What a statement, what a comment. So, today, People On the Water, Tate, your family, I’d say all of us, pray for this generation that has had to go through so much over the past four or five years, in a time that is so foreign to us. And I pray that their…their eyes be open, that their hearts be changed, or in People On the Waters case, encouraged. And I pray that we be those people to do that. So, God bless you all. Love you all, you’re fantastic. Thank you, Brian. What a ministry. God bless. Bye Bye.
Trying to be the man that I though you wanted me to be
Caused me not to be the man I should have been
But women are just one of the many of weaknesses of men
I’ve allowed many things in this life to set the standard for my own validation
And when I failed to measure up,
they became a source of frustration, aggravation, worriation as well as pride, ego and self-esteem deflation
And I really can’t blame anybody else for the things that I do
Even though all of us are victims, it’s true
We’re all dealing with forces outside of our control
Trying hard to rob us of our eternal soul
And we often can’t even see it because we’re too full of ourselves
Trying hard to dodge our daily past, present and future hells
That’s why I thank You, Father for giving me eyes to see
That all we really need in this life, is Thee
And you created us to lead, not follow, to taste but not swallow
Because it’s the Holy Spirit, our constant friend
Comforter, counselor, that still small voice within
Telling us to seek first the kingdom and everything else will be added
Because we serve a High Priest that’s already had it
Jesus said He had a cross to bear and that we would have one too
And every day that statement is being proven true
Father, please, give us wings and eyes of faith
So we can rise above and see beyond those places that the world is telling us are safe
Blindtony1016@gmail.com And once again Brian and the Hardin Family, thank you for this wonderful podcast, for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowing ya’ll. Alright, bye bye.