Zechariah 10:1-11:17, Revelation 18:1-24, Psalm 146:1-10, Proverbs 30:33
Today is the 27th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is fantastic to be here with you today, around the Global Campfire as we navigate through this in between week. Such strange week between Christmas and New Year’s, as we move past December, like move past the holiday season, but immediately prepare our hearts to move into a brand-new, sparkly year. And I can think of no better place to be informed about what’s coming next than in the Scriptures in community around the Global Campfire together. So, it is awesome to be here with you today, and let’s take the next step forward together. Our next step leads us back into the book of Zechariah. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and today, Zechariah chapters 10 and 11.
Commentary:
Okay so, we are navigating through this final week of the year together, and I can feel it, I can feel it today and I know it will just increase. I can feel a fresh start coming like I know that a brand-new year is coming and this week between Christmas and New Year’s, this is the time where we begin to think about what that’s gonna look like. Maybe we just renewed our gym membership today, thinking about what the New Year’s gonna look like. This is the time when we think about that or we’re watching video documentaries or reading books on a more healthy lifestyle or a more organic lifestyle or a simpler lifestyle. Maybe the New Year will get here and we’re gonna throw everything away become minimalist. We start thinking about these kinds of things, what’s coming next. Because we know and New Year’s coming. Maybe this is the year where my spouse and I, we finally, like some of these things that we’ve constantly been tripping over, we can finally get past those things and grow together. Maybe I’m gonna get that…that job promotion this year. Interestingly enough, most of the things that we think about that become our New Year’s resolutions, have a lot to do with us and have a lot to do with our exterior lives. So, I just remind us, the same as when we started this journey at the beginning of the year, there is a book in the Bible. It’s called Proverbs and it is full of the voice of wisdom, wisdom that has stood the test of time, wisdom that is at every crossroads. So, at every decision we have to make, wisdom is there, pointing the way, if we’re even paying attention. But Proverbs is a resource that can speak into the interior life that we live. And Proverbs is very accessible. It’s the wisdom that has stood the test of time. In one sentence, often it can tell us where we are, where that’s going to lead us, what we should do about it. Even if we look at the one sentence Proverb that we just read today, there is a ton for us, “for as churning cream produces butter and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.” So, there are three things that get produced in this Proverb: butter, blood and strife. And it’s not all that complicated to process what’s being said here. We know that churning cream produces butter right, probably. If you didn’t know that that’s where butter comes from. And as twisting the nose produces blood, we’ve probably had a bloody nose in our lives. In the same way, stirring up anger produces strife. So, a fantastic reminder, a good piece of wisdom to carry forward with us, but just think about it. If we’re thinking about New Year’s resolutions, at the top of that list may be to lose 20 pounds and we may have a top 10 things we would like to see accomplished this year, but probably what’s not on that list is, I would like to experience significantly more conflict in the New Year. I would like that to begin in my marriage and then hopefully spill into my family, so that by the end of the year, we have caused so much conflict in our neighborhood that nobody will speak to anyone. That is probably on, no one’s New Year’s resolution list. So, if we want to experience less strife and conflict in our lives, then we have to stir up and participate in less anger. Right, because with the Proverb, the opposite is also true, not churning cream does not produce butter. Butter will not be produced without churning cream. A bloody nose will not be produced, if the nose isn’t twisted or punched or knocked in some sort of way to produce the blood. So, strife and conflict will not be produced, if anger isn’t stirred up. And so, maybe stirring up less anger or finding ways to have less anger stirred up within us might, be just as valuable of a New Year’s resolution as losing 20 pounds is. The Proverbs can give us the wisdom that we need to think about, the things that we need to think about and ask the questions that we need to ask of ourselves. So, I just remind us again of things like Daily Audio Proverb, a couple minutes a day moving through the entire book of Proverbs, every single month, pouring that wisdom into our lives, a dozen times in a year, may be something that we should consider, maybe becoming wise is worth putting on the list.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You once again for Your word and the way that it works in our lives. We thank You for the wisdom that is contained in the book of Proverbs. We thank You for what the book of Proverbs brought into our story and in our lives today. And each of us desire wisdom. Wisdom in life and Your wisdom. And we can come about that the hard way, through the school of hard knocks or we can simply decide I need to immerse myself in wisdom, so that I might learn and become wise and put it into practice. This is our desire, Lord. Lead us on the pathways of righteousness, lead us to be wise sons and daughters of Your kingdom, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, here in the remaining days of our year, the few remaining days we have left, thank you deeply and 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.
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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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hey family, this is Malisa calling from Albertville, Alabama. I just finished the Christmas Party and oh my goodness, so many voices I haven’t heard in a long time. Pamela, from Alberta, you didn’t give your name, but I know it’s you. I heard a sister, Unwavering in North Carolina and I’m wondering if you were Jillian’s mom. I remember praying for her some years ago. She had a brain tumor. If you are, I want you to know, I never stopped praying for that baby. And I welcome you back to the DAB. Brian and Jill, thank you so much. This is so beautiful. It’s amazing how we are a family, yet we’ve never met. And I heard that Pelim passed, and I didn’t even know. I had been sick during the week he passed, and I pulled up his obituary and I saw his face for the first time. I knew his voice, but I never seen his face. So ya’ll, let’s continue to love each other, lift each other up, pray for each other. Again, thank you Brian and Jill and family for this beautiful, beautiful ministry that you’re doing for the body of Christ. I love you family. Bye Bye.
Good morning, this message is for God is With Me. I heard your message yesterday afternoon. It hasn’t been, it’s a little over 12 hours, I believe, since I heard the message, maybe 18. Doesn’t even matter, I felt you then and in my prayer time this morning, I feel you again. My heart goes out to your son and the situation. My prayer is that God would as He heals, as He brings peace, as He delivers, as He eases the pain, brings comfort, just allow His presence to be felt. That He would turn the situation completely around. Expose the enemy for his nonsense and foolishness. And that your family would be a ministry that brings healing, deliverance and comfort to others that don’t know the Christ that you know. I love you. I’m sorry and I will continue to pray for you and with you. I love your moniker, God is With Me, God indeed is with you. This is Pray without Ceasing. Have a good day.
Hey DAB family, this is Byron out in Florida. A lot of you have been calling in to pray for and encourage the father who called in about his son having to go into a program, he’s autistic. And I’ve just been listening to these calls, just thinking and praying. Because I too have a young son who’s moderately autistic and I think about that sort of stuff and what the future my hold. Sometimes his behavior is very difficult to control. We had to recently scrap our Thanksgiving plans at the last minute because we were concerned about people’s safety. And we ended up eating Chinese food and that was fine, but this is when he’s 8 years old. What happens when he hits puberty, what happens when he gets taller than me and stronger than me? I just dread the idea of having to do that. But as I listen to you all praying and encourage and share your own experiences, I get reminded that my son is safer in the will of God, outside of my home, than in my home and outside of His will. And so, I trust that, should that time come, this community will be here to pray and encourage, just as you had for this gentleman and that God’s glory will be seeing, no matter what. So, I just wanna say thank you to everyone who’s has called and encouraged because it’s effecting more than you know. Love you.
Precious greetings to my wonderful DAB family. This is Chicago Peg, and this was my first year enjoying the Christmas Party and just this has been more of a blessing then I even expected. And I just keep listening to each day, different parts of the day, I’ll just turn it on again and hear all of our wonderful family and I’m so touched to hear all the familiar voices, whom I love so much, and we pray together. And I appreciate you so very much. So, God bless each of you. The Hardin family and all my wonderful DABers. And Merry Christmas to each of you. And let us remember as you breath in His grace, breath out His praise. God Bless you DABers. And Chicago Peg, signing off. Talk to you soon.
Dear Beloved Daily Audio Bible family. My name is Tony in Sunny Florida. Calling this first time to unfold the story of how much God has touched, loved, drawn me closer to Him through yet another faceted teaching through the continuing journey of studying the Bible every day through this wonderful platform. I have been comforted immensely through this difficult year of losing my father to pancreatic cancer, a precious pet who was with me for 13 years to cancer, and to my own health concerns, which thankfully, prayers have been answered. This community has been instrumental in strengthening my commitment to my faith, discovery my mission in serving others in whatever circumstance I find myself in, and very importantly, listening to the heartfelt, passionate, honest prayers of this family of believers. What an honor, a privilege, a treasured blessing to be woven into the fibers of love and acceptance here. God bless all of you. May you continue to be in love with our heavenly Father with every breath. Merry Christ’s Birthday and Blessed New Year of hope.
Good morning DAB family, I was just listening this morning on the 22nd, to the prayer requests. The first one was from a man whose son is in an institution and he’s apart from his wife and the second one was a young man who’s struggling in his marriage. He admittedly said he has problems with anger and control Lord. It just really touched my heart to hear these men who are coming to you Lord. I too have been through divorce and it’s not a good thing. And it’s not a good thing for our children. So, Lord, I just pray and ask for You to intervene in these men’s lives. I thank You for them, that they are coming to You, Lord. That they are coming to the foot of the cross, these men. They know that You are the answer, Lord. That You are the one that can help. That You can change things, Lord. That You can change us. That You can change our hearts. That You can make us better people. That You can make our husbands or our wives’ better people, Lord, when we put You first. That we put You at the center of our marriages, at the center of our homes, at the head of the home. Lord God, help, help these men. Help them, let their wives, let their wives hear Your voice speaking to them, let their wives not be proud and full of spite, Lord. But let them turn to you, Lord, and forgive and that You bring complete reconciliation and heal this young mans son, who’s in an institution right now, Lord God. Just bring healing there. Father, just really touch my heart and I just really pray for them and ask for You to do something, Lord. Cause You are greater than all these things. You are the great and mighty God. Amen.
Revelation Deep Dive - Part 9
Okay, so, in the book of Revelation, we witnessed the fall and destruction of Babylon, in today’s reading. And again, as I’ve been saying like a broken record, we have to decide how we’re gonna look at this. Mostly why bring that up today has to do with time. When we started the book of Revelation, we talked about time. Like when is this happening, where is this happening, how all of these questions that come up? And you can read the book of Revelation from front to back, as a linear book and go, well, this happens, then this happens, then this, then this, then this, because it’s all in order. While many scholars would point out, this is probably the order that John saw things in but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the order in which they will occur, which is completely valid. And to pour some more vegetables into that stew and stir it around, a very generous portion of the scholarship on the book of Revelation identifies the fact that it’s cyclical and a lot of confusion arises trying to read it linear, because it feels like we’re jumping all over the place and it’s hard to grasp the flow of time. But if you’re reading from a cyclical perspective, you begin to realize that you’re reading the same story from different perspectives, several times. So, we read of the judgment and destruction of Babylon. But Babylon has been a theme that we’ve been kind of traveling with throughout the book of Revelation. And we’ve looked at literal views of it, we’ve looked at historical views of it. We’ve looked allegorical views of it. We’ve looked at futuristic views of it. Presentence views of it and have come to realize that we have to, we have to at least in part be willing to look figuratively. And so, Babylon figuratively represents ancient Rome likely from the perspective of John, the writer in the time that John was writing in, but more broadly it represents an entire world system of evil that is, that is set on total domination and control, so that the evil one can make an attempt at establishing sovereignty of some sort and attempt to battle with God. So, figuratively what we read today is the judgment of the entire system. The façade of this world system is exposed, for the façade that it is, and its underpinnings are exposed. The skeleton is exposed and at the core there is only evil. The serpent, the evil one has been guiding this all along. And in this judgment, it is completely exposed. Then another angel from heaven calls God’s people out, come out of Babylon my people so that you do not participate in her sins and suffer from any of her plagues. This is patterned after Isaiah’s prophecy in the 48th chapter, in the 52nd chapter, but also from Jeremiah, where we’re told in the 51st chapter, come forth from her midst my people. And since we’re talking figuratively, we’re not talking about God’s people fleeing a city, like literally fleeing from a city to try to hide somewhere else. Rather, this is a call to not participate in the sins that brought, like the evil that brought the whole thing down, don’t participate in any of that. Which doesn’t mean don’t go to the grocery store to buy groceries, don’t buy clothes, like don’t participate in the economy, like that’s not what’s being said here. This is a spiritual thing. Do not get involved with the darkness. It is being exposed. It is being judged. It is being done away with. Don’t find yourself in that camp. This understanding goes all the way back to the church fathers. And it’s been pointed out that this is likely a parallel or a reference to clean and unclean, a concept that’s introduced in the Torah and that follows throughout the entire Bible. So, although this is and I’m speaking in reference to physical cleanness and uncleanness by the Torah, this is talking about the same thing, spiritually. Get away from what is unclean, don’t touch it, don’t make yourself unclean, don’t disqualify yourself, stay away from it. Stay away from evil altogether. And then judgment comes and it affects everything. The great and powerful who had participated with Babylon, who had participated in this darkness, who had grown rich because of it, who had found fame and prestige because of it. They’re all standing back watching the whole thing fall apart and they lament because of the implications. It’s gonna affect them so profoundly. And God’s people are invited to rejoice over this, not in an arrogant or insensitive way, but rather this system of udder evil that had dominated and had done everything conceivable to stamp out the gospel and the witness, the lampstands, from the earth. To do away with God’s people completely, has failed. Evil has been judged and those who have given themselves in worship to evil, who have given themselves over to the, to the dark side have no power to come against God’s people any longer. And that’s where we end up today.
Prayer:
So, Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the way that it speaks to us, the way that it unsettles us, the way that it stir things, stirs things up with in us, the way that it comforts us and directs and guides our steps. It's…it touches everything about us, and we thank You for the gift of it. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to plant these words deep in our lives. Help us to hold onto the hope that Babylon will fall, that evil will be eradicated from our…our experience ultimately. And help us to stay true and keep the light burning. And Father, part of that is certainly not stirring up anger that produces a fight for no reason. It is sure to happen, just like churning milk or punching a nose. So, we take that to heart as well as we move forward. Help us to remember the Proverb that tells us a gentle answer turns away wrath. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.