Jeremiah 37:1-38:28, 1 Timothy 6:1-21, Psalms 89:38-52, Proverbs 25:28
Today is the 21st day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we just kinda come in and take our places around the Global Campfire. How is everyone? How are you doing? Well…no matter how you’re doing, no matter how any of us are doing we have kind of created a little oasis where when we come here things kind of get shifted, perspective gets reoriented because when we come in here and sit around the Global Campfire together we know we’re not alone and we’re simply letting God’s word speak to us in whatever way that it does. This is safe…this is a safe place that has been a rescue so many times. And, so, it is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward. And this week we are reading from the Christian Standard Bible. So, we’ll continue to do that throughout this week and continuing our journey through the book of Jeremiah today. So, today we’ll be diving into chapters 37 and 38.
Commentary:
Okay. So, I have been in ministry a long time and I have been around ministry my entire life. And, so, I have encountered the word prophetic or prophetic things plenty…plenty of times over…over the years and that's…that’s fine but I have also had people introduce themselves to me as profits many times in many kind of weird interesting sorts of ways. But with further conversations like, “no. I’m not sure this…I’m not sure where on the same page. I’m just not sure we’re having the same conversation.” So. well, like what does a prophet look like? What does a prophet do? What does a prophet have to face? That’s something we get a very clear view of in the book of Jeremiah today because in my experience most of the people who have introduced themselves to me as prophets are really really, really trying to be seen that way and are trying to live like a ultra-prosperous sort of life that draws attention to themselves as somebody with some sort of secret special direct line to God. So, we’re reading through the book of…a book of prophecy, the book of Jeremiah, who was a prophet in the Bible and he’s in Jerusalem and there’s a blockade around the city and everyone is trapped and the only thing keeping the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, from getting into Jerusalem is the wall. The thing is, the wall is protecting them from the invading army, but the invading army has surrounded the city. And, so, there is a wall between them, but society is falling apart inside the walls. There’s no food, right? Like, and…and there’s no law and order. It’s all falling apart because the writings kind of on the wall. We’ve been reading through Jeremiah and so in earlier times in Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, there were other prophets around contradicting Jeremiah, like very aggressively contradicting Jeremiah. We’re not hearing any of those prophetic voices anymore. Those prophets, the ones who were like, “no. There’s a two-year plan. Everything’s coming back. No. Certainly the Chaldeans will never breach the walls.” We’re not hearing any of those voices anymore. Jeremiah is the remaining prophet of God with a voice here and he is continuing to say the message that God had given him from the beginning. He’s just the messenger. He doesn’t want to be seen. He’s not trying to get notoriety. He doesn’t want to be doing this job. Now he’s trapped inside Jerusalem with a blockade. Pharaoh’s army from Egypt, the rumor is that he’s coming and so the Chaldeans back off and so Jeremiah wants to go inspect the field that he bought. And he can’t even…he’s not even allowed to leave. Like his freedom is taken because the accusation is that he’s defecting to the Chaldeans, because he’s been saying to surrender to them all along as the word of the Lord. So, this famous prophet is then thrown into prison and then the king whose name is Zedekiah let him out but didn’t let him go free. He like kept him under house arrest in the courtyard. But it’s not too long then that people aren’t…they’re looking for somebody to scapegoat. Things are falling apart. Jeremiah’s word from the Lord has been consistent and is coming true and the people are furious at Jeremiah for saying the things that he said. So, Jeremiah ends up basically in quicksand at the bottom of a well to die there. That’s the life of this prophet. Then king Zedekiah comes to Jeremiah privately. Everybody’s watching everybody at this point inside the city. Everybody’s trying to figure out how to get out alive. The authority of the king has been diminished significantly. And Zedekiah comes to Jeremiah is like, “just tell me the truth. Just give me it straight.” And Jeremiah’s basically like, “I’ve been doing that, my friend. I’ve been doing that for more than a decade for more than two. I’ve been telling the truth. Nobody’s listening to me and if I tell you the truth, you’ll probably kill me. And if I give you good advice you’re not gonna listen, you never have.” That’s kind of how we see the prophetic voices in the Bible. That…that’s the response in the lives of the prophets, at least the ones that are portrayed in the Bible. They come with the word from the Lord and a lot of times the word from the Lord is a foretelling of what is to come. And what is to come is not usually a good thing. And the reason that they are foretelling what is to come is because the people are heading in that direction. The prophet seeing and hearing the word of the Lord can see where this is going and speak to it because that’s where the road is going. That’s where things will end up. And, so, a prophet lay’s that out. This is where you’re going. This is what’s going to happen. However, it’s not too late to change direction. And if you do repent, if you do change your mind, if you do change direction then the outcome will also change accordingly. But the people don’t listen. Only rarely do we see examples of people listening. So, the work of a biblical prophet is indeed difficult work, to say the least.
And then we come to Proverbs today and it brings it all very, very near. “A person lacking self-control is as a city with broken down walls.” In many ways that is a prophetic word into our own lives. In Jerusalem the wall was the only thing keeping the enemy out. According to Proverbs, when we lose control of ourselves the wall that keeps the enemy out of our lives falls down. In…in this scenario that we’re reading in the Bible, there were walled cities to keep enemies out and if those walls fell down then the enemy rushed in and conquered the city and in many cases destroyed the city. When we lose control of ourselves the enemy rushes in to destroy us. So, when we have not practiced…and remember we were talking about practicing just the other day, like practicing our faith. Like, this is how we train to be godly, we practice being godly. One way we practice is self-control. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. It’s a byproduct that is offered to us who…who have believed and who are practicing a godly life. If we lose that then the walls fall down and chaos rushes in, right? Fear rushes in, loss overwhelms, panic rushes in. You name it. Whatever it is that’s our enemy rushes in to conquer and destroy. And, yeah, similar to what Jeremiah’s saying, the way we will ultimately overcome is that we will surrender, we will surrender to God. And, so again, the Bible greets us as it does most every day with the illumination of pathways and where those pathways lead. The Bible once again…I mean we learn this very very much the very very beginning of the Bible, that wisdom is at every crossroads saying go this way and don’t go that way. If we would just listen and slow down. And, so, once again the Bible has brought to us the illumination of pathways and where they go. And what we can see is that if we do not practice self-control then we have a very, very vivid picture of what being surrounded by an enemy with chaos inside the walls, starvation inside the walls, and surrounded by the enemy on the outside, we see what that looks like and we know when the wall falls down that the enemy rushes in. We have a clear view of what happens to us spiritually when we do not practice self-control. Here’s the thing. I don’t think this is like new revelation. Like, you may have never heard it in this context before, but when you, when I, when we lose self-control it may not have been described as a wall falling down and an enemy rushing in, but we already know that’s exactly what it feels like. That’s what happens. And, so, let’s take the visual that the Bible has given us in Jeremiah and essentially the prophetic word that has been spoken to us from Proverbs and listen because that’s what the prophets were doing, saying this is where you’re going, this is where it will end, listen, change course. Listen. Are we gonna listen or are we gonna continue to have the wall fall down and our lives be a swirl of chaos? The choice is ours. We’re at the crossroads. Wisdom is speaking. This is the way to go. Don’t go that way. Here we are. Which way are we going?
Prayer:
Father, we know the way we want to go. We know the way were supposed to go. We just often don’t. Sometimes that is out of rebellion. Sometimes it’s just we’re overwhelmed and not paying attention. You have given us Yourself, Your presence. You are here and we get so distracted that we forget that’s real. And, so, we run around from chaos to conflict just trying to keep things afloat when there’s a better way. Come Holy Spirit and help us practice self-control. We need You now. Actually, maybe more than ever in our lifetimes we need You now. Come Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is the Joy of the Lord calling from the UK and I just want to first of all say thank you to Brian and the Hardin family for all the great work that you’re doing at the Daily Audio Bible. And I was just calling in response to Joel Maddox who called on the 19th October, Monday the 19th of October. Sounded very distressed and ready to give up. And I just want to encourage you Joel that don’t give up. That is exactly what the devil wants you to do. But please don’t give up. I know and I can hear that you are hurting but I know that even though everyone may have left you, even though you may feel alone, I know that Jesus is still with you. Jesus is reaching out. He can never give up on you. He can never leave you. He can never forsake you. He can never forget you. So, I just wanted to encourage you that God is with you at every single point in time. You may not feel like it. You may feel like you’re alone. You may feel like you’ve lost everything but do not give up. As far as there is life there is hope. So, just continue to put one foot in front of the other. Continue to just pray to God and cry out to God and I know that God will surely answer you and surely make you feel like you’re not alone and surely embrace you and encourage you in more ways than you can imagine. I look forward to an amazing praise report after this because I know that God is with you. So, I just want to call you to encourage you. And of course, I’m lifting you up in prayer and I know that my God will strengthen you beyond your capacity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Beautiful Soul from North Carolina. I wanted to call in and say a prayer for Joel Maddox. Joel, I know your pain and I know your…your loneliness and you feel like you’re not loved but you are loved. God loves you and He loves you through His people and you’re not alone. It’s not a time to give up. I’ve been there before where I wanted to just give up and throw in the towel but God kept me and He’s brought me out on the other side. And again, I also want to pray for God’s Smile. God’s Smile, she brought me through some really hard times in my life just by hearing her voice. My mother passed away 12 years ago and not having that mother’s comfort is really hard when you’re going through but to hear God’s Smile’s voice is just like my mother hugging me when I would hear voice. And I wanted God’s Smile to know that I’m praying for her too and I’m here for her to pray and lift her up as he goes through this difficult time and know that she is loved as well. Dear heavenly Father I pray for these two people in our lives that need You so desperately God. I ask that You go to their rescue God and deliver them from whatever the enemies put before them that’s causing them to suffer. I pray God that You get the glory out of the entire situation but most of all God that they draw closer to You. Lord let them know that their loved, they’re kept, and they should be carried through. When they can’t even take another step, You’ll carry them the rest of the way. Lord I not only pray for these two but all those who are suffering. We give You honor; we give You glory we give You praise. You are an awesome, awesome, awesome God and we praise You in Jesus’ name. Thank you, thank you daily audio Bible for this platform. Amen.
Hi siblings this is your sis His Little Cherry in Canada. Would you please say a prayer for my daughter joy? I got an emergency text from her this morning saying that things are not going well, things are not going well for her and for the whole first year class at the vet school. I don’t think I need to give a bunch of details because it’s really a Shakespearean tragedy is what it is. Drama, drama, and more drama with staff and deans and professors and power struggles and I guess there’s been a lot of mid…mid program choices…changes. Partly because of Covid, no one knows what they’re doing or what’s going on and just partly because of politics. And the first-year students are beside themselves as far as overwhelmed and stressed. It’s just…that school normally speaking is stressful enough and then things are just…what are they? Their inhumane, which is interesting for vet school students. So, Joy sent a long middle of the night email to the mental health counselor last night and I’m really worried about her. I’m worried about her marriage, which is only a year old and there’s lots of stress there too. So, I am clinging to Daddy for my treasure, my joyous and asking if you would have time to say a quick prayer for Joy I would sure appreciate it. I love you guys. Bye.
Hey DAB this is White as Snow from Tennessee. Just wanted to thank Soaring On Eagles Wings from Canada for praying for truck drivers. That was just an awesome prayer just lifting us up and, you know, the things we have to deal with. And I just want to thank you for…for praying for us. And I want to pray for unshavn’ misbehavn’ Tavin, which I…I love that. His Little Cherry’s son who had some pain who hopefully by now got the results of the test and just praying for just complete recovery if surgery needs to be involved just whatever that everything will go smoothly, and he’ll be doing great. And I’d also like to lift up his wife whose an atheist. And I just…just praying that God will open her eyes and she can come to know Him. And you never know how God’s working on someone. On the outside you may not see anything but, you know, God can still be working, you know, on their heart on the inside. So, just praying for her and just lifting you up and thanks again for praying for all of us.
Hello, my name is Glenda from central Missouri I’m a first-time caller, but I’ve been listening for about a year or so. Brian thank you so much for your program because I can no longer hold the Bible in my hands, yet I can still pick up the Bible every day. Right now, I’m fighting cancer. I’m not doing so good. I ask for prayer for that. I want to thank everybody for all the prayers in advance. Thank you so much. My names Glenda from central Missouri.
Hello Daily Audio Bible viewers my name is Juan __ and I just needed prayer for me and my girlfriend Cornetto. Me and her have not been going to the best of times right now but I will say this, she has brought me back to Christ when me and her got together and this feels like now she’s running astray now and since she’s been back in New York and her friend from jail got out it feels like she’s been losing her way with the Lord and I just want her to turn her favor back to God because he sent her to save me from myself and used her as a vessel to have me come back to the Lord when I felt like I was veering off and straying off. And there was never no judgment where…I just want the Lord to restore her heart, make her realize she’s woman of God and she needs to come home and that she has a man of God that loves her and I really do and I see the pain that she went through. Hopefully you guys get this, pray over it. And have a great day.