Micah 5:1-7:20, Revelation 7:1-17, Psalms 135:1-21, Proverbs 30:5-6
Today is the 16th day of the month of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey, the one that takes us to the end of the year and all the way through the Scriptures. And we are obviously well on our way, but we still have some significant territory to cover. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. We began the book of Micah yesterday in our Old Testament reading, and we will conclude the book of Micah today by reading Micah 5, 6, and 7.
Commentary:
Okay. God says something in the book of Micah today as we’re nearing the end of…of Micah that is really riveting and penetrating. “my people”, God says “what have I done to you? How have I been a burden to you? Answer me.” And this is God basically pressing into the rebellion of His people and the idolatry and spiritual idolatry of His people. They would face hardship and then blame God for it, which sounds awfully contemporary, and now. Sounds like our own lives. And God is saying, “what have I done to you? Am I not the one that rescued you? Like, am I not the one that has provided for your every step?” When God says, “my people, what have I done to you?” I mean you just have to imagine putting your own name. “Oh Brian, what have I done to you? Ahh…even just saying that out loud pricks me. I don’t ever want to hear that. “How have I been a burden to you?” I don’t ever want to hear the Lord say that to me. If we just kind of a reverse the question and put the question at the end of God’s statement, then we get complete clarity. So, God says. “I brought you out of Egypt. I rescued you from slavery. I sent Moses Aaron and Miriam to lead you. My people, remember what king Balak of Moab planned to do to you and Baalam son of Beor answered him. Remember the things that happened on the way from the camp at Acacia to Gilgal. Remember these things and you will realize what I did in order to save you.” My people, what have I done to you? How have I been a burden to you? Answer me.” That is such a mirror. Like, that’s one you can’t escape from. You can’t look away because it’s like, look back at the story of your life and look at the moments where God has saved and rescued you and you knew it and you still know it. And yet hardship endurance can come, perseverance can come and we’re mad, were estranged or angry and we’re rebellious and we walk away just like the people in the Bible. And then hears God, “what did I do? What did I do to you? How did I burden you?” So, basically what happens in the text here is that Micah responds to that. Like…like God has just come and asked us this question, “How have I been a burden to you? What have I done to you?” So, he’s internally kind of working through, “what…what do we do now? How do we respond to that?” And it becomes a bit of a rhetorical, even sarcastic lesson. “What shall I bring to the Lord?” Like, this is the response to, “how have I been a burden to you?” “What shall I bring to the Lord, the God of heaven when I come to worship Him? Shall I bring the best cows to burn as offering to him? Will the Lord be pleased if I bring Him thousands of sheep or endless streams of olive oil? Shall I offer him my firstborn child to pay for my sins? No.” And then Micah tells us something that’s very famous but also something that essentially encapsulates what it is that God wants from you. So, Micah is like, “no. It’s not all these sacrifices, it’s not all these rituals, it’s not all these hoops, this is not what God wants from you.” “The Lord” and I’m quoting Micah “the Lord has told us what is good. What He requires of us is this, to do what is just, to show constant love and to live in humble fellowship with our God.” More famously we would quote this, “to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God.” This is what God wants from you. This is what he wants from me. It’s what he wants from us. And when us gets together and does what God wants things change. It’s all available. It’s all in our hands. We can practice this as we go into the holiday season straightaway straight in front of us. Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly. That is the path friends. That is the path forward. When that’s what our lives look like we are on the right path. And, so let’s carry that forward in our hearts today as we continue to move toward Christmas and the new year. It was like a month and a half ago we were way out in front of it, talking about how this is gonna happen, things are gonna speed up, the years gonna get crazy like it always does, very very busy. And, so, we’re gonna want to start the year fresh and new and strong and the way that that’s gonna happen is that we finish this year strong. Justice, mercy, humility - this is the path to walk to finish well and start strong. Let’s intentionally begin today.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. We can’t do it without You, we can do nothing without You, and we don’t want to do anything without You. Anything we’ve ever attempted to do without You has been a catastrophe and we’ve learned that we can continue to repeat the same patterns, or we can lift our hands in surrender asking for Your help. And we’re asking for Your help. We want to collaborate with You. This life isn’t about everything that we can create and You are the add-on, You are the secret sauce, You are the one that provides the path forward. We’re in a different story than that. We’re in Your story and You have invited us to be a part of that story. We want to do Your will and we want to join You in the grand story, the ongoing never-ending story of redemption. Come Holy Spirit, help us to meditate on justice, mercy and humility today we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, home base, indeed where you find out what’s going on around here. And indeed, it’s Christmas time around here. So that’s mostly what’s going on.
Daily Audio Bible Shop is open and there are some unique gift ideas there truly, truly unique gift ideas there. Maybe a gift to yourself is there waiting for you as well, something to commemorate and remind you of…of 2020 and the craziness of the year and the fact that we went through it together. We were in it together every step of the way. I mean the second people had to start keeping their distance we just kept going. This is…this is the beauty of who we are as a virtual community. And, so, we…maybe there’s something that you want…you wanna use to remind yourself. There are plenty of…of ideas there. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.
The other thing is that we have been collecting the holiday greetings that we will put together and create our annual Christmas party. And, so, today’s the last day we’re…we’re going to be collecting those. So, if you’ve procrastinated a little bit maybe don’t forget this is the last day. All you gotta do is hit the Hotline button in the app the same way we would submit a prayer request or encouragement. Hit the Hotline button in the app and share your holiday greeting, or you can dial 877-942-4253 and share your holiday greeting. The only rule is that just don’t combine a holiday greeting and a prayer request in the same call. Just make those separate this time. And, so, we’ll…we’ll collect those today and then get to work on putting everything together so we can have our Christmas party. And I look forward to that tremendously.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you humbly and profoundly…yeah…humbly and profoundly, those are the right words. Thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. So, there is a link on the homepage. And you press the Give button if you’re using the app, and that’s in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you’ve a prayer request or encouragement 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can just hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top and you won't…you won’t…you won’t miss it. It looks like a Hotline button. You can just press that and share from wherever you are in the world.
And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is John calling from Bethlehem Pennsylvania hope you’re doing great today. It’s the 12th of December at about 9:10 AM and I just got through listening to the program for 11th of December and listening to the…the prayers that came in and wanted to first thank Grandpa Bob for his prayer for Halo. Such great words of advice for you Halo and such great wisdom from Grandpa Bob. And he’s right, we love you. God loves you. And…and other colors that have called, you know, about Halo’s situation like that day too we heard from Walta the burning bush and what a beautiful prayer you prayed, you know, over…over her and over the person that’s, you know, being a bully or being mean to her. Just beautiful Walta. So, thank you Grandpa Bob and thank you Walta for praying over Halo. You know, we’re joined together in prayer and, you know, where two or more people this goes right to the father Halo. So, you’re in great hands and we do love you. We want to hear your praise report when you call back in. Also, there was a caller. You didn’t leave your name sweetheart but you were talking about how you’re so distracted with things and that you’re…you’re sick, physically sick even because you’re so distracted by everything is going on. Sweetheart…heavenly Father thank You so much for this…for this woman that she’s seeking You and that she’s calling in her prayer God. Touch her in a special way, Lord Jesus. Help her to focus and bring her clarity. Help her to cut out all of the junk from her life that’s bringing fear and anxiety to her and have her stay close to You. I’m praying for You sweetheart. I’ll keep You lifted up in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hi, my names Hudson and I…I live in New Mexico and I’m just praying for my brother who has diabetes. He has…he had diabetes for 15 years and they just want to…I just want to pray that he gets better from diabetes. And I thank you Brian for be…for praying for all those here. I listen to it every day. Thank you.
Good afternoon DAB family God bless you all. A DABber called at about a 95 dad that is able to understand the meaning of salvation right before he went to be with the Lord and surrounded by family. That is such a beautiful story and so encouraging and I am praying for the peace of God to be with you all and comforting you as I know that your dad will be missed. You know, Laura Lee from Boyden Beach welcoming new listeners. Amen. Praise you Jesus. Please continue to call in those new listeners we love to hear from you. Pamela from Canada called in about your son Ray in Jamaica. We are praying for the for that he is going to turn his life over to Jesus as well as other family members in the name of Jesus. And I’m also praying for these things that are attacking your body. I don’t want I even name them. I am praying for the healing of the Jesus Christ that we serve to be upon you in the name of Jesus. Blind Tony, I love your poems. God bless you in the name of Jesus. And Joe to Treasure, you know, you are a treasure. You called in about recognizing our voices and how we are to recognize the voice of the One and only One that we serve, Jesus Christ. We thank you. And yes, may we always be mindful about the voices that we recognize and always wanting to hear the voice of God in the midst of everything. Russell from superior daughter injecting drugs we bind that in the name of Jesus. We bind those drugs in the name of Jesus. I am binding those spirits that is trying to hold her down in the name of Jesus. Barb from Alberta called to say thank you for this community. You say you only call in every couple years but you know what sis we love you and we want to hear from you. God bless you all. Esther from Orlando.
Hi this is Lita I would like to pray for Harold to have the sun with diabetes and if there was another person that called in who also had a loved one diabetes. I also have a son with type I diabetes and so I understand the heart ache of having to walk alongside someone dealing with this terrible disease. So, Father I lift up Harold and I lift up the other person and myself Lord, all of us having loved ones with type I diabetes and I pray for healing Lord. I pray for good management of numbers. I just pray for Your wisdom and for Your guidance Lord and I pray for Your deliverance and I pray Lord for Your…Your rescue of us Lord from this disease. And I just pray Lord that You would help, that You would heal, that You would deliver. Lord You’re all that we have, You are our everything, the only one we can turn to and we turn to You Lord. Thank You.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Regis calling from Nairobi. Today I’m calling just to pray…to pray and join Gloria in prayer. Gloria from Camp Paula Uganda just a neighbor here. Gloria, I heard your…your request. You are requesting a prayer. You’ve been promoted but they’ve included also many things like faith management and song, but your salaries still not really reviewed yet. We pray that the Lord will release and increase your salary so you will be able to take care of your family. And I pray that the Lord will open up doors for bigger blessings, doors for international opportunities. I pray that the Lord will make you a blessing for your family. I pray that the Lord will make even this next year 2021 easier and better than this year and better than many of the years, the past years. I pray that the Lord will stretch His hand upon you, favor you all the ways. May God bless you may God keep you and protect you and your family. We love you. God bless you. Have a blessed day. Bye-bye, Regis…