01/18/2021 DAB Transcript

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 is wonderful to greet the new day and move into this brand-new week, how yesterday as we began this week the Psalms and the Proverbs gave us such practical wisdom. And the way the life is to not let wisdom and understanding out of our site. And, so, let’s build upon that. Let’s carry that with us into this week continually. And let’s continue this rhythm that we have started, oh, just 18 days ago…well…17 days ago. We’re just getting’ started but so much has happened and so much has already been spoken over us and into us and we’re starting to see the rhythm that the Bible in our lives each day in community brings. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week, picking up from yesterday. Genesis chapter 37 and 38.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s catch ourselves up in the book of Genesis because we covered some ground and we’ve met a bunch of people and read a lot of different names. So, let’s just revisit…revisit the story we’re telling and the family story that we’re telling. Abraham and his wife Sarah, right? Abraham had two sons, Ishmael through Hagar. And the Ishmaelites spread out and became the land or the nation of Edom. That region today is like southern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. And then we read of his offspring, his progeny. They’re spread forth. And we read of the different chiefs and we…we have and will read of the chiefs of Israel. So, one thing that we can say that we are clearly rooted in is a tribal time upon the earth, an earlier time, different customs, different convictions, different things that matter in different ways than they do today. So, when we try to back read 21st-century culture into something that’s thousands and thousands of years old upon the earth we can get lost. We have to read into the time and try to get ourselves into the time and just understand what was going on so that we can glean from the stories, right? It’s easy enough to look at some of these stories and go like, “ugh…I can’t imagine that they did that like that. I can’t imagine that that’s in the Bible. We would never do that today.” Fair enough. We’re thousands and thousands of years…like thousands and thousands of years in the future. I mean we can look back just as century just 100 years and look at things that we would not do that way ever anymore and “why would they think that? And why would they do that?” They did what they did because that’s how they did things when they did things in the time that they were in. And believe me 100 years from now or 500 years from now are a thousand years from now should the Lord tarry they will look back upon how we did things now and wonder why we did the things that we did because aren’t we wondering it? Aren’t we wondering why we do some of the things that we do? So, we just have to let the time be the time and the culture be the culture and what’s going on be what’s going on and look at the heart of the matter as we go forward. So, Ishmael and then the son of promise, Isaac. Isaac had his firstborn, Esau and his second born, Jacob. Jacob and all of the conniving that went on ended up having the birthright and having the father’s blessing and basically everything that Isaac owned. Lots of problems happened between Jacob and Esau. In fact, Esau wanted to kill Jacob, so he had to flee, and he was gone for decades. During those decades he had 12 children. We’ve met all of those kids. They are pretty much all grown and now where we’re at in the story Jacob’s name was changed by God to Israel making his children the…the children of Israel. That’s how we have the children of Israel. And each one of these men will be tribal leaders of tribes that are named after them because it’s their progeny. And over the top of all of what we just said, and all of the people there is a promise of a land. We know it as the Promised Land. God entered into a covenant with Abraham and gave the land to him, telling him that through him the nations would be blessed. So, that is the trajectory. Like that is the thing that’s tying all of these people together. There’s this promise. So, God reveals this promise to Abraham then he reveals it to his son Isaac and then he reveals it to his son Jacob or Israel - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, right? We will hear them mentioned together as we continue forward into the Bible - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These are known as the patriarchs. So, one of these children of Israel his name is Joseph and we met him today. He’s a 17-year-old kid, good-looking guy, full of all of the things that a 17-year-old guy would be full of including arrogance and fearlessness and no way to assess the risks that they might be taking with the words that they’re using. And, so, he has some dreams. These dreams…actually this is very important that he is beginning to have dreams. And trying just to begin to maybe understand how to think about what these dreams might mean, that is going to play a huge role in Joseph’s life and in the entire story of the Promised Land. But right now, where we are in the story, he’s…yeah…I mean his brothers just…they know their father favors him. And he’s probably being a 17-year-old little punk, right, to his pig brothers, enough that they hate him anyway, enough that they grow to hate him. And when they see him coming, they hate him enough to decide to kill him. And, so, they throw him in a cistern. Now, not all the brothers are on board with killing their brother. Some of them aren’t. One of them wants to get him back to his father. In the end they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. And we just talked about who they were. And what we see in the Bible here now, is Joseph’s brothers selling Joseph into slavery. We see the first act, at least in Scriptures of deliberate human trafficking. And we will at length be spending time with Joseph and his story after he is sold by his brothers and ends up in Egypt.

Okay, and then we need to talk about Matthew because Jesus talks about something that is like unforgivable, like the unpardonable sin. That's…that’s what it was…that’s how it was known as I was growing up. He talks about something unforgivable and the unforgivable thing is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. And the context of this is that Jesus now…I mean we’ve been traveling with Jesus. We’ve found out his family line. We…we saw His birth. We’ve seen his baptism. He’s been ministering. We’ve seen His kind of posture of wanting to keep when He does a healing or a miraculous thing to keep it on the down low. Like, we’re just learning His personality. But Jesus keeps getting in trouble. And we’re watching what He’s doing and should…we should scratch our heads and go. “why would you get in trouble? Why would He be in trouble for making the blind see? Like why would He be in trouble for throwing out the oppressive spirits that were tormenting somebody? Like why?” Why would that… and…who’s getting Him in trouble? Like who is against Him? The religious people. The religious people, the Pharisees are against Him. In fact today for the first time we see them deciding to find a way to kill Jesus. So, there is an obvious disconnect. Jesus is upon the earth doing the will of God and saying, “something great is happening. Something great is among you.” He is revealing that the kingdom is already among them and with them. And He’s operating in that kingdom which is how these things are happening. And all they can do is try to frame Jesus and His power as power coming from beelzebul, coming from the devil, like coming from the forces of evil, that Jesus is doing good by the forces of evil. And He almost laughed, He’s like, “how can a kingdom divided like that even exist? Like what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense.” Of course, when Jesus filets what they’re saying, when He…when He basically calls out what’s really going on, we talked about this the other day - when light shines into the darkness what is squirming into the darkness does not want to be exposed. It wants to shut out the light. And that’s what we see happening here. And the irony is its not people just people trying to live their lives. It’s the religious leadership that wants to do away with Jesus. And, so, it’s kinda in this context of them accusing Jesus of doing what He’s doing or having the power that He has because He’s a disciple of evil and…and what He’s doing is being done by the dark powers of evil. That’s when Jesus basically says, “you can…you can say things about me. You say things about the Son of Man but if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit and hold that conviction then there’s…it’s a nonstarter.” So, what is blasphemy? Let me just read the definition out of the dictionary. Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity or sacred objects or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. So, Jesus is basically saying, “you can say bad things about me but when you begin to declare that the work of God that is coming through me and the outflow of that power that is bringing the kingdom by healing the sick, when it is clear that what God is doing is good even though it rewires your paradigm and you don’t understand it when you call it of the devil you are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. You are calling God’s work among God’s people the works of darkness.” Where this gets close to home is when we use words like, “that is of the devil.” Now it might be…it might be but when we just sort of say it flippantly like…we don’t understand how God could be working through that person who’s an obvious heathen of some sort like, or that we just don’t agree with theologically, and we think that they are just deceiving people but God’s good still is happening, God still is working and we say…we just dismiss them, they are of the devil. That’s pretty scary stuff friends. We better think really, really clearly if we’re gonna make those kinds of declarations because that is exactly what the Pharisees were doing to Jesus and that is exactly why He said what He said. One thing that we’re going to find out, and it will be a fairly common theme, fairly relentless all the way through the Bible is that the things that we say, they matter. The power of life and death is in the tongue. And we will find that our words are the way we tell the story, right? And this is how we’re writing the story of our lives. And if our lives are full of cursing people made in the image of God or cursing the things that God is doing because we don’t understand them, well that’s not going anywhere.

Prayer:

Father, we enter into that. But it’s not always easy to know. And this isn’t even a category we’re normally even paying attention…but You’ve brought a brand-new category that’s pretty significant in the way that we live right front and center. Like we watched You Jesus do this in the time that You did Your ministry a couple of thousand years ago. But what You were bringing front and center is no less in need of being front and center now. The things that we do matter. We are all connected. And this transformative process that we are in is making us one. We will see this. We will pray this, that we would be one as You and the Father are one. So, this transformative process is knitting us together as Your body in this world. And we cannot…we cannot keep cursing parts of the body because we don’t understand it. We need Your discernment. We need the voice of wisdom in our lives and we probably need to bite our tongues a whole lot more than we are. Come Holy Spirit into this we pray right here at the front part of the year because this can transform the year. Like this…if we pay attention to what we are saying and what we are blessing and what we are cursing, if we pay attention to this the whole complexion of the year’s gonna change. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is…it’s the web address, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And, of course, the Daily Audio Bible app brings us all of those things as well.

And shout out for the app. Like if you’re not using the app, that is definitely the best community experience and that is definitely where we continue to build and develop the experience of community and moving through the rhythm of the Bible in a year. And, so, once you’ve registered for the app then you…it helps you keep track of what days you’re on and how far…the progress that you’re making. And as we move through different sections of the Bible it…it…it awards us. It like, it lets us know, “hey you just completed the Gospels” or “you’ve just completed the Torah.” As we continue forward then we’ll…we’ll just be able to mark the sections of the Bible as we move through them. And the Prayer Wall is there of course. It’s just a…yeah…if you don’t have the app, or if you haven’t used the app in a very very very long time…yeah…come back. Come back and check out the out app. It is definitely the way to stay connected. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com on the web but you can also do it in the app by pressing the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I thank you. I Thank you with all my heart, truly. It's…I mean there are days that I’m just in awe that like we’re in year 16, seven days a week doing this because we’ve been in this journey…on this journey together for…for all these years and we’ve been in community. And, so, thank you for your partnership. So, talked about the website, talked about the Give button in the app. If you prefer mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button. That’s in the app as well no matter where you are in the world, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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 neighbors this is Lisa the Encourager I’m calling today to wish all of our newcomers in 2021 a very happy welcome with tons and tons of virtual confetti. I’m throwing up in the air and it’s landing on your head and I hope you have a big smile on your face because this is absolutely gonna change your life from this year going forward. I never realized when I first turned on the Daily Audio Bible and made it a goal that I just wanted to read through the Bible or listen to the Bible in a year. And five years later I’ve never stopped. It is just amazing that the way that Brian presents the word of God to us. It becomes such a pattern in your life and such an amazing force that will absolutely change your life. And I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you and hearing your stories and how God has blessed and change your life. I also wanted to reach out to Radiant Rachel and just give her some kudos that last year when you were reading all those prayers over your husband and sharing them with us in different types of areas of improvement for your…for your husband. And I was saying them over my husband as well and I’ve seen such a change in his life and I just wanted to thank you so much and I believe Ben is your son and he’s just so adorable. And I also want to thank him. So, I thank you all so much. I love you all and I pray that you all have a wonderful 2021 and blessings and that the Lord will shine His face upon all of you. God bless. Lisa the Encourager.

Hi family this is Biola from Maryland. Happy new year. We want to thank God for bringing us into 2021. We want to thank God for His goodness in our lives as a family, Daily audio Bible. I have been a part of this beautiful community the year Jill was pregnant with Ezekiel. And I was there, you know, praying along while she was in labor and Brian had told us to pray and all of that. Well, over the years I’ve been faithful. And just, you know, listening to the Bible over and over and over again is addictive you know? Well, I just want to say God bless you all. Welcome to all our new members. Everyone that found Daily Audio Bible God bless you. I want to reach out to my sister, my new sister in the Lord in London Zinab. Zinab welcome. I pray in the name of Jesus that the Holy Spirit who drew you even to Christ to come to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and then to find this app. That Holy Spirit will help you to grow. I pray Philippians 2:13 over you my dear sister, that God will continue to give you the desire and the power to walk…to…to walk in Him as His child, to learn, to hunger and thirst for Him, to learn more and more about Him so that you will grow in your faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is not a religion my sister this is a personal walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I pray that He will delight you at every turn in Jesus’ name. The other sister who is new hat called in. She’s in her final year in college. Sister, I pray that God will help you, that He will give you the spirit of excellence and wisdom and understanding and you will not be stressed anymore in the name of Jesus. Lastly, family I want to encourage you this is a new year. Give to Daily Audio Bible through your…

Hey, my name is Karis I am me from South Carolina I am 17 both my parents listen to this. So, hey. Yeah, this is my first time calling in. I just started listening at the beginning of the year. I listened to DADB Chronological a while back but this my first time here and I am just so shocked at how…how close this family is and how vulnerable everybody is being with their prayer requests. So, I wanted to come on here and just give Alexis some encouragement. You were talking about just…you needed some prayer for fear of man and getting over that. And, so, I wanted to read you this Bible verse. It’s from Matthew 10:28. It says, “don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” I am also in high school. I’m a senior. And I get it. I get not wanting people to talk about you, not wanting people to think bad things about you. You want to please everybody around you. I really understand that. And, so, I just want to give you encouragement and let you know that you’re not alone in that. And then I wanted to let Steve from South Carolina know that I’m praying for you and your daughter who has breast cancer. That is a really scary thing. And, so, I’m just praying for you. Thank you all so much for being so vulnerable.

Good morning this message is Yvonne from New York. I heard your message about caring for your elderly mom and I’m here to encourage you. Since then, you’ve been raised with Christ. Set your heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand. Set your mind on things above not on earthly things. Therefore, as God’s chosen people holy and dearly loved cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgive you and bind these altogether with love. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to be…called to peace and be thankful. Yvonne, I’m praying for you that you will take in all of this word. You are dearly loved. You have been given a new heart and it is soft. You are not what you see. You are not what your mom is. You are what God says you are. And, so, you receive this word Yvonne and go on and read this. It’s Colossians chapter 3. Read it for yourself and take it in. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And whatever you do whether in word or deed and in caring for your mom do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. You are blessed Yvonne. You are blessed. You are an inspiration to me and so many others. So, I’m rejoicing in the Lord for you. I love sister. Be blessed.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is All the Treasures from Wyoming. I’m calling…I’ve actually been wanting to call for a while. Still don’t have my thoughts completely wrapped around what I want to share but at the end of last year just a couple weeks ago Brian challenged us when he was talking about New Year’s resolutions. And the words that he spoke kind of stopped me in my spiritual tracks. And he talked about what if my New Year’s resolution would be to have God delight in me. And I still don’t know what to do with that because I realized that thought had never in all my years of being a Christian, that thought had never entered my mind. I love Jesus so much like you all do and I love the gift of being able to delight in Him. I love loving Him, but I’ve never really thought about Him delighting in me. And I still can’t imagine that yet. But I think mostly it’s because I see myself through the eyes of my failures. I know I’m forgiven. I don’t live in failure. But I still have deep sorrow and regret over them. And, so, I envision Jesus loving me but I can’t imagine Him delighting in me. So, I have been wanting to call and to share that with you guys and maybe there’s others who feel that way. If so, we can just pray for each other to get his eyes to see…

Hey DAB family this is your sister Julie in Idaho and I just wanted to share something really cool that happened yesterday. Unfortunately, the winds were pretty powerful up in the panhandle of Idaho yesterday and it blew some trees over on the power lines and so we were without power for a good 24 hours. And what was really cool about that is that I happen to have the God of Your Story and I thinking, “I’m gonna miss my DAB today. What am I gonna do?” And then I remembered I have the God of Your Story by Brian. And I bought it last year. And I’m telling you it was such a treasure to have yesterday because I missed all of you so much but I was able to get out my own Bible, my paper Bible and the God of Your Story and I felt like you were still there with me around the Global Campfire. So, if that happens to you or if you’re in a place that gets a lot of power outages you might want to think about investing in the God of Your Story. And even…even if your power isn’t going out to just invest in that and maybe go through it every day after you listen to DAB and actually physically read your own paper Bible. It really brings another dimension into the God of our story. So, Brian I thank you for your resources. They have been treasures to me ever since I started about…I think I’m going on my sixth year now. But I can’t even imagine not doing this every year and I can’t imagine you guys not being there with me around the Global Campfire. You are my family. You are my church and I love you. And welcome to all my new brothers and sisters. And those of you that are sitting on the fence, please get off and come over and sit by the fire. Put a log on. We love having you I love hearing voices from all over the world. I love you and I can’t wait to all be with you someday around the real campfire, the heavenly campfire.