Genesis 37:1-38:30, Matthew 12:22-45, Psalms 16:1-11, Proverbs 3:27-32
Today is the 18th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s a pleasure, of course, like every day to be here with you and step away into the calm, into some serenity. Everything that’s being, you know, not cooperating in our lives right now, it’ll still be there when we get out to the other side of this time, but our perspective may have shifted as we allow the word of God to wash over us and into our lives and just allow our souls to relax. This is a safe place and we can breathe, we can exhale. So, we’re getting to the end of another of our weeks together. Of course, this is our 18th step of 365 steps that will take us to the entire Bible and we’ve been reading from the New Living Translation this week, which is what we will continue to do today and tomorrow. And from our Old Testament reading will be reading…let me think about how to say that…from the Old Testament portion of our reading we’ll read Genesis chapter 37 and 38 and then we’ll move into the book of Matthew. So, first Genesis chapter 37.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we covered some significant ground as has been the case almost every day in Old and New Testaments, Psalms and Proverbs. They’re speaking loud and clear.
In the book of Genesis, so, from our Old Testament reading, we’re following the story…well…we’ve been following the story from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. Of course, Jacob had a brother named Esau and yesterday we kind of read the big picture of where Esau went and who his people became and now we’re settling into Joseph’s family and as we’ve already covered Joseph’s name has changed to Israel and his children then would become the children of Israel and now we are beginning to understand their stories. And, so, as we’ve begun that journey, we see that the brothers have a little brother named Joseph who they cannot stand because he’s a dreamer and he’s young and he’s a little bit arrogant and they can’t stand him because he is favored by his father. And we read the account today of Joseph going back to Shechem and remember, Shechem is the place where their sister Dinah had been raped. Shechem is the place where Abraham, Abram, came into the land and was given the promise of the land. So, we keep seeing this kind of geographical landmark because really important things in the Bible happen, there. So, Joseph is sent back because his brothers, apparently, are shepherding their sheep up at Shechem. So, he goes there to look and it turns out that they’ve gone on to Dothan. And we know this, how this story goes, they’re going to kill Joseph, but instead they sell him. So, they human traffic their brother into slavery in Egypt. Alright, I want to pause here and take us on a very, very brief little side trail, a little bunny trail as it were, because I think it lays out context as we go forward. A few days ago we read the story of Lot, right, and his daughters and their decision to have sex with her dad and there are other parts of that story were Lot was going to throw his virgin daughters out to the throng to be gang raped and it brings up all kinds of stuff, stuff that looks remarkably similar to some of the political struggles in the world today. And, so, we can read certain stories and then a kind of basically back read our culture into those stories and say, “I don’t agree with that story that’s in the Bible, that’s not how we should be doing things.” So, for example, like, you know, if there were throng around my house I would not consider throwing my daughter out to the throng in order to save my guests, even if those guests happen to be angels. Although, at least my knowledge, I’ve never had angels in my house. And I know for sure and certain, I’ve never had my neighbors, like, surround my house asking that I send out my guest so that they can have sex with my guest. Like, I’ve never been put in that position before and probably neither have you, but probably neither had Lot, but we see that Lot his offering his daughters in that story and so it gives us all kinds of heebie-jeebies because we can’t imagine that. And, so, because it was a poor treatment of women in this case, then we get all patriarchal and have all kinds of questions and this happens in some of the letters of Paul too. Like, I already know in the year, the emails that I’m gonna get. So, I want to stop at this particular juncture where we are right now in the story and point out that Joseph’s brothers human traffic their own brother into slavery in Egypt and there were no women involved in this and what they did was evil. So, let’s just understand that although we are going to experience some raw and unfiltered stories in the Bible when we back read our own time and culture into it we’re missing the point. Part of the point in the Lot story was to show how evil the world had become. Part of the point of the story, because we’re just beginning a very long story with Joseph, is to show how evil the world had become, like it wasn’t just a sexist thing. And wat we’re gonna see as the story of Joseph begins to unfold is that in spite of evil there can still be good, in spite of darkness there can still be light.
And we get into the book of Matthew and Jesus is dealing with problems of His own because He’s not playing along. Like, Jesus looks now like a superstar communicator who has some pretty miraculous powers to back Him up and the religious leaders are checking Jesus out but He does things that breaks their rules and it’s inflaming them because they think they’re the keepers of the rules of God and then here is God breaking, apparently, His own rules when in fact all He’s doing is showing them that the way they had interpreted the rules had gotten so backward that the heart and soul of why the laws existed in the first place had died. So, Jesus is being accused of being a child of the devil, which is where apparently where He gets his power from. So, He’s healing people because he’s empowered by Satan to do it. This is what the religious people are saying about Jesus. And, so, Jesus as His own response, right, and it’s a logical response, “a kingdom divided by Civil War is doomed”, right, “a town or a family splintered by feuding will fall apart”, that’s more close to home, that’s something we probably really understand. And then Jesus says, “if Satan’s casting of Satan and he’s divided and fighting against himself what you’re saying is not making any sense.” But it’s here that Jesus says something that is deeply poignant and that we should understand. Jesus says, “I tell you every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which will never be forgiven. Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven by anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come.” So, that is a pretty poignant statement and every time we come around this territory I think the same thing in my life, like, this particular story and passage of Scripture brings me back to a very specific place my life, a very specific time, because I grew up the son of pastor and before my father was a pastor he was an evangelist. We traveled around a lot. And, so, I was in church a lot and the idea of blaspheming the Holy Spirit as an unpardonable sin somehow got etched into my childhood and I lived in fear of it continually because how do you know? How do you know, which may have shaped so much of my own life, just trying to know, like, how do you know when you’re doing it right? Because this was one of those things where this is an unforgivable thing forever and ever. How do you know if you’ve blasphemed the Holy Spirit? First, we have to understand what blaspheming is. So, to blaspheme something is to defame and profane it. And we don’t use the word blasphemy much anymore and if we do, you know, it’s being it’s in the Bible. And, so, we are specifically talking about God, defaming and profaning God. So, Jesus is having this confrontation and being accused of casting out Satan by Satan and then He turns to this blaspheming the Holy Spirit talk and it’s very like, you can go, how are these things connected? There connected because even though Jesus was accused of blasphemy it was actually the religious leaders who were blaspheming because they were saying that what the Holy Spirit was doing through Jesus and the outward signs of healing and miraculous events, that these things were actually not from God, they were from the devil, right? That’s blasphemy and Jesus is giving a pretty compelling and stern warning that they’re not going to listen to. And where it does become poignant is whether or not we’re going to listen because we might very easily say, “I would never do what they were doing. I would never say Jesus was of the devil. And for that matter I would never claim that the Father or the Holy Spirit. I mean that would never be something that I would say.” So, whew, thank goodness I will not be committing this unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which is good. And yet, when the Holy Spirit resides within His children, His redeemed ones throughout the earth, and we look at those fellow brothers and sisters and in one way or another deny the work of God in their lives we have wandered onto thin ice and we need to back away slowly. And that right there, that right there should penetrate the rest of our day. The religious leaders of Jesus time, they get framed in the Bible as being antagonistic and just, you know, only out to get Jesus and that’s true, that is part of the story, but the truth is these were devout people trying to serve God, who had been corrupt because the law had lost its spirit and all they had left was a set of rules and ethics that they tried to try to live by because if they could do them perfectly than they could become righteous before God. Like, if they could obey the law perfectly than they could become righteous before God. So, when Jesus comes in and starts breaking the rules He’s completely shattering their paradigm. And anytime your beliefs…the system gets challenged and some things get shattered, that’s very disruptive. So they’re not looking at Jesus as the Messiah, the son of David, the son of God, anything other than on a human being who seems to have miraculous powers, but it does not line up with their understanding of how things are supposed to go. So, they determined that the only way Jesus could be doing this much good would be by the power of Satan, which makes no sense until we find ourselves doing the same thing, until in small or subtle ways we find ourselves not being able to figure out how God could be using that person because they are such a sinner or that person because they have done these things or anyone over here, they’ve done…they’re doing things in the name of Jesus that are good in the world but they have some kind of dark piece of their history that we know. And, so, we can find ourselves blaspheming God inside of them because we are willing to deny God’s power to redeem.
Prayer:
Father, You have taken us through a big week and there’s just a bunch of stuff that You brought up in one weeks-time and here as we prepare to close, You know, we’ve reached the end of the week You’ve left us with plenty consider over the next couple of days. Holy Spirit, come because we’re realizing that yeah, You’re gonna press in and You’re gonna touch all the soft spots, but it happens quickly and we’re not always sure how to sort it out. And, so, we invite You into that disruption. So many times we’re like, “oh, there too much going on, I’ve gotta slow things down” when You are actually working in shaking loose things that need to fall away here at the beginning of the year so that You can actually answer our prayer of leading us on the narrow path that leads to life. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into all that we’ve said today and throughout all this week. Come Jesus we pray in Your mighty name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi, this is Valerie calling __ , I just wanted to call and pray for some of the prayer requests. Dear Lord, I just want to come to You right now and I want to pray for Marjorie and for her surgery that she’s having Lord. I pray that You will go before her and the doctors Lord and we know that You’ve already prepared a way, we know that You know the end. Lord we already know that You know the end result and what will happen. So, I pray Lord, I pray that You will just give anyone concerned with Marjorie’s case wisdom to know the right thing to do and I pray for her as well. I pray that You’ll give her peace, give her comfort and let her know Lord that she is in the palm of Your hand and that You have already worked out the solution and that You already know what is best for her. Lord, I also want to pray for, I believe it’s Margo in Australia, who is was heading to Liberia. Lord, I listened to Brian’s message today about being ready to go, just go, go where You send us, go where You plant us, and Lord I hear Margo’s heart and I know how anxious she is for her family, how her heart is willing but she’s also torn because she’s leaving everything she knows behind and her son just moved out. So, Lord I just pray that You give her an extra measure of peace. Sometimes Lord it’s just a little bit harder for mothers to just let go of everything even though our heart is willing, and we’re excited to serve You. But Lord I do just pray that You’ll just give her a measure of Your peace and Your comfort at this time. And Lord I also want to pray for Brandon that just called in about meeting reconciliation with his wife. I pray Lord that You will work in that situation and allow forgiveness to come into that Lord and I want to thank You that Prodigal called in. What an answer to prayer that is. Thank You, Prodigal for letting us know…
Hi DAB, this is Sharon from Southern California and I just heard Prodigal’s call and it lifted my Spirit. Prodigal, I am so thrilled to God to hear your voice. I’ve been praying for you as everyone else has. I called on the 31st, I gave a little update, things are worse between me and my daughter and I…I’ve been feeling lost, I’ve been feeling empty, I’ve been feeling…I can’t explain how you feel when you love someone and they don’t love you back and I’ve been functioning but my heart has not been in it. And your call was the first genuine smile I’ve had in all this time and I thank you, I thank God because God is in everything and everyone and your call reminded me that I am not alone, God is hearing me, He sees me and that He’s got me. So, thank you prodigal for calling in and letting us know that you’re still fighting that fight…gives me encouragement and let’s me know that I can still fight the fight, it’s not over. Thank you. Love you guys. Keep praying, I’ll keep praying. Bye, happy new year, bye.
Hello there, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Treasured Possession. The desire of my heart for 2019 is to go from phase to phase and not to experience periods of doubt, self-doubt, self-pity, despair, and going numb. And in 1 Peter 5:6-10 in 2 Timothy 1-7, I see where they divide the place where my hearts desire and God’s word are separated, my soul from spirit because I have a default in those weaknesses. In the story of Lot, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, I saw a picture stories of how shame, which is what those things come from, can destroy your legacy. Lot passed what was most precious to him to the enemy when in crisis when God was fully able to blind the enemy and deliver everyone. How many times have I tried in my human reasoning to argue with Satan. Just shut the door, trust God and invite God into my fear and grief. And shame turn you into a salt pillar. Your flavor, your faith can just turn into a pillar of regret. So, I cannot look back and let the treasurer my heart be my hearts focus, which is the loss in my past. And I can’t grief, pain, suffering and the lies of the enemy invite me into the cave of isolation and despair. I did this for years and just oozed it on myself instead of alcohol like Lot did. I let shame steal my identity. I let grief drown me until I could no longer show up for those I love and help them to discern by example how to of endure in faith. So, I pray, and I thank God because He’s called us out of the darkness into His marvelous light. Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for all You’ve done. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. As I’ve reflected on the last few years in the Scriptures with DAB, I do so with such thankfulness in my heart. Nothing has changed me more in such a short amount of time then the pouring in of the Scriptures in my life on a daily basis. In early January 2017 a friend of mine made a Facebook post and attached a link to the Daily Audio Bible and I will be forever grateful to her. I had always wanted to read to the Bible but I would get derailed in that journey year after year until the DAB. I did finish 2017 and I finished it well and then I just kept on going. I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit brought the DAB into my life for such a time as this. Little did I know how much this beautiful rhythm I was establishing would sustain me through two very difficult years, but God knew. So, I really want to encourage new listeners to keep going with this and make the word of God number one priority in your life this year. God has handed us His word is food on a silver platter through this ministry and He has seasoned it well through Brian’s thoughtful commentaries. If you are a regular listener, I pray that you will use your sphere of influence to share the Daily Audio Bible. It can be as simple as adding a link to the ministry in your next Facebook post. This year I’ve added the DAB Chronological and Proverbs my daily reading and I’m very excited about that. So, thank you Brian, thank you Jill, thank you China and to all of the DAB team behind the scenes and the financial partners who keep this ministry going. I seriously can’t imagine my life without it. This is Marsha calling in from Monument Colorado praying for everyone that calls in…
Hi this is Scottish Tom from the Cleveland Ohio area and calling once again for Prodigal. Sorry, I’m a bit behind on the community prayer line. I’m still listening to last week’s one, but I did hear your second call and that was the message I was hoping to hear. But just know that we’re all here for you, we’re all praying for you and you can do this and call in as often as you need to. We’re all praying for you. Good to hear your voice again and good to hear that you’ve made that promise to stick with us. Take care. Bye.