Genesis 26:17-27:46, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalms 10:16-18, Proverbs 3:9-10
Today is the 12th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today…today as we continue our journey forward in and through the…the first month of this year, the month of January. And we are…we’re well on our way. And, so, as is our custom day by day step-by-step, we enter into a rhythm that allows us to come around this Global Campfire as a community and hear the Scriptures spoken over us, and give some things to think about and meditate upon and to know that we’re not alone in this endeavor no matter what time you might be listening to Daily Audio Bible no matter what time you click play somebody else in the world is also there. There’s never a time when this isn’t…when this isn’t just going out into the world. And, so, that is a beautiful thing to know. We’re not in this together and we’re pushing into this second week approaching in a few days the center of the first month. And we are on a journey and we’re not alone and that is a beautiful thing. So, let’s dive in and take that next step. We…we’re reading about Jacob and Esau yesterday and sort of the conniving of a birthright away from the firstborn son Esau that was given to Jacob and…well… we’ll continue that story. Genesis chapter 26 verse 17 through 27 verse 46. And we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. Once again, the book of Proverbs, the voice of wisdom is speaking to us and we can hear these phrases and these stanzas of wisdom and take them to hearty, actually pay close close attention to what’s being said and promised, or just kinda let it go by us and “yeah yeah yeah, I kinda know that. I know I should honor the Lord with my wealth. Like I’ve been told that all along.” And yeah, we probably have. But there’s more to this story. “Honor the Lord with your wealth and the best part of everything you produce.” In other words, your best…your best goes to God and in exchange he will fill your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine. And we may be like, “well…I don’t need a barn of grain.” If you were in the time that these words…that these words are being spoken that would be a promise that you’re going to be okay, that your needs will not only be met but you will have a surplus and you will be able to use that surplus wisely to not only care for and preserve your own family, but to care for and preserve others. So what God is essentially telling us, what wisdom is speaking to us is of our utter dependence upon God. What we may be able to accumulate in this life on our own without God, the Bible will tell us over and over things like “that will be moth-eaten, that will be destroyed, that will disappear like a vapor.” But walking with God the most-high, who owns the earth, like created the earth has a claim to the planet as well as the universe and all of its resources. Like we have all these boundary lines for our planets. And God permits all of this is if we have ownership, but this is God’s world, He made it, He owns it. So, certainly he can get us the resources that we need if we trust in Him by giving our best first. And again we can just look at wisdom here and the voice of wisdom and we could say, “I don’t believe that” and not try, not even…not even make an attempt to see if it’s real or we can listen to the voice of wisdom and watch it play out in our lives.
And then we zoom back to where we began today in the book of Genesis and we traveled along with Isaac and him having to move around and find a settled place where he could be with his family. And then we watched the animosity grow between Jacob and Esau. And we are at the point now where Jacob has finagled the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn for himself. And Esau is obviously furious, so furious that he’s consoling himself by making plans to kill his brother. And, so, Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, wants Jacob to flee back to her family, back to her brother and his name is Laban. And we met Laban. Remember when the servant of Abraham went to find Rebekah and when he put the nose ring and the bracelets on her, and she went home. It was Laban who came to see the servant and make the inquiries. So, Rebekah is telling her son Jacob, “go back to my brother Laban” and that’s what he’s going to do. And we are also starting to get a small sense of geography. Some places are being named. And again, you know, you read the place names or even the people names in the Bible and it's…there so unfamiliar to the culture that we live in and we just kind of glaze over it all. We don’t have a map. We don’t know the geography. We don’t know where things are. And, so, we just imagine in our minds but we’re beginning to hear of places, places like Beersheba, the well of the oath. That’s an important place that actually until this very day still exists, and it will become the southern border of a future nation of Israel - from Dan to Beersheba. So, we’re starting to get a sense that Beersheba’s here in the South. And it is. It’s right on…right on the edge of the desert. These places exist. You can see many of the places that we’re gonna visit in the Bible in a resource that we…that we worked on for five years. It’s called Promised Land and it’s in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We’ll send you some…a couple of DVDs but we’ll also give you the digital version of it right on the spot. And basically, what it is is over 70 different locations that are biblical verified archaeological locations that…that major things happen in in the Bible, like Beersheba. That’s one of them. And, so, you can see these places, not just in a static kind of one-dimensional photograph, but actually filmed where you can kinda get a sense of the scope and the space all around it. More like a 360 kind of view of what the place looks like today and that the place existed and has stories that have been told for thousands of years from that place. So, there is a resource in the Daily Audio Bible shop that can take this journey even deeper and give you a visual of many of the places that we are reading about and will read about in the Bible. So, check that out.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the different nuances and all of the different complexions, all of the different angles that it comes to us in, whether that be a narrative story or whether that be in spoken wisdom unfiltered into our lives or whether that be in stanzas of adoration and worship in the Psalms. All of the issues of life begin to emerge as we immerse ourselves in the Bible. And, so, we open ourselves and say, Holy Spirit come plant the words in our lives that we might yield the fruit of the Holy Spirit in…in our lives and that it may be visible transformation to those around us we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find what’s going on around here.
And, yeah, the Daily Audio Bible Shop, we were just talking about this. This is where you can find resources like the Promised Land films and take your journey as deep as you want to go and as wide as you want to go. But dive in. The Bible is also intriguing and so powerful in our lives if we hadn’t noticed that already. The Bible’s been speaking volumes to us right out of the gate and it doesn’t stop it just continues to speak all the way through the year. And, so, often it speaks things that we need right when we need them. And that has just so profoundly beautiful to watch, just to watch God work through it in us so that we’re hearing things when we need to hear them and they’re changing us. So, check out the resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.
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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:
Good morning DAB family God bless you all. Jeff Scepter, a longtime listener but your wife is a newbie and she just completed I think you said her first year or something like that. I am praying for the wisdom of the Lord to be upon her in the name of Jesus and I’m believing in the name of Jesus that she is going to thrive in this community as you have been. Praise you Jesus. And welcome, welcome, welcome to your wife in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah Lita. Grace filled DeCastro you’re returning to work as a teaching assistant. I am praying for you sister in the name of Jesus for you and those around you. I am praying for the children in the name of Jesus. Hope from the Heartland you first called in to share you know how much you enjoyed doing Instacart and listening to the Christmas party and then your following message was about losing your mom. I am so so sorry. I am praying for the peace of God to be upon you all. I am praying for that comforter to just cover you in His love in the name of Jesus. Airport Missionary you called in sharing your gratitude and how thankful you are in regard to the job that had been prayed for for you and how interesting the experience has been. And I am praying with you sister I am praying for you and I am praying for all those lives that you are touching along the way. Zinab from London God bless you. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I can just say welcome. You know, the DAB community has been amazing in my life and I know it will be for yours and your double DABber. Hooray. Yay! God bless you. Esther from Orlando. I love you all.
Hey DAB family this is Tiffany in New Mexico. I wanted to call in because yesterday I was sick. I’m actually still a little sick but after spending half the morning just laying in bed watching Hallmark movies it suddenly dawned on me that I could be better spending my time getting on the app and going to the Prayer Wall and praying for people. And I know that Brian mentions it quite frequently, but I just wanted to remind you guys that there are so many prayer needs on the Prayer Wall. And it’s…it’s the people that may be afraid to actually call in with a prayer request or some people just need more immediate prayer. So, I just wanted to encourage each of you that if you just have a couple minutes each day to go on to the Prayer Wall and just meet some of these prayer needs because that’s what we are, where a family that prays for one another. So, anyway it blessed my…the rest of my day yesterday being sick in bed and I just thought I might remind you guys that it could also be a blessing for you as well. So, anyway. Love you all. Take care. Bye.
Happy new year Brian and fellow DABbers and I’m so deeply invested in this community that I am now a triple DABber. The saying goes that the third time is a charm and I was definitely charmed by little Ezekiel at DABK. Oh, my word Zeke is a wonder kid I tell you. It warms my heart to hear him read in such pureness and innocence and he is so eager to read the Bible. The interaction with his mom is just adorable. Good job Brian and Jill. God bless you. Okay a big shout out to those who continue to pray for our children and grandchildren, especially Duane who has been so consistent over the years. Know that I pray for your voice too. And Rose, I love your prayers. I offer up a yes and amen for all the prayers that come in for kids and grandkids. Okay, the Christmas party was off the chart. Like Cherry I enjoyed the party with an active imagination sitting by the campfire throwing on the log here and there and partying without even having to practice social distancing. How about that? One last thing before I run out of time. Mike, that was a beautiful statement you made to Brian and I join thoughts with you to continue praying that the Lord will protect him from burnout. When you mentioned that he’s always here for the community I thought of the…the post man, the postman slogan which says rain sleet or snow nothing stops this man of God. And Brian you are very much appreciated and loved. Well, I gotta go running out of time. So, Charm DABber out. Peace on.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible community this is Diane Olive Braun, and I am an encourager, just one of many, many, many, many. So, I so love this community and I’m gathering around the campfire and putting my logs on warming my hands and my heart. Oh, today I listened to the January 7th 2021. O, what can I say? What can I say? Forgiveness. Oh, thank you Brian, thank you Jill, thank you Ezekiel. Oh Ezekiel, breathing in and say Jesus forgives me. Breathe out all this junk. I just…I’m so sorry. I’ve been so touchy, fretful, resentful. I’ve been so offended. When someone offends me, I get so angry. Jesus says take no offense. And Abraham and Sarah, they were so quick to obey. I’ve been slow to obey. I’m gonna delight myself in…
Hello, I’m Metoo and I’m coming from India, a small place named New Bombay. This is the very first time that I’m listening to the Daily Audio Bible and this has been seven days now and I’m listening to Brian and it has been very encouraging. And also, has been guiding me as well. I look forward to complete the…the whole Bible and towards the end of the year and I look forward and believe that there will be a lot of books and the words from God from the Lord that will guide us each day. This has been a really good seven days and I look forward to hearing each and every session of the Daily Audio Bible. Thank you so much. God bless you all for doing such a great job. God bless you all with wisdom and I thank you…
Hi DAB family this is Lisa from Missouri. I’m calling in because two years ago today I started listening to the DAB. I accidentally came across the app, downloaded it and started listening. I caught up for the six days that I missed. Listening to the DAB and listening to Brian and listening to the prayers of the community and the encouragement and the stories that the DAB community has shared has played a huge part in what God has done in my life over the last two years, how God has transformed my heart and transformed me from the inside out. I re-dedicated my heart can’t May…in May of 2019. I grew up in a Christian home. I went to church. I was saved at a young age but because…but I did stray from that for some years and…but God drew me back and I just want to thank Brian. Thank you Brian for your faithfulness to us, for teaching us and showing us who God really is and how much he loves us. If you’re new to this community and you just started listening, hang in there. Keep listening. God will move in your life. He will open your heart and you will receive so much from him. Hang in there. Keep listening. God bless everyone. Have a…