Judges 8:17-9:21, Luke 23:44-24:12, Psalms 99:1-9, Proverbs 14:9-10
Today is the 28th day of April. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we complete another week together. And we’ve been reading from the God’s Word translation this week, which is what we’ll do today and continue our journey through the book of Judges. And we are smack dab in the in the middle of the story of Gideon. Today, Judges chapter 8 verse 18 through 9:21.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Judges, with the conclusion of the story of Gideon, not the end of the story of Abimelech, but the end of the story of Gideon, we can kind of see the situation. So, we’ve gone through the story of Moses and the story of Joshua and there’s been a good amount of order because the law has been put fairly clearly before the people’s eyes and they had been in the wilderness. So, they have immediate repercussions. They like, they get it. We’re in a different era now and our strong leaders are gone. And, so, these judges are rising up and restoring the people and delivering the people. And then there’s peace in their lifetime. And usually this is indicated as 40 years. But just to understand kind of how things are going underneath it all in the culture, we see what happens next, right? Gideon had 70 sons. His son Abimelech was born of his concubine in the city of Shechem. And, so, once his father’s dead, and obviously Gideon refused to become the king, to become the leader of the people, instead telling them that God needed to be the leader. And after he dies Abimelech goes to his family in Shechem, basically, to immediately start a battle for the top position in Gideon’s family. And that results in the execution of 70 of his brothers, with only one, Jotham, escaping. And he goes up on Mount Gerazim. And you can go up on top of Mount terrorism, the Mount of Blessing, and look down over Shechem, which is modern day Nablus, even today and understand kind of the situation we’re talking about. And Jotham screams out. Basically, he’s telling a story. But what he’s essentially doing is saying, there has been a massive injustice here and if you are all happy than be happy, but this has been a massive injustice, a massive murder, an extermination of a family, a dishonoring of judge, a person who risked his life. So, we a pretty good glimpse into the culture that we’re dealing with at this point in time. And as the Bible will say, everyone was doing what they thought was right in their own eyes. And they immediately returned to idolatry. They are in the land and they are doing everything they have been warned not to do and we are witnessing the repercussions of that.
Then of course the book of Luke we read the story of Jesus resurrection, the one thing that restores us to God, the one thing that enables us to be who we were created to be, the one thing that leads us away from the kinds of outcomes that were reading in the books of Judges, in the book of Judges, the one thing that leads us away from this kind of anarchy that were seeing. So, we get a pretty strong juxtaposition here today. The Bible gives us pretty clear views of where we as people end up going when we’re going on our own. And, of course, Jesus gives us this picture, this beautiful picture of where we could go if we go with God.
Prayer:
Jesus, we thank You. And we can’t thank You enough and we can’t make the right words to thank You for rescuing our souls and giving us eternal life, something that we cannot do in our own strength, a place that we can’t arrive at on our own, that You came and loved us, forgave us and restored us, and that You continue to do that day by day by day, something that is beyond our power to do on our own, that it is a gift because of Your profound love. What words of thanks could we offer You? And, so, we once again recognize the fact that, it’s everything about us that needs to cry out worship and thank You. Our entire lives are a gift back to You with the gift You have given to us. And, so, come Holy Spirit, into this day. We give ourselves to You and trust You completely. Come, Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi Brian, Jill, Tyler, China, Ezekiel and the DAB family. This is __ from __ UK. In listening to podcasts over the past week, it’s been stated God’s __ not to be yoked to an unbeliever. In __ James __ shared his testimony. His girlfriend’s obedient choice not to be yoked to an unbeliever brought him to Christ but as Victoria S. pointed out over the weekend an unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife. My believing wife has obediently lead to __ sanctify by her unbelieving husband and that brought me to Christ. How do you know which __ of God’s word __ right for life? Are we hearing His word only? Or are we collaborating with God and familiar enough with this path to hear what He wants us to hear and do what He wants us to do? How do you choose life? What is the one thing that is necessary? Choose life by staying submerged in the environment that will keep you in a position to hear what God is saying and see what He wants you to do. Choose life and remain connected to the DAB family whose canopy of prayer will continue to cover you. In time you will become more and more sure of the choices you have to make that will ultimately replace the darkness in your lives with His light. Father, I thank You that You’ve associated Yourself with unbelievers and You’ve have called us from so many diverse backgrounds to be brothers and sisters in Christ. I thank You that You’ve also called us individually to intimately walk with, each in unique ways that only You can ultimately reveal to us. I thank You for this DAB family, where Your unfiltered word, instruction, and guidance flow. Father, just like Moses, You’ve called us by name. Continue to reveal to us Your ways so that we may get to know You better, and know exactly what You want us to do. We ask all this in the name of Your son, Jesus. Amen.
Hey, morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Lee from New Jersey. Today is April 25th and it is a rainy Wednesday morning and traffic is very slow. So, I am calling, of course, from the mobile headquarters, a.k.a. the minivan. And just listening to today’s podcast. And today is April 25th. And towards the end, the community prayer, I heard John from Bethlehem and Miguel from Santa Rosa. And the reason why am bringing them up because they both had encouraging words for everyone. And this is going to tie into my day three for my prayer for anger, not for anger, but against anger. So, John spoke about all the blessings that we receive from God and how God perceives us and how victorious we are in God. And then Miguel took another step by basically saying that even though we are blessed by God, things will happen and God has given us the tools to deal with the situations and our blessings don’t change just because bad things happen in our lives. Again, our blessings from God don’t change just because things happen in our life. Anger is tied into a lot of that stuff because sometimes we are blind to the blessings that God gives us. We don’t feel worthy. We have shame. We feel worthless. We just blame everything and everybody. We are just…the blessings don’t seem present at the moment, something that we can see our grasp or feel. So, that frustration builds and builds and the devil, of course, he works on that. And that turns into some vicious, venomous, toxic anger that can be unleashed on family, friends, in the workplace, just…you name it…it’s gonna come out. So, father we pray for our brother John from Bethlehem, Miguel from Santa Rosa for calling in and guiding us and reminding us of your blessings Lord and how your blessings no matter what the circumstances will still be there and how we have to still deal with life…
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Jacob from Maryland. I am hearing a lot of prayer requests from people for their marriages, something dear to my heart. And I just wanted to call in and then just say a prayer over all the marriages. Let us pray. Dear heavenly Father, thank You for all of the marriages that You have blessed and anointed. Your word says, let no man separate what You have put together. And, so, Lord we pray for the marriages. We pray for the healthy marriage. We pray for the marriages that are in trouble. And I pray for my marriage. I pray that these men and women, dear Lord, are able to come together as a couple and pray together. Lord, let them pray endlessly together. If they can’t pray together, dear Lord, I just ask that they pray for each other. Lord, just how can we ever not love someone we are praying with or praying for? So, Lord, I just ask You be within those marriages, draw them closer together as they pray together or pray for each other. Bless that unity. And dear Lord, just be with us all. Heal the pain in all of our hearts that may cause that separation. Let us first fall in love with You Lord. __ spouses. In the name of Jesus’ we pray. Amen.
Hi family. It’s Drew from the bay area. Listen, I just got done, not done, I’m in the process of listening to the community prayer. I’m calling mainly from Mark S. but for others. And here it is brother. And here it is family. I have got a constant battle in my mind and we all do. And what we have to do, Mark, is be able to win that battle by surrendering to the Spirit that’s in us. For you that don’t have the Holy Spirit yet we’ll pray for you. Mark, my brother, imagine yourself the night before Jesus is gonna die on the cross and you’re in the bushes and you’re watching. You’re watching disciples fall asleep while Jesus is asking them to pray for Him. And fast-forward and you’re watching, you’re watching Him walk, carrying that cross and then you see Him. You can’t even distinguish who it is anymore, He’s so badly beaten. But imagine Him being lifted up on the cross after the agonizing nails go through His limbs. And then you’re there, Mark, when the stones rolled away and you’re watching and you see Jesus come out of the tomb. Mark, He’s risen. The battles over. Jesus is now walking among the people. He is with us. Your battle is in your mind. You need to get out. You need to stop looking backwards. You need to take long walks, short walks. You need to think. You need to be with a Spirit. You need to turn down the volume.
Hi guys. How are you doing? It’s Sean the Prodigal. Hey, I’m just calling in response to anonymous. And many of the people have responded to anonymous. I tell you, I felt totally convicted because I am that guy. I was that guy. I was arrogant. I deserve better. I treated myself better than I treated my wife. I was selfish and self-centered. It cost me my marriage. 22 years later it’s over, it’s done, she’s gone. And she said I had a choice, I could stay with you or I could be happy. And, so, your words convicted me down to my soul. And corrected my hardened heart. So, I just wanted to thank you for sharing. And for the women out there, take the time to talk with your husband. If you don’t, your husbands keeping putting up with it. You have a choice to make. And they gotta know what the consequences are of their behaviors. If they’re so insensitive to it like I was then you’re never going to make anything any better. So, you might as well deal with that. Pray on it and deal with that. And men out there, you gotta take a look at how you’re treating your wives. As the mother of your children, your soulmate, your housemate, your bedmate, whatever and they go through a lot. And when we focus on ourselves and our jobs, our heart is on us. Don’t forget that they’re there too, they’re your partners. They’re going through it right there with you. If you lose sight of that you lose your marriage. That’s my story. I’m sticking to it. You guys all have a blessed day. I love you all. Take care. God, bless. Bye-bye.