02/28/2018 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 22:21-23:44, Mark 9:30-10:12, Psalms 44:1-7, Proverbs 10:19

Today is the 28th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today from the holy city of Jerusalem. We arrived in the evening last night and it’s an early day and a long one for us today. But we’ll talk about all of that in just a little bit. We’ve kind of rounded the corner and have reached our final destination, which will be in and around Jerusalem. At least that’s where we’ll be calling home base until the end of our pilgrimage this year. And it’s great to be back here. But let me not get ahead of myself and talk about all that. Let’s get into the Scriptures for today. We’ve been reading from the Modern English Version this week, which is what we will continue to do, even as we continue to move around the land of the Bible here in Israel. Of course, in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, we’re reading the statutes, ordinances, laws that are to shape and form this new people who,, of course, have been brought out of slavery in Egypt in epic fashion and now they’re being shaped and formed into a culture and a people, but with one purpose in mind, that they be holy as God is holy. And so, we pick up with that story. Leviticus chapter 22 verse 17 through 23 verse 44 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You again for Your word and we thank You again for the reminder that what we say matters, that our realities are being created by our words and that matters. And us paying attention to what’s coming out of our mouth matters. And we take that to heart today as we live into this day and invite Your Holy Spirit’s to speak to us about that and continually remind us to take a beat, to take a pause before we start just saying words because they matter. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, man, this is the point in the trip where my brain is turning into mush because we…so much…so much to drink and it’s a firehose experience, without a doubt. So, yesterday in the morning we packed up all of our stuff put everything back on the buses and left the Sea of Galilee and the Galilee region itself, drove down along the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee before heading west and leaving it behind. And our first stop was to travel through the Jezreel Valley all the way to Harr Megiddo, also known as Armageddon. And the ancient ruins of the city of Megiddo still exist and we took some time there to look at them. Megiddo was a city right along the ancient trade route between Egypt and all of the lands beyond here to the north and east. So, it was an important city to control because if you control that then you kind of control a lot of the trade route coming through the area. So, it has had a long history of conquest and battle. And, of course, it sits in a valley that’s pretty famous, the valley of Armageddon. So, we looked at the ruins of Megiddo and were able to go down into the water cisterns, the water tunnels and cisterns  that were carved out. It’s pretty amazing when you can see that and realize, talking 3000 years ago, and we’re not talking about bulldozers and cranes and, you know, backhoes and all kinds of earthmoving equipment and engineering. We’re talking about a long, long time ago. And, so, the ingenuity is pretty remarkable. And, so, around the ruins you see how people lived, look out across the valley, and then down into the tunnels we went. And it’s not that…I mean you have to climb down in there on stairs…but it’s not too long of a of a walk, but it’s a remarkable one just to understand that the way that this got here was by people and hard work a long, long, long time ago. And then it was kind of…it’s been a little bit rainy…off and on. And, so, we get a little tiny bit rained on, not bad at all, but we are thinking about Mt. Carmel and if it’s going to be cloudy up there, and if it’s going to rainy up there. And, so, we did a little switcheroo and had an early lunch, allowing the morning showers to kind of blow through before heading up Mt. Carmel. And Mt Carmel is famous for a showdown between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal and Asherah in which fire comes down from heaven. We haven’t gotten to all this. We’ll get to it when we get to the book of Kings, books of Kings. But fire comes down from heaven, people return to God, the prophets of Baal meet an end they weren’t planning on, but idol worship isn’t something…worshiping anything else besides God, turning your heart in worship to any other God is not something that God tolerates well because it pulls us away from our true identity, which is to be in union together with Him. And, so, that’s happened p on Mt Carmel. So, we opened the Scriptures and read that story and then just discussed what happened next, because Elijah got to see the power of God and then he got up, you know, he got a nasty note from the Queen named Jezebel, that she was going to kill him. And he took off and ran. And, you know, just, when you’re here you’re beginning to understand the context that he left Mt Carmel up in the in the north and ran all the way to Beersheba in the South where we started and then all the way down into the desert where we were at the at the Red Sea and then off deep into the Sinai Peninsula to the mountain of God. So, a long, long, long way. And God comes to him on the mountain and says, what are you doing here? And that’s a poignant question. Because the same kinds of things do happen in our lives. We see God move, we feel him moving in our lives, we see things happening in our lives, and then we that nasty note. Right? Some social media posts on something or another to sideswipe us. And off on the run we go. And then God comes and says, what are you doing here? So, we considered that as we considered, right, you know, that we were right there, where this happened. And then we were able to go up to this little observatory and look out over the vast Valley of Armageddon and take some pictures and just contemplate where we were in Scripture, where we were in the Bible, what was happening before moving on. And next stop was to take us all the way west to the border of the Mediterranean Sea, to the ancient Roman city of Caesarea Mayor Timo, which was kind of a jewel of the Galilee or the jewel of Israel for the Roman culture, the Roman empire period in this land. And the ruins are exquisite. You kind of get a sense of maybe what this would’ve been like. And it’s pretty magnificent to say the least. And it allowed us the opportunity to touch the book of acts. The Caesarea Mayor Timo’s is where the apostle Paul was imprisoned for a couple of years after being arrested in Jerusalem and avoiding an assassination attempt. Of course, I’m a little ahead of where we are in the Scriptures right now, because, at least in the New Testament, we’re in the gospel of Mark, but we we’ll eventually get to the book of Acts and begin to understand the apostle Paul’s influence in the early church. And it’s from Caesarea Mayor Timo’s that the apostle Paul appealed to Caesar and sailed for Rome. So, we were able to touch that piece and that portion of time, a piece of Scripture. And that wasn’t our final stop for the day then, but it’s about a two hour drive from there up to Jerusalem. So, we settled in and began the long journey up, up, up, up to Jerusalem, where we ended our day as it was just getting dark. And lots of naps were taken, but coming into Jerusalem always, reinvigorates everything. And, so, some dinner, some fellowship, and then an early early morning this morning because we’ll…it has to be…because we’ll start our day up on the Temple Mount. And, so, we have to get in line and all of that a bit early. But we’ll talk about what we do today, tomorrow, because it’s hard to talk about things you’re going to do before you’ve done them, but it’s going to be a great day around Jerusalem today, intersecting the Jesus story here, some of the things and places here. And probably it’s best that we do this now, while we have the adrenaline rush of just arriving in the holy city. So, looking forward to that. Thank you for your prayers as we continue this journey for the next few days.

And man here we are guys. Last day of February, which means that we are concluding two months together on our journey through the Scriptures this year. So, we’re 1/6 of the way through the Bible. And just want to say, well done on that. The rhythm continues as we continue to press into it and God continues to speak to us through his word. So, well done.

If want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can certainly do that dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link that’s on the homepage. And, you know, I run out of words and ways to express gratitude. The reality is the reality. We what we do because we do it together. That had always been the case around here. So, thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill Tennessee 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, a tired Brian, but Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi this is Joey from Missouri it is 4:38 here on a very cold day. I want…here…on February the 23rd, 2018. I just want to sing a little song here before I start. These songs are some of my mom’s songs that she sang on the piano for many years. So, here goes. [singing] Who is likened to the oh Lord among God’s. Who is likened to the glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, who is likened to the? [singing stops]. Oh…oh…praise the Lord…praise the Lord. Candace from Oregon you are on my mind today. And I just wanted to say I love you. And when your husband passed away almost a year ago today I was in Kuwait. I was in Kuwait at that time and I just remember coming home to my dorm after work that day and was just so, so sad about that. So, Lord God, just be with Candace from Oregon today. And, so, Lord God, we just thank you for Candace and also thank you for Brian. And I love you all. Take care. Okay. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

Hi, this is Melody from Canada. It is February 24th and I have so much joy hearing Brian talk about the group and Israel going into the Jordan River and leaving everything behind. And I can almost he feel the cold water myself in my heart, imagination, spirit. Just bless you, all who made that commitment. And may you find strength to continue in that and to stand that and that for the Lord is with you. I have Psalm 35:27 on my heart. It says, let them shout for joy and be glad. His favor my righteous cause. Yes, let them say continually, the Lord be magnified with pleasure and the prosperity of his servant. And thinking of Rachel a first-time caller who struggling with depression and OCD. And Rachel, the Lord has pleasure in your prosperity, His pleasure in your health. And whatever road it takes to get there he is with you always. Bless you. Bye.

Hi friends this is Lisa the encourager and I hope everybody that’s in Israel is having a wonderful blessed time and a safe trip. I’m praying for you. I just wanted to read something I thought was encouraging tonight called A Cut Above. And it says, the word holy means to separate. The ancestry of return can be traced back to the ancient word which means to cut. To be holy then is to be cut above the norm, superior extraordinary. The holy one dwells on a different level than the rest of us. What frightens us does not frighten Him. What troubles us does not trouble Him. When you set your sights on our God you focus on one a cut above. Any storm life may bring, you will find peace in Him. And also Psalm 46:10 says, be still and know that I am God. So, I hope that’s encouraging to you tonight. And with that, I also wanted to pray some prayers for some folks. I wanted to pray for Lydia from Indiana. She had called in about her daughter Suzy E. and she was just wanting her to obey God and not take on the ways of the world. So, I want to pray for Suzy E., Lydia’s daughter. And also just wanted to just say thank you to Michelle…oh…excuse me…I’m sorry…Monica from Kentucky for her prayers. There always so sweet Monica and I just appreciate all of your…the times you call in and the different things that your praying about and just want to let you know it’s very encouraging. And lastly, I just want to pray for Diane in Ohio. She has a son that’s taking drugs and a grandson as well. And they really need help in turning their life around and she feels like they’ve really changed a great…

He Daily Audio Bible this is Paul from Houston. And I’ve called to pray for Curtis from Cali. I think your sons name was Kingston. And you were mentioning that he is dealing with a lot of anxiety depression sort of things, but he’s only eight. And I just want to pray. I struggled with a lot of anxiety growing up and different things. And Lord…let’s go to God right now. Thank you Jesus. I ask that You will be with Kingston Lord I thank You Lord that You protect his mind Lord, that You would guide him around with Your Angels. I thank You Lord that his mind would be centered on You. I thank You Lord that no weapon formed against him can prosper. And I thank You Lord that those thoughts that try to bombard him, those thoughts to try to create anxiety, that those thoughts have to go in the name of Jesus. And I thank You Lord for peace over the house, over Kingston, peace when he sleeps, peace when he rises. Lord I thank You Lord that You would help them to, you know, explore the things that an eight-year-old boy would love to do. Lord I thank You Lord that You would give him the outlets, the hobbies, the things that You want him to work with Lord. And I thank You Lord for developing him. And that You have something special for Kingston Lord, a special future for him Lord, like scouting with different things Lord, that You know, You know Kingston Lord. And I thank You Lord, You know, the way You made him and what purpose You made him for and I thank You Lord that when his family draws closer to You Lord that You would reveal what Your will is and that You would open a door for them, but I thank You Lord for peace in their home and peace in his mind and peace as he sleeps in Jesus name. Daily Audio Bible have a great day. It’s Paul from Houston. Bye.

Hey, I need you guys to pray for me. I’ve been walking with Jesus for a long time now and I was involved in a lot of pornography and masturbation before I knew him and even in the years since. the struggle has been real. It’s not all the time. There is victory sometimes, sometimes for long stretches, but it’s been going into my marriage. My wife new about them. But we have kids now and I’m working harder than ever and she works harder than ever looking after them. And it’s gotten to a point where I don’t want to talk about with her anymore and burden her mostly. And sometimes I feel like I’m screwed up in other ways so much that I can’t even talk to her anymore and it’s probably unfair, but I know I need to confess out to my brothers and sisters. Today’s reading in the Old Testament about skin disease and mildew. I skipped it. I just fast-forwarded. And then Brian talked about how that was sort of the heart of the message and how it has to do with the heart of me. And I can’t let stuff grow in the dark anymore. So, pray for me family. Bring it to the high priest so he can bring into His father. Thanks guys. I love you. Bye.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday February 28, 2018 (NIV)

Leviticus 22:17-23:44

Acceptable Offerings

17 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18 Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them: Whoever from the house of Israel or from the foreigners in Israel who offers his burnt offering for any vows or freewill offerings that he offers to the Lord, 19 then if it is to be accepted for you, the offering shall be a male without blemish, a bull, sheep, or goat. 20 But whatever has a blemish you shall not offer, for it shall not be acceptable for you. 21 Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill his vow or a freewill offering, whether from the herd or flock, to be accepted it shall be perfect, with no blemish on it. 22 Blind, or disabled, or maimed, or having an ulcer or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer these to the Lord, nor make a food offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. 23 A herd animal or a flock animal that has a limb that is too long or short you may offer for a freewill offering, but for a vow it shall not be accepted. 24 You shall not offer to the Lord an animal that is bruised or crushed or torn or cut; nor shall you make any offering of them in your land. 25 Nor from a foreigner shall you offer an animal as the food of your God, because a blemish is in them from their mutilation. They shall not be accepted for you.

26 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27 When an ox, or a sheep, or a goat is born, then it shall be seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted for a food offering made by fire to the Lord. 28 But you shall not slaughter on the same day an ox or a sheep and her young.

29 When you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, offer it so that it may be accepted. 30 On the same day it shall be eaten. You shall leave none of it until the next day: I am the Lord.

31 Therefore you shall keep My commandments and do them: I am the Lord. 32 You shall not defile My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the children of Israel: I am the Lord who sanctifies you, 33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord.

The Appointed Feasts

23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: Concerning the feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My appointed feasts.

The Sabbath

For six days work shall be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread(A)

These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim in their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’s Passover. On the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. But you shall offer a food offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.

Offering the First Fruits

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 10 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you have come into the land that I am giving to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf bundle of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 You shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf a year-old male lamb without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 The grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah[a] of wheat flour mixed with oil, a food offering made by fire to the Lord for a pleasing aroma; its drink offering shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.[b] 14 You shall eat neither bread nor grain, parched or fresh, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The Feast of Weeks(B)

15 You shall count seven full weeks from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf bundle of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. 17 You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of wheat flour, baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord. 18 You shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, one bull, and two rams. They shall be for a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, that is, a food offering made by fire, of a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 Then you shall sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 You shall make a proclamation on the same day and shall hold a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. It shall be a perpetual statute in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

22 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field up to the edge, nor shall you gather any gleaning of your harvest. You shall leave them to the poor and to the foreigner: I am the Lord your God.

The Feast of Trumpets(C)

23 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath, a memorial with the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no regular work, and you shall offer a food offering made by fire to the Lord.

The Day of Atonement(D)

26 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall humble yourselves, and offer a food offering made by fire to the Lord. 28 You shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For whoever is not humbled on that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. 30 And whoever does any work in that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall do no manner of work. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be to you a sabbath of complete rest, and you shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the month starting at the evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.

The Feast of Tabernacles(E)

33 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. 35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. 36 For seven days you shall offer food offerings made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day it shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall offer a food offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly, and you shall do no regular work.

37 These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer a food offering made by fire to the Lord, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, 38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord,

39 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep a feast to the Lord for seven days. On the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 40 You shall take on the first day the branches of majestic trees—branches of palm trees, branches of leafy trees, and willows from a brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native children of Israel shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

44 Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.

Footnotes:

  1. Leviticus 23:13 Likely about 7 pounds, or 3.2 kilograms; and in v. 17.
  2. Leviticus 23:13 About 1 quart, or 1 liter.
Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Mark 9:30-10:12

Jesus Again Foretells His Death and Resurrection(A)

30 They departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. 31 For He was teaching His disciples, saying, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. After He is killed, He will rise the third day.” 32 But they did not understand the teaching and were afraid to ask Him.

Who Is the Greatest?(B)

33 He came to Capernaum. And being in the house, He asked them, “What was it that you disputed among yourselves on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had disputed among themselves who was the greatest.

35 He sat down and called the twelve. And He said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

36 He took a child and set him in their midst. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one of these children in My name receives Me. And whoever receives Me receives not Me, but Him who sent Me.”

He Who Is Not Against Us Is for Us(C)

38 John answered Him, “Teacher, we saw one who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he was not following us.”

39 But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who does a miracle in My name can quickly speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, will not lose his reward.

Temptations to Sin(D)

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, 44 where

‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[a]

45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, 46 where

‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[b]

47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell, 48 where

‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[c]

49 Everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt.

50 “Salt is good. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

Teaching About Divorce(E)

10 He arose and went from there to the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan, and the people came to Him again. And again, as was His custom, He taught them.

The Pharisees came to test Him, asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”

They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to divorce her.”

Jesus answered them, “Due to the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’[d] ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.’[e] So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

10 In the house His disciples asked Him concerning this matter again. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Psalm 44:1-8

Psalm 44

For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.

We have heard with our ears, O God,
our fathers have told us
what work You did in their days,
in the days of old:
how You drove out the nations with Your hand,
and planted others instead;
how You afflicted peoples,
and sent them away.
For they did not take possession of the land by their own sword,
nor did their own arm save them;
but it was Your right hand, and Your arm,
and the light of Your countenance, because You had favor on them.

You are my King, O God;
command deliverances for Jacob.
Through You we will push down our opponents;
through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow,
nor will my sword save me.
But You have saved us from our opponents,
and have put to shame those who hate us.
In God we boast all the day long,
and give thanks to Your name forever. Selah

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Proverbs 10:19

19 In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
but he who restrains his lips is wise.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

02/27/2018 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 20:22-22:20, Mark 9:1-29, Psalms 43:1-5, Proverbs 10:18

Today is the 27th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. And it’s great to be here with you on the eve of the close of our second month together. Time does indeed fly. And coming to you for the last time from the Sea of Galilee on this pilgrimage. We’ll be heading out today and plenty to see on our way to where we will end up tonight in the city of Jerusalem. And we had a great day yesterday travelling up into the north country. And we’ll talk about that in a little bit. But let’s dive into the Scriptures for today. We’re reading from the Modern English Version this week. And we’ll pick up in the book of Leviticus where we left off yesterday. God is revealing statutes and decrees that will shape and form the community that He has brought out of slavery, His chosen people that are in the wilderness moving their way toward the promised land and being sculpted and shaped in the process. And, so, we’ll pick up where we left off. Leviticus chapter 20 verse 22 through chapter 22 verse 16 today.

Prayer:

Once again, Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all that it represents in our lives and its value. And we acknowledge that it shapes us and it transforms us as we remain in the rhythm of allowing it to speak into our lives each and every day. And we’re so thankful for such a gift. And, Father, we thank You for the opportunity to be here in the land of Galilee, the land that You choose to do so much ministry in. And we thank You for what it has represented to we who are here and we who are here virtually. We thank You that we can center ourselves in a geographical location while centering ourselves in the Scriptures and connecting those dots back to our hearts, allowing transformation to take place, and we are very, very grateful for that. You are a good Father and we are grateful. Plant these words into our hearts and lives, continuing the day by day sanctification, the transformation that happens little by little, day by day constantly, recreating us anew in the image of Your son. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, we’ve kind of reached the point of capacity and overload in this trip. This is just how it works. I  say at the very beginning to everybody who’s in attendance on that first evening, it’s going to be like drinking from a firehose and it is every bit of that. And, so, our minds and hearts are full and continuing to expand as we move day by day into different regions of this land, exploring all of the different facets and things that happened here. And yesterday we spent the day in north country. So, we went up to Mount Bental, which is right on the border of Syria. And it’s a place that you can see Mount Herman very, very clearly, although we couldn’t see it very, very clearly yesterday. The clouds had rolled in and Mount Herman was being shy. I don’t know why. Something must have embarrassed her or she was having a bad hair day or something, but she was shy and cloaked in the clouds. But we definitely took the opportunity to look into Syria even though it was in the clouds for the most part. We definitely took the opportunity to look in and just consider how much struggle is happening there and how many of our brothers and sisters in the kingdom who love Jesus are struggling as well and we remembered them and we prayed for them and we faced outward in this trip and considered how blessed we are even as we prayed for those who are struggling significantly right now across borders. And it was chilly up there for sure. So, we spent a little time in a radically different climate than we were in a few days ago when we were out in the wilderness. And then from there we went to the city of Caesarea Philippi, which was something that we encountered in our reading yesterday. So, it was really immediate to us. We had just read about it in the Scriptures and then there we were. And it’s a place where Jesus asked a tremendously important question, perhaps the most important question: ‘who do you say that I am?’ And we considered that as we toured around the ruins of ancient Caesarea Philippi and drank in the history and the geography of the place before then walking over and having a great lunch prepared at a family establishment of Lebanese folks. And then from there we got back on the bus and drove, I guess, maybe a little less than an hour to the ancient city of Dan, where the geography of the land once belonged to the tribe of Dan and explored those ancient ruins that have a long history. One of Jeroboam’s temples was in Dan. Of course, Dan is the northern boundary of the promised land. So, we have now covered from Dan down to Beersheba. So, as we were at Jeroboam’s temple, we explored the time of the divided monarchy, when Israel was no longer just Israel, it split and Israel was the northern ten tribes and then the kingdom of Judah in the south, which encompassed Jerusalem. King Jeroboam of Israel, of course we haven’t gotten to this in our Scripture reading this year, but he led the northern tribes into idolatry, which caused all kinds of problems, all kinds of problems between Judah and Israel, all kinds of problems for the tribes of Israel, which eventually ended when the Assyrian empire conquered Israel and they disappeared. So, we were able to touch that, root ourselves in that and then move forward. Ancient Dan had previously been called Laish and there are very, very ancient Canaanite ruins there, an ancient Canaanite gate, one of the oldest Canaanite structures in Israel is there in Dan. And, so, we were able to go back into the book of Genesis, back to the time of Abram, before he became Abraham. And Abram’s nephew Lot was captured as he was living down in the city of Sodom. And Abram had to go after him. And as the book of Genesis tells us, he pursued those who had taken his family all the way to Dan. And, so, finding this city gate of Dan, being able to look at them understanding that this goes all the way back into the book of Genesis, this is an ancient, ancient structure that Abraham himself may have passed through, is indeed a pretty striking thing to consider. And, so, we did. We considered that before moving on and beginning our journey back toward the Sea of Galilee with a stop in the ancient city of Hazor, which is a city we will encounter as we move forward in our reading this year once we get into the time of Joshua. And we’re not that far away from that, from that part of the story. Hazor was magnificent, huge, powerful, influential, mighty city of the north. In fact, the mighty city of the north. And once Joshua had come into the land with the children of Israel, and began winning battles that they shouldn’t have won, the king of Hazor amassed an allied army to do kind of away with these intruders and be done with them but that didn’t work out as well as they had planned. And, so, Hazor was destroyed and you can even see the burned remnants when the city was sacked from that time. And, so, we spent a little time there. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we spent some time there just looking the place over and again just rooting ourselves in the biblical narrative and understanding, I’m standing here. Like, that happened and it happened here. And then it was the end of the day, the sun was going down and we ended up in one of my favorite places back near the Sea of Galilee, the city of Bethsaida, where Jesus certainly did ministry, and some the disciples made their hometown. And it was perfect. It was perfect. We had spent the day in the clouds, some of the day with sprinkles, thankfully we didn’t get any downpours, but it’s chillier…a little more gloomy day. But by the time we got to the end of the day, the sun had broken through and it was just ideal, just perfect climate, sunset. I mean, the Galilean hillside there at Bethsaida, is just gorgeous. It’s a serene place of exquisite beauty and peace. And we’ve been putting in some long days.  We have been hard charging and really trying to drink in as much as possible with the time that we have and not waste anything. Just use every moment that we have to see everything that we can. So, having a few moments of serenity, of just a little bit of time to contemplate, spend some time meandering, wandering, considering the ancient history and just reconnecting with our hearts, reconnecting with God, it’s a beautiful…I mean…it’s my favorite, favorite place for that in the land of Israel. And as busy and congested as the Galilee can be, we had the place to ourselves, which was a gift in and of itself. And, so, we enjoyed that as we closed our time in the Galilee and then made our way back to the hotel for dinner and some sleep. And we’ll be off today. Much to do. But we’re saying goodbye to Galilee for this trip, and that’s always a little…a little bit sad I guess. There’s so much excitement in front, but that’s…you know, it’s such a beautiful, beautiful place.

So, we thank you all for your continued prayers. We’ve got several days out in front of us before we can make our long journeys back to our homelands and begin to recuperate. But, because, like I said, we’re hard charging and we’re tired, but in a good way. So, thank you for your continued prayers. We feel them, we know they’re there, we know we’re not alone, we appreciate it so, so deeply.

We are going to be coming back in 2019. We’ve made preparations for that, so that we could come back around the same time of year. And if this has been something that’s on your bucket list or something you’ve considered, maybe you want to come back and be here yourself next year. You can find out all about the planned pilgrimage for 2019 at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section if you want some more information.

The other thing that is coming up on the radar here is the More Gathering for women that we’ve been talking about for a while and it takes place in April. Man, it feels like it’s a long time away and a world away. It’s not a long time away. It currently is on the other side of the world, but it will take place in the mountains of Georgia at a beautiful time of year, just like it is a beautiful time of year here where new life is springing forth. So, if you’re a woman and you’re looking for more and you’ve been hearing this spoken of, then certainly do check it out at moregathering.com

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Man…I don’t…I mean…thank you. This has been a community effort from the get-go. And it’s still a community effort. And if the work that we do each day to bring the spoken word of God read fresh into your life brings life to you, then thank you for being life giving and return in any way that you can. Appreciate that so much.  There’s a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 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 Prayer and Praise:

Our Lord is able to do great and mighty things, things that we thought were impossible. And I want to thank Keith from New Hampshire because you gave me such renewed vision. This is Candace from Oregon. And you called and wanted us to pray for Asher and Annie as they approach their wedding. Lord, please do put Job’s hedge of protection around them. Help them to continue to turn themselves completely over to You in everything, in all things. And Keith I just want you to know that you gave me so much hope you know when you told the story of Asher you had raised up to be a godly man and then he turned 15 and starts hanging with the run people and doing all the wrong things. And Lord, I mean…family, I just want to share that, my children, I’m so concerned for them. They are now 40 and 36 and 33 years old and much closer than before to the kingdom, but I thought I had raised them really, really up in the Lord. And they really were right up until they hit puberty and I they, they’ve only come back so painfully slowly. And I pray they would come back fully and completely and turn themselves over to you Lord Jesus. Please, please come and let them…my grandchildren come to you also and know that You are the Lord and You are there their true heart, the place they need to run to. In Jesus name I ask this.

Daily Audio Bible family. This is Alphi calling from Delaware. I hope that every one of you is blessed and doing great. I was reading this article. It was entitled the 10 prayers God always answers. And there was a prayer at the end of that article that I thought I should share because it so dearly spoke to my heart. Here we go. Dear Lord, I want to grow in You and have more of You in my life. I pray that You would strengthen me in using me in my power to glorify You. I thank You for loving me and forgiving my sins each day every day. I pray You will reveal yourself in my life. Give me wisdom as to what I should do in every situation and strengthen my obedience and what You ask of me. Show me the right path to travel and correct my ways if I stray. Show me ways to show and spread Your love to those around me. Clear my mind to receive crystal-clear clarity when You speak. Help align my heart and mind in the purest form to an imitation of You. Thank You for answering all my prayers and Your perfect timing with Your perfect answer even though I may not always understand. In Your name I pray. Amen. I pray that we can wake up each day ask God to use us for His glory, to show us His way, to forgive us our sins, to use us as instruments of spreading love to those around us, to be able to ask for wisdom, to be able to listen and obey His will, and to always except when God answers, even when we don’t understand. Daily Audio Bible family, I love you guys.

Hi everyone it’s Christie from Kentucky. Thank you all so very much for praying for me. I had such a rough week last week. I don’t know what is going on. I was just mad. I was just really mad. I said I was mad and sad and sad and mad…just angry…and it’s just not like me to be that way. But I was just not myself at all…and I was just getting frustrated with so many people in my life…just…I felt so disappointed in so many different ways. You know, people tell you that you love you and then they go behind your back and talk about you and then it’s just not right. You know, and everybody wanting to get into your business when it’s none of their businesses and can’t stand it because they don’t know and oh…I don’t know…I’ve just…I’ve just been really going through this anger period. And somebody told me it was just part of the grief process, but I just don’t know. I’ve never felt this way before. I just got mean. So, anyway. I feel like I’m coming out of it. So, anyway thank you very much for praying. Listen, please pray for my friend Alan. Alan had a friend named Jacob and Jacob just had a massive heart attack and passed away. He was only 41. And he leaves behind his wife, Kayla and two small children ages nine and three. So, please pray for this family. You know, every time I do these things get mad or sad or go through these things I look around and see there are so many people that have so much bigger problems that I ever thought about having and I feel terrible. So anyway, asking the Lord to forgive me and just ask for grace. I love you guys so much I hope each of you are having a most blessed and lovely day.

Hello DAB family. This is Demetri calling back. It’s been a few months. I just wanted to update you guys on my situation with my wife. We’d been having lots of troubles and almost on the brink of divorce. So, your prayers and family support and all of our friends support in church and everybody in our lives. Their prayers and their support, that really…that really brought our marriage back together. And I just wanted to thank you guys first and God for bringing us back. And we’re stronger than ever. There’s definitely still a lot of questions unanswered and the future is unclear, but where praying to God to help us out and to give us the vision of the future. So, yeah, I wanted to thank you guys for the prayers thank God for His mercy and grace. Hope you guys are doing well. Everything is great in our family and our life. And I wanted to give that update. And call you back later for more prayers. You guys have a great day. I’ll talk to you guys later.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Ginger D. from Kentucky. I just wanted to let you know that I am praying for you, praying for all of you who are feeling lost, lonely, and disconnected, praying for all of you who are fighting financial stresses and distresses and are seeking help financially. I’m also praying for you if you are battling relationship problems, any other issues, PTSC, special anxiety, anything. I just want to let you know that I’m praying for you and that you’re not alone. I wanted to read Psalm 34 from The Message to you, a few verses. I bless God every chance I get. My lungs expand with his praise. I live and breathe God. If things are going well, hear this and be happy. Join me in spreading the news. Together, let’s get the word out. God met me more than halfway. He freed me from anxious fears. Look at Him. Give Him your warmest smile. Never hide Your feelings from Him. When I was desperate I called out and God got me out of a tight spot. God’s angels step up the circle of protection around us while we pray. Open your mouth and taste. Open your eyes and see how good God is. Blessed are you who run to Him. Worship God if you want the best. Worship opens doors to all His goodness. I just want to leave that encouragement with you. I love you. You’re not alone. And just continue seeking His face. God bless you. Have a good day. Bye-bye.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday February 27, 2018 (NIV)

Leviticus 20:22-22:16

22 You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My decrees and do them, so that the land to where I am bringing you will not vomit you out. 23 You shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24 But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from other peoples.

25 You shall therefore make distinction between the clean animal from the unclean, and the unclean fowl from the clean, and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that crawls on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. 26 You shall be holy unto Me; for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from other peoples, that you should be Mine.

27 A man or woman who speaks to spirits as a medium or necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.

Rules for Priestly Conduct

21 Then the Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, but for his closest relatives, that is, for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, and his virgin sister (who is near him because she has not had a husband), for her he may be made unclean. And he shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people because of the dead and so defile himself.

They shall not make bald areas on their heads, nor shall they shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the food of their God. Therefore they shall be holy.

They shall not take a wife who is a whore or has been defiled, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband, for he is holy unto his God. You shall sanctify him, for he offers the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.

The daughter of any priest, if she defiles herself by being a whore, she also defiles her father. She shall be burned with fire.

10 He who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his clothes; 11 nor shall he approach any dead body, nor make himself unclean, even for his father or his mother; 12 nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, so as not to defile the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord.

13 He shall take a wife in her virginity. 14 A widow, or a divorced woman, or a defiled woman, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take for a wife a virgin of his own people, 15 so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.

16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17 Speak to Aaron, saying: None of your offspring in their generations who has any blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. 18 For whoever has a blemish, he shall not approach, whether a blind or lame man, or one who has a physical flaw on his face or a limb that is too long, 19 or a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, 20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scabs, or is a eunuch. 21 No man who has a blemish from the offspring of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the food offerings of the Lord made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. 22 He shall eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy. 23 Only he shall not go in through the veil or come to the altar, because he has a blemish, so that he does not defile My sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

24 Moses spoke this to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

Holy Offerings

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and to his sons that they should be very respectful with the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not defile My holy name with those things which the people have consecrated to Me: I am the Lord.

Say to them: Whoever from your offspring through your generations approaches the holy things, which the children of Israel have dedicated to the Lord, while he has uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from My presence: I am the Lord.

If a man of the offspring of Aaron is a leper or has a discharge, he shall not eat of the holy offerings until he is clean. And whoever touches anything that is unclean by contact with the dead or a man who had an emission of semen, or whoever touches any crawling thing whereby he may be made unclean, or a man from whom he may receive uncleanness, whatever uncleanness he has, the person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy things unless he washes his body with water. When the sun goes down, he shall be clean, and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his food. That which dies of itself or is torn by animals he shall not eat, becoming unclean by it: I am the Lord.

They shall therefore keep My ordinance, lest they bear sin from it and therefore die if they defile it: I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

10 There shall be no outsider[a] who eats of a holy thing, whether a foreign guest of the priest or a hired servant, he shall not eat of a holy offering. 11 But if a priest buys a person with his money, the person acquired shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house shall eat of his food. 12 If the priest’s daughter marries an outsider, she may not eat of an offering of the holy things. 13 But if the priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child and has returned to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; but no outsider may eat of it.

14 If a man eats the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall add a fifth of the value to it and shall give the holy thing to the priest. 15 They shall not defile the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, 16 and cause them to suffer and to bear the iniquity of guilt when they eat their holy things, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

Footnotes:

  1. Leviticus 22:10 Or stranger.
Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Mark 9:1-29

And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

The Transfiguration(A)

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain, alone by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. His garments became shiny, extremely white as snow, such as no launderer on earth could whiten them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses. And they were talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three sanctuaries: one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, because they were very afraid.

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.”

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus only.

As they came down the mountain, He warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept that statement to themselves, questioning each other what the rising from the dead meant.

11 And they asked Him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come?”

12 He answered, “Elijah indeed comes first to restore all things. Yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13 But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”

The Healing of a Boy With an Unclean Spirit(B)

14 When He came to His other disciples, He saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes disputing with them. 15 Immediately when all the people saw Him, they were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.

16 He asked the scribes, “What are you debating with them?”

17 One in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 Wherever it takes hold on him, it dashes him to the ground. And he foams at the mouth and gnashes with his teeth and becomes rigid. And I told Your disciples so that they would cast it out, but they could not.”

19 He answered, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”

20 So they brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit dashed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

21 He asked his father, “How long has it been since it came to him?”

He said, “From childhood. 22 Often it has thrown him into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23 Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!”

25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more.”

26 The spirit cried out and convulsed him greatly. But it came out of him, and he was as dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

28 When He had entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

29 He said to them, “This kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting.”

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Psalm 43

Psalm 43

Vindicate me, O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation;
deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
For You are the God of my refuge;
why have You rejected me?
Why do I walk about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
Send out Your light and Your truth.
Let them lead me;
let them bring me to Your holy hill,
and to Your dwelling place.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to the God of my joyful gladness;
with the harp I will give thanks to You,
O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
for I will yet give Him thanks,
the salvation of my countenance and my God.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Proverbs 10:18

18 He who hides hatred has lying lips,
and he who spreads slander is a fool.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

02/26/2018 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 19:1-20:21, Mark 8:10-38, Psalms 42:1-11, Proverbs 10:17

Today is the 26th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. And it is great to be here with you again, coming to you from the Galilee, from near the Sea of Galilee, which is always a fun thing to say, and an even more fascinating thing to do. We had a fantastic day yesterday. Busy, very busy, very highly concentrated. And we’ll talk about that in a little bit. And we’ll be heading to the north today, up on to the Golan Heights, but we’ll get to all of that in a little bit. So, this week we’re reading from the Modern English Version, which, of course, is what we’ll do today. And as is the custom, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. We’re in the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament. We’ll read chapter 19 verse 1 through 20 verse 21 today. And, of course, right now we’re moving through the laws and statues that will govern these people, who are wandering in the wilderness on their way to the Promise Land. So, we begin with Leviticus.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word because it keeps us on the way of life and it holds up a mirror in front of us, revealing the contrast, the difference between who we really are and who we’re portraying ourselves to be. And we thank You because it continually corrects and encourages us forward. It continually invites us to change from within. And we change from within by surrendering to You, opening ourselves to union with You, which is who we were created to be. So, come Holy Spirit, we ask, in the name of Jesus, and plant these words in our lives, changing us from the inside out, and inviting us to be an agent of change in the world. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Alright, so yesterday we spent the day within just a few miles radius, well, we covered much ground nonetheless. We began by going to the Mount of Beatitudes, the traditional site where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, which is essentially the central teaching that has become the Christian faith. And rather than talking about how it happened or the context for it or who was there or how they got there or any of that stuff, we simply sat down together, opened the Scriptures and read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety as if we were one of the people that had come there to hear this rabbi named Jesus who had an obvious anointing from God upon his life and we listened to his words. And then we stood up and walked away. I mean, we walked all around the site but we stood up and walked around after having just heard the Sermon on the Mount as if Jesus had just spoken it and allowed it to wash over us and challenge us because it’s challenging, which is certainly an intriguing way to begin a day. And from there, we began to visit a couple of the cities that Jesus ministered in, certainly, Chorazin was the first stop. Of course, the scriptures say, ‘woe to you Chorazin’. And true to that prediction, Chorazin is an archaeological site.  It’s ruins now, but they’re pretty spectacular to see. There’s a synagogue there that would have likely been a place where Jesus ministered. It’s, of course, a village near the sea of Galilee. So, people from Chorazin would have followed around with Jesus and known who he was and listened to his teachings. And it’s fascinating to see, not just the synagogue, but also the way that they would have done agriculture, and the ruins of places they would have lived, knowing that people lived in these buildings, walked out their front door on certain days and went to listen to Jesus. It’s just…it’s fascinating to begin to place yourself in the exact places where these things happened. And it was a lovely day. Temperatures were great. And everything is becoming green and lush and beautiful in the Galilee. And it’s just magical this time of year. And once we left Chorazin, we went down to Jesus’ hometown, right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and were able to, literally, see places where Jesus taught, healed, lived, ate, drank, laughed, slept, lived a fully human life. And Capernaum, of course, is very, very famous, very holy site because it’s Jesus hometown, so there’s always a lot of visitors in Capernaum. In Chorazin, we had the place to ourselves. In Capernaum we didn’t. And we never do, but it’s nice to see brothers and sisters from all over the world, all on their own journey. And Capernaum is one of the most disruptive places for me to go when we come to this land because it’s ground zero…because it’s…I mean, the world changed from that home base. And it’s such an unlikely story. And, so, there’s so much to see and contemplate. And I walked around a little bit by myself and just looked at all the dwellings and realized the same thing I was realizing in Chorazin. People walked out their front doors and would have been able to walk over to where Jesus was staying and visit. I mean, what we have in the Scriptures is Jesus moving about and ministering the kingdom of heaven and teaching and all that, but there were the home times, the times that aren’t recorded in Scriptures, where Jesus is just having dinner, or just having a normal conversation that isn’t necessary a teaching moment…just…’how did fishing go today?’ ‘It’s good to see you.’ ‘How are the kids?’ You can get a sense of that when you’re actually in these places. And a lot of times we’re looking for the extraordinary, we’re looking for the extravagant, or sensational, but Jesus was very, very rooted in the way that people respond and interact with each other, very, very rooted in the normal. Which is really beautiful and disruptive at the same time because it’s God being willing to be in personal contact and interaction in a very normal way with humanity. As He still is today. And we still kind of look for the sensational. We look for the magic. And sometimes forget that God is a part and wants to be a part in collaborating in our everyday normal routines. And Capernaum kind of brings that out if you’re looking for it. And we climbed back on the bus and, you know, just went to the other side of Capernaum and got on a boat and sailed out into the Sea of Galilee and it was just a very, very calm day. We’ve been out on the Sea of Galilee when it’s kind of choppy and really windy. And it was super calm. Really, really, lovely. We began to sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and we cut the engines on the boat once we got a little ways out and just enjoyed a moment of silence, something that we don’t really get to experience on a trip like this much, unless we’re asleep. But sometimes when you still yourself, calm yourself down, become silent, you realize just how much noise you’re making, and how much noise there is all around you all of the time, and what a distraction that can be, to the point that silence is actually the disruptive thing. But in the silence, this is where we hear God speaking to us and giving us direction. And, so, it gives us, not only a chance to experience some calm and serenity and some silence, but to become aware just how much running, running, running, noise, noise, noise is all around us and that we’re making. And then we wonder why it is we can’t get clear direction or hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. So, learning to still ourselves is such a good practice. We could hear the sound of the water. We could hear the distinct call of the seagulls. And all of the sudden we realized nature is speaking the glory of the Lord all around us. And we’re so full of artificial noise that we rarely even pay attention. So, we got to experience just a few minutes of silence, but what a rejuvenating few minutes that was on a beautiful, beautiful day. And once we docked, we had some lunch, did a little shopping along the northern part of the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. And this would have been the home of Mary Magdalene. And, of course, it wasn’t named after her. She was Mary from Magdala – the Magdalene. Kind of like I’m Brian from Nashville. I’m a Nashvillian. But there’s a synagogue that has been discovered there in recent years that hasn’t had any kind of church built on top of it. And that’s fascinating, to think that this is the actual bedrock, a place that Jesus would have probably ministered because of its immediate proximity to his hometown and all of the other villages in the nearby area that he did most of his ministry. And just beginning to realize that Jesus ministry was very, very localized. It’s not that he didn’t go other places, He did. But most of his ministry was really, really, centrally located, right around the northern part of the Sea of Galilee. And so Magdala is a fascinating place to go. And then the last stop of the day was a place called Peter’s primacy. A place that’s been venerated as the place where Jesus pressed in on Peter, you know, ‘do you love me? Feed my sheep.’ And we just discussed what happened there, Jesus kind of sharing with Peter how things were going to go for Him and how the last words of Jesus in the New Testament are, ‘you follow me.’ And that was a response to Peter. Jesus was sharing with Peter a glimpse into his future and he looks at John and says, well what about him? And Jesus responds, ‘what is that to you? You follow me’. And those words, every time that I think of them, every time that I read them in Scripture, every time that we’re here, it’s very penetrating because, man, we’re looking at what everybody else is doing so much of the time. And we can catch ourselves and hear Jesus words, ‘What is that to you? You follow me.’ And it’s a great way to end the day. And that’s what we did. We went from there just down to the banks of the Sea of Galilee. It’s one of the places you can go and get right next to the water and just find a place to sit down or just walk around, pick up a rock, just think about that. And allow ourselves to  realize just how much of the comparison game we’re actually playing. So, it was really, really a beautiful day today. Kind of an exhausting day, because there’s a lot of jostling around even though there’s not a lot of travel. So, we got some rest and we’ll be heading north today and we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Of course, we’re continuing to post things as they happen here on the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page and Instagram. So, you can check all that out, see the places that I was just talking about. And we continue to thank you for your prayers over all the moving around and all the exhaustion that sets in and all of the things that have to be done to keep the logistics for a trip like this moving in the same direction and technology and health. We thank you, thank you, thank you. Just knowing that we’re here and we’re in this together, but we’re in this with a larger community of thousands and thousands and thousands of people and just knowing that you’re thinking of us and praying for us when we come to mind is so encouraging and so comforting. So, thank you for your prayers.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. Thank you for clicking that link. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 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 Prayer and Praise:

Hi my Daily Audio Bible family. This is Stan, The Perseverer, from Maryland. Over the past few years income from traditional employment has simply invaded me. I believe this is because of my age. I’m 62. Soon to be 63 and Hold an MBA. And the jobs that I seek, I just don’t get interviewed for. So, I’ve decided to seek a nontraditional income source by starting an e-commerce business form. Please pray that God will extend His hand of mercy and grace, wisdom, knowledge, humility and favor over me with this e-commerce business that I’m starting to develop. And also, I am so thirsty for God’s gracious and to free me from the money worries I’ve had since 2011. Over those four years I’ve suffered through divorce, financial challenges, intermittent employment, bankruptcy, loss of family relationships, and life purpose. I covet your prayers to break this financial stronghold and restore me unto the joy of thy salvation as Psalm 51 declares. I love you all. Have a great day.

Hello DAB Family. This is joyful noise from Southern California. I’m calling in because I love all of the…I’ve been listening to all the responses to Lent. I love the story about the socks. That’s an awesome story. What a great opportunity to share the message of Christ with others __ that lady at the store. And how interesting it is she offered you socks because there were on sale. God works in mysterious ways. I’m calling because I wanted to share a quick little lent story. And I called a couple days ago butt hung up without pressing all the correct numbers and don’t believe it recorded and God prompted me again to call in today. So, lent is a lovely…Brian says Lent doesn’t have…you know…a certain Lent in the Lentin process. It doesn’t have anything to do with how holy we are or how sanctified we become or whatever. It’s just a reminder. Jesus gave up so much. God gave up His only son and Jesus gave up all the power that He had access to, even unto His own life. And for us to give up these small little things is really nothing that can speak towards our holiness or whatever. It’s just is an opportunity to…if we’re missing something in our lives to see…well…is that starting to take the place for me of God. And rather than running to God I run to this thing, whatever that thing might be. And for me, I have issues with sleep that I’ve had for years. I’m not a good sleeper. And, so, I’ve been listening to audiobooks to fall asleep at night. And every single night, probably, I want to say for like, years. And I don’t know when the process began, but I realized that, you know what, as I prayed about Lent this year, maybe that’s what I need to give up. And I will tell you guys, it has been hard. But not as hard as giving up my own son as God did. Right? And it’s made me mindful of what I’ve turned to instead of…

Hello this is Judith calling from Reading in England, UK. I’m calling to respond to Kurtis who’s the dad of Kingston. It’s the 22nd February today and I heard your call about Kingston, your son struggling with depression and anxiety even though he’s only eight. I was really moved by that. My family, pretty much all of us apart from my dad, have struggled with mental health problems. Particularly my mom and brother are now my sister and myself struggle with postnatal exacerbation and anxiety. And it’s tough. And sometimes I think it’s harder when it someone else rather than ourselves to witness that and have, maybe, little control. But I want to pray now for Kingston. We know we are going to suffer in this life. Jesus has said we are going to have trouble in this life, but do not fear, because He’s overcome this world even though there’s struggle. So, He’s not unrealistic about what we’re going to experience, but He’s able to work for your good and for your sons good in this. But I’m praying he’s going to be delivered because it’s struggle and it’s just not from the Lord. Father, please rejuvenate with Kingston. Father, we so grieve to hear that he’s struggling with these thoughts as __ his father, it’s not what you intended. But thank You, that You can breakthrough. You said that You’ve come to set the captives free. And you can set him free from this captivity to fearful thoughts. And Lord, You said you’re not giving the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind, that you would bring that sound mind to him…

Hello DABballonians this is Kevin from California. It’s been sometime since I’ve called in but I’m still around, still listen every day, still listen to all of your prayer request, and I am praying for you all. I would ask that you continue to pray for my three sons: Levi, Moses and Toccoa. I’m still asking and trusting God to reconcile my three sons and I. And the grief gets very high sometimes. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes it gets unbearable, being separated from my sons like this. And my faith is in the Lord. And I’m trusting my God and what He’s doing. And Kurtis in Cali, I want to pray for your son Kingston. Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit, I pray for Kingston. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would rest upon Kingston’s mind, his heart, and soul. I pray God that You would make Yourself known to Kingston. Let Kingston have Your piece God. We pray that You would settle his little heart God, that You would have mercy on his soul, that he would be saved, that he would go to heaven, and that he would have a surety of that, that You are His Savior. Lord, we pray for peace. I pray for Kurtis, that you would give him just a loving heart is a father. Help him to always be there for his son Kingston. And help him not to miss a moment, not to miss a divine appointment with his son. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

This is Robert. I’m calling in for the third time from Indiana. And I am a college student. I just want to give a shout out to the father who has a son named Kingston and who’s going through depression right now. I can understand just the toll that that has with your family. And I just want to let you know that you’re not alone and God is with him wherever he is. I’d also like prayers for myself as well. I have been struggling with finding my place and just wherever I am in college and in life and relationships and I need help towards accepting to put God’s glory above all else and set aside my own desires and wants for my life. So, if I could just get prayers for that, that’d be great. I love you guys. Thank you.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday February 26, 2018 (NIV)

Leviticus 19:1-20:21

Moral and Ceremonial Laws

19 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you will keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves cast metal gods: I am the Lord your God.

When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you might be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the next day, and if any remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, then it is contaminated. It shall not be accepted. Therefore everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has defiled what is holy of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people.

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap up to the edge of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You shall not glean bare your vineyard, nor shall you gather every fallen grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.

11 You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.

12 You shall not swear falsely by My name, and so defile the name of your God: I am the Lord.

13 You shall not defraud your neighbor or rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not stay with you all night until the morning.

14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

15 You shall do no unrighteousness in a court. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person who is great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.

16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, nor shall you stand by while the life of your neighbor is in danger: I am the Lord.

17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely reason honestly with your neighbor, and not suffer sin because of him.

18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

19 You shall keep My statutes.

You shall not let your livestock breed with a different kind.

You shall not sow your field with mixed seed, nor shall your garment be mixed from two types of fabric.

20 Whoever lies with a slave woman who is betrothed to another man and not yet ransomed or given freedom, compensation will be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 21 He shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. 22 The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has done, and he will be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.

23 When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall count the fruit as forbidden.[a] Three years it shall be forbidden to you. It shall not be eaten. 24 But in the fourth year all the fruit shall be holy and an offering of praise to the Lord. 25 And in the fifth year you shall eat of the fruit that it may yield an increase to you: I am the Lord your God.

26 You shall not eat anything with the blood in it, nor shall you practice divination or fortune-telling.

27 You shall not round the corners of the hair on your head, nor shall you mar the edges of your beard.

28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

29 Do not prostitute your daughter and cause her to be defiled, lest the land fall into whoredom and become full of wickedness.

30 You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary: I am the Lord.

31 Do not turn to spirits through mediums or necromancers. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

32 You shall rise up before a gray head, and honor the face of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.

33 When a foreigner sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 The foreigner who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

35 You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment regarding measures in length, weight, or quantity. 36 You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah,[b] and an honest hin:[c] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

37 Therefore you shall observe all My statutes and all My judgments and do them: I am the Lord.

Penalties for Violating the Law

20 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: Whoever from the children of Israel or from the foreigners who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molek, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him. I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molek to defile My sanctuary and to defile My holy name. If the people of the land in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives of his children to Molek and do not put him to death, then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut them off from their people, both him and those who follow after him as whores after Molek.

The person who turns to spirits through mediums and necromancers in order to whore after them, I will even set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My statutes, and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood guilt shall be upon him.

10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.

12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed a perversion. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.

13 If a man lies with another man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.

14 If a man lies with a woman and also her mother, it is wickedness. Both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there is no wickedness among you.

15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.

16 If a woman approaches an animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.

17 If a man lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or mother, they have exposed each other’s nakedness; it is a wicked thing and they shall be cut off from the sight of their people. He has exposed his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.

18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and exposes her nakedness, her fountain of blood is then exposed. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

19 You shall not have relations with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for this is to expose the nakedness of one’s relative. They shall bear their iniquity.

20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness. They shall bear their sin. They shall die childless.

21 If a man lies with his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has exposed his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.

Footnotes:

  1. Leviticus 19:23 Or uncircumcised.
  2. Leviticus 19:36 A dry measure of about ⅗ of a bushel, or 22 liters.
  3. Leviticus 19:36 A liquid measure of about 1 gallon, or 3.8 liters.
Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Mark 8:11-38

The Demand for a Sign(A)

11 The Pharisees came up and began to debate with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him. 12 He sighed deeply in His spirit and said, “Why does this generation look for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” 13 Then He left them and, entering the boat again, departed to the other side.

The Yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod(B)

14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread and did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 He warned them, “Take heed. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”

16 They reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.”

17 Being aware of it, Jesus said to them, “Why do you reason that you have no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts still hardened? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear?[a] And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?”

They said to Him, “Twelve.”

20 “And the seven among the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?”

They said, “Seven.”

21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

The Healing of a Blind Man at Bethsaida

22 He came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Him and entreated Him to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. When He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see men as trees, walking.”

25 Then again He put His hands on his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. 26 He sent him home away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell it to anyone in the town.”

Peter’s Declaration About Jesus(C)

27 Jesus and His disciples went out into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”

28 They answered, “John the Baptist, but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

29 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered Him, “You are the Christ.”

30 He warned them that they should tell no one about Him.

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection(D)

31 He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said this openly. And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him.

33 But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

34 When He had called the people to Him, with His disciples, He said to them, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever would lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whoever therefore is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Psalm 42

BOOK TWO

Psalms 42–72

Psalm 42

For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.

As the deer pants after the water brooks,
so my soul pants after You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they always say to me,
“Where is your God?”
When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I would travel with the throng of people;
I proceeded with them to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and thanks,
with a multitude making a pilgrimage.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted in me?
Hope in God,
for I will yet thank Him
for the help of His presence.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
therefore I will remember You
from the land of Jordan,
and of the Hermon, from the hill of Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the noise of Your waterfalls;
all Your waves and Your billows
passed over me.

Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
and in the night His song will be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to God, my rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 With shattering in my bones,
those harassing me reproach me,
when they say to me every day,
“Where is your God?”

11 Why, my soul, are you cast down?
Why do you groan within me?
Wait for God;
I will yet thank Him,
For He is my deliverance and my God.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Proverbs 10:17

17 He who keeps instruction is in the way of life,
but he who refuses reproof errs.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

02/25/2018 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 16:29-18:30, Mark 7:24-8:9, Psalms 41:1-13, Proverbs 10:15-16

Today is the 25th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we cross the threshold into a brand-new shiny, sparkly, week. And I’m coming to you today from the Sea of Galilee area. And we’ll be spending our time today all around the Sea of Galilee, just following in the footsteps of Jesus. And that’s going to be amazing. It always is. So, it’s great to be here with you from the land of the Bible and the region were Jesus did most of his ministry. And I’m excited to share with you all of the things that we did yesterday, which we’ll do as a as we conclude today, but where the beginning. So, let’s center ourselves and immerse ourselves in the Scriptures. So, as we go into this new week we’ll read from the Modern English Version. And, as always, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 29 through 18 verse 30 today.

Prayer:

Father, we than You for Your word and the richness of its tapestry and the way that it weaves it’s tapestry into the fabric of our lives, transforming us from within and changing the way we look at everything. And Lord as we spend some time here in the land of the Bible we see so clearly how true that really is and we thank You for the gift that You have given us in a tangible way through Your word. And we ask that You plant that deep within us, that we open ourselves completely to You and ask that You continue to transform us by and through Your word. As we continue to take steps forward each and every day in community. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, man, it feels like weeks have gone by here in the land of the Bible because we’re just moving around a lot, seeing a lot, drinking in a lot, experiencing a lot. And quite a day we had our first day in the Galilee area yesterday. So, we arrived the previous night after dark and awoke and were able to see the remarkable beauty that the Galilee provides, especially this time of year. It’s just breathtakingly beautiful and we had a breathtakingly beautiful day yesterday. I guess probably about as close to perfect as it gets. The weather was spectacular and everything was alive with life as we boarded the buses and headed out. And our first stop was in Cana of Galilee, which the Scriptures tell us was the location for Jesus first miracle, which was the changing of water into wine. And, of course, that took place at a wedding ceremony, wedding celebration. And there’s a church, there’s a couple of them that just sit are around this spot that has been venerated for a very, very long time. So, we were able to experience some of that, some of the archaeology. It’s like, you know, places that are holy sites that have been associated with certain events, a lot of times there is a church built upon a church built upon church built upon a church and you have to go down under the ground and find the ancient ruins of the previous structure. And that’s what you can do in Cana. But before all of that, we were able to come together and many of the couples here were renewing their vows of marriage and just considering the story that they are telling with their marriages and their time together. And I guess there were maybe 30, 35 couples. And we all got into the chapel together, bore witness to these renewal of vows, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing, just contemplating the centuries of marriage represented in the room and the long winding paths that each marriage and the stories and the children, all that has come from that hard work of staying married and being married. And just acknowledging that that’s a miracle in and of itself. What a beautiful, beautiful time that was. So, we spent some time there and then began to get back on the buses and move out. Our next stop was the ancient city of Betz Xian, which dates all the way back to Canaanite times, all the way through Byzantine times. So, thousands of years, dating back to before Abraham all the way through the Roman times in this area and beyond. And the ruins that are there are some of the most spectacular that we get to see. They’re just…the scale, the scope, what is there…it’s pretty, pretty amazing to say the least. And it’s only a fraction of what is under the earth. Betz Xian was one of the cities that we find in the New Testament as a Decapolis city. So, one of the major, major cities of the region. And if you’ve ever visited their you know why. It’s truly, truly amazing. So, we went into the amphitheater, the old ancient Roman amphitheater, and just kind of sat down, opened the Scriptures and read of the final battle in King Saul’s life. And we haven’t got to that story this year yet, but we will. King Saul was the first king of Israel and his reign was an interesting one, to say the least, and we’ll get to all that. But he ended up dying in battle with the Philistines. And when they discovered that they had killed him and battle they took his body and, according to the Scriptures, hung it from the walls of Betz Xian. So, yeah, those walls, remnants of those walls still exist. So, we situated ourselves in the Scriptures and then spent some time just wandering around. It’s pretty remarkable just wandering around and contemplating what it what it must’ve been like in its heyday, and all of the lives and times in history that is beneath and above the ground there. So, we spent a good amount of time just enjoying that. And then we had a nice lunch together. And back up on the east side of the Sea of Galilee to a place called Curcy, which is the site where Jesus threw the demons out of a man’s life and into a herd of swine, which then ran down into the water and drowned. And there’s just so much to be considered there because of the reaction of the people. This man who was demon possessed had become a disruptive force in the region. Everybody knew him and he lived among the graves. And, so, for them to come down off the hills and see that he was in his right mind, but this swine were bobbing in the Sea of Galilee was disruptive to say the least. And their reaction to this authority and power was to ask Jesus to leave. And that’s easy to apply to our own lives, how the Lord moves in disruptive ways and how we back off, become afraid, even though it’s what we’re praying for. But we back off and become afraid and ask Him to leave, in thought, word, or deed. And we were…and such a beautiful day…we were able to take a generous amount of time and just meander a little bit, contemplate a little bit before getting back on the buses and heading up onto the Golan Heights, where we were able to look down upon the ruins of another city, another city of the Decapolis, named Hippos Dosita. It’s not a place where you can go to by road. It’s not a place that can be accessed by bus. So, this was as close as we could get, but we could see it. And the man who had been healed by Jesus throwing the demons out of him began to tell what He had done for him all the way through the entire region, including Hippos. So, we connected the story there. And it’s also just a unique view of the Sea of Galilee and just…on a day like yesterday…absolutely beautiful. That place isn’t really a tourist stop, so buses aren’t going through there a lot. We found it, actually several years ago, just looking for a vantage point that we could access Hippos for the Promise Land films.  So, we’ve gone up there a couple times. Very, very unique view. And then we came back down the Golan Heights, back to our hotel, got freshened up, had dinner, and then we did our Facebook Live last night from the Galilee area. And that’s always a wonderful time of just the community here coming together because we’re on a couple of buses. So, everybody’s just kind of coming together and being able to hear and process what we’re feeling, sensing, seeing, doing, and share that live and just interact with people from around the world. And that’s beautiful. And you can re-watch that if you haven’t seen it yet at facebook.com/dailyaudiobible. And, of course, we’re posting pictures and videos and all that kind of stuff as we do things here in the land of the Bible and making this an interactive virtual trip for…well…just a community experience. We’re experiencing great community here in the land of the Bible, but we’re a community at the Daily Audio Bible all over the world so that everybody can’ be here, but that doesn’t mean we can use technology to our advantage and make it as much of a community experience as the technology will allow us to do. So, we continue to do that. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook. That’s where we’re posting all of this. And like I said, today we’ll be spending our time all around the Sea of Galilee walking in the footsteps of Jesus. And I’ll be able to share what that looked like tomorrow. I can’t share it now. It hasn’t happened yet, but we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. Thank you, humbly and profoundly for your partnership. What we do in building community around the rhythm of the Scriptures is something that has to be done in community. And, so, thank you for your partnership.

Couple things to look forward to on the calendar.

If you want to come to the land of the Bible with us next year in 2019, you can definitely do that and find out the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Initiatives section. Just look for Israel 2019. I’m told that that trip is approaching half full already. So, check that out. And maybe you can be here live in person, experiencing this for yourself next year. And I hope you can.

The other thing is coming up is the More Gathering for women back across the ocean in the land of Georgia as opposed to the land of Galilee. This takes place in the mountains of Georgia just outside of Atlanta about an hour. And that’s coming up this April. So, if you’re a woman looking for more. The More Gathering it is all about exploring that. And you can find all the details about that at dailyaudiobible.com, also in the Initiatives section or just go to moregathering.com for all of the details that you would want to know.

And if you have a prayer request or comment, there is a number you can dial, 877-942-4253 is that number.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good evening Daily Audio Bible family. This is Sean calling once again out of South Carolina. This time reaching out for our sister in the faith Cherry Pie, Cherry Chase. Dear Lord God, right now in the name of the Lord Jesus I pray that You will bless Cherry’s business. Lord God that You would flood her with investors, master that You will provide and become Jehovah Gyra in her business, master that You will bless every aspect of every affair in her business. Lord God, from the foundation to the top of the roof, that you will cover any and every element of this business with Your goodness Lord God, that You will rain down blessing upon blessing upon blessing upon her business. Lord God, we thank You and we count it all done. In the name of the Lord Jesus we pray. Amen. Hey sister Cherry Pie. I love whenever you call. There’s something about your voice that, over the years as I’ve heard you, I don’t know, I feel like I’ve had a connection. I think that’s because you sound like my aunt Juanita. I don’t know. But, anyway, I know that it’s not easy being an entrepreneur. I applaud your effort and I’m continuing to pray for you and…

Hi this is Cecilia from Northern California. I was in tears yesterday at the gym while I was listening to the DAB. One, for Wayfaring Wanderer from Western Canada with her broken family and her ex-husband. I just want to know, I’ve been praying for you fervently. And as well Deborah in Michigan, your injuries sustained in the accident being hit by a semi. Praise God your granddaughters are fine, but Lord, you know her injuries. I just pray for healing and I’m praying for you Deborah. And Blind Tony, what praise that it hasn’t metastasized throughout your body. And I am praying for comfort and encouragement for you as well. I was just so touched, like I am most days. Lord, I just pray that You are with these dear people. You know their needs and I ask You to intervene in their lives. Thank You for who You are. We praise You for who You are. And I pray this through the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello Daily Audio Bible. This is Forest from Canada. I am the husband of Melody from Canada. Melody…we have some great news…and some prayer requests as well. Big news from us is, we are pregnant. Thank you for anyone who prayed for us during the whole process. I want to lift up my wife to you right now because she is feeling nausea and a lot of morning sickness. And due to her previous history of mental illness, we are trying to get her admitted to the hospital so that she can be weld care for. So, I would like the DAbbers community to pray for my wife, that she will receive the right treatment at the right time. And pray for me as well as I can be a great support for her. Thank you again for listening. This is Forest from Canada.

Hi there family. This it’s Viv calling from Canada. I’m just calling to ask you to pray with me for Brian and the team. So, holy Father Lord God Almighty, we join the DAB community in praying for Brian and every other person on the 2018 Bible land pilgrimage. Father God, thank You for getting everyone there safely and we pray for Your continued grace for protection against everything that is not of You Lord. We pray for stamina, good health, and alertness for everyone. __ every aspect of the daily broadcast Lord and bless the tech team as they do their thing Lord. And I pray that You help them to make everything run smoothly and so that there is no disruption. I pray for Your blessing on all of this Lord. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Brian and Jill, thank you guys so much just for your obedience to God and your commitment in doing this every day. Just thank God for you. And I thank you two for your obedience. And I just ask that family we continue to hold them up in prayer as we do, of course. And on another note, Dwayne from Wisconsin, I think. I am joining you my brother in praying for the children of our DAB community members. And I’m going to step out on a limb, I’m just scaredy-cat in this, I’m going to do a 15 day challenge. So, the next time I call back, I’ll be starting my challenge. And I just pray Lord, for the Lord to help me stick to that because it’s been weighing heavily on my heart. Anyway, that’s it for now and that we hold down the fort until Brian comes back. Let’s just continue to hold…

Hey everybody this is Pelham from Birmingham or Addicted to Christ is my spiritual name that I go by. I’m calling it a pretty good mood today because there has been a ray of hope with the job that I was actually going to write down my line and would eventually be able to pay me more than enough to support my family and pay all my bills. So that’s all and down the line about two or three months, but for now we’re doing okay. We’ve still got power and the rent is paid this month, but not sure what’s going to happen here in about two weeks. I’m trusting in the Lord and I’m working as hard as I can. I worked about 14 hours yesterday, 12 hours, something like that. Went from one job straight to the job I really want to do. But I was calling today for prayer for my marriage. We are in a place now that I don’t think that there’s any coming back from. Things have been said by both parties that can’t be taken back and I’m calling in for prayer for that because I don’t want to lose, I don’t want to lose my wife. I don’t want to lose my son. I made a promise to God and I don’t want to break it, but I can’t…I can’t take what she’s doing to me at home right now…in my own home. I can’t start the day like this. Alright. Well, I’m still a good mood. Sorry about that. Okay. I hope everybody’s doing great. Thank you for the prayers. Blind Tony you’re in my thoughts. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is John calling from Bethlehem Pennsylvania. I hope everybody’s doing well today. It is the 21st of February at about 10:31 AM here on the East Coast. And it’s a bright and sunny day. The weather is supposed to be phenomenal today, almost 75° in February in Pennsylvania. Absolutely amazing. Family, the reason for my call this morning is twofold. First off, I just want to pray over the Daily Audio Bible trip through the promised land and I wanted to ask very quickly for some prayer. So, first off, heavenly Father Thank You so much for the opportunity to be able to serve You today. Father God, we just ask You to watch over, guide, and protect, provide wisdom, strength, courage, perseverance, great health, and an abundance of blessing over the technology required and transportation required for this trip through the promise land. We just ask that for Brian and his team and for every person that’s attending this incredible opportunity Father God. We just thank You for that. And family, I’d like to ask for your prayer. We are presently in the process of conducting our Alpha program at church. If you want to find out more about Alpha just take a look and do a Google search for Alpha. But would you please join me in prayer over what we’ve got going on there, that we may be able to be drawn closer to Jesus, learn more about our faith, come together in fellowship in that community, and then go out into the world and be light givers for everybody. Especially want to ask that my friend Frank Hedrington be prayed for in all of this as he leads us. Thank you guys.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday February 25, 2018 (NIV)

Leviticus 16:29-18:30

29 This shall be a perpetual statute for you so that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble yourselves, and do no work of any kind, whether it is the native citizen or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 31 It shall be a sabbath, a solemn rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. It is a perpetual statute. 32 The priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as a priest in the place of his father, shall make atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, the holy garments. 33 And he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, for the tent of meeting, and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation.

34 This shall be a perpetual statute for you to make atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year.

And Moses did as the Lord commanded him.

The Law About Eating Blood

17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them: This is the thing which the Lord has commanded, saying: If anyone of the house of Israel ritually slaughters an ox, a lamb, or goat in the camp, or slaughters it outside of the camp, and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, then blood guilt shall be accounted to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people. This is so that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them to the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the priest, and offer them for peace offerings to the Lord. The priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and burn the fat for a pleasing aroma to the Lord. They shall no more offer their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they have acted like whores. This shall be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations.

You shall say to them: Any man from the house of Israel, or from the foreigners who sojourn among you, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the Lord, even that man shall be cut off from among his people.

10 Whoever from the house of Israel, or from the strangers who sojourn among you, who eats any manner of blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. 12 Therefore I said to the children of Israel: No person among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.

13 Whoever from the children of Israel, or from the foreigners who sojourn among you, who hunts and catches any wild animal or fowl that may be eaten, he shall even pour out the blood and cover it with dirt. 14 For the life of every creature is its blood; in its blood is its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.

15 Every person who eats that which died of itself, or that which was torn by animals, whether he is a native citizen or a foreigner, he shall both wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Then he shall be clean. 16 But if he does not wash them or bathe his body, then he shall bear his iniquity.

Laws on Immoral Relations

18 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: I am the Lord your God. After the practices of the land of Egypt, from where you lived, you shall not follow, and after the practices of the land of Canaan, to where I will bring you, you shall not follow; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall follow My decrees and keep My ordinances to walk in them: I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does them, then he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

None of you shall approach any of his near relatives to have relations: I am the Lord.

You shall not have relations with your father or have relations with your mother. She is your mother. You shall not have relations with her.

You shall not have relations with your father’s wife, for this exposes your father’s nakedness.

You shall not have relations with your sister, whether your father’s or mother’s daughter, whether raised in the family or another home.

10 You shall not have relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for this exposes your own nakedness.

11 You shall not have relations with your father’s wife’s daughter who is raised in your father’s family, for she is your sister.

12 You shall not have relations with your father’s sister, for she is your father’s relative.

13 You shall not have relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s relative.

14 You shall not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother. You shall not approach his wife for relations; she is your aunt.

15 You shall not have relations with your daughter-in-law, for she is your son’s wife—you shall not have relations with her.

16 You shall not have relations with your brother’s wife, for this exposes your brother’s nakedness.

17 You shall not have relations with a woman and her daughter, nor shall you have her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, for this exposes the woman’s nakedness. They are all near relatives. It is depravity.

18 And you shall not have a woman as a rival wife, who is the sister of your other wife, for this is to expose her nakedness while her sister, your other wife, is still alive.

19 Also you shall not approach a woman to have relations as long as she is in her menstrual uncleanness.

20 Moreover, you shall not have relations with your neighbor’s wife to defile yourself with her.

21 You shall not let any of your children be offered through the fire to Molek, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

22 You shall not lie with a man as one does with a woman. It is an abomination.

23 You shall not lie with an animal to defile yourself, nor shall any woman lie with an animal. It is a perversion.

24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for in these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves. 25 And the land has become defiled; therefore I have punished its iniquity, and the land has vomited out her inhabitants. 26 But you shall therefore keep My statutes and My decrees, and you shall not commit any of these abominations, either the native citizen or any foreigner who sojourns among you 27 (for the people of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled), 28 lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

29 For whoever shall commit any of these abominations, those persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore you shall keep My ordinances, that you do not commit any one of these abominable customs which were committed before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Mark 7:24-8:10

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith(A)

24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He entered a house and would have no one know it. Yet He could not be hidden. 25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. And she begged Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

27 Jesus said to her, “Let the children first be filled. For it is not fitting to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

28 She answered, “Yes, Lord. Yet the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

29 Then He said to her, “For this answer, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

30 When she had come to her house, she found the demon had gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

The Deaf and Mute Man Healed

31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to Him one who was deaf and had difficulty speaking. And they pleaded with Him to put His hand on him.

33 He took him aside from the crowd, and put His fingers into his ears, and spat and touched his tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosened, and he spoke correctly.

36 He ordered them to tell no one. But the more He ordered them, the more they greatly proclaimed it. 37 They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

The Feeding of the Four Thousand(B)

In those days, the crowds being very great with nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have now been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar.”

His disciples answered, “Where can one get bread to feed these men here in the wilderness?”

He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”

They said, “Seven.”

He commanded the people to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves and giving thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to serve. And they served the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And blessing them, He commanded that these also be served them. So they ate and were filled. And they collected seven baskets of the broken pieces that were left. There were about four thousand who had eaten, and He sent them away. 10 He immediately entered a boat with His disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Psalm 41

Psalm 41

For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.

Blessed are those who consider the poor;
the Lord will deliver them in the day of trouble.
The Lord will preserve them and keep them alive,
and they will be blessed on the earth,
and You will not deliver them to the will of their enemies.
The Lord will sustain them on the sickbed;
You will restore all his lying down in his illness.

I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
And if people come to see me, they speak insincerely;
their heart gathers iniquity to itself,
when they go outside, they tell it.

All who hate me whisper together against me;
they devise harm against me.
“An evil disease clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
Yes, my own close friend,
in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread,
has lifted up the heel against me.

10 But You, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You favor me,
because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
and set me before You forever.

13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting and to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

Proverbs 10:15-16

15 The rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

16 The labor of the righteous tends to life,
the fruit of the wicked to sin.

Modern English Version (MEV)

The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.

02/24/2018 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 15:1-16:28, Mark 7:1-23, Psalm 40:11-17, Proverbs 10:13-14

Today is the 24th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. And Shabbat Shalom from Israel. Today is the Sabbath day here in the land of the Bible. And I love it when I can do this - greetings from the Sea of Galilee. We started our journey just a couple of days ago, which feels like a lot longer than that on the Mediterranean coast, wound our way into the wilderness, and we’ve been in the wilderness experiencing all that it has to offer and all and all that it offers us to contemplate over the last couple of days. And we get to this point in the trip and realize that we really are drinking from a firehose. It really is a lot to take in and a lot to think about. And God just…He begins to shift things inside. And then we get to transition into another place. And, so, we made our way to the Galilee. But I will talk about all of that in a little while. Because we have come to center ourselves in the Scriptures. It’s the end of the week and we’ve been reading from the God’s Word Translation this week, which is what we’ll do today, and then we’ll change tomorrow. But for today we’ll read Leviticus chapter 15 verse 1 through 16:28.

Commentary:

Alright, in the book of Leviticus, we have plenty of interesting things to talk about today. One of those things is this idea of a scapegoat and the word Azazel. The reason that that word remains in many translations is because that’s the Hebrew word and no one knows that word…like it’s an obscure Hebrew word that has been lost. However, this has been looked at from a scholarship perspective for a long time. And there is consensus. So, etymologists have broken the word down and essentially determined that the root or the core of this word means entire or complete removal. So, we don’t need to spend a bunch of time on that. It’s just a word that kind of pops up out of nowhere and you’re like, what does that mean? Basically, it’s just the origin of where we find or what we would call a scapegoat.

And we also had a fascinating discussion about bodily discharges and emissions, both male and female. Good times indeed. Would that we could only talk about this every day. Right? And remember when we were talking about this yesterday, one of the important things to observe God doing as He’s giving the law is that He is attaching very practical reasons, physical reasons, for the law’s existence with the spiritual implications of it. So, from a practical perspective, maybe it’s not every day that we talk about menstruation and saliva and semen in the context of the Bible, but from a practical perspective, we understand that  bodily fluids have the ability to transmit diseases. And, so, to avoid this, the concept that is being introduced is there are things that are clean and there are things that are unclean. And that concept is going to stick with that culture. And that concept continues to stick until today. So, if we were to come into contact for some reason with someone’s bodily discharge, however that may have happened, we’re probably going to wash our hands. Right? If we got it all over our clothes, we’re probably going to wash our clothes. We’re going to say it’s unclean. Not in a ritual way necessarily, but unclean nevertheless. And God is establishing that there is clean and there is unclean and it needs to be cleaned to be in His presence so that the tabernacle that’s wandering around with them in the desert doesn’t become contaminated in an unclean way. And rather than being a holy place, becoming a place that transmits disease. We can get this on a practical level, but from a spiritual perspective, we intuitively are aware that there is clean and unclean. And the things that we allow into our lives that are unclean are contaminating us. And the things that we bring into our lives that are clean are life giving. So, we can get this pretty easily and we can very much understand that if we were to come into contact with something that could transmit a disease to us or that was unclean, we would immediately take action to wash ourselves and clean ourselves to protect ourselves. Well, how often do we leave what is unclean inside of ourselves? How often do we let those things go? How often do we allow what is unclean contaminate us spiritually and then we’re willing to be carriers, we’re willing to transmit that uncleanness all around us? So, God is showing the people and us, yeah, you’ve got to stay clean or you could get sick, you could die. The same is true within us. Now, these spiritual implications, over time, began to be lost, so by the time we get into Jesus’ time, ritual purity was just that - ritual. And the holistic law that God was giving in the desert to keep people healthy physically and spiritually was beginning to be lost. And that was exactly what Jesus was talking about in today’s reading. He said, you abandoned the commandments of God to follow human tradition. You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions. Because of your traditions, you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And in this case, Jesus is talking about the law, the Torah. And, so, He says, listen, listen to me. Listen to me everybody. Try to understand this. Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. And He’s talking spiritually here. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. So, Jesus is reintegrating the fact that yes, all of these exterior things that you do to keep yourself healthy also have a spiritual application within you. You have to be just as vigilant about what is going on spiritually, what is going on within your heart, what is within you as you to try to stay healthy and clean on the outside. Or as Jesus put it, don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? It doesn’t go into his thoughts, but into his stomach, and then into a toilet. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean: evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameful lust, envy, cursing, arrogance and foolishness. These things come from within a person and make that person unclean. So, if we’re clean on the outside but unclean on the inside, then we are what Jesus would call white-washed tombs. Which invites us to consider, what are we allowing inside of us that is unclean and is making us sick? And precisely how long are we going to let this continue? Do we want to get well or not?

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit into that. There’s a lot there as there always is. A lot of things connected to a lot of things inside of us. And we have no real way of untangling without Your Holy Spirit’s help. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to begin to speak to us about the things that are making us unclean within. The things that we are allowing to continue to make us unwell. The things that are breaking our fellowship with You, our union with You, and making us sick. And we’re perpetuating it and making others sick because we’re sick. Come, Holy Spirit, show us the places that we are living unclean. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay, so as I mentioned, we’re coming to you from the Galilee region now. We spent the last couple of days wandering in the wilderness and maybe it doesn’t feel like forty years or a lifetime, but it feels like longer than a couple of days. And what a day we had yesterday. I mean, each day that we’ve been on this journey, we’ve had long distances to travel. And not every day is like that. These first few days are and today was no different. We had quite a ways to travel from the Dead Sea all the way to the Galilee with a number of things to do in between. And, so, we began our day at the Oasis of En Gedi, which is found in Scripture in Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, in the books of Chronicles. And, so, we walked out to this fresh water source that comes down to the Dead Sea and is fresh water in the desert. And once again opened the Scriptures to the time of King Jehoshaphat when a vast horde of multiple armies crossed the Red Sea and assembled at En Gedi to follow up the path to Jerusalem and attack and take it. And it was impossible odds. It’s like a recurring theme in the wilderness because there were impossible odds for the children of Israel at the Red Sea and we opened the scriptures there and we found the same thing. All you have to do is be still and watch what God will do. You will watch God fight and defeat your enemies and that’s exactly what happened in this case. And, so, there’s much to consider there as we consider our own thrashing about and the ways we often make things a lot worse than they need to be.

And then from En Gedi, we came all the way to the Eastern boundary of Israel, which is the Jordan River, to the site that has been traditionally held as the baptismal site where John the Baptist was baptizing for, I guess, probably 1700 years. And we got down into the frigid water, which is shocking and takes your breath away, but is very, very meaningful. You’re not going to forget that. And we talked about baptism and I guess about fifty of us got into that water and one at a time declared our allegiance to Christ. And resolved to leave behind in those baptismal waters everything.  Everything that we were without Jesus, which is always a humbling, truly, truly humbling and truly amazing experience just to participate in. So, what a joy. What a deep honor and what a memory. Something that will never be forgotten. In fact, something that must never be forgotten. So, a beautiful time in community with the Holy Spirit hovering all around it.

And, so, once we got dried off and warmed up a little bit, we headed back toward Qumran, which is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Probably the most significant discovery in biblical history in the last century for sure, but probably far more extensive than that. And just looked at some of the caves where these were found. Began to understand the story, we had lunch there and did a little shopping there, and spent some time regrouping and then we headed up into the Judean hills, where we were able to really see the slope of the land. We could see the mountains where Jerusalem sits all the way down to the Dead Sea with Jericho right there. So, we could see from Jericho all the way to Jerusalem and really realize how it is up to Jerusalem. There’s only up to go and it’s incredibly fascinating but it’s strikingly beautiful. And a big rift, a big canyon kind of winds its way from Jericho up to Jerusalem and has biblical significance from Psalm 23, from Jesus parable of the good Samaritan, and was most certainly the ancient pathway between Jericho and Jerusalem. So, most certainly the pathway Jesus would have walked as he went into Jerusalem many times, but certainly as he walked the path toward his arrest and the passion story. That’s one of those views where you’re like, how do you take a picture of this because it’s in all directions, it’s this sweeping panorama. It was just gorgeous.  There was a storm to the north and so the skies were dark, but the sun was shining on the hills, so the contrast was striking and beautiful. So, we spent some time there and then got back on the bus and headed north for the next couple of hours, winding our way to the Galilee region where we have landed. And it was dark when we got here. So, it wasn’t until this morning that we were able to just see how different it is when you leave the wilderness. How different it is in this region than the last region we’ve experienced. And man, all that God has out in front of us as we’re just kind of getting going. And we’ll have quite an interesting day today, I’m sure, as we do every day. We’ve got quite an interesting day planned, which we’ll talk about tomorrow.

So, as I’ve been saying, thank you for your continued prayers because they need to continue. They need to not let up. We need your prayers over health, over stamina, over sleep, over technology, over travel, over all of it. Because what we’re trying to do is immerse ourselves in the Bible in a way that applies to our lives as we see these locations so that as we return to our own homes, something has been deposited in our hearts that we’re carrying back with us that we can in turn infect our communities with. And, so, we thank you for your prayers, humbly. Thank you deeply for your continued prayers over this journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. That’s the website, and there is a link on the homepage there. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174.

And as always, we’re a community. If you’re shouldering burdens that are best not carried alone you can reach out. 877-942-4253 is that number.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is Rachel. I’m a first-time caller. My sister-in-law got me started listening and I have a prayer request for myself. I have been struggling with severe depression and severe OCD for 26 years and it just completely paralyzes me sometimes…most of the time actually…and I just can’t seem to get better. And the depression makes the OCD worse and the OCD makes the depression worse. I just want to ask prayer warriors to pray on my behalf, that I would be healed and that I would believe and not doubt that I would be healed, because I know God can heal me I just don’t know if He will heal me. And I thank you in advance for your prayers. Thank you. Bye.

Hello DAB family. This is Rob S., worship dude in Nashville Tennessee. And I just want to say thank you to everybody who listens and praise. I don’t call it a lot but I do listen and pray a lot. So, thank you for you guys who do that. Okay first, for Brian and everybody who is on the Israel trip, may the Lord protect you, may the Lord inspire you, may the Lord keep everybody healthy and may this truly be a life-changing event for you. I had the great privilege to go to Israel last year and I just changed my life. Totally amazing experience. Next, I have a personal prayer request. I have begun a new job as a music director at a church in the Nashville area and I would really, really covet your prayers in this season of transition. And it’s a God thing. I’m rejoicing. We are all rejoicing, but I would definitely ask for prayer for this thing to help us to do well in this new role. So, may the Lord be with you guys. God bless you. I love you DAB family.

Hey everybody. Hey, this is Annette again. Sorry. Two in a row today. But Cherry Chase, Cherry Pie, my sister. Oh my gosh, you just crack me up. Hey, that was Roger who was praying for the Kidney. And the reason I’m calling to tell you that is it kind of reminded me of a story that, you know, when I get up in the morning, I start off with you guys and about the time I get to my job it’s about the time for the prayer requests and all that stuff. And I’ve always made a habit of writing people’s names. Like, we have these little pads…little protector thing that goes on the workbench and it really kind of sucks up the ink and makes it pretty permanent. So, I’m going to be moving to my fifth desk here before long, but four desks around have all of your names on it. And I was questioned not to long ago about what are these names, who are all these people, wasn’t this your desk. And I was like, yeah. And, so, I let them know that whoever took over my desk that these are people who need prayer. So, I think it was kind of interesting that a friend of mine, he says, he says, I don’t know who’s these names are, but you said they need a prayer. So, I just want to let you know that I am praying for these names. And they don’t even have a clue who you people are. And isn’t that kind of interesting, that names can be passed on and prayers can be made by people that we don’t even know. And they’re never probably going on I know y’all. And you might not know them. But I think it’s kind of interesting. And I wonder how far that little passing on has gone. Right? So, I love you guys. And Roger, if you’re still out there, brother, you are still on my desk and I am still praying for you and I hope that you are doing very well with her kidneys and your health and telling other people about Jesus because…

This is Cindy from Lyman Falls Germany, a long time DABber, first-time caller. Thank you, Jill for your beautiful music. Thank you, China for 10 years for sharing the good news with our youth. Thank you, Brian and team for creating this campfire, where the DAB family unites daily to be infected by His sneeze. Welcome to all of you new listeners and to those who call in regularly. I love recognizing your voice to sing with you, pray with you, cry with you, and rejoice with you. Blind Tony, your godly vision, your poetry gives us inspiration. Pastor Gene, gracias. Asia from Munich __. Dear family, I ask for travel prayers for the DAB team and pilgrims embarking on the Promise Land journey. We’ve packed you in our suitcases so that we can share this amazing experience. Thank you for your prayers. Love you. Cindy.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. My name is Robin from Northern California. Although I’ve been listening for 3 and a half years, I’m a first-time caller. I wanted to call in several times but chickened out. But the Holy Spirit will not allow me to let this prayer request go uncalled. A dear friend of mine has a future son-in-law, Mike, who’s being diagnosed with relapsing polychondritis. This is an autoimmune disease that has no known cure __. Mike is a very fine young man who’s served our country as a Marine. And I just believe anyone who’s been willing to lay down his life for us serving our country deserves our prayers. He does not have a primary care doctor and the medical care VA system where they live in Tennessee is very limited. They’re also struggling financially as his condition has cost them so much. Mike does not yet have a personal relationship with the Lord. Though his fiancée does, she has drifted away. They both need Jesus right now and to see how the Lord has been at work in their lives. Every time I hear that there is no cure I am resolute to pray because I know my God is able and He is faithful to hear. So please pray that Mike and his fiancée turn their hearts and lives to Jesus and that God will provide the medical care Mike need and ultimately heal Mike of this relapsing polychondritis to the praise and glory of our Lord God Jesus. Thank you family. Bye.

Hi, this is Connie from New York. I am a newly born-again Christian. In 2017 I accepted Jesus as my savior. I’ve been a Catholic my whole life, however. And it’s my first time listening to the Daily Audio Bible for the whole year. That’s my plan. So glad to discover it and discover community. I wanted to just reach out to Jaden. I just listened to Jaden’s message __ walking by faith. And it was so touching, so beautiful. And I wanted to give Jaden a Scripture, Matthew 18:6, but who so shall offend one of these little ones which  believe in me, it would be better for him that a millstone be hung around his neck and that he will drowned in the depths of the sea. Jaden somebody planted an amazing seating you. Keep the faith that you have your whole life. No matter what, keep the faith. And I’m asking for prayer for my brother who is a guardsman in the National Guard and is being deployed to Guam in the coming weeks, within the coming two weeks, and he’ll be __ you know the issues in North Korea. So, please, if could pray for him. He has four children and a wife and he has to leave them and go to Guam for deployment. Thank you. Thank you Daily Audio Bible family. I’m very excited to call for the first time and to be listening through the entire Bible with you this year. Thank you.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday February 24, 2018 (NIV)

Leviticus 15:1-16:28

Bodily Discharges from Men

15 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Tell the Israelites: If a man has a discharge from his penis, his discharge is unclean. He is unclean because of the discharge from his penis. Whether it is chronic or not makes no difference; he is still unclean.

“The man who has a discharge makes everything he lies on or sits on unclean. Those who touch his bed must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening. Those who sit on anything he sat on must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening. Those who touch a man who has a discharge must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening. If a man who has a discharge spits on anyone who is clean, the person he spits on must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. When a man who has a discharge sits on a saddle, it becomes unclean. 10 Those who carry such things must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening. 11 If a man who has a discharge touches anyone without first rinsing his hands, the person he touched must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. 12 When a man who has a discharge touches pottery, it must be broken, and any wooden bucket he touches must be rinsed.

13 “When a man’s discharge stops, he must wait seven days to be cleansed. He must wash his clothes and his body in fresh water. Then he will be clean. 14 On the eighth day he must take two mourning doves or two pigeons and come into the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He will give these birds to the priest. 15 The priest will sacrifice one as an offering for sin and the other as a burnt offering. So in the Lord’s presence, the priest will make peace with the Lord for the man who had a discharge.

16 “If a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body. He will be unclean until evening. 17 Any clothes or any leather with semen on it must be washed. It will be unclean until evening.

18 “When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and has an emission of semen, they must wash themselves. They will be unclean until evening.

Bodily Discharges from Women

19 “When a woman has her monthly period, she will be unclean for seven days. Those who touch her will be unclean until evening. 20 Everything she lies on or sits on during her period will be unclean. 21 Those who touch her bed must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening. 22 Those who touch anything she sits on must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening. 23 If her blood touches anything on the bed or anything she sits on, it will be unclean until evening. 24 If a man has sexual intercourse with her while she has her period, he will be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will become unclean.

25 “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days other than her monthly period, she is unclean. If her period lasts longer than usual, she will be unclean as long as she has a discharge. It is like her period. 26 As long as she has a discharge, any bed she lies on or anything she sits on is unclean. It is like her period. 27 Those who touch these things are unclean and must wash their clothes and their bodies. They will be unclean until evening.

28 “When her discharge stops, she must wait seven days. After that, she will be clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two mourning doves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 30 The priest will offer one as an offering for sin and the other as a burnt offering. So in the Lord’s presence the priest will make peace with the Lord for the woman who had an unclean discharge.

31 “You must separate the Israelites from anything that keeps them from being presentable to me. Otherwise, they will die because they make my tent, which is among them, unclean.

32 “These are the instructions for any man who has a discharge or an emission of semen that makes him unclean, 33 for any woman who has her period, for any man or woman who has a discharge, or for any man who has sexual intercourse with a woman when she is unclean.”

The Day for Making Peace with the Lord

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after Aaron’s two sons had come into the Lord’s presence and died. The Lord said, “Tell your brother Aaron that he cannot go into the holy place whenever he wants to. If he goes up to the canopy and stands in front of the throne of mercy on the ark, he will die, because I appear in the smoke above the throne of mercy.

“This is what Aaron must do in order to come into the holy place: He must take a bull as an offering for sin and a ram as a burnt offering. He must put on a holy linen robe and wear linen undergarments. He must wear a linen belt and turban. These are holy clothes. He must wash his body and put them on. He will take two male goats from the congregation of Israel as an offering for sin and a ram as a burnt offering.

“Aaron must sacrifice the bull as his own offering for sin. By doing this, he will make peace with the Lord for himself and his family. He must take the two male goats and bring them into the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then Aaron must throw lots for the two goats. One lot will be for the Lord and the other for Azazel. [a] Aaron must sacrifice the goat chosen by lot for the Lord as an offering for sin. 10 But he must bring the goat chosen by lot for Azazel into the Lord’s presence. He will release it in the desert to Azazel in order to make peace with the Lord for himself and his family.

11 “Aaron will bring the bull. He will then slaughter it as his own offering for sin. By doing this he will make peace with the Lord for himself and his family. 12 He will take an incense burner full of burning coals from the altar, which is in the Lord’s presence, and two handfuls of finely ground, sweet-smelling incense. He will bring them up to the canopy. 13 Then he will put the incense on the fire in the Lord’s presence. The cloud of incense will cover the throne of mercy, which is over the words of God’s promise, so that he will not die. 14 He will take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the east side of the throne of mercy. Then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times in front of the throne of mercy.

15 “Next, Aaron will slaughter the goat for the people’s offering for sin. He will take the blood inside, go up to the canopy, and sprinkle it on the throne of mercy and in front of it, as he did with the bull’s blood. 16 So he will make peace with the Lord for all the sins the Israelites committed against the holy place. These sins happened because the Israelites were unclean and because they committed rebellious acts. He will do the same for the tent of meeting which is among an unclean people. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron enters the holy place to do this until he comes out. Aaron will make peace with the Lord for his own sins, his family’s sins, and the sins of the entire assembly of Israel. 18 Then he will go out to the altar that is in the Lord’s presence and make peace with the Lord there for the sins committed. He will take some of the blood from the bull and some of the goat’s blood and put it all around the horns of the altar. 19 With his finger he will sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times. Because the Israelites made it unclean, he will cleanse it and declare it holy.

20 “When he finishes making peace with the Lord at the holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, he will bring the living goat forward. 21 Aaron will place both hands on its head. He will confess over it all the sins, all the rebellious acts, and all the things the Israelites did wrong. He will transfer them to the goat’s head. A man will be appointed to release the goat in the desert. 22 The goat will take all their sins away to a deserted place. The man must release the goat in the desert.

23 “Then Aaron will go to the tent of meeting, take off the linen clothes he had put on to go into the holy place, and leave them there. 24 He will wash his body in the holy place and put on his other clothes. Then he will come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and for the people to make peace with the Lord for his own sins and the sins of the people. 25 He will burn the fat of the offering for sin on the altar.

26 “The man who released the goat to Azazel must wash his clothes and his body. Then he may return to the camp. 27 He must take the bull and the goat outside the camp. These animals were the offering for sin whose blood was brought into the holy place to make peace with the Lord for sins. The skin, meat, and excrement from the animals must be burned. 28 Whoever burns them must wash his clothes and his body. Then he may return to the camp.

Footnotes:

  1. Leviticus 16:9 Unknown Hebrew term.
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

Mark 7:1-23

Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ Traditions(A)

The Pharisees and some experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. They saw that some of his disciples were unclean[a] because they ate without washing their hands.

(The Pharisees, like all other Jewish people, don’t eat unless they have properly washed their hands. They follow the traditions of their ancestors. When they come from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they have washed first. They have been taught to follow many other rules. For example, they must also wash their cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.[b])

The Pharisees and the experts in Moses’ Teachings asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples follow the traditions taught by our ancestors? They are unclean because they don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:

‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is pointless,
because their teachings are rules made by humans.’

“You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions.” He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! 10 For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), 12 he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ 13 Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand! 15 Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 16 Let the person who has ears listen!”[c]

17 When he had left the people and gone home, his disciples asked him about this illustration.

18 Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? 19 It doesn’t go into his thoughts but into his stomach and then into a toilet.” (By saying this, Jesus declared all foods acceptable.) 20 He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 21 Evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, cursing, arrogance, and foolishness come from within a person. 23 All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”

Footnotes:

  1. Mark 7:2 “Unclean” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God.
  2. Mark 7:4 Some manuscripts and translations omit “and dinner tables.”
  3. Mark 7:16 Some manuscripts and translations omit this verse.

Cross references:

  1. Mark 7:1 : Matthew 15:1–20
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

Psalm 40:11-17

11 Do not withhold your compassion from me, O Lord.
May your mercy and your truth always protect me.
12 Countless evils have surrounded me.
My sins have caught up with me so that I can no longer see.
They outnumber the hairs on my head.
I have lost heart.

13 O Lord, please rescue me!
Come quickly to help me, O Lord![a]
14 Let all those who seek to end my life
be confused and put to shame.
Let those who want my downfall
be turned back and disgraced.
15 Let those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
be stunned by their own shame.
16 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad because of you.
Let those who love your salvation continually say,
“The Lord is great!”

17 But I am oppressed and needy.
May the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my savior.
O my God, do not delay!

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 40:13 Verses 13–17 are virtually identical in wording to Psalm 70.
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

Proverbs 10:13-14

13 Wisdom is found on the lips of a person who has understanding,
but a rod is for the back of one without sense.
14 Those who are wise store up knowledge,
but the mouth of a stubborn fool invites ruin.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group