Zechariah 1:1-21 ~ Revelation 12:1-13:1 ~ Psalm 140:1-13 ~ Proverbs 30:17
Today is December 21ST. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here. It’s always great to be here and it’s especially great to be here during the busyness of Christmas week but the joy of Christmas week.
So we’ve been moving really quickly. Even as our year speeds up, we’ve been moving quickly through different books, especially the books of minor prophesy. They are shorter. And then some of the letters in the New Testament are shorter and so we’ve kind of blazed our way all the way through the New Testament and are rooted in the book of Revelation, obviously, through the end of the year. But today we come to the second to the last book of the Old Testament and we’ll kind of camp out here until just the last couple of days of the year – the book of Zechariah.
Introduction of a New Book (Old Testament)
The book of Zechariah was written during the reign of the Persian King Darius, so this falls within the same general time period that Haggai which we read yesterday was written. So Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaries with each other.
Within the first couple of verses Zechariah reiterates what is a central theme of the entire Old Testament – return to me, God says, and I will return to you. Throughout this book of prophesy God confirms his acceptance of authentic worship and it shows God at work. It confirms once again God’s sovereignty and clarifies his control over the beginnings and endings of man. This is not to say that he usurps a person’s will. Everyone is responsible for their choices, but God is sovereign.
So as we begin and enter into the book of Zechariah, there are 8 different visions and then 2 oracles contained in this book. Much of the imagery is clear and beautiful and just a wonderful foreshadowing of Jesus, so contained in these visions and throughout the imagery in them, we’re offered unbelievable hope and promise.
So, reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible this week, we begin the book of Zechariah chapter 1 verses 1 through 21 today.
Prayer
Father, even as we move into the book of Zechariah and we hear the recurring theme come back, come back to me. Return to me and I will return to you, we ask that you plant that one so deep in our lives that we can never forget it, that at any point in our lives that we feel like we have drifted or shifted we can remember this – return to me and I will return to you. May this be the opening volley of any day. As we open our eyes and call upon your name, may we remember to walk with you, to return to you and you return to us. We pray along with the psalmist: Rescue us, Lord, from evil around us. Protect us, Lord, from the clutches of the wicked. You are our God. There is no other hope. So we hide ourselves in you fully, completely, uninhibited, naked and unashamed before you. We fully return to you and not partially and try to just shine ourselves up so we’re in good standing. We want to be lost in you with no way to know where we begin and you end and vice versa. We are intertwined. We are of you. We are for you. We are with you in all things. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements
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Looking at the calendar counting the days to Christmas, I just realized this would have been my parents’ anniversary. This would have been their 54th anniversary. Of course, my father, he passed many years ago. My mom is not doing so great and maybe that is what brought it… It’s a bunny trail. Sorry to divert into a bunny trail. I just saw the date on the calendar just now, talking and realized this would have been… So yeah, it would have been their anniversary, which has nothing to do with Christmas or nothing to do with the Daily Audio Bible, but it has something to do with me, so just sharing it with you.
But anyway, www.DailyAudioBible.com, that is the website and if you want partner with the Daily Audio Bible, that is really where to go. If Daily Audio Bible has been a life-giving source and the community has been helpful, then thank you for your partnership here at the end of the year. The website, that is the place to go, but if you use the app, you can push the More button. And if you prefer the mail, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 that is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I will be here waiting for you tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Hey family, it’s Jordan from Michigan. I’m calling because God entered Byron from Florida and directed him to send me a message, which I heard on December 17th. I just want to thank you, brother, for heeding God’s call and for really inspiring me. When I heard it I cried and I felt a new sense of life coming right through me, so thank you. I will start beginning my 30-day challenge one again, day 15. Recently God has been putting some new friends in my life to help me with my loneliness because after my best friend passed away, I haven’t had any friends, so it has been nice to have some new friends and even though my life is a mess, I have something there for me to be thankful for. Please, family, continue to pray for me as I go through a very serious bout of depression and as I try to get a sign from the Lord of whether or not I should be staying at this school. I have been looking for other jobs, so thank you, family. I love you. Goodbye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Cheryl in Arizona. I had to stop the community prayer. I have been listening for about the last 40 minutes and I just heard Patricia from New Orleans, LA call in and I just was completely overwhelmed by her request and her call and I just want to say, Patricia, that I appreciate your call. Thank you for the opportunity, as with just all of you to pray. Whether I call in or not, I am definitely praying for you all. Patricia, I heard you say that you need prayer in all aspects of your life and I was praying for you before I called and I will continue. And also I didn’t quite get your daughter’s name, but I know you said she lost her job and you were asking for prayers for her to find another job. I do pray. I know that the Lord hears you and all of you. My heart was so moved with compassion and I just want to say that you’re a blessing. All of you are. I thank God for this community and this family and Patricia, may every need that you have, both spoken and unspoken, be met by the one who created you, who knows your frame and your heart and knows every need, including your sphere of influence and your daughter. I pray these things and I bless you all and I love you all so much. In the name of Jesus. Alright, bye-bye. And Merry Christmas to you all, too.
Hello Daily Audio Bible community. This is David in Kansas. It is December 17th. This is my prayer for healing. Please pray with me. Merciful Father, Almighty God, Blessed Lord Jesus, we come before you to pray healing over the members of our community, those that surround our community, those who hear the prayers of our community. We ask for full, complete, miraculous healing and give you nothing but praise. Lord, today I want to lift up Mark N. in Florida. He called. His cousin Chuck N. is going to have to have heart surgery. We’re lifting Chuck up to you, Lord, and asking you to pour out healing and to guide the surgeons as they work on his heart. Pastor Gene called saying that she has had chronic pain for quite a while, but may have finally discovered a reason and possibly a treatment for the chronic pain, so we’re lifting that up to and asking that this be taken care of, one less thing that she will have to worry about. Shelly from Missouri asked for prayers for her granddaughter who is 10 and hospitalized with severe mental issues. It seems almost even as if something has possessed her, taken over her and is just affecting her mind and causing her to not act as she should, so we’re asking you for a miracle to be poured out upon this little girl for her to be restored to her family. There was a woman who called. Her son had hit his head and was having trouble remembering things. We’re asking for healing of that. Homeward Bound called. Prayer for Vickie’s husband Paul who was in the head-on collision. He is in critical but stable condition. We are lifting up a big praise but a small praise, obviously, where we want him to be healed from this terrible collision, but there was no brain or spinal injury and we’re lifting that up to you, Lord, so hopefully he can heal and get back to normal. That is what I have today, family. Thank you for praying with me. I love you. Goodbye.
Hi family. This is Sandy in New Hampshire again. I’m totally embarrassed and red-faced. I was trying to go back and fix this. Oh, okay. It didn’t work, but I want to reach out to people that are in pain and people who are in painful situations and people who are on the verge of giving up. You have a hard something in front of you that is like a stone, but if you could realize that before God it is just a little grain of sand. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Remember the reason for the season is Jesus. Jesus is all those good things that people are trying to fill under Christmas trees and Jesus wants to fill everything in our hearts for good, so I want us to just realize that there is peace and rest in his presence and my prayer is that God will fill us with his presence so that the gifts we give of his presence is impactful. I’m praying for people who are in tight spots, who just don’t know which way to go. I’ve heard people that just break my heart. The grandma who can’t go to somebody’s house because of drinking. Grandma, your presence is needed there. Don’t not go to Christmas because of the mess. Go and be that light for your grandkids. And love on them. Love on them. I want you to know I’m praying for you. God bless you. It is just one week until the presence of Jesus is revealed, to the Lord in our celebrations. May we reflect.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Dorothy calling and on my heart all week has been the word reconciliation and I know at this time of year we think about this. There are so many people that come to mind, those we have hurt, those who have hurt us, and maybe justly or unjustly, things that were said or done. Maybe it was imagined and maybe it was real, but God knows all those things and to the degree that it depends on us, I pray that we would reach out to those, even if it is hard, because God did this for us and this is the scripture that God gave me today. Therefore anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God would reconcile the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them as he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. So at this time of the year when we think about loved ones and it is so hard sometimes to reach out, I just pray that we would. And I hear your prayers and I pray for you all every day and I pray God’s blessing upon all of you and a very Merry Christmas. Amen. Bye family. Love you.