Job 12:1-15:35, 1 Corinthians 15:29-58, Psalms 39:1-13, Proverbs 21:30-31
Today is August 24th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy to be here with you this week. I’m looking forward to the territory we’re going through in this week. And even though we’re kind of in more serious territory, kinda dealing with suffering and the kind of topics that we try to avoid if…if we can help it. I just have this sense of optimism that if we embrace this season that we’re going through in the Scriptures and in our lives so much cleaning out can happen, so much restructuring can happen over the next little season. And as we go into the latter part of the year the world may be chaotic but we just…we don’t have to participate, like that’s our prerogative. We have to participate in life, but we don’t have to get swept into divisiveness and we don’t have to get swept into chaos. That’s a choice and when we’re willing to face our own junk, when we’re willing to our own, which these books, these books like Job and Ecclesiastes, they have a way of asking us to face our own stuff. When we do than we’re getting honest and when we get honest God can move. So, let’s dive in. Let’s take the next step. We’re reading from the voice translation this week. Job chapter 12, 13, 14 and 15 today.
Commentary:
Okay. We spent a good amount of time today reading from Job and hearing Job pour out his heart and it’s brutal and it’s honest and it’s how he’s feeling and it’s what he’s sensing and it's…his frustration. And we got…we have in Job what we would call cognitive dissonance. And we feel this way when we believe something to be true or we’ve always functioned in a certain way only to find out it may not be that way, right, which we can bring us into doubt or we reject…or like we were like, “the way I thought things were are not how they are” and that creates a dissonance that we have to wrestle with and try to settle the score so that we can move forward, so that we can understand what we’re dealing with. So, what we have is Job’s friends trying to reason with Job basically saying, “God is good. Everybody knows that. God is just. Everybody knows that. He’s righteous. Like He’s not going to punish a person for no reason, He’s not gonna to judge somebody for nothing. So, Job your plight must be that there’s something…something going on and you just keep trying to say your innocent, which only proves your guilt”, right? Because the cognitive dissonance for Job’s friends and…and Job are that the baseline is, “God is good. God is good.” So, Job has this problem of feeling like truly he hasn’t done anything wrong, truly he’s righteous, which leaves no explanation for his suffering if in fact he’s being judged by God, which Job believes to be the case. Job’s friends have the dissonance because they’re listening to their trusted friend, but there’s no way they can believe Job over what they think that they know about God. And, so, they’re basically just trying to help Job follow the path to discovering his own sinfulness so that he can repent and maybe God would restore him. So, this is why there’s all this back-and-forth. This is why there’s all this wrestling and this is why we say the things that we do to people who are going through things that we don’t understand. I mean because this creates a tension that needs to be resolved. Job wants to solve the tension but it’s not gonna come through the advice of his friends. Like they’re wise people and he’s a wise man and he doesn’t feel like they know anything that he doesn’t know and he’s listened to them, but he knows everything that they’re telling them. The only place he’s gonna actually get the answer he’s looking for is from God. He wants an audience with God but he knows that if he were able to get that audience with God than even his own mouth would condemn him. Like it’s a tension that he’s trying to resolve and, in some ways, where Job is going, like where he is keeping his heart close and true, this thing he is focusing on is revealed today. And honestly, again, one of the most beautiful, difficult, and true statements in the Bible is found in our reading today. I mean when we started Job we saw Job have his life destroyed systematically and we watched him respond by falling down, certainly grieving, mourning, but falling down in worship to God. Job today says something that is a continuum, basically, of that posture of heart through all of this. Job is basically saying, “I have got to find God and I may find that when I do, if I do, that I am not innocent after all and God might kill me for it. Even if he slays me, still I will hope in him.” O man, that posture is so deep. It’s Job acknowledging that he does not understand at all what is going on. And what he does understand or what he thinks he understands about himself, maybe he doesn’t. But he’s got what he’s got, He’s got his convictions and nobody is gonna talk him out of it, nobody’s gonna say the right thing or give the right reference. He wants God and if can find God and God kills him then he’s still gonna hope in God because there’s no other hope no matter what. This is saying like, “even if God ends up being a hopeless waste of time, still I will hope in the Lord and the Lord only.” That is be on our theology friends. That is beyond any formula we can construct to try to explain God and God’s movements among people on planet Earth. And it is beyond any of our circumstances. It’s saying it like it is. There is no other hope. And, so, even if it’s a vain hope, I’m still going to hope. That’s called faith. And the thing that we should be wrestling with because it’s what’s being brought up, this is what we’re supposed to do is wrestle with, is to consider, “do we love of God for what he can do? Would we love Him if He did nothing?” Is that what we’ve got going on here, a transactional relationship? Yeah, that gets the bedrock pretty quick doesn’t it? That like…like cuts to the bone, which is what the Bible promises to do, that it would…that it would be able to get as deep as to where soul and spirit divide, that it gets to get to the deepest essence of who we are. and that’s where we’re at today as we come out of the book of Job.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into this, it’s disruptive, it's…it’s more fun when our reading is something tremendously encouraging or tremendously enlightening in a positive way. It’s difficult sometimes when the mirror goes up and we have to look ourselves in the face and we have to look into our own eyes because the Scriptures are forcing us to be honest. And we see honesty today in the Scriptures and it leads us to consider our own lives and our own seasons of suffering and our own interpretation of what’s going on. So, come Holy Spirit into that as we continue through this day. We need You and Job is showing us that he needed You. There was nothing else that was going to be adequate, no other word, no other circumstance, You and You alone. And that’s over being led understand - we need You, there is no other hope. And, so, come into that as we…as it brings up whatever it brings up, as we wrestle with it, as we consider it, as we embrace it. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Commentary:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is…it is home of the Global Campfire, it is that where you find out what’s going on around here and there’s always something or another. So, check of the different sections. You can check them all out in the app as well.
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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:
Hello DAB family this is Steadfast Stacy in Arizona I’m calling to pray for Barb in Canada who called basically with regrets about not feeling like she had not laid a decent adequate foundation for her children. And I’m praying for her and for myself because I share those regrets and I know that God is bigger for both of us. Dear heavenly Father thank You for Barb, thank You for her call and thank You for her vulnerability that is a blessing to me. Thank You that You are bigger than our regrets, that You know our hearts, that You know who You placed in our homes, what children You gave us, and that You promise us that we were adequate for those children. Lord there’s something about for me in this COVID time, just an awful lot of time to think, an awful lot of ways to see the choices that my children are making and just my maturity in beating myself up about my part in my son’s inability to…to see You in their lives and see their need of You. But Lord this all comes back to my need of You, my need of You to put all that in perspective and my need of You to…to be able to trust that I did what I could. And I’ve been seeking and I’m sure Barb is the same way. I can’t…I…I hear a tenderness in her heart and I pray that You would help her at this time to be comforted by You, to be…have the right words to be sprinkled with grace when she interacts with her children in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning family this is Purely Pampered of Maine today is Wednesday the 19th of August it’s been almost 5 years since I last called asking for prayers for the situation with my son who came out as a transgendered female and all of the resulting difficulties surrounding the breakup of his marriage and the whole situation. We’re basically estranged and my child and my husband’s choice and have only seen our grandson a few times. The hole in my heart never stops hurting and I would ask for continued prayers. Today I’m asking for prayers for my older son and his fiancée. They found out two weeks ago that their jobs are not coming back and that they have to be out of their apartment by the end of the month. They have two dogs and three cats which have been certified as emotional support animals to my future daughter-in-law. So, considering that and that they’re both unemployed, finding another place is proving quite difficult and they’re facing homelessness. My son has been away from the faith for some years now feeling abandoned and like God cannot be trusted. I am asking that God would intervene in the situation and reveal His power demonstrating that God is a loving God who cares about the details of their lives. Will you please lift them up in prayer? Thank you. I pray for you all each day, the requests that are called in and those that are not. I love you family. I’d be lost without you. I gain such strength knowing that you are there.
Hello family this is Angel. You didn’t know me yet but I’m your sister in Christ and I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been listening but I know it was before Zeke was born, so it’s been at least nine years but I’ve been growing with you, learning with you, praying with you, crying with you. So, I want to just say hi and say I’m here. And I’m here also today to ask for your help. Jesus said some things come only with fasting and prayer. And I’ve been fasting and I’m going to continue fasting and I’m asking you to continue praying with me. My 15-year-old is in dire need of your prayers her name is Elyse, which means consecrated to God and I know that He has such good plans for her. I know that she’s going to come through this is gold but for the last year and a half she’s been suffering so badly with PTSD, with depression, with not being able to get out of bed or function even the smallest level. Yes, she’s seeing counseling, yes, we have a psychiatrist and those things do and will help but they are not the answer. Christ is the answer. Please pray for my precious one Elyse who is consecrated to God. Pray that the anxiety will leave her, that she will grow, that she will thrive, that she will be able to speak truth to herself and that she will know God’s presence in a…in a new…in a new way, that no depression can touch her, that generational bonds would not have any…
Good morning DAB family this is Tina from Ohio thank you Brian and all of my DAB family for all of your guy’s faithfulness and your prayers. I just want to say a Jewish prayer, but I will not be saying it in Hebrew I will be just saying it in English. May the one who blessed our fathers and our mothers -Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah bless and heal those who are ill. May their blessed holy one be filled with compassion for their health to be restored and their strength to be revived. Blessed be the holy one. May God swiftly send them a complete renewal of body and spirit, complete healing from the heavens, healing of the spirit of the body speedily and soon and let us say amen. God bless each and every one of you and may the Lord’s face shine upon you and may His continence rise upon you and be gracious unto all of you and give you all peace today. Be blessed and encourage my brothers and sisters.
Hi neighbors it’s Lisa the Encourager I hope you’re having a most blessed day. I pray God’s blessings upon you and your life. I’m praying today for your children and stress. So, whatever stress is in their life that’s what I want to pray for and pray away from. Dear God, I thank You again so much for Brian and his ministry with the Daily Audio Bible to each and every one of us God. I pray special blessings over Brian so that he doesn’t have stress God, that You eliminate any stress in his life and in addition to that I pray for the Daily Audio Bible children God, any and all of our children whether they are dealing with stresses in relationships, work, marriage, children, teenagers Lord, whatever stresses are coming into their lives bombarding them and keeping them, their minds away from You because their minds are so focused on the stress God. I pray that You will swoop in and just take it away from them and just give them peace, give them love, give them direction, and just help them Lord God to rely on You in all things and give it all to You and not trying to beat themselves up…up about it and help them to know that You are the Almighty conquer and that they can surrender that stress over to You, You will take it from them Lord God. Help them to know that, see that, feel that, touch that, understand that in a mighty, mighty way. In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Treasured Possession and let’s pray. Father God, I love You so much. I thank You for all of the blessings and all of the power and all of the goodness and all of the joy and peace in the patience and the kindness and for self-control Father God, all of the fruits of the spirit that are ours in Christ. And more than anything Father I thank You that our identity is found in You, that when we place our hopes, our dreams, our desires in Your hands than those around us that are in pain, those around us that show up in ways that are quite disappointing, when those around us show up in ways that just baffle and astound as Father God You never change. You are right there, and You love us with a love that is so far beyond what we can ask, think, or imagine. Father God, the words of first Corinthians 13 talk about Your love. That is Your love and it is so far from our human heart, but You Father God can fill us with that love and help us see that love and show that love. Help us Father God to love one another that way. Help us Father God to love more than we need to be right. I ask Father God that You would strengthen and empower those who are going through relationships today that are hard, that are difficult, that are challenging their very knowledge of who they are in Christ. And I thank You Lord that You love beyond that we can never know with a peace that passes understanding. And it’s in Jesus’ name I ask these things and I praise you for these things. Amen.