January 2023 – Page 5 – A Walk Through The Word

January 13, 2023

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday January 13, 2023 (NIV)

Genesis 28-29

28 So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, “You must not marry any of these Canaanite women. ²Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban’s daughters. ³May God Almighty^[a] bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants multiply and become many nations! ⁴May God pass on to you and your descendants^[b] the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where you are now living as a foreigner, for God gave this land to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.

⁶Esau knew that his father, Isaac, had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ⁷He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸It was now very clear to Esau that his father did not like the local Canaanite women. ⁹So Esau visited his uncle Ishmael’s family and married one of Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife’s name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. ¹²As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

¹³At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. ¹⁴Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” ¹⁷But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

¹⁸The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. ¹⁹He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, ²¹and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. ²²And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”

Jacob Arrives at Paddan-Aram

29 Then Jacob hurried on, finally arriving in the land of the east. ²He saw a well in the distance. Three flocks of sheep and goats lay in an open field beside it, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well.

³It was the custom there to wait for all the flocks to arrive before removing the stone and watering the animals. Afterward the stone would be placed back over the mouth of the well. ⁴Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked, “Where are you from, my friends?”

“We are from Haran,” they answered.

⁵“Do you know a man there named Laban, the grandson of Nahor?” he asked.

“Yes, we do,” they replied.

⁶“Is he doing well?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, he’s well,” they answered. “Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the flock now.”

⁷Jacob said, “Look, it’s still broad daylight—too early to round up the animals. Why don’t you water the sheep and goats so they can get back out to pasture?”

⁸“We can’t water the animals until all the flocks have arrived,” they replied. “Then the shepherds move the stone from the mouth of the well, and we water all the sheep and goats.”

⁹Jacob was still talking with them when Rachel arrived with her father’s flock, for she was a shepherd. ¹⁰And because Rachel was his cousin—the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother—and because the sheep and goats belonged to his uncle Laban, Jacob went over to the well and moved the stone from its mouth and watered his uncle’s flock. ¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and he wept aloud. ¹²He explained to Rachel that he was her cousin on her father’s side—the son of her aunt Rebekah. So Rachel quickly ran and told her father, Laban.

¹³As soon as Laban heard that his nephew Jacob had arrived, he ran out to meet him. He embraced and kissed him and brought him home. When Jacob had told him his story, ¹⁴Laban exclaimed, “You really are my own flesh and blood!”

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

After Jacob had stayed with Laban for about a month, ¹⁵Laban said to him, “You shouldn’t work for me without pay just because we are relatives. Tell me how much your wages should be.”

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters. The older daughter was named Leah, and the younger one was Rachel. ¹⁷There was no sparkle in Leah’s eyes,^[c] but Rachel had a beautiful figure and a lovely face. ¹⁸Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, “I’ll work for you for seven years if you’ll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife.”

¹⁹“Agreed!” Laban replied. “I’d rather give her to you than to anyone else. Stay and work with me.” ²⁰So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.

²¹Finally, the time came for him to marry her. “I have fulfilled my agreement,” Jacob said to Laban. “Now give me my wife so I can sleep with her.”

²²So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood and prepared a wedding feast. ²³But that night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her. ²⁴(Laban had given Leah a servant, Zilpah, to be her maid.)

²⁵But when Jacob woke up in the morning—it was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob raged at Laban. “I worked seven years for Rachel! Why have you tricked me?”

²⁶“It’s not our custom here to marry off a younger daughter ahead of the firstborn,” Laban replied. ²⁷“But wait until the bridal week is over; then we’ll give you Rachel, too—provided you promise to work another seven years for me.”

²⁸So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel, too. ²⁹(Laban gave Rachel a servant, Bilhah, to be her maid.) ³⁰So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her much more than Leah. He then stayed and worked for Laban the additional seven years.

Jacob’s Many Children

³¹When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children, but Rachel could not conceive. ³²So Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,^[d] for she said, “The Lord has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me.”

³³She soon became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Simeon,^[e] for she said, “The Lord heard that I was unloved and has given me another son.”

³⁴Then she became pregnant a third time and gave birth to another son. He was named Levi,^[f] for she said, “Surely this time my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!”

³⁵Once again Leah became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She named him Judah,^[g] for she said, “Now I will praise the Lord!” And then she stopped having children.

Footnotes:

28:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai.
28:4 Hebrew seed; also in 28:13, 14.
29:17 Or Leah had dull eyes, or Leah had soft eyes. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
29:32 Reuben means “Look, a son!” It also sounds like the Hebrew for “He has seen my misery.”
29:33 Simeon probably means “one who hears.”
29:34 Levi sounds like a Hebrew term that means “being attached” or “feeling affection for.”
29:35 Judah is related to the Hebrew term for “praise.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 9:18-38

Jesus Heals in Response to Faith

¹⁸As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him. “My daughter has just died,” he said, “but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.”

¹⁹So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. ²⁰Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, ²¹for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. ²⁴“Get out!” he told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” But the crowd laughed at him. ²⁵After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! ²⁶The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.

Jesus Heals the Blind

²⁷After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

²⁸They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”

“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”

²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen.” ³⁰Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! Jesus sternly warned them, “Don’t tell anyone about this.” ³¹But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.

³²When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn’t speak was brought to Jesus. ³³So Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!” they exclaimed.

³⁴But the Pharisees said, “He can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons.”

The Need for Workers

³⁵Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. ³⁸So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 11

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
²The wicked are stringing their bows
and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.
They shoot from the shadows
at those whose hearts are right.
³The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
What can the righteous do?”

⁴But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
the Lord still rules from heaven.
He watches everyone closely,
examining every person on earth.
⁵The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.
He hates those who love violence.
⁶He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,
punishing them with scorching winds.
⁷For the righteous Lord loves justice.
The virtuous will see his face.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:11-12

¹¹My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline,
and don’t be upset when he corrects you.
¹²For the Lord corrects those he loves,
just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.^[a]

Footnotes:

3:12 Greek version reads loves, / and he punishes those he accepts as his children. Compare Heb 12:6.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 13, 2023

1/12/2023 DAB Transcript

Genesis 26:17-27:46, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalm 10:16-18, Proverbs 3:9-10

Today is the 12th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today, been just kind of hanging out here with the Global Campfire and it’s a beautiful place, and it’s a beautiful time, as we gather together to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And we have now, in the book of Genesis, met Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham has died at 175 years old. And so, his story, although the reverberations of his story continue to echo all the way until now, his earthly story ended. He was buried in the cave of Machpelah, next to his wife Sarah. And so, now we have moved into the…the next generations, Isaac and Rebekah, who have had twin boys, Jacob and Esau. So, we’ve met Jacob, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and we’ll continue the story. Today, Genesis chapter 26 verse 17 through 27 verse 46.

Commentary:

Okay, so we spent our time in Genesis today, learning about Jacob and Esau and watching their…their story and seeing how there would be enmity between the two of them. We’re also seeing that this first family, this origin family, the origin story of the Hebrew people that effect, not only effect, but wrote down the Bible. We’re able to observe that they are fully human people and we’ve been able to observe like some shrewd trickery over the generations. So, we watched Abraham go to Egypt and say that his wife was actually his sister and we saw the commotion that that caused. It ultimately enriched Abraham. We watched Abraham and Sarah go to Harar and to King Abimelech and do the same thing again. Then we saw Isaac be born, the child of promise and after he gets married, they go to King Abimelech and Harar and do the same thing. They end up having kids, Jacob and Esau, and we read the story of the shrewd, cunning goings on, for Jacob to get the birthright and the inheritance, the blessing of his father, which has infuriated Esau. And as we leave the story today, Esau’s planning to just wait it out. His dad, Isaac, is about to die. He’ll wait it out, he’ll mourn and then he will end Jacobs cunning shrewdness toward him, because he will kill Jacob. Their mom, Rebecca learns about the plot, she tells Jacob. You’ve gotta get outta here. I can’t lose everybody, like I can’t lose you both on the same day. You’ve gotta get outta here. You’ve got to go back to my family. And so, that is what Jacob is going to do, go back to her family. He’s going back to the same family that Abraham’s servant had gone to, to find her in the first place. So, she’s sending her son back to the family. And Jacob is about to get a bit of a taste of his own medicine. But even as we watch all of the humanness embedded in all of these stories, we see people who are amazing and also broken, like everybody else, including us. And we are seeing God come to this group of people, and this family and say, I want to bless the whole world through you. Like, if you will trust in what I am laying out before you, if we can be partners in this, if we can make covenantal partners in this, even greater than just in agreement, if we can be like married to each other in this, then you can rest assured that I will be with you, I will watch over you. You will be the conduit through which my plans are revealed and unfold. You will be my hands and feet and my intention isn’t to build a club of people, my intention is to bless the whole world and reveal myself through your testimony. Us, understanding that that’s what we’re reading here, that this origin, the beginning of a story that is the whole Bible long, then when we find all kinds of confusing things, we’re like, why would they do that, or why would God do this, or how, or you know what, what’s going on. We can remember where this all started and what the goal is, to bless the world through God’s people. And then for us to begin to understand that Jew or Gentile, as believers, as followers of Jesus, we are invited into the same collaboration, to be set apart and holy to God, to be in covenant with God, to be deeply intertwined, like a marriage, a commitment to God, walking with God, revealing what God is and what God is like, and blessing the whole world. This is how He reassembles what is broken. And He wants to do it in partnership with us, understanding that that is like one of the big stories of the Bible. We’ll, like, if we can get this kinda clear in our minds as we’re going forward, right here at the beginning, then we will always be rooted to the larger story, that is being told.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for that. We thank You that You put back together what has been broken. Like, You don’t discard and just dump away. You don’t give up hope, you continue to pursue, and we are all recipients of that grace and mercy and Your pursuit in our lives. Help us to know that this is the posture we are supposed to be living with. That that is how we live outwardly toward others because that is Your heart toward humanity. And You have invited us to be a part of the story of revealing who You are and what You are like. Help us to be aware of that and to take it seriously. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it is where you find out what’s going on around here. And as I say most every day, you can find out what’s going on around here by downloading the Daily Audio Bible app and taking the journey from there, just search for Daily Audio Bible, at whatever app store works with your device, and jump in and take the journey. And while you’re checking things out, check out the…the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of resources in the Shop for the journey that we are on, in a number of different categories. For example, there’s a music and film category in there, so there’s music from the Daily Audio Bible music from, a lot of music, from Jill but also in there are some different film projects including Promised Land. Which you can download. And Promised Land is a project that we developed over many years in Israel, filming in Israel, year-after-year as we, as we made the pilgrimage to Israel each year. And with all kinds of stayover’s and just trying to access a lot of different places that are identified archaeologically and biblical in nature but are really not accessible. So much, I mean, there’s no rock over there that doesn’t have some kind of history to it. But a number of the places from…from ancient Israel that have been identified are not, you need a four-wheel-drive to get to them. They’re not easily accessible. And so, they’re not visited that much. And so, we…we set out on a journey to kind of bring some of those places a lot more near and allow them to be seen at all. And so, Promised Land, the essential pilgrim’s addition is, if I’m not mistaken 70, it's…it’s 70+ different locations that we’ve filmed. And they’re little vignettes, they’re like two, three minutes long. But they kinda give you a whole lot more than just a static picture would. And that kind of the idea. I’ve seen so many of these places before I ever went to Israel in different books and stuff, but you just get a picture and that’s awesome, awesome, it’s helpful. But as I was in the land and kind of walking around in turning myself in a 360° view and looking at places, I was like man, I wish, I wish we could do more comprehensive than just a static picture. And so, that’s what we set out to do, was bring the places near, especially some of these most famous places, were so, such important things in the Bible happened. So, you can find that. That’s the digital download. So, you would buy it and then download it and then unzip it and then you can kind of watch…watch these different places. And kind of just immerse yourself a little deeper in the land where the Bible happened and associate the land with the stories. And yeah, Promised Land. You can find that in the music and film category.

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And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top or there are a number of numbers that you can dial, depending on where you are in the world. If you are in the Americas 877-942-4253, is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44 2036 088078 is the number dial. 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 and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayers and Encouragements:

To be posted 13JAN23.

January 12, 2023

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday January 12, 2023 (NIV)

Genesis 26:17-27:46

¹⁷So Isaac moved away to the Gerar Valley, where he set up their tents and settled down. ¹⁸He reopened the wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham’s death. Isaac also restored the names Abraham had given them.

¹⁹Isaac’s servants also dug in the Gerar Valley and discovered a well of fresh water. ²⁰But then the shepherds from Gerar came and claimed the spring. “This is our water,” they said, and they argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So Isaac named the well Esek (which means “argument”). ²¹Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a dispute over it. So Isaac named it Sitnah (which means “hostility”). ²²Abandoning that one, Isaac moved on and dug another well. This time there was no dispute over it, so Isaac named the place Rehoboth (which means “open space”), for he said, “At last the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.”

²³From there Isaac moved to Beersheba, ²⁴where the Lord appeared to him on the night of his arrival. “I am the God of your father, Abraham,” he said. “Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you. I will multiply your descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will do this because of my promise to Abraham, my servant.” ²⁵Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. He set up his camp at that place, and his servants dug another well.

Isaac’s Covenant with Abimelech

²⁶One day King Abimelech came from Gerar with his adviser, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander. ²⁷“Why have you come here?” Isaac asked. “You obviously hate me, since you kicked me off your land.”

²⁸They replied, “We can plainly see that the Lord is with you. So we want to enter into a sworn treaty with you. Let’s make a covenant. ²⁹Swear that you will not harm us, just as we have never troubled you. We have always treated you well, and we sent you away from us in peace. And now look how the Lord has blessed you!”

³⁰So Isaac prepared a covenant feast to celebrate the treaty, and they ate and drank together. ³¹Early the next morning, they each took a solemn oath not to interfere with each other. Then Isaac sent them home again, and they left him in peace.

³²That very day Isaac’s servants came and told him about a new well they had dug. “We’ve found water!” they exclaimed. ³³So Isaac named the well Shibah (which means “oath”). And to this day the town that grew up there is called Beersheba (which means “well of the oath”).

³⁴At the age of forty, Esau married two Hittite wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon. ³⁵But Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing

27 One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, “My son.”

“Yes, Father?” Esau replied.

²“I am an old man now,” Isaac said, “and I don’t know when I may die. ³Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows, and go out into the open country to hunt some wild game for me. ⁴Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.”

⁵But Rebekah overheard what Isaac had said to his son Esau. So when Esau left to hunt for the wild game, ⁶she said to her son Jacob, “Listen. I overheard your father say to Esau, ⁷‘Bring me some wild game and prepare me a delicious meal. Then I will bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ ⁸Now, my son, listen to me. Do exactly as I tell you. ⁹Go out to the flocks, and bring me two fine young goats. I’ll use them to prepare your father’s favorite dish. ¹⁰Then take the food to your father so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.”

¹¹“But look,” Jacob replied to Rebekah, “my brother, Esau, is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. ¹²What if my father touches me? He’ll see that I’m trying to trick him, and then he’ll curse me instead of blessing me.”

¹³But his mother replied, “Then let the curse fall on me, my son! Just do what I tell you. Go out and get the goats for me!”

¹⁴So Jacob went out and got the young goats for his mother. Rebekah took them and prepared a delicious meal, just the way Isaac liked it. ¹⁵Then she took Esau’s favorite clothes, which were there in the house, and gave them to her younger son, Jacob. ¹⁶She covered his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skin of the young goats. ¹⁷Then she gave Jacob the delicious meal, including freshly baked bread.

¹⁸So Jacob took the food to his father. “My father?” he said.

“Yes, my son,” Isaac answered. “Who are you—Esau or Jacob?”

¹⁹Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your firstborn son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.”

²⁰Isaac asked, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God put it in my path!” Jacob replied.

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.” ²²So Jacob went closer to his father, and Isaac touched him. “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s,” Isaac said. ²³But he did not recognize Jacob, because Jacob’s hands felt hairy just like Esau’s. So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob. ²⁴“But are you really my son Esau?” he asked.

“Yes, I am,” Jacob replied.

²⁵Then Isaac said, “Now, my son, bring me the wild game. Let me eat it, and then I will give you my blessing.” So Jacob took the food to his father, and Isaac ate it. He also drank the wine that Jacob served him. ²⁶Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come a little closer and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. He said, “Ah! The smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which the Lord has blessed!

²⁸“From the dew of heaven
and the richness of the earth,
may God always give you abundant harvests of grain
and bountiful new wine.
²⁹May many nations become your servants,
and may they bow down to you.
May you be the master over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
All who curse you will be cursed,
and all who bless you will be blessed.”

³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and almost before Jacob had left his father, Esau returned from his hunt. ³¹Esau prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father. Then he said, “Sit up, my father, and eat my wild game so you can give me your blessing.”

³²But Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

Esau replied, “It’s your son, your firstborn son, Esau.”

³³Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said, “Then who just served me wild game? I have already eaten it, and I blessed him just before you came. And yes, that blessing must stand!”

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry. “Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!” he begged.

³⁵But Isaac said, “Your brother was here, and he tricked me. He has taken away your blessing.”

³⁶Esau exclaimed, “No wonder his name is Jacob, for now he has cheated me twice.^[a] First he took my rights as the firstborn, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?”

³⁷Isaac said to Esau, “I have made Jacob your master and have declared that all his brothers will be his servants. I have guaranteed him an abundance of grain and wine—what is left for me to give you, my son?”

³⁸Esau pleaded, “But do you have only one blessing? Oh my father, bless me, too!” Then Esau broke down and wept.

³⁹Finally, his father, Isaac, said to him,

“You will live away from the richness of the earth,
and away from the dew of the heaven above.
⁴⁰You will live by your sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you decide to break free,
you will shake his yoke from your neck.”

Jacob Flees to Paddan-Aram

⁴¹From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme: “I will soon be mourning my father’s death. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob.”

⁴²But Rebekah heard about Esau’s plans. So she sent for Jacob and told him, “Listen, Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you. ⁴³So listen carefully, my son. Get ready and flee to my brother, Laban, in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay there with him until your brother cools off. ⁴⁵When he calms down and forgets what you have done to him, I will send for you to come back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.”

Footnotes:

27:36 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and “deceiver.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 9:1-17

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

9 Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. ²Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.”

³But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?”

⁴Jesus knew^[a] what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? ⁶So I will prove to you that the Son of Man^[b] has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

⁷And the man jumped up and went home! ⁸Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for giving humans such authority.

Jesus Calls Matthew

⁹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. ¹¹But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?^[c]”

¹²When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” ¹³Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’^[d] For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

A Discussion about Fasting

¹⁴One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast^[e] like we do and the Pharisees do?”

¹⁵Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

¹⁷“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”

Footnotes:

9:4 Some manuscripts read saw.
9:6 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
9:11 Greek with tax collectors and sinners?
9:13 Hos 6:6 (Greek version).
9:14 Some manuscripts read fast often.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 10:16-18

¹⁶The Lord is king forever and ever!
The godless nations will vanish from the land.
¹⁷Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
¹⁸You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
so mere people can no longer terrify them.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:9-10

⁹Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the best part of everything you produce.
¹⁰Then he will fill your barns with grain,
and your vats will overflow with good wine.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 11, 2023

01/11/2023 DAB Transcript

Genesis 24:52-26:16, Matthew 8:18-34, Psalms 10:1-15, Proverbs 3:7-8

Today is the 11^th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire. It is great to be here to take the next step forward together. And obviously we’re in the rhythm now so we know how these steps work. When we gather to take the next step forward, we pick up right where the last step left off. And that will lead us back into the book of Genesis. We are working through the life story of Abraham the patriarch of the Hebrew people, a person who influences the rest of the Bible and influences the world until today. And, so, let’s dive in. Genesis chapter 24 verse 52 through 26 verse 16.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today we said goodbye to Abraham who lived to a ripe old age and he was buried next to his wife Sarah who had previously passed away in the cave of Machpelah that he bought from Ephron the Hittite. And I mentioned yesterday, like we’ll see this place again and it will be…it will be important, but this is now becoming the ancestral burial place for the patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Abraham and Sarah have now been laid to rest in this same place, the only place that is owned in the promised land. So, yesterday Abraham tells his servant to go get a wife for his son Isaac. And this is really interesting because we haven’t seen Isaac since they went up the mountain and Isaac was about to be sacrificed. Like we were looking at…looking at that in the book of Genesis just going something happened here and it’s like the story behind the story. Something happened here becuase Abraham comes down the mountain by himself gathers with his servants and goes back to Beersheba. Isaac seems to go down into the desert to Beer Lahai Roi, so deeper into the desert south of…of Beersheba where his father Abraham is. Sarah ends up in Hebron, so like a little bit north and east of where Beersheba is. And, so, interestingly enough, if that is how it is they all end up in separate places. Abraham is still looking out for his son. Whether there’s estrangement going on or whether there’s not he’s looking out for his son to get his son a wife because Isaac is the child of promise, and if there are going to be offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the sea that come through Abraham and then through the child of promise, Isaac then Isaac’s gonna need a wife, right, if he’s gonna have children. And it’s important Abraham that Isaac get the right wife and that this story that is being told over and through this family can be carried forward. And, so, the servant goes back to the family clan and that is where Rebekah is discovered. And this won’t be the last time somebody goes back to that family clan in the north. But the servant is successful, and Rebekah departs. And, so, the servant of Abraham knows where Isaac is and it’s not the same place that Abraham is. And, so, he takes Rebekah to Beer Lahai Roi where Isaac is and Isaac has gone out into the field to do some thinking, to do some meditating and contemplating and he sees the camels approaching and Rebekah sees the guy walking toward them, and they see each other for the first time, and she learns who it is. Like, this is about to be your husband. She puts a veil over her face. Isaac sees her. He loves her. He brings her into the tent of his mother Sarah. So, he must’ve had his mother’s tent from Hebron where she died and this…like this is kind of conjecture just kinda reading between the lines here. Must’ve brought him comfort to have the tent of his mother. But in honoring where he came from, in honoring his family, in honoring his mother, he brings his new wife into the tent of his mother and marries her and loves her. And he found comfort after his mother’s death. Meanwhile, we’re told that Abraham takes another wife named Keturah and has several other children besides Isaac and besides Ishmael. But we were able to see the family line of Ishmael and then we were able to observe the family line of Isaac. So, Abraham the patriarch, Isaac, the son of promise, who is now married to Rebekah. She’s childless for a while. She’s barren, but then she does get pregnant and there are twins to be born - Jacob and Esau. And they’ve grown up pretty quick because we can…you know…like we skipped to that part as we’re just kind of moving through the narrative of Genesis. They grow up pretty quick and see that there’s distinctions between them. There’s kind of the daddy’s boy and there’s the Mama’s boy. Jacobs the momma’s boy. Esau is the daddy’s boy. Esau’s more of like the outdoorsman type. Jacob’s a little closer to his mother. And we begin to see a bit of trickery happening as Esau sells his birthright to his brother Jacob. And we may have heard of Jacob before and Esau and even their stories before, but this is the first moment where we meet a person who forms everything that comes next. Abraham is the patriarch. Isaac is his son, the child of promise. Jacob was born in today’s reading. So, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And just so we can see this happen and stay rooted in the story, later on Jacob will get a name change just like his grandfather had. Abraham’s name was changed to Abraham. Jacob’s name will be changed to Israel. And Jacob will grow up and he will find a wife. Actually, more than one and it will be quite complicated, but he will have children. Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel will have children and who will they be? The children of Israel. And, so, while we will spend the majority of our time in the Scriptures this year among the children of Israel, here in the book of Genesis we are reading the origin story and we have now met Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And then just really briefly turning into the book of Matthew into what we read today…and by the way we’re…we’re staying rooted in Genesis a lot because the story is unfolding. And if…if we lose the plot of the story than we spend the rest of the time in the Old Testament confused about what’s going on with who. As we’re watching this all develop, we realize this is a big long story about the same family. And, so, as we’re in the New Testament moving through Matthew we will also then move through Mark, Luke, and John and a number of the stories that we find in the Gospels we will have opportunity to…to see and explore together more than one time. But there is a scene in the Gospel of Matthew today that is really beautiful but also challenging and comforting at the same time. So, Jesus is about the business of ministry right now. He is revealing the kingdom of God and inviting people to have eyes to see and ears to hear. And then He decides He’s going to the other side of the lake. So, he gets in the boat. He’s exhausted and so His fishermen group of disciples are…are navigating and a storm comes up and it’s intense. And there can be some very intense storms on the Sea of Galilee. If you’ve never been there you’re like, how is that possible, it’s just like a big lake because that’s about the size of the Sea of Galilee is…I don’t know… maybe 25 miles all the way around if you drove all the way around it. I could be a little bit off on that. I don't…but I don’t think I’m…it’s not a huge ocean. It’s a good-sized lake. But it is geographically situated interestingly, because it is the…it is the lowest freshwater lake in the world. So, the hills and mountains that surround it, they’re…they’re more at sea level and there’s a dip and then there’s the Sea of Galilee. And, so, winds come off the Mediterranean Sea and they start swirling when they hit these hills and then there’s this depression where the Sea of Galilee and it just creates a vortex. And, so, there can be some really pretty aggressive storms definitely that could capsize the kind of boat that Jesus was in. And, so, the fishermen who are experienced on the water are freaking out, which means there’s actual true danger. And they go to wake Jesus up. Lord, save us we’re gonna drown. And this is the beautiful part. Jesus replies…can you even imagine…He’s been exhausted from ministry. He gets woke up. He opens His eyes. It’s raining. He’s like trying to get His wits about Him. “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Ahh…that is challenging and comforting all at the same time, because the metaphor, “the storms of life” is probably a metaphor that we all are familiar with and have all experienced. And we experience choppy waters in our lives and stormy situations routinely. And often we find ourselves in panic mode, right? When we’re storming the heavens it’s like we’re getting into the back of the boat shaking Jesus…we’re gonna drown! Wake up! Can’t you see what’s going on here?!? And that looks so much like what our prayers look like when we’re in panic mode. And just to hear the response of Jesus, “you of little faith”, which isn’t to shame. It’s just to kinda callout, “you of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Let’s carry that with us today. Why are you so afraid? As the story in Matthew goes, He got up, rebuked the winds and the waves and it was completely calm. Let’s carry that picture with us as we navigate the storms of this day.

Prayer:

Father, we love You and we thank You for another opportunity to gather together, although we are all over the world, to gather together in this place, this place that we’ve made, the global campfire. We just calm together each day to hear from You and to seek Your wisdom and clarity and direction in our lives. And, so, plant what we’ve read in our hearts and may the work of transformation continue in us, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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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.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon. Preparing for a mission’s trip to Nicaragua. May be a few days before posting. Please pray for the mission’s team and the work we’ll be doing…and especially for the people we’re they’re to serve, that we serve them well and that Jesus lead us and guide us to all truth, that we have ears to hear and eyes to see, and that we pursue all things in Christ with faith, hope and love, to be merciful, gracious, and kind. Thank you!

January 11, 2023

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday January 11, 2023 (NIV)

Genesis 24:52-26:16

⁵²When Abraham’s servant heard their answer, he bowed down to the ground and worshiped the Lord. ⁵³Then he brought out silver and gold jewelry and clothing and presented them to Rebekah. He also gave expensive presents to her brother and mother. ⁵⁴Then they ate their meal, and the servant and the men with him stayed there overnight.

But early the next morning, Abraham’s servant said, “Send me back to my master.”

⁵⁵“But we want Rebekah to stay with us at least ten days,” her brother and mother said. “Then she can go.”

⁵⁶But he said, “Don’t delay me. The Lord has made my mission successful; now send me back so I can return to my master.”

⁵⁷“Well,” they said, “we’ll call Rebekah and ask her what she thinks.” ⁵⁸So they called Rebekah. “Are you willing to go with this man?” they asked her.

And she replied, “Yes, I will go.”

⁵⁹So they said good-bye to Rebekah and sent her away with Abraham’s servant and his men. The woman who had been Rebekah’s childhood nurse went along with her. ⁶⁰They gave her this blessing as she parted:

“Our sister, may you become
the mother of many millions!
May your descendants be strong
and conquer the cities of their enemies.”

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her servant girls mounted the camels and followed the man. So Abraham’s servant took Rebekah and went on his way.

⁶²Meanwhile, Isaac, whose home was in the Negev, had returned from Beer-lahai-roi. ⁶³One evening as he was walking and meditating in the fields, he looked up and saw the camels coming. ⁶⁴When Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac, she quickly dismounted from her camel. ⁶⁵“Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?” she asked the servant.

And he replied, “It is my master.” So Rebekah covered her face with her veil. ⁶⁶Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.

⁶⁷And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife. He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.

The Death of Abraham

25 Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah. ²She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s descendants were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites. ⁴Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. These were all descendants of Abraham through Keturah.

⁵Abraham gave everything he owned to his son Isaac. ⁶But before he died, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off to a land in the east, away from Isaac.

⁷Abraham lived for 175 years, ⁸and he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life. He breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death. ⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. ¹⁰This was the field Abraham had purchased from the Hittites and where he had buried his wife Sarah. ¹¹After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who settled near Beer-lahai-roi in the Negev.

Ishmael’s Descendants

¹²This is the account of the family of Ishmael, the son of Abraham through Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian servant. ¹³Here is a list, by their names and clans, of Ishmael’s descendants: The oldest was Nebaioth, followed by Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These twelve sons of Ishmael became the founders of twelve tribes named after them, listed according to the places they settled and camped. ¹⁷Ishmael lived for 137 years. Then he breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death. ¹⁸Ishmael’s descendants occupied the region from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt in the direction of Asshur. There they lived in open hostility toward all their relatives.^[a]

The Births of Esau and Jacob

¹⁹This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham. ²⁰When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. ²²But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the Lord about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.

²³And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”

²⁴And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! ²⁵The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.^[b] ²⁶Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.^[c] Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

Esau Sells His Birthright

²⁷As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. ³⁰Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)

³¹“All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”

³²“Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”

³³But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

Isaac Deceives Abimelech

26 A severe famine now struck the land, as had happened before in Abraham’s time. So Isaac moved to Gerar, where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.

²The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. ³Live here as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants,^[d] just as I solemnly promised Abraham, your father. ⁴I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. ⁵I will do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees, and instructions.” ⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷When the men who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.” ⁸But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah.

⁹Immediately, Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is obviously your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

“Because I was afraid someone would kill me to get her from me,” Isaac replied.

¹⁰“How could you do this to us?” Abimelech exclaimed. “One of my people might easily have taken your wife and slept with her, and you would have made us guilty of great sin.”

¹¹Then Abimelech issued a public proclamation: “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death!”

Conflict over Water Rights

¹²When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the Lord blessed him. ¹³He became a very rich man, and his wealth continued to grow. ¹⁴He acquired so many flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and servants that the Philistines became jealous of him. ¹⁵So the Philistines filled up all of Isaac’s wells with dirt. These were the wells that had been dug by the servants of his father, Abraham.

¹⁶Finally, Abimelech ordered Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too powerful for us.”

Footnotes:

25:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
25:25 Esau sounds like a Hebrew term that means “hair.”
25:26 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and “deceiver.”
26:3 Hebrew seed; also in 26:4, 24.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 8:18-34

The Cost of Following Jesus

¹⁸When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.

¹⁹Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

²⁰But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man^[a] has no place even to lay his head.”

²¹Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.^[b]”

Jesus Calms the Storm

²³Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. ²⁴Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

²⁶Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

²⁷The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

Jesus Heals Two Demon-Possessed Men

²⁸When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes,^[c] two men who were possessed by demons met him. They came out of the tombs and were so violent that no one could go through that area.

²⁹They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?”

³⁰There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. ³¹So the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”

³²“All right, go!” Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.

³³The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men. ³⁴Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.

Footnotes:

8:20 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
8:22 Greek Let the dead bury their own dead.
8:28 Other manuscripts read Gerasenes; still others read Gergesenes. Compare Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 10:1-15

Psalm 10

¹O Lord, why do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide when I am in trouble?
²The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor.
Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
³For they brag about their evil desires;
they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.

⁴The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
⁵Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
⁶They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”

⁷Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.^[a]
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
⁸They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless victims.
⁹Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
¹⁰Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
¹¹The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”

¹²Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
¹³Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
They think, “God will never call us to account.”
¹⁴But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.

¹⁵Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed.

Footnotes:

10:7 Greek version reads cursing and bitterness. Compare Rom 3:14.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:7-8

⁷Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.
Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
⁸Then you will have healing for your body
and strength for your bones.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 11, 2023

1/10/2023 DAB Transcript

Genesis 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalm 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is the 10th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is awesome to be here with you today, as we gather around the Global Campfire together and keep each other warm. It’s cold. And…and take the next step forward together. I can’t think of a better place to be in this oasis that we create every day, this peaceful place to come and allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives. And so, it’s wonderful to be here with you today. And let’s, let’s dive in and do what we do every day, take the next step forward together. In the book of Genesis, we are moving through the story of Abraham, the great patriarch of the Hebrew people. And we have already met the second Abraham, Isaac and we’re learning about Isaac and we will eventually meet Jacob, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham has Isaac, his son, who has Jacob is son, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Today, Genesis chapter 23 verse 1 through 24 verse 51.

Commentary:

Okay, so, yesterday we were on the mountain with Abraham and Isaac and Isaac was to be sacrificed and was spared. The Lord provided; they trusted in the promise. But it seems like some changes have taken place in the family after this. Abraham and Isaac went up the mountain. But then, according just to the text of the Bible itself only Abraham came down, rejoined his servants and he went back Beersheba. Interestingly enough, where is Sarah because when we began our reading today and I quote from the Scriptures Sarah lived to be 127 years old. She died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. So, they were like in two different places, Abraham is in Beersheba and Sarah is in Hebron. And soon enough, we will find that Isaac is somewhere else. So, while we could sit and try to you know, fill in the blanks of the story. We could, at least, say things changed after Mount Moriah, like things changed after Moses and Isaac went to the place that God showed them. And I don’t point this out because there’s some kind of the deep, rich something or another. Something that we need to really, really look at and change things in our lives. I point it out to show us that the way this all came together, is God working with a very fallible human beings who have all the kinds of dramas that we all continue to experience until this day. We are certainly looking back a long way, we are looking back thousands of years. So, we are looking back into a different world, a very tribal world, a very tribal time and maybe even hearing it in those words, we’re like I don’t know, I don’t if I buy that. But what did the children of Israel become, if not the tribes of Israel. So, things were done differently, which we’ll get to in just a minute, because we got to watch this early negotiation. The world was different, things were done different, but what we begin to realize is that we can look at any piece of history that we want. And if we are able to get a glimpse into the heart of the matter, if we’re able to look at the hearts of the people, they’re wrestling and struggling toward and after the same things that we are, we just have different technology to achieve these things. And God continues to work with broken things and broken situations and broken people, because He puts things back together again. So, Sarah, the mother of the son of promise, Isaac, has died and Abraham has going to mourn and weep over her. And he is in the region of the Hittites, and he needs to bury Sarah. And that’s what we see this little negotiation there in the city gate, which is where these kinds of matters and matters of justice would take place. This is where the councils, the wise people of the city, the authorities would meet in the city gate to conduct business. And so, business is being conducted. And Abraham saying I'm…I’m not from around here, I’m a stranger, would you entertain selling me a cave, a little bit of property so I could have a ancestral burial place where I can bury my wife. And the Hittites are like absolutely, bury her, pick anywhere. You’re very honored around her, pick anywhere. So, Abraham’s like, well, maybe you guys could talk to Ephron the Hittite. Ephron’s obviously sitting here in the city gate. Maybe you guys could talk to Ephron and see if he might be willing to sell me the cave of Machpelah. And Ephron’s like dude, you can have it. Bury your dead, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. And Abraham’s like no, I want to pay for it. And Ephron’s like, well, it’s worth 400 shekels but what is that between us, don’t worry about it, just go on. But this is the way that they’re negotiating the price for this property. And eventually, Abraham agrees, pays the money for the cave and is able to bury Sarah. This is the first owned property by Abraham and his family in the land that they were promised. And there is a field and a cave; it’s the cave of Machpelah. This is actually going to show up again a little bit later, and I won’t do any kind of spoiler alert at this point, it will come at a pivotal time, we are at the very beginning of the story. There are no children of Israel because Israel is, has not been born yet. This location will come back around at a later time, several centuries from this point in the Bible. Also, of interest, this place still exists in Hebron, the cave of Machpelah, the tomb of Sarah actually becomes the tomb of Abraham and Isaac and Sarah. It becomes a family burial place and it still exists today, and it is, some covered over by a massive structure that was built by Herod. And it’s still standing and it’s still in pretty good shape. Hebron is a bit of a contentious place, and the tomb of the patriarchs is certainly, definitely been a place of contention because this is a predominantly Arab area and so, people practicing Islam, certainly hold their allegiance back to this man that we’re talking about right now, Abraham. As do the Jewish people, as do the Christian people. And so, plenty of violence and things have happened at this place in the past. And so, it’s very, very heavily guarded and shared at this point. There’s a synagogue kind of on one side for Hebrew people and a fairly large mosque there as well. And we’ve been able to be in both sides of that and film it and take pictures of it and stuff. So, it’s a, the place that we are discussing today, exists until today.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we thank You for another day together to be around the Global Campfire and to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures and let them wash into our lives and allow us to just experience the story that has led us too today. The story of your unwillingness to surrender us and the opportunity to just explore and enjoy exploring back stories and history, as well as looking deep into our hearts for how You are transforming and how You are inviting us to look at things. And we take to counsel what we read in the Proverbs today. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. We believe this to be true. We humble ourselves before You and ask that Your Holy Spirit, come and lead us into all truth, as we continue this journey forward day-by-day and step-by-step. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is where you can find out what’s going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app does that and puts it in the palm of your hand and you can find the Daily Audio Bible app free from the App Store that works with your phone or tablet. So, check that out.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there for this journey in a number of different categories. There is books and audiobooks category there with the God of Your Story is in there, which is kind of a written, a written version of a lot of the things that we talk about as we move through the year. No year is ever the same, but if you’re even kind of away from Internet or just want to listen in the morning maybe refresh at night, The God of Your Story is a great resource for that. There is Reframe: From the God We’ve Made to God with Us, which is a bit of a deep dive in what it even means to say we are in a relationship with God. How does that even work? What does that even mean? That’s explored in Reframe. There’s also Sneezing Jesus, which is a love story. It's…it’s a look at the beautiful humanity of Jesus and the fact that Jesus life is not only about the last couple days of His life. Like, His life isn’t only about His death. He lived a life, like we’re reading it in the Gospels. And it meant something, it modeled something. Jesus shows us what it might look like to live as we were intended. And so, that’s an exploration. And there are a number of other resources there, so check that out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in books and audiobooks.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh, every day and offered freely to anyone, anywhere, anytime and to build community around that rhythm, so that we know we’re not alone. And we know that, we know that here in this community around the Global Campfire, we know we’re not alone. If that is meaningful to you, then thank you for your partnership. 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 little 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:

Grace, mercy and peace. This is Pamela calling from Huntington, New York. Requesting prayer for my husband, Bishop Gary and my son Brandon. It’s an urgent, urgent prayer request. I am praying for all of you, as well. As you reap what you sow. And I’m praying for all families who have been broken and tattered due to adultery, due to money management, due to death. I’m lifting up those families. I’m praying for children who are not speaking to their parents for various reasons. The enemy fights family. But it’s up to us to pray for families. So, continue please to lift up my husband and my son. I appreciate it. And I will give a praise report. Thank you so much. Push everybody. Pray until something happens.

Hello DAB brothers and sisters. This is Chamaeleon and I’m ringing in from a view from a mountaintop. I’ve been a, this is my first-time touching base with ya’ll. I’ve been Brian listening with you since well, for 15 years, I think. I hope that’s correct. Time flies when you’re having fun. Just wanted to number 1 bring some encouragement and then number 2, ask for some prayer. So, the first thing is that we need to remember that God loves us. I know that’s, we hear it. That sounds maybe not too deep. But when we can know the love of God then we can be without fear and anxiety and lust and anger. We still battle with those things, but God gives us His Spirit, His grace, to not be ruled by them. Number 2, prayer. I have run into a intense spiritual battle. It’s good because I’m not fighting it, I’m not the one leading it, the Lord is. He fights my battles. Please pray for me. Thanks.

I have never gave like a prayer request before but I just want to pray for my baby father cause he’s heavily into Santria and I think it’s destroying his life. And the only reason why I’m kind of back to the Bible right now, so I guess everything happens for a reason. But I’m just really worried about it and I’m pregnant. So…

Hello, my wonderful DAB family. This is Rosie, aka Great to Be Free in Jesus, calling in to pray for our children and grandchildren. Today is Wednesday, January 4th and I’m calling into pray that God will pour out His Spirit upon them. Lord, You have said that in the last days, You will pour out Your Spirit upon on flesh. We cry out to You from the depths of our heart and ask that You would pour out Your Holy Spirit upon on children and grandchildren. Pour out Your Spirit upon us and all of our family members, as well. Pour out Your Spirit on all of our adult children’s in-laws both present and future. Pour out Your Spirit upon whatever difficult circumstances each of our children and grandchildren are facing. Be Lord over every part of their lives and every aspect of their beings. Speak to their hearts and help them to hear from You. Enable them to understand Your leading and direction for their lives. In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy. Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams Acts 2:17. Thank you my wonderful DAB family. God bless you. I love you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. My name is Lynn, this is my first time calling in and I’m so grateful to be part of this wonderful community of brothers and sisters in Christ. And I’m so encouraged and blessed by all the prayers of encouragement and also, praying along with all of your prayers of need. Now I’m really in desperate need of prayer for my 22-year-old daughter Jane and her two and half year-old daughter, Kyla. They’ve been mostly separated for the last two years and are only able to see each other for a few hours each week due to the many lies and deception of Kyla’s paternal grandparents against my daughter, to the local authorities in Edenborough, who have placed Kyla in their care because they never wanted her in their son’s life. And now, I petition over my own daughters’ life. I live in Spain and have been able to move back to Scotland to help. There have been many challenges making it impossible but hoping and praying to be able to do so within the next few months and that God will make a way. My daughter is deeply distressed, and we are worried about her mental health deteriorating as she suffers from anxiety and depression made worse as a result of all the stress and trauma being separated from her daughter. And about the welfare of her granddaughter, as she is being emotionally abused, neglected and put in harm’s way in the care of the paternal grandparents. A welfare report will be presented to the court, 9th of January, recommending, based on more lies and deception from the grandparents, that Kyla’s permanently placed in their care. And my daughter will only like to see her daughter in a supervised center once a fortnight, even though she’s never harmed or neglected her daughter but only needed the support which was denied to her. Please pray for truth and justice for my daughter and for my granddaughter to be back in her mom’s care whom she loves and misses so very much. And we could see her emotional and physical welfare rapidly deteriorating and her behaviors getting worse …

Good evening Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters and Brian and your family. I’m catching up and I just listened to January 1st. And I was struck by several things Brian talking about this being their 18th year. And thinking about the commitment and perseverance and the love and care for others and desire to spread God’s word that they are showing everyday by showing up every day and reading God’s word. And I’m just amazed by that. And thank you Brian and all of your family. And another thing Brian said was this, this is the first day, we’re starting a new year. Anything that happened in the past year, that’s in our history. And we look forward to what’s to come and it reminds me, you know, of the scripture from Paul. He said, forgetting what is in the past, I press on. Look forward to what is to come. And that scripture has been very special to me as I deal with my past. I just want to thank you so much. This has given me really a little corner of peace.

January 10, 2023

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday January 10, 2023 (NIV)

Genesis 23:1-24:51

The Burial of Sarah

23 When Sarah was 127 years old, ²she died at Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her.

³Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hittite elders, ⁴“Here I am, a stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so I can give my wife a proper burial.”

⁵The Hittites replied to Abraham, ⁶“Listen, my lord, you are an honored prince among us. Choose the finest of our tombs and bury her there. No one here will refuse to help you in this way.”

⁷Then Abraham bowed low before the Hittites ⁸and said, “Since you are willing to help me in this way, be so kind as to ask Ephron son of Zohar ⁹to let me buy his cave at Machpelah, down at the end of his field. I will pay the full price in the presence of witnesses, so I will have a permanent burial place for my family.”

¹⁰Ephron was sitting there among the others, and he answered Abraham as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the Hittite elders of the town. ¹¹“No, my lord,” he said to Abraham, “please listen to me. I will give you the field and the cave. Here in the presence of my people, I give it to you. Go and bury your dead.”

¹²Abraham again bowed low before the citizens of the land, ¹³and he replied to Ephron as everyone listened. “No, listen to me. I will buy it from you. Let me pay the full price for the field so I can bury my dead there.”

¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵“My lord, please listen to me. The land is worth 400 pieces^[a] of silver, but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead.”

¹⁶So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and paid the amount he had suggested—400 pieces of silver, weighed according to the market standard. The Hittite elders witnessed the transaction.

¹⁷So Abraham bought the plot of land belonging to Ephron at Machpelah, near Mamre. This included the field itself, the cave that was in it, and all the surrounding trees. ¹⁸It was transferred to Abraham as his permanent possession in the presence of the Hittite elders at the city gate. ¹⁹Then Abraham buried his wife, Sarah, there in Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre (also called Hebron). ²⁰So the field and the cave were transferred from the Hittites to Abraham for use as a permanent burial place.

A Wife for Isaac

24 Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. ²One day Abraham said to his oldest servant, the man in charge of his household, “Take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh. ³Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. ⁴Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.”

⁵The servant asked, “But what if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to travel so far from home? Should I then take Isaac there to live among your relatives in the land you came from?”

⁶“No!” Abraham responded. “Be careful never to take my son there. ⁷For the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and my native land, solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants.^[b] He will send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son. ⁸If she is unwilling to come back with you, then you are free from this oath of mine. But under no circumstances are you to take my son there.”

⁹So the servant took an oath by putting his hand under the thigh of his master, Abraham. He swore to follow Abraham’s instructions. ¹⁰Then he loaded ten of Abraham’s camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master, and he traveled to distant Aram-naharaim. There he went to the town where Abraham’s brother Nahor had settled. ¹¹He made the camels kneel beside a well just outside the town. It was evening, and the women were coming out to draw water.

¹²“O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. ¹³See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.”

¹⁵Before he had finished praying, he saw a young woman named Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor and his wife, Milcah. ¹⁶Rebekah was very beautiful and old enough to be married, but she was still a virgin. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up again. ¹⁷Running over to her, the servant said, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.”

¹⁸“Yes, my lord,” she answered, “have a drink.” And she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink. ¹⁹When she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough to drink.” ²⁰So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw water for all his camels.

²¹The servant watched her in silence, wondering whether or not the Lord had given him success in his mission. ²²Then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracelets^[c] for her wrists.

²³“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “And please tell me, would your father have any room to put us up for the night?”

²⁴“I am the daughter of Bethuel,” she replied. “My grandparents are Nahor and Milcah. ²⁵Yes, we have plenty of straw and feed for the camels, and we have room for guests.”

²⁶The man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. ²⁷“Praise the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham,” he said. “The Lord has shown unfailing love and faithfulness to my master, for he has led me straight to my master’s relatives.”

²⁸The young woman ran home to tell her family everything that had happened. ²⁹Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, who ran out to meet the man at the spring. ³⁰He had seen the nose-ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man had said. So he rushed out to the spring, where the man was still standing beside his camels. ³¹Laban said to him, “Come and stay with us, you who are blessed by the Lord! Why are you standing here outside the town when I have a room all ready for you and a place prepared for the camels?”

³²So the man went home with Laban, and Laban unloaded the camels, gave him straw for their bedding, fed them, and provided water for the man and the camel drivers to wash their feet. ³³Then food was served. But Abraham’s servant said, “I don’t want to eat until I have told you why I have come.”

“All right,” Laban said, “tell us.”

³⁴“I am Abraham’s servant,” he explained. ³⁵“And the Lord has greatly blessed my master; he has become a wealthy man. The Lord has given him flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, a fortune in silver and gold, and many male and female servants and camels and donkeys.

³⁶“When Sarah, my master’s wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master’s son, and my master has given him everything he owns. ³⁷And my master made me take an oath. He said, ‘Do not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. ³⁸Go instead to my father’s house, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son.’

³⁹“But I said to my master, ‘What if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to go back with me?’ ⁴⁰He responded, ‘The Lord, in whose presence I have lived, will send his angel with you and will make your mission successful. Yes, you must find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family. ⁴¹Then you will have fulfilled your obligation. But if you go to my relatives and they refuse to let her go with you, you will be free from my oath.’

⁴²“So today when I came to the spring, I prayed this prayer: ‘O Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please give me success on this mission. ⁴³See, I am standing here beside this spring. This is my request. When a young woman comes to draw water, I will say to her, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.” ⁴⁴If she says, “Yes, have a drink, and I will draw water for your camels, too,” let her be the one you have selected to be the wife of my master’s son.’

⁴⁵“Before I had finished praying in my heart, I saw Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ ⁴⁶She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’ So I drank, and then she watered the camels.

⁴⁷“Then I asked, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘I am the daughter of Bethuel, and my grandparents are Nahor and Milcah.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists.

⁴⁸“Then I bowed low and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham, because he had led me straight to my master’s niece to be his son’s wife. ⁴⁹So tell me—will you or won’t you show unfailing love and faithfulness to my master? Please tell me yes or no, and then I’ll know what to do next.”

⁵⁰Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The Lord has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say. ⁵¹Here is Rebekah; take her and go. Yes, let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.”

Footnotes:

23:15 Hebrew 400 shekels, about 10 pounds or 4.6 kilograms in weight; also in 23:16.
24:7 Hebrew seed; also in 24:60.
24:22 Hebrew a gold nose-ring weighing a beka [0.2 ounces or 6 grams] and two gold bracelets weighing 10 [shekels] [4 ounces or 114 grams].

New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 8:1-17

Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy

8 Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. ²Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”

³Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.^[a] This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

The Faith of a Roman Officer

⁵When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer^[b] came and pleaded with him, ⁶“Lord, my young servant^[c] lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

⁷Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

⁸But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. ⁹I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! ¹¹And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. ¹²But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

Jesus Heals Many People

¹⁴When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. ¹⁵But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.

¹⁶That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. ¹⁷This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said,

“He took our sicknesses
and removed our diseases.”^[d]

Footnotes:

8:4 See Lev 14:2-32.
8:5 Greek a centurion; similarly in 8:8, 13.
8:6 Or child; also in 8:13.
8:17 Isa 53:4.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 9:13-20

¹³Lord, have mercy on me.
See how my enemies torment me.
Snatch me back from the jaws of death.
¹⁴Save me so I can praise you publicly at Jerusalem’s gates,
so I can rejoice that you have rescued me.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into the pit they dug for others.
Their own feet have been caught in the trap they set.
¹⁶The Lord is known for his justice.
The wicked are trapped by their own deeds. Quiet Interlude^[a]

¹⁷The wicked will go down to the grave.^[b]
This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God.
¹⁸But the needy will not be ignored forever;
the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed.

¹⁹Arise, O Lord!
Do not let mere mortals defy you!
Judge the nations!
²⁰Make them tremble in fear, O Lord.
Let the nations know they are merely human. Interlude

Footnotes:

9:16 Hebrew Higgaion Selah. The meaning of this phrase is uncertain.
9:17 Hebrew to Sheol.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 3:1-6

Trusting in the Lord

3 My child,^[a] never forget the things I have taught you.
Store my commands in your heart.
²If you do this, you will live many years,
and your life will be satisfying.
³Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
⁴Then you will find favor with both God and people,
and you will earn a good reputation.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
⁶Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

Footnotes:

3:1 Hebrew My son; also in 3:11, 21.

New Living Translation (NLT)

January 9, 2023

01/09/2023 DAB Transcript

Genesis 20:1-22:24, Matthew 7:15-29, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 2:16-22

Today is the 9^th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brianne and it is wonderful to be here squarely in the second week of a brand-new sparkly year. And, so, we are moving through our second full week in the Bible. And as I was…was yesterday I was thinking…was talking about looking back and seeing just how far we’ve come already and how much the Bible has already begun to touch the places in our lives and give us clarity and direction. And, so, grateful that we can be here together today around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. Our next step leads us back into the book of Genesis and back into the story of Abraham. Today, Genesis chapters 20, 21 and 22.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today as we continue with the story of Abraham and we remember he was Abram and his name became Abraham when he entered into a covenant with God. His wife was called Sarai and her name was changed to Sarah and they were promised a child in their old age, a child between the two of them. Abraham had already had a son, Ishmael, with his wife’s handmade who had been given to Abraham as a wife. Her name was Hagar and she and Ishmael get sent away today. Sarah’s got a son now and she doesn’t want anybody sharing anything with what is hers now. And, so, she’s gotten quite territorial. These people are the patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Like, this story of Abraham shapes the rest of the Bible including the New Testament including the stories of Jesus. And, so, we can look back at the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and go well, they had to be like one rung below Jesus. They had to be like extraordinary people who were pretty well righteous and pretty well blameless and pretty much didn’t make any miscues or missteps or mistakes. What we’re seeing though, and we need to see is that that’s not true. They were human beings who made colossal mistakes. And God did not abandon them, but kept coming to like right the ship, correct the way, correct to the trajectory, keep things moving forward because He was inviting Abraham into a collaboration that would grow to eventually bless the entire world. And while God is perfect people aren’t. And God continues to work with whoever will work with Him. And this is Abraham. And, so. we see all kinds of human things, like Abimelech, the king of Gerar come and want a treaty and then some negotiations over wells. And who dug this well and then whose servants came and took over this well and this kind of territories. But then Abraham gets an invitation to do something that is kind of unthinkable - take your son, go to a place that I will show you. And we remember, this is how God called Abraham in the first place - go to a place that I will show you, a place that you haven’t been before. And, so, God is inviting Abraham again to a place that he will be shown. But the mission that he is on is to…is to sacrifice the child of promise, Isaac, which would have been disconcerting at the least. We put ourselves in this position, where Abraham and God are now in covenant with one another and because of the covenant nothing can be withheld from one another, and God is asking for the son that he gave Abraham and Sarah. And Abraham gets up to obey. And this is a super-duper famous story and generally the way the story was handed to me like down all the way from Sunday school was that the objective in this story to look at is the faith of Abraham, and that is right and good and appropriate. For Abraham to have entered into a covenant with the most-high God and for the most-high God to say, okay I want you to give your son back to me and for Abraham to get up the next morning and told the parts in obedience, believing that the Lord would provide some way, somehow. Even if he had to slay Isaac, God would give him back. This was the promise. There was a promise. And, so, to trust in the promise and continue forward in faith believing that this is going to be okay somehow, in the end would’ve taken a remarkable amount of faith indeed. And when we read through the text, it does seem like that’s where Abraham…that’s what he’s trusting in, that somehow there is the missing piece to the story. Somehow, he’s just got to continue to walk in faith and obedience and watch the rest of the story unfold. And that is indeed how the story plays out. Let’s step back for a second, though, and at least acknowledge the reality of what we are discussing here, which is the sacrifice of Isaac on an altar to God at the hands of Abraham, Isaac’s father. So, as they’re going to this place that they’re going to be shown and Abraham has a sense of what his objectives are…I don't…I mean…I don’t even know how to think about it. That would’ve been quite a bit of wrestling. And this story actually is here for us to wrestle with and invite ourselves to consider what we are withholding that we think is more precious to us than our intimacy in union with God. But it’s not just Christian people who would wrestle with the story. Jewish people have been wrestling with this story for thousands of years. There is a tradition that interprets the story as not so much the faith of Abraham, but the faith of Isaac, that Isaac is the one who has to die, that Isaac has the faith in this story and the trust in the promises of God that he is willing to submit himself to being tied up and laid down on an altar, expecting that he is going to die when the Angels come for the rescue. And, so, the faith of Isaac is to be considered in this story, that he is willing to submit himself to death to honor God, which certainly does resemble Jesus. I’ve heard another tradition that it…that tells of Abraham actually sacrificing Isaac and Isaac…Isaac is dead and three days later is resurrected. Obviously, that is a Hebrew tradition, but it certainly does resemble Jesus. Obviously, those details are not in the text. This is just the ongoing rabbinical wrestling with what is…what is the purpose, what is the meaning what is the depths of this story, what are we supposed to get from this story that changes us? And the reason for this particular kind of imagining or considering of the story is that it doesn’t seem like Isaac came back down the mountain after this event. Actually, from the text the angel of the Lord calls to Abraham and says don’t do this, I see where your hearts at. You will be blessed. All of your offspring will be blessed. And then…and then as far as like coming down from the summit of this mountain, the Bible says, then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba and Abraham stayed in Beersheba. There’s no more mention of Isaac being with Abraham. There’s another tradition that says that Isaac was like traumatized by this experience, this near-death experience, traumatized enough to that it changed him, and he didn’t come back with his father. In fact, as we will see in the days ahead Isaac goes to live somewhere else. After this he goes to a place called beer-lahi-roi. And, so, rabbis and scholars have wrestled with how this all works and allows us to kind of look at it from a number of different angles - the faith of Abraham to believe in the promise of God, the faith of Isaac to submit and believe and trust even in the face of death, and even submitting to death to trust in the promise of God. But also, we do go through things that change us and are difficult and are hard to understand if there is no wrong view. If we’re just trying to make sense of what has blown up in our face and try to make some sense of it without believing that the story, the promise is true, is good. I have to keep going. I have to keep moving forward in order for this all to start to make sense. We can look at this from any number or all of these ways because they all apply to our own journey of faith. And we will not be able to escape references to the faith of Abraham on our journey both through the old and the new Testaments. And, so, wrestling with or observing or paying attention to what’s going on here is going to help us as we continue our journey through the Bible and allow the Bible to get inside of us and transform us.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the comfort of it. We also thank You for the disruption of it. We don’t like being disrupted. We don’t like it when things don’t go exactly as we wanted them to go. And yet life is shaped that way, and we deal with these things all of the time. And, so, we thank You that Your word also agitates and shakes us, shakes things loose, forces us to stay mobile, forces us to stay alert and aware and vigilant. And, so, Holy Spirit come and plant what we’ve read from the Scriptures today into the soil of our lives and may yield fruit, the fruit of the Spirit for Your kingdom, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian and I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

January 9, 2023

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday January 9, 2023 (NIV)

Genesis 20-22

Sarah Rescued from Abimelech

20 From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,^(A) ²Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.”^(B) So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”^[a]

⁴Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent? ⁵Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience^[b] and clean^[c] hands.”

⁶Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience.^[d] I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her. ⁷Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet,^(C) and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸Early in the morning Abimelech got up, called all his servants together, and personally^[e] told them all these things, and the men were terrified.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.”^(D) ¹⁰Abimelech also asked Abraham, “What made you do this?”

¹¹Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place.^(E) They will kill me because of my wife.’ ¹²Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. ¹³So when God had me wander from my father’s house,^(F) I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me, ‘He’s my brother.’”^(G)

¹⁴Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you.^(H) Settle wherever you want.”^[f] ¹⁶And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your brother one thousand pieces of silver. It is a verification of your honor^[g] to all who are with you. You are fully vindicated.”

¹⁷Then Abraham prayed to God,^(I) and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children, ¹⁸for the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The Birth of Isaac

21 The Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.^(J) ²Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.^(K) ³Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac.^(L) ⁴When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.^(M) ⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.^(N)

⁶Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.”^[h]^(O) ⁷She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him^[i] in his old age.”

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. ⁹But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.^(P) ¹⁰So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!” ^(Q)

¹¹This was very distressing to^[j] Abraham because of his son. ¹²But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed^[k] about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac,^(R) ¹³and I will also make a nation of the slave’s son^(S) because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. ¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes ¹⁶and went and sat at a distance, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” While she sat at a distance, she^[l] wept loudly.^(T)

¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and the^[m] angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is. ¹⁸Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.” ¹⁹Then God opened her eyes,^(U) and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Abraham’s Covenant with Abimelech

²²At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army,^(V) said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.^(W) ²³Swear to me by God here and now, that you will not break an agreement with me or with my children and descendants. As I have been loyal to you, so you will be loyal to me and to the country where you are a resident alien.”

²⁴And Abraham said, “I swear it.” ²⁵But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.^(X)

²⁶Abimelech replied, “I don’t know who did this thing. You didn’t report anything to me, so I hadn’t heard about it until today.”

²⁷Abraham took flocks and herds and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.^(Y) ²⁸Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock. ²⁹And Abimelech said to Abraham, “Why have you separated these seven ewe lambs?”

³⁰He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from me so that this act^[n] will serve as my witness that I dug this well.” ³¹Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba^[o]^(Z) because it was there that the two of them swore an oath. ³²After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.^(AA) ³⁴And Abraham lived as an alien in the land of the Philistines for many days.

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22 After these things God tested Abraham^(AB) and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

²“Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love,^(AC) go to the land of Moriah,^(AD) and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

³So Abraham got up early in the morning,^(AE) saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. ⁴On the third day^(AF) Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” ⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac.^(AG) In his hand he took the fire and the knife,^(AH) and the two of them walked on together.

⁷Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”

And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”

Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸Abraham answered, “God himself will provide^[p]^(AI) the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.

⁹When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac^[q] and placed him on the altar^(AJ) on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He replied, “Here I am.”

¹²Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”^(AK) ¹³Abraham looked up and saw a ram^[r] caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide,^[s] so today it is said, “It will be provided^[t] on the Lord’s mountain.”

¹⁵Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶and said, “By myself I have sworn,”^(AL) this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you^(AM) and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky^(AN) and the sand on the seashore.^(AO) Your offspring will possess the city gates of their^[u] enemies.^(AP) ¹⁸And all the nations of the earth will be blessed^[v] by your offspring^(AQ) because you have obeyed my command.”

¹⁹Abraham went back to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham settled in Beer-sheba.

Rebekah’s Family

²⁰Now after these things Abraham was told, “Milcah also has borne sons to your brother Nahor:^(AR) ²¹Uz his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, ²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” ²³And Bethuel fathered Rebekah.^(AS) Milcah bore these eight to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. ²⁴His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Footnotes:

20:3 Lit is possessed by a husband
20:5 Lit with integrity of my heart
20:5 Lit cleanness of my
20:6 Lit with integrity of your heart
20:8 Lit in their ears
20:15 Lit Settle in the good in your eyes
20:16 Lit a covering of the eyes
21:6 Isaac = He Laughs; Gn 17:19
21:7 Sam, Tg Jonathan; MT omits him
21:11 Lit was very bad in the eyes of
21:12 Lit “Let it not be bad in your eyes
21:16 LXX reads the boy
21:17 Or an
21:30 Lit that it
21:31 = Well of the Oath, or Seven Wells
22:8 Lit see
22:9 Or Isaac hand and foot
22:13 Some Hb mss, Sam, LXX, Syr, Tg; other Hb mss read saw behind him a ram
22:14 = Yahweh-yireh
22:14 Or “He will be seen
22:17 Lit his
22:18 Or will consider themselves blessed, or will find blessing

Cross references:

20:1 : Gn 26:1,6
20:2 : Gn 12:13; 26:7
20:7 : 1Sm 7:5; 2Kg 5:11; Jb 42:8
20:9 : Gn 12:19; 26:9
20:11 : Neh 5:15; Pr 16:6
20:13 : Gn 12:1
20:13 : Gn 12:13; 20:5
20:15 : Gn 13:9; 34:10; 47:6
20:17 : Nm 12:13; 21:7; Jms 5:16
21:1 : Gn 17:16; 18:10; Gl 4:23
21:2 : Gn 17:21; 18:10,14; Heb 11:11
21:3 : Gn 17:19
21:4 : Gn 17:10,12; Ac 7:8
21:5 : Gn 17:1,17; Rm 4:19
21:6 : Gn 18:12–15
21:9 : Gn 16:1,15; Gl 4:29
21:10 : Gl 4:30
21:12 : Rm 9:7; Heb 11:18
21:13 : Gn 16:10; 21:18; 25:12–18
21:16 : Jr 6:26; Am 8:10
21:19 : Nm 22:31; 2Kg 6:17–18,20; Lk 24:16,31
21:22 : Gn 20:2; 26:1,26
21:22 : Gn 26:28
21:25 : Gn 26:15,18,20–22
21:27 : Gn 26:31
21:31 : Gn 26:33
21:33 : Ps 45:6; 48:14; 90:2; 93:2; Is 40:28; Jr 10:10; Rm 16:26; Heb 13:8
22:1 : Dt 8:2,16; 1Co 10:13; Heb 11:17; Jms 1:12–14; 1Pt 1:6–7
22:2 : Gn 22:12,16; Jr 6:26; Am 8:10; Mk 12:6; Lk 7:12; Jn 3:16; 1Jn 4:9
22:2 : 2Ch 3:1
22:3 : Jos 3:1
22:4 : Ex 19:11,16; Jos 9:17; Jdg 20:30; 2Sm 1:2; 1Kg 12:12; 2Kg 20:5; Est 5:1; Hs 6:2; Mt 17:23
22:6 : Jn 19:17
22:6 : Jdg 19:29; Pr 30:14
22:8 : Gn 22:14
22:9 : Heb 11:17; Jms 2:21
22:12 : Rm 8:32
22:16 : Ps 105:9; Lk 1:73; Heb 6:13
22:17 : Heb 6:14
22:17 : Gn 15:5; 26:4; Jr 33:22; Heb 11:12
22:17 : Gn 13:16; 32:12
22:17 : Gn 24:60
22:18 : Gn 12:3; 26:4; Ac 3:25; Gl 3:8
22:20 : Gn 11:29
22:23 : Gn 24:15

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

Matthew 7:15-29

¹⁵“Be on your guard against false prophets^(A) who come to you in sheep’s^(B) clothing^(C) but inwardly are ravaging wolves.^(D) ¹⁶You’ll recognize them by their fruit.^(E) Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?^(F) ¹⁷In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.^(G) ²⁰So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.^(H)

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,^(I) but only the one who does the will^(J) of my Father in heaven.^(K) ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons^(L) in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’^(M) ²³Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’^[a]^[b]^(N)

The Two Foundations

²⁴“Therefore,^(O) everyone who hears these words^(P) of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things,^(Q) the crowds were astonished at his teaching,^(R) ²⁹because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

Footnotes:

7:23 Lit you who work lawlessness
7:23 Ps 6:8

Cross references:

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Psalm 9:1-12

Psalm 9

Celebration of God’s Justice

For the choir director: according to Muth-labben. A psalm of David.

¹I will thank the Lord with all my heart;
I will declare all your wondrous works.^(A)
²I will rejoice and boast about you;^(B)
I will sing about your name, Most High.^(C)

³When my enemies retreat,
they stumble and perish before you.^(D)
⁴For you have upheld my just cause;^(E)
you are seated on your throne as a righteous judge.^(F)
⁵You have rebuked the nations:^(G)
You have destroyed the wicked;^(H)
you have erased their name forever and ever.^(I)
⁶The enemy has come to eternal ruin;
you have uprooted the cities,
and the very memory of them has perished.^(J)

⁷But the Lord sits enthroned forever;^(K)
he has established his throne for judgment.^(L)
⁸And he judges the world with righteousness;
he executes judgment on the nations with fairness.^(M)
⁹The Lord is a refuge for the persecuted,
a refuge in times of trouble.^(N)
¹⁰Those who know your name trust in you
because you have not abandoned
those who seek you, Lord.^(O)

¹¹Sing to the Lord, who dwells in Zion;^(P)
proclaim his deeds among the nations.^(Q)
¹²For the one who seeks an accounting
for bloodshed remembers them;^(R)
he does not forget the cry of the oppressed.^(S)

Cross references:

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Proverbs 2:16-22

¹⁶It will rescue you from a forbidden woman,^(A)
from a wayward woman with her flattering talk,^(B)
¹⁷who abandons the companion of her youth^(C)
and forgets the covenant of her God;
¹⁸for her house sinks down to death
and her ways to the land of the departed spirits.^(D)
¹⁹None return who go to her;
none reach the paths of life.^(E)
²⁰So follow the way of the good,^(F)
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those of integrity will remain in it;^(G)
²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land,^(H)
and the treacherous ripped out of it.^(I)

Cross references:

2:16 : Pr 9:13–18
2:16 : Pr 5:3,20; 6:24; 7:5,21; 23:27
2:17 : Mal 2:14–15
2:18 : Pr 7:27; 9:18; 21:16
2:16–19 : Ps 16:11; Pr 5:6; 7:5,21–27; 23:27–28; Ec 7:26
2:20 : Heb 6:12
2:21 : Pr 10:30; Mt 5:5–6
2:22 : Ps 37:38
2:22 : Dt 28:63; Ps 52:5

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

January 8, 2023

1/8/2023 DAB Transcript

Genesis 18:16-19:38, Matthew 6:25-7:14, Psalm 8:1-9, Proverbs 2:6-15

Today is the 8th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, and welcome to week two. We have completed our first full week of this year and our first full week moving through the Scriptures together, day-by-day and step-by-step. So, here we are at the threshold of a brand-new, shiny, sparkly week. And we walk into this week together. And I’ll say it many, many, times as we come to the beginning of a new week. This is a fresh start, we’re still just starting our year and so we got a fresh start in the year, but this is a fresh start, a brand-new week. Week number two, which means we have a reset, we can regroup, we can move forward together. And so, let’s do just that. We will read from the New International Version this week, and obviously picking up right where we left off yesterday, leads us back into the story of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Abraham and his wife Sarah have been promised to have a son, a promised son. Only problem is that like Abraham’s 99 years old and Sarah’s like pushing 90, and so, seems like unlikely that they’re going to have a kid, but who knows maybe they will. We’ll get to that soon enough. We’ve got a little drama that precedes that. So, let’s dive in, Genesis chapter 18 verse 16 through 19 verse 38 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so, like yesterday, we have some very poignant things going on in the gospel of Matthew, coming from the lips of Jesus, that we cannot possibly ignore. And out right here at the beginning of the year, we need to observe what they are and incorporate them into our lives and simply watch what it might look like if we obey. But before we get to that we need to go back into the book of Genesis, because we encountered a story today that probably left most of us going wait a second here. What is going on? So, we have this story of…of Abraham discussing with the Lord, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and kind of negotiating. Really, really interesting, “really if they’re 50 people there will you still destroy it’, ‘no, if there are 50 I won’t’, ‘well, what about five less,’ then I won’t if there’s 45’, ‘well, what about 30’, it’s really, really interesting to watch a human being, Abraham, talking to God and they’re talking back-and-forth. Abraham’s looking for this clarity and he’s negotiating the number down. He gets it down to 10, I’m not really sure why he doesn’t like continue to go down to one or whatever, maybe because 10 people is Lots household, that he knows of. And he’s just making sure that his own family that’s living down in the Jordan Valley will be saved. Nevertheless, there’s this conversation that is taking place between God and Abraham, and God assures Abraham look, I’m not going down there to indiscriminately do anything. I’m going to check things out, and if there’s righteousness there then we’ll find it, and if there is only evil there then we’re going to do away with evil because evil is destroying creation. So, this all takes place and we find ourselves down in Sodom, the Angels go home with Lot, they’re surrounded by the men of the village, they want to have sex with the Angels, although they don’t know that they are angels. And it’s pretty clear that’s the Lord is going to bring destruction. So, they spirit Lot away, they’re running for their lives. The girls have been offered up to the mob. So, they’re running away wondering about their value. Although were in an extraordinarily patriarchal culture at this time. Their fiancés have stayed behind and are now dead. Their mom is running with them, but she looks back and then she’s gone. And so, all that’s left are these two daughters and their dad, and their hold up in a cave. And the daughters decide to sleep with their father to see if they could become pregnant by their father to continue their family line. We see a story like this in the Bible, at least it’s been my personal experience, we see a story like this the Bible and go, what in the world? What is this doing in the Bible? And the immediate judgment is like against God. Ironically, like stories that are disruptive in the Bible that make us go, wait a minute, what? What is going on here? They’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Like, that’s what the narrative is supposed to do, we’re supposed to be unsettled. And then we’re supposed to enter in and wrestle with, and observe and look at what’s going on in this story? So, it’s so funny how we can read a story in the Bible and then blame God for everything. When, if we you look at the story, God didn’t do any of this. He went to destroy evil, but He did not enter the minds of the daughters and tell them to have sex with their father and see if they could get pregnant. There’s this entire cultural context going on here that reveals to us that these girls, this isn’t like, they weren’t like, yes, a romantic night with dad. Right, like anybody. They were in a situation where the only way, seems to be the wrong way, like there’s no good choices. Here they are, foreign women, they had been betrothed. They are no longer engaged; their mom is gone. Their father is aging. They are foreigners and, in this culture, there needs to be a man to claim them, to continue the family line. So that the women will be spoken for and protected. And like there’s no way for this to happen. They’ve lost everything, like their dad who had once been wealthy, is living in a cave with his daughters. They lost everything in this. And so, he can’t buy his way out of stuff and he’s not going to be able to defend himself. If they’re like moving through the mountains or they’re moving through the plains and they’re just trying to stay low to the ground, but people come upon them and here’s two beautiful girls and their dad. Pretty easy to take the dad out and steal the girls, like they really don’t have a lot of options. Could they flee to their ancestral homeland? Could they go back to wherever their family is? Could they get there by themselves? Probably not, they’re gonna get captured along the way and what will be the outcome? Very likely, they’ll be human trafficked, very likely. They’ll be prostitutes. And so, they make the choices that they make, believing that this is the only choice that they have. Why they didn’t flee back to Abraham, we…we don’t know. What we do know is from the text, that there were no angels that appeared to Lot and his daughters, suggesting that the Lord Almighty had put them in the cave because it was His will that they could do this. There were no instructions about any of this from the mouth of God, commanding or inviting any of this. These were the choices that were made, and this is what happened because of those choices. And we can often blame God for the choices that we make, as well. When He had nothing to do with what we decided to do. But if we go back a few days and remember Abraham and Lot standing on top of the lookout and Abraham telling Lot, you pick where you want to go, and I’ll go in the opposite direction. Lot chooses selfishly. Abraham remains steadfast and the stories play out. Which invites us to wrestle with our own lives, the choices that we make are leading somewhere, will end up somewhere. Do we want to end up somewhere where the only way is the wrong way? Or might we consider, being steadfast and believing in the promise?

Then we flip over into the gospel of Matthew and Jesus begins by telling us that essentially, we’re spending more time worrying than is necessary. And were worrying and anxious about things that God is already aware of. And then He’s kinda giving us the remedy, seek first the kingdom of God. Seek first like, before your worry and anxiety for all of that, first seek God’s kingdom and the righteousness of God. Do that first and all these things will be given to you as well. Don’t worry about tomorrow, it’ll take care of itself. What an invitation. Like that’s what Jesus is suggesting that we do, like what if we do that this week. But if before the anxiety and before the sleepless nights, what if first seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness. Like, what’s the downside to trying it this week? But while we’re doing some trying, Jesus said something very poignant. Yesterday, we’re talking about Jesus right after the Lord’s prayer telling us that forgiveness is not an option in God’s kingdom. It’s like the way of God’s kingdom and we need to have that as a category and begin to think about that. Jesus tells us additional information today, and I quote, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way, you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” That is pretty big and a very important piece of information to know on our faith journey. That we are setting the bar for our own judgment, by the way that we choose to judge others. Like that is something to ponder. And so, you can head right back into Matthew chapter 7 and wrestle with it yourself. Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you. And then Jesus goes on to talk about specks and planks being in eyes. Why are you trying to take the speck out of somebody else’s eye, when you got a log in your own eye. Get the log out of your own eye and then you can help the other…other brother or sister get the speck out of their own eye. That’s his illustration for what He’s saying about judging. And we could parse this and have all kinds of debate about what it actually means to judge. Like, what are we actually talking about here? Each of us should wrestle with that in our own lives, what does that mean to us? What does that mean to the way we conduct ourselves? What is the Holy Spirit leading us to become aware of? Because if Jesus is telling the truth, and I believe He’s telling the truth, like our lives as Christians are centered around this person, like this is the one who came to rescue us, He didn’t come here to like lay down the commands, He came here to show us what freedom might look like, how we might live in such a way that will bring us freedom. And how backward we actually live to the way we were intended to live. It’s really easy for us to get judgy. It’s really easy to watch people do things differently than we would do them and have an opinion. And it could be big and it can be small, but we do it all the time and what is it actually doing? Like, aren’t we just continually trying to create comparisons that let us feel superior? And is any of that real? Like do we have any say in any of it? What we’ve been given control over is ourselves. Can we even handle that? Why do we think we can handle everybody else’s life and why do we think we have to have an opinion about everything and why we think we have to post every opinion about everything, all of the time in such highly judgmental ways? I guess, here we are in week two, and were going to find that we learn a lot in the Bible about a lot of things, but the Bible is going to be relentless about confronting us in certain areas, because they will lead us into bondage if we cannot understand what’s going on. So, let’s wrestle with it, as we move through this week.

Prayer:

And Holy Spirit, we invite You. Wrestling with these things and trying to improve ourselves in our own strength, by brute force. We have tried and failed and tried and failed. And so, we will only fail at any of these things without You coming and revealing things to us and transforming us from within. And we’re getting a good picture from Jesus that we spend an awful lot of time on our exterior lives and most of our energy, when we’re ignoring what is true. Life from within. So, Holy Spirit, come. Help us with the way that we carry around unforgiveness, help us with the way that we can be so judgmental toward each other. Help us to understand that we’re setting the bar for our own selves. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning DABers. This message is especially for God’s Chosen and child. Thank you for putting a smile on my face and joy in my heart as I started my day, today. I call myself the Potter’s Clay and am the mother of a 31-year-old medically fragile and totally dependent daughter. Your worship and song gave me the energy and encouragement, I needed to start my day. God bless you and God bless that precious little girl of yours. Thanks again.

Hey this is Shawn, I’m from Nicaragua. Just want to shout out. I’ve been here with the Daily Audio Bible for a year now and I’ve seen God work in my life. I just want to thank you Brian, for always being there and just keep up the good work, man. We just thank You Lord for Brian and his family. That he may keep doing the will of the Lord. Bless his heart, dear Lord, in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Hi friends, my sisters and brothers in the Lord. I am sitting in my living room; my youngest girl is watching cartoons. And I just listened to the Daily Bible reading. And this is just my day number two. I just downloaded the app, just before new year. So, I’m amazed by this app, but this community is amazing. Able to send prayer requests, able to pray for other people. I just want to say, just like were told every day here, you are loved, and I want to say that I love you. Praying with you here. And really hope that you have a wonderful day. And then especially those of you who struggle with depression and stillness and yeah. That God may lift you up or yeah, that He will strengthen you. And I ask people to pray for me yesterday because I have had depression before and have felt a little bit again now. This last half year. It would really help if you pray for me. I can feel a difference today. I feel more at peace, so that’s wonderful. So, praise the Lord, and thank you. Happy New Year to all of you.

Hello, I’m Hudson. My brother has diabetes and it’s been tough for him. I need your prayers please. I’m Hudson. Hope you all are doing well.

I’d like to give a praise report. Thank you, Brian and family. What a blessing. You’ve really, really help me beyond what words can say. I can read but I really struggle around it. So, two-fold, when COVID first came, in the UK, I was in a bad way when I first fell down. And it was only listening for people asking for prayer, it actually snapped me out of it cause I realized it’s not just me. I’ve got four children, so I’ve been on my own for years. It can be a horrible place at times. Anyway, thank you. I had a lung infection. I couldn’t breathe. There can’t be anything worse than not being able to breath. Anyway, I put it out on the Prayer Wall. And within a couple of hours of putting it out on the Prayer Wall, people were praying for me. And I loved it, absolutely loved it. So, thank you and I really do appreciate it. God bless you all and keep you all safe. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is Shantay calling from the Treasure Coast of Florida. And there was a call from John 3:16 that just had me in tears in a bittersweet, to put it that way. Because I believe that we each …shore. I am still grieving over the loss of Pelham. You know, it was just all so sudden for us. I just so related to his call. It’s like, he said he felt like he didn’t convey how much he meant. And I feel that way too. I was even ___ I didn’t really chat with him that much like I could have, you know. But I know, I know he knows how much we cared for him. I just know that. We’re a family and you can’t fake this, you just can’t. It just, although my first time when I heard Brian and he you know, he read the Bible and that at the end he said, I love you. Now, I was thinking to myself, now that’s a little, okay. Uh, you know, it was my first time listening and I’m like okay, you know, whatever. But as I continue to listen and listen and listen that feeling just overwhelmed me of love for this community. Of love for Brian. Of love for what we have here. And yeah, there’s no denying it. So, I’m just grateful. I’m grateful for each and every one of you. And on most of my calls I end with, I love you, because I truly feel that. And yes, we will definitely grief for Pelham. Praise God he’s with Jesus right now. It was just all so sudden, it really was. But God’s timing is His timing, it’s perfect and we have to…