A Walk Through The Word

September 24, 2019

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday September 24, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 43:14-45:10

¹⁴The Holy One of Israel, the Eternal One who redeemed you, says,

Eternal One: For your good, I will send another against Babylon
and make all of them outcasts from their own land;
The Chaldeans will set sail and try to escape on their celebrated ships.
¹⁵For I am the Eternal, your Holy One. I am your King,
Creator of Israel, My people.

¹⁶This is what the Eternal One says, the One who does the impossible,
the One who makes a path through the sea, a smooth road through tumultuous waters,
¹⁷The One who drags out chariots and horses,
armies and warriors, and drowns them in the sea—
They will go down, never to rise again;
their lives are snuffed out like a candle wick:

The prophet appeals to a powerful memory: the exodus. He reminds God’s people—all descendants of slaves in Egypt—how God liberated them from oppression, how God devastated the powerful army that pursued them in order to take them back to the whip and lash, back to servitude in Egypt. Stories of the exodus have been told time after time for many generations; they are permanent fixtures in their minds. The prophet evokes these amazing memories to comfort them and assure them that what God is about to do is like what God did do for their ancestors centuries ago.

¹⁸Eternal One: Don’t revel only in the past,
or spend all your time recounting the victories of days gone by.
¹⁹Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak,
and you’re about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert;
Waters will flow where there had been none.
²⁰Wild animals in the fields will honor Me;
the wild dogs and surly birds will join in.
There will be water enough for My chosen people,
trickling springs and clear streams running through the desert.
²¹My people, the ones whom I chose and created for My own,
will sing My praise.

²²In truth, you never really called upon me, did you, Jacob, My people?
So how then could you be tired of Me, Israel, My own?

²³You didn’t present Me with sheep for burnt offerings
or acknowledge Me in sacrifices.
I didn’t tire you by demanding so many gifts of offerings and incense.
²⁴No sweet cane, no money or glorious excess have you given to Me.
You didn’t even try to satisfy Me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Instead, you tired Me with your sins—bloodshed and lies, crimes and offenses;
you wore Me down with all your belligerence and faults.
²⁵So let’s get this clear: it’s for My own sake that I save you.
I am He who wipes the slate clean and erases your wrongdoing.
I will not call to mind your sins anymore.
²⁶Now help Me remember. Let’s get this settled.
State your case, and prove to Me that you are in the right.
²⁷From the very beginning your founding father sinned,
then your leaders defied My laws and instructions.
²⁸So I brought disgrace on the princes of your sanctuary, your priests.
I turned them over to barbarian assault,
Leaving Jacob to the batterers, Israel to humiliation.

44 Eternal One: Nevertheless, listen to Me, My people:
Jacob, My servant; Israel, My chosen.

²The Eternal who made you,
who formed you in the womb and promised to help you, has this to say:

Eternal One: Don’t be afraid, My servant Jacob,
My dear Jeshurun—My chosen.
³Like a devoted gardener, I will pour sweet water on parched land,
streams on hard-packed ground;
I will pour My spirit on your children and grandchildren—
and let My blessing flow to your descendants.
⁴And they will sprout among the grasses, grow vibrant and tall
like the willow trees lining a riverbank.
⁵One will call out: “I belong to the Eternal.”
Another will say, “Jacob is my people; Israel my honored name.”
Yet others will write “Property of the Eternal” on their hands.

⁶The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
King of Israel, who paid their ransom, has this to say:

Eternal One: I am at the beginning and will be at the end.
There is no God except for Me.
⁷If you know any God like Me, tell it now.
Declare and demonstrate any who can compare to Me.
Or if you know and have announced events before their time,
told what is to come, then speak so now.
⁸Don’t be afraid. Let your minds be clear of fear.
Haven’t I announced events and revealed what is to come?
From the earliest days, I have done so. You know it—you have seen and know.
So, go ahead, My witnesses: is there a god out there other than Me?

Witnesses: There is no other rock like God. I don’t know a single one.

All of the nations that Israel encounters are involved in some form of idol worship. They imagine these gods and fashion these images in order to satisfy a desire—a God-given desire—to connect with something, with someone out there. Human beings know at some deep, intuitive level that God exists, life is sacred, and there are mysteries more profound than the daily grind. This is why every human civilization exhibits some form of religious life and devotion. But instead of seeking the God who is, people have a tendency to create the gods they want, gods that give them control over the complexities and problems of life. Israel is elected by God for a number of reasons. Perhaps two of the most significant are to bear witness to the one True God and to warn the nations against idolatry. According to Scripture, idol worship is not some neutral, unfortunate habit people get themselves into; it is more than just a waste of time, hope, and effort. It is a dangerous substitute—a counterfeit experience—that adversely misshapes and disorders their lives. To persist in idolatry is to give way to malevolent evils and to miss out on a relationship with the one True God.

⁹But whoever does make an idol is not improved or enriched. On the contrary, their passing fancies contribute nothing of value or purpose. Those who look on at such misplaced attention don’t understand what they’re seeing, and the idol-makers will end up embarrassed at best. ¹⁰It’s easy to say, “What pathetic idiocy! Who would do such a thing—make gods that are by definition worthless?” ¹¹The people who worship them will be shamed and humiliated. After all, people made those gods. Yet it happens all the time. So, let’s put these images, these figurines all together; stand them up—they will tremble with terror and be ashamed.

¹²A metalworker shapes the raw materials into tools and then uses them to make little gods by hammering, bending, heating, and cooling the materials. And in the process, he gets tired and hungry; without water he soon grows faint. ¹³Likewise, the woodworker measures and marks the wood, chisels and planes it down, marks it with a compass, and carves it until it looks a bit like a human—lovely, maybe—in order to put it in a house. ¹⁴To take it back a bit further, perhaps he cuts down cedars or he carefully selects the cypress or oak himself, watches it, nurtures it until it is ready for his purpose. Perhaps he plants a pine; with sun and rain, it grows tall. ¹⁵When it’s time to harvest, he uses some of the wood for fuel to stay warm, some to heat the oven and bake bread, and some to craft a god. Then the woodworker bows down and worships before the image he just made. ^16-17Do you see the irony? He sits around, warming himself and roasting dinner with wood from the same tree from which he crafted a god to which he bows and worships and prays—one time saying, “I am warmed by the wood fire”; another time saying, “O dear god, save me.”

^18-19So we see again how it is that they’re blind—their eyes shut to the truth in front of them, their hearts and minds refusing to think and really understand what’s going on. So without stopping to think about it, the fool says, “Gosh, I used half of the wood to build a fire, and baked the bread and roasted the meat over its hot coals. After I eat, I think I’ll use the rest of it to make a repulsive god. Maybe I’ll bow down to this leftover lumber.” ²⁰A fool like this is feeding on ashes—his addled mind and deceived heart lead him nowhere. He can’t figure out how to save himself, much less see the error of his ways and say, “Is this idol in my right hand just a lie?”

Eternal One: Let that be a lesson to you, My people.
²¹Don’t forget it, Jacob; O Israel, remember—you are Mine.
I made you; you are My servant; I will not forget you.
²²I have swept away your wrongdoing, as wind sweeps a cloud from the sky:
I have cleared you of your sins, as the sun clears the morning mist.
I have rescued you; come back to Me.

²³Sing, starry sky and every constellation, for what the Eternal has done.
Shout for joy, dark soil underfoot and deep caverns below;
Erupt in joyful songs, mountains and forests, and every tree in them!
Sing joyfully, for the Eternal One has rescued Jacob, His people;
The splendor of God will be revealed in Israel.

²⁴The Eternal, your rescuing hero who formed you before birth, declares,

Eternal One: I am the Eternal, Creator of all there is and will be.
I alone stretched out the heavens and spread out the blue earth.
²⁵I confound the lying swindlers who claim to tell the future,
and I make the fortune-tellers look like fools.
I stop the highbrow intellectuals in their tracks,
and I show the fault of their reasoning.
²⁶But I stand behind the words of My servants,
and I accomplish what they predict.
The one who says about Jerusalem, “This place will be built up again”;
about Judah’s cities, “They will be restored”:
I confirm their predictions. They will rise from their ruins.
²⁷After all, I am the One who needs only to say “Dry up” to great waters,
and your rivers run dry.
²⁸I am the one who says of the Persian victor over Babylon,
“Cyrus is My shepherd. He will accomplish what I determine.”
My word goes out concerning Jerusalem:
“It will stand, a glorious city, again”
and of My house within it, “Restoration will begin at once.”

45 This is what the Eternal One says to His chosen agent, Cyrus the Persian.

God has a special mission for Cyrus, the Persian emperor: to lead the world and free His exiled people. The Scripture is clear: God, not kings, directs history. Kings—and sometimes their subjects—often need to be reminded of that. The Eternal, the one True God, stands above and behind human history, directing and orchestrating its events.

Eternal One: Not by his hand alone, but with his in Mine,
nations are vanquished, their leaders conquered;
Doors and gates open without a fight
and will not close.

²(to Cyrus) I will go ahead of you and smooth the way, lower the heights,
break down bronze doors, and cut through iron bars.
³I will give you hidden treasures
and wealth tucked away in secret places;
I will reveal them to you.
Then you will know that I am
the Eternal, the God of Israel, who calls you by name.
⁴For the sake of My servant Jacob, My chosen people Israel,
I have called you by name, made you who you are,
And bestowed an honorable title on you, even though you don’t know Me.
⁵I am the Eternal One; there is no other God but Me,
and even though you don’t know Me, I am preparing you for victory.
⁶I am doing all this so that people all around the world
may know that I alone am the Eternal, the only God.
⁷I form light and create darkness;
I make what is good, happy, and healthy, and I create woe.
I, the Eternal One, make them one and all.
⁸Skies above, open up and let the clouds rain down righteousness!
Let the earth below sprout triumph and justice.
For I, the Eternal, have created them.

⁹How bad it will be for anyone who disputes with the very One who created him!
After all, a human being is nothing more than one clay pot among many.
Imagine the clay saying to the potter, “What do you think you’re doing?”
or “You don’t have the hands for this.”
¹⁰It’s as idiotic as asking a mother or father,
“What are you birthing or begetting?”

The Voice (VOICE)

Ephesians 3

For Paul there are two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles, or to put it another way, insiders and outsiders. The Prince of Peace is establishing peace where division and hostility once ruled unchallenged. In the Jerusalem temple, a stone wall separated Jewish from non-Jewish worshipers. According to Paul, the cross is God’s instrument to dismantle the wall, end the segregation, and make the two into one. God wants one people of God. That has been His plan all along.

Today walls continue to exist, erected strategically to separate people by race, religion, class, culture, and sex. Those who erect these walls, protect them, and maintain them will find that they are enemies of the gospel that brings all together into one worshiping family.

3 All this is exactly why I, Paul, am a prisoner of Jesus the Anointed, His representative to the outsider nations. ²You have heard, haven’t you, how God appointed me to bring you His message of grace? ³And how the mystery was made known to me in a revelation? I briefly wrote about it earlier. ⁴When you read what I have written, you will be better able to understand the depth of my insight into the mystery of the Anointed One, ⁵a mystery that has never before been shown to past generations. Only now are these secrets being revealed to God’s chosen emissaries^[a] and prophets through the Holy Spirit. ⁶Specifically, the mystery is this: by trusting in the good news, the Gentile outsiders are becoming fully enfranchised members of the same body, heirs alongside Israel, and beneficiaries of the promise that has been fulfilled through Jesus the Anointed.

⁷I became a servant and preacher of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace as He exercised His amazing power over me. ⁸I cannot think of anyone more unworthy to this cause than I, the least of the least of the saints. But here I am, a grace-made man, privileged to be an echo of His voice and a preacher to all the nations of the riches of the Anointed One, riches that no one ever imagined. ⁹I am privileged to enlighten all of Adam’s descendants to the mystery concealed from previous ages by God, the Creator of all, through Jesus the Anointed. ¹⁰Here’s His objective: through the church, He intends now to make known His infinite and boundless wisdom to all rulers and authorities in heavenly realms. ¹¹This has been His plan from the beginning, one that He has now accomplished through the Anointed One, Jesus our Lord. ¹²His faithfulness^[b] to God has made it possible for us to have the courage we need and the ability to approach the Father confidently. ¹³So I ask you not to become discouraged because I am jailed for speaking out on your behalf. In fact, my suffering is something that brings you glory.

¹⁴It is for this reason that I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵after whom all families in heaven above and on earth below receive their names, and pray:

¹⁶Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit ¹⁷so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together ^18-19with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.

This is a doxology of praise to the One with power that is beyond understanding.

²⁰Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us, ²¹to Him be all glory in the church and in Jesus the Anointed from this generation to the next, forever and ever. Amen.

Footnotes:

3:5 Literally, apostles
3:12 Often translated “faith in Him.”

The Voice (VOICE)

Psalm 68:1-18

Psalm 68

For the worship leader. A song of David.

Psalm 68 is a hymn describing God as a Divine Warrior, marching from Sinai through the wilderness to make His home in Jerusalem.

¹May the True God rise up and show Himself;
may those who are united against Him be dispersed,
while the people who hate Him run away at the sight of Him.
²As smoke disappears when it is blown by the wind,
may You blow away Your enemies forever.
As wax melts in the presence of fire,
may the wicked heart melt away in God’s presence.
³But may those who are righteous rejoice
in the presence of the True God—so may they be glad and rejoice.
Yes, let them celebrate with joy!

⁴Sing songs of praise to the name that belongs to the True God!
Let your voices ring out in songs of praise to Him, the One who rides through the deserted places.
His name is the Eternal;
celebrate in His glorious presence.

⁵The True God who inhabits sacred space
is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows.
⁶He makes a home for those who are alone.
He frees the prisoners and leads them to prosper.
Yet those who rebel against Him live in the barren land without His blessings and prosperity.

⁷O True God, when You led Your enslaved people from Egypt,
when You journeyed with us through the wilderness,

[pause]^[a]

⁸The whole world trembled! The sky poured down rain
at the power of Your presence; even Mount Sinai trembled in Your presence,
the presence of the True God, the God of Israel.
⁹You sent a heavy downpour to soak the ground, O True God.
You refreshed the land—the land Your people would inherit—when it was parched and dry.
¹⁰Your covenant people made their homes in the land,
and because You are so good, You provided for those crushed by poverty, O True God.

¹¹The Lord gives the word;
there are very many women ready to tell the good news:
¹²“Kings who lead the armies are on the run!
They are on the run!
And the woman who stays at home is ready, too,
ready to enjoy the treasures that they’ve left behind!”
¹³When they lay down among the campfires and open the saddlebags, imagine what they’ll find—
a beautiful dove, its wings covered with silver,
its feathers a shimmering gold.

¹⁴When the Almighty scattered the kings from that place,
it was snowing in Zalmon.

¹⁵O Mount Bashan, you mighty mountain of the True God;
mountain of many peaks, O Mount Bashan.
¹⁶Why are you so jealous, O mountain of many peaks,
when you look at the mountain the True God has chosen as His dwelling place?
The Eternal will surely abide on Mount Zion forever.

¹⁷The chariots of God are innumerable;
there are thousands upon thousands of them.
The Lord is in their midst, just as He was at Mount Sinai.
He has come into the holy place.
¹⁸When You ascended the sacred mountain,
with Your prisoners in tow, Your captives in chains,
You sat in triumph receiving gifts from men,
Even from those who rebel against You, so that You, the Eternal God, might take up residence there.

Footnotes:

68:7 Literally, selah, likely a musical direction from a Hebrew root meaning “to lift up”

The Voice (VOICE)

Proverbs 24:1-2

The abuse of alcohol is as ancient as the first batch of Egyptian beer or the first sip of Noah’s wine (Genesis 9:20–21). Its wide availability today has made for binge drinking on college campuses, underage drinking by young teens, drunk driving on city streets, and alcoholic rants and abuse in the home. The sage offers a tragic description of a young man who goes from drink to drink and cannot get his bearings in life. Too many people lose so much life in an alcoholic stupor.

24 Do not envy evil people
or seek their friendship;
²For they are conniving and violent,
and all they talk about is causing trouble.

The Voice (VOICE)

September 23, 2019

09/23/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 41:17-43:13, Ephesians 2:1-22, Psalms 67:1-7, Proverbs 23:29-35

Today is the 23^rd day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in our or on our adventure this year through the Scriptures. So, we’ve been working our way through the book of Isaiah and we are definitely in the back half of that book. And we are in the New Testament reading through the letter to the Ephesians, which contains some pretty earthmoving things, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 17 through 43 verse 13 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, I have traveled a lot in my lifetime. I’ve been lots of places all around the world and I’ve been some places in the world that are…that are so spectacular it’s hard to believe like…like the Isle of Skye in Scotland or Rocky Mountain National Park here in the United States, places that you can…like you’re driving and or your hiking but like around every corner is something even better than before…like it just keeps revealing itself to the point that you’re in such beauty that you’re…you’re like…you’re like in a postcard, right? You’re like in the painting. It’s so magnificent that you almost just can’t take it all in. And this is what the letter to the Ephesians will read like if we’ll let it because it’s gonna let us see why the gospel actually is such good news. Like, we call it that all the time, it’s just part of our subcultures. It’s the good news about Jesus, it’s the good news, it’s the story that God came to rescue mankind through Jesus, but the implications of what that means. Like…like we have that down but what does that mean? What does that do? What changes? Ephesians is one of these stops along the way as we take this travel through the Bible this year that lays that out in such a way that you’re looking at it and it’s like, “this is…this is more than good news…this is like too good.” Like, if this is all true, then this changes everything. So, Ephesians just lets us climb and we get these vistas and we’re in one of those beautiful places on earth that we’re looking at it and it’s like, “the color of that water can’t be real. The height of that peak…like how is this?” And you’re struck dumb basically because what are you gonna say? “That’s beautiful.” Like it’s more than beautiful. It’s like your heart cries out in worship at the glory of what God has created and we came to one of those kind of vistas in our faith today. So, Paul says, “it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You received it through faith. It was not our plan or effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it. Not one of us did. So, don’t go around bragging that you must’ve done something amazing for we are the product of His hand, heavens poetry etched on lives created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.” So, I read that. It’s a pretty common…pretty…it’s Ephesians 2:8-10. It’s…like many people have it memorized…like its famous. So, it’s foundational and we can just move right on by. But have you ever actually stopped, like not driving around that been but actually pulled over to look out across the valley. Have you ever contemplated the vastness of what Paul is saying here? This is way, way, way more than distilling this down into a theological concept. If this is true, then our salvation is not something that has anything to do with our good behavior and there is no way we could earn it with our good behavior anyway. It’s a gift. It can only be received, and it can only be received faith, which means actually like really deeply authentically believing that it is true. And it is…it’s a paradigm shifter. We didn’t choose God. God came for us personally. He drew near and when he did, we sensed it, that one moment, that one moment it all came clear. Like we were just looking out over this vastness, this beauty, and we saw it and it was too good to be true and we reached out and when God reached back it was with a gift, a gift of salvation that cannot be taken. Like, we can…we can reject it. We can throw it away, but it can’t be stolen from us. And since it’s not something that can be earned then we have nothing to brag about. Like, we didn’t earn it. Nobody can brag about it. It’s a humbling gift. We’re lucky to be here. And, so, becoming aware of that should just…it should change things. We should be in awe. We do not deserve, we have not earned, and we cannot earn this kind of kindness. And what kind of kindness are we even talking about, that God knows who you are, and He came for you. Like, that…that’s almost too good to be true, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, known and unknown knows you because you are a creation and He came for you. It’s like one of those vistas where, the more you look, the more you’re like, “this is surreal. This is unbelievable. I don’t every wanna leave this place. It’s too perfect. Like this is how it’s supposed to be.” But the more that we drink in, like when we sit in those beautiful places, the more that we do sit there, the more it reveals itself, the more we see. And in terms of what Paul is showing us spiritually, the more that we see the more that our lives are given context. And, so, from here we can see that our lives are supposed to be much more than we’re usually filling them with. Like, we’re made as masterpieces of God. Like let that just sink in. You feel like a masterpiece? Right? Like, do you feel like God’s masterpiece or do you feel like you’re anything but God’s masterpiece? Because it doesn’t matter how you feel. The reality is the reality. So, if it feels too good to be true and if it feels like it couldn’t be speaking of you, then you just need to keep lookin’ here. You need to think again because Paul said we were created anew, which means that God made us new again or that God renewed us and He did this so that we could accomplish the good things He planned long ago for us so. So, we can either read stuff like that go, “okay, here's…here’s my invitation to get work. I gotta be good.” That’s not the whole story. Our good behavior does not earn the gift. The gift is a gift. He didn’t offer us a free gift and then force us to earn it. It’s that our good works, our good behavior, our living into a righteous life becomes an automatic overflow of being in love with Jesus because of this gift that we did not deserve and cannot earn. We won the lottery as it were, the cosmic one, eternal life. And God planned this for us long ago. So, let’s just sit here with it today. Let’s just gaze out upon the beauty of what’s being described for us spiritually. God knows who we are. We’re supposed to be here. We’re supposed to be here enjoying His presence. We’re supposed to be here inviting others to experience this free gift that changes everything. And if the gospel is true, and I believe that it is, then this is how we’re supposed to be looking at ourselves. And this is how we’re supposed to be looking at the world.

Prayer:

Father, we sit here with this. We know that there’s more…like…we’re on this trail through Ephesians. So, we’re climbing upward and looking out at all of these grand vistas. But as we sit here at this parking spot we want to contemplate this today. No matter what we do, we can’t earn what You are offering us, which means You loved us when we were Your enemies, You love us when we are the betrayer. Like it’s too good. Your love is so vastly beyond anything that we can…like when we try to imitate You and we think we’re doing good we haven’t even scratched the surface of the depths of Your love for us. And You have bestowed upon us. This is magnificent, that we are intentionally created as a masterpiece. This is magnificent. And, so, we see that we’re not living in the glory that You have bestowed upon us. We’re living less and we’re sitting here looking at this reveal itself when we’re saying that there is so much more. So, come Holy Spirit as we sit with this today. Plant it deep within our hearts and lives changing the way that we look at ourselves, being humbled by Your generosity, and may this change the way we that we look at our brothers and sisters of the human race, everyone that we interact with today. Come Jesus. We pray in Your mighty name. Amen.

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September 23, 2019

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday September 23, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 41:17-43:13

¹⁷And when people thirst, when those poor souls with parched tongues
look in vain for something to drink,
I, the Eternal, the God of Israel, won’t leave them to suffer. I will respond
¹⁸By making the hard, brown hills sparkle with streams of fresh water
and causing valleys to come alive with springs.
I will see that gentle pools wait on the desert floor for the weary traveler,
and great fountains bubble up from dry ground;
¹⁹In the desert, I will plant cedars, woody acacias,
myrtles, and olive trees.
I will establish great cypresses to flourish in the desert places,
plant oaks and pine trees side by side.

²⁰They’ll see all this and understand. They’ll ponder together
and come to know that it is the power of the Eternal One that produced this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel created it.

²¹Eternal One: Present your case. Lay out your arguments
and call your witnesses to appear before the King of Jacob.

God and Israel now become judge and jury as the nations bring their idols and make the case that their handmade gods can indeed predict the future.

^22-23Come on and bring your idols. Now tell us what is to come,
and while you’re at it, tell us what happened before.
Can you explain to us so that we, too, may understand?
Go ahead, tell us what the future holds.
Surely you can, if you are truly gods. Do good, or do bad.
Just do something—anything—to amaze or frighten us.
²⁴Sure enough, you are not gods; you are nothing at all.
You have nothing to show for your work or yourselves.
Fools! Only fools would choose you to be their god. Detestable.

²⁵Eternal One: I, the Lord, I have called up for service
one from the north, and he comes from the rising sun
and he will invoke My name.
He will render rulers like mud under his shoes,
trampling them down like so much clay.
²⁶Did any of you gods tell us about this long ago, so we would know?
Did any of you indicate to us that we might agree, “He is right”?
No, no one told us. No one made an announcement, and no one hears what you say.
²⁷I was the first to say to Zion, “Look, here they are!”
I sent a messenger to announce the good news to Jerusalem.
²⁸But I am looking, and there isn’t anyone.
I have asked around, and no one knows, no one can tell Me.
²⁹See here, all of these so-called gods are false;
their works are nothing;
These cast-metal images are like wind, sheer emptiness.

42 Eternal One: Look here, let Me present My servant;
I have taken hold of him. He is My chosen, and I delight in him.
I have put My Spirit on him; by this he will bring justice to the nations.

This poem is the first of several Servant Songs. God’s special Servant is described in various ways. In this song (42:1–9), the Servant is portrayed as one who faithfully establishes justice in the world and serves as a light for the nations. In the second song (49:1–13), the Servant is called from the womb and ordained to restore the nation of Israel and take salvation to the ends of the earth. In the third song (50:4–9), the Servant is portrayed as a teacher, intimately in touch with God, yet brutally beaten and disgraced by his enemies. In the fourth song (52:13–53:12), the suffering and rejection of God’s Servant takes priority over his other tasks; yet even in his suffering God is working to repair the world from the harm done by sin and evil.

²Eternal One: He will not scream or yell,
crying out for all to hear.
³What is bruised and bent, he will not break;
he will not blow out a smoldering candle.
Rather, he will faithfully turn his attention to doing justice.
⁴And though he faces obstacles, resistance, and great pressure,
he will not crack; he will not give up until things are set right.
Even the coastlands wait patiently for his instruction.

⁵God, the Eternal One, who made the starry skies,
stretched them tight above and around;
Who cast the shimmering globe of earth and filled it with life;
who gives breath and animates the people;
Who walks and talks with life-giving spirit has this to say:

⁶Eternal One: I am the Eternal One. By righteousness I have called you.
I will take you by the hand and keep you safe.
You are given as a covenant between Me and the people:
a light for the nations, a shining beacon to the world.
⁷You will open blind eyes so they will see again.
You will lead prisoners, blinking, out from caverns of captivity,
from cells pitch black with despair.
⁸I am the Eternal One.
I Am is My name.
My beauty is unique, a weighty splendor all My own.
And nothing else—no idols could possibly gain My praise.
⁹Look here, what’s done is done and gone.
The now is new, and there’s hope in the not-yet.
I will tell you what’s to come, even before the events are brand-new.

¹⁰So make up a song like none other. Sing a new song to the Eternal.
And let His praise echo clear across the earth.
Let those who go to sea set sail with praise in the air.
Let those who live along the waters’ edge sing His praise.
¹¹Let desert places, urban and rural, wild and settled, sing!
Let the settlements of Kedar and those in the craggy cliffs of Sela join in the celebration.
The peaks of mountains, too, raise your voices with a great, glad cry.
¹²Let them all give glory to the Eternal.
Let them praise the One who is, was, and will be heard along the coasts.
¹³As a hero throws himself into battle, the Eternal will take on His enemies;
with passion, shouting out a deafening roar, He will power over them.

¹⁴Eternal One: As a woman fiercely strains to give birth, I will gasp, pant, and cry out.
I have been quiet for a long time; I have held back in the face of it all.
Well, no more.
¹⁵When My power is loosed, I will make level the heights
and render them bare.
I will dry up the rivers until bare islands appear,
and empty the sweet water from the pools.
¹⁶I will escort the blind down roads they do not know,
guide them down paths they’ve never seen.
I will smooth their passage and light their way.
I will indeed do it—they are abandoned no more.

¹⁷Meanwhile, those who put their stock in worthless images,
who worship things impotent and breakable
And say to idols, “You are our gods,”
will be turned away and mortified.

¹⁸Eternal One: You, deaf to the world, hear!
You, blind in your eyes, look! And you will see.
¹⁹My servant is as blind as any.
Who could be more deaf than the one who goes where I direct and tells what I want told?

The identity of the Servant is much debated. On the one hand, Isaiah often refers to God’s people, Israel, as “the servant of the Eternal” (41:8–9; 42:19; 45:4; especially 49:3). Yet at other times the Servant seems to be an individual, distinct from Israel, with a special mission to and for Israel. Early Christians hear these Servant Songs and reflect on Jesus’ significance; they better understand His role as the light of the world, teacher, and Suffering Servant of God. They see His life and ministry as the embodiment and representative of true Israel and therefore the fulfillment of these words. They use the prophet’s poetry to formulate songs and sermons that express not only Jesus’ unique relationship to God but also His unique career as the Light of the world.

Who is as blind as the one committed to do what the Eternal One wills,
the servant of the Eternal?
²⁰The seer-of-much nevertheless doesn’t get it;
privy to sound and speech and tone, he still doesn’t hear.
²¹On account of God’s goodness, His right ways and deeds,
the Eternal was pleased to make the instruction grand and glorious.
²²But this people is compromised.
They’ve been plundered and robbed.
They have lost—things, liberty, place, and name.
They are all trapped in holes and tucked away in prisons.
They’ve been plundered and depleted with none to the rescue.
They’ve been stolen away with none to insist, “Give them back.”
²³Is there anyone who understands? Who, out of all of you, will pay attention,
understand, and take note concerning what’s to come?

God is the one who lies behind these events. He makes it possible for His people to be defeated and taken away.

²⁴Wasn’t it the Lord, because we turned our backs,
who gave up Jacob’s descendants, Israel, for robbery and plunder?
We refused to live as God would have us live. We did not heed
the instruction that God gave us through Moses so long ago.
²⁵That’s why God sent all fury against Jacob
in the shape of war, and we were burned.
We experienced all this;
Yet we didn’t get it. God’s people did not take it to heart.

43 Eternal One: Remember who created you, O Jacob?
Who shaped you, O Israel?
See, you have nothing to fear. I, who made you, will take you back.
I have chosen you, named you as My own.
²When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm;
you will not be engulfed in raging rivers.
If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs,
keep going; you won’t be burned.
³Because I, the Eternal One, am your God.
I am the Holy One of Israel, and I will save you.
I have traded in nations to win you back,
Egypt, Cush, and Seba, in exchange for your freedom.
⁴Because you are special to Me and I love you,
I gladly give up other peoples in exchange for you;
They are trivial by comparison to your weighty significance.

^5-6So don’t be afraid. I am here.
I will reunite you with your children,
bringing them back from wherever in the world they are—East, West, North, or South.
No place will be able to hold you when I demand your release, when I order them,
“Bring My children—My sons and daughters—from far away.
⁷Bring the ones who are called by My name;
the ones I made, shaped, and created for My profound glory.”
⁸Even though they fail and seem blind and deaf (and not for lack of eyes or ears),
bring them out.

⁹All the nations gather together; peoples from all over the world assemble.
Who among them could have forseen this?
Let them call their witnesses to make their case, prove they are in the right—
that it is the truth.

¹⁰Eternal One: You are My witnesses; You are My proof.

You whom I chose for special purpose, My servant,
in order that you would know Me, trust Me, be faithful to Me,
Understand that I alone am God; no god was formed before Me,
and there will be no god after Me.
¹¹I, I am the Eternal;
there is no Savior except for Me,
¹²I alone told that this victory would happen. Then I saved you and made it known.
No other god worked among you—You know the truth.
You can testify that it is so; as I declare, I alone am God.
¹³Indeed, from day one, I am He. No one can wrest another from My hand.
I make things happen; who can turn them around?

The Voice (VOICE)

Ephesians 2

Often in his letters, Paul records his prayers for his churches. He is constantly talking with God about those he considers his spiritual children. He prays that God will grant them wisdom, knowledge, and great power. This is the same power that was at work when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him in heaven. Ultimately Paul knows all powers have been subjected to Jesus, the God-man, and He is destined to be head over all creation. In the resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate redemption of the cosmos has begun, and the church is the first act of God’s glorious drama.

2 As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions, ²wandering the course of this perverse world. You were the offspring of the prince of the power of air—oh, how he owned you, just as he still controls those living in disobedience. I’m not talking about the outsiders alone; ³we were all guilty of falling headlong for the persuasive passions of this world; we all have had our fill of indulging the flesh and mind, obeying impulses to follow perverse thoughts motivated by dark powers. As a result, our natural inclinations led us to be children of wrath, just like the rest of humankind.

⁴But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us, ⁵united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace. ⁶He raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly realms with our beloved Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King. ⁷He did this for a reason: so that for all eternity we will stand as a living testimony to the incredible riches of His grace and kindness that He freely gives to us by uniting us with Jesus the Anointed. ^8-9For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing. ¹⁰For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.

The relationship between faith and works is often misunderstood. Some think that salvation is God’s reward for good deeds. If that’s true, then it can’t possibly be a gift. If it were a reward, then heaven would be a place where people might compare notes on what they did to make it through the gates. But Paul is confident in the truth of the gospel. The truth is that salvation is God’s gift through Jesus. Grace and faith make salvation real in us. When we are transformed by grace, then we become His new creation and begin to live out the good works He has planned for us. Works, then, aren’t the cause of salvation; they are its result. To put it another way, works aren’t the means of salvation; they are its presence.

¹¹So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands. ¹²You had absolutely no connection to the Anointed; you were strangers, separated from God’s people. You were aliens to the covenant they had with God; you were hopelessly stranded without God in a fractured world. ¹³But now, because of Jesus the Anointed and His sacrifice, all of that has changed. God gathered you who were so far away and brought you near to Him by the royal blood of the Anointed, our Liberating King.

¹⁴He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. ¹⁵He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. ¹⁶Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body.

¹⁷The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. ¹⁸By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. ¹⁹And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. ²⁰You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries^[a] with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. ²¹The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit.

Footnotes:

2:20 Literally, apostles

The Voice (VOICE)

Psalm 67

For the worship leader. A song accompanied by strings.

Psalm 67 echoes the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24–26) and invites all nations to join in praise to the one True God.

¹May God pour His grace and blessings into us
and turn His face to shine His light on us.

[pause]^[a]

²So all those on earth will learn to follow Your way
and see Your saving power come to redeem all nations.
³May all people live to praise You, Our True God;
may all come to praise You.

⁴May all nations celebrate together, singing joy-filled songs of praise to You
because You judge the people fairly
and give guidance to all the nations of the earth.

[pause]

⁵May the people praise You with their whole hearts, O God;
may every man, woman, and child on the earth praise You.

⁶The land has supplied a bountiful harvest,
and the True God, our God, has poured out His blessings to us all.
⁷God is the source of our blessings;
may every corner of the earth respect and revere Him.

Footnotes:

67:1 Literally, selah, likely a musical direction from a Hebrew root meaning “to lift up”

The Voice (VOICE)

Proverbs 23:29-35

²⁹Who is wallowing in anguish? Who is full of sorrow?
Who has conflicts? Who has complaints?
Who has bruises and can’t remember where they came from?
Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰You know who: those who stay up late finishing off the wine,
those who can’t stop savoring spiced wines.
³¹Look away from the enticing beauty of wine, the deep red hue;
ignore how it shimmers in the cup
and glides down your throat.
³²Eventually, when you least expect it, it strikes like a snake;
it stings like viper venom.
³³Your vision will blur, and you’ll imagine strange things;
you will say crazy, hurtful things and regret it later.
³⁴You will reel and stagger as if caught on a wave of seasickness,
as a sailor who holds on to a mast for dear life.
³⁵You will say, “They slapped me, but it didn’t hurt.
They beat me, and I didn’t feel a thing!
Whenever I wake up from this stupor,
I’ll have another drink!”

The Voice (VOICE)

September 22, 2019

09/22/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 39:1-41:16, Ephesians 1:1-23, Psalms 66:1-20, Proverbs 23:25-28

Today is the 22^nd day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we greet the new week, right by…metaphorically anyway…reaching out and twisting the knob and opening the door and walking in. And we’re just inside this new week and it’s all waiting to be revealed. Nothing has happened yet. So, we get this reset at the beginning of every week to think into and pray into the week before…before we go off in our own strength and find ourselves in a ditch by this Saturday. So, welcome to a new week. We’re doing the right thing by inviting God to speak through His word into this week and into this day. And this week we’ll read from the Voice Translation and we’re continuing our journey in Isaiah but when we get to the New Testament we will be beginning Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, known as Ephesians and we’ll talk about that when we get there, but first Isaiah chapter 39 verse 1 through 41 verse 16 today.

Introduction to the book of Ephesians:

Okay. So, yesterday as we concluded the week, we also concluded Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which means that we’re moving forward, which brings us to Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus or the Ephesians. And this letter is a lot different from many of the other letters of the apostle Paul, including Galatians, which we just concluded, which leads a number of biblical scholars to propose that this letter may not have been written by the apostle Paul, but had been written in the apostle Paul’s name. But then there’s other scholars who would argue that it’s the circumstances surrounding Ephesians and the way that these letters had been passed around from church to church to church and, you know, were copied and then passed down to other churches, it would have more to do with the nuances, the language nuances in Ephesians than the writer. So, the apostle Paul spent about three years in Ephesus among the community he’d established as a church and at that time Ephesus was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. So, it’s a port city. It’s a cosmopolitan city. It’s thriving, right? It’s importing all kinds of ideas and culture. And even though Paul wrote in letters specific instructions about specific things, he didn’t write this letter to combat false teaching, He didn’t write it to correct misbehavior in the church. These were people that he knew. He had spent a lot of time among them, which makes this letter even more compelling because what we get an Ephesians, unlike really any other place in the Bible, is the sense of the big big big big picture. These huge vistas of our faith lead us to consider the massive implications of what God has been and continues to do among His people, among us. But what makes this picture so captivating is where Paul wrote from because as we learned in the book of Acts, Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem, right? We remember this whole story. And then he was in Caesarea Marritima and he appealed to Caesar and then he was sent to Rome and it’s from Rome that Paul likely wrote Ephesians, probably somewhere in the vicinity of 60 A.D. So, knowing that Paul is in captivity, he is in prison when he writes this letter, it just makes what we’re reading all the more poignant, right? So, Paul is imprisoned and he’s writing a letter to boast, right, which we’ve seen in other places, or to defend himself against people who have come into the church and are teaching a nuanced gospel. You know, like if he’s speaking with all of this authority saying, “you do this and I will be with you in spirit” and all…like that’s kind of…that’s kind of tough when you are in prison and the entire world that you know is discrediting this teaching altogether, right? So, it’s very easy to go, “well, I’m not sure we need to obey this apostle who is going to be tried by the Emperor. And, so, Paul’s imprisonment probably cast doubt on the validity of his message and would have made it really difficult for many people to consider a life of faith in Jesus, right, because they didn’t want to end up like Paul imprisoned in Rome. But this didn’t discourage Paul from writing beyond circumstance and detailing a spiritual awareness that can’t be touched by prison bars, that can’t be touched by any trial of life at all. And, so, what we’re seeing in Ephesians is Paul pouring out his heart and his hope. There are passages in this letter that could be, maybe even should be pondered for days. I mean, I read the letter to the Ephesians and it’s just mind boggling. Like, if what he’s saying is true, the implications are mind boggling to our lives and it’s tremendously encouraging as it would’ve been intended. And, so, with that we begin. Ephesians chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us into this new week and into this new letter, the letter to the Ephesians. So, as we continue step-by-step, day by day, come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, allow us to rightfully divide the word of truth as the Scripture says. And we acknowledge, we can’t do that without You. This is Your word and we’re reading it but You will need to quicken our spirits and make us awake and aware to what You are speaking to us. Come, Holy Spirit we pray in this coming week. We ask in the name of Jesus. 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:

[Native flute playing] Hello…hello DABber’s my name is Cindy I’ve listened a long time. I’m a Native American and that was a native flute and I just wanted to speak peace over my family, peace over our bodies and peace over our minds. And you are a God that gives us a peace that passes all understanding because all around there’s war that’s raging but we trust in your word, we live in your word, we become your word. Help us to become your word Jesus. Holy Spirit, enable us, enable us to walk like you walk, walk with that piece. Would you fill us with your love today, that we would…that people would see that that’s the difference, that that peace and love radiates, that anyone that even that we pass could feel that that would be drawn to you? So, I just thank you for this family, I thank you for your word. You are the word Jesus. Please enlarge my daughter’s heart. Please reconcile us. I trust in you. Amen.

Hi, this is Abby from London it’s my first time calling in. First, I’ve got to say thank you to everybody who makes Daily Audio Bible happen, it’s been a huge encouragement to me in my life. But I really want to reach out to the community for prayer. And I’ve made a big mistake at work, a mistake that could have a 500,000 pounds impact and the worst of it is that it…the buck lies with my boss who’s also a Christian and I’m worried about the trouble that she may get in. I’m really praying for a breakthrough just for God to come in and intervene in this situation and to make that, you know, mistake go away and for us to find something different. I really appreciate the prayer of the community. Thank you.

Hello this is to Taria from Colorado. I just wanted to call and speak to the woman who was getting sober from meth. Good job. You’re doing a good job. I just want to tell you I also had an addiction to meth and I lost almost everything. My kids were taken away from me and I basically had to start from ground zero because I was selling and using for so long. And when I got sober I prayed and held onto the Lord and one day I asked Him to help me to forget all of the hurt and all of the pain I had caused other people and He told me that if he helped me to forget how it I remember what he saved me from. And I just want to give you hope. Since then I’ve been sober for about seven years now and He has restored everything to me. He’s restored my family. I have my kids back. He’s…I’ve got a good job I’ve got a home. And, so, I just want to let you know that there is hope and that if we hold onto Jesus He will restore your life and He will use all of the things that you’ve gone through for His good and for His glory and He will help others. So, just keep leaning on Jesus, keep asking for prayer because that is honestly the only way that I was able to get through it. Also, for the woman who just got released from the hospital after trying to commit suicide. I have been praying for you. I stopped everything and prayed for you and I know that God is going to be your strength during this time. Okay? Thank you. Bye.

Good morning family this is Bridget from New York City. Today is September 18^th and I just…no…sorry…September 19^th and I just listened to September 18^th and wow Brian! Your commentary is just spot on and the conviction is amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for your boldness. Thank you that you question it and you challenge it and I appreciate that. I am very similar to you in always trying to dig deeper and seek more answers. And I think that, you know, yes, just seeking the God that wrote the book, that sent the book, that created us, that loves us, that just wants to have a relationship with us is just…it’s so hard to really grasp and it’s so profound. It doesn’t fit in my brain honestly but I’m thankful, I’m thankful. I’m just thankful for your commentary, I’m thankful for the word, I’m thankful for being sent to…to just to share this truth about this God loves us so much. Guys, if there’s anything you got from this today besides what Brian shared, which was amazing, know that God loves us so much. And I just get this image of Him dancing with us from birth until we leave. You know, I pray this blesses you all. May you all have a great day. God bless you. I love you family. I’m praying for you behind the scenes. Bye.

Good morning everyone, just want to call today and give a big shout out to all the truckers out there. Just want to tell you men that I’m praying for each and every one of you and that the Lord keeps us safe as we travel these highways. You know, it’s not always our driving we’re worried about, it’s the other people that we pass, each and every vehicle. You never know when something can happen. So, I just pray that the Lord keeps us all safe. I just want you all to know that as I drive down these roads myself I pray for y’all daily. So, we all have a blessed day men, and keep that rubber side down. You all in my prayers and I love you guys. Terry the trucker. Talk to you later.

September 22, 2019

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday September 22, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 39:1-41:16

39 The man who was king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan (Baladan’s son), heard about Hezekiah—how he was so very sick and then got better. So he sent envoys to Hezekiah with letters and a gift. ²Hezekiah was delighted at the kind gesture from so great a king, so he welcomed his guests and showed them the best of Judah’s treasures and talents—silver and gold, precious spices, and oils that wafted the smells of paradise. He gave them a tour of his armory and showed them all of Judah’s military equipment and everything they’d stashed away for future need. Hezekiah held nothing back from their appreciative eyes. He showed them everything in his house and his kingdom.

³When Isaiah the prophet heard about Hezekiah’s tour, he hurried to the palace and confronted Hezekiah.

Isaiah: What in the world have you done? Where did these people come from? And what did you talk with them about?

Hezekiah (puzzled by Isaiah’s obvious distress): They came from a great distance simply to extend kind wishes for my recovery from their king! They came from Babylon.

Isaiah: ⁴What did you show them? What have they seen in your palace?

Hezekiah: Well, everything. They have seen all that I own. I put all of my treasures on display. I didn’t hold back anything from them.

During Isaiah’s life, the Northern Kingdom (composed of ten Israelite tribes) flourishes and then falls, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah is battered by surrounding nations but persists. Eventually the Southern Kingdom itself falls, not to Assyria but to Babylon. Shockingly, the Babylonians destroy the capital and raze the temple where the Holy One of Israel is uniquely present with the people.

The Lord determines these events because their failings—as Isaiah described in such detail—and their refusal to correct their attitudes and behavior necessitate punishment on the order of national destruction. God’s covenant people have broken their part of the agreement and be-come unfit to live as people of Zion.

The scene has shifted. The situation has changed. The threat from Assyria now seems a distant memory. A new reality encompasses the people of God: Jerusalem and its glorious temple have been destroyed, and the key citizens of Judah have been carried off into exile by the Babylonians.

While tradition credits the entire book to Isaiah of Jerusalem, many scholars think these next 16 chapters are recorded by another prophet years later in the spirit of that great prophet of Jerusalem who proclaimed much of the previous writings. Whether this was Isaiah speaking in the future prophetically or another person used by the Spirit to continue Isaiah’s ministry, the traditions and ideas of Isaiah are so closely followed by the next chapters that they have been collected and included in this large book named after Isaiah. The time and circumstances are different, so the message is a bit different too. It is equally passionate about righteousness, Zion, and the Holy One of Israel. These events occur about two centuries after Isaiah’s death in the land of exile—Babylon.

Isaiah: ⁵Listen well to what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has said: ⁶“The time is coming when everything in your palace—everything of value kept, passed down, and stored by your ancestors to this present time—will be taken away to Babylon. Of everything that you showed this Babylonian contingent, nothing will be left. Absolutely nothing will remain here,” says the Eternal One. ⁷“Even some of your sons yet to be born will be taken to exile. They will be castrated and forced to serve in the Babylonian royal house.”

Hezekiah: ⁸The message you have spoken from the Eternal is good.

“At least,” Hezekiah thought to himself, “during my lifetime things will be peaceful and secure.”

40 “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.
²“With gentle words, tender and kind,
Assure Jerusalem, this chosen city from long ago,
that her battles are over.
The terror, the bloodshed, the horror of My punishing work is done.
This place has paid for its guilt; iniquity is pardoned;
its term of incarceration is complete.
It has endured double the punishment it was due.”

³A voice is wailing, “In the wilderness, get it ready! Prepare the way;
make it a straight shot. The Eternal would have it so.
Straighten the way in the wandering desert
to make the crooked road wide and straight for our God.^[a]
⁴Where there are steep valleys, treacherous descents,
raise the highway; lift it up;
bring down the dizzying heights.
Fill in the potholes and gullies, the rough places.
Iron out the shoulders flat and wide.
⁵The Lord will be, really be, among us.
The radiant glory of the Lord will be revealed.
All flesh together will take it in. Believe it.
None other than God, the Eternal, has spoken.”^[b]

During the time of Jesus, John the Baptist wanders around Israel in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets warning the people that they need to correct their attitudes and behaviors, to bring them better in line with what God expects and desires. He declares (warns, actually) that God is coming and will set things right. During the circumstances of exile, the people don’t fully understand who or what this voice in the wilderness will be; centuries later, as the early Christian community looks back over the life of Jesus and John, they recognize the anonymous voice.

⁶A voice says, “Declare!”
But what shall I declare?
All life is like the grass.
All of its grace and beauty fades like the wild flowers in a field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades
as the breath of the Eternal One blows away.
People are no different from grass.
⁸The grass withers, the flower fades;
nothing lasts except the word of our God.
It will stand forever.^[c]

Isaiah’s message is not just doom and gloom. God determines that His people may return home to rebuild their lives! God uses the new king, Cyrus of Persia, to accomplish this glorious restoration. God does not allow His punishment to last forever.

Now, in this new time, God smoothes the rocky way between Mesopotamia and all Israel; He makes the deserts between the present place of exile and their home just east of the Mediterranean Sea burst with sweet water and bloom with beauty and good things to eat. Treacherous roads and threatening beasts yield to God’s desire that they return safely.

In chapters 40–55, for the most part, the message is one of comfort and encouragement to God’s downtrodden and discouraged people. Many centuries later, these words will be understood in light of the Anointed One.

⁹Ascend a high mountain,
you herald of good tidings, O Zion;
With a clear, strong voice make known to everyone
the joy that belongs to God’s chosen place,
O, Jerusalem, You herald of good tidings!
Make the news ring out! Don’t be afraid!
Say to these cities, this Judah: “Behold your God!”
¹⁰The Lord, the Eternal, comes with power, with unstoppable might;
He will take control without question or delay.
He will see to it that wages are paid,
repairs are made, and all is set right again.
¹¹He will feed His fold like a shepherd;
He will gather together His lambs—the weak and the wobbly ones—into His arms.
He will carry them close to His bosom,
and tenderly lead like a shepherd the mother of her lambs.

¹²Who has taken count and measured out all earth’s waters in a single, cupped palm
and determined heaven’s expanse with an outstretched hand?
Who has counted out exactly how many grains of dirt are here on earth,
and weighed the mountains and hills on scales?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the Eternal One?
Can anyone claim to be His advisor?^[d]
¹⁴To whom did God turn for advice or instruction?
Whom did He consult about right and wrong?
Who directed Him down the path of justice or imparted to Him knowledge
or taught Him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Face it; the nations are nothing but a drop in the bucket,
only a smidgen on the scales by the reckoning of God.
He can pick up entire islands as if they are grains of dirt.
¹⁶Even if we had all the resources of Lebanon—
all of its trees to burn for fuel, all of its animals for burnt offerings—
How could we think that we’ve got enough to give to God?
¹⁷All the countries of the world don’t add up to anything. In the eyes of God
they are less than nothing;
they are empty wastelands.

¹⁸So would you try to find someone to compare to Him?
Can you think of anything that has a likeness to God?
¹⁹An idol? Hardly. They are made by human hands.
Even if they are overlaid with gold, decorated with silver,
And shaped by the world’s best artisans,
they are subject to tarnish, tearing, and breaking.
²⁰Those who cannot afford such an extravagant offering
select a choice hardwood that will not rot,
And seek a skilled artisan to fashion an image
that will not totter and fall.

²¹Don’t you know, haven’t you heard or even been told
from your earliest memories how the earth came to be?
²²Who else could have done it except God, enthroned high above the earth?
From such a vantage people seem like grasshoppers to Him.
Who else but God could stretch out the skies as if they were a curtain,
draw them tight, suspend them over our heads like the roof of a tent?
²³God reduces the rulers and judges,
the rich and powerful of the earth, to nothing;

²⁴They scarcely are planted, take root and start growing,
before God blows a withering breath,
And storm winds carry them away like chaff.

²⁵The Holy One asks, “Do you really think you can find
someone or something to compare to Me? My equal?”
²⁶Look at the myriad of stars and constellations above you.
Who set them to burning, each in its place?
Who knows those countless lights each by name?
They obediently shine, each in its place,
because God has the great strength and strong power to make it so.

²⁷Why, then, do you, Jacob, inheritors of God’s promise,
you, Israel, chosen of God—
Why do you say, “My troubled path is hidden from the Eternal;
God has lost all interest in My cause”?
²⁸Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
The Eternal, the Everlasting God,
The Creator of the whole world, never gets tired or weary.
His wisdom is beyond understanding.
²⁹God strengthens the weary
and gives vitality to those worn down by age and care.
³⁰Young people will get tired;
strapping young men will stumble and fall.
³¹But those who trust in the Eternal One will regain their strength.
They will soar on wings as eagles.
They will run—never winded, never weary.
They will walk—never tired, never faint.

41 Eternal One: Keep quiet and listen to Me, lands along the seacoast;
give the people of the nations a chance to regain their strength.
Let them come close, all together, to speak their minds and present their case;
let’s consider the facts and make a judgment.
²Who brought up this eastern hero? Who called up his justice service?
He lays nations at his feet and makes an end of their kings.
With a thrust of his sword and the bend of his bow,
this hero turns kings and their armies into dust.
³With agility and speed unmatched, he chases them down
and is himself unscathed, even though he is passing over unfamiliar land.
⁴Who has performed these deeds and accomplished this purpose?
Who calls each generation into being from the first on down?

It is I, the Eternal One your God.
I am the first.
And to the very last, I am the One.

⁵The lands along the seacoast have seen and are scared.
The ends of earth take to shaking and yet still they draw near.
⁶They try to bolster each other up saying,
“Have courage, brother, have courage!”
⁷Recognizing their mutual dependence, the artisan encourages the goldsmith;
the one who hammers the metal emboldens the one who welds,
Saying, “Looks good! Fine job!” and fastens the idols together with nails,
making it stand firm and stable.

The nations fashion new idols in the hopes these new gods will be able to protect them during the coming battles against the eastern hero, Cyrus of Persia. If powerful Babylon can fall before him and his mighty army, what chance do other nations have? But Israel has nothing to fear. For God’s covenant people, Cyrus’ rise to power is good news; his ascension and Babylon’s defeat are God’s answers to their anxious prayers. Cyrus’ campaign to build his empire is not simply the will of man or a coincidence of history; it is the outworking of God’s plan to redeem and restore His scattered people. It was God who sent His disobedient covenant partners into exile; it will be God who brings them back home.

⁸Eternal One: But you, My servant, Israel,
Jacob whom I have chosen and descendant of My friend, Abraham,
⁹I have reached to wherever you are in the farthest corners of earth,
and the most hidden places therein.
I have called to you and said, “You are my servant.
I have chosen you, not thrown you away!”
¹⁰So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you;
don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, help you.
I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.
¹¹Look, everyone who hated you and sought to do you wrong
will be embarrassed and confused.
Whoever challenged you with hot-headed bluster
will become as if they never were, and nevermore will be.
¹²You may go looking for them, but you won’t find them;
because those who tried to fight with you will become as if they never were.
¹³After all, it is I, the Eternal One your God,
who has hold of your right hand,
Who whispers in your ear, “Don’t be afraid. I will help you.”

¹⁴So don’t be afraid, Jacob, though you are nothing but a worm.
People of Israel, you little bug, you have nothing to fear.

Eternal One: I will help you. I am One who saves you,
the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵I will turn you into a formidable threshing sledge
with brand new sharp blades that will mow down entire mountains
and turn the hills into chaff.
¹⁶You will separate value from waste, and a great wind
and a strong storm will take away what is useless and unimportant.
You will take joy in the Eternal.
You will glow with pride in the Holy One of Israel.

Footnotes:

The Voice (VOICE)

Ephesians 1

1 Paul, an emissary^[a] of Jesus the Anointed, directly commissioned as His representative by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus]^[b] faithful in Jesus the Anointed.

²May God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Anointed surround you with grace and peace.

This letter begins with praise and thanksgiving to

God the Father, who blesses us
Jesus, who redeems us
the Holy Spirit, who seals us.

³Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who grants us every spiritual blessing in these heavenly realms where we live in the Anointed—not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done for us. ⁴God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world; He wanted us to live holy lives characterized by love, free from sin, and blameless before Him. ⁵He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us. ⁶Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved. ⁷Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace, ⁸which He has poured all over us. With all wisdom and insight, ⁹He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, ¹⁰a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under the Anointed’s royal rule. In Him ¹¹we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will. ¹²As a result, we—the first to place our hope in the Anointed One—will live in a way to bring Him glory and praise. ¹³Because you, too, have heard the word of truth—the good news of your salvation—and because you believed in the One who is truth, your lives are marked with His seal. This is none other than the Holy Spirit who was promised ¹⁴as the guarantee toward the inheritance we are to receive when He frees and rescues all who belong to Him. To God be all praise and glory!

This letter begins with praise and thanksgiving offered to God. Paul celebrates all the spiritual “blessings” available to all believers in Jesus, the Anointed One. This means that He is the one through whom God has acted to rescue the world. But more than that, He is the Lord to whom we belong and the spiritual place where all believers are presently located. In God’s purpose, heaven has come down to where we live so that we now occupy this wonderful realm where salvation is at work, where God’s truth and beauty are a reality, and where we wait as the rest of His plan is worked out.

¹⁵This is why, when I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that is present in your community and of your great love for all God’s people, ¹⁶I haven’t stopped thanking Him for you. I am continually speaking to Him on your behalf in my prayers. Here’s what I say:

¹⁷God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, Father of Glory: I call out to You on behalf of Your people. Give them minds ready to receive wisdom and revelation so they will truly know You. ¹⁸Open the eyes of their hearts, and let the light of Your truth flood in. Shine Your light on the hope You are calling them to embrace. Reveal to them the glorious riches You are preparing as their inheritance. ¹⁹Let them see the full extent of Your power that is at work in those of us who believe, and may it be done according to Your might and power.

Friends, it is this same might and resurrection power that ²⁰He used in the Anointed One to raise Him from the dead and to position Him at His right hand in heaven. There is nothing over Him. ²¹He’s above all rule, authority, power, and dominion; over every name invoked, over every title bestowed in this age and the next. ²²God has placed all things beneath His feet and anointed Him as the head over all things for His church. ²³This church is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Footnotes:

1:1 Literally, apostle
1:1 Some early manuscripts omit this portion.

The Voice (VOICE)

Psalm 66

For the worship leader. A song.

¹Shout out to God, all the earth.
Erupt with joy to the one True God!
²Sing of the glory due His name!
Offer Him the most magnificent praises!
³Say to God, “All You have done is wondrous and causes fear!
Your power is mighty, and Your enemies pretend to submit to You.
⁴The entire earth will bow down to worship You
and will sing glory-songs to You;
they will sing praises to Your name!

[pause]^[a]

⁵Come and witness the True God’s endless works.
His miraculous deeds done on behalf of humanity inspire fear.
⁶He transformed the sea into dry land;
our people passed through the river on foot!
Rejoice in Him; celebrate what He did there!
⁷By His great might, He rules forever;
His eyes watch over all the nations,
so no one should go up against Him.

[pause]

⁸Everyone, bless our True God!
Let praise-filled voices be heard near and far—at home and on foreign soil!
⁹Praise the One who gives us life and keeps us safe,
who does not allow us to stumble in the darkness.
¹⁰For You have put us to the test, O God;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
¹¹You trapped us with a snare;
You have laid upon our backs a heavy burden.
¹²You allowed us to be conquered and let our enemies run over us.
We journeyed through dangers, through fire and flood,
But You led us finally to a safe place, a land rich and abundant.

¹³I will come into Your temple with burnt offerings;
I will fulfill my promises to You—
¹⁴The oaths that parted my lips
and were promises my mouth freely made when I was suffering and in anguish.
¹⁵I will bring You my sacrifices—plump beasts
and the sweet smoke of consecrated rams—
I will also offer You bulls and goats.

[pause]

¹⁶Come and listen, everyone who reveres the True God,
and I will tell you what He has done for me.
¹⁷I cried out to Him with my mouth,
and I praised Him with my tongue.
¹⁸If I entertain evil in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me.
¹⁹But surely God has heard me;
He has paid attention to the urgency of my request.

²⁰May the True God be blessed,
for He did not turn away from my prayer
nor did He hold back His loyal love from me.

Footnotes:

66:4 Literally, selah, likely a musical direction from a Hebrew root meaning “to lift up”

The Voice (VOICE)

Proverbs 23:25-28

²⁵So make your parents happy;
delight your mother—after all, she brought you into this world.

²⁶My son, devote yourself to me fully.
Observe my ways, and follow my directions:
²⁷Being drawn to a prostitute is like falling down into a deep well,
and being involved with a wicked woman is like descending into a narrow well.
You may never get out alive.
²⁸She waits for you, ready to ambush you like a thief
and ready to multiply unfaithfulness among men.

The Voice (VOICE)

September 21, 2019

09/21/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 37:1-38:22, Galatians 6:1-18, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 23:24

Today is the 21^st day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and here we a We walked through another week together and so were closing…closing down another of the weeks that we have as we journey through the Bible. And we’re not out of September, so let’s just be present where we are. We’ve got another full week and a couple of days before we will be entering the final quarter of the year, but nevertheless we are here, the 21^st day of September. And it’s the last day of the week. We’ve been reading from the New English Translation this week, which is what we’ll do today and continue our journey in the book of Isaiah. Today we’ll read chapter 37 and 38.

Prayer:

Thank You, father for another week in Your word. We are so grateful. We are so grateful to have Your word to wash into our lives and inform the choices and decisions that we have facing us and we are grateful that Your word challenges us to change, to repent, to transform from within. We invite Your Holy Spirit to continue that process and we pray that we will cooperate with that process. This the process of sanctification. This is us being set apart and made holy before You. This is our desire. You are our God and we love You. And, so, come Holy Spirit as we release this week and it becomes a part of history. We are here now and we invite Your presence as we move through this day and look forward with anticipation to all that You will speak to us in the coming days in the new week. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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That’s where the Prayer Wall lives and that’s where the Daily Audio Bible Shop lives. And, so, check out those resources there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request a comment, you can press the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. Let’s have a great weekend. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Megan from California. I wanted to call in to pray for Nadine in New Jersey. I wanted to pray for Nadine and I wanted to pray for myself and really anyone who is struggling in their marriage, anyone who is experiencing abuse whether that be emotional, mental, physical abuse and their struggling and wresting with how to honor God especially when you have kids involved and you so badly want your marriage to work. God, I pray for all of us right now. So, family will join me in praying. Merciful God we cry out to You for marriages like Nadine’s and marriages like mine who are hurting. We know that Your word says that You hate divorce God but sometimes it seems like that’s the only answer. Please help us to see clearly God what Your will is and how You want us to honor You God. You also hate oppression Lord. Where You don’t want Your children to be oppressed. God please, I cry out to You for marriages that are hurting. Please help us Lord. Your word says that You hold…that the king’s heart is like a stream of river in Your hand…in the palm of Your hand and You can turn it however You wish. If You can change the hearts of kings Lord, You can chant surely change the…

This is my first time contacting you guys. My name’s Wade and I live in Japan. I’m a retired veteran living here. My life here just hasn’t been so great, and I suffer from depression pretty badly. I have a son, I’m divorced, he’s 15 and he suffers from Tourette syndrome and OCD and all these other issues. And my financial situation is really, really bad and I don’t know what to do anymore. I am…I’m ready to give up to be honest. So, I listen to your podcast every day and I listen to people praying when I don’t know…I pray too but I don’t know anymore. So, I guess I just want prayer. I don’t know how I’m gonna pay bills or…I’m not even a good father I don’t think anymore. This is how things have turned out. The worst part of it because of my financial situation I haven’t even been able to go back to America to see my mom in over 10 years and it’s just the worst feeling. Anyway, thank you Brian for your podcast because it does keep me going. Thank you all. God bless you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible the this is Carolyn from North Carolina and I am calling to give a praise report. I just married a wonderful man of God. I was instructed years ago by my pastor to write a list of all the attributes that I wanted my husband to have and to put it before me and pray on it. Well I put it on my refrigerator, I prayed, and I prayed for years and I stayed in the word, I stayed busy in the kingdom and my Boaz found me. Now, the enemy tried to stop this marriage and coming together for over a year and half, but I stayed faithful. God kept confirming. So, I just want to encourage you sisters who are waiting on your Boaz, that are waiting on a godly husband that will pray with you and pray for you, who you can submit to, and just prepare yourself to become a wife. Stay in the word, understand what the word says, study, and my God it will come to pass. Just want to encourage you sisters. Don’t get discouraged, don’t settle. God has your Boaz. Be encouraged.

Hi this is Valerie calling from south of __ . I just want to call for some of the DABbers. Dear Lord, I just want to pray for Allison Lord I just heard her call about feeling hopeless and just coming out from a suicide attempt Lord and just needing some guidance and some hope in her life. And Lord I just want to pray that she’ll be able to feel Your love in a changeable way, Lord. I pray that You will just put people in her path that will uplift her and point her toward You Lord and just encourage her as she goes about her day. Lord, You know that I’ve dealt with this in one of my children and sometimes You can feel so hopeless and so inadequate in helping someone Lord, but I know that You know all the answers Lord and that You love her much more than anyone else could. And she is Your child Lord and she’s reaching out for help. So, I do just want to lift her up Lord and Alison I just want to let You know that I will be praying for You whenever the Lord brings You to my mind I will say a prayer for encouragement and strength and again just mental clarity in knowing who You are as a child of God. And also, in these last few minutes I want to pray for the Young couple who is still in with a husband having leukemia. Lord I cannot imagine being 26 years old and getting a diagnosis like that. So, I just want to live this couple. I ask Lord that You give the doctor’s wisdom. I pray Lord that his nutrition is on track, so he has energy to fight these cancer cells. And Lord I’m going to continue to pray for them as well. My time is up. God bless all. Take care. Bye-bye.

Hi, DABbers this is Keira from Denver and I’m just calling for prayer. I’m feeling very needy for prayer and I’m really depressed. I’ve always been that kind of depressed kind of person, but I just feel like the sins that I’ve committed in my life are just weighing down so hard. And I called a couple times for different things and I haven’t heard them yet and that’s just making me feel more needy and maybe they just haven’t been played yet, I don’t know. But I have a trip coming up to visit hopefully find my son Nish who is homeless and Albuquerque and I’m going there with my mom at the end of this week and I’m really grateful for that. I really hope that I find him. And I really would like just prayer for peace and restoration of our relationship and with my mom and I just in general I just really like avoid people and social things in general and I would like prayer for that. Because I just…I just want to…I want to walk with God, I want to walk with Christ. I just need prayer. Please…I don’t know what else to pray. I love you all and thank you so much.

September 21, 2019

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday September 21, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 37-38

37 ¹When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. ²Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz: ³“This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This is a day of distress, insults, and humiliation, as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ⁴Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. So pray for this remnant that remains.’”

⁵When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, ⁶Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard—these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. ⁷Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”

⁸When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. ⁹The king heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: ¹⁰“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ¹¹Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued? ¹²Were the nations whom my predecessors destroyed—the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar—rescued by their gods? ¹³Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: ¹⁶“O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky and the earth. ¹⁷Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ¹⁸It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations and their lands. ¹⁹They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them. ²⁰Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

²¹Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, ²²this is what the Lord says about him:

“The virgin daughter Zion
despises you—she makes fun of you;
daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head after you.
²³Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?
At whom have you shouted
and looked so arrogantly?
At the Holy One of Israel!
²⁴Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master,
‘With my many chariots I climbed up
the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions,
its thickest woods.
²⁵I dug wells
and drank water.
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
²⁶Certainly you must have heard!
Long ago I worked it out,
in ancient times I planned it,
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins.
²⁷Their residents are powerless;
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field
or green vegetation.
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops
when it is scorched by the east wind.
²⁸I know where you live
and everything you do
and how you rage against me.
²⁹Because you rage against me
and the uproar you create has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose,
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back
the way you came.”

³⁰“This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: This year you will eat what grows wild, and next year what grows on its own. But the year after that you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ³¹Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit.

³²“For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;
survivors will come out of Mount Zion.
The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies will accomplish this.
³³So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
‘He will not enter this city,
nor will he shoot an arrow here.
He will not attack it with his shielded warriors,
nor will he build siege works against it.
³⁴He will go back the way he came—
he will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.
³⁵I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’”

³⁶The Lord’s messenger went out and killed 185,000 troops in the Assyrian camp. When they got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ³⁷So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. ³⁸One day, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’” ²Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³“Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴The Lord told Isaiah, ⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life, ⁶and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’” ²¹Isaiah ordered, “Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well.” ²²Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?” ⁷Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: ⁸Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” And then the shadow went back ten steps.

Hezekiah’s Song of Thanks

⁹This is the prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then recovered from his illness:

¹⁰“I thought,
‘In the middle of my life I must walk through the gates of Sheol,
I am deprived of the rest of my years.’
¹¹“I thought,
‘I will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living,
I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.
¹²My dwelling place is removed and taken away from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth;
from the loom he cuts me off.
You turn day into night and end my life.
¹³I cry out until morning;
like a lion he shatters all my bones;
you turn day into night and end my life.
¹⁴Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky.
O sovereign master, I am oppressed;
help me!
¹⁵What can I say?
He has decreed and acted.
I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief.
¹⁶O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life;
may years of life be restored to me.
Restore my health and preserve my life.’
¹⁷“Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.
You delivered me from the Pit of oblivion.
For you removed all my sins from your sight.
¹⁸Indeed Sheol does not give you thanks;
death does not praise you.
Those who descend into the Pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,
as I do today.
A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.
²⁰The Lord is about to deliver me,
and we will celebrate with music
for the rest of our lives in the Lord’s temple.”

New English Translation (NET)

Galatians 6

Support One Another

6 Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too. ²Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴Let each one examine his own work. Then he can take pride in himself and not compare himself with someone else. ⁵For each one will carry his own load.

⁶Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches it. ⁷Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, ⁸because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. ¹⁰So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.

Final Instructions and Benediction

¹¹See what big letters I make as I write to you with my own hand!

¹²Those who want to make a good showing in external matters are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. ¹⁴But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! ¹⁶And all who will behave in accordance with this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on the Israel of God.

¹⁷From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

New English Translation (NET)

Psalm 65

For the music director; a psalm of David, a song.

¹Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion.
Vows made to you are fulfilled.
²You hear prayers;
all people approach you.
³Our record of sins overwhelms me,
but you forgive our acts of rebellion.
⁴How blessed is the one whom you choose,
and allow to live in your palace courts.
May we be satisfied with the good things of your house—
your holy palace.
⁵You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,
O God, our savior.
All the ends of the earth trust in you,
as well as those living across the wide seas.
⁶You created the mountains by your power,
and demonstrated your strength.
⁷You calm the raging seas
and their roaring waves,
as well as the commotion made by the nations.
⁸Even those living in the most remote areas are awestruck by your acts;
you cause those living in the east and west to praise you.
⁹You visit the earth and give it rain;
you make it rich and fertile
with overflowing streams full of water.
You provide grain for them,
for you prepare the earth to yield its crops.
¹⁰You saturate its furrows,
and soak its plowed ground.
With rain showers you soften its soil,
and make its crops grow.
¹¹You crown the year with your good blessings,
and you leave abundance in your wake.
¹²The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture,
and the hills are clothed with joy.
¹³The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

New English Translation (NET)

Proverbs 23:24

²⁴The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly;
whoever fathers a wise child will have joy in him.

New English Translation (NET)

September 21, 2019

09/20/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 33:10-36:22, Galatians 5:13-26, Psalms 64:1-10, Proverbs 23:23

Today is the 20^th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. I am excited to be here with you today as we all just come in and find our places around this global campfire that is our community. And so, as we often say and really, as was the theme that we spoke about in Isaiah yesterday, let’s exhale, let’s return to God, let’s rest and allow his word to wash over us before we get blown away. And, so, this is a good time to anchor ourselves in the Scriptures, and in our relationship with God. So we’re reading from the New English Translation this week and we kinda crossed the center of the book of Isaiah yesterday so we’re moving into the back half. Isaiah 33 verse 10 to 36 verse 22 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, it’s a pretty regular thing in the Bible to find that paths are laid out before us and we can choose this one or we can choose that one and we get to see where both of those paths lead and then we get to choose. And so that was a case as we were reading in the book of Isaiah yesterday. And we talked about

And, so, in our reading from Galatians today we had another one of these opportunities to see a couple of paths and their outcomes so that we can choose. And in this case, the paths are that of the sinful nature and the path of union with the Holy Spirit. So, Paul says, “for the flash has desires that are opposed to the spirit and the spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh for these are in opposition to each other so that you cannot do what you want.” Okay, so the path that submits to sin fights for control of our lives but how do we know? Like, yesterday we were talking in Isaiah about just being blown off the path and we even prayed, asked the Holy Spirit to show us when the drifting starts so that we can see that and repent then, as opposed to when it’s all all chaos. So, are there any signs? Like anything that could reveal that we are choosing the path of sin? According to Paul, there are. “When we follow the desires of our sinful nature then the results are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasure, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, dissensions, or quarreling, jealousy, fits of rage or anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other things like that” is what Paul had to say. So, let’s spend a minute with that. I mean…I mean we can understand how sexual immorality would be on that list, right? We can understand how lustful pleasures would be on that list because those are like A list of sins. So, we think. We can understand why drunkenness would be on the list. Those are A listers. But what jealousy, what about envy, what about outbursts of anger. Because according Paul…there on the same list. Have we ever thought about the fact that those are walking the path of sinful nature as well? And we might be like, alright, listen, we’re free from the law, so I’m not going under another law. What’s the big deal. Everybody gets mad. Everybody gets angry. For Paul, the big deal was that those kinds of behaviors, those kinds of sins don’t lead us to anything other than more bondage. And when we started our reading from Galatians today Paul was talking about supreme freedom. And, so, Paul’s trying to reveal that freedom in Christ is boundless. There is no limit to that freedom. But it’s a choice, and we have pretty good built-in indicators. Like one…I mean…when you’re looking at what somebody else has and thinking, “I’ll never be able to get there. I’ll never be able to do that” like, when you’re comparing your life to somebody else’s life and jealousy and envy are all around you, how free did you feel? I mean, how free were you in that moment? I mean, did you get a sense of wholeness and shalom that just kind of overwhelmed you out of nowhere where all of a sudden you were at such peace that you hadn’t felt that way in so long. The last time you had an outburst of rage, right? Like, when was the last time lust gave you this immense sense of God’s presence and this joy this spiritual joy that was just coming up from within you, right? So, it’s kind of built in. Paul gave us a list and he does that a lot. So, we got a list, but we kinda got a built-in spiritual gauge. And when we’re walking off the path, we’re not going to be experiencing the presence of God and an overwhelming sense of calm and peace and strength. So, Pal’s like, I’ve told you this before, I’m telling you it again, if that’s the life you’re gonna live, if that’s where you’re gonna go then…then you’re not gonna inherit the kingdom of God. So, thankfully what Paul didn’t say is that anybody who fails in any of those areas is hopelessly lost. Its…it’s the person that lives into that way of being, the one who walks that path will not inherit the kingdom of God. So, are we walking that path? So, I mean we can look at the A listers and go like, “I’m not walking that path”, but Paul didn’t like…he didn’t categorize what he was saying. So, are we walking the path or not? And is the path that we’re walking on going to end up where we hope it does? Because Paul gave another path, a counter path, an opposite path. And he says the fruit of the spirit, so like if you’re gonna walk the path of the spirit, then the outflow of that, the fruit of that will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And as an aside, Paul illuminates that there are no laws against those things. So, we have some contrasting paths today and we need to examine ourselves to understand which path we’re on and we’re probably on both of those paths and how can you end up in two different places? And, so, we need to decide which path leads to the place that I am hoping to end up and then follow that path. And whatever path we are walking will absolutely be borne out in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds

Prayer:

Father, this is challenging, and Your word challenges us constantly. And we need it. And sometimes we’re very, very deeply convicted because the lights have come on and the darkness has been illuminated and we can see clearly what’s going on and we ask for that, that the light of truth by the power of Your Holy Spirit would shine into the dark recesses of our hearts illuminating what’s really going on. What path that are we walking? Because so often we walk ourselves into a wall and then blame You and are angry at You when we walked there. And perhaps we were confused about where we were walking, but that’s not Your fault, You never left us, and You promised to lead us into all truth. And, so, we gotta do our part and listen and obey. So, come Holy Spirit and show us again what path we’re walking. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here so be sure to stay connected.

The Prayer Wall is in the community section at dailyaudiobible.com and all the different social media places we were interacting is in the community section at dailyaudiobible.com.

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Of course, all of this is also available in the app, just press the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and it’ll take you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com together. As you can see, Daily Audio Bible is home base, right, I say it every day, but it is. It is where we find out what’s going on. So anyway, thank you. Thank you profoundly for your partnership. So, there’s a link on the web site…on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request for comment you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or the number to dial is 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. Let’s have a great weekend. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling tonight to talk to some of the DABbers. I wanted to say hi to Jerry the new listener and want to continue to pray with you that you keep the faith in your marriage. I want to pray for the family of the father that committed suicide and left those precious kids and his mother and family. Lord, I just want to __ just continue to pray with that and the kids going to school and the challenges that is happening in our nation of the separation and people in the devastated areas. Gracious father we praise You today. Lord, we know that You’re a God that can do anything but fail. We know that Your ways are not our ways. Lord we know that You are a mighty God You’re a God that can do anything but fail. Lord we ask You to touch that family of that man who wind up taking his precious life. Oh Lord whatever the devil __ make that man think that he couldn’t hold on, that he didn’t have anything to live for. Those precious babies, I pray that You know that You have something to You live for, You have to live for the legacy that Your father left You. You have to live for the legacy that Your mother left You and the legacy that Jesus gave You. He has a plan for Your life. It’s for a future and a hope. We pray for the saints. I pray for the missionary that was going through and she needed strength. Lord You give her the strength like You give her the strength like never before. Oh Lord You have Your miracles. Lord You stretch out Your hands on the DABbers. You know the needs. You know the thoughts, You know the intents of their heart. Lord we ask You to bless Lord. We ask You to open up the flood gate of heaven Lord and bring them out of the blessing. Lord You work miracles Lord. You decide. You direct Lord. You protect Lord. Oh Lord…

Hi this is Susie from Colorado. I’m just calling in with an update. I wanted to say thank you from the deepest part of my heart for all the prayers and the compassion that you showed by praying for me. I had just gotten back from Haiti about a little over a week ago and called in pretty distraught feeling really cut up bruised and hurting and you know just tired. You know I’ve been working in Haiti 25 years and I just had had…kind of had it. I’m feeling so much better. I tell you about 70% recovered and I…I want to thank Duane from Wisconsin for lifting me up in prayer and Dave Steinhearst and Sheriff I believe it was. I did try to email you. My husband thanks you all for praying for us. Also, I heard yesterday, today’s the 14^th, Jude and Anya lost their dad to suicide and Jude found him deceased and I know that Jude is only in 10^th grade and I…I…I’m so sorry. My heart is lifting you up to the Holy Spirit every day. And the boy whose getting bullied at school, it was so encouraging for me to hear him praying for blessings and love for those who are being the bullies. Tat just…you are something very very special and I just want you to know that we all will be praying for you…you all. Thank you. God bless. Bye.

Hi, my name is Liliana. I need prayer. My boyfriend __ just yesterday morning went in for surgery for leukemia then later on the hospital contacted me saying that he’s in a coma and has lost a lot of blood. I just need desperate prayer. Thank you. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible.

Hi, this is Ben from Ohio. I just heard about Jude and Anya losing their father to suicide. And, so, I want to pray for them now. Father God, I pray that You would go and You would touch the hearts of these two Young people. Jesus, please intercede on their behalf. Please go and rescue these two Young people as they bore the loss of their father as they have, You know, as they were morning of their loss of their family and now they’ve got to mourn the loss of their father. Lord I just pray that You would go and You would work this for good Lord. I pray that You would only as You can only in Your power could something good and fruitful come out of this. And so we are trusting You father, we’re just trusting You Jesus, we’re trusting You Holy Spirit to go and intercept these children, these Young people hearts Lord to keep them from going into bitterness or self-destructive behavior or…or doubt Lord. I pray that this would be a catalyst for hope and rescue and pursuit of the You Lord. And I pray this all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family it’s Jay from Nashville Tennessee. Listen guys, God is so good. I’m calling with a praise report, obviously, because you can hear it in my voice. And, you know, I was going to a spiritual retreat and on this spiritual retreat I was told I can’t bring any electronics - no phones, no laptops, no watches, nothing, right? And the problem was, right before I had to go in my project management class, I had a 49%, that was my grade, a big fat F. And I called up the team and I said, listen I need to bring my laptop, I need to bring my phone and I need to bring my iPad because I’ve got to get these papers and these quizzes and things done or I’m gonna fail my class. And before I left, I prayed, and God spoke to my heart and said, “have I ever let you down before.” And I thought, “God you’ve never let me down.” So, I left my laptop, I left my phone, I left my watch, I left my iPad and I trusted that God would give me the ability to get that work done in the five hours that I would have left before the deadline when I got home. So, I got home from this retreat. And I mean when I tell you I cried like a baby at this retreat, I cried like a baby. Long story short, I get home and I’ve got five hours left. I sat down and I prayed, and I said, “Lord whatever your will is in this moment I trust in it.” And I sat down, and I started typing and my fingers moved at the speed of light. I could not keep up with the information that came from God. I got all the tests, all the discussions, all the posts, all the papers. I went from a 49 to a B. God is good. Trust in God. He will provide. I love you guys.

September 20, 2019

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday September 20, 2019 (NIV)

Isaiah 33:10-36:22

¹⁰“Now I will rise up,” says the Lord.
“Now I will exalt myself;
now I will magnify myself.
¹¹You conceive straw,
you give birth to chaff;
your breath is a fire that destroys you.
¹²The nations will be burned to ashes;
like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.
¹³You who are far away, listen to what I have done!
You who are close by, recognize my strength!”
¹⁴Sinners are afraid in Zion;
panic grips the godless.
They say, ‘Who among us can coexist with destructive fire?
Who among us can coexist with unquenchable fire?’
¹⁵The one who lives uprightly
and speaks honestly;
the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures
and rejects a bribe;
the one who does not plot violent crimes
and does not seek to harm others—
¹⁶This is the person who will live in a secure place;
he will find safety in the rocky, mountain strongholds;
he will have food
and a constant supply of water.
¹⁷You will see a king in his splendor;
you will see a wide land.
¹⁸Your mind will recall the terror you experienced,
and you will ask yourselves, “Where is the scribe?
Where is the one who weighs the money?
Where is the one who counts the towers?”
¹⁹You will no longer see a defiant people
whose language you do not comprehend,
whose derisive speech you do not understand.
²⁰Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals!
You will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful settlement,
a tent that stays put;
its stakes will never be pulled up;
none of its ropes will snap in two.
²¹Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king.
Rivers and wide streams will flow through it;
no war galley will enter;
no large ships will sail through.
²²For the Lord, our ruler,
the Lord, our commander,
the Lord, our king—
he will deliver us.
²³Though at this time your ropes are slack,
the mast is not secured,
and the sail is not unfurled,
at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot;
even the lame will drag off plunder.
²⁴No resident of Zion will say, “I am ill”;
the people who live there will have their sin forgiven.

The Lord Will Judge Edom

34 Come near, you nations, and listen!
Pay attention, you people!
The earth and everything it contains must listen,
the world and everything that lives in it.
²For the Lord is angry at all the nations
and furious with all their armies.
He will annihilate them and slaughter them.
³Their slain will be left unburied,
their corpses will stink;
the hills will soak up their blood.
⁴All the stars in the sky will fade away,
the sky will roll up like a scroll;
all its stars will wither,
like a leaf withers and falls from a vine
or a fig withers and falls from a tree.
⁵He says, “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers.
Look, it now descends on Edom,
on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”
⁶The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,
it is covered with fat;
it drips with the blood of young rams and goats
and is covered with the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the Lord is holding a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a bloody slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷Wild oxen will be slaughtered along with them,
as well as strong bulls.
Their land is drenched with blood,
their soil is covered with fat.
⁸For the Lord has planned a day of revenge,
a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion.
⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
¹⁰Night and day it will burn;
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
¹¹Owls and wild animals will live there,
all kinds of wild birds will settle in it.
The Lord will stretch out over her
the measuring line of ruin
and the plumb line of destruction.
¹²Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom
and all her officials will disappear.
¹³Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns;
thickets and weeds will grow in her fortified cities.
Jackals will settle there;
ostriches will live there.
¹⁴Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there;
wild goats will bleat to one another.
Yes, nocturnal animals will rest there
and make for themselves a nest.
¹⁵Owls will make nests and lay eggs there;
they will hatch them and protect them.
Yes, hawks will gather there,
each with its mate.
¹⁶Carefully read the scroll of the Lord!
Not one of these creatures will be missing,
none will lack a mate.
For the Lord has issued the decree,
and his own spirit gathers them.
¹⁷He assigns them their allotment;
he measures out their assigned place.
They will live there permanently;
they will settle in it through successive generations.

The Land and Its People Are Transformed

35 Let the desert and dry region be happy;
let the wilderness rejoice and bloom like a lily!
²Let it richly bloom;
let it rejoice and shout with delight!
It is given the grandeur of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the grandeur of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.
³Strengthen the hands that have gone limp,
steady the knees that shake!
⁴Tell those who panic,
“Be strong! Do not fear!
Look, your God comes to avenge!
With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.”
⁵Then blind eyes will open,
deaf ears will hear.
⁶Then the lame will leap like a deer,
the mute tongue will shout for joy;
for water will flow in the desert,
streams in the wilderness.
⁷The dry soil will become a pool of water,
the parched ground springs of water.
Where jackals once lived and sprawled out,
grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.
⁸A thoroughfare will be there—
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it;
it is reserved for those authorized to use it—
fools will not stray into it.
⁹No lions will be there,
no ferocious wild animals will be on it—
they will not be found there.
Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,
¹⁰those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way.
They will enter Zion with a happy shout.
Unending joy will crown them,
happiness and joy will overwhelm them;
grief and suffering will disappear.

Sennacherib Invades Judah

36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ²The king of Assyria sent his chief adviser from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army. The chief adviser stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ³Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet him.

⁴The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? ⁵Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. In whom are you trusting, that you would dare to rebel against me? ⁶Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him! ⁷Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’ ⁸Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them. ⁹Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen. ¹⁰Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’”

¹¹Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹²But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!”

¹³The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you! ¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria from my power? ²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” ²¹They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”

²²Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

New English Translation (NET)

Galatians 5:13-26

Practice Love

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵However, if you continually bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. ¹⁶But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, ²¹envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.

New English Translation (NET)

Psalm 64

For the music director; a psalm of David.

¹Listen to me, O God, as I offer my lament!
Protect my life from the enemy’s terrifying attacks.
²Hide me from the plots of evil men,
from the crowd of evildoers.
³They sharpen their tongues like a sword;
they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge,
⁴in order to shoot down the innocent in secluded places.
They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation.
⁵They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed.
They plan how to hide snares,
and boast, “Who will see them?”
⁶They devise unjust schemes;
they disguise a well-conceived plot.
Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered.
⁷But God will shoot at them;
suddenly they will be wounded by an arrow.
⁸Their slander will bring about their demise.
All who see them will shudder,
⁹and all people will fear.
They will proclaim what God has done,
and reflect on his deeds.
¹⁰The godly will rejoice in the Lord
and take shelter in him.
All the morally upright will boast.

New English Translation (NET)

Proverbs 23:23

²³Acquire truth and do not sell it—
wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.

New English Translation (NET)

September 19, 2019

09/19/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 30:12-33:9, Galatians 5:1-12, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 23:22

Today is the 19^th day of September. Welcome…welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. It is great to be here with you today and every single day, actually, every single day of my life to be here with you for the next step forward as we continue this rhythm that is life in the Scriptures. So, today we are reaching pretty much the center of the book of Isaiah. So, we have…well when we finish today’s reading, we will have reached the middle of the book and then when we reach the New Testament we will continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 12 through 33 verse 9 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have reached kind of the center of the book of Isaiah and the book of Isaiah can seem difficult to follow if we’re trying to read it like this kind of cohesive story like a narrative story because it seems like the books jumping all over the place. He’s talking about all kinds of different things to all kinds of different people and that’s because he is. This is not a single narrative story. The book of Isaiah is this collection of the utterances of God through Isaiah. So, they don’t all happen at the same time. They didn’t all happen for the same reason and they weren’t all spoken to the same people. But certainly, as a collection we can see an arc. Isaiah certainly does predict some pretty troubling times, but the messages eventually begin to turn toward hope and restoration. And we experienced some of that today. In fact, Isaiah gives us a clear path spoken thousands of years ago landing right in our lap today, clear paths that we can choose. So, just take a deep breath for a second and listen to this because we could all stand to hear this, but for some of this…some of us…this is just like a life raft. “For this is what the Master, the Lord, the Holy One of Israel says. If you repented and patiently waited for me you would be delivered. If you calmly trusted in me, you would find strength.” So, what is…what is essentially being said here? Calm down, return to God, and find rest and in that rest, we’ll again discover our strength. Of course, the alternative to that is something that we can also choose. So, continuing the passage, “but you are unwilling. You say no, we will flee on horses, so you will indeed flee. You say we will ride on fast horses. So, your pursuers will be fast.” So, basically, we have two paths, one that leads to quiet confidence and strength in God and one that relies on our own strength and will never allow us to outrun whatever it is that is chasing us. If we follow that path, then we’re given a picture of where it will lead. 1000 will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier. At the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away until the remaining few are is isolated as a flagpole on a mountaintop or a signal flag on hill. And you can see that imagery in your mind, a lonely flagpole on a mountaintop. So, here we are. What path are you going to choose today? The first path is to take a deep breath, take a long exhale, repent, return, rest. You are not in this alone. You are not alone. You are not abandoned. In fact, take a deep breath. That’s the proof. You wouldn’t have the breath of life in you if God were not willing to sustain you. Or we can take that same breath and whip ourselves up into hyperventilation because we are so full of anxiety and running running running and we can’t get ahead, right? We’re fleeing, but we can get ahead because our pursuers are fast as Isaiah says. So, what is your path of choice today?

Prayer:

Father, the correct path is clear and that is the path we want to walk, the one that is calm, the one that is serene. And that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that are gonna happen that are gonna disrupt us, but it is from within that we are walking with You and observing these things that are happening. But these circumstances that come against us, they cannot penetrate to where we are in relationship. We want that, but it does require our surrender. It requires our continual returning to You, and we do that, we repent, we return to You, we come back to You, we are sorry, forgive us Father, but at the same time we know that this kind of repetitive for us, this is kind of a big circle for us. We do come back to You, we do, re-center ourselves in You, but then the world seems to blow us away, like the circumstances of life seem to blow us off the path and then we have to return again. Help us to understand that that’s okay. We just invite Your Holy Spirit to help us become more aware because a lot of times we become aware when things have gotten out of control. Help us to become aware that we’re getting blown away before we do so that we can once again anchor ourselves in You and walk this path that You’ve set before us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask, expectantly. 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:

Dear heavenly Father, I pray that You will be with Jay of Nashville. Thank You so much for placing him on my heart these past few days to lift him up before You, asking that You would draw close to him and that You would be the God of all comfort that we know that You are, but especially now at this time when Jay is experiencing deep loneliness. Dear Jesus, You know that is like, being in the midst of a crowd and being lonely, people not understanding who You are or what You are all about, people deserting You when You thought they had Your back. And, so, God I’m just praying that You would send Your Holy Spirit in a mighty way, that You would fill Jays’ heart and mind with thoughts of You, bring Your word to life for him, bring the right people into his life who will be an encouragement and help him on his walk with You. And Father when those temptations come to go back to ways and do things that he knows exactly where they will end up. Father I pray that You will raise a standard against that desire and implant within his heart Your desire. Help him to be a blessing to other people, to find ways to nourish and be nurtured that will glorify You and will keep him and his eyes focused on You. I praise You God for doing that and thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I’m Seeker of Northern California and I wanted to thank first of all, thank Jill and Brian and China and the amazing super support team of the Daily Audio Bible. What a blessing you are all of us. This ministry has been such a powerful force to show obedience and learning and fellowship. Thank you. And my love to all the regulars who call in to pray. I love you guys. It’s so amazing to hear you and to be inspired to be a prayer warrior. I pray for each person who calls. I’ve been listening for about five years and I pray for each one who calls and try to imagine them in their facets of their prayer, of their need. My prayer request is for my daughter who’s a law enforcement officer in a large California city. As you can imagine, her job is tremendously difficult and last April she left her husband of 14 years, with whom they together, they have wonderful 4-year-old son. And she only says that she’s been unhappy, and they’ve grown apart and she won’t explain more, and she doesn’t wish to be pressed about it. Her husband is devastated and he’s a good man. We love him very much. We’re devastated. So, I beg your prayers for healing. My husband and I have been praying daily for healing for her and for her husband and for her son. So, please pray for him for this little family. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Thank you all.

Hello, my name is Susan I’m calling from Canada and I need prayer for my son and I. My son who’s 40 has stage IV cancer. It’s a very rare and advanced cancer. He’s on clinical trials to see if that will help him. He has had four surgeries in less than a year and he’s also battling a horrible stubborn infection. So, I pray for his healing and we also need the strength and the stamina to go through this together. He is a wonderful man who loves the Lord. He is very ill, and I have had to do things for him that no mother should ever have to do for their son. So, just pray for healing for him and strength and courage and trust for us both. Thank you.

[singing starts] From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea. Creations revealing Your majesty. From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring. Every creature unique in the song that it sings. All exclaiming, indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky, and You know them by name. You are amazing God. All powerful, untamable, You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same. You are amazing God. You are amazing God. [singing stops] Father God, thank You so much for the beauty of Your creation. Thank You so much for the night sky, all of the stars, it’s indescribable, it’s beautiful, it’s magnificent, I pray Lord that You would open our eyes to see the glory all around us. We lift up Lord our family, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues who don’t know You, who see these things but haven’t joined up those dots yet. May they see these things Lord, the beauty of the ocean, the beauty of the night sky, the beauty of a new born baby, and know that it was You that created it. May they see You Lord, and may Your name be praised. In Jesus’ name, Amen. This is Michaela from Gloucester currently here on the south coast. Bye.

Hey DABber family its addicted Olia from Minnesota. Just wanted to call in…and had little bit of a slip last week. I am now back today 4. I don’t know. It’s a struggle but it was kind of cool. I almost…I was so close to using the other day and I just decided to listen to the community prayer, and I heard a couple people praying for me and just like that my craving one away. Yeah, just amazing, that these strangers, you guys are praying for me just showing love. I’m really learning what that means. So, thank you.

Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Hello Daily Audio Bible. I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening for over a year. My name is Maria from Colon Michigan, magic capital of the world and today I need your help. I’ve been alone now for five years. I was forced to divorce my husband because he wanted me to join him in bisexual relationships. All I have had is my mom and dad. Yes, I’ve been lonely but that has been all I needed. Just after the divorce he died. I took that really hard. I now have fresh news that my mom has cancer. Her name is Danny Smith. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how. How do I? I have no friends and I am alone besides when Ian with them. I will not cry when I’m in front of her. But when I’m alone it’s hard. Wednesday we go in and learn what kind of cancer and treatment options. Please say a prayer. And by the way, before this I was too shy to make call. God bless you all and I have been praying for you.