November 2017 – Page 5 – A Walk Through The Word

November 11, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday November 11, 2017 (NIV)

Ezekiel 23

The Adultery of Two Sisters

23 This message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, once there were two sisters who were daughters of the same mother. ³They became prostitutes in Egypt. Even as young girls, they allowed men to fondle their breasts. ⁴The older girl was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. I married them, and they bore me sons and daughters. I am speaking of Samaria and Jerusalem, for Oholah is Samaria and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵“Then Oholah lusted after other lovers instead of me, and she gave her love to the Assyrian officers. ⁶They were all attractive young men, captains and commanders dressed in handsome blue, charioteers driving their horses. ⁷And so she prostituted herself with the most desirable men of Assyria, worshiping their idols^[a] and defiling herself. ⁸For when she left Egypt, she did not leave her spirit of prostitution behind. She was still as lewd as in her youth, when the Egyptians slept with her, fondled her breasts, and used her as a prostitute.

⁹“And so I handed her over to her Assyrian lovers, whom she desired so much. ¹⁰They stripped her, took away her children as their slaves, and then killed her. After she received her punishment, her reputation was known to every woman in the land.

¹¹“Yet even though Oholibah saw what had happened to Oholah, her sister, she followed right in her footsteps. And she was even more depraved, abandoning herself to her lust and prostitution. ¹²She fawned over all the Assyrian officers—those captains and commanders in handsome uniforms, those charioteers driving their horses—all of them attractive young men. ¹³I saw the way she was going, defiling herself just like her older sister.

¹⁴“Then she carried her prostitution even further. She fell in love with pictures that were painted on a wall—pictures of Babylonian^[b] military officers, outfitted in striking red uniforms. ¹⁵Handsome belts encircled their waists, and flowing turbans crowned their heads. They were dressed like chariot officers from the land of Babylonia.^[c] ¹⁶When she saw these paintings, she longed to give herself to them, so she sent messengers to Babylonia to invite them to come to her. ¹⁷So they came and committed adultery with her, defiling her in the bed of love. After being defiled, however, she rejected them in disgust.

¹⁸“In the same way, I became disgusted with Oholibah and rejected her, just as I had rejected her sister, because she flaunted herself before them and gave herself to satisfy their lusts. ¹⁹Yet she turned to even greater prostitution, remembering her youth when she was a prostitute in Egypt. ²⁰She lusted after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey’s and emissions like those of a horse. ²¹And so, Oholibah, you relived your former days as a young girl in Egypt, when you first allowed your breasts to be fondled.

The Lord’s Judgment of Oholibah

²²“Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will send your lovers against you from every direction—those very nations from which you turned away in disgust. ²³For the Babylonians will come with all the Chaldeans from Pekod and Shoa and Koa. And all the Assyrians will come with them—handsome young captains, commanders, chariot officers, and other high-ranking officers, all riding their horses. ²⁴They will all come against you from the north^[d] with chariots, wagons, and a great army prepared for attack. They will take up positions on every side, surrounding you with men armed with shields and helmets. And I will hand you over to them for punishment so they can do with you as they please. ²⁵I will turn my jealous anger against you, and they will deal harshly with you. They will cut off your nose and ears, and any survivors will then be slaughtered by the sword. Your children will be taken away as captives, and everything that is left will be burned. ²⁶They will strip you of your beautiful clothes and jewels. ²⁷In this way, I will put a stop to the lewdness and prostitution you brought from Egypt. You will never again cast longing eyes on those things or fondly remember your time in Egypt.

²⁸“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will surely hand you over to your enemies, to those you loathe, those you rejected. ²⁹They will treat you with hatred and rob you of all you own, leaving you stark naked. The shame of your prostitution will be exposed to all the world. ³⁰You brought all this on yourself by prostituting yourself to other nations, defiling yourself with all their idols. ³¹Because you have followed in your sister’s footsteps, I will force you to drink the same cup of terror she drank.

³²“Yes, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“You will drink from your sister’s cup of terror,
a cup that is large and deep.
It is filled to the brim
with scorn and derision.
³³Drunkenness and anguish will fill you,
for your cup is filled to the brim with distress and desolation,
the same cup your sister Samaria drank.
³⁴You will drain that cup of terror
to the very bottom.
Then you will smash it to pieces
and beat your breast in anguish.
I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!

³⁵“And because you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You must bear the consequences of all your lewdness and prostitution.”

The Lord’s Judgment on Both Sisters

³⁶The Lord said to me, “Son of man, you must accuse Oholah and Oholibah of all their detestable sins. ³⁷They have committed both adultery and murder—adultery by worshiping idols and murder by burning as sacrifices the children they bore to me. ³⁸Furthermore, they have defiled my Temple and violated my Sabbath day! ³⁹On the very day that they sacrificed their children to their idols, they boldly came into my Temple to worship! They came in and defiled my house.

⁴⁰“You sisters sent messengers to distant lands to get men. Then when they arrived, you bathed yourselves, painted your eyelids, and put on your finest jewels for them. ⁴¹You sat with them on a beautifully embroidered couch and put my incense and my special oil on a table that was spread before you. ⁴²From your room came the sound of many men carousing. They were lustful men and drunkards^[e] from the wilderness, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your heads. ⁴³Then I said, ‘If they really want to have sex with old worn-out prostitutes like these, let them!’ ⁴⁴And that is what they did. They had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, these shameless prostitutes. ⁴⁵But righteous people will judge these sister cities for what they really are—adulterers and murderers.

⁴⁶“Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Bring an army against them and hand them over to be terrorized and plundered. ⁴⁷For their enemies will stone them and kill them with swords. They will butcher their sons and daughters and burn their homes. ⁴⁸In this way, I will put an end to lewdness and idolatry in the land, and my judgment will be a warning to all women not to follow your wicked example. ⁴⁹You will be fully repaid for all your prostitution—your worship of idols. Yes, you will suffer the full penalty. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

Footnotes:

23:7 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung; also in 23:30, 37, 39, 49.
23:14 Or Chaldean.
23:15 Or Chaldea; also in 23:16.
23:24 As in Greek version; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
23:42 Or Sabeans.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Hebrews 10:18-39

¹⁸And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁹And so, dear brothers and sisters,^[a] we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ²⁰By his death,^[b] Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. ²¹And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, ²²let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

²³Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

²⁶Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. ²⁷There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. ²⁸For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. ³⁰For we know the one who said,

“I will take revenge.
I will pay them back.”^[c]

He also said,

“The Lord will judge his own people.”^[d]

³¹It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³²Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.^[e] Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. ³³Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. ³⁴You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

³⁵So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

³⁷“For in just a little while,
the Coming One will come and not delay.
³⁸And my righteous ones will live by faith.^[f]
But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”^[g]

³⁹But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

Footnotes:

10:19 Greek brothers.
10:20 Greek Through his flesh.
10:30a Deut 32:35.
10:30b Deut 32:36.
10:32 Greek when you were first enlightened.
10:38 Or my righteous ones will live by their faithfulness; Greek reads my righteous one will live by faith.
10:37-38 Hab 2:3-4.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 109

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹O God, whom I praise,
don’t stand silent and aloof
²while the wicked slander me
and tell lies about me.
³They surround me with hateful words
and fight against me for no reason.
⁴I love them, but they try to destroy me with accusations
even as I am praying for them!
⁵They repay evil for good,
and hatred for my love.

⁶They say,^[a] “Get an evil person to turn against him.
Send an accuser to bring him to trial.
⁷When his case comes up for judgment,
let him be pronounced guilty.
Count his prayers as sins.
⁸Let his years be few;
let someone else take his position.
⁹May his children become fatherless,
and his wife a widow.
¹⁰May his children wander as beggars
and be driven from^[b] their ruined homes.
¹¹May creditors seize his entire estate,
and strangers take all he has earned.
¹²Let no one be kind to him;
let no one pity his fatherless children.
¹³May all his offspring die.
May his family name be blotted out in the next generation.
¹⁴May the Lord never forget the sins of his fathers;
may his mother’s sins never be erased from the record.
¹⁵May the Lord always remember these sins,
and may his name disappear from human memory.
¹⁶For he refused all kindness to others;
he persecuted the poor and needy,
and he hounded the brokenhearted to death.
¹⁷He loved to curse others;
now you curse him.
He never blessed others;
now don’t you bless him.
¹⁸Cursing is as natural to him as his clothing,
or the water he drinks,
or the rich food he eats.
¹⁹Now may his curses return and cling to him like clothing;
may they be tied around him like a belt.”

²⁰May those curses become the Lord’s punishment
for my accusers who speak evil of me.
²¹But deal well with me, O Sovereign Lord,
for the sake of your own reputation!
Rescue me
because you are so faithful and good.
²²For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is full of pain.
²³I am fading like a shadow at dusk;
I am brushed off like a locust.
²⁴My knees are weak from fasting,
and I am skin and bones.
²⁵I am a joke to people everywhere;
when they see me, they shake their heads in scorn.

²⁶Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me because of your unfailing love.
²⁷Let them see that this is your doing,
that you yourself have done it, Lord.
²⁸Then let them curse me if they like,
but you will bless me!
When they attack me, they will be disgraced!
But I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing!
²⁹May my accusers be clothed with disgrace;
may their humiliation cover them like a cloak.
³⁰But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord,
praising him to everyone.
³¹For he stands beside the needy,
ready to save them from those who condemn them.

Footnotes:

109:6 Hebrew lacks They say.
109:10 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads and seek.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 27:13

¹³Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.^[a]

Footnotes:

27:13 As in Greek and Latin versions (see also 20:16); Hebrew reads for a promiscuous woman.

New Living Translation (NLT)

November 10, 2017

11/10/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 21:1-22:31; Hebrews 10:1-17; Psalms 108:1-13; Proverbs 27:12

Today is the 10th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. And both of those things are totally true. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in the adventure that we’re on through the Bible this year. And our journey leads us back into the book of Ezekiel and back into the book of Hebrews when we get to the New Testament. So, first, Ezekiel chapter 21 verse 1 through 22 verse 31. We’re reading from the New Living translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Hebrews today, things continue to unfold and blossom like a flower before us as the greater context materializes, the greater story emerges. It’s been emerging all along, but it’s like we’re at this vista now. And it’s disruptive because it’s a true paradigm shift and we’ve been talking about it all along, but it’s explicit. The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. On the other hand, Jesus came and His one sacrifice is for all time and sacrificial offerings are no longer required. We kind of talked about how this is like a paradigm shift. So, kind of, controversial and troubling on the one hand, but if it were true, what an utter relief it would be. And we talked about this yesterday. And today we see this is explicitly what’s being said. So, you have to imagine how Hebrew people, who had the Mosaic law baked into their culture, who were trying to live right in devout, would have difficulty embracing this because their whole lives have been taught a different way. And now they kind of to open up their eyes and wake up to something new that God is doing in the world and realize that their the first ones in. So, it’s not like this group mentality, where something is, over time, been brought into culture like we experience now in our faith. They’re, like, the first ones. So, this is a big step of faith forward. So, like, if someone came along and started saying, okay, all of you Gentile believers, you now need to practice animal sacrifice. God is doing a new thing and we’re going back to the old way. But it’s a new thing and you need to offer these sacrifices. Right? It would be hard for us to get our minds around in the same way that would be difficult for them to make that step forward, even though, even though this was supposed to happen, even though there was precedent for this new thing to come. All kinds of new things are coming down the pipe, just like they are now. And, so, we can see the tension in this that we don’t normally see without context because this is just a doctrinal statement about our faith. Like, we understand these things, that like, that Jesus was the sacrifice once and for all. His blood covers all sins for all time. We no longer need to sacrifice. Like, that’s the normal way of thinking. But if it weren’t. Right? We’d have to take some time to be able to move in that direction prayerfully. And yet, the writer of Hebrews is skilled enough to continually look back into the sacred Hebrew Scriptures. So, when we were talking about Melchizedek, we were talking about Psalm 110, but all throughout there’s these references back to prophetic utterances that are revealing that this is what’s happening and it’s happening right now. So, Psalm 40 is quoted today as a prophetic utterance supporting what they’re saying. Jeremiah chapter 31 is quoted today as a prophetic utterance to show - this is what’s happening. And for we, who are so far removed from this time, like, we can get the book of Romans and we get the book of Hebrews together and read them and go like, there, there’s the complete doctrine of the Christian faith. But what’s really going on historically is that Paul is out moving among the Gentiles, the gospel is spreading like wildfire among the Gentiles, the Jewish people, Hebrew people, are having a much more difficult time embracing this, and for the most part they’re not embracing this, but this letter to the Hebrews is intended to be circulated, and wrestled with, and talked about among those people. This is the document to those people to explain all of this in a very Hebrew centric context. So, it’s not just a book of theological understandings and doctrines. It’s a very missional letter, offering language to explain the good news to a people who had rejected Jesus at face value, but because of all that came afterward were considering. So, we have the book of Hebrews as the basis for so much Christian doctrine, but the story that kind of lingers here, behind the story, is the tension that arises when God begins to do a new thing. So, if we go back to the time when the book of Hebrews was written, God is doing a new thing and the writer of Hebrews is using the Scriptures to show how that works. And in the process, it’s setting aside old things. In this case, the whole sacrificial system. But God does new things when He chooses to do new things. And we see the ways in which we struggle to move forward as God does new things inside of us or around us or among us. And we’ll start telling each other our doctrine stories to explain away what God might be doing when it starts to mess with a little tidy box of theology. And all the sudden we become just like the Hebrew people that this was written to. And, so there’s attention in a disruption exposed there behind the story. So, ultimately, we have to learn to hold onto our theology and doctrine loosely and hold onto the Father and the guidance of his Holy Spirit tightly when believe God is beginning to do a new thing. And that is our prayer.

Prayer:

Father, like our brothers and sisters of old, we struggle. We try to put You in a box. We try to explain You in every way that we can. We try to make doctrine around it and these are our best efforts from finite minds and hearts to explain the infinite and Almighty. And yet, it is this infinite and Almighty Spirit that is within us, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. And, so, we live within that tension and that mystery. And often we’ll hang on to what we think that we know more tightly than we’ll hold onto You and we’ll trust what we think we know more than will trust You. And the same invitation given to the Hebrew people in the book of Hebrews at that time is still given to us - the opportunity to be in a personal, first-hand, first person relationship with You. And, so, what can we do but what we do most every day? Invite You. Come Holy Spirit. Well up within us. Spill out from us. Illuminate our path. Lead us into all truth. It is not information about You that we seek. It is to You, Your heart, Your essence, that we seek. And You have sought out the same thing in us from the moment of our birth – union, collaboration, relationship. So, come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And there has been a lot going on around here lately.

So, let’s talk about an update, a date, and a new resource announcement.

First, the update on the Global Campfire Initiative. So, almost a week ago now, we deployed the first beta version of the new app to 500 people that were part of the Global Campfire Initiative. And that feedback has been invaluable. Throwing this out into the wild, even a limited wild, out into the world of multiple phones and platforms has been really helpful. So, those of you who are participating have helped us identify a couple of really key things and those are being worked on as we speak. And we’ll be pushing out an update, but you’ll be getting an email, but we’ll be pushing out an update as soon as we can, fairly shortly. And our goal is to kind of get this into the wide open world so everybody, anybody, can listen by mid-December. So, thank you, everyone, everyone. Thank you for your prayers as we keep taking steps forward and moving toward this.

And then the date, the date is November 19^th. And it will be the last travel date for us for the year as we move around the country and speak the Sneezing Jesus message. We’ll be in Louisiana, in the Shreveport area, Bossier City, at River Valley church and that will be Sunday the 19^th of November. So, you can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com. And if you’re in the area, love nothing more than to see your face and hug your neck. And, so, come, say hello.

And then the resource announcement [clapping and rubbing hands], that’s me clapping my hands and rubbing them together because I’m excited about this. So, several years ago, I mean we’ve been doing coffee, our own Windfarm coffee, for many, many years. And several years ago, I was on a quest to find the best possible thing I could find to drink my coffee out of and I ended up finding it in Oregon at a local coffee roaster. And, so, I bought this tumbler, kind of mug thermosee thing. Abd I wasn’t sure, it was kind of expensive, I wasn’t sure, but I bought it and then it became a favorite thing because it would keep my coffee, like I could pour a cup coffee early in the morning and still have hot coffee at lunchtime. And so, I looked at the brand. The brand was Clean Canteen. And I was like, oh, I know this brand, like, I see this brand around. And just started wondering, can we do this? And, so, a couple years ago, called Clean Canteen and yup, we could do this, and we made our first batch of Clean Canteen’s and offered them and they were gone in like two days. But because they’re kind of expensive to get and we don’t hold onto inventory like that, we didn’t have them again for a while. And then we got them again later in the year and then they were gone in two days. So, we get them a couple of times a year. And that’s the point. And, so, we got them earlier this year and they were gone, like usual. And now we’re getting to the end of the year and we have them back, but, but these are a little different. We’ve created a special edition. So, in the past, we’ve used the silver, the food grade stainless steel that these are made out of, they are double-walled and insulated. So, we’ve always kept that stainless look with the Daily Audio Bible logo imprinted on the side. This special edition Clean Canteen is a beautiful deep red color. Roasted pepper is the name of the color, which is one of the primary colors that we use a Daily Audio Bible. So, it’s this roasted pepper color with the Daily Audio Bible logo in white. And it’s a gorgeous. I’m literally looking at it right now. Like, I always have my coffee to my left every time I’m doing the Daily Audio Bible and I’ve been drinking out of this new one and I love it. It’s got their 2.0 version of their café lid so that it’s much more spill proof than in the past and it just works. It is the it’s best thing I found to drink out of. It will keep your coffee hot for like six hours. It’ll keep your, like, your iced tea cold for like 24 hours. I’ve actually tested that. I put ice water in mine before and come back a day later, 24 hours later and there was still ice in it. So, anyway, we have these. They are in stock on the Daily Audio Bible shop. This is a special edition and when they’re gone they’re gone. And we won’t be getting anymore Clean Canteens until next year. So, those of you who been writing in and saying when are you going to have them, I want to get some for gifts for Christmas, this your chance. And those of you who have just been waiting for them to be back in stock for yourself, they are in stock right now but they won’t last but a couple of days. So, you can check them out and see what they look like at dailyaudiobible.com in the shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link, it’s on the homepage. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill, TN 37174.

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.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi this is Elaine from Victoria. I love you so much Daily Audio Bible. And God is so faithful. First of all, I want to thank God for all my Christian brothers and sisters that are with the Daily Audio Bible. And this is what really caught me at church yesterday. In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. This is from Jonah 2:2. And he did answer. He gave me Ephesians 6, putting on the full armor of God. He stands when the enemy attacks. And Ephesians 6:10, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power put on the full armor of God so that you can take a stand against the devil’s schemes. So, Daily Audio Bible Family, we are covered. We are covered by the blood of the Lamb. God bless you, all of you. I love you. I thank you for your prayers. Thank you, Brian for your love of family, God’s family. And Praise You Jesus for this. In Jesus precious and Holy name, cover all my Daily Audio Bible family. Amen.

Hi this is Tony and I am calling because today is my one year anniversary and I didn’t know exactly when it was until I heard the reading today, November 6^th. Basically, Ezekiel 16. And it resonates with me so much. And that is because I feel that I am attacked a lot. And those of you who are walking closely with the Lord know. And when we are walking with Him and trying to, you know, be that light, we are going to encounter a counter force, a negative counterforce. So…that’s…I know what this is about. And, so, I know also too, when we do it well then we will also find joy amidst the suffering. So, I just say that just to encourage people on. I just wanted to call…today is my anniversary. The other thing is, I think I have a name, and it’s Facilitator. I think I’m a facilitator for the Lord for health, primarily in mind, body, and soul. The other thing is, I’m praying for people, but I wanted to call out Rayna in California with fibromyalgia. There is hope. And I’m going to tell you’ve got health. You may email me if you wish at toni.m.08@gmail.com…and I can give you…but there is hope. I know people whose pain has gone away. So, God bless everyone. And Brian, we will be supporting you with…growing that 2% number…and supporting the enterprise…the global enterprise. Bye-bye.

When the Jews went into exile someone left the tended lamb
They mingled with the Canaanites and that went against God’s plan
The other Jews looked down on them and despised them very much
They even called them filthy dogs who were unworthy of Your touch
These people were called Samaritans, they were ostracized and kept away
In much the way the Ku Klux Klan treats all nonwhites today
Can you imagine telling the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan the parable about the good black man
things would quickly deteriorate, you’d have a situation out of hand
But Jesus is the master and when He tells it, it gets told
Even in the things you don’t want to hear would be worth their weight in gold
There’s the legal and the illegal
There’s honor and there are thieves
Some are Godly and are moral but a true minister believes what’s thine is mine and what’s mine is thine
In Jesus’ parable both are clearly there
But people in His ministry should always make time to care
Robbers by the wayside
Robbers in the church
Begging in the name of God
Like vultures on a perch
Caveat emptor
let the buyer be ware
The IRS and con men too
Thieves are everywhere
Fleeced like sheep and tossed about, Gods people need to know
That the ones you think who will help you most are the first to tell you no
Pious and self-righteous, too good to soil their hands
But once they’ve seen light from the ditch they’ll clearly see God’s plans
We need to be good neighbors and help those who are in need
Freely giving of ourselves, true ministers in deed
And not be so caught up in our own rituals that our lives contain no power
To bind the wounds of those in need which should be our finest hour
Jesus loves all the same
He plainly made that true
His life He gave as a sacrifice
A pattern for me and you

Hello my DAB family this is Mark S. from Sydney Australia. Today’s Tuesday the 7^th of November and I’m calling in for a praise report and prayer request. The praise report is that this family is so wonderful. There’s quite a few members in Sydney…if there’s more members in Sydney…and Chris in the background had organized myself and Ruby get together, which we got together a few weeks ago and we were able to talk about the DAB and talk about the Christian life. And the other prayer request I was going to put in was, Ruby’s been sick. She’s been in the hospital. And she’s come out. She’s still in pain. So, family if you could kindly pray for her that she fully recovers. And she did give me permission to talk to other DAB people about it. And can you also pray, she’s a wonderful Christian lady, and pray that she can find a lovely Christian man for herself. She’s a young, lovely, Christian lady and she’s trying to find the right Christian man. So, let’s keep praying for her for recovery and for her to find a love partner with God. Alright. Thank you. Bye-bye. Love Mark S. from Sydney Australia. Bye.

November 10, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday November 10, 2017 (NIV)

Ezekiel 21-22

The Lord’s Sword of Judgment

21 ^[a]Then this message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, turn and face Jerusalem and prophesy against Israel and her sanctuaries. ³Tell her, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am your enemy, O Israel, and I am about to unsheath my sword to destroy your people—the righteous and the wicked alike. ⁴Yes, I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked! I will draw my sword against everyone in the land from south to north. ⁵Everyone in the world will know that I am the Lord. My sword is in my hand, and it will not return to its sheath until its work is finished.’

⁶“Son of man, groan before the people! Groan before them with bitter anguish and a broken heart. ⁷When they ask why you are groaning, tell them, ‘I groan because of the terrifying news I have heard. When it comes true, the boldest heart will melt with fear; all strength will disappear. Every spirit will faint; strong knees will become as weak as water. And the Sovereign Lord says: It is coming! It’s on its way!’”

⁸Then the Lord said to me, ⁹“Son of man, give the people this message from the Lord:

“A sword, a sword
is being sharpened and polished.
¹⁰It is sharpened for terrible slaughter
and polished to flash like lightning!
Now will you laugh?
Those far stronger than you have fallen beneath its power!^[b]
¹¹Yes, the sword is now being sharpened and polished;
it is being prepared for the executioner.

¹²“Son of man, cry out and wail;
pound your thighs in anguish,
for that sword will slaughter my people and their leaders—
everyone will die!
¹³It will put them all to the test.
What chance do they have?^[c]
says the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁴“Son of man, prophesy to them
and clap your hands.
Then take the sword and brandish it twice,
even three times,
to symbolize the great massacre,
the great massacre facing them on every side.
¹⁵Let their hearts melt with terror,
for the sword glitters at every gate.
It flashes like lightning
and is polished for slaughter!
¹⁶O sword, slash to the right,
then slash to the left,
wherever you will,
wherever you want.
¹⁷I, too, will clap my hands,
and I will satisfy my fury.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Omens for Babylon’s King

¹⁸Then this message came to me from the Lord: ¹⁹“Son of man, make a map and trace two routes on it for the sword of Babylon’s king to follow. Put a signpost on the road that comes out of Babylon where the road forks into two— ²⁰one road going to Ammon and its capital, Rabbah, and the other to Judah and fortified Jerusalem. ²¹The king of Babylon now stands at the fork, uncertain whether to attack Jerusalem or Rabbah. He calls his magicians to look for omens. They cast lots by shaking arrows from the quiver. They inspect the livers of animal sacrifices. ²²The omen in his right hand says, ‘Jerusalem!’ With battering rams his soldiers will go against the gates, shouting for the kill. They will put up siege towers and build ramps against the walls. ²³The people of Jerusalem will think it is a false omen, because of their treaty with the Babylonians. But the king of Babylon will remind the people of their rebellion. Then he will attack and capture them.

²⁴“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Again and again you remind me of your sin and your guilt. You don’t even try to hide it! In everything you do, your sins are obvious for all to see. So now the time of your punishment has come!

²⁵“O you corrupt and wicked prince of Israel, your final day of reckoning is here! ²⁶This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“Take off your jeweled crown,
for the old order changes.
Now the lowly will be exalted,
and the mighty will be brought down.
²⁷Destruction! Destruction!
I will surely destroy the kingdom.
And it will not be restored until the one appears
who has the right to judge it.
Then I will hand it over to him.

A Message for the Ammonites

²⁸“And now, son of man, prophesy concerning the Ammonites and their mockery. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord:

“A sword, a sword
is drawn for your slaughter.
It is polished to destroy,
flashing like lightning!
²⁹Your prophets have given false visions,
and your fortune-tellers have told lies.
The sword will fall on the necks of the wicked
for whom the day of final reckoning has come.

³⁰“Now return the sword to its sheath,
for in your own country,
the land of your birth,
I will pass judgment upon you.
³¹I will pour out my fury on you
and blow on you with the fire of my anger.
I will hand you over to cruel men
who are skilled in destruction.
³²You will be fuel for the fire,
and your blood will be spilled in your own land.
You will be utterly wiped out,
your memory lost to history,
for I, the Lord, have spoken!”

The Sins of Jerusalem

22 Now this message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, are you ready to judge Jerusalem? Are you ready to judge this city of murderers? Publicly denounce her detestable sins, ³and give her this message from the Sovereign Lord: O city of murderers, doomed and damned—city of idols,^[d] filthy and foul— ⁴you are guilty because of the blood you have shed. You are defiled because of the idols you have made. Your day of destruction has come! You have reached the end of your years. I will make you an object of mockery throughout the world. ⁵O infamous city, filled with confusion, you will be mocked by people far and near.

⁶“Every leader in Israel who lives within your walls is bent on murder. ⁷Fathers and mothers are treated with contempt. Foreigners are forced to pay for protection. Orphans and widows are wronged and oppressed among you. ⁸You despise my holy things and violate my Sabbath days of rest. ⁹People accuse others falsely and send them to their death. You are filled with idol worshipers and people who do obscene things. ¹⁰Men sleep with their fathers’ wives and force themselves on women who are menstruating. ¹¹Within your walls live men who commit adultery with their neighbors’ wives, who defile their daughters-in-law, or who rape their own sisters. ¹²There are hired murderers, loan racketeers, and extortioners everywhere. They never even think of me and my commands, says the Sovereign Lord.

¹³“But now I clap my hands in indignation over your dishonest gain and bloodshed. ¹⁴How strong and courageous will you be in my day of reckoning? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I said. ¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations and purge you of your wickedness. ¹⁶And when I have been dishonored among the nations because of you,^[e] you will know that I am the Lord.”

The Lord’s Refining Furnace

¹⁷Then this message came to me from the Lord: ¹⁸“Son of man, the people of Israel are the worthless slag that remains after silver is smelted. They are the dross that is left over—a useless mixture of copper, tin, iron, and lead. ¹⁹So tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you are all worthless slag, I will bring you to my crucible in Jerusalem. ²⁰Just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are melted down in a furnace, I will melt you down in the heat of my fury. ²¹I will gather you together and blow the fire of my anger upon you, ²²and you will melt like silver in fierce heat. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my fury on you.’”

The Sins of Israel’s Leaders

²³Again a message came to me from the Lord: ²⁴“Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: In the day of my indignation, you will be like a polluted land, a land without rain. ²⁵Your princes^[f] plot conspiracies just as lions stalk their prey. They devour innocent people, seizing treasures and extorting wealth. They make many widows in the land. ²⁶Your priests have violated my instructions and defiled my holy things. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my Sabbath days so that I am dishonored among them. ²⁷Your leaders are like wolves who tear apart their victims. They actually destroy people’s lives for money! ²⁸And your prophets cover up for them by announcing false visions and making lying predictions. They say, ‘My message is from the Sovereign Lord,’ when the Lord hasn’t spoken a single word to them. ²⁹Even common people oppress the poor, rob the needy, and deprive foreigners of justice.

³⁰“I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one. ³¹So now I will pour out my fury on them, consuming them with the fire of my anger. I will heap on their heads the full penalty for all their sins. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Footnotes:

21:1 Verses 21:1-32 are numbered 21:6-37 in Hebrew text.
21:10 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
21:13 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
22:3 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung; also in 22:4.
22:16 As in one Hebrew manuscript and Greek and Syriac versions; Masoretic Text reads when you have been dishonored among the nations.
22:25 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads prophets.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Hebrews 10:1-17

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. ²If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

³But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. ⁴For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵That is why, when Christ^[a] came into the world, he said to God,

“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.
But you have given me a body to offer.
⁶You were not pleased with burnt offerings
or other offerings for sin.
⁷Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—
as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”^[b]

⁸First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses). ⁹Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. ¹⁰For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

¹¹Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. ¹²But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹³There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

¹⁶“This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day,^[c] says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”^[d]

¹⁷Then he says,

“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.”^[e]

Footnotes:

10:5 Greek he; also in 10:8.
10:5-7 Ps 40:6-8 (Greek version).
10:16a Greek after those days.
10:16b Jer 31:33a.
10:17 Jer 31:34b.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 108

A song. A psalm of David.

¹My heart is confident in you, O God;
no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
²Wake up, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn with my song.
³I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
⁴For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
⁵Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
May your glory shine over all the earth.

⁶Now rescue your beloved people.
Answer and save us by your power.
⁷God has promised this by his holiness^[a]:
“I will divide up Shechem with joy.
I will measure out the valley of Succoth.
⁸Gilead is mine,
and Manasseh, too.
Ephraim, my helmet, will produce my warriors,
and Judah, my scepter, will produce my kings.
⁹But Moab, my washbasin, will become my servant,
and I will wipe my feet on Edom
and shout in triumph over Philistia.”

¹⁰Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me victory over Edom?
¹¹Have you rejected us, O God?
Will you no longer march with our armies?
¹²Oh, please help us against our enemies,
for all human help is useless.
¹³With God’s help we will do mighty things,
for he will trample down our foes.

Footnotes:

108:7 Or in his sanctuary.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 27:12

¹²A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

New Living Translation (NLT)

November 9, 2017

11/9/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 20:1-49; Hebrews 9:11-28; Psalms 107:1-43; Proverbs 27:11

Today is the ninth day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today, and for that matter, every day, as we continue to take these steps forward through the Scriptures. And right now we’re working our way through the book of Ezekiel and in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews, and we’ve been talking about that along the way. Today, reading from the New Living translation. Ezekiel 20:1-49.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s talk about Hebrews for a second. And just by way of reminder, Hebrews was written to Hebrews. So, Jewish people. And Hebrews is building and making the argument for Jesus in the Hebrew context. So, all this talk about tabernacles in heaven and high priests and all this stuff…Melchizedek…all this stuff that we talked about so far is within a Jewish context. We, most of us who are not Hebrews, who are not Jewish, but are rather Gentile believers have a bit of an understanding about this because we read the Old Testament. So, we see how this culture developed, where it came from, how it flourished, how it didn’t flourish. And, so, we can navigate this to a great degree, but not the same as if it had been embedded into our culture and we’ve only ever known this, like, it’s how it is. Kind of like how you could move to another country and learn the language and even live there for a decade only to realize all of the unspoken things that are just woven into the culture. So, Hebrews is speaking in a way that’s very clear that the people who are reading this. It’s all interwoven into their culture. And the argument that Jesus is the final high priest from a Jewish perspective is being made. And that all of the rituals and customs that they have in their culture are good but there copies of what’s actually in heaven, perfectly. And this plays into their thought and culture. This isn’t something that’s completely unexpected for them. And Hebrews is just simply trying to say, here’s how we missed this. Jesus blood is the final sacrifice and He poured it out before God once and for all as our eternal High Priest in the perfect place where it cannot be tarnished or ruined or destroyed. And this once and for all language is a big deal because, in terms of sacrifice, this is an ongoing thing. So, the writer of Hebrews is saying, it’s fulfilled once and for all. Like, Jesus doesn’t have to keep dying over and over, following the pattern that we’ve been following all of these years. It’s accomplished. It’s finished, which is what Jesus said as His last words from the cross. So, Hebrews says, ‘but now, once for all time, He has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by His own death as a sacrifice’, which is a pretty sizable paradigm shift if you are at this time and a Hebrew. So, far into the future, and is mostly Gentiles, like, we know this stuff theologically, but can’t always access how good of news this is because we’ve never had to jump to those hoops and do those rituals and have those sacrifices. But the writer of Hebrews is saying, once and for all it’s taken care of, we don’t have to do that anymore. So, on the one hand you can see how difficult it would be for them to get their minds around that they don’t have to do this anymore, from a religious tradition perspective. And on the other hand, you can see what a relief, what a relief it would be if that were true. I can’t think of a good example because we’re talking about the blood of Christ. So, like, there’s nothing that’s going to be that big in our lives. But it’s like, you know, for your entire adulthood, you’ve probably had to do your laundry. Right? If you don’t do your laundry and you don’t have enough money to wear something brand-new every time you put on clothes, then your dirty laundry is going to pile up and you going to start wearing dirty clothes. But doing the laundry is something that you hate doing. You just have to do it. And somebody comes along and is able to say, once and for all, you don’t have to do that anymore. Well, that would be a big relief. So, that’s not like a great example, but at least it gets us into the right headspace. And that headspace is, it’s done. Sin is dealt with. It’s not supposed to be a part of our story anymore and it doesn’t have to be a part of our story. The sacrifice has been made once and for all before God and Jesus is now this is eternal high priest advocating for us before God and presiding over this new covenant on our behalf. What a relief the good news of the gospel is. Let’s not forget it.

Prayer:

Father, we remember. And in understanding further context, we see how big this is, how good this is, how unstoppable this is. The only thing that can stop it is we, ourselves, choosing otherwise. And we have the entire story in the Old Testament, especially these books of prophecy that we’re reading now, to see where those other paths lead. We can certainly walk away and we will certainly reap what we sow. But that’s not what we’re going to do and that’s what we’re doing. We’re running toward You with a continual heart of repentance, knowing that You are fathering us, that You are teaching us and being merciful to us so that we can grow up and become mature sons and daughters in Your kingdom. So, we invite You Holy Spirit, as we contemplate today - ‘once and for all’ - and how big that is to our lives. Come Holy Spirit and continue to reveal this to us. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Looking at the calendar, I’ve been mentioning that we’ll be in Louisiana on the 19^th and that’s true. We’ll be in Bossier City, Louisiana at River Valley church on Sunday the 19^th of November. You can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the events section and we’ll look forward to seeing you. This will be our last travel date for the year. So, we’re looking forward to it.

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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.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hello, this is Rachel from Pennsylvania. I am calling for Jordan from Detroit ___. I called, probably around last year, just about, me and my last teaching job. I’m in another one now. I teach emotional support for 4^th through 6^th graders. So, those are kids who are…like…mentally ill. And I feel you Jordan. I have had …like…two major mental breaks in the past two weeks and…just…I’m really, really struggling to do this job well and to do it to the best of my ability and up to the standards that it needs to be held and really just doing anything right and what is right and how do you maintain that and how to be professional with everyone else around you while you’re just dying and in this hole and on this island in your workplace. So, I get it. I had a job last year which was just so hard on me and then I left it and now I’m at this job and its worse. It’s even worse than my last job. So, I really do get it Jordan. So, I pray for both us just to get the support we need and to have the lives that we deserve so that we truly can get rest from the Lord because I’m not getting any rest. I’m sure you’re not either. I’m running out of time. I’m praying for you. Bye.

Hi DABbers this is his little Sheri from Canada and I’m calling tonight to pray for anyone who has a sleeping problems – Insomnia, sleep apnea, nightmares - anything that prevents you from getting the rest you need at night. And I want to pray for this this morning because I was reading these verses this morning from Song of Psalms in chapter 3. ‘Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with mur and incense. Look, it is Solomon’s carriage escorted by 60 warriors, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, prepared for the terrors of the night’. And suddenly, when I read that I pictured our bridegroom king, Jesus, riding to our rescue with 60 warrior angels, the really big ones, the elite fighting force of heaven, who are experienced fighting the enemy and prepared for the terrors of the night, prepared for our terrors of the night. So, Lord Jesus, I thank You that You fight for us, that all the forces of darkness are no match for Your power. Dispatch Your angels, I pray, to minister to us tonight, to defeat every fear, ever pain, every messenger of evil that would rob us of rest. And, Lord, please give Your beloved sleep as You promised. I thank You for all that You’re doing to write what is wrong, to give us peace. As we lay our heads on our pillows tonight we sink down into trust. And we pray all these things in Your name. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible community. I should have called in before now. Today is November 6^th. My wife has been having really awful back pain for like 6 weeks and the doctors think she has some bulging discs, which doesn’t sound that bad, but in the grand scheme of things it’s really killing her and she can’t go to work and she can’t walk around. She can’t really do anything. Today we’re taking her for a procedure and I just got through praying to the Lord that that procedure would go well and that she would be able to heal and get back on her feet. So, now I am calling to you all and asking you to join me in prayer for her healing for my wife and that the procedure goes well. So, please, join me in prayer. Thank you. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible DABbers. This is Diane B. from Newburg, Indiana and I say shalom, shalom. It is Monday, November the 6^th 2017. I have Rayna in my heart every day. How ya doing in LA? And I’m praying and believing for you that God will show you the way and He will direct your steps and He will not let you stumble and He will not let you fall. I know you’re getting better. I know it. I know it. And it’s going to be glorious. And then also Rebecca, Rebecca, sewer of the Gospel, even at bars. I love you. You’re from Michigan. And Michigan is my home town too. So, Rebecca, I am praying for you, sewing your seeds of the Gospel. There’s power, resurrection power, in the gospel Rebecca, and you keep sewing your seeds, your gospel seeds. And I’m praying for the most glorious job that you can’t even think of, it’s so great. And I had to do that. I worked a third shift at a gas station and stayed at that job for 6 months and then I got my dream job. So, if it can happen to me it can happen to anybody. So, here you go Rebecca. Take your job. Just keep sewing your seeds, loving people. Here is shalom, shalom to all my beloved DABbers. Glory, glory, glory, glory, to God the glory, and we give all the glory to Jesus and tell…

November 9, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday November 9, 2017 (NIV)

Ezekiel 20

The Rebellion of Israel

20 On August 14,^[a] during the seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, some of the leaders of Israel came to request a message from the Lord. They sat down in front of me to wait for his reply. ²Then this message came to me from the Lord: ³“Son of man, tell the leaders of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: How dare you come to ask me for a message? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will tell you nothing!’

⁴“Son of man, bring charges against them and condemn them. Make them realize how detestable the sins of their ancestors really were. ⁵Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: When I chose Israel—when I revealed myself to the descendants of Jacob in Egypt—I took a solemn oath that I, the Lord, would be their God. ⁶I took a solemn oath that day that I would bring them out of Egypt to a land I had discovered and explored for them—a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the best of all lands anywhere. ⁷Then I said to them, ‘Each of you, get rid of the vile images you are so obsessed with. Do not defile yourselves with the idols^[b] of Egypt, for I am the Lord your God.’

⁸“But they rebelled against me and would not listen. They did not get rid of the vile images they were obsessed with, or forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I threatened to pour out my fury on them to satisfy my anger while they were still in Egypt. ⁹But I didn’t do it, for I acted to protect the honor of my name. I would not allow shame to be brought on my name among the surrounding nations who saw me reveal myself by bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. ¹⁰So I brought them out of Egypt and led them into the wilderness. ¹¹There I gave them my decrees and regulations so they could find life by keeping them. ¹²And I gave them my Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and me. It was to remind them that I am the Lord, who had set them apart to be holy.

¹³“But the people of Israel rebelled against me, and they refused to obey my decrees there in the wilderness. They wouldn’t obey my regulations even though obedience would have given them life. They also violated my Sabbath days. So I threatened to pour out my fury on them, and I made plans to utterly consume them in the wilderness. ¹⁴But again I held back in order to protect the honor of my name before the nations who had seen my power in bringing Israel out of Egypt. ¹⁵But I took a solemn oath against them in the wilderness. I swore I would not bring them into the land I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful place on earth. ¹⁶For they had rejected my regulations, refused to follow my decrees, and violated my Sabbath days. Their hearts were given to their idols. ¹⁷Nevertheless, I took pity on them and held back from destroying them in the wilderness.

¹⁸“Then I warned their children not to follow in their parents’ footsteps, defiling themselves with their idols. ¹⁹‘I am the Lord your God,’ I told them. ‘Follow my decrees, pay attention to my regulations, ²⁰and keep my Sabbath days holy, for they are a sign to remind you that I am the Lord your God.’

²¹“But their children, too, rebelled against me. They refused to keep my decrees and follow my regulations, even though obedience would have given them life. And they also violated my Sabbath days. So again I threatened to pour out my fury on them in the wilderness. ²²Nevertheless, I withdrew my judgment against them to protect the honor of my name before the nations that had seen my power in bringing them out of Egypt. ²³But I took a solemn oath against them in the wilderness. I swore I would scatter them among all the nations ²⁴because they did not obey my regulations. They scorned my decrees by violating my Sabbath days and longing for the idols of their ancestors. ²⁵I gave them over to worthless decrees and regulations that would not lead to life. ²⁶I let them pollute themselves^[c] with the very gifts I had given them, and I allowed them to give their firstborn children as offerings to their gods—so I might devastate them and remind them that I alone am the Lord.

Judgment and Restoration

²⁷“Therefore, son of man, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: Your ancestors continued to blaspheme and betray me, ²⁸for when I brought them into the land I had promised them, they offered sacrifices on every high hill and under every green tree they saw! They roused my fury as they offered up sacrifices to their gods. They brought their perfumes and incense and poured out their liquid offerings to them. ²⁹I said to them, ‘What is this high place where you are going?’ (This kind of pagan shrine has been called Bamah—‘high place’—ever since.)

³⁰“Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: Do you plan to pollute yourselves just as your ancestors did? Do you intend to keep prostituting yourselves by worshiping vile images? ³¹For when you offer gifts to them and give your little children to be burned as sacrifices,^[d] you continue to pollute yourselves with idols to this day. Should I allow you to ask for a message from me, O people of Israel? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will tell you nothing.

³²“You say, ‘We want to be like the nations all around us, who serve idols of wood and stone.’ But what you have in mind will never happen. ³³As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will rule over you with an iron fist in great anger and with awesome power. ³⁴And in anger I will reach out with my strong hand and powerful arm, and I will bring you back^[e] from the lands where you are scattered. ³⁵I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will judge you face to face. ³⁶I will judge you there just as I did your ancestors in the wilderness after bringing them out of Egypt, says the Sovereign Lord. ³⁷I will examine you carefully and hold you to the terms of the covenant. ³⁸I will purge you of all those who rebel and revolt against me. I will bring them out of the countries where they are in exile, but they will never enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

³⁹“As for you, O people of Israel, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Go right ahead and worship your idols, but sooner or later you will obey me and will stop bringing shame on my holy name by worshiping idols. ⁴⁰For on my holy mountain, the great mountain of Israel, says the Sovereign Lord, the people of Israel will someday worship me, and I will accept them. There I will require that you bring me all your offerings and choice gifts and sacrifices. ⁴¹When I bring you home from exile, you will be like a pleasing sacrifice to me. And I will display my holiness through you as all the nations watch. ⁴²Then when I have brought you home to the land I promised with a solemn oath to give to your ancestors, you will know that I am the Lord. ⁴³You will look back on all the ways you defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have done. ⁴⁴You will know that I am the Lord, O people of Israel, when I have honored my name by treating you mercifully in spite of your wickedness. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Judgment against the Negev

⁴⁵^[f]Then this message came to me from the Lord: ⁴⁶“Son of man, turn and face the south^[g] and speak out against it; prophesy against the brushlands of the Negev. ⁴⁷Tell the southern wilderness, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Hear the word of the Lord! I will set you on fire, and every tree, both green and dry, will be burned. The terrible flames will not be quenched and will scorch everything from south to north. ⁴⁸And everyone in the world will see that I, the Lord, have set this fire. It will not be put out.’”

⁴⁹Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, they are saying of me, ‘He only talks in riddles!’”

Footnotes:

20:1 Hebrew In the fifth month, on the tenth day, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was August 14, 591 B.c.; also see note on 1:1.
20:7 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung; also in 20:8, 16, 18, 24, 31, 39.
20:25-26 Or I gave them worthless decrees and regulations. . . . I polluted them.
20:31 Or and make your little children pass through the fire.
20:34 Greek version reads I will welcome you. Compare 2 Cor 6:17.
20:45 Verses 20:45-49 are numbered 21:1-5 in Hebrew text.
20:46 Hebrew toward Teman.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Hebrews 9:11-28

Christ Is the Perfect Sacrifice

¹¹So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come.^[a] He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. ¹²With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

¹³Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. ¹⁴Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds^[b] so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. ¹⁵That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

¹⁶Now when someone leaves a will,^[c] it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead.^[d] ¹⁷The will goes into effect only after the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect.

¹⁸That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an animal. ¹⁹For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats,^[e] along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool. ²⁰Then he said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.”^[f] ²¹And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship. ²²In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

²³That is why the Tabernacle and everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals.

²⁴For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. ²⁵And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. ²⁶If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age^[g] to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

²⁷And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, ²⁸so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

Footnotes:

9:11 Some manuscripts read that are about to come.
9:14 Greek from dead works.
9:16a Or covenant; also in 9:17.
9:16b Or Now when someone makes a covenant, it is necessary to ratify it with the death of a sacrifice.
9:19 Some manuscripts do not include and goats.
9:20 Exod 24:8.
9:26 Greek the ages.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 107

Book five (Psalms 107–150)

Psalm 107

¹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
²Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.
³For he has gathered the exiles from many lands,
from east and west,
from north and south.^[a]

⁴Some wandered in the wilderness,
lost and homeless.
⁵Hungry and thirsty,
they nearly died.
⁶“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he rescued them from their distress.
⁷He led them straight to safety,
to a city where they could live.
⁸Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
⁹For he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.

¹⁰Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom,
imprisoned in iron chains of misery.
¹¹They rebelled against the words of God,
scorning the counsel of the Most High.
¹²That is why he broke them with hard labor;
they fell, and no one was there to help them.
¹³“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
¹⁴He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom;
he snapped their chains.
¹⁵Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
¹⁶For he broke down their prison gates of bronze;
he cut apart their bars of iron.

¹⁷Some were fools; they rebelled
and suffered for their sins.
¹⁸They couldn’t stand the thought of food,
and they were knocking on death’s door.
¹⁹“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
²⁰He sent out his word and healed them,
snatching them from the door of death.
²¹Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
²²Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and sing joyfully about his glorious acts.

²³Some went off to sea in ships,
plying the trade routes of the world.
²⁴They, too, observed the Lord’s power in action,
his impressive works on the deepest seas.
²⁵He spoke, and the winds rose,
stirring up the waves.
²⁶Their ships were tossed to the heavens
and plunged again to the depths;
the sailors cringed in terror.
²⁷They reeled and staggered like drunkards
and were at their wits’ end.
²⁸“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
²⁹He calmed the storm to a whisper
and stilled the waves.
³⁰What a blessing was that stillness
as he brought them safely into harbor!
³¹Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
³²Let them exalt him publicly before the congregation
and before the leaders of the nation.

³³He changes rivers into deserts,
and springs of water into dry, thirsty land.
³⁴He turns the fruitful land into salty wastelands,
because of the wickedness of those who live there.
³⁵But he also turns deserts into pools of water,
the dry land into springs of water.
³⁶He brings the hungry to settle there
and to build their cities.
³⁷They sow their fields, plant their vineyards,
and harvest their bumper crops.
³⁸How he blesses them!
They raise large families there,
and their herds of livestock increase.

³⁹When they decrease in number and become impoverished
through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
⁴⁰the Lord pours contempt on their princes,
causing them to wander in trackless wastelands.
⁴¹But he rescues the poor from trouble
and increases their families like flocks of sheep.
⁴²The godly will see these things and be glad,
while the wicked are struck silent.
⁴³Those who are wise will take all this to heart;
they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.

Footnotes:

107:3 Hebrew and sea.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 27:11

¹¹Be wise, my child,^[a] and make my heart glad.
Then I will be able to answer my critics.

Footnotes:

27:11 Hebrew my son.

New Living Translation (NLT)

November 8, 2017

11/8/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 18:1-19:14; Hebrews 9:1-10; Psalms 106:32-48; Proverbs 27:10

Today is November 8. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today around the global campfire, this place that we can come in out of the cold and dark and warm ourselves, and illuminate our paths, and be together in community. I brought my coffee along, like I do every day, it’s right here to my left. And of course, I brought my microphone, or you wouldn’t be hearing me. And hopefully some of you brought stuff to make s’mores. So, let’s dive into what the Scriptures have for us today. We’re reading from the Good News translation this week. Today, Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 1 through 19 verse 14.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Ezekiel, we have an important distinction or clarification that further reveals God’s heart through this prophetic book. But let’s quickly work our way toward that. I’ve mentioned this before in other books of prophecy, there’s a lot of discussion about what’s going to happen and what’s going to happen is in good. And God is speaking very directly. So, it’s easy for us, you know, page after page, day after day of impending judgment, to begin to shift our hearts toward God as angry, vengeful and without much grace or mercy, which is where this widespread angry God idea comes from. But in all these prophecies the whole thing turns and God reveals why he feels so strongly about what he’s saying. And it becomes very clear that this isn’t just about Him waking up on the wrong side of the bed and being angry at people on earth and smiting them. He carefully reveals their culpability, which usually boils back to a covenantal relationship that has been broken. And within a covenantal relationship are terms and they are spelled out. So, if you enter into the covenant or contract of marriage or any other business contract or any kind of agreement, there’s going to be terms. They are the terms that you’re agreeing to so that it’s spelled out very plainly what will happen if that happens so that nobody is confused. And that’s a lot of what we see. But what we see is that God sends a prophetic voice of warning way in advance. So, like, we read the book of Jeremiah just recently and that covered the scope of decades of warnings and patience and trying to rectify the situation and pleading and inviting back and all of this. And we have to pay attention to that as we move through these prophecies because, not only are they warnings before hand, they are also promises after the fact. So, like, you’re breaking the covenant, if you continue to break the covenant then this is what’s going to happen, this is what you are leading yourself into. But if you are going to go ahead and continue that and destroy yourself then even after the fact I’m not going to forget you and there will come a day when it all will be restored again. And we need to remember this and see this as we move through these books of prophecy. But in today’s reading in the book of Ezekiel, God is highlighting personal culpability and responsibility, which is an important clarification because this society is largely made up of tribes, clans and families. And each family has a family leader and it’s an extended family, what we would think of as an extended family, not just like man and his wife and their kids. It’s usually a multigenerational thing and they all work together for the common good of the family. So, decisions are made and everyone falls in line and they work together as one. So, this is where things like the arrangement for a marriage or a bride price being paid, all of this kind of comes from that. So, like, if a woman is going to marry a man, she’s going to join his family and become a part of that family. And, so, the family that she’s leaving, her birth family, might be compensated for the loss of her presence and her work in the family. That’s just the tip of the iceberg but just an example to say, like, here’s kind of what we’re talking about, which leads us closer to this clarification, this distinction. So, the general way that these prophecies would’ve been read would’ve been family centric. So, for example, family leader A leads his family into bail worship, the family follows along and begins to worship bail because their leader made these decisions, and so everybody worships bail and they’re culpable before God for idol worship. And they’re all held responsible because of this family leader. So, they all face the same judgment, kind of like we saw in the book of Jeremiah with the story of Aiken, who did not obey God in the battle of Jericho and made his entire family guilty. Today, God clarifies personal responsibility. So, he says, ‘why do you quote the proverb concerning the land of Israel, that the parents have eaten the sour grapes but their children’s mouth pucker at the taste’. Which is just alluding to what we just talked about. So, in terms of what God is saying to the people, through Ezekiel, He responds - ‘As surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel, for all people are Mine to judge, both parents and children alike and this is My rule. The person who sins is the one who will die’. And then there are a number of examples of this, clarifying that each individual person is personally responsible for the covenantal relationship with God and each person will reap what they sow. Which leads us to God revealing His heart about all this. ‘Do you think’, God said, ‘that I like to see wicked people die, says the sovereign Lord? Of course not, I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live’. And there it is. There’s God’s posture of heart toward the people that he’s speaking to. And he goes on to say, ‘repent, turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you. Put all your rebellion behind you and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O people of Israel? I want you to die, says the sovereign Lord. Turn back and live’. And of course, we’ve all heard the word repent. Repentance is to change, to change what’s going on inside you, to change the way you’re looking at things, to go a different way. So, God is saying, look, each of you have this choice and this choice affects your destiny and I’m telling you flat out I want you to live and prosper. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. But this is a covenant and there are terms and if you want the benefits of the covenant, the benefits of Me being your God, then you will have to obey the covenant. I am obeying it. I expect you to be faithful and loyal to it as well, but the choice is yours. And that my friends, echoes its way across history and plops itself squarely in our own laps. You can’t blame God for what you have done but you can repent and come running home and the choice is yours.

Prayer:

Father, we allow that to sit in our laps. We sit with that. We invite Your Holy Spirit to reveal the ways that we’re breaking the covenant, that we’re being unfaithful to You. You use the word adultery and adulterer many times in these prophecies in order to explain what it feels like for You and what’s really happening. And, so, we don’t want any part of that. It’s leading nowhere but destruction. Come, Holy Spirit and show us the places that we’ve compromised ourselves, that we’re stepping out on You, that we’re cheating on You, and then blaming You for the repercussions of it. We’re sorry. We’re sorry that we’ve done this, we’re sorry that we do this. We invite Your Holy Spirit to correct us in this. We choose another way. We repent. We turn around and face You and come running back. Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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Looking at the calendar, the next time we will be out on the road, actually, the last time that we will be out on the road for the year will be November 19^th. So, just like a week and half from now. We’ll be in the Shreveport Louisiana area, Bossier City, bringing the Sneezing Jesus message at River Valley church. So, if you’re in the area be sure to come out. You can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com. Just go to the events section and maps and phone numbers and websites and like all that stuff are there. So, we’ll look forward to seeing you out on the road.

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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.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Wrapped in His Unfailing Love. I want to thank you all for all your and for ___. And…just…I am so blessed today to hear that Darryl, I don’t know why we so surprised when God answers our prayers. It’s just a wonderful, hallelujah. Lord, I want to pray for Jordan from Michigan today. I just heard your prayer request. I was reading today in my devotional. It says do not be afraid for I am close beside you, guarding and guiding all the way. So, I am always with you. You are often unaware of My presence. So Jordan, I know that you are being attacked by the enemy and right now, please family pray with me. Lord, I lift up our brother Jordan to You. He is being attacked by the spirit of anxiety and depression and right now, we just cast those terrible afflictions back down to hell where they are from. They are not meant for your people. And Lord, I pray that you would replace this with the fruit of Your Spirit in Jordan, which we already see that brings him…brings him to full fruition of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, Lord. Inundate Your servant Jordan with this. And every day, help him to put on the armor that will defeat the enemy and that he can stand his ground, that he would just put on the full armor of God, Lord, every day. Bless all our teachers, Lord, but especially Jordan. In Jesus…

This is Kim from Oklahoma and I’m calling today to hopefully bring some encouragement to Jordan from Michigan. I heard your message last year when you were a first year teacher and began to pray for you. And then I heard your message today. And I am not a teacher, but I have been an administrator at a small school for about 25 years. And I just wanted to you that one thing that we have seen over the years is that first year teachers have it really rough. And we have a Christian school, but it seems like that the students are critiquing that new teacher, parents are wanting to see what kind of teacher that they might be, and who you are, and what you stand for. And, so, I’m just calling to encourage you just to stand firm, that if you know that this is where God wants you, that you would remain steadfast, and just pray that God will help you to have good classroom management skills and to shine His light wherever you are. So, today I Pray for you Jordan. Dear Lord, I pray for Jordan. I pray that You would be his peace and his joy and that he may trust You like he’s never trusted You before during this trial, that he shine God’s light and be victorious in Christ. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is To be a Blessing from California. This morning, as I was listening to the community prayers from the 4^th of November, I was just struck by so many, so many people praying for all of us, and I’ve been praying as well. It’s just an honor to be able to know that I can participate in supporting you and the requests that you have for your family, and for friends, for yourself. I’m speaking specifically of Rayna, for Sharon the Victor, for Shannon and her challenges, for Shantay, for Lee of New Jersey, for Pam in New York, and Gloria, for so many others. Father God, without a doubt, we are so grateful to be Your children. We are so grateful for Your deep love for us, knowing that because of Jesus, your son, we are victorious. Because of Jesus, we have your peace. Because of Jesus, we have your fruits of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience - so many others, Lord. I ask in the name of Jesus, that each one who listens to call…who desires call…but doesn’t feel courageous enough…for those struggling with various aspects of their lives. I ask, Father, that by Your Holy Spirit, You would draw close to them, walk beside them, wrap them in Your arms, let them know how much You love them and experience Your presence through the joys of bringing to their attention, things only you would know about that would make him happy, that would let them know…

Hi everyone, this is Sheryl in Arizona. It’s been a while since I called. I’m calling tonight, it’s going on 7 o'clock my time, to just ask for prayer. My husband and I live in Arizona and we’ve been here, the second time since 2013, and we are just so…we’re just so unhappy. Neither one of us feels like Arizona is our place and we just really miss, though there is beauty here and all of that, we really miss being somewhere where there’s seasons and we can that physical change and that transition throughout the year. He’s from Illinois and I grew up in North Carolina. Both places are just beautiful and have four seasons. And we just really do feel like we are in a desert. And he works at a job that he just absolutely hates and is experiencing burnout. It’s a very real thing. And it’s not that we are not grateful, and we definitely see the hand of the Lord and the blessings of God upon our lives. We just really, really…I’m just asking for your prayers, Daily Audio Bible, for us to have clarity and courage. We feel like it is time, we would really like to be in Illinois. We know that it gets incredibly cold there but I lived there with him for 8 months and loved it. So, please, I just ask you for your prayers. I would appreciate them. We would appreciate them so much. And I love you all and I love hearing you, it definitely makes me feel not so alone. Okay. Thank you. I love you. Bye.

November 8, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday November 8, 2017 (NIV)

Ezekiel 18-19

The Justice of a Righteous God

18 Then another message came to me from the Lord: ²“Why do you quote this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste’? ³As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel. ⁴For all people are mine to judge—both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: The person who sins is the one who will die.

⁵“Suppose a certain man is righteous and does what is just and right. ⁶He does not feast in the mountains before Israel’s idols^[a] or worship them. He does not commit adultery or have intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period. ⁷He is a merciful creditor, not keeping the items given as security by poor debtors. He does not rob the poor but instead gives food to the hungry and provides clothes for the needy. ⁸He grants loans without interest, stays away from injustice, is honest and fair when judging others, ⁹and faithfully obeys my decrees and regulations. Anyone who does these things is just and will surely live, says the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁰“But suppose that man has a son who grows up to be a robber or murderer and refuses to do what is right. ¹¹And that son does all the evil things his father would never do—he worships idols on the mountains, commits adultery, ¹²oppresses the poor and helpless, steals from debtors by refusing to let them redeem their security, worships idols, commits detestable sins, ¹³and lends money at excessive interest. Should such a sinful person live? No! He must die and must take full blame.

¹⁴“But suppose that sinful son, in turn, has a son who sees his father’s wickedness and decides against that kind of life. ¹⁵This son refuses to worship idols on the mountains and does not commit adultery. ¹⁶He does not exploit the poor, but instead is fair to debtors and does not rob them. He gives food to the hungry and provides clothes for the needy. ¹⁷He helps the poor,^[b] does not lend money at interest, and obeys all my regulations and decrees. Such a person will not die because of his father’s sins; he will surely live. ¹⁸But the father will die for his many sins—for being cruel, robbing people, and doing what was clearly wrong among his people.

¹⁹“‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. ²⁰The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. ²¹But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. ²²All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done.

²³“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. ²⁴However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live? No, of course not! All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.

²⁵“Yet you say, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’ Listen to me, O people of Israel. Am I the one not doing what’s right, or is it you? ²⁶When righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things, they will die for it. Yes, they will die because of their sinful deeds. ²⁷And if wicked people turn from their wickedness, obey the law, and do what is just and right, they will save their lives. ²⁸They will live because they thought it over and decided to turn from their sins. Such people will not die. ²⁹And yet the people of Israel keep saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’ O people of Israel, it is you who are not doing what’s right, not I.

³⁰“Therefore, I will judge each of you, O people of Israel, according to your actions, says the Sovereign Lord. Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! ³¹Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? ³²I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!

A Funeral Song for Israel’s Kings

19 “Sing this funeral song for the princes of Israel:

²“What is your mother?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among the young lions
and reared her cubs.
³She raised one of her cubs
to become a strong young lion.
He learned to hunt and devour prey,
and he became a man-eater.
⁴Then the nations heard about him,
and he was trapped in their pit.
They led him away with hooks
to the land of Egypt.

⁵“When the lioness saw
that her hopes for him were gone,
she took another of her cubs
and taught him to be a strong young lion.
⁶He prowled among the other lions
and stood out among them in his strength.
He learned to hunt and devour prey,
and he, too, became a man-eater.
⁷He demolished fortresses^[c]
and destroyed their towns and cities.
Their farms were desolated,
and their crops were destroyed.
The land and its people trembled in fear
when they heard him roar.
⁸Then the armies of the nations attacked him,
surrounding him from every direction.
They threw a net over him
and captured him in their pit.
⁹With hooks, they dragged him into a cage
and brought him before the king of Babylon.
They held him in captivity,
so his voice could never again be heard
on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰“Your mother was like a vine
planted by the water’s edge.
It had lush, green foliage
because of the abundant water.
¹¹Its branches became strong—
strong enough to be a ruler’s scepter.
It grew very tall,
towering above all others.
It stood out because of its height
and its many lush branches.
¹²But the vine was uprooted in fury
and thrown down to the ground.
The desert wind dried up its fruit
and tore off its strong branches,
so that it withered
and was destroyed by fire.
¹³Now the vine is transplanted to the wilderness,
where the ground is hard and dry.
¹⁴A fire has burst out from its branches
and devoured its fruit.
Its remaining limbs are not
strong enough to be a ruler’s scepter.

“This is a funeral song, and it will be used in a funeral.”

Footnotes:

18:6 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung; also in 18:12, 15.
18:17 Greek version reads He refuses to do evil.
19:7 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads He knew widows.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Hebrews 9:1-10

Old Rules about Worship

9 That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth. ²There were two rooms in that Tabernacle.^[a] In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place. ³Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room^[b] called the Most Holy Place. ⁴In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement. But we cannot explain these things in detail now.

⁶When these things were all in place, the priests regularly entered the first room^[c] as they performed their religious duties. ⁷But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. ⁸By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle^[d] and the system it represented were still in use.

⁹This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. ¹⁰For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.

Footnotes:

9:2 Or tent; also in 9:11, 21.
9:3 Greek second tent.
9:6 Greek first tent.
9:8 Or the first room; Greek reads the first tent.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 106:32-48

³²At Meribah, too, they angered the Lord,
causing Moses serious trouble.
³³They made Moses angry,^[a]
and he spoke foolishly.

³⁴Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land,
as the Lord had commanded them.
³⁵Instead, they mingled among the pagans
and adopted their evil customs.
³⁶They worshiped their idols,
which led to their downfall.
³⁷They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons.
³⁸They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters.
By sacrificing them to the idols of Canaan,
they polluted the land with murder.
³⁹They defiled themselves by their evil deeds,
and their love of idols was adultery in the Lord’s sight.

⁴⁰That is why the Lord’s anger burned against his people,
and he abhorred his own special possession.
⁴¹He handed them over to pagan nations,
and they were ruled by those who hated them.
⁴²Their enemies crushed them
and brought them under their cruel power.
⁴³Again and again he rescued them,
but they chose to rebel against him,
and they were finally destroyed by their sin.
⁴⁴Even so, he pitied them in their distress
and listened to their cries.
⁴⁵He remembered his covenant with them
and relented because of his unfailing love.
⁴⁶He even caused their captors
to treat them with kindness.

⁴⁷Save us, O Lord our God!
Gather us back from among the nations,
so we can thank your holy name
and rejoice and praise you.

⁴⁸Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
who lives from everlasting to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord!

Footnotes:

106:33 Hebrew They embittered his spirit.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 27:10

¹⁰Never abandon a friend—
either yours or your father’s.
When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance.
It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.

New Living Translation (NLT)

November 7, 2017

11/7/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 16:42-17:24; Hebrews 8:1-13; Psalms 106:13-31; Proverbs 27:7-9

Today is the 7th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is great to be here with you for the next step forward in the Scriptures today. And I’m grateful, grateful that we can be together like this for the next step forward. This week we’ve been reading from the Good News translation. And, so, we’ll continue to read from that and pick up where we left off yesterday. Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 42 through 17 verse 24.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Hebrews today, we have a quotation from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, which we read very recently. And this happens to be the longest quotation from the Old Testament that is found in the New Testament. And in Jeremiah’s prophecy a new covenant is foretold. So, about 700 years later, as the writer of Hebrews is writing this letter, this passage from Jeremiah is quoted. And it’s all in the context of what we been talking about for several days. So, we spent some days talking about Melchizedek as part of a larger point that’s being made. And the point that’s being made is that Jesus is high priest, a priestly king who presides over a new covenant that had been foretold long ago. So, this letter is being written by Hebrews for Hebrews and referring to people and events and scriptural prophecy that are all Hebrew. So, this letter is written to devout Hebrews who understand what’s being talked about here. And they’re simply saying, look, a new covenant was for foretold a long time ago. We’re not just making all this stuff up. We’re not trying to make up a new religion. We’re trying to say, wake up and see what’s happening here. What we see in Jesus is the establishment of this new covenant that was foretold in our own Scriptures. We’re entering into a new era and is not just because we dreamed this all up. It’s because God foretold it and is now fulfilling it through Jesus, who is our new high priest who presides over this new covenant in heaven where there are no flaws. And everything that we’ve presided over, the covenant, the Torah, everything that we been doing, is flawed because we’re doing it and we are not perfect. And everything that we’ve been doing up until now has been a foreshadowing, a shadow of what is in heaven, or to quote Hebrews, ‘the work they do as priests is really only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven’. So, what’s essentially being communicated here is, what we’ve been doing all along following this old covenant is a picture of what is to come. But God said after we continue to break the covenant over and over and over that a new one was coming. And now these centuries later it has come in the person of Jesus. And it’s not a shadow or a copy anymore. Jesus is the high priest presiding over this covenant in heaven where things are perfect. This is incorruptible and perfect - a better way, a more perfect way, a new covenant. And the result of that is unpacked in chapter 8 verse 13, ‘by speaking of a new covenant God has made the first one old and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear’. And over the centuries since then many have thought, well, than the Old Testament doesn’t matter then we only should read the New Testament, but it’s a covenant is being talked about here, not the Scriptures. And we’ve gotten far enough into the year to understand that the Old Testament speaks very, very clearly soberly, truthfully, honestly, and lovingly into our lives. But just on a practical level, if we read the book of Hebrews without any Old Testament knowledge whatsoever, like, if we read this having no idea of the context and history, we wouldn’t even know what’s being talked about. Covenants, high priests, priests, old ones, new ones, prophecies being fulfilled – we would have no idea what’s going on. And I think the writer of Hebrews, while quoting from the book of Jeremiah at length as a proof text for what they are saying, shows us that there is a great value in understanding our context and history that is found in the Old Testament. Just a little bunny trail there. The theological point that’s being made in Hebrews is that Jesus is a high priest, presiding over a new covenant, and He does this from heaven, and it is perfect and is leading into a new chapter, a new era. And this will be further unpacked as we go forward. We’re just a little over halfway through the book of Hebrews.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for this new covenant and Your welcoming of all people to partake of this good news. We are some of those people and we are grateful. We thank You that we have a high priest in heaven advocating for us. We love You, Jesus, and we worship and thank You. And we pray these things in Your name. Amen.

Announcements:

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It’s where the prayer wall is. It’s where the Daily Audio Bible shop is. Its where you to find out what’s going on around here on the calendar. And next up on the calendar is the 19^th of November. And we will be in Bossier City, Louisiana, bringing the Sneezing Jesus message at River Valley church. Looking for that. If you’re in the area, please come say hello. Love to shake her hand, and hug your neck, and hear little bit of your story. So, put it on your calendar. It’s on ours. Put it on yours and will see you soon in the South.

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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.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hey, this is Jerry calling from Duluth Minnesota. I must say that the Daily Audio Bible, the Black Wing pencils, and a journal probably have saved my life. I’ve struggled with depression for many, many, many years and a particularly dark, dark time in the last six months and started new treatments in August. I got the journal on September 6^th and started writing in it and it has made an incredible difference in my life. I just received print number 217 of the Global Campfire Initiative there by giving the $200 for the new app and so excited about the opportunity and the potential of the new app of reaching new people. And particularly would like to request prayer for my family. I have two daughters that are going through separation and divorce and one daughter whose husband is accused of molesting their 13-year-old daughter and facing criminal charges. So, I ordered five more of the journals for my wife and kids to give at Christmas time to try and hopefully encourage them to start writing out what’s happening in their life on a daily basis. Maybe not even on a daily basis, just as God prompts you to write. I encourage you to think of the Daily Audio Bible and order some of the journals and pencils for Christmas. They make great gifts. And encourage people to listen to the Daily Audio Bible in the year 2018 and change your life and perhaps…

Hey everyone, it’s Kristy from Kentucky. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve called, but it’s been a really hard…it’s been a hard couple of weeks. My precious daddy went home to Jesus two weeks ago today, which would have been October 21^st and it’s just been very difficult. Losing mom in May…I shouldn’t say losing…but…having to say bye to her in May…and having to say goodbye to daddy two weeks ago has just been…it’s been very hard. But I know God is on the throne and He’s blessed me with two amazing parents. Momma was 86 and daddy was 90. And, so, I know that there’s so many people that have either never had a good relationship with their parents or they lost them early. And, so, I know how very blessed that I am. And I just praise God for their lives and for having a wonderful brother and now they’re all together. So, you know, I have to be happy for them, but it sure is hard being left. Anyway, I love you guys so much. Thank each of you for praying. All of those who have prayed, I haven’t been listening but I know in my heart because I have felt your prayers. I love each of you very, very much and I pray that you are having a most blessed and lovely day.

Hello Daily Audio Bible. This is Duane from Wisconsin. All praise and glory to God. I’m calling today for a prayer request and a heavy heart. I had told you for the last year or so that my nephew, Nicholas, who has brain cancer was in for treatment. And just couple months ago he finished his treatment and everything went fine. Well, the other day, on the 3^rd, which would have been yesterday, he was taken to the hospital with fluid in his lungs and they found out he had a heart attack. So, he is in the ICU unit. His heart is only working at about 10%, so, things are not looking good. So, I’m asking if you would please pray for my nephew. His name is Nicholas. So, let’s pray please. Lord, I want to ask You that You would lift up Nicholas. We ask that You would place Your healing hand upon him, that You would do a miracle and heal him, be with the doctors and the nurses to guide them Lord, to give them some peace and comfort as well as his wife and his mother, my sister, and his family and friends. So, Lord, again, we ask that You please be with Nicholas. Give him peace, give him comfort, and if it would be Your will that You would heal him. I thank you all. Love you and God bless. Amen.

Hey DABbers. This is Slave of Jesus from North Carolina. Alright, Holy Spirit, let’s roll. I’m pumped today. Lord, we ask You to watch over Lee from New Jersey. Hey Lee, all I can tell you about anger…you know I used to struggle with that lust trap…and I’m not saying you struggle with that…but once I started having great victories in that…I had this bout of anger towards my family…I’d like be walking behind them…and want to physically want to strike their head. And I decided, hey, I need to deal with this the same way I deal with the lust. You know what I’m going to say. I went out there and got a Scripture…an anger Scripture - James 119. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry. Said it every morning, said it every night. Just like dealing with the lust. Every time I got angry. Sometimes I would even start getting frustrated with my wife and I might even say that out loud in front of them. My daughter even knows that. We are sitting in the car and she even knows I’m angry. She’ll start saying it - quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry. And then I had to get a patience one, Ephesians 4:2. So, then I said…you know what…I am going to preemptively deal with this. And I’d be walking up to my house and maybe there was some text during the day…and I knew there was going to be a battle…I’d say it out loud. But then sometimes I would just say it out loud before I walk into my house and start interacting with my family. So, hey brother, that’s what works for me. Lord, we ask You to watch over Jay from New Jersey. And Dimitri, first time caller, been listening for three years. I know, Dimitri, your marriage is struggling and that’s where I was four years ago. I wanted to give it all up. I didn’t care about the marriage. I didn’t care about that stuff. That’s the point where I turned and put everything, went all in, and God rewarded me with a great marriage and great family. Lord we ask You to watch over Drew in the Bay. Amen to his prayers over Lee’s depression. Love you all. Have a great day.

November 7, 2017

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday November 7, 2017 (NIV)

Ezekiel 16:42-17:24

⁴²“Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore. ⁴³But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins. ⁴⁴Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and so do you. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶“Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south. ⁴⁷But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption. ⁴⁸As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. ⁴⁹Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. ⁵⁰She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen.^[a]

⁵¹“Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. ⁵²Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous.

⁵³“But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too. ⁵⁴Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison. ⁵⁵Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored, and at that time you also will be restored. ⁵⁶In your proud days you held Sodom in contempt. ⁵⁷But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom^[b] and all her neighbors and by Philistia. ⁵⁸This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sins, says the Lord.

⁵⁹“Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant. ⁶⁰Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant. ⁶²And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. ⁶³You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

A Story of Two Eagles

17 Then this message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, give this riddle, and tell this story to the people of Israel. ³Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord:

“A great eagle with broad wings and long feathers,
covered with many-colored plumage,
came to Lebanon.
He seized the top of a cedar tree
⁴and plucked off its highest branch.
He carried it away to a city filled with merchants.
He planted it in a city of traders.
⁵He also took a seedling from the land
and planted it in fertile soil.
He placed it beside a broad river,
where it could grow like a willow tree.
⁶It took root there and
grew into a low, spreading vine.
Its branches turned up toward the eagle,
and its roots grew down into the ground.
It produced strong branches
and put out shoots.
⁷But then another great eagle came
with broad wings and full plumage.
So the vine now sent its roots and branches
toward him for water,
⁸even though it was already planted in good soil
and had plenty of water
so it could grow into a splendid vine
and produce rich leaves and luscious fruit.

⁹“So now the Sovereign Lord asks:
Will this vine grow and prosper?
No! I will pull it up, roots and all!
I will cut off its fruit
and let its leaves wither and die.
I will pull it up easily
without a strong arm or a large army.
¹⁰But when the vine is transplanted,
will it thrive?
No, it will wither away
when the east wind blows against it.
It will die in the same good soil
where it had grown so well.”

The Riddle Explained

¹¹Then this message came to me from the Lord: ¹²“Say to these rebels of Israel: Don’t you understand the meaning of this riddle of the eagles? The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took away her king and princes, and brought them to Babylon. ¹³He made a treaty with a member of the royal family and forced him to take an oath of loyalty. He also exiled Israel’s most influential leaders, ¹⁴so Israel would not become strong again and revolt. Only by keeping her treaty with Babylon could Israel survive.

¹⁵“Nevertheless, this man of Israel’s royal family rebelled against Babylon, sending ambassadors to Egypt to request a great army and many horses. Can Israel break her sworn treaties like that and get away with it? ¹⁶No! For as surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, the king of Israel will die in Babylon, the land of the king who put him in power and whose treaty he disregarded and broke. ¹⁷Pharaoh and all his mighty army will fail to help Israel when the king of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem again and destroys many lives. ¹⁸For the king of Israel disregarded his treaty and broke it after swearing to obey; therefore, he will not escape.

¹⁹“So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will punish him for breaking my covenant and disregarding the solemn oath he made in my name. ²⁰I will throw my net over him and capture him in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and put him on trial for this treason against me. ²¹And all his best warriors^[c] will be killed in battle, and those who survive will be scattered to the four winds. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.

²²“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take a branch from the top of a tall cedar, and I will plant it on the top of Israel’s highest mountain. ²³It will become a majestic cedar, sending forth its branches and producing seed. Birds of every sort will nest in it, finding shelter in the shade of its branches. ²⁴And all the trees will know that it is I, the Lord, who cuts the tall tree down and makes the short tree grow tall. It is I who makes the green tree wither and gives the dead tree new life. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I said!”

Footnotes:

16:50 As in a few Hebrew manuscripts and Greek version; Masoretic Text reads as I have seen.
16:57 As in many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac version; Masoretic Text reads Aram.
17:21 As in many Hebrew manuscripts; Masoretic Text reads his fleeing warriors. The meaning is uncertain.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Hebrews 8

Christ Is Our High Priest

8 Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. ²There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle,^[a] the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.

³And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too. ⁴If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law. ⁵They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”^[b]

⁶But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.

⁷If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. ⁸But when God found fault with the people, he said:

“The day is coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah.
⁹This covenant will not be like the one
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.
¹⁰But this is the new covenant I will make
with the people of Israel on that day,^[c] says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
¹¹And they will not need to teach their neighbors,
nor will they need to teach their relatives,^[d]
saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’
For everyone, from the least to the greatest,
will know me already.
¹²And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”^[e]

¹³When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.

Footnotes:

8:2 Or tent; also in 8:5.
8:5 Exod 25:40; 26:30.
8:10 Greek after those days.
8:11 Greek their brother.
8:8-12 Jer 31:31-34.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 106:13-31

¹³Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!
They wouldn’t wait for his counsel!
¹⁴In the wilderness their desires ran wild,
testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.
¹⁵So he gave them what they asked for,
but he sent a plague along with it.
¹⁶The people in the camp were jealous of Moses
and envious of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.
¹⁷Because of this, the earth opened up;
it swallowed Dathan
and buried Abiram and the other rebels.
¹⁸Fire fell upon their followers;
a flame consumed the wicked.

¹⁹The people made a calf at Mount Sinai^[a];
they bowed before an image made of gold.
²⁰They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
²¹They forgot God, their savior,
who had done such great things in Egypt—
²²such wonderful things in the land of Ham,
such awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
²³So he declared he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the Lord and the people.
He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them.

²⁴The people refused to enter the pleasant land,
for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.
²⁵Instead, they grumbled in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.
²⁶Therefore, he solemnly swore
that he would kill them in the wilderness,
²⁷that he would scatter their descendants^[b] among the nations,
exiling them to distant lands.

²⁸Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor;
they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead!
²⁹They angered the Lord with all these things,
so a plague broke out among them.
³⁰But Phinehas had the courage to intervene,
and the plague was stopped.
³¹So he has been regarded as a righteous man
ever since that time.

Footnotes:

106:19 Hebrew at Horeb, another name for Sinai.
106:27 As in Syriac version; Hebrew reads he would cause their descendants to fall.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 27:7-9

⁷A person who is full refuses honey,
but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.

⁸A person who strays from home
is like a bird that strays from its nest.

⁹The heartfelt counsel of a friend
is as sweet as perfume and incense.

New Living Translation (NLT)

November 6, 2017

11/6/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 14:12-16:41; Hebrews 7:18-28; Psalms 106:1-12; Proverbs 27:4-6

Today is the sixth day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. And I’m glad we can take the next step forward in the Scriptures together. And that next step will be in the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the book of Hebrews in the New. So, let’ dive in. We’re reading from the Good News translation this week. Ezekiel 14 verse 12 through 16 verse 41.

Commentary:

Okay. So, let’s touch on Hebrews first and then move our way backward to Ezekiel. The last couple of days we’ve been just kind of talking about Melchizedek, just trying to figure out why this obscure figure from the book of Genesis shows up in the book of Hebrews with a bit of a cameo appearance in Psalm 110. And all of that discussion wasn’t to make a theological statement, it was just to say, who is Melchizedek and what is his significance? How does this obscure figure become a significant person that gets mentioned again in the New Testament with more information than we had in the Old? And we talked a little bit yesterday about Psalm 110 where Melchizedek shows up in verse four - the Lord is taken an oath and will not break his vow, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. We talked about Melchizedek being a priestly king that was not from the tribe of Levi. And then we talked about different literature that showed us that Melchizedek was still in the thought of the Hebrew people right through until Jesus time. And at Jesus time they were really looking for a Messiah. They weren’t necessarily naming or looking for Jesus in particular, but they were looking for this kind of person to show up. And Psalm 110 was one of those references that they would use that prophetically speaks of such a person. So, in the book of Hebrews today that’s made explicit, that the writer of Hebrews is clearly looking at Psalm 110 as a prophetic foreshadowing of the Messiah and then declaring that that Messiah was Jesus. And Hebrews kind of finishes off at that thought today. So, we can see that whether King David, when now penning Psalm 110, thought anything different than that this was about himself, over time it was definitely perceived as a prophetic utterance. And for the writer of Hebrews, in a Hebrew culture, writing to Hebrew people, it was apparent that Jesus closed the loop, that He is a priestly king who sacrificed himself once and for all and now lives as priest forever on behalf of us all. And all of that discussion has a cultural and contextual background, and we talked about that. But the larger story or the bigger narrative that’s going on in Hebrews is intended to show how God is doing a new thing, a new thing that they were expecting, but a new thing that they didn’t recognize, and showing that Jesus is this new thing. And, so, for devout Jews the Torah, the law, is the thing. But Hebrews is saying there were things going on before there was a law, those things predate the law, they’re not under the law, the law didn’t exist, and those things matter. Which is how Melchizedek winds its way into the story and sets precedent for God doing new things, things beyond the Mosaic law, not because the law is evil, of course, but the laws purpose is to expose failings and sin. It’s to show and reveal when we’ve stepped out of bounds, but Jesus appearance in the story changes everything. He fulfills the law and becomes the high priest forever, on behalf of us all. Very, very similar to the kinds of things the apostle Paul wrote about, especially in the book of Romans, but all throughout his teachings. So, we can get lost in all kinds of thoughts about Melchizedek, but Melchizedek is a part of a larger point and that point is that Jesus is the son of God came to take away the sins of the world and that the law cannot do it because no one can achieve perfection in it. And, so, that’s kind of where we sit in the book of Hebrews.

In the book of Ezekiel, God has been telling what’s coming. He’s been telling people what’s about to descend upon them, and none of it is good. And in the narrative, we can see what seems to be frustration on God’s part, like how He is exasperated, and how He has tried. And then we reached a portion of Scripture that I find to be one of the most riveting portions of Scripture in the Bible. And I encourage you to take some time to reread it yourself. It’s Ezekiel chapter 16 verses 3 through 34, where God is very, very descriptive about the story as He sees it with His people. And He describes an orphaned and tossed away beauty left to die in a field just after birth, covered in blood, and no one cared for this little girl. She was left to die. She was unloved when God came along and found her and nourished her and cared for her and raised her and watched her grow and watched her become beautiful and entered into a covenant of marriage with her and offspring were born and it was beautiful, except that she began to notice her own beauty and flaunt her own beauty and over time to give herself to others. In other words, to break the covenant. And then the trajectory just spins out of control. She’s not only giving herself away to other gods and idols, she is giving yourself away to other nations, and she’s destroying God’s children by sacrificing them to other idols, and basically this has to stop. That’s essentially what God is saying. This has to stop and I’m going to stop it. And you’re not going to like it, but this has to stop if you’re ever going to turn around and return to me. I find it heartbreaking because of the imagery that God chose to use because it’s imagery of betrayal and heartbreak and jealousy and loss and all of the angst and unrest that comes when a relationship disintegrates through betrayal and adultery. And, so, many of us could read that passage and see ourselves there, know those emotions, and whether you’ve been betrayed or not you can still understand what that would be like. And, so, what we’re seeing is less of a vengeful, angry, irritated, tyrannical God and more the heart of a lovesick, brokenhearted God. And it starts to make sense because we can see the we would feel the same way. And it gives us a lot to think about in our own relationship because so often we think our relationship with God, the only emotion in any of it is our own, God doesn’t feel anything, he doesn’t really care, he’s just quick to forgive and that’s that. It doesn’t matter what we do and he’s just always on, he’s always available to us to turn to but we only really turn to him when we need him to do something. And we can imagine what that feels like. And we have to imagine what it feels like for God for us to really enter into this relationship with him. So, going back through that passage of Scripture will be helpful and healthy as we contemplate our relationships with God.

Prayer:

Father, we see in this imagery Your heart toward us. We see why You are a jealous God. We just rarely can bring ourselves to the level of value that You do. We don’t value ourselves the way You do. We don’t see ourselves as the treasure that You do. And, so, sometimes we can’t even imagine that You could feel this way about us and yet we’re reading it right off the page, the Scriptures. You spoke this thousands of years ago and things haven’t changed. You are smitten with us. Why, is beyond our comprehension, but You created us and I guess that matters a lot. You know everything about us, every cell that makes us who we are, every hair on our head, every experience that we’ve had, all of the choices that we’ve made, and You’ve still loved us. And put in these terms, found in the book of Ezekiel, we are stopped in our tracks as we realize what our behavior does to Your heart. So, come Holy Spirit, wash us clean, restore us, make us new again, we run back into your arms. There is no other hope but You, and we thank You for Your patience and kindness, long-suffering, and love for us. Amen.

Song:

Ezekiel by Gungor

https://youtu.be/59xPDnsL4qw

Lyrics

http://www.lyricshall.com/lyrics/Gungor/Ezekiel/

I found you naked
I found you lying there in blood
Your mother left you
Your father threw you out unloved

I clothed your body
I washed the blood and earth from your hair
I gave you jewelry
I gave you everything I had

I gave my heart
My heart, my love
I gave my heart
My heart, my love

You became mine
You were a stunning bride
The world they saw you and how you loved their eyes my bride

You broke my heart
My heart, my love
You broke my heart
My heart, my love

You sold your body exposed yourself to all my love
You slept with strangers; you gave them everything we had

Come back my love
My love come back
Come back my love
My love come back