December 2021 – Page 7 – A Walk Through The Word

December 2, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday December 2, 2021 (NIV)

Daniel 9:1-11

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

9 It was the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus, who became king of the Babylonians.^[a] ²During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years.^[b] ³So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes.

⁴I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. ⁵But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. ⁶We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land.

⁷“Lord, you are in the right; but as you see, our faces are covered with shame. This is true of all of us, including the people of Judah and Jerusalem and all Israel, scattered near and far, wherever you have driven us because of our disloyalty to you. ⁸O Lord, we and our kings, princes, and ancestors are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. ⁹But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. ¹⁰We have not obeyed the Lord our God, for we have not followed the instructions he gave us through his servants the prophets. ¹¹All Israel has disobeyed your instruction and turned away, refusing to listen to your voice.

“So now the solemn curses and judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured down on us because of our sin. ¹²You have kept your word and done to us and our rulers exactly as you warned. Never has there been such a disaster as happened in Jerusalem. ¹³Every curse written against us in the Law of Moses has come true. Yet we have refused to seek mercy from the Lord our God by turning from our sins and recognizing his truth. ¹⁴Therefore, the Lord has brought upon us the disaster he prepared. The Lord our God was right to do all of these things, for we did not obey him.

¹⁵“O Lord our God, you brought lasting honor to your name by rescuing your people from Egypt in a great display of power. But we have sinned and are full of wickedness. ¹⁶In view of all your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn your furious anger away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. All the neighboring nations mock Jerusalem and your people because of our sins and the sins of our ancestors.

¹⁷“O our God, hear your servant’s prayer! Listen as I plead. For your own sake, Lord, smile again on your desolate sanctuary.

¹⁸“O my God, lean down and listen to me. Open your eyes and see our despair. See how your city—the city that bears your name—lies in ruins. We make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy.

¹⁹“O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For your own sake, do not delay, O my God, for your people and your city bear your name.”

Gabriel’s Message about the Anointed One

²⁰I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain. ²¹As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. ²²He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. ²³The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision.

²⁴“A period of seventy sets of seven^[c] has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.^[d] ²⁵Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven^[e] will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One^[f]—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses,^[g] despite the perilous times.

²⁶“After this period of sixty-two sets of seven,^[h] the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. ²⁷The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven,^[i] but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds,^[j] he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration,^[k] until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”

Daniel’s Vision of a Messenger

10 In the third year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia,^[l] Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar) had another vision. He understood that the vision concerned events certain to happen in the future—times of war and great hardship.

²When this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for three whole weeks. ³All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed.

⁴On April 23,^[m] as I was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River, ⁵I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. ⁶His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people.

⁷Only I, Daniel, saw this vision. The men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified and ran away to hide. ⁸So I was left there all alone to see this amazing vision. My strength left me, my face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak. ⁹Then I heard the man speak, and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground.

¹⁰Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. ¹¹And the man said to me, “Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling.

¹²Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. ¹³But for twenty-one days the spirit prince^[n] of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels,^[o] came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.^[p] ¹⁴Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”

¹⁵While he was speaking to me, I looked down at the ground, unable to say a word. ¹⁶Then the one who looked like a man^[q] touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing in front of me, “I am filled with anguish because of the vision I have seen, my lord, and I am very weak. ¹⁷How can someone like me, your servant, talk to you, my lord? My strength is gone, and I can hardly breathe.”

¹⁸Then the one who looked like a man touched me again, and I felt my strength returning. ¹⁹“Don’t be afraid,” he said, “for you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged! Be strong!”

As he spoke these words to me, I suddenly felt stronger and said to him, “Please speak to me, my lord, for you have strengthened me.”

²⁰He replied, “Do you know why I have come? Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, and after that the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece^[r] will come. ²¹Meanwhile, I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one helps me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prince.^[s] 11 ¹I have been standing beside Michael^[t] to support and strengthen him since the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede.)

Footnotes:

9:1 Or the Chaldeans.
9:2 See Jer 25:11-12; 29:10.
9:24a Hebrew seventy sevens.
9:24b Or the Most Holy One.
9:25a Hebrew Seven sevens plus sixty-two sevens.
9:25b Or an anointed one; similarly in 9:26. Hebrew reads a messiah.
9:25c Or and a moat, or and trenches.
9:26 Hebrew After sixty-two sevens.
9:27a Hebrew for one seven.
9:27b Hebrew And on the wing; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
9:27c Hebrew an abomination of desolation.
10:1 The third year of Cyrus’s reign was 536 B.c.
10:4 Hebrew On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This date in the book of Daniel can be cross-checked with dates in surviving Persian records and can be related accurately to our modern calendar. This event occurred on April 23, 536 B.c.
10:13a Hebrew the prince; also in 10:13c, 20.
10:13b Hebrew the chief princes.
10:13c As in one Greek version; Hebrew reads and I was left there with the kings of Persia. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
10:16 As in most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text; one manuscript of the Masoretic Text and one Greek version read Then something that looked like a human hand.
10:20 Hebrew of Javan.
10:21 Hebrew against these except Michael, your prince.
11:1 Hebrew him.

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 John 2:18-3:6

Warning about Antichrists

¹⁸Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. ¹⁹These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.

²⁰But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,^[a] and all of you know the truth. ²¹So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. ²²And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ.^[b] Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.^[c] ²³Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. ²⁵And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

²⁶I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. ²⁷But you have received the Holy Spirit,^[d] and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit^[e] teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

Living as Children of God

²⁸And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.

²⁹Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children.

3 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. ²Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. ³And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. ⁵And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

Footnotes:

2:20 Greek But you have an anointing from the Holy One.
2:22a Or not the Messiah.
2:22b Or the antichrist.
2:27a Greek the anointing from him.
2:27b Greek the anointing.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 121

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.

¹I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
²My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!

³He will not let you stumble;
the one who watches over you will not slumber.
⁴Indeed, he who watches over Israel
never slumbers or sleeps.

⁵The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
⁶The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night.

⁷The Lord keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
⁸The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 28:27-28

²⁷Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.

²⁸When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding.
When the wicked meet disaster, the godly flourish.

New Living Translation (NLT)

December 1, 2021

12/01/2021 DAB Transcript

Daniel 8:1-27, 1 John 2:1-17, Psalms 120:1-7, Proverbs 28:25-26

Today is the 1^st day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we reach…well…for this year anyway, the final threshold of a new month, this being the 12^th month of the year. And today is the 335^th day of the year. So, once we read today we will have completed 335 days consecutively in a row making our way here to this point. And it feels like the days are shorter because they are. It feels like it’s more busy because it is. We are all thinking about the Christmas holiday that it approaches here in just a couple of weeks. And we can see that there’s only a handful of weeks left in this year. And, so, it would be easy enough to go, well…we’re pretty close, what’s left. I get the…I get that point, I get the gist of the Bible, but there’s so much ground for us to cover yet, important ground as we make this push toward the end of the year. We have been reading from the New Living Translation this week and we will pick up where we left off in the book of Daniel. Today Daniel chapter 8.

Commentary:

Okay. So, when we read the book of James one of the themes that emerged from that letter is that talk is cheap. And then we read Peter’s letters, especially first Peter and we learned that talk is cheap. And now here we are in first John learning again talk is cheap. Anybody can say anything. If we have not learned that by now we have been probably under a rock somewhere. If social media doesn’t show us that anybody can say anything then I guess nothing…nothing really can. And in terms of faith talk can be cheap. If…if our lives are not in alignment with what we are saying then talk is cheap, we’re just talking. And John is essentially giving us a chance to examine ourselves, look at what our claims are and see if our actions actually match with our claims, if there’s harmony between what we say and what we do. and so quoting John. “If someone claims I know God but doesn’t obey God’s commandments that person is a liar and is not living in the truth, but those who obey God’s word truly show how they completely love Him. That is how we know we are living in Him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” So, if we have to boil this down, John is ready direct here. If you claim that you know God and you don’t obey God’s commandments then you’re a liar. Yikes. I mean, how much more direct did the Scriptures need to be for us to finally get this? Because it’s like we have been in this territory in these letters with James and Peter and John telling us you have to live out what you claim or it’s not real and you’re a liar. And if we just kind of zoom out and go, “well…what…what is…what is the primary goal of the reason that I believe?” Well, maybe it’s eternal life or just fellowship with God. But ultimately, as Christian people following Jesus Christ as disciples on this earth than one of the primary functions of our faith is that we become like Christ – Christlike, like Jesus. Not as a metaphor but as an actual goal that we actually live into. And this would be called sanctification, that we are being actually transformed into the likeness of Jesus, that our lives look like the life of Christ, which is not just something that can be said. Anyone on this journey of faith actually intentionally trying to live Christlike then you know that this isn’t just what you post, or this isn’t just what you say. It may be those things, but it is also everything about you. It’s the way you live. Let’s go back to John. Let me just quote John because it’s speaking as clear as day. John says, “if anyone claims I am living in the light but hates a fellow believer that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble, but anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go having been blinded by the darkness.” If we’re boiling that down to an essential core than he’s saying you can say you’re living in the light and still be in the darkness. Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. If you live it then you make it so. This is really a timely message being given to us on this first day of the last month of the year. We are definitely walking through the final weeks of our journey through the Bible this year. We are right at the front end of a very busy season that culminates with a lot of joy but also can provide an enormous amount of attention and interpersonal conflict with people that we actually love but we all get together and get forced into…into roles that we’ve played in our families are whole lives and the tensions arise and then we’re feeling like a kid again inside, and it’s easy for our actions and our words to not be in alignment with…with each other and neither one of them being in alignment with Jesus. And if we’re reading the Scriptures right today that is generally called darkness. We are moving through the season of Advent, a season of waiting for the arrival of the Savior, the light of the world. May our actions and our words demonstrate how profoundly we have been changed because God came to rescue us, may we perpetuate light and life and good news, and hope and joy in this season, rather than just fooling ourselves and living in the darkness.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You into that very direct message. Very, very clear, offering us much opportunity to examine and reflect on the ways in which our words and our lives are not in alignment with each other. And just recognizing some of those areas, that is the first step to repentance and change, going in a different direction. It’s just difficult in this world full of masks, not masks about viruses, but masks of pretense about who we really are because we live in comparison to one another and this brings up all kinds of stuff as we participate in the system of the world. When we have been freed from that and have been given permission to live true. Help us Holy Spirit to actually shine the light of truth and light and good news, the message of the gospel into this world into the lives of those that we love during this season we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and it’s where we stay connected to what’s happening. And it’s Christmas time and that is certainly happening around here.

And it’s time to get ready for our annual Global Campfire Christmas party that we virtually have each year. And, so, it’s time to call in your holiday greetings to the community here that has been sharing this space and time with you as we have navigated the Scriptures all year long. And we do this each and every year, and it is one of the most moving things to me. It’s something that I look forward to all year, sitting back and listening to all the different calls from all the different people, brothers and sisters from all over the world sharing holiday greetings and seasons wishes to the community here. So, here’s how it works. We have a Hotline button in the app that I talk about most every day as well as 877-942-4253. That is the prayer line, prayer and encouragement line. And, so, once a year it also becomes the holiday greeting line. The trick is, don’t call in a prayer request and a holiday greeting in the same call. There’s no place to put that. So, if you have a prayer request go ahead and call that in as normal and then call in your holiday greeting if you want to. Or maybe you don’t have a prayer request right now, you just want to call in your holiday greeting. That’s fine. Just call that in. And we will be taking calls for the next week. So, a week from today we’ll close that down and get to the work of putting it all together so we can have our annual Christmas party.

Also, today is the release today of the brand-new Christmas album that we have for the community here. It’s called Christmas Time and it was arranged and produced by my son Maxwell and it is available in the iTunes store and is available in the Amazon music store and over the course of the next week, it should begin to roll out into all of the stores. But the fall album is available today and you get it at the iTunes store. So, check it out. We’re very proud of it, love it very very much. It sets an atmosphere, the exact atmosphere that we were trying to set, which is not the bombastic kind of really overjoyed Christmas music but the kind of music you want to listen to when you’re winding down, when the Christmas lights are on and you’re winding down after a long day. This is a beautiful album for that. So, check that out.

The Daily Bible Christmas box, our family Christmas 2021 is available, and you can see all the contents there in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. In the Daily Audio Bible Shop there’s a Christmas section, and if you click that category then you’ll find the Christmas box in there. So, check that out.

And then Promised Land, photographs from the land of the Bible our brand-new book chock-full of pictures from all the different regions of the land of the Bible in the places where the Bible happened. It is beautiful. It is beautiful in craftsmanship and should be a long-lasting heirloom where you can always refer back and go back and look at the different regions. See kind of what it looked like where the Bible happened. That can be found in Promised Land, photographs from the land of the Bible. And that is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com also. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner of the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, or a holiday greeting you can hit the Hotline button in the app 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 from beautiful Cincinnati OH this is Daniel Johnson Junior God bless you all. It’s been a little while since I’ve reached out and I wanted to say how awesome it is that we’ve come to the last month of this year. And it’s been an amazing journey so far. None of us knows what is going to exactly happen during this last month but one of the things that I realized for myself when I went through my DAB long walk back in July is that there’s no way I’m gonna be able to go through and be successful at this year unless I rely on the strength that God gives me because I don’t have it on my own. I literally do not have the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual energy to do what I need to do for God without relying on God completely. And, so, that’s my prayer request because I have felt exhausted, literally exhausted over the last several weeks and months. There’s a lot that is going on. And then now we just have the holiday season on top of it all. So, please pray for me and as I pray for you let’s finish this year strong because we can do it because He can do it. And with Him all things are possible. God bless you all from beautiful Cincinnati OH it’s Daniel Johnson junior.

Hey guys this is Tyler from Oregon. I have been recently struggling with, I would say, depression kind of masked a gigantic stronghold. And it’s almost as if I didn’t realize it was there and in a way it’s like claiming that I have light but how dark is that darkness. So, I guess that prayer would be for confronting the hurts to be able to move on a little more so that I can properly forgive and not have plastic forgiveness.

Good morning DAB family I’m calling in…I heard Diane Olive Braun. I heard your…your request this morning this is November 29^th, and my heart just broke for you as I listened to your heartbreak. And I just want you to know that I am praying for you. I don’t really know how things will work out. I know your heart is to go and see your aunt and to give her a hug and yet other family members are…are just not making…not making a way for you to do that. And I know that that hurts your heart. And…and I just want you to know that however this turns out that we are praying for you and that you will know that we are all reaching out to hug you and that God is hugging you too. And He sees your heart. He sees your desire and He will honor that. And no matter the distance God’s arms can reach you and can reach your…your aunt. And so we are praying for you today Diane that you will feel God’s comfort in God’s peace. And as you always say to each one of us at the end of your calls, Shalom Shalom. And we say that back to you this morning. Shalom Shalom Diane. God give you peace.

Hello DAB family this is Babba D in Tennessee. I wanted to pray for Crystal today. This is the 29^th of November. Heard the prayer request at the end of the program. Lord God we lift up Crystal to You Lord. We ask that You would bless her heart, her soul. Thank You Lord for her willingness to stick it out and put her life on the line for the sake of someone who betrayed her, her husband. She’s willing to wait and forgive. Father I ask that You would silence every voice of the demonic forces trying to influence her mind right now to believe that she is less of a person or she has failed. Lord we ask for Your spirit of restoration from Crystal, bless her Father, give her the desire to seek You, continue seeking You Lord in Jesus’ name. Lord I ask that You would her children the grace to go through this difficult time Lord. Pray for Your mercy on their hearts Lord, that they would not feel it’s their fault. We silence in Jesus’ name every thought every fiery dart of the enemy that’s trying to convince them otherwise and crystal. And in the Father’s name Jesus bless Crystal, the perseverance Crystal, bless her Father in every way possible through Your Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless…

Father God in heaven thank You for this time and I pray that Your words would be with my mouth as I…as I speak. Today is the 29^th of November. Thanksgiving has since passed and I’m just listening to the DAB today and I just wanted to talk about it. It was regarding the ending of second Peter. And what I got from it, what I took away from it was that all we have to do is live. The Bible doesn’t tell us to live to the extreme perfection of God nor does it tell us to live with any hopes desires or dreams to get better, but it tells us simply live well. Live a godly life. That maybe because you can’t reach your brother or sister through the word that your traits, God gave us a awesome gift as we are the gifted to share the gospel. Now whether you do that reading word for word or whether you do that by your actions, whether you do that in both, God I pray for our family, the church. Show us what we have right now. Let us know that we have been taught that we have been gifted and it is about our patients in your promise. God there’s no one like You here amongst the earth. Help us to show Your light. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, and I ask. Amen.

December 1, 2021

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday December 1, 2021 (NIV)

Daniel 8

Daniel’s Vision of a Ram and Goat

8 ^[a]During the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, saw another vision, following the one that had already appeared to me. ²In this vision I was at the fortress of Susa, in the province of Elam, standing beside the Ulai River.^[b]

³As I looked up, I saw a ram with two long horns standing beside the river.^[c] One of the horns was longer than the other, even though it had grown later than the other one. ⁴The ram butted everything out of his way to the west, to the north, and to the south, and no one could stand against him or help his victims. He did as he pleased and became very great.

⁵While I was watching, suddenly a male goat appeared from the west, crossing the land so swiftly that he didn’t even touch the ground. This goat, which had one very large horn between its eyes, ⁶headed toward the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the river, rushing at him in a rage. ⁷The goat charged furiously at the ram and struck him, breaking off both his horns. Now the ram was helpless, and the goat knocked him down and trampled him. No one could rescue the ram from the goat’s power.

⁸The goat became very powerful. But at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off. In the large horn’s place grew four prominent horns pointing in the four directions of the earth. ⁹Then from one of the prominent horns came a small horn whose power grew very great. It extended toward the south and the east and toward the glorious land of Israel. ¹⁰Its power reached to the heavens, where it attacked the heavenly army, throwing some of the heavenly beings and some of the stars to the ground and trampling them. ¹¹It even challenged the Commander of heaven’s army by canceling the daily sacrifices offered to him and by destroying his Temple. ¹²The army of heaven was restrained from responding to this rebellion. So the daily sacrifice was halted, and truth was overthrown. The horn succeeded in everything it did.^[d]

¹³Then I heard two holy ones talking to each other. One of them asked, “How long will the events of this vision last? How long will the rebellion that causes desecration stop the daily sacrifices? How long will the Temple and heaven’s army be trampled on?”

¹⁴The other replied, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the Temple will be made right again.”

Gabriel Explains the Vision

¹⁵As I, Daniel, was trying to understand the meaning of this vision, someone who looked like a man stood in front of me. ¹⁶And I heard a human voice calling out from the Ulai River, “Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of his vision.”

¹⁷As Gabriel approached the place where I was standing, I became so terrified that I fell with my face to the ground. “Son of man,” he said, “you must understand that the events you have seen in your vision relate to the time of the end.”

¹⁸While he was speaking, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground. But Gabriel roused me with a touch and helped me to my feet.

¹⁹Then he said, “I am here to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath. What you have seen pertains to the very end of time. ²⁰The two-horned ram represents the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹The shaggy male goat represents the king of Greece,^[e] and the large horn between his eyes represents the first king of the Greek Empire. ²²The four prominent horns that replaced the one large horn show that the Greek Empire will break into four kingdoms, but none as great as the first.

²³“At the end of their rule, when their sin is at its height, a fierce king, a master of intrigue, will rise to power. ²⁴He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause a shocking amount of destruction and succeed in everything he does. He will destroy powerful leaders and devastate the holy people. ²⁵He will be a master of deception and will become arrogant; he will destroy many without warning. He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power.

²⁶“This vision about the 2,300 evenings and mornings^[f] is true. But none of these things will happen for a long time, so keep this vision a secret.”

²⁷Then I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for several days. Afterward I got up and performed my duties for the king, but I was greatly troubled by the vision and could not understand it.

Footnotes:

8:1 The original text from this point through chapter 12 is in Hebrew. See note at 2:4.
8:2 Or the Ulai Gate; also in 8:16.
8:3 Or the gate; also in 8:6.
8:11-12 The meaning of the Hebrew for these verses is uncertain.
8:21 Hebrew of Javan.
8:26 Hebrew about the evenings and mornings; compare 8:14.

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 John 2:1-17

2 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. ²He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

³And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. ⁴If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. ⁵But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. ⁶Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

A New Commandment

⁷Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. ⁸Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

⁹If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer,^[a] that person is still living in darkness. ¹⁰Anyone who loves a fellow believer^[b] is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. ¹¹But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.

¹²I am writing to you who are God’s children
because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.^[c]
¹³I am writing to you who are mature in the faith^[d]
because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.
I am writing to you who are young in the faith
because you have won your battle with the evil one.
¹⁴I have written to you who are God’s children
because you know the Father.
I have written to you who are mature in the faith
because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.
I have written to you who are young in the faith
because you are strong.
God’s word lives in your hearts,
and you have won your battle with the evil one.

Do Not Love This World

¹⁵Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. ¹⁶For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. ¹⁷And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Footnotes:

2:9 Greek hates his brother; also in 2:11.
2:10 Greek loves his brother.
2:12 Greek through his name.
2:13 Or to you fathers; also in 2:14.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Psalm 120

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.

¹I took my troubles to the Lord;
I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.
²Rescue me, O Lord, from liars
and from all deceitful people.
³O deceptive tongue, what will God do to you?
How will he increase your punishment?
⁴You will be pierced with sharp arrows
and burned with glowing coals.

⁵How I suffer in far-off Meshech.
It pains me to live in distant Kedar.
⁶I am tired of living
among people who hate peace.
⁷I search for peace;
but when I speak of peace, they want war!

New Living Translation (NLT)

Proverbs 28:25-26

²⁵Greed causes fighting;
trusting the Lord leads to prosperity.

²⁶Those who trust their own insight are foolish,
but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe.

New Living Translation (NLT)

December 1, 2021

11/30/2021 DAB Transcript

Daniel 7:1-28, 1 John 1:1-10, Psalm 119:153-176, Proverbs 28:23-24

Today is the 30th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you and this is it, this is the last day of the 11th month of the year. So, when we conclude today’s reading, we will have concluded 11 consecutive months, every single day with only one month remaining. And what we’ll notice with the Bible, as with our lives in the final month of the year because such, so much changes in the last month of the year as we move toward the holiday season, we’ll also see that the Bible seems to be speeding up too because we will be encountering a number of smaller books. For example, in the Old Testament we’ll be moving through the minor prophets, and some of them we’ll read in one day. Many of them we’ll read in one day. And the letters in the New Testament we’ll run out of those and end up in the final book of the Bible, known as the Apocalypse of John or the book of Revelation and we will be reunited with that voice of John today in the New Testament. We concluded second Peter yesterday, which brings us to first John. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. But before we get there, we need to take the next step forward in the book of Daniel and today that step will be chapter 7.

Introduction to the Book of 1 John:

Okay, as we mentioned at the beginning, we’re moving into first John today and first John is the first of three letters: I John, II John and III John, that will bring us back together with the apostle John, a disciple of Jesus the beloved apostle. Interestingly, though, I John doesn’t mention who it’s from, doesn’t say who it was written to, so easy enough to go this is like Hebrews as well, like this is an anonymous letter we’re not exactly sure, for sure because there aren’t these identifying characteristics that we can kind of pinpoint down. One thing we can say is that the church fathers in the mid-second century, so, this is like, this is like 50 years-ish from when this particular letter was written. So, it obviously was passed around and existing 50 years later, and at this time it was thought, and attributed to John the evangelist. And John being the author of…of these letters weren’t disputed when the New Testament was being canonized. It’s, this is more recent where textual criticism and linguistic criticism were…were comparisons between writings purported to be from the same person are examined and the writing style and the use of specific words and the way things are communicated is different, so it’s thought that this is a different author. We’ve talked about that when we were talking about Peter though, could be a different secretary, could be at a different person who’s actually writing down what’s being dictated. These are just some of things biblical scholars and biblical historians’ study and examine and pour over in their study of the Scriptures. So, I said, there is no indication of who this letter was written by and there’s no indication of this letter was written to and so that presents a problem if you’re trying to figure out the origin and so that’s how different theories come forth, like maybe John was writing to people who already knew John, that he had written to many times, that he had visited many times, that were part of churches that were under his care. They already knew John; he didn’t need to say that this is from John or maybe it wasn’t addressed to a specific group of people because the people that were originally receiving this were in danger of persecution in some sort of way. So, anything that would identify them like to the church in Corinth or if that, if persecution is hard-core in Corinth and I’m just using that as an example, then maybe you don’t want to say to the people of Jesus in Corinth. We just don’t know for sure. I John was probably written from Ephesus, probably as the apostle John was late in his life. The letter is usually dated in the mid-90s, maybe the early 100s A.D. and from the contents of the letter we know that the primary purpose was to make a statement against a specific kind of false teaching and it’s here that we see some of the earliest forms of Gnosticism, which may or may not be a term that you’ve ever heard, but what we have to understand is that as we read these letters they are part of what we know as the New Testament, but when these letters were written they were not known as letters or books of the New Testament, there wasn’t a New Testament, there were these letters being circulated around and there were others as well being circulated around and there were other forms of conviction around what Jesus did and what he represented, going around. There wasn’t this definitive canon to sort of establish Christian doctrine. So, there were different ways of looking at what Jesus represented and what His mission to earth was and what ultimately, He represented and how it was that He was bringing salvation and light and good news into the world. Eventually, the particular persuasion that we adhere to today began to form. This was very necessary once the Roman Empire was essentially converting to Christianity. You have to have, you have to have some sort of clear standardized way of conducting things if you’re going to transform an empire to a specific religious persuasion, but before all that lots of people were saying lots of things and John, in this letter, is specifically speaking against what we, what we would now call Docetism, which was an early belief that Jesus wasn’t an actual human being, He was more like an apparition, like He appeared to be a human being, but he wasn’t a human being. He was divine, he was a God. There is also another view of Sorenthis, that taught that Jesus was a human being and He actually became divine like intertwined with God at his baptism, when the skies opened and the voice said this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, this is the moment when the human and the divine are intertwined in Jesus and then when Jesus is hanging on the cross and he cries out, why have you forsaken me, this is the moment that the divinity, the God, that was in Jesus left, departed and then Jesus body died. So, John writing these letters would have a unique perspective to speak on them because he was with Jesus. He had walked with Jesus. He was the beloved disciple of Jesus. He…he had seen Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, so he would be able to give an eyewitness account that could dispel some of these thoughts, which is what he does. So, with that we begin I John chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for 11 months consecutively, day by day step-by-step in the Scriptures. We thank You for all that You have shown us, all that You have taught us, all that You have transformed within us, all that You continue to do by the council of the Scriptures and by the leading of Your Holy Spirit. And so, as we release this 11th month and prepare ourselves for the final month of the year, we do it with gratitude and thankfulness. We are grateful for Your kindness toward us, Your patience with us. We thank You for Fathering us and we ask Holy Spirit, that You continue to lead us into all truth as we continue this journey forward. We pray this in the name of the risen Savior Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is of course the website, that’s where you find out what’s going on around here and it’s been Christmas time and it’s Christmas time around the whole world right now. So, it’s kind of Christmas time stuff that’s going on around here as well. We’ve been talking about the new Christmas album Christmas Time and this record will become fully available, it releases fully tomorrow. So, you can take advantage of pre-release pricing today and you can find it by going to the iTunes store or the Amazon music store. Just look for Maxwell Hardin or Christmas Time and can find it there and the album will show up tomorrow. Well, you’ll get three of the songs now and then the full album will show up tomorrow.

Also, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box, family Christmas 2021 is underway. And included in the Christmas box this year is the God of Your Story the sort of a written version of the Daily Audio Bible if such a thing could be done and this was quite an adventure to accomplish but that will be in the Christmas box this year. Daily Audio Bible Journal 3.0 is in the Christmas box this year. Your choice of coffee or tea, whichever you prefer, is in the box. The Global Campfire candle which smells like a campfire is in the box this year. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament for 2021, which is only available in the Christmas box, is in the Christmas box. A Global Campfire pop socket, two Global Campfire stickers and a series of five Global campfire postcards as well as a mystery item. And you can find that, look at all that in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas category.

And then also, our brand-new book Promised Land, Photographs from the Land of the Bible. A beautiful coffee table addition, allowing us to kind of peer into the different regions of the land and be able to look at what it looks like where so many of the stories that we have encountered actually happened and that can be found in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission here to bring spoken Scriptures read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm so that we are in this together and no one is left alone, if that is life-giving and has mattered in your life then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Family, it’s MaryBeth in New Brunswick and I’m calling to kind of practice some obedience. So, the Lord has been pressing on my heart to call in and speak what he wants me to believe. And I was kind of procrastinating as you guys know I like to do. And of course, my DAB app stopped, and I couldn’t get it started again so I said “okay, okay, I get it.” So, this is what I am to call in and say and believe me it’s hard. Father, I know Shelley is a seed of your righteous. I acknowledge that Heather is the seed of one of Your righteous. I acknowledge that April is the seed of one of your righteous. And as such I claim, along with their mothers’ prayers, that they will be delivered. In Jesus name, Amen. Now, if you guys could all, kind of pick-up there and believe with real faith and real belief, I would really appreciate it. The Lord is working on me, He’s getting me there. But I’m not there yet but I have noticed over the months that I’ve been with you guys that when He convicts me to do something, particularly to call in and pray for someone and I don’t, immediately I hear someone else pray exactly what He told me to pray. And He’s showing me that I am not going to stop His will but I am gonna stop my blessing. So, keep me up, keep me lifted up folks and get me through this cause this one’s rough, this one’s really rough. Thanks, remember it’s God’s love in us to the world. Because love truly does change everything. I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I really believe it, I’m trying to believe it, I believe it.

This is Susan from Bryton in England. I recently attended the funeral of my father and at the end of the reception that we had for him, somebody approached me and said, “do you remember me” and I didn’t. And it turned out to be somebody I had known 40 years ago, a man called Johnny. And Johnny was a very troubled boy when I knew him as a teenager. He was always in trouble with the police and to be honest most people avoided him because he was just bad news. He did spend some time in a youth offenders’ institution as well. And then, later on he settled down a bit and seemed to be on the straight and narrow for a while but then tragically lost his partner very young, she died very suddenly. Anyway, he introduced himself, I didn’t recognize him at first. And then we sat down and had a chat during the reception of my father’s funeral. So, we had lots of interruptions and things, but he told me that he was still very lost and all over the place, that, those were his words not mine. And he told me he was developing an interest in Wicca, which I understand a form of witchcraft. Anyway, it was a marvelous opportunity to very quickly try and point the way to Jesus. And I did my best in the short time that I had to share my testimony and how my life had been changed by following Christ. I just wondered if the Daily Audio Bible community could stand with me and reach out to Johnny and see if we could bring him back from the brink. Thank you.

Hi everyone, it’s Lisa the Encourager, I hope you all are having a beautiful day. I’m calling today to pray for those that suffer from anxiety. And I’m just praying that God will help you through this season of the holidays. So, let’s all pray together for our friends that suffer from anxiety or depression. Dear God, I pray for these people, these loved ones of ours that are suffering Lord. I’m so sorry for their pain God, I’m so sorry for what they go through. I just pray God that you would help those, that You put people in their lives that can come alongside them and support them and love them and hug them and people that aren’t necessarily there to fix the issues or the anxiety but just someone that is there to support them and love them and give them the resources that you God, can help them with. Lord, and we just pray that You will just bless them during the holidays that we know that sometimes it can be very numbing or very difficult to want to get out of bed or difficult to want to get out of the house and see everyone else is happiness when their struggling deep inside, God. So, I just pray that You God will help them with those struggles that You God will help the people in our Daily Audio Bible community. And the ones that are around this campfire right now listening to me God, I pray that You will help them. That You will just be there for them and put people in their lives again Lord, that can support them and love them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. I love you.

Hi DAB family this is Simple and Still and I’m calling in my November thanks. Thank you, Brian and Jill, for this ministry. Thank you for hearing and listening and obeying God’s voice in your life and following the leadings of the Holy Spirit. So many lives are touched daily, and I can say for my it’s been transformative in my faith. Listening daily and so thank you. And with that I want to ask for prayer for my ex-husband’s uncle passed away a couple weeks ago and so for his family, he has a wife and two children that are teenagers or young adults and so please pray for them as they mourn the loss of their husband, father, uncle, and we just got word two days ago on Thanksgiving that one of my boyfriend’s cousins had passed away in his sleep, a young man, only 18 turning 19 years old. So, there’s just a lot of grief and I pray that God comfort and that He work through these most sad scenarios and…and that family would be drawn close to God through these times, close to one another, but mostly close to Him and that our families would be saved. And so, I thank you for your prayers. I thank you for the word and the encouragement that is shared, and I praise God for each of you, those that call in, those that don’t. I just covet your prayers and I’m so grateful for you all. God Bless you.

Good morning, this is Jeannie from Virginia. I’m calling with a story and a request. I’m a physical therapist, I’ve worked for 37 years now with older people that’s been the bulk of my career. I currently work for a program that we seek to help seniors age in place at home. They qualify for nursing home admission, but they and their families want to keep them at home. So, we provide support in the way of transportation, healthcare therapy, homecare support, etc. Yesterday, one of our patients, towards the end of the day, when it was time to get on the bus to start heading towards home began to cry out in pain, her knew hurt, her ankle hurt. I’m pretty sure I’ve broken it. I hope I don’t have to be in a wheelchair. And as I went over to her and started questioning her and assessing her, I helped her to her feet. We started walking together with me supporting her and I questioned her about the day before which was Thanksgiving Day. She shared that she had spent it alone, that she had made some deli turkey and opened a can of sweet potatoes to try to make a Thanksgiving meal. But as she continued to share her walking normalized. In other words, there was no visible pain. She was walking perfectly fine, but it was a physical manifestation of emotional pain. She also shared that a local church had told her they were gonna bring her Thanksgiving feast and they didn’t. So, my challenge and my request is, please reach out to the least of these that are in your community or in your circle of friends. Please reach out and be sure that they are having their needs met. Whether it’s conversation whether it’s food. And please, I beg you, if you’re part of a church that reaches out with programs like this, please don’t make a promise and then fail to keep that promise. Love your neighbor love the least of these. Thank you.